Leo Theater
1501 Elm Street,
Dallas,
TX
75202
1501 Elm Street,
Dallas,
TX
75202
1 person
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This photo from the Dallas Historical Society shows Elm Street, which was called “Theater Row”. On the left side of the photo is the Queen Theater. The photo is dated at 1922. Later it was renamed Leo Theatre.
Contributed by
Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
My mistake. The Leo was formerly known as the Queen.
Don…
Okay Don. In that case, this theater should be listed as the Leo Theater. The Leo is listed in the 1955 Film Daily at 1501 Elm Street with 800 seats. Looks like the status would be demolished.
Hello L/M. I just threw that little bit of info out for what it was worth, not to have the listing changed. Sorry you took it that way.
There are a lot of theaters listed that do not start with the “current” name and work back to the original. It’s not my concern either way how someone chooses to list a theater. There is certainly enough negative criticism going on out there without me adding to it.
Keep up the good work…..Don
It’s good that you threw that information out there, Don. I probably would have never known that this theater had another name. A closed theater is usually listed here by the last name that it operated as when it was a movie theater. There are exceptions to that rule. If this theater last operated as the Leo Theater, then it should be listed by that name. Thanks for posting that information.
An old movie theater ad from 1949 for the Leo Theater.
The name change came with a new owner and complete renovation in 1948. The September 18 issue of Boxoffice announced the reopening as the Leo and said that Joy Houck had bought the Queen early that year. Houck also operated the Strand Theatre nearby.
A view from 1955 of the Queen Theater in Dallas.
Don, I believe the date on that pic is about two years off, as the Leo was demo’d in 1953, according to a Dallas Times-Herald article covering the demo. I will try and locate that pic and post it if I can. This photo was obviously taken just prior to the razing, as the marquee is deteriorating.
BTW, even after its reopening as the Leo, with a big vertical sign stradling the marquee (already dismantled in this view), the new owners never covered up the old Queen sign painted on the west side of the building. Guess they figured everybody in Dallas at that time knew, so why cover it up?
An item in Boxoffice of October 5, 1940, said that E.H. Hulsey opened the Queen Theatre in Dallas in 1913. A May 10, 1947, Boxoffice piece about long-time theater man Lou Bissinger said that he had become the manager of the Queen three months after it had opened, and was still operating the house 34 years later. The Queen was located in a building that had been remodeled into a theater.
This is a photograph of the Leo Theater, with the vertical Leo sign over the marquee, from the Dallas Public Library’s Dallas/Texas History collection:
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