State Theatre
Fifth Street & Mill Avenue,
Tempe,
AZ
85281
Fifth Street & Mill Avenue,
Tempe,
AZ
85281
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The State Theatre in Tempe, Arizona was built in the 1920’s. In 1933, it was the first theater owned by Dwight Harkins of Harkins Theatres fame. Click the link below for a small vintage photo of the State Theatre.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
Listed in Film Daily Yearbook;1941 and 1943 editions with a seating capacity of 460 and the status is ‘Closed’.
Has the State Theater been demolished? Has it been any other things beside theater?
The State was apparently not built in 1933 as the current intro of this page says. It probably dated from the 1920s, and maybe earlier. A May 12, 1969, Boxoffice item about the opening of a new Harkins theater said that Dwight Harkins “…took over the old State Theatre….” in 1933.
A March, 1998, Boxoffice article about the Harkins chain said that in 1933 Dwight Harkins, then an 18 year old college student, “…put a $50 downpayment on the lease on the State Theatre in Tempe….”
Also there’s a November 2, 1940, item about the College Theatre, then nearing completion, which says that when the new theater opened Harkins planned to dismantle the State. It’s very unlikely he’d have dismantled a theater that was only seven years old.
Nice photo of the Vertical under the heading “Talkies” must have been pretty old to have that on the sign.
This opened as the Goodwin Opera House in 1909 as a theatre for movies and stage shows. It was also known as the Tempe Opera House. It wasn’t called the State until 1929.