Circle Cinema Theatre

The Circle Theatre opened on July 15, 1928. The first movie was “Across The Atlantic”. The cost of constructing the theatre was around $62,000 which did not include the cost of the organ. The organ was a 2 manual, 4 rank, Robert Morton cosing around $15,000.

There are no theatres in Lamont on CT other than the Drive-In. Also I believe that this is a photo of the theatre that LM was tlaking about. The R is clearly on the front of the Marquee. This link lists the theatre as the Metro in Lamont. So is this or is it not the Meta Theatre that Okie is talking about? I am sure it is the one that LM is talking about.
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Did the Rollier & Meta Theatre’s mentioned above as owned by old okie’s parents, ever get added to CT?
I couldn’t find either listed even in a previous names or city search. Just curious.

And I remember and miss the newsreels….wonder if they ever ran those in the skin flicks?

Don…

All the way up to 1967 the Circle Theatre always included a newsreel on the program. Universal News were the last to be shown.
Note in the 1987 photo, when the Circle was a skin flick house, how carefully “parking in back” was worded. Perhaps some dumb patron would have mistaken “parkinng in rear” as a title for an X-rated film. On second thought, that probably was a real porno title.

A 1987 photo of the Circle Theater in Tulsa when it was showing skin flicks.

Here is a recent photo of the Circle Cinema Theater.

The names of the two theaters my parents owned were, yes, the Meta, which eventually became the firehouse for Lamont. The other was the Rollier Theatre, opened in 1947, at which time the Meta was closed. The Rollier Theatre was not a Spanish language house and there were NO Hispanics living in Lamont then. Please excuse me for saying so, but it does seem as if some of you assume a lot from a little. The “EL” was probably part of the title of the movie then playing.

I have been trying to respond to the questions regarding the theater in Lamont but my comments were not posted. The theater belonged to my parents, Roy and Alvena Rollier, hence the “R” in the marquee. The tiles were not cheap bathroom tiles and it was not built by Griffith Bros. This was an thoroughly independent house, air-conditioned and ahead of its time. Unfortunately, the economy in and around Lamont declined sharply, the population decreased, my mother was dead by then and my father just couldn’t afford to keep it going. It sat unused for years after my father died and fell into disrepair. It was torn down only this year. My parents owned an older theater on the east side of Main Street but built this one in 1946-47 on the west side of Main.

Lost:
Some clues are visible in your photos. The Marquee has an “R” in the center, so don’t think this theatre would have been named Meta. Those two letters hanging on marquee left spell “EL” which indicate this was a Spanish language house (I wonder if Lamont has a large Latino community?). Ground floor walls are covered in pink/maroon tile. Griffith Bros. were well known for using cheap bathroom tile for “redecoration” purposes, so this could have been one of their movie houses.
Perhaps you should go ahead and post this cinema under the name “Lamont Cinema” until the actual name can be uncovered.

Lost; The OHS web site does have antique photos of Lamont, but no theatre views. Type in word “lamont”. This theatre should probably be listed seperately.
Period photos of Tulsa’s Circle Cinema can be seen by typing word “circle”,
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To answer Lost Memory’s question — Although I never heard of the Meta Theater in Lamont, I did live there from birth though age 19. My parents owned two theaters there. The first was on the east side of Main Street and they bought it in 1937 or so. Then in 1947 we opened the new Lamont Theatre on the west side of Main Street. It closed in the 1970s and was completely torn down in 2007.

Should anyone want more details about it or about Lamont, feel free to write <>

SEE vintage exterior shots! SEE period interior views! SEE all photos! Type in word “circle”,
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