Continental Theatre

7650 East Skelly Drive,
Tulsa, OK 74129

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on May 21, 2009 at 9:10 pm

Two things: First, the Continental did not have stadium seating, as the introduction currently states. Like the other two Continental Theatres built by Barton, it had continental seating, an unbroken block of seats with the aisles confined to the sides of the house.

Second, the architect’s surname is spelled Garrett, with a double t. This can be seen in the article about the Oklahoma City Continental Garrett wrote for Boxoffice Magazine, which is linked from the comment by Oklahomo Cowboy’s comment of July 7, 2007, above.

Benny
Benny on February 14, 2009 at 12:58 pm

From a projectionist standpoint, the Continental was “the” place to show movies. Beautiful and big Norelco AAII 35/70mm projectors. (The only projectors to ever win an Oscar) Huge multi channel Ampex sound system capable of running any sound format for that time and five Altec A4 stage speakers with Altec A7 surround speakers. Huge 170 amp Super Corelite carbon arc lamphouses; (later replaced by Xenex xenon lamphouses) The big Norelcos and the Super Corelite lamps were water cooled. The last couple of films I ran there in 70mm were “Return Of A Man Called Horse” and of course “Gone With The Wind”.
Mr. George Gaughn did a magnificient job owning and operating his three Continental Theatres.
Respectfully Submitted,
Ben Kehe
Motion Picture Projection Services, Inc.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
918 906 3715

diva1962
diva1962 on August 8, 2007 at 7:27 am

I remember going to see Dr. Doolittle at this theater when I was a child (the Rex Harrison vehicle). The had lollipops for the children under the seats.

Rodney
Rodney on July 7, 2007 at 10:32 am

Since the Denver, OKC, and Tulsa Cotinental structures were exact duplicates of one another this site shows what all three looked like;
http://cinerama.topcities.com/ctcontinental.htm

jchapman1
jchapman1 on May 21, 2007 at 7:59 am

One example of the kind of problems the Continental experienced was when they spent a lot of money booking and promoting an exclusive, reserved seat engagement of Julie Andrew’s new big budget, road show attraction “STAR”, at advanced prices. I was a high school student when I went to see this movie on opening night. Surprisingly there were only about a hundred people in attendance. One of the ushers told me advanced tickets sales were sluggish for every performance, and since the film had been promoted as reserved seating, no walk in trade was showing up. By the time the Continental got radio spots and newspaper ads out announcing open ticket sales at popular prices, word had spread that “STAR” was a stinker.
See the Oklahoma City Continental listing for good exterior/interior photos. Both houses were identical.