Maple Theater
5206 Maple Avenue,
Dallas,
TX
75235
5206 Maple Avenue,
Dallas,
TX
75235
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Opened in 1937, the Maple Theatre was located across the street from the Mosher Steel Company. In 1946, it was replaced by a new Maple Theatre at 5139 Maple Street, which today is renamed Maple Avenue
Contributed by
Billy Smith / Billy Holcomb / Don Lewis
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
The site of the old theatre is a apartment building.
A movie theater ad from 1949 for the Maple Theater in Dallas.
There were two Maple Theatres. The original house was purchased by K.M. McDaniel and Forrest White in the early 1940s, and three years later they hired Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith to design a new Maple Theatre. Construction of the new house was underway in August, 1945, according to an item in the August 11 issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The new Maple was to have 900 seats (a later issue of the magazine reported 850 seats), and was to be set back from the street to allow room for a 200-car parking lot.
The January 19, 1946, issue of Boxoffice said that McDaniel had been in town to inspect progress on the project, and reported that, barring bad weather, the new theater would be opened that summer.
The March 5, 1938, issue of Boxoffice had said that the original Maple Theatre had been sold to Armbruster & Thompson (the partners from whom McDaniel and White later bought the house) by R.H. Clemmons. Clemmons had owned the Maple only briefly, having bought it from C.J. Stevens who, Boxoffice said, had opened it the previous year.
Aerial photos at Historic Aerials show that the large building now on the site of the second Maple Theatre was there in 1972. The next most recent aerial is from 1956, and the theater and its enormous parking lot are recognizable.
In the book “The Old Movie Theatres of Texas” lists both Maple Theatres were for African American patrons.
Here is a link to a Dallas Morning News entertainment section display ad from October 10, 1958 featuring the Maple Theater showing a double feature reissue of “Hit the Deck” (1955) & “Red Garters” (1954). For at least a while in the late ‘50’s the theater was advertised as being “The New Maple.”
View link)
Matt,
This is what comes up from your link.
servlet63a: Your Search session has expired.
Harumph! Let’s try that again…
…well, Chuck, I followed a link posted in an entry in the dhs forum earlier tonite and now THAT’s not working, either. It seems now you have to have a paid subscription.
Anyway, the Maple at 5206 Maple Avenue (they always advertised as “2 blocks east of Inwood) apparently came under management in the late 1950’s that determined showing double-feature reissues was the best course of action. They rarely, if ever, used the clip art provided by the movie companies for newspaper display ads, instead preferring to use art of their own devising, surprisingly effective in setting their ads off from the mass of other movie ads on the page.