Fine Arts Theater

Now at this location is Mr. J’s Paint and Supply and Pennepomodoro Italian Bistro Restaurant. They list it as University Park on their web site instead of Dallas.

The Varsity Theatre was opened by Paul Scott in 1929. In 1937, he sold the house to Interstate Theatres. Subsequently, he filed a lawsuit against Interstate, claiming that the chain’s unfair practices had caused him considerable losses. The suit was settled out of court, and Scott later became a district manager for Interstate.

I’ve been unable to discover when the Varsity got the modern facade it sported at the time of its demolition, but it reminds me a bit of the street-facing side wall of the Esquire in Chicago.

Chuck, it’s my present opinion that someone, way back, got “Plaza” and “Varity/Fine Arts” mixed up, possibly because of the latter’s location in “Snider PLAZA.” There was a well-known and long-advertised theater located on McKinney Ave. across the street from North Dallas High School called the Plaza. It ceased operation, I believe, sometime in the early 1960’s and is now long-demolished. I cannot pinpoint a time span when the Varsity/Fine Arts could have been called Plaza when the McKinney Ave. Plaza wasn’t also in operation. If you’ll check Lost Memory’s photo of the McKinney Plaza on its C/T page, you’ll see that it is, in all probability, a photo of the Fine Arts. Confusing, yes? The fact that the marquee in the photo shows “Light Up The Plaza Theater” may merely indicate an informal reference (i.e. the theater in Snider Plaza), as the McKinney Ave. Plaza closed long before nostalgia-minded groups existed to try to save old theaters. This is my best guess – I would love to read a response by someone more knowledgeable than I.

Since this theatre closed as the Fine Arts (name changed from Varsity about 1957), it should really be listed as Fine Arts, with Varsity as an aka.