Village Theater

3425 Gulfway Drive,
Port Arthur, TX 77624

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kenholmz
kenholmz on April 23, 2012 at 12:26 pm

John, I do agree with you. My apologies for not thinking longer about what you had written.

JohnMessick
JohnMessick on April 22, 2012 at 2:53 am

Ken, I should have explained myself better. True the photo is crap. You must admit that painting the building that color makes it look crappy. I hate to see when people paint over a beautiful brick building. Wouldn’t you agree?

kenholmz
kenholmz on April 21, 2012 at 7:29 pm

John, I just read through the postings again and I note that you earlier mentioned you thought this must have been a nice movie house. As such, I do believe your are referring to the quality of the photograph. While, I still don’t think it looks like crap, I agree it is not the best. Also, I apologize for not reading all of the posts again before I posted. I stand by everything else I wrote. Ken

kenholmz
kenholmz on April 21, 2012 at 7:25 pm

JohnMessick, if you are referring to the quality of the photograph, then you are correct. If you are referring to the content of the photograph then I must disagree. Neither look like crap. The theater had a full balcony and two isles on the main floor. The remodeling and additions made the Village look more up to date. It was not as magnificent as the Loew’s State and the Metropolitan next to it in Houston. Both were demolished some time ago, sadly. Photos of the interior of these classic movie houses seem to be in short supply. Some that haven’t been demolished have been restored and offer more than movies. This is true of the Silver theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. The American Film Institute was instrumental in saving that grand full size theater. The Jefferson theater in Beaumont, TX has been restored to a very polished look without destroying the classic roman interior. I suppose crap is in the eye of the beholder.

JohnMessick
JohnMessick on April 21, 2012 at 1:56 am

The photo that Chuck1231 posted…Doesn’t that look like crap?

JohnMessick
JohnMessick on April 21, 2012 at 1:51 am

Any interior shots?

kenholmz
kenholmz on April 20, 2012 at 4:55 pm

John, it was a nice movie house. I watched movies in the balcony of the Village, the Jefferson and just about every theater in Jefferson county. It wasn’t until I started college in Wharton Texas that I discovered the segregation between the balcony and the main floor. In my time there I sat in the balcony with friends and on the main floor with friends of every race, color, creed, etc. I don’t know the reason the practice wasn’t in Jefferson. We had our share of racial difficulties, but the theaters weren’t party to it.

JohnMessick
JohnMessick on February 27, 2012 at 10:02 am

Bet this was a really nice moviehouse.

kenholmz
kenholmz on January 29, 2010 at 2:43 pm

The theater was converted into a three screen cinema after the roof of the original caved in one rainy Saturday morning. The cave in happened a couple of hours before the Saturday kids showing was to screen.

Chuck1231
Chuck1231 on April 11, 2009 at 8:55 am

1983 photo of the Village Theatre.
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