Texas Theatre
231 W. Jefferson Boulevard,
Dallas,
TX
75208
231 W. Jefferson Boulevard,
Dallas,
TX
75208
13 people
favorited this theater
The Texas Theatre opened on April 21, 1931. It has an Atmospheric style interior, with silhouettes of Spanish looking buildings all around the sides and a ‘sky’ above. The ‘sky’ would begin to darken, then turn to twilight, then dark. Stars would begin to appear and a machine projected clouds across the sky. A 2 manual 6 rank (72 pipes in each rank) Barton Theatre Pipe organ was installed in 1931 from the Midway Theatre down the street. The organ was later removed and sold to an individual. The Texas Theatre was a popular movie house and community center for decades. It is best known as the place where Lee Harvey Oswald was captured by Dallas police on November 22, 1963, after assassinating President John F. Kennedy.
In the subsequent years after the assassination of JFK, the neighborhood took a turn for the worse, affecting the theatre. United Artists closed it in 1989. Director Oliver Stone remodeled the exterior in 1990 for his film “JFK”. The theatre faced demolition, and a fire nearly destroyed it in 1995. In 2001, with a grant from the city of Dallas, the Oak Cliff Foundation bought the shuttered theatre for $400,000. Plans were to refurbish the theatre to the historical period of 1963, and use it to host musicals and stage shows. Recently the theatre has been used to show movies and for special events. A full restoration was completed and the Texas Theatre offically reopened on December 10, 2010
The Texas Theatere was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce, Howard B. Haas
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Recent comments (view all 93 comments)
A news item about the leasing of the Texas to Aviation Cinemas and the plans for it; it is scheduled to reopen at the end of October, 2010: View link
Opening day ad states “2000 seats, none reserved.”
Hey Don, I do hope you took a look at our press release. We’re hoping for big things with this. I realize that the Texas has been through quite a lot and remained basically dormant for many years but we’re here to change that. We’ll be semi-operational in October and fully operational by the first of the year. Our mission is to maintain the history of the Texas Theatre while improving the movie-goer experience. All of us involved are award-winning filmmakers first. We’re also all big fans of historic theaters and care about what happens to them. We’re seriously a good fit.
You’ve obviously been following the Texas for some time, so if you feel like pinging me directly, I’m happy to discuss further. That goes for anyone else as well.
This theater has had its official reopening: View link
Jan 3, 2011 article & Youtube video of its reopening
View link
I visited this theater for the first time today for an Our Gang program. The theater is pretty neat because my parents lived near there and attended it frequently when they were young. They currently can only show digital films and 16mm.
The balcony does not have any seats and the 35mm projectors in the booth may not be usable. It’s definitely a work in progress, but it still has a 1930s-1940s atmosphere. The neighborhood is a Hispanic area, but the neighborhood is still an OK place to visit. I hope that they can keep up the work with restoring the theater.
a changeover 35mm system was installed in June of 2011 in the original projection booth
A history of the Texas (plus recent photos from inside the building) can be found here: http://www.unvisiteddallas.com/archives/2217
Celebration of the theatre’s 25th anniversary: boxoffice
Just took a tour of the Kennedy sites in Dallas, and the Texas Theater was a highlight. Lee Harvey Oswald was captured here.