Aztec Theatre
104 N. St. Mary's Street,
San Antonio,
TX
78205
104 N. St. Mary's Street,
San Antonio,
TX
78205
24 people
favorited this theater
The Aztec Theatre was designed by the firm of Meyer & Holler, best known for their set of theaters built for Sid Grauman in Hollywood, the Egyptian Theatre(1922) and the Chinese Theatre(1927).
The Aztec Theatre could originally seat 3,000 when it first opened on June 4, 1926. As its name implies, it was extravagantly and quite exoctically decorated in the Meso-American style (or at least a Hollywood version of it), both in its temple-like auditorium and collonaded lobby.
It cost just under $2 million to build, an outrageous amount in those days for a movie house. Meyer & Holler combined elements of ancient Aztec design with modern touches, creating a stylized ancient American look, complete with polychromed plasterwork, duplicating murals, massive columns and sculputre from ancient Mexican temples.
The centerpiece of the lobby was a three-ton chandelier, two stories tall and twelve feet wide, hailed as the largest in Texas.
In its early years, the Aztec Theatre featured stage shows, including chorus girls, a 26-piece orchestra, an 11-rank Robert Morton (restored by Ed Gaida in 1958), and motion picutres (not long after the theater opened, it switched to sound, starting with John Barrymore’s "Don Juan" in 1927.)
Though the theater remained highly popular for many decades, by the 1970’s, it was in decline. It was cut into three auditoriums as the Aztec Triplex, but this only slowed the eventual. In 1989, the Aztec Theatre was closed, and that same year, the theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which helped save it from demolition.
After sitting vacant and falling into disrepair for years, the theatre was acquired by the city of San Antonio in the late-1990’s, and plans were put in place to transform the former movie palace into a showplace along the city’s popular River Walk.
Now known as Aztec on the River, a mixed entertainment venue and retail/restaurant area, the theater was restored to its 1920’s appearance, the auditorium re-converted into a single screen.
Along the Commerce Street side of the building, rows of stores and eateries overlook the River Walk.
Aztec on the River opened to the public in 2007, however it closed on December 18, 2007, for construction work and anticipated reopening in Spring 2008. This date was put back to Spring 2009, and was further delayed, with a reopening in late-2009 with the San Antonio Rose Show, featuring Country music. This show was still playing in March 2010.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft, Ed Gaida
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Recent comments (view all 72 comments)
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Had a chance to see “San Antonio Rose Live” labor day weekend. As posted above, the theater renovations are great, sound is great, seating very comfortable. As far as the show is concerned, the musicians are all seasoned pros that will not disappoint. If you have enough interest to purchase a ticket, you will not come away from this show disappointed. Great show !!
I’m “thrilled” to have to type this again. Other sites do have the capability of maintaining a typed post, even if the poster has been unknowingly signed off. Fix that. ANYWAY, this new show is not selling well, on a consistent basis. Its months are numbered, and I’ll be curious to see what the inevitable third utilization of this restored theater will be. In SA, it is always a mistake to base the concept of a venue on the tourist trade – they come here for the Alamo and River Walk, period. The locals do not care about this show. Like the Majestic, Empire, and soon Alameda, reveal, restored theaters work best when catering to the local community. Un UnUn UUUnUnUnfortunaUnfortunately, some
OK, that was odd. Anyway, as I started to finish with, the Powers That Be in the city government recently hired some expensive company to tell them to RAISE the already high parking fees for city garages. SA isn’t LA or NYC – locals are NOT going to sponsor downtown venues and restaurants, if they are forced to pay ridiculous fees. These fees hurt venues like The Aztec (in addition to the ill-advised shows themselves).
Here’s a photo I took some 11 years ago. So glad this Theatre was restored to its former glory..
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Randy A. Carlisle
RAC Photography
Actually, it was not completely restored to its former glory – in the theater section, quite a few liberties were taken, to shoe-horn in that ridiculous special-effects theater concept, and then the pseudo-Opryland thing that followed.
I can confirm that the Aztec is still open as of today and it is still showing the Country Music showcase. I couldn’t bring myself to sit through something like that even though I would have loved to have seen the auditorium. At least this spectacular theater (which is in a relatively rare style) was saved.
This site lists the Aztec as “showing movies”. It must not be a regular occurrence, as their web site makes no reference to films, of any type. The silent “Phantom” film showing, indicated in the photo above, must have been a one-shot deal. I think that the only way that the Aztec can actually make money, is to exhibit special films on a regular basis, and NOT “silent” pictures. San Antonio allowed Ripley’s to take over Alamo Plaza with a variety of questionable “venues”, and the last thing that the adjacent River Walk needs, is another gimmicky showcase. The nearby restored Majestic and Empire Theaters, are controlled by a single entity, and supported by the non-profit Las Casas Foundation. They host travelling shows, and various entertainment groups. The restored Aztec has never found “the proper footing,” and was initially promoted by the nearby flagship Drury Hotel property on the River Walk – for a while, anyway.
The official web site still exists, but has no shows of any sort listed at all. Instead, it touts the shops and restaurant in the building. When was the last time any events took place in this theater?
The history section of the web site says that the house opened on June 4, 1926, not 1924. An article about the takeover of the Aztec by Publix, in the January 7, 1930, issue of Motion Picture Times, gives the same date, as does every other print source I’ve found.
I walked by The Aztec last week, and they still had the musical country show poster in the window, but there was no sign of life. Everyone in the tourist industry knew that the special effects/IMAX-ish set-up wouldn’t work after restoration, and neither would the country show that followed. A Mexican musical show, minus gimmicks, MIGHT work for a while. Or, a venue for comedians…….The Majestic Theater books a lot of big-name comedians, but it seats more people, as The Aztec lost half (?) of its seating during the restoration. I was surprised to read that it originally had 3,000 seats – seems a lot smaller than The Majestic, even back then.
Actually, “gimmicks” sometimes work with the type of tourist who comes to SA – just not what anybody has tried. Ripley’s has enough of that stuff downtown, anyway. It would take Disney or Universal to pull it off successfully….