Criterion Theater
118 W. Main Street,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73102
118 W. Main Street,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73102
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 33 comments found
SK: Sorry for the delayed response, but my subscription to this page lapsed and I didn’t see your question until today.
The August 7, 1954, article about the remodeling of the Criterion now begins at this link.
The scans of Boxoffice that used to be at issuu.com have been moved to a section of the magazine’s own web site called The Vault. If you find any more of my old links that I haven’t gotten around to updating, you can (if you have javascript installed, and your browser supports it) find the date of the issue and the page number of the article by hovering your cursor over the obsolete link (it’s 080754/103 for the Criterion article, for example.) Then you can go to The Vault and navigate through it to find the article. Some of the pages at The Vault are one or two numbers off from the page numbers they had at issuu (the Criterion article starts on Vault page 102, not page 103.)
Some issues of the magazine haven’t yet been uploaded to the Vault, and sometimes The Vault has different editions of an issue, and they will be missing a particular article, but most of the Boxoffice stuff I linked to can still be found by this method.
Does anyone have any info on the giant Marilyn Monroe displayed in front of the Criterion when they showed Niagra in 1953? I see multiple copies of the image on line but nothing stating if it was a display from the movie company, or something local, etc. Thanks!
@ Joe Vogel
I would love to see the article but can’t get to it from the link – do you have it where you could send it to me? My email is
@ pugpapaokc pugpapaokc – I would be interested in the paper you wrote – my email is
In the mid-1970s I saw, of all things, Ken Russell’s film “Tommy” in a veru large, traditional downtown movie palace in Oklahoma City. I now believe it was the Criterion. About three of us were at the showing of the film (which was about right).
1935 photo of Milton Slosser playing the Criterion pipe organ,
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1920’s picture
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A 1948 look at the Criterion stage house and Mondo Adult Cinema can be seen on this site by typing
“only chevrolet is first"
For fantastic interior shots type in
"criterion theatre"
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Doug Loudenback’s great web pages offers this fun photo of the Criterion Theatre,
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Various interior/exterior views of the Criterion Theatre can be viewed here.
A member of the powerful Paramound Theatre Chain showed, as this house remained first class up to the very end!
http://www.roadsideoklahoma.com/node/555
Circa 1929 photo of the Criterion Theatre.
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The Criterion got a thoroughly modern look in a 1950s remodeling which Boxoffice featured in a multi-page article in its issue of August 7, 1954. There are several photos, but there is only one small “before” shot among them.
The credits section of the article attributes the design of the project to architect Dietz Lusk Jr., and though it doesn’t specify the firm of Boller & Lusk I think the partnership was still in existence in 1954.
Incidentally, the Boller Brothers Architectural Records in the Western Historical manuscript Collection attribute the original design of the Criterion to Robert Boller, not Carl. By the time the Criterion was built, Carl had already moved to California and Robert was handling the firm’s theater projects in the Midwest.
Here is a entertaining demonstration of a Wurlitzer theater organ (along with photos) that is similar to one played inside the Criterion –
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I actually wrote a paper on the Criterion’s history if anyone is interested. Let me know, and I will send it along to you.
The Austin organ was replaced with a Wurlitzer theater organ opus 919 style 235 on 10/6/1924.
I’ve made a substantial revision of my downtown Okc movies blog post at View link including several additional pics of the Criterion. My personal favorite is the 50' (or so) high Marilyn Monroe outside the Criterion in 1953! A nice auditorium pic is in the post, also.
Fine exterior and interior images of the Criterion can be seen on the Oklahoma Historical Society link. To view antique photos – type in word “criterion”, then search.
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Found on the Oklahoma County Tax Assessor web pages are these antique postcard views of the Criterion Theatre,
c1929 -
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and c1940s -
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SEE Criterion vintage photographs!
SEE a rare auditorium view!
See former employees of this theatre!
Click below link, then enter Barney Hillerman Collection-
http://okhistory.cuadra.com/star/public.html
Here’s a fun site centered around movie trivia related to Oklahoma;
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Click here to view outstanding photo of OKC’s Criterion Theater;
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The Criterion had just about the steepest throw of any theater I’ve seen ever. Two or three balconys…projector aperture plates shaped like cheese wedges. The building seemed to have been built with Vaudeville in mind: Full stage, full flying-set loft. Don’t remember the architectural theme. Saw (first run) “Spirit of St Louis” at the Criterion.
The Cooper Cinerama (street sign emphasized “Cooper”) around the corner was also right across the street from the State Theater. A block west on Reno avenue, in the same block as the Cooper, was the Warner, only theater in OK equipped for CineMiracle (Cooper was a Cinerama installation at one time.)
OKC’s 1920 Criterion Theatre was never known as Cooper. The 1916 Liberty Theatre, located around the corner from the Criterion, ended its days with the name Cooper Cinerama, but was also known as Harbor after a 1948 (Boller Bros) renovation.
And…
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More direct route;
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