Americana Theatre
2200 Hancock Drive,
Austin,
TX
78756
2200 Hancock Drive,
Austin,
TX
78756
3 people
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The Americana Theatre was built by Trans-Texas Theatres and opened in 1965 seating 1,000. In the early 1970’s it was taken over by AMC theatres. The theatre featured a huge 70mm screeen.
The story that goes is that the downfall of the theatre was an agreement made between AMC and Disney to give the Americana an exclusive showing on “Annie”. Disney made the agreement but stipulated it was for 18 weeks. AMC wasn’t able to get out of the contract and dug itself deep into the red and was not able to recover financially on the theatre.
In 1999, the Americana was converted into the Yarborough branch of the Austin Public Library.
Contributed by
Charles Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
The last film I remember seeing at the Americana was Amadeus (1984), and I think it closed very soon after that. It was the only decent sized theater around, somehow surviving the fever in the 70’s of chopping theaters in half or thirds to create multiplexes of enormously long theaters with a tiny screen at the end. As I recall, the final incident at the Americana happened when the power failed during a movie and someone slit the screen, and the owners decided to give it up – that’s what I heard, anyway.
Im sorry but the americana closed because amc had lost so much money on the property that they decided to close it. It was not because the screen had been slit because you see a few years after the theatre had sat closed in the summer of 1988 i had to be driving by and saw that there was activity there i went inside just to see if the place was reopening and sure enough Tommy (cant remember his last name) was cleaning he was reopening it as a dollar house(ALL SEATS ALL SHOWS $1.00) but the place had been left standing after amc left and no one had bothered keeping it up so years of dirt and grime had collected all through out the place. I asked tommy if he was hiring yet and he said yes and hired me on the spot to start help cleaning. He asked if i could start in the auditorum and shampoo the carpet he told me where the breaker box was in the booth to turn on the lights i turned them on and as i decided to start at the front by the screen and it was not torn at all. I remember cleaning the chandalier it took me a week to clean all the crystal pedals that were on it. If i remember right it had at least 1000 pedals in the lobby chandalier. I remember also that the restroom was up stairs and they were very dirty. I asked Tommy at the end of the day when did he sign the lease on the place and it just so when i stopped by he only had the lease to the americana on a few hours. On Grand Reopening Day we showed THE GATE RATED R (lol) the whole day i think we only had about 100 people or so that friday and a few more sat and sunday. We were open only several weeks before the AMERICANA was closed for the final time. Since i worked there in 1988 it was never a movie theatre again. Like i said before after that it was a recording studio but other than that nother was in operation there until the libary gutted it and opened a branch libary.
I think amc did close it in 1994
opps i meant 1984
This theatre was not built by or run by Trans-Lux Theatres at any time.
Trans-Lux Theatres to my recollection:
Connecticut Stamford;
Landmark Square 3
Avon Twin
Ridgeway Twin
Danburt
Trans-Lux Commerce Park
Palace
Trans-Lux Twin
New York State
Trans-Lux Hastings
Trans-Lux Dobbs Ferry
Trans-Lux Tarrytown
New York City
Trans-Lux 60th Street – Newsreels
Trans-Lux Broadway Twin – Newsreels (Closed in 30’s moved down to 1607 Broadway) Trans Lux Broadway opened 1936 – Renovated to Trans-Lux West in 1968.
Trans-Lux 52nd Street
Trans-Lux 85th Street
Trans-Lux East Opened 1963 Premiere with “The ugly American” with Marlon Brando
Theatre Four Walled to Penthouse for one year. The Renovated and reopned as “Gotham Theatre”.
Bronx:
Crest Theatre
Philadelphia
Trans-Lux theatre
Baltimore:
Town Theatre (Cinerama)
Hippodrome Theatre 2200 seats
Little Theatre
Reistertown Plaza
Aurora Theatre
Washington D.C.
Trans-Lux Theatre
Playhouse Theatre
Plaza Theatre
Virginia
Trans-Lux Richmond
Alabama
Trans-Lux Huntsville
Florida
Trans-Lux Clearwater
Michigan
Krim Theatre Detroit
Louisiana
Martin Cinerama Theatre
Massachusetts
State Theatre Boston
Trasn-Lux Inflight Cine’s
Florida
Tampa
Bartow
Daytona Beach Twin
Jacksonville Two Twin Theatres Normandy & Norwood
North Carolina
Charlotte Twin
Burlington
Greensboro
Kinston
Michigan
Saginaw
Oklahoma
Muskogee
Trans Lux Inflight were originally built for franchizing and put in Phillips Norelco 16mm projectors. First Theatre opened in May 1966 in Bartow, Florida. All auditorium were 350 seats Most were Blue American Body Form chair. Twin Theatres one blue one Gold.
All Theatres were converted to 35mm in 1971.
Trans-Lux Broadway
The Trans-Lux Broadway Twin Theatre that BobMaar posted opened in 1931 and operated till 1938 in the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway.
I just wanted to add that one reason this theatre could have never been reopened again is because the bathrooms were upstairs and the only way up there was via a narrow staircase. if anyone wanted to reopen it before the city of austin opened it they would have to had to comply with the disabilties act and built an add on to the building cause there was no room down stairs for new bathrooms and parking was a slight issue with some spaces around the building but the rest of parking was located accross hancock street and with traffic nowadays it would be dangerous really at night for customers to cross the street and i preety sure the city of austin would have insisted on the theater hiring off duty apd officers to control traffic inorder to ensure customers were not hit and nowadays off duty officers want at least $60 an hour for usallythree to four hours of work.
The Americana Theatre was built by Trans-Texas Theatres, Incorporated, Earl Podolnick, President. The Americana did not exist in 1962. It opened with a by-invitation-only screening of the 1965 film “The Rounders”, starring Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda. The grand opening feature was “The Legend of Cat Ballou”, 1965, starring Lee Marvin and Jane Fonda. The Americana’s first manager was Joe Dyer.
The Americana is featured as a backdrop in one scene of the Richard Linklater film, DAZED AND CONFUSED. The lower part of the marquee is in one scene where the guys are meeting to discuss how they are going to haze the incoming high school freshman. The name of the theater is visible in the corresponding deleted scene in the “Special Features” section of the “Flashback Edition” DVD.
pablo el sueco’s comment of Dec 21, 2005, is correct. The year after the theater opened, Boxoffice Magazine published an article about the Americana in its issue of May 16, 1966. It named Trans-Texas Theatres as the operating company, Earl Podolnick as the President of the company, and Joe Charles Dyer as the manager of the theater.
It also mentions that the theater’s decoration was designed by Earl Podolnick himself, and said that the architect of the house was William B. Saunders, of Austin. The seating capacity of the Americana was given as 783. The cost of the theater was $360,000.