Varsity Theater
2402 Guadalupe Street,
Austin,
TX
78705
2402 Guadalupe Street,
Austin,
TX
78705
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Found some negatives I took in the 80’s of the mural while it was sorta new. The photo at the top of this page was the mural while Tower Records was in the building. The fire escape was taken down and a window was cut into the south corner of the building. There are 4 detail photos at my link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12335678@N00/8435724203/in/photostream/
The restored blade sign was done by Ion Art of Austin Texas. It is 30 x 8 feet. There is an article about the new sign in the June 2012 issue of Signs of the Times.
Hill Country Deco attributes the design of the Varsity Theatre to architect W. Scott Dunne.
I believe the 2nd floor version of the “split” varsity was in the early 1980’s. I worked at UT and we went to the Varsity fairly often. During the great Memorial Day Flood of 1981 a Disney cartoon feature (an old one)was showing, and we were there. When we left the theatre the flood was happening and the stop lights were not working or the street lights. I managed to see the street sign “rio grande” and thought that was funny because it was a river, a grand one. I believe in 1981 the movie we saw was on the upper floor, and it had been newly split to 2 floors.
Here is a series of photos from the mid 60’s plus one from 1936.
View link
Drove by yesterday, and Intellectual Property (see March 26, 2007 photo) has moved out, and the old Varsity building is currently up for lease once again….
Here are two 1984 photos:
Photo1
Photo2
A 1990 view of the Varsity Theater in Austin.
The Varsity had a few notable first runs, like Easy Rider and 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was the date night movie house for UT in the 60’s when I was at UT.
This is a recent photo of the former Varsity Theater.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/lm3co
This is a photo of the former Varsity Theater auditorium.
Tower Records is located in what was once the Varsity Theatre.
Sounds like it is gone. Look at the comments shown on the photo posted by Lost Memory Feb 28, 2006.
Here is a lobby photo of the former Varsity theater.
This is a photo of the Varsity theater in Austin.
Some Vintage photos of the Varsity.
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This was a popular theater on “The Drag” when I was at UT in the ‘70s. I seem to recall its being mainly a revival house. I do not remember its having a second balcony screen during the '70s.
The Varsity originally had only one screen when it opened on November 20, 1936. The balcony was converted into a second screen in the 70’s I believe. The original sign (no longer there) was nearly 40 feet tall. It was built by the Interstate Circuit chain, under the direction of Interstate’s city manager, Louis Novy. The first film it showed was “The Texas Rangers”. It was a large event locally, complete with a radio broadcast of the opening ceremonies. In addition, the Austin American Statesman ran a congratulatory section for two days about the Varsity. It was considered exceptionally modern by the locals and Austin’s first suburban theater—the Austin American Statesman called it “the new as tomorrow” theater.
Unfortunately, I haven’t yet been able to locate any information about the architect. Will let you all know when I do.
The address for the Varsity Theatre was 2402 Guadalupe Street, Audstin, Tx.