Aquarius 4 Theatre
1500 South Pleasant Valley Road,
Austin,
TX
78741
1500 South Pleasant Valley Road,
Austin,
TX
78741
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The Aquarius was opened in 1973 by Trans Texas Theatres. The theatre featured a large lobby and concession area. The exterior of the building was done in a light brick with a large drive under canopy. The auditoriums were rather small but featured curtains on traverse to open and close before and after each movie. Each auditorium had its own color scheme.
The theatre closed in 1989 and is used as somewhat of a mini-mall. Auditorium 4 is a Mexican restaurant.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
i remember that this theatre was actually closed by the city of austin for several code issues like bad wiring. It was last used as a discount house all show were only $1.00 therefore the chain that owned it at the time i believe it was Presideo Theatres i might be wrong but whoever owned it just barly kept the place up. I went there once and my shows made that sqeeking sound as you walked on the carpet in the theatre cause of all the stains and gum on it the screen where it was torn was repaired with grey ductape beening placed from behind the screen real bad screen presentation the apature plate was way over cut so thelight overbeld way over that black border and only one speaker was working behind the screen(center speaker).
The Aquarius IV was designed for Trans-Texas Theatres by Austin architect Earl J. Nesbitt Jr., who I believe is still in practice at Austin.
An article about the Aquarius IV (the marquee, like the Boxoffice articles about the theater, featured the Roman numeral, not the Arabic number) published in the September 17, 1973, issue of Boxoffice, some months after the house had opened, gave the seating capacity as 1,606. Auditoriums I and IV each had 254 seats, auditorium II had 656, and auditorium III 442.
I worked as a projectionist at the Aquarius in 1980 and 1981 while I went to school at the University of Texas. It was a first-run AMC theater then. It was not in the best part of town, and the theater had ushers posted in the parking lot at night to make sure that people didn’t have their car broken into. There was also an armed robbery at the box office.
I’ll never forget one weekend, when Austin was having huge floods and rain. The water was approaching the theater, but only cut off one road leading to the theater. A lot of people had to evacuate their homes, so they spent all day at the theater. We sold out just about every show.