Dallas had two Circle Theaters. The first was downtown and can be found in the entry Joy Theater, its final name. But to people who may have seen the second of the Circle Theaters still standing in the 2000s, it appears that a building was constructed in the middle of nowhere with few buildings and no housing nearby. When built, it was part of a fun retail experiment around the Tom Field Traffic Circle – hence, the Circle. The 1,000-seat theater was architected by Pettigrew, Worley & Co. and was colorful with its neon interlocking circles on the outside and its crazy murals on the inside. The theater fit the area perfectly.
A carnival-like opening with Ernest Tubb in person outside, a thirty minute live radio program promoting the opening, fireworks and the film, “Welcome Stranger” were all included in the Circle’s launch on October 30, 1947. A newsreel of the capacity drawing event was shot.
In 1962, Interstate instituted a family-only film policy. But by 1968, the theater did a 180 and went all adult / art and downgraded to a weekends only operation. The theater announced a six-week weekend test group of films from January-February to determine interest in the Circle. Apparently, there wasn’t much because the theater closed on March 2, 1969.
In 1974, the Circle became a nightclub called The Old Theater with multiple levels with films playing on various levels, movie posters and movie photographs throughout. And unlike its predecessor, it provided free popcorn. That was followed by a live music venue called the Circle Theater. That was followed by an urban cowboy inspired disco called Cotton Eyed Joe’s complete with mechanical bull. That was followed by the Ritz Club / Ritz Rock and Roll Club. It was then the Dal-Star Bingo hall with the CRCLE on the outer sign replaced by BNGO.
Things get a bit dicey as the building is home to a variety of places. It was a Hispanic place of worship; it was the Baby O All-Stars / Baby O Disco Tec (2009) / Baby O Tejano Night Club; and potentially its last occupant was a Latino nightclub, Club Carnaval, which lit of the theater until late 2012 which – while a marked departure from the original interior – was just as festive and colorful as it had been in 1947. A wrestling match by Lucha Libre in 2013 was the last known event in the space. The fence around the property in 2013 suggested an uncertain future.
Two downtown theaters utilized the nameplate, Joy Theater. The first can be found under the Strand Theater in Dallas where the Hippodrome was renamed the Joy followed by the Wade, Dallas, Downtown and finally Strand. This entry is for the Joy Theater that began as the Circle Theater.
The first live theater to be built since 1893 in Dallas since the Opera House, E.H. Husley opened the 1,100 seat Joy Theatre’s original nameplate, The Circle Theatre on Christmas Day 1923. Hotel magnate Conrad Hilton had always wanted to try show business and operated the Circle for one year breaking even. The Circle was home to the Circle Players and under new management, their slogan was, “If you can’t go to Broadway, we’ll bring Broadway to you.” Again, new management the following year under John L. Corvo spoke to the challenges of the business environment. Late that year, original owner E.H. Hulsey was back in charge and took a chance on motion pictures.
Hulsey started with a high profile road show of MGM’s “Ben Hur.” After selling out the first show, Hulsey would soon position his Circle as one of the potentially major movie houses in the South when he invested $25,000 on Warner Brother’s Vitaphone synchronizer bringing sound pictures to downtown Dallas. He got Warner’s “Don Juan” which did phenomenal business. “The Better Olé” was next and the Al Jolson short sparked with audiences. Hulsey allowed Saenger Amusements to book the films. But Hulsey sold his lease to new owner Raleigh Dent. Dent made what would turn out to be a business decision that would change the fate of the Circle Theater forever.
Determining Vitaphone releases to be too sporadic, Dent had the Vitaphone equipment removed in 1927. The Arcadia Theatre on Greenville Ave. in Dallas installed the equipment in time for a preview screening of Al Jolson’s seminal “The Jazz Singer” and the rest, as they say, is history with every Dallas theater on Theater Row converting to sound pictures except one: The Circle.
The Circle’s next shot at cinematic glory came when it booked a high profile road show of Paramount’s blockbuster to be, “Wings” to be accompanied with a 20-piece orchestra. But Paramount decided to revamp the road show with a Vitaphone disc instead of the live accompaniment and the Circle lost the booking at the last minute to the Melba which placed the Vitaphone equipment just in time to secure the booking.
Businessman and Neiman-Marcus co-founder Herbert Marcus backed the Circle financially in 1928 under the direction of James R. Saville who took over for Aldis Bartlett and changed the flagging theater’s name to the Showhouse. But there would be no more profitable years for the Showhouse which struggled mightily during the Depression era. James J. Hayden hit some high points with his stock company but closed down the theater in January 1932. It re-opened in 1934 under film veteran J.S. Groves who installed a cooling system in the auditorium and changed the name of the theater to the Uptown Theatre. Finally, in 1937, the theater got its biggest live theater boost when The Little Theater moved into the space and the theater got its fourth name, The Little Theater. That situation proved challenging as street noise infiltrated performances constantly in the non-soundproofed facility and the space was deemed to be dirty and technologically challenged. The Little Theater moved out in 1938 and the Circle was used sporadically including occasional shows and sermons.
On August 21, 1943, Joy Theatres Inc. of New Orleans opened its 63rd location at the former Circle Theatre and it was renamed the Joy Theatre. The first program was “Leopard Men of Africa” and “Tanks a Million.” It was a third/fourth run ultra-discount movie theatre. By June 1948, there was no more Joy, as the theatre equipment was removed and the theater went dark. It was used just a month into its vacancy by a crook who drilled a small hole from it to the neighboring drug store as the crook made off with narcotics and cash. From there, the space was used for more productive but non-cinema related things including storage, office space and church services. In 1951, a million dollar renovation turned the Circle/Joy into an office building ending any hopes of its auditorium housing a theater. On April 27, 1977, the Circle/Joy was demolished.
While the ultimate fate of the theatre wouldn’t have been different had a decision to stay with sound film in 1927 been made, there’s no question that the Circle would have been more fondly remembered as a Cinema Treasure in local theater history. And certainly it might have avoided having five names doing business as the Circle, Showcase, Uptown, Little Theater, and Joy.
The Highland Park Spanish Village Shopping Center was an ambitious and many say the second ever shopping center created in the United States. The $1.5 million center started construction in 1930 with a theater in its original planning. In May of 1931, the Hughes-Franklin Theatre Circuit led by Harold B. Franklin and Howard Hughes which had built the Texas Theater drew up a 1,400 screen theater at a cost of $250,000 that was to be that theater. However, Franklin left the company and plans dissolved.
The Village shopping center opened in 1933 without a theater. Those same plans were picked up by Flippen-Prather Stores which leased the theater to the Interstate Theater Circuit which did cost-cutting reducing the 1,400 seat theater to a $150,000 house. The theater’s Spanish architectural style perfectly matched the shopping center’s design. Inside, the lobby had large murals depicting the history of Texas to present by James Buchanan “Buck” Winn Jr. Blue walls and ceilings, terrazo floor and heavy oak doors with leather panels gave the interior its look at its grand opening on November 15, 1935 with the film, “The Dark Angel.”
Interstate ran the theater as a second-run suburban and did a remodel of the theater reducing seat count to 1,164 wider seats and new wall treatments. It repositioned the theater as a first-run house in 1957. That policy continued into 1960 when it played a Disney film that was outgrossing the larger downtown houses. Interstate ran family-oriented fare to huge profits throughout the 1960s. A 1966 fire ruined the theater’s original spire and the building now in the hands of Henry S. Miller spent $85,000 to make the repairs.
Interstate successfully ran the theater for 40 years but decided not to renew its lease and dropped the theater. In 1976, the B&B Circuit took over under Fred Beirsdorf and Harold Brooks. They made two decisions that extended the Village’s life: 1) they twinned the theater creating a balcony screen and a main screen and 2) they added midnight shows in 1976 starting with “Gimme Shelter.” The latter moved proved beneficial because the theater booked “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in 1977. Locals protested to the theater owners and Henry S. Miller about the types that were coming to the show to no avail. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” ran a nine year engagement into the summer of 1986, unprecedented to that point. B&B had declared bankruptcy in 1985 and there was some finger pointing over the closing of the Village in July 1986. Rumor had it that the days of theatrical were over as the theater would become retail space and that the relator were to blame; others pointed the other direction.
Things settled down in 1987, AMC created a four-plex in the Village signing a lease with Henry S. Miller with one stipulation: there would be no showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” All screens were up a short escalator flight up through the concession area with the largest screen now 250 seats and the other three had 110 and 120 seats for 600 total seats. AMC successfully operated it for more than 13 years.
Regent Entertainment took over when AMC left the Village in 2001. Operating one of the most unusual venues in Dallas film history, the Regent Village set a box office mark that was seen as quite remarkable when the film Zzyzx Road took in just $30 during a run in 2006 made worse by refunding of $10 to two people who had worked on the film. Regent played many Dallas exclusives that either played nowhere else in the United States or at just its Regent screen in Los Angeles. For independent film lovers, the Regent offered an eclectic mix along with general first-run fare. On its last day in 2009, you could choose to see a film called $9.99 or The Hangover.
When the Regent closed in 2009, the shopping center was under new ownership and there was concern that the theater might not continue. But the owners found a new operator and the theater was gutted and reopened Dec. 18, 2010 by Twomey Concepts. As of the 2010s, Twomey operated the theater as a high end restaurant/bar with screens and viewing lounges mixing predominately family fare with some independent films.
The “new” Capitol Theater opened on December 16, 1922 as a low-end first-run house. It went from a Popular Amusement Company property, to an independent under R.J. Stinnette and Ephram Charninsky, to an RKO Southern to Interstate and finally to Trans-Texas closing on December 26, 1957 as a second run house.It was demolished beginning on February 19, 1959 with its antique bricks repurposed for other projects.
The original Capitol Theater in Dallas was briefly home to the Capitol players from September to December in 1921 but burned down on December 26, 1921. The Capitol was rebranded from its other two nameplates: the original, Dallas Opera House opened in 1903, and then home to the Majestic Theater after the original Majestic burned down in 1917. The Capitol players were without a home. A decision was made immediately to rebuild the theater and try to keep the Capitol players from dispersing. But the process was slower than the players wanted. When the Capitol Theater was built and opened a year later, its players had gone. So the new Capitol Theater opened at 1521 Elm as a movie house which it remained until its closure.
It was a Popular Amusement Company theater with 1,200 air-cushioned seats, a $20,000 Barton organ and six piece orchestra opening December 16, 1922 with the film, “Slim Shoulders”. The theater’s amenities and interior weren’t quite up to the competition, especially with the Majestic, Melba and Hippodrome. The Bertram C. Hill architected exterior of the building had an inviting style for theater row and it might be said that the attention was mostly there as the interior lacked what palaces provided in that era. Popular Amusement closed the theater within a year’s time. But the Capitol reopened as an independent the same year under R. J. Stinnette and Eprhram Charninsky (up until his death in 1928). The first film was “Six Days” on Sept. 20, 1923, the Capitol positioned itself as a lower price Elm/Theater Row house. Its true heyday was the mid-1920s.
By early 1929, fortunes sagged for the Capitol as sound technology and innovations were being adopted more quickly along theater row than the Capitol likely could afford. The Capitol downgraded to a double-bill second run house, the first on Elm Street since 1915. But later that year, the theater strategically got an exclusive deal to book RKO films as it moved into the sound era on July 29th. As the original theater wasn’t exactly soundproofed, the interior was bathed in celotex as any interior panache was buried under soundproofing and wall coverings.
In 1930, RKO Southern took over the Capitol and closed it for ten days to put in a newer sound system and more wall treatment. Almost immediately, RKO Southern was in dire economic straits and on June 2, 1931 the Capitol Theater closed in part due to the lack of a real air conditioning system and in part to stop paying labor. It closed again in December 1931 and reopened in January 1932 after Christmas. In 1933, RKO Southern shut down declaring bankruptcy.
Interstate took over the theater and under the venerable circuit, the Capitol finally hit its stride as improvements which included a modern air conditioning system making things more comfortable inside. The Capitol played mostly double feature westerns and held a handful of premieres of lesser “B” films and occasional exploitation fare. World premieres of Republic’s Roy Rogers film “Under Western Stars” and George Harriman’s exploitative “Tell Your Children” took place. Personal appearances by Rogers and Smiley Burnette, Monogram’s Tex Ritter, and “Song of the Range” stars Jimmy Wakely and Lasses White were among the stars who showed up.
The U.S. v. Paramount case that led to the famous consent decree in which Paramount agreed to separate itself from domestic theater exhibition selling out joint ventures such as Interstate and Publix. In a second wave of dispersals following the Varsity and Dal-Sec, seven theaters including the Capitol and the Rialto were sold in one transaction by Interstate to Louis Novy’s Trans-Texas Theater circuit on Feb. 24, 1954. Trans-Texas struggled along with all of theater row trying to battle population shifts that were beginning to doom most of the downtown houses.
On Oct. 2, 1957, Trans-Texas closed the Capitol to prepare to show Spanish language films after a remodeling. That rebranding began on Nov. 10, 1957 opening with El Bolero de Raquel starring Cantinflas. A dismal failure, the policy discontinued just five weeks later and the money spent in improvements and marketing were lost. The theater flailed for another week returning to second-run fare on Dec. 20, 1957 opening with “Hot Rod Girls” and “Girls in Prison.” A week later, the theater closed for good and its second to last double feature was “Phantom from 10,000 Leagues” and “The Day the World Ended.” The theater remained empty for just a little over a year and on February 19, 1959, the theater was torn down to make way for a parking lot. As noted, the bricks were considered distinctive if not historically interesting and salvaged for other projects.
The Hippodrome was built for moving pictures opening in 1913 but found that live stage shows worked into its business plans. The theater became the Joy Theater in 1933, the Wade Theater in 1942, and then in 1946/7 became the Dallas Theater, the Downtown, and the Strand Theatre (and technically, the Strand Theater) before being bulldozed in 1960.
Lang & Witcher architected and Gilsonite Construction of St. Louis built the two-story, fireproof theater that opened March 1, 1913 and replaced a facility that had burned a year and a half earlier. The $120,000 structure was built for motion pictures with a seating capacity of 1,200 (850 downstairs and 350 in the balcony). The Pilcher pipe organ was said to be the largest ever installed in a movie theater in the U.S. and the “finest west of the Mississippi.“ It would be used in tandem with a seven piece orchestra. R.A. Bennett painted the 17 allegorical figures of the Roman school and a Roman chariot race was depicted on the giant curtain.
Tom P. Finnegan managed the theater and was on hand for the grand opening in 1913 and its demolition in 1960. The Hippodrome’s motto was “always a good show” as it brought the first, longer 50 cent movies to Dallas. The first of those was “Les Miserables"and it had the Dallas' premiere of “The Squaw Man” and Mary Pickford’s “The Bishop’s Carriage.”
As the 1920s and early 1930s brought major competition to the Elm Street Theater Row, the Hippodrome began to be known for live shows including Billy House’s Follies of 1920 perhaps a step ahead of burlesque and a rung or two down from the vaudeville houses. Its midnight shows had performers described as hootchy-cootchy dancing which drew audiences and legal scrutiny in that era. But it also brought in the most money so the theater found itself more in line with Fox Theater in appealing to that audience.
In 1933, new operator M.N. Baker changed the Hippodrome to the Joy Theater where it began a checkered run. Manager M. Midyet was arrested just months into the Joy’s run when police raided a live performance arresting the manager and two performers. Later that year, the city shut down the Joy for presenting indecent shows with the judge calling the dancers in to recreate the event. More publicity occurred when one of the comedians at the club inadvertently struck and killed a girl in a vehicle accident. The next owner of the theater was then found dead in 1937 just after the last show that night.
New owner Frank Nick rebranded the Joy as the Wade Theater in 1942. Not long after, the Joy’s name would be in use at the Circle Theater. The Wade continued the Joy’s burlesque-film concept. It showed “The Condemned,” a movie about syphilis along with the controversial “Birth of Four Babies” which sold out numerous shows. The Wade was probably better known for live stage attractions with dancing girls and striptease artists such as Ermain Parker, the “Texas Tassel Twisting Hurricane” and Murial Page with her fan dance. The theater always had a feature but the attraction was personalities and theme shows like the “Swing Shift Revue” or “Silk Stockings Show” and some African American shows at the end of its run.
Wayne Babb bought the theater in 1946 to end the burly shows and rebranded the space as the Dallas Theatre, a family showplace. When the live shows weren’t working, the theater had a very brief period as the Downtown Theater in which there was likely no name on the marquee but double features of second and third run films.
On January 7, the theater became known as the Strand Theatre continuing its discount double features. It closed and was obtained by the operators of the Joy Theater in Dallas. Run by Joy Houck of the H&B Theater Circuit, Houck invested $100,000 on the Strand Theater putting in all new seats and projection operating the discount house a rung above the Joy. It opened with “The Unfinished Dance” November 15, 1947. Ads cease in February of 1953. A tailor moved into the space in 1953.
In 1956, the Strand re-opened as a burlesque house which lasted about one year and ceased operations. In March of 1957, the theater became a sports-themed theater along with re-establishing itself as a third-run movie house. For its opening, the legendary Gorgeous George grappled with Enrique Spindola. Sports films of boxing matches and items associated with early pay television were shown at the theater. And at the very end, the Strand tried Spanish language films but with the Capitol converting about the same time and Panamericano doing brisk business, it just wasn’t in the cards for the Strand. That’s how the theater closed and it was bulldozed as part of a grand “City of Tomorrow” urban redevelopment in downtown Dallas in January of 1960.
The Forest Theater was a Pettigrew-Morley & Company architected $350,000 property for the Interstate Theater Circuit designed to upgrade the former Forest Theater just blocks away. That theater would be renamed the Colonial Theater which Interstate would close shortly thereafter. Fiberglass screen by Nu-screen, ramp to the mezzanine instead of stairs, cry room, Acousticon hearing devices available for the hard of hearing, attached lit parking, and plush-back fitted seats were among the amenities. Between 4,500 and 5,000 people showed up to the opening events of the theater on July 30, 1949 which had square dancing and the film, “It Happens Every Spring.”
While the early days were kind to the theater business-wise, the theater staggered as the population shift was brisk. Interstate closed the theater briefly after the February 25, 1956 showings to covert the theater from a white theater to an African American theater beginning with a grand re-opening March 1, 1956 with “Helen of Troy.” It was billed as the largest African American theater in the South and ads carried the tagline, “now colored” for informational purposes. Early on, “The Ten Commandments” played for a month to large crowds and gave Interstate hope. But the business soon slacked off.
The Forest mixed in live rock and roll shows with the movies in search of audiences in 1957/8. But it wasn’t working so the theater began operating as a weekend-only establishment beginning in December of 1958 with new manager Victor Matthews. Somehow the Forest made it another 7 years — 16 years total — closing on September 27, 1965. Matthews said that support wasn’t there and the theater had operated for a loss for a lengthy period. So Interstate looked for subleasing deals.
The Forest was divided into a 900-seat house sometimes called the Forest Ballroom and later called the Forest Avenue Cinema. The other part was called the Central Forest Club and later the Forest Central Night Club. The first sublease arrangement appears to be with Reuben Willis who opened the Central Forest Club on October 13, 1967 operating primarily as a soul and blues nightclub. Willis booked acts including Redd Foxx and B.B. King into the night club. For Willis, the space was used as community center by day and night club by evening. That arrangement lasted about almost four years. Concerts West booked a few shows into the Forest Ballroom for a short period in summer of 1968. Wilson Pickett & Arthur Conley played the Club and The Byrds played the Forest Ballroom. One live show from 1970 at the Forest, the South Dallas All-Stars' Live at the South Dallas Pop Festival, was released years later as a live CD.
As for the property, Interstate held the Forest for 30 years. When Albert H. Reynolds bought the city block in 1979 housing the theater, the Forest transferred from the original owners, Interstate Theaters (then known as Plitt Southern Theatres) to Reynolds. The Forest Avenue Cinema used the 900-seat house to show blaxploitation films for less than a year to incredibly small audiences and a 485-seat portion operated as the Forest Central Night Club. (This could account for the 478 number that is referenced in some comments.) In the 1980s, the Forest was a night club called, City Lights under Tommy Quon. Delbert Knight was the next operator. Club Anthony was an R&B club that functioned for two years.
In 1991, now as a jazz club, the nightspot moved back to its original name of the New Forest Theatre booking Ramsey Lewis and Les McCann. Further bookings included Tuck and Patti but the New Forest closed in September of the same year. It had long stretches of vacancy. When singer Erykah Badu of Dallas bought the theater in 2003, it needed refurbishing. It became known as the Black Forest Theater in 2004, a reference to its operation as an African American house in 1956-1965. Film-wise, the Black Forest returned to its roots with the Black Cinematheque and Juneteenth Film Festival. But live music and community center activities were the main attractions for the space. The Black Forest Theater was used from 2004 until 2008. As of the 2010s, the Forest still stands with its original marquee.
The Colonial is one of the rare theaters whose patronage so exceeds its expectations that its success leads to its demise not once but twice. In its planning stages, this theater was known as the Colonial-Forest. The reasons were two-fold. First, the well-known Colonial Theater in downtown had run from 1907 into the 1920s at 334-6 Elm. The second was that the Colonial-Forest Theater was at the corner of Colonial St. and Forest Ave.
The previous Colonial on Elm St. in downtown Dallas was the 32d house for the Lone Star Theater Company based in Dallas. Their primary aim was to operate vaudeville shows for the Charles Hodkins vaudeville circuit. The Colonial opened on Feb. 18th, 1907 in the Hite Building including illustrated songs and moving pictures at its outset. Leaning on family entertainment (shows for “women and children”), the Colonial was branded toward the upper echelon of vaudeville as opposed to male-centric burlesque leanings. Marcus Loew would purchase a number of the Lone Star theaters in 1919. By 1922, the Colonial was part of the Foy circuit and was then spotlighting full-length theatrical films.
Meanwhile, in 1930, the Forest Avenue Theater had announced a plan to expand to 1,000 seats along with modern heating and cooling, wide screen projection and sound. However, the original Forest built for Harry J. Gould more than 15 years earlier just needed too much retrofitting to be brought into the modern sound era. So just a month later, another plan was opted for in which a brand new $70,000 playhouse would be constructed. The Colonial-Forest Theater opened at 1702 Forest Avenue at the corner Forest and Colonial Avenue with Eph Charninsky as its operator in 1931. Based on all available reports, the theater was known as the Colonial for a short period and appears to be branded as an African American house in its first days. When it becomes part of the Interstate Circuit, the theater is rebranded as a second-run neighborhood house and renamed the Forest Theater.
As the Forest Theater, Interstate found its audience and its steady business led Interstate to build an even bigger, better theater just two blocks away. Known as the New Forest Theater at 1920 Forest Avenue in 1949, the New Forest marquee was still present as of the 2010s at the renamed 1920 Martin Luther King Blvd. 4,500-5,000 people showed up to the opening events of that theater though the original Forest now back to its original Colonial nameplate had lost its audience.
On July 29th, 1949, the Colonial had its first double-feature but the magic was gone. Its operation was short as a second-run, second-status theater and was dropped by Interstate. Though the now-dated Colonial died just two months into its run, its ability to draw audiences for nearly two decades helped it attract a new owner almost instantly.
In December, Dave Tobin and Norman Kantor redeveloped the space into “The Theater Lounge” with tiers of tables replacing the theater seats. The African American music nightclub would sell out its first show but transferred owners shortly thereafter and switched to a burlesque house with strippers. Barney Weinstein’s establishment made stars of Candy Barr and Pixie Lynn while featuring traveling artists from all over the globe. The burlesque concept and his “School for Strippers” was so successful and so infamous that after seven years of operation its owner moved moved the Theater Lounge to 1326 Jackson at Akard in March of 1959 and incorporated a year later. As a result, the Colonial’s success of drawing crowds twice led to its own demise.
From an entertainment standpoint, the Theater Lounge was the end of the Colonial’s almost 30-year run. But the Theater Lounge would continue onward and remained one of Dallas’ most infamous nightclub spots.
In 1925, Urbandale was annexed in the city of Dallas connected by the Terrell Interurban streetcar line. On January 24, 1941, it got its own movie theater with the opening of the Urban Theater by Roy Starling at its location of 7035 Military Avenue between Elva and Peretta Aves. The theater opened with the film, “Captain Caution.” Starling’s Grove and Urban had personal appearances by the likes of Ken Maynard, the western actor that drew crowds to the suburban second-run theaters.
In May of 1942, Cameron bought Starling’s Grove Theater. That theater would burn down and be rebuilt by Cameron. Cameron next bought the Urban from Starling. This theater would also burn down and be rebuilt by Cameron. The Urban’s destruction came on April 27, 1944 where water rationing hampered firefighters efforts to douse the blaze. Because the fire occurred during the war, building rations delayed the theater’s rebuilding and by the time it had opened, Cameron had sold his Dallas theaters.
The new $60,000 Urban Theater opened a block away across the street from its predecessor at 7106 Military Drive at the corner of what is now Military Parkway and Urban Ave. It opened with “Music for Millions” on July 13, 1945 now in the J.G. Long theater circuit with the Airway, Grove and Urban. The theater served both as a house of worship and functioning movie theater into the 1950s before closing. It was converted into the Urbandale Youth Center that was initially called, the “Fun Club.” The center would eventually be home to the Urban Washateria using the address of 7124 Military Parkway (though at 7120 in tax records) that suffered a major fire on February 28, 2012 that gutted the building.
In 1929, the Beverly Hills neighborhood was annexed from Dallas and 15 years later, it had its own movie theater: the Beverly Hills located in the Beverly Hills Shopping Center. And the B-H would be the subject of a prickly legal battle by Tri-State Theater’s Bart McClendon just four years after its August 31, 1944 grand opening. A rare wartime opening, the movies-for-morale requirement was met by an aviation plant manufacturing wartime materials in Grand Prairie roughly eight miles from the theater.
The B-H opened with “Broadway Rhythm” to an invitation only audience and then to the general public on September 2, 1944 with “Lassie, Come Home.” The 812-seat balcony-less theater was designed by Raymond F. Smith who had architected other theaters including Dallas’ Granada, Airway, and Delman. Having moved to Dallas in 1942, McLendon was hoping for big profitability from the B-H and Casa Linda that opened the following year. But falling into debt with the local banks and with his son needing a cash influx to get into the radio business, he sold off the B-H and its shopping center on June 10, 1947 to Robb & Rowley’s theater circuit for $300,000 and would also sell the Casa Linda to Interstate Theater Circuit.
Less than a year later, McClendon sued both Rowley and Interstate for $1.2 million claiming that he had essentially been frozen out of the first-run film exhibition marketplace by Rowley and United leading to $200,000 less business and $200,000 less marketplace value for his theaters. He felt that the business climate was such that he was forced to sell this theaters. He lost his suit as, among other elements, McLendon admitted to making $50,000 profit in the sale of the B-H, alone.
The B-H changed from a second-run suburban to an art cinema on January 6, 1952 closing briefly for a remodel. “Oliver Twist” opened the new art house. This policy lasts until 1960 when it closed as a movie house and new owners decided to try for live theater in the space. In January of 1961, the Beverly Hills is used for live stage plays. At some point the Beverly Hills became a place of worship, renamed and was still in operation as of the 2010s.
The Airway Theater was a P.G. Cameron theater that opened August 11, 1940 with Ann Sheridan’s “It All Came True.” The 780-seat theater was designed in 1939 by Raymond F. Smith using the conceptual name of the Love Field Theater due to its proximity to the famed airport. But the name Airway was assigned to the theater whose main innovation was that of stadium-style seating for better views of the screen.
For Cameron, who had started the Palace Theater in 1903 in Dallas and went on to run the Crystal and the famed Melba Theater which was sold for one million dollars, the four theaters of the Airway, Grove, Urban and Peak would serve as his Dallas theater holdings entering the War. However, before the end of WW2, Cameron ended up moving west and sold his Dallas theaters to J.G. Long. These four theaters would be the Long circuit’s Dallas entire portfolio.
The Airway was completely destroyed by a January 19, 1955 blaze. The fireproof projection area allowed the booth’s film and projector to be salvaged but everything else was a total loss. The five-alarm fire consumed the building and a neighboring cafe and damaged the adjoining Airway Automatic Laundry and Love Field Pharmacy. The Airway’s carcass was demolished and the theater’s entire run was less than 15 years. The last ad for the theater was “Knock on Wood” in October 1954 which likely means the theater turned to African American fare. As of the 2010s, the Airway’s spot was still not rebuilt upon.
Three unrelated Elm Street theater row houses have been called the Dallas Theater and the total combined time of their operation is less than five years. The first was at 1301 Elm operating in 1913 exclusively as a photoplay house. The second was at 1209 Elm when Wayne Babb bought what would become the Strand Theater and former Hippodrome/Joy/Wade in 1946 creating the short-lived Dallas Theatre. But this entry is about the Telenews Theater which was created just two weeks prior to Pearl Harbor, opening on November 21, 1941.
1515 Elm was a retail space housing a paint store followed by three grocery stores (Piggly Wiggly, briefly Lotus Foods, and Helpy-Selfy) and finally home to several businesses including Van Winkle’s Book Store and a tavern. In August of 1941, the Mirror at 1517 burned down. Just two weeks later, the 11th Telenews Theatre in the United States was announced next door to the charred Mirror which was still standing.
The Telenews was created using an existing retail space at 1515 Elm Street and turned into a Jack Corgan designed 640-seat theatre that played newsreels exclusively for its first five years of its operation. Corgan’s remodeling design would cost $80,000 and carried out by George P. O'Rourke Construction. Interstate — having just lost the Mirror next door to fire — decided to team up with the Telenews Theaters circuit in a joint operation. They opened it on November 21, 1941 to coincide with an annual Santa parade that would be rained out that year.
The timing was fortuitous and the theater generated great foot traffic selling out its first day and drawing crowds throughout World War 2. The twinkling globe was a beacon that marketed the theater well. Patrons could watch films for any of five newsreel companies edited on a speedy machine known as “Oscar.” They could also go upstairs and participate in live quiz shows or listen to radio news that was created on premises by WFAA and KGKO. Throughout the war, this format proved successful but after the War, the audiences interest waned so the programming was changed.
After five years of exclusive newsreels and documentaries, the Telenews had a policy change that allowed it to play “important” films. Said to be an art cinema house when announced in December of 1946, the Telenews didn’t really reach that goal looking very much like a traditional movie house. And not abandoning newsreels, the Telenews publicized that they would buy local footage from those capturing newsreel footage on their 8mm or 16mm cameras. But the days of the newsreel as a standalone interest were gone. The theater was closed for remodeling as a cycloramic screen was put in and the radio and reading rooms removed. On Christmas Day, 1949, Interstate took over soul possession of the theater and rebranded it as The Dallas Theater opening with “The Fallen Idol.”
The name change didn’t help the fading property. Less than two years into the rebranding of the theater, Interstate sold the lackluster property to Greater Texas Theater’s L.N. Crim, Jr. and Robert Hartgrave which had the American premiere of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” when it opened Nov. 1, 1951. Greater Texas tried art and then they tried racier fare to no avail and the Dallas Theater didn’t make it to a full year for Greater Texas ending the theater’s 11-year run. Dallas' theater row would see similar audience erosion throughout the decade. The Dallas Theatre closed May 12, 1952 and was sold to a real estate entity. That company placed an advertisement in July 1-2, 1952, offering everything including the seats and projectors for sale, thus ending the Telenews/Dallas Theatre.
The Buckner Boulevard Drive-In opened for business June 4, 1948 with “Tycoon” starring John Wayne. You could walk in or drive-in as there was plentiful outdoor seating for the walk-ups. The theater was the third in Dallas within what would be known as the U&E (Underwood and Ezell) and later the Ezell Theater Circuit. That entity already owned the venerable Northwest Highway and Chalk Hill properties in Dallas and other in the state. As the mural suggests, the Buckner not only had movies but had live animals including 15 monkeys to complement the traditional playground equipment including two elephant slides.
The theater was the first in Dallas with individual car speakers. On Easter Sunday 1954, Ezell equipped the Buckner with an 80x40 fiberglass screen — what it billed as the World’s Largest Fiberglass Screen" for CinemsScope and showed “Knights of the Round Table.” It was said to be the first drive-in with three channel multichannel stereo. That system was also created by and added to Ezell’s drive-ins in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth.
The McLendon Theater Circuit took over the Buckner Drive-In followed by the Weisenburg Theaters in the 1970s. All bookings and advertising for the Buckner Boulevard Drive-in cease at the end of May (29th) with the great triple feature of “The Pack,” “Mansion of the Doomed,” and “Giant Spider Invasion.” As this would time out to exactly 30 years of operation, that could suggest that a leasing arrangement may spell the end of the Buckner.
The Lochwood Village Shopping Center opened Aug. 15, 1957. Its success led to expansion. That included the Lochwood Cinema which opened in 1966 as part of the General Cinema Corp. (GCC) Circuit. The Lochwood was situated at the confluence of N. Garland Rd., Jupiter Rd. and Lochwood Blvd. Lochwood Cinema was the chain’s third Dallas location along with Big Town, NorthPark and joined by the similar Park Plaza which would open the following month in Arlington.
The $378,000 theater had the distinctive GCC white brick walls, an art gallery entrance, smokers area, giant Cinema sign, and 507 parking spaces. GCC said it was the first White Rock area theater to be constructed in 20 years. The theater opened April 7, 1966 with That Darn Cat. Coincidentally, Interstate’s Belaire Theater in Hurst opened to the public a day after an invitational screening with the same film on the same date.
Much like the aforementioned Park Plaza, GCC twinned the Lochwood. The shopping center became the Treehouse Mall as a number of the shops were placed into an enclosed mall in 1974, a practice not uncommon in that era. General Cinema renamed the Lochwood as the Treehouse in June of 1974. A downturn and a new owner led the mall to change names to the Lochwood Mall in 1979 but the retail prospects continued to dim. General Cinema changed the name away from the Treehouse and back to its original Lochwood nameplate accordingly.
General Cinema would get roughly its 20 years of life from the property and would drop it from the circuit. I believe it soldiered on briefly as the Cine 2 before becoming vacant and considered by locals an eyesore by the beginning of the 1990s. Pigeons were the only customers of the deserted theater which was demolished along with the shopping complex in 1990/1. The White Rock Marketplace took the place of the mall which was still in existence as of the 2010s.
The Mirror and its four antecedents only existed at one address: 1517 Elm. Doing business first as the Garden Theater (1912), then the Jefferson Theater (1915), then then Pantages, then the Ritz (1928), and finally the Mirror (1931) which burned down in 1941 after ten years in operation. The nearby Capitol operated at 1521 Elm while the unrelated Telenews/Dallas operated only at 1515 Elm.
1515 Elm was initially a paint store when the theater at 1517 Elm opened as the Garden Theater in 1912 as well as its change to the Jefferson Theater in 1915. 1515 Elm would became three grocery stores (Piggly Wiggly, briefly Lotus Foods, and Helpy-Selfy) during which time the theater was the Pantages and Ritz. 1515 Elm was home to several businesses including Van Winkle’s Book Store and a tavern at the end of the theater’s life which would then be known as the Mirror Theater before the theater burned down in 1941. 1517 Elm would become a retail space adjoining the Telenews in 1941/2.
The Mirror’s neighboring store at 1519 Elm was a well-placed candy store considering that at 1521 Elm was home to the “new” Capitol Theater in its second home at 1521 Elm. But that became a mixed blessing on August 3, 1941 when the Mirror burned badly ending its run as a showplace and took the candy store — though not the Capitol Theater — with it.
The Garden Theater was opened in 1912 playing motion pictures and some live performances. On March 8, 1915, the theater under new ownership of C.H. Verzchoyle and William E. Wetherford decided to stress live theater and renamed it the Jefferson Theater. They stressed and advertised that the location would be home to repertory presentations and “not moving pictures."
While reports said the project was profitable, the theater quickly was under the direction of Ray Stinnett who also owned the Cycle Park locally. Stinnett reconsidered the programming and returned the theater to its moving picture roots. He then sold the Jefferson to the Southern Enterprises circuit in 1920 which continued motion pictures but closed the theater early in 1922.
Stinnett resurrected the theater re-opening it in November of 1922 initially as the Jefferson and trying to position it as first-run house and musical comedy showplace. Obviously liking the live musical comedy aspects’ prospects, Stinnett changed the name of the theater to the Pantages in 1926 after remodeling it and trying to do move into live vaudeville. The vaudeville concept was said to be a very expensive failure for Stinnett who transferred the theater to a new operator.
On October 15, 1928, the Pantages was renamed the Ritz and billed itself as the first second-run Vitaphone movie theater in the United States. For a discount price, you could see second-run talkies. Now run by Robb and Rowley Theater Circuit and managed by W.B. Underwood, R&R invested $40,000 to remodel, redecorate, and bring sound film to the location. W.B. King was instrumental in the redesign with drapes, canopies, new front lobby and a kiosk at the theater’s entrance. They opened appropriately enough with “Lights of New York,” the first all-talking feature.
On February 7, 1931, R&R sold the Ritz along with the Rosewin and Midway as well as other locations in a $2.5 million deal by infamous millionaire Howard Hughes and partner Harold B. Franklin’s Hughes-Franklin Theater Company. The move was part of a larger $15 million transaction to strengthen the circuit.
Robb and Rowley were still managing the property and had the influx of money to remodel and refurnish the Ritz after the Hughes' transaction. In one of his last decisions for Hughes-Franklin, Franklin visited the Ritz and determined that Dallas was one of the bright spots in the country and that the theater location should reflect that. W. Scott Dunne was the architect of the redesign and the theater only shut down three weeks to become a “house of mirrors” renamed the Mirror Theater. Two shifts of workers worked full 24-hour schedules to make the redesign a reality. A perforated screen allowed for sound speakers behind the screen instead of the two horns used in the Vitaphone presentations. And the mirrored marquee and mirrored interior panels along with the flashing neon lights delivered Franklin’s vision and Dunne’s designs.
Before the theater was reopened, Franklin left Hughes to operated Paramount and United Artists theaters. The Mirror Theater opened Christmas Day 1931 with “Five Star Final” as its first screen attraction. While known primarily as a second run house, the Mirror capitalized on westerns from the minor film companies to stage live appearances. Under new operator, Interstate Theater Circuit, Gene Autry, Buck Jones, Tex Ritter, Monogram’s John King were among the stars to appear on the Mirror’s stage.
On August 2, 1941, a four-alarm fire decimated the Mirror during closing hours with the balcony crashing to the main floor. It was fortunate the theater was empty because the fire officials said the non-fireproof insulation engulfed the theater quickly and sparking electrical cables were visible. Just three weeks later, plans to build a new and unrelated newsreel theater were finalized at 1515 Elm to replace the former retail space and would be known first as the Telenews and then the Dallas Theater.
On September of 1941, Rear Admiral Adolphus Andrews of the U.S. Navy who owned the 1517 Elm property housing the still standing but charred Mirror was able to make a business trip to inspect the wreckage of the Mirror Theater. He ultimately determined that the building should be razed. 1517 was rebuilt as a retail space and housed a gift store and a game company above. Thus, the Garden/Jefferson/Pantages/Ritz/Mirror theatrical era ended after 29 years.
The Chalk Hill Drive-In opened on July 4, 1941 just two weeks after the Northwest Drive-In had its Grand Opening. Opening feature was “The Invisible Woman”. This drive-in had a capacity for 408 cars on 12.5 acres. There were 204 in-ground speakers and a playground for kids was added. It was operated by W.G. Underwood and Claude Ezell who operated the both the Northwest Drive-In and another in San Antonio.
The Chalk Hill started doing live stage shows prior to the movies in 1943 to five a full evening’s performance. The original design of the Chalk Hill was identical to that of the Northwest with a single star along with the drive-in’s name. The theater modernized the look of the tower with a clown’s face and neon lighting. Additionally, in 1954, the Chalk Hill replaced its screen with an 80-foot curved screen for CinemaScope films. Its first two in June were “King of the Khyber Rifles” followed by “The Robe.”
The Chalk Hill Drive-In became part of the Texas Southwest Drive-In Theatres circuit with the Buckner and Denton Rd. in 1972 and 1973. It closed for the season in 1973 and while there are many recollections of the theater’s continuance, no advertisements, bookings or re-opening announcements are listed. Steve Fitch’s two iconic photographs of the Chalk Hill from 1973 — one showing the panoramic screen and playground and the other showing the clown screen tower at dusk — would also be the ultimate end points to the theater if that were confirmed.
The Century Drive-In’s tract of land originally was home to the Downs Drive-in at 2510 W. Main St. in Grand Prairie. In 1949, the Downs became the third drive-in theater to open in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Its original screen burned and was replaced in 1957. And not long after being sold to a new owner, it closed on January 20, 1970, was bulldozed and replaced by the newly-named Century Drive-in which opened June 13th, 1970. It closed in 1987 and was later bulldozed.
The Downs was started and operated by Tim G. Ferguson, Truman Hendrix and H.S. Ferguson. The Downs was named after the nearby Arlington Downs Racetrack which had opened in 1929 and whose racetrack and grandstand extended eastward toward the drive-in less than a mile away. Located midway between Dallas and Fort Worth and with Irving within striking distance to the North, the Downs was well positioned. The opening of a GM factory in 1951 just across the way would soon add to the traffic and visibility of the area.
Ferguson complained about the availability of first-run film titles at his theater and brought a $150,000 Sherman Antitrust-based lawsuit against the five Grand Prairie theater owners as well as the major film studios. Ferguson’s drive to have more of a voice for drive-in theaters generally led him to become a founder and president of the Texas Drive-in Theater Owners Association.
The Downs theater tower burned to the ground in a spectacular 4-alarm fire on January 19, 1957 where the film “Fury at Gun Sight Pass” was playing. Fortunately, motorists backed away and were unharmed by the $15,000 fire. The fire was attributed to the high winds combined with the screen tower’s neon lights which were excised from the redesigned screen tower. The Downs racetrack closed in 1958 but the theater retained its name.
The theater’s positioning as a family-friendly spot was enhanced by its “Candy Cane City” amusement playground. The opening of a larger park — Six Flags theme park — in 1961 provided yet more family-centric traffic near the Downs which continued to thrive in the decade. Its success led the McLendon Theater Circuit to purchase the theater with grander plans. As the multiplex era of indoor theaters was beginning and with twin and triple screen drive-ins propping up, McLendon decided to one up the other drive-ins. It would demolish the Downs not long after January 20, 1970’s double feature of “Flare Up” and “Speedway”.
McLendon would create what it called the world’s largest drive-in and first four-screener. With the Arlington Downs a distant memory as a neighboring entity, the newly named Century Drive-In would begin business on June 13, 1970 with “Beneath The Planet of the Apes” with “The Undefeated” and “Two Mules for Sister Sara” with “Topaz”. With four screens with 500 spots each at its opening, the theater did well enough to merit an additional fifth screen. The Century would go on 17 years until 1987 before being bulldozed. The nearly 40 years of drive-in exhibition for the Century/Downs makes it the area’s longest standing addresses for nearly continuous and certainly consecutive years of outdoor operation.
In 1949, the Downs Drive-in at 2510 W. Main St. in Grand Prairie became the third drive-in theater to open in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Its original screen burned and was replaced in 1957. And not long after being sold to a new owner, it closed on January 20, 1970, was bulldozed and replaced by the newly-named Century Drive-in which opened June 13th, 1970. It closed in 1987 and was later bulldozed.
The Downs was started and operated by Tim G. Ferguson, Truman Hendrix and H.S. Ferguson. The Downs was named after the nearby Arlington Downs Racetrack which had opened in 1929 and whose racetrack and grandstand extended eastward toward the drive-in less than a mile away. Located midway between Dallas and Fort Worth and with Irving within striking distance to the North, the Downs was well positioned. The opening of a GM factory in 1951 just across the way would soon add to the traffic and visibility of the area.
Ferguson complained about the availability of first-run film titles at his theater and brought a $150,000 Sherman Antitrust-based lawsuit against the five Grand Prairie theater owners as well as the major film studios. Ferguson’s drive to have more of a voice for drive-in theaters generally led him to become a founder and president of the Texas Drive-in Theater Owners Association.
The Downs theater tower burned to the ground in a spectacular 4-alarm fire on January 19, 1957 where the film “Fury at Gun Sight Pass” was playing. Fortunately, motorists backed away and were unharmed by the $15,000 fire. The fire was attributed to the high winds combined with the screen tower’s neon lights which were excised from the redesigned screen tower. The Downs racetrack closed in 1958 but the theater retained its name.
The theater’s positioning as a family-friendly spot was enhanced by its “Candy Cane City” amusement playground. The opening of a larger park — Six Flags theme park — in 1961 provided yet more family-centric traffic near the Downs which continued to thrive in the decade. Its success led the McLendon Theater Circuit to purchase the theater with grander plans. As the multiplex era of indoor theaters was beginning and with twin and triple screen drive-ins propping up, McLendon decided to one up the other drive-ins. It would demolish the Downs not long after January 20, 1970’s double feature of “Flare Up” and “Speedway”.
McLendon would create what it called the world’s largest drive-in and first four-screener. With the Arlington Downs a distant memory as a neighboring entity, the newly named Century Drive-In would begin business on June 13, 1970 with “Beneath The Planet of the Apes” with “The Undefeated” and “Two Mules for Sister Sara” with “Topaz”. With four screens with 500 spots each at its opening, the theater did well enough to merit an additional fifth screen. The Century would go on 17 years until 1987 before being bulldozed. The nearly 40 years of drive-in exhibition for the Century/Downs makes it the area’s longest standing addresses for nearly continuous and certainly consecutive years of outdoor operation.
The Kiest Boulevard Drive-in opened May 23, 1956 with an invitation only screening of “Navy Wife” and opened to the public the next night with “I’ll Cry Tomorrow.” The 110x65 sq. ft. screen was designed by David P. Yelsi and was made of spun glass, plastic and rubber, the first such installation of its kind and Dallas' largest screen at that time. It was better known for the Indian on its opposite side. 1,000 car lot, panoramic screen accommodating VistaVision, CinemaScope, and high fidelity speakers. The theater was part of the Phil Isley Circuit and opened just one week after the Bruton Road Drive-In. In 1965, the Kiest landed in the Rowley United Chain within the United Artists circuit along with the Granada, Crest, Major, Avenue, Big-D Drive-in, Boulevard Drive-in and nine other theaters in downstate Texas.
A 40'x60' swimming pool with adjoining bath house, nursery for kids, playground and picnic grounds made it a family environment. Yet, when the theater switched to all X-rated features in 1970 during the porno chic era, these amenities wouldn’t have much value.
The theatre switched to an African American leaning schedule beginning in 1973 and then back to mainstream fare for what appears to be the final five years for the drive-in 1977-1982. The theater discontinued ads in 1982 which could have been the end of the line for the 26-year old ozoner.
The South Loop Drive-In was a $150,000 drive-in architected by Harvey A. Jordon constructed for Charles H. Brooks that opened March 30, 1950 with “On the Town”. The original screen tower of the South Loop Drive-In had a Snow White mural. According to all reports, special permission was obtained from Walt Disney to use Snow White on the tower. Wings were added to the sides of the tower to play CinemaScope titles. The 675-car capable drive-in would become part of the Isadore B. Adelman Theatre Circuit in which it remained until its closure. The Adelman Circuit was more known for its indoor Delman theaters in Dallas, Houston, and Tulsa but had a good run with the South Loop. Each Saturday, the theater presented a “freeview” which was only free to patrons who paid for the first show; most other drive-in theaters referred to this as the “second feature.” The theater changed to a more traditional, double feature policy.
Amenities included free self-serve car washes while you waited in line. A water drainage and 90-gallon well ensured that the water would be reused. A 200-seat area was constructed for walk-ins in front of the concession stand and another 200-seat area was at the base of the the screen tower. High winds threatened the 60-foot high screen in 1954 so the tower was strengthened 75% according to the owners. But on August 30, 1956, the original tower and its telephone pole structure was blown over. in September 1956, the original was replaced with new signage and a steel-framed tower with Selby screen. The theater stopped advertising after the 10-26-1968 showings of Shenandoah and War Wagon likely closing for the season and not reopening for the spring. There appear to be no further bookings for the location.
The Ervay is probably best remembered for its owners and customers and not so much for its presentation. It was opened by three ex-GIs who didn’t even place an ad for the Dec. 21, 1946 opening. It was operated for a short time by the notorious Jack Ruby in 1953. And it became the Paris Art Theater owned by Jim Sharp who was thrown in jail in 1971 for showing obscene movies at the theater and was also operated by the infamous Charles Musick.
Musick fought Dallas' enforcement of obscenity laws using the First Amendment in the early 1970s. He was charged 22 times with showing obscene films at the Ervay and another 20 or so theaters in the region and had 21 of the cases either quashed or dismissed. Musick appears to be the final operator of the establishment for film exhibition with ads ceasing in July of 1972 and the Paris Theater nameplate being used on Harry Hines thereafter. Musick became the key witness in the murder for hire case against fellow adult theater owner Robert C. Thetford’s murder for hire case revolving around Thetford’s IRS problems and having one of his employees murdered for revealing this to the IRS.
Following its adult film era, it became a live venue mostly for music in the 2000s. The last advertised music show there was The Cliks live concert in March of 2008. It has been used seldom since for live concerts but has been used for political talks, seminars and courses into the 2010s.
Robb & Rowley opened the theater, as noted in the comments above, on March 21st, 1949 (private screening) and March 22d (to the public). R&R eventually became United Artists. UA was said to have allowed its lease to lapse on the Vogue. It closed as a dollar house following August 29, 1972 with Skyjacked and Kelly’s Heroes playing for a dollar. The next day, the Texas Theatre just down the street became United Artists' replacement converting it from first run to a dollar house.
The UA South 8 opened May 23, 1984 in the multiplex era across the highway from the Red Bird Mall in Oak Cliff. The theater had great visibility from the highway but no direct exit making it a bit challenging to get to. Technically, it was not only UA’s first and last Oak Cliff theater, as of the 2010s, it was the last theater ever built in Oak Cliff. The theater stopped just shy of 15 years as it was shuttered on October 15, 1998 in a wave of closures during the megaplex era.
The UA South was interchangable with any number of UA properties of this era such as the Northstar 8 in Garland. But given the lineage of the UA Circuit’s Dallas existence which subsumed the Robb & Rowley Circuit – a specialist and backer of Oak Cliff – give UA credit for outfitting an auditorium with 70mm projection and being THX certified. Oak Cliff deserved that and gave UA a leg up over the General Cinemas 1-4 and the 5-10 both across the street and adjoining Red Bird Mall. And it sort of worked as the General Cinemas properties had 12 profitable years but then simultaneous years in the red. In October of 1994, both General Cinema multiplexes were shuttered. Unfortunately, the lack of competition just didn’t help the UA South.
Again, giving UA credit, they did book specialty films for the target audience with nice runs of “Sanfoka” and “When We Were Colored”, both films for an African American audience. But with Cinemark’s low-priced, first-run Lancaster-De Soto theater opening just about a 10 minute drive away, the audience was being siphoned off in a new direction. The UA South’s reputation was that is was unsafe which drove audiences away. However, the actual experience on weekdays told a different story: the place was simply empty in the late 1990s; certainly no safety risk and usually a private screening.
When General Cinema closed its Oak Cliff theaters, there were protests staged at General Cinemas NorthPark I&II. When the UA closed the South at the end of October 1998, there was resignation that Oak Cliff perhaps had earned the reputation of non-support of movie exhibition. Or perhaps people understood the challenge of the multiplex in a megaplex environment as the South, UA Prestonwood, Northpark I&II, GCC Carrollton, GCC Prestonwood, and Collin Creek also went down for the count at the same time as the UA South. When Oak Cliff’s Astro Drive-in burned down just one month later, there were no functional movie theaters in all of Oak Cliff, one of Dallas' most populous residential areas with 338,000 people.
Only the reopening of the Texas Theater more than ten years after the UA South and Astro Drive-in closures did projected film come back to Oak Cliff. After being boarded up for several years, the UA South property was converted into a house of worship which was active into the 2010s.
The Wynnewood Theater opened July 1, 1951 as part of the Robb & Rowley Circuit. It basically was in the same chain for 32 years. The theater was retrofitted several times. The first was 1953 for panoramic showings of widescreen films. The next was 1958 with a Todd-AO system. Todd-AO was removed in 1961 for Cinemiracle presentation(s). The theater was twinned in April 1973. It closed Sept. 28, 1983, reopened for a period of time as an adult theater, sold to a developer but was demolished in 1999. Its address was 275 Wynnewood Village.
The Wynnewood got its name from Six Flags founder Angus Wynne who created the $7 million Wynnewood Village Shopping Center in which the theater was housed. Robb & Rowley would get a corner spot when the center was created with 10,200 sq. ft. theater plans by Pettigrew and Worley. Unlike many suburbans of the period, the Wynnewood was budgeted at north of $250,000, 1,400 seats, and had 400 targeted parking spots of the 2,000 available in the center.
On July 1, 1951, the slightly toned-down 1,000 seat Wynnewood Theater opened with “Smuggler’s Island” with a ten-seat soundproof cryroom, retractor seats and managed by Pat Murphree formerly of the Heights Theater to manage the facility for Rowley United Theaters. The Pettirgrew, Worley & Company architected theater’s final look didn’t quite match the highly stylized look of the original concept drawings. However, it did match the DeWitt and Swank design of the overall Wynnewood Shopping Center in which it was housed. The two firms did work together on the final design for the theater.
The R&R Circuit was focused on Oak Cliff with 7 theaters and this was clearly its jewel. Just two years into its run, the Wynnewood was retrofitted with a panoramic screen on Sept. 24, 1953 which reduced the house to 944 seats. An even more ambitious project happened in March 1958. Rowley United (having bought out the Robb family in 1955) spent $100,000 dollars on a Todd-AO system to show “South Pacific.” A six-track sound system, a 22x44 screen was brought in new 70mm projector, and eight surround speakers on the wall making it easily the most technologically challenging show for the suburban. Many Hollywood stars and producers flew in for the event. On the premiere’s night, a $25 after-party featuring Carmen Cavallaro saw stars such as Linda Darnell, Margaret O’Brien, Don Murray, and Rocky Marciano among others. All theater seats were reupholstered for the premiere and road show engagement, an improved box office, and redecoration all took place. In an incredible 32-week run 130,000 went to this Oak Cliff theater to the “South Pacific” in Todd A-0. South Pacific would return for a non-AO run in 1971.
Rowley then installed a costly Cinemiracle system in early 1961 in time for the showing of “Windjammer.” Todd-AO was removed. Three projectors operated with four projectionists allowed the wall to wall screen of the now 800 seat theater. Five speakers behind the screen and one on each side of the house. Only Houson’s Rivoli and the Wynnewood were said to play this in Texas.
Innovation pretty much stopped there as Hollywood steered away from such technology and undoubtedly “Windjammer” didn’t make back its investment. Rowley United positioned the Wynnewood of the 1960s as a family friendly house. In a single year, the Wynnewood had 50 weeks of G rated fare in 1968 with 22 weeks with Disney product. Rowley United became United Artists after a stock transfer and decided to twin both the Cine and the Wynnewood. The Wynnewood was halved with 400 seats in each house, had new screens installed, and was closed for two months in March and April of 1973.
In the 1980s, audiences were moving toward the multiplexes and Oak Cliff had the Redbird Cinemas which were doing decent business siphoning business away from the Wynnewood. In the summer of 1983, the Wynnewood became a dollar house and closed quietly with second-runs of “The Twilight Zone” and splitting “The Verdict” and “Star Chamber” on Sept. 28, 1983. The move came at the same time UA was breaking ground for an 8-screen house across the street from the Redbird Mall several miles south of the Wynnewood. A 32-year run for the R&R/UA circuit was pretty good. UA’s presence continued with the South opening May 23, 1984.
UA either subleased or operated under its art/adult nameplate with the Wynnewood re-opening trying adult fare for a brief period and playing Caligula in May of 1984. Jerry Moore Investments purchased the Wynnewood Theatre in Oak Cliff from United Artists in 1992. The Houston-based mall developer probably had grand plans and rumors abounded that a multiplex would rise in the Wynnewood and the Ward’s store when it went out of business. That never happened. The Wynnewood theater almost looked it was hoping that it would be bulldozed after sitting vacant for years. That day would come when it was excised from the shopping center in May of 1999 though would stand just a little bit longer than the UA presence in Oak Cliff which shuttered the UA South 8 in October 1998.
The corner of Akard and Elm is an intriguing one in Dallas cinema history. Of course, home to the Fox Theater in the 1920s and into the 1960s, the original Palace Theater was hastily carved out within a storefront by legendary Dallas exhibitor P.G. Cameron in 1906 in the same building. Cameron played Edison films with the licensed Edison projector with a 50 cent bed sheet to paying audiences who stood and watched the short films. Cameron would then rent chairs for patrons to be more comfortable.
The Nickelodeon era at this and other nearby locations provided Dallas with its first novelty theater row with the Princess, Palace, Candy and Empress together in rather unsubstantial show places. The Palace was no palace and the Empress was not regal. While not the first to exhibit movies, Cameron was a pioneer who left the Palace and moved to the Lyric as well as many other local theaters.
The Palace was gone and the building would get a major facelift at the start of the 1920s and renamed the Roos Building for the popular Gus Roos men’s clothing store. Within the Roos Building was an improved theater experience. A 280-seat theater known as the Fox Theater was created by Fooshee and Cheek Architects within the Italian Renaissance building.
When one thinks of the Fox Theatre, one might recall the glory days of the Fox in Atlanta, San Francisco, St. Louis, or Detroit. The Dallas Fox in name only was actually started by and named for local businessman Max Fox, no relation to the fabulous Fox' lineage. Fox also operated the original Strand Theater in Dallas in the late 1910s and into the 1920s. The Fox opened in February of 1922 with a soft launch. Its grand opening was March 20, 1922 with Mary Pickford’s “Through the Back Door.” If one wants to make a connection to the film’s title and the Fox Theater’s business trajectory, so be it. Matt Fox left the exhibition business before the advent of sound but the theater bearing his name carried on under new management.
The Fox was a true independent running eclectic fare that ranged from standard film fare, live burlesque-centric acts and film shorts, to four-wall feature films that might contain exploitation and risqué content with little advertising. While the Queen, Majestic and others were creating a true movie boom in Dallas, the Fox stuck more to lower class fare and presentation. The Fox made the transition to sound, survived a minor fire in 1929, and soldiered through the Depression probably thanks to the success and traffic generated by the Roos Men’s store. In 1932, two tear gas incidents took place as a man threw tear gas canisters apparently to rob purses and other left behind items. As a sign of the time, a woman burned in the tear gas incident lived in a tent camp in south Dallas.
The Fox hit its stride in the 1940s playing high profile films that had been banned or were controversial. Alfred Sack of Sack Amusements would lease the theater in what appears to have been a four-wall arrangement to exhibit his racy – often foreign – films and his exploitation films such as “Bucket of Blood.” In other times, the theater was leased to the VFW for a weeklong-engagement of “Ravaged Earth.” But the racy films were winners and provided the Fox with consistent fare. The first feature film entirely shot in a nudist camp, “Elysia,” played three weeks in its initial run and sold a phenominal 11,462 tickets “including many repeat patrons” according to reports. Ecstasy, also exhibited by Sack, filled the house and said the report, “The 50 cent movie customers, after their first timidity, have patronized the picture (due to artistic rather than exploitative reasons) without glancing around to see if anybody recognized them entering or leaving the Fox.” But – that said – was the Fox’s reputation at the point and for the rest of its existence.
The racy films came with much scrutiny by local officials. A newsreel about a nudist colony by H.M. Glidden was seized and appears to be the first arrest of the Fox operators in October 1943. After the war, many of Sack’s more artistic foreign films were also doing well for the Fox so much so that Sack would create his own art house called the Coronet north of downtown. Once art films found their place in post-war suburban theaters such as the Fine Arts and Coronet, there was only one for the Fox to go and that was even more risqué. The films got much less artistic and more exploitative drawing questionable audiences as it became much more akin to a grindhouse with continuous shows all day. If the Fox had only stopped before 1955, the story of the theater would have been just that. Unfortunately, a wall fell killing four and injuring eight in June of 1955. Just two months later, the theater cooperated in a local raid leading to 20 charges of sodomy over a five-day undercover sting.
The Fox became known less for film and more associated with the burlesque scene in the late 1950s and just into the 1960s as the Barney Weinstein’s Theatre Lounge moved downtown from the Colonial Theater and Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club became the places to go. The word “Theater” was replaced with “Burlesk” on the marquee — of course — followed by “closed” as the establishment finally ceased operation. A classified ad in October 1961 has all of the contents including the seats for sale which marks the end of the Fox. The building appears to have been demolished in February 1962 replaced by the skyscraper First National Bank Building during a massive City of Tomorrow renewal plan. The historic film location at Elm and Akard was no more.
Dallas had two Circle Theaters. The first was downtown and can be found in the entry Joy Theater, its final name. But to people who may have seen the second of the Circle Theaters still standing in the 2000s, it appears that a building was constructed in the middle of nowhere with few buildings and no housing nearby. When built, it was part of a fun retail experiment around the Tom Field Traffic Circle – hence, the Circle. The 1,000-seat theater was architected by Pettigrew, Worley & Co. and was colorful with its neon interlocking circles on the outside and its crazy murals on the inside. The theater fit the area perfectly.
A carnival-like opening with Ernest Tubb in person outside, a thirty minute live radio program promoting the opening, fireworks and the film, “Welcome Stranger” were all included in the Circle’s launch on October 30, 1947. A newsreel of the capacity drawing event was shot.
In 1962, Interstate instituted a family-only film policy. But by 1968, the theater did a 180 and went all adult / art and downgraded to a weekends only operation. The theater announced a six-week weekend test group of films from January-February to determine interest in the Circle. Apparently, there wasn’t much because the theater closed on March 2, 1969.
In 1974, the Circle became a nightclub called The Old Theater with multiple levels with films playing on various levels, movie posters and movie photographs throughout. And unlike its predecessor, it provided free popcorn. That was followed by a live music venue called the Circle Theater. That was followed by an urban cowboy inspired disco called Cotton Eyed Joe’s complete with mechanical bull. That was followed by the Ritz Club / Ritz Rock and Roll Club. It was then the Dal-Star Bingo hall with the CRCLE on the outer sign replaced by BNGO.
Things get a bit dicey as the building is home to a variety of places. It was a Hispanic place of worship; it was the Baby O All-Stars / Baby O Disco Tec (2009) / Baby O Tejano Night Club; and potentially its last occupant was a Latino nightclub, Club Carnaval, which lit of the theater until late 2012 which – while a marked departure from the original interior – was just as festive and colorful as it had been in 1947. A wrestling match by Lucha Libre in 2013 was the last known event in the space. The fence around the property in 2013 suggested an uncertain future.
Two downtown theaters utilized the nameplate, Joy Theater. The first can be found under the Strand Theater in Dallas where the Hippodrome was renamed the Joy followed by the Wade, Dallas, Downtown and finally Strand. This entry is for the Joy Theater that began as the Circle Theater.
The first live theater to be built since 1893 in Dallas since the Opera House, E.H. Husley opened the 1,100 seat Joy Theatre’s original nameplate, The Circle Theatre on Christmas Day 1923. Hotel magnate Conrad Hilton had always wanted to try show business and operated the Circle for one year breaking even. The Circle was home to the Circle Players and under new management, their slogan was, “If you can’t go to Broadway, we’ll bring Broadway to you.” Again, new management the following year under John L. Corvo spoke to the challenges of the business environment. Late that year, original owner E.H. Hulsey was back in charge and took a chance on motion pictures.
Hulsey started with a high profile road show of MGM’s “Ben Hur.” After selling out the first show, Hulsey would soon position his Circle as one of the potentially major movie houses in the South when he invested $25,000 on Warner Brother’s Vitaphone synchronizer bringing sound pictures to downtown Dallas. He got Warner’s “Don Juan” which did phenomenal business. “The Better Olé” was next and the Al Jolson short sparked with audiences. Hulsey allowed Saenger Amusements to book the films. But Hulsey sold his lease to new owner Raleigh Dent. Dent made what would turn out to be a business decision that would change the fate of the Circle Theater forever.
Determining Vitaphone releases to be too sporadic, Dent had the Vitaphone equipment removed in 1927. The Arcadia Theatre on Greenville Ave. in Dallas installed the equipment in time for a preview screening of Al Jolson’s seminal “The Jazz Singer” and the rest, as they say, is history with every Dallas theater on Theater Row converting to sound pictures except one: The Circle.
The Circle’s next shot at cinematic glory came when it booked a high profile road show of Paramount’s blockbuster to be, “Wings” to be accompanied with a 20-piece orchestra. But Paramount decided to revamp the road show with a Vitaphone disc instead of the live accompaniment and the Circle lost the booking at the last minute to the Melba which placed the Vitaphone equipment just in time to secure the booking.
Businessman and Neiman-Marcus co-founder Herbert Marcus backed the Circle financially in 1928 under the direction of James R. Saville who took over for Aldis Bartlett and changed the flagging theater’s name to the Showhouse. But there would be no more profitable years for the Showhouse which struggled mightily during the Depression era. James J. Hayden hit some high points with his stock company but closed down the theater in January 1932. It re-opened in 1934 under film veteran J.S. Groves who installed a cooling system in the auditorium and changed the name of the theater to the Uptown Theatre. Finally, in 1937, the theater got its biggest live theater boost when The Little Theater moved into the space and the theater got its fourth name, The Little Theater. That situation proved challenging as street noise infiltrated performances constantly in the non-soundproofed facility and the space was deemed to be dirty and technologically challenged. The Little Theater moved out in 1938 and the Circle was used sporadically including occasional shows and sermons.
On August 21, 1943, Joy Theatres Inc. of New Orleans opened its 63rd location at the former Circle Theatre and it was renamed the Joy Theatre. The first program was “Leopard Men of Africa” and “Tanks a Million.” It was a third/fourth run ultra-discount movie theatre. By June 1948, there was no more Joy, as the theatre equipment was removed and the theater went dark. It was used just a month into its vacancy by a crook who drilled a small hole from it to the neighboring drug store as the crook made off with narcotics and cash. From there, the space was used for more productive but non-cinema related things including storage, office space and church services. In 1951, a million dollar renovation turned the Circle/Joy into an office building ending any hopes of its auditorium housing a theater. On April 27, 1977, the Circle/Joy was demolished.
While the ultimate fate of the theatre wouldn’t have been different had a decision to stay with sound film in 1927 been made, there’s no question that the Circle would have been more fondly remembered as a Cinema Treasure in local theater history. And certainly it might have avoided having five names doing business as the Circle, Showcase, Uptown, Little Theater, and Joy.
The Highland Park Spanish Village Shopping Center was an ambitious and many say the second ever shopping center created in the United States. The $1.5 million center started construction in 1930 with a theater in its original planning. In May of 1931, the Hughes-Franklin Theatre Circuit led by Harold B. Franklin and Howard Hughes which had built the Texas Theater drew up a 1,400 screen theater at a cost of $250,000 that was to be that theater. However, Franklin left the company and plans dissolved.
The Village shopping center opened in 1933 without a theater. Those same plans were picked up by Flippen-Prather Stores which leased the theater to the Interstate Theater Circuit which did cost-cutting reducing the 1,400 seat theater to a $150,000 house. The theater’s Spanish architectural style perfectly matched the shopping center’s design. Inside, the lobby had large murals depicting the history of Texas to present by James Buchanan “Buck” Winn Jr. Blue walls and ceilings, terrazo floor and heavy oak doors with leather panels gave the interior its look at its grand opening on November 15, 1935 with the film, “The Dark Angel.”
Interstate ran the theater as a second-run suburban and did a remodel of the theater reducing seat count to 1,164 wider seats and new wall treatments. It repositioned the theater as a first-run house in 1957. That policy continued into 1960 when it played a Disney film that was outgrossing the larger downtown houses. Interstate ran family-oriented fare to huge profits throughout the 1960s. A 1966 fire ruined the theater’s original spire and the building now in the hands of Henry S. Miller spent $85,000 to make the repairs.
Interstate successfully ran the theater for 40 years but decided not to renew its lease and dropped the theater. In 1976, the B&B Circuit took over under Fred Beirsdorf and Harold Brooks. They made two decisions that extended the Village’s life: 1) they twinned the theater creating a balcony screen and a main screen and 2) they added midnight shows in 1976 starting with “Gimme Shelter.” The latter moved proved beneficial because the theater booked “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in 1977. Locals protested to the theater owners and Henry S. Miller about the types that were coming to the show to no avail. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” ran a nine year engagement into the summer of 1986, unprecedented to that point. B&B had declared bankruptcy in 1985 and there was some finger pointing over the closing of the Village in July 1986. Rumor had it that the days of theatrical were over as the theater would become retail space and that the relator were to blame; others pointed the other direction.
Things settled down in 1987, AMC created a four-plex in the Village signing a lease with Henry S. Miller with one stipulation: there would be no showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” All screens were up a short escalator flight up through the concession area with the largest screen now 250 seats and the other three had 110 and 120 seats for 600 total seats. AMC successfully operated it for more than 13 years.
Regent Entertainment took over when AMC left the Village in 2001. Operating one of the most unusual venues in Dallas film history, the Regent Village set a box office mark that was seen as quite remarkable when the film Zzyzx Road took in just $30 during a run in 2006 made worse by refunding of $10 to two people who had worked on the film. Regent played many Dallas exclusives that either played nowhere else in the United States or at just its Regent screen in Los Angeles. For independent film lovers, the Regent offered an eclectic mix along with general first-run fare. On its last day in 2009, you could choose to see a film called $9.99 or The Hangover.
When the Regent closed in 2009, the shopping center was under new ownership and there was concern that the theater might not continue. But the owners found a new operator and the theater was gutted and reopened Dec. 18, 2010 by Twomey Concepts. As of the 2010s, Twomey operated the theater as a high end restaurant/bar with screens and viewing lounges mixing predominately family fare with some independent films.
The “new” Capitol Theater opened on December 16, 1922 as a low-end first-run house. It went from a Popular Amusement Company property, to an independent under R.J. Stinnette and Ephram Charninsky, to an RKO Southern to Interstate and finally to Trans-Texas closing on December 26, 1957 as a second run house.It was demolished beginning on February 19, 1959 with its antique bricks repurposed for other projects.
The original Capitol Theater in Dallas was briefly home to the Capitol players from September to December in 1921 but burned down on December 26, 1921. The Capitol was rebranded from its other two nameplates: the original, Dallas Opera House opened in 1903, and then home to the Majestic Theater after the original Majestic burned down in 1917. The Capitol players were without a home. A decision was made immediately to rebuild the theater and try to keep the Capitol players from dispersing. But the process was slower than the players wanted. When the Capitol Theater was built and opened a year later, its players had gone. So the new Capitol Theater opened at 1521 Elm as a movie house which it remained until its closure.
It was a Popular Amusement Company theater with 1,200 air-cushioned seats, a $20,000 Barton organ and six piece orchestra opening December 16, 1922 with the film, “Slim Shoulders”. The theater’s amenities and interior weren’t quite up to the competition, especially with the Majestic, Melba and Hippodrome. The Bertram C. Hill architected exterior of the building had an inviting style for theater row and it might be said that the attention was mostly there as the interior lacked what palaces provided in that era. Popular Amusement closed the theater within a year’s time. But the Capitol reopened as an independent the same year under R. J. Stinnette and Eprhram Charninsky (up until his death in 1928). The first film was “Six Days” on Sept. 20, 1923, the Capitol positioned itself as a lower price Elm/Theater Row house. Its true heyday was the mid-1920s.
By early 1929, fortunes sagged for the Capitol as sound technology and innovations were being adopted more quickly along theater row than the Capitol likely could afford. The Capitol downgraded to a double-bill second run house, the first on Elm Street since 1915. But later that year, the theater strategically got an exclusive deal to book RKO films as it moved into the sound era on July 29th. As the original theater wasn’t exactly soundproofed, the interior was bathed in celotex as any interior panache was buried under soundproofing and wall coverings.
In 1930, RKO Southern took over the Capitol and closed it for ten days to put in a newer sound system and more wall treatment. Almost immediately, RKO Southern was in dire economic straits and on June 2, 1931 the Capitol Theater closed in part due to the lack of a real air conditioning system and in part to stop paying labor. It closed again in December 1931 and reopened in January 1932 after Christmas. In 1933, RKO Southern shut down declaring bankruptcy.
Interstate took over the theater and under the venerable circuit, the Capitol finally hit its stride as improvements which included a modern air conditioning system making things more comfortable inside. The Capitol played mostly double feature westerns and held a handful of premieres of lesser “B” films and occasional exploitation fare. World premieres of Republic’s Roy Rogers film “Under Western Stars” and George Harriman’s exploitative “Tell Your Children” took place. Personal appearances by Rogers and Smiley Burnette, Monogram’s Tex Ritter, and “Song of the Range” stars Jimmy Wakely and Lasses White were among the stars who showed up.
The U.S. v. Paramount case that led to the famous consent decree in which Paramount agreed to separate itself from domestic theater exhibition selling out joint ventures such as Interstate and Publix. In a second wave of dispersals following the Varsity and Dal-Sec, seven theaters including the Capitol and the Rialto were sold in one transaction by Interstate to Louis Novy’s Trans-Texas Theater circuit on Feb. 24, 1954. Trans-Texas struggled along with all of theater row trying to battle population shifts that were beginning to doom most of the downtown houses.
On Oct. 2, 1957, Trans-Texas closed the Capitol to prepare to show Spanish language films after a remodeling. That rebranding began on Nov. 10, 1957 opening with El Bolero de Raquel starring Cantinflas. A dismal failure, the policy discontinued just five weeks later and the money spent in improvements and marketing were lost. The theater flailed for another week returning to second-run fare on Dec. 20, 1957 opening with “Hot Rod Girls” and “Girls in Prison.” A week later, the theater closed for good and its second to last double feature was “Phantom from 10,000 Leagues” and “The Day the World Ended.” The theater remained empty for just a little over a year and on February 19, 1959, the theater was torn down to make way for a parking lot. As noted, the bricks were considered distinctive if not historically interesting and salvaged for other projects.
The Hippodrome was built for moving pictures opening in 1913 but found that live stage shows worked into its business plans. The theater became the Joy Theater in 1933, the Wade Theater in 1942, and then in 1946/7 became the Dallas Theater, the Downtown, and the Strand Theatre (and technically, the Strand Theater) before being bulldozed in 1960.
Lang & Witcher architected and Gilsonite Construction of St. Louis built the two-story, fireproof theater that opened March 1, 1913 and replaced a facility that had burned a year and a half earlier. The $120,000 structure was built for motion pictures with a seating capacity of 1,200 (850 downstairs and 350 in the balcony). The Pilcher pipe organ was said to be the largest ever installed in a movie theater in the U.S. and the “finest west of the Mississippi.“ It would be used in tandem with a seven piece orchestra. R.A. Bennett painted the 17 allegorical figures of the Roman school and a Roman chariot race was depicted on the giant curtain.
Tom P. Finnegan managed the theater and was on hand for the grand opening in 1913 and its demolition in 1960. The Hippodrome’s motto was “always a good show” as it brought the first, longer 50 cent movies to Dallas. The first of those was “Les Miserables"and it had the Dallas' premiere of “The Squaw Man” and Mary Pickford’s “The Bishop’s Carriage.”
As the 1920s and early 1930s brought major competition to the Elm Street Theater Row, the Hippodrome began to be known for live shows including Billy House’s Follies of 1920 perhaps a step ahead of burlesque and a rung or two down from the vaudeville houses. Its midnight shows had performers described as hootchy-cootchy dancing which drew audiences and legal scrutiny in that era. But it also brought in the most money so the theater found itself more in line with Fox Theater in appealing to that audience.
In 1933, new operator M.N. Baker changed the Hippodrome to the Joy Theater where it began a checkered run. Manager M. Midyet was arrested just months into the Joy’s run when police raided a live performance arresting the manager and two performers. Later that year, the city shut down the Joy for presenting indecent shows with the judge calling the dancers in to recreate the event. More publicity occurred when one of the comedians at the club inadvertently struck and killed a girl in a vehicle accident. The next owner of the theater was then found dead in 1937 just after the last show that night.
New owner Frank Nick rebranded the Joy as the Wade Theater in 1942. Not long after, the Joy’s name would be in use at the Circle Theater. The Wade continued the Joy’s burlesque-film concept. It showed “The Condemned,” a movie about syphilis along with the controversial “Birth of Four Babies” which sold out numerous shows. The Wade was probably better known for live stage attractions with dancing girls and striptease artists such as Ermain Parker, the “Texas Tassel Twisting Hurricane” and Murial Page with her fan dance. The theater always had a feature but the attraction was personalities and theme shows like the “Swing Shift Revue” or “Silk Stockings Show” and some African American shows at the end of its run.
Wayne Babb bought the theater in 1946 to end the burly shows and rebranded the space as the Dallas Theatre, a family showplace. When the live shows weren’t working, the theater had a very brief period as the Downtown Theater in which there was likely no name on the marquee but double features of second and third run films.
On January 7, the theater became known as the Strand Theatre continuing its discount double features. It closed and was obtained by the operators of the Joy Theater in Dallas. Run by Joy Houck of the H&B Theater Circuit, Houck invested $100,000 on the Strand Theater putting in all new seats and projection operating the discount house a rung above the Joy. It opened with “The Unfinished Dance” November 15, 1947. Ads cease in February of 1953. A tailor moved into the space in 1953.
In 1956, the Strand re-opened as a burlesque house which lasted about one year and ceased operations. In March of 1957, the theater became a sports-themed theater along with re-establishing itself as a third-run movie house. For its opening, the legendary Gorgeous George grappled with Enrique Spindola. Sports films of boxing matches and items associated with early pay television were shown at the theater. And at the very end, the Strand tried Spanish language films but with the Capitol converting about the same time and Panamericano doing brisk business, it just wasn’t in the cards for the Strand. That’s how the theater closed and it was bulldozed as part of a grand “City of Tomorrow” urban redevelopment in downtown Dallas in January of 1960.
The Forest Theater was a Pettigrew-Morley & Company architected $350,000 property for the Interstate Theater Circuit designed to upgrade the former Forest Theater just blocks away. That theater would be renamed the Colonial Theater which Interstate would close shortly thereafter. Fiberglass screen by Nu-screen, ramp to the mezzanine instead of stairs, cry room, Acousticon hearing devices available for the hard of hearing, attached lit parking, and plush-back fitted seats were among the amenities. Between 4,500 and 5,000 people showed up to the opening events of the theater on July 30, 1949 which had square dancing and the film, “It Happens Every Spring.”
While the early days were kind to the theater business-wise, the theater staggered as the population shift was brisk. Interstate closed the theater briefly after the February 25, 1956 showings to covert the theater from a white theater to an African American theater beginning with a grand re-opening March 1, 1956 with “Helen of Troy.” It was billed as the largest African American theater in the South and ads carried the tagline, “now colored” for informational purposes. Early on, “The Ten Commandments” played for a month to large crowds and gave Interstate hope. But the business soon slacked off.
The Forest mixed in live rock and roll shows with the movies in search of audiences in 1957/8. But it wasn’t working so the theater began operating as a weekend-only establishment beginning in December of 1958 with new manager Victor Matthews. Somehow the Forest made it another 7 years — 16 years total — closing on September 27, 1965. Matthews said that support wasn’t there and the theater had operated for a loss for a lengthy period. So Interstate looked for subleasing deals.
The Forest was divided into a 900-seat house sometimes called the Forest Ballroom and later called the Forest Avenue Cinema. The other part was called the Central Forest Club and later the Forest Central Night Club. The first sublease arrangement appears to be with Reuben Willis who opened the Central Forest Club on October 13, 1967 operating primarily as a soul and blues nightclub. Willis booked acts including Redd Foxx and B.B. King into the night club. For Willis, the space was used as community center by day and night club by evening. That arrangement lasted about almost four years. Concerts West booked a few shows into the Forest Ballroom for a short period in summer of 1968. Wilson Pickett & Arthur Conley played the Club and The Byrds played the Forest Ballroom. One live show from 1970 at the Forest, the South Dallas All-Stars' Live at the South Dallas Pop Festival, was released years later as a live CD.
As for the property, Interstate held the Forest for 30 years. When Albert H. Reynolds bought the city block in 1979 housing the theater, the Forest transferred from the original owners, Interstate Theaters (then known as Plitt Southern Theatres) to Reynolds. The Forest Avenue Cinema used the 900-seat house to show blaxploitation films for less than a year to incredibly small audiences and a 485-seat portion operated as the Forest Central Night Club. (This could account for the 478 number that is referenced in some comments.) In the 1980s, the Forest was a night club called, City Lights under Tommy Quon. Delbert Knight was the next operator. Club Anthony was an R&B club that functioned for two years.
In 1991, now as a jazz club, the nightspot moved back to its original name of the New Forest Theatre booking Ramsey Lewis and Les McCann. Further bookings included Tuck and Patti but the New Forest closed in September of the same year. It had long stretches of vacancy. When singer Erykah Badu of Dallas bought the theater in 2003, it needed refurbishing. It became known as the Black Forest Theater in 2004, a reference to its operation as an African American house in 1956-1965. Film-wise, the Black Forest returned to its roots with the Black Cinematheque and Juneteenth Film Festival. But live music and community center activities were the main attractions for the space. The Black Forest Theater was used from 2004 until 2008. As of the 2010s, the Forest still stands with its original marquee.
The Colonial is one of the rare theaters whose patronage so exceeds its expectations that its success leads to its demise not once but twice. In its planning stages, this theater was known as the Colonial-Forest. The reasons were two-fold. First, the well-known Colonial Theater in downtown had run from 1907 into the 1920s at 334-6 Elm. The second was that the Colonial-Forest Theater was at the corner of Colonial St. and Forest Ave.
The previous Colonial on Elm St. in downtown Dallas was the 32d house for the Lone Star Theater Company based in Dallas. Their primary aim was to operate vaudeville shows for the Charles Hodkins vaudeville circuit. The Colonial opened on Feb. 18th, 1907 in the Hite Building including illustrated songs and moving pictures at its outset. Leaning on family entertainment (shows for “women and children”), the Colonial was branded toward the upper echelon of vaudeville as opposed to male-centric burlesque leanings. Marcus Loew would purchase a number of the Lone Star theaters in 1919. By 1922, the Colonial was part of the Foy circuit and was then spotlighting full-length theatrical films.
Meanwhile, in 1930, the Forest Avenue Theater had announced a plan to expand to 1,000 seats along with modern heating and cooling, wide screen projection and sound. However, the original Forest built for Harry J. Gould more than 15 years earlier just needed too much retrofitting to be brought into the modern sound era. So just a month later, another plan was opted for in which a brand new $70,000 playhouse would be constructed. The Colonial-Forest Theater opened at 1702 Forest Avenue at the corner Forest and Colonial Avenue with Eph Charninsky as its operator in 1931. Based on all available reports, the theater was known as the Colonial for a short period and appears to be branded as an African American house in its first days. When it becomes part of the Interstate Circuit, the theater is rebranded as a second-run neighborhood house and renamed the Forest Theater.
As the Forest Theater, Interstate found its audience and its steady business led Interstate to build an even bigger, better theater just two blocks away. Known as the New Forest Theater at 1920 Forest Avenue in 1949, the New Forest marquee was still present as of the 2010s at the renamed 1920 Martin Luther King Blvd. 4,500-5,000 people showed up to the opening events of that theater though the original Forest now back to its original Colonial nameplate had lost its audience.
On July 29th, 1949, the Colonial had its first double-feature but the magic was gone. Its operation was short as a second-run, second-status theater and was dropped by Interstate. Though the now-dated Colonial died just two months into its run, its ability to draw audiences for nearly two decades helped it attract a new owner almost instantly.
In December, Dave Tobin and Norman Kantor redeveloped the space into “The Theater Lounge” with tiers of tables replacing the theater seats. The African American music nightclub would sell out its first show but transferred owners shortly thereafter and switched to a burlesque house with strippers. Barney Weinstein’s establishment made stars of Candy Barr and Pixie Lynn while featuring traveling artists from all over the globe. The burlesque concept and his “School for Strippers” was so successful and so infamous that after seven years of operation its owner moved moved the Theater Lounge to 1326 Jackson at Akard in March of 1959 and incorporated a year later. As a result, the Colonial’s success of drawing crowds twice led to its own demise.
From an entertainment standpoint, the Theater Lounge was the end of the Colonial’s almost 30-year run. But the Theater Lounge would continue onward and remained one of Dallas’ most infamous nightclub spots.
In 1925, Urbandale was annexed in the city of Dallas connected by the Terrell Interurban streetcar line. On January 24, 1941, it got its own movie theater with the opening of the Urban Theater by Roy Starling at its location of 7035 Military Avenue between Elva and Peretta Aves. The theater opened with the film, “Captain Caution.” Starling’s Grove and Urban had personal appearances by the likes of Ken Maynard, the western actor that drew crowds to the suburban second-run theaters.
In May of 1942, Cameron bought Starling’s Grove Theater. That theater would burn down and be rebuilt by Cameron. Cameron next bought the Urban from Starling. This theater would also burn down and be rebuilt by Cameron. The Urban’s destruction came on April 27, 1944 where water rationing hampered firefighters efforts to douse the blaze. Because the fire occurred during the war, building rations delayed the theater’s rebuilding and by the time it had opened, Cameron had sold his Dallas theaters.
The new $60,000 Urban Theater opened a block away across the street from its predecessor at 7106 Military Drive at the corner of what is now Military Parkway and Urban Ave. It opened with “Music for Millions” on July 13, 1945 now in the J.G. Long theater circuit with the Airway, Grove and Urban. The theater served both as a house of worship and functioning movie theater into the 1950s before closing. It was converted into the Urbandale Youth Center that was initially called, the “Fun Club.” The center would eventually be home to the Urban Washateria using the address of 7124 Military Parkway (though at 7120 in tax records) that suffered a major fire on February 28, 2012 that gutted the building.
In 1929, the Beverly Hills neighborhood was annexed from Dallas and 15 years later, it had its own movie theater: the Beverly Hills located in the Beverly Hills Shopping Center. And the B-H would be the subject of a prickly legal battle by Tri-State Theater’s Bart McClendon just four years after its August 31, 1944 grand opening. A rare wartime opening, the movies-for-morale requirement was met by an aviation plant manufacturing wartime materials in Grand Prairie roughly eight miles from the theater.
The B-H opened with “Broadway Rhythm” to an invitation only audience and then to the general public on September 2, 1944 with “Lassie, Come Home.” The 812-seat balcony-less theater was designed by Raymond F. Smith who had architected other theaters including Dallas’ Granada, Airway, and Delman. Having moved to Dallas in 1942, McLendon was hoping for big profitability from the B-H and Casa Linda that opened the following year. But falling into debt with the local banks and with his son needing a cash influx to get into the radio business, he sold off the B-H and its shopping center on June 10, 1947 to Robb & Rowley’s theater circuit for $300,000 and would also sell the Casa Linda to Interstate Theater Circuit.
Less than a year later, McClendon sued both Rowley and Interstate for $1.2 million claiming that he had essentially been frozen out of the first-run film exhibition marketplace by Rowley and United leading to $200,000 less business and $200,000 less marketplace value for his theaters. He felt that the business climate was such that he was forced to sell this theaters. He lost his suit as, among other elements, McLendon admitted to making $50,000 profit in the sale of the B-H, alone.
The B-H changed from a second-run suburban to an art cinema on January 6, 1952 closing briefly for a remodel. “Oliver Twist” opened the new art house. This policy lasts until 1960 when it closed as a movie house and new owners decided to try for live theater in the space. In January of 1961, the Beverly Hills is used for live stage plays. At some point the Beverly Hills became a place of worship, renamed and was still in operation as of the 2010s.
The Airway Theater was a P.G. Cameron theater that opened August 11, 1940 with Ann Sheridan’s “It All Came True.” The 780-seat theater was designed in 1939 by Raymond F. Smith using the conceptual name of the Love Field Theater due to its proximity to the famed airport. But the name Airway was assigned to the theater whose main innovation was that of stadium-style seating for better views of the screen.
For Cameron, who had started the Palace Theater in 1903 in Dallas and went on to run the Crystal and the famed Melba Theater which was sold for one million dollars, the four theaters of the Airway, Grove, Urban and Peak would serve as his Dallas theater holdings entering the War. However, before the end of WW2, Cameron ended up moving west and sold his Dallas theaters to J.G. Long. These four theaters would be the Long circuit’s Dallas entire portfolio.
The Airway was completely destroyed by a January 19, 1955 blaze. The fireproof projection area allowed the booth’s film and projector to be salvaged but everything else was a total loss. The five-alarm fire consumed the building and a neighboring cafe and damaged the adjoining Airway Automatic Laundry and Love Field Pharmacy. The Airway’s carcass was demolished and the theater’s entire run was less than 15 years. The last ad for the theater was “Knock on Wood” in October 1954 which likely means the theater turned to African American fare. As of the 2010s, the Airway’s spot was still not rebuilt upon.
One of the original murals is hung at the TXCN headquarters downtown and all survived.
Three unrelated Elm Street theater row houses have been called the Dallas Theater and the total combined time of their operation is less than five years. The first was at 1301 Elm operating in 1913 exclusively as a photoplay house. The second was at 1209 Elm when Wayne Babb bought what would become the Strand Theater and former Hippodrome/Joy/Wade in 1946 creating the short-lived Dallas Theatre. But this entry is about the Telenews Theater which was created just two weeks prior to Pearl Harbor, opening on November 21, 1941.
1515 Elm was a retail space housing a paint store followed by three grocery stores (Piggly Wiggly, briefly Lotus Foods, and Helpy-Selfy) and finally home to several businesses including Van Winkle’s Book Store and a tavern. In August of 1941, the Mirror at 1517 burned down. Just two weeks later, the 11th Telenews Theatre in the United States was announced next door to the charred Mirror which was still standing.
The Telenews was created using an existing retail space at 1515 Elm Street and turned into a Jack Corgan designed 640-seat theatre that played newsreels exclusively for its first five years of its operation. Corgan’s remodeling design would cost $80,000 and carried out by George P. O'Rourke Construction. Interstate — having just lost the Mirror next door to fire — decided to team up with the Telenews Theaters circuit in a joint operation. They opened it on November 21, 1941 to coincide with an annual Santa parade that would be rained out that year.
The timing was fortuitous and the theater generated great foot traffic selling out its first day and drawing crowds throughout World War 2. The twinkling globe was a beacon that marketed the theater well. Patrons could watch films for any of five newsreel companies edited on a speedy machine known as “Oscar.” They could also go upstairs and participate in live quiz shows or listen to radio news that was created on premises by WFAA and KGKO. Throughout the war, this format proved successful but after the War, the audiences interest waned so the programming was changed.
After five years of exclusive newsreels and documentaries, the Telenews had a policy change that allowed it to play “important” films. Said to be an art cinema house when announced in December of 1946, the Telenews didn’t really reach that goal looking very much like a traditional movie house. And not abandoning newsreels, the Telenews publicized that they would buy local footage from those capturing newsreel footage on their 8mm or 16mm cameras. But the days of the newsreel as a standalone interest were gone. The theater was closed for remodeling as a cycloramic screen was put in and the radio and reading rooms removed. On Christmas Day, 1949, Interstate took over soul possession of the theater and rebranded it as The Dallas Theater opening with “The Fallen Idol.”
The name change didn’t help the fading property. Less than two years into the rebranding of the theater, Interstate sold the lackluster property to Greater Texas Theater’s L.N. Crim, Jr. and Robert Hartgrave which had the American premiere of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” when it opened Nov. 1, 1951. Greater Texas tried art and then they tried racier fare to no avail and the Dallas Theater didn’t make it to a full year for Greater Texas ending the theater’s 11-year run. Dallas' theater row would see similar audience erosion throughout the decade. The Dallas Theatre closed May 12, 1952 and was sold to a real estate entity. That company placed an advertisement in July 1-2, 1952, offering everything including the seats and projectors for sale, thus ending the Telenews/Dallas Theatre.
The Buckner Boulevard Drive-In opened for business June 4, 1948 with “Tycoon” starring John Wayne. You could walk in or drive-in as there was plentiful outdoor seating for the walk-ups. The theater was the third in Dallas within what would be known as the U&E (Underwood and Ezell) and later the Ezell Theater Circuit. That entity already owned the venerable Northwest Highway and Chalk Hill properties in Dallas and other in the state. As the mural suggests, the Buckner not only had movies but had live animals including 15 monkeys to complement the traditional playground equipment including two elephant slides.
The theater was the first in Dallas with individual car speakers. On Easter Sunday 1954, Ezell equipped the Buckner with an 80x40 fiberglass screen — what it billed as the World’s Largest Fiberglass Screen" for CinemsScope and showed “Knights of the Round Table.” It was said to be the first drive-in with three channel multichannel stereo. That system was also created by and added to Ezell’s drive-ins in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth.
The McLendon Theater Circuit took over the Buckner Drive-In followed by the Weisenburg Theaters in the 1970s. All bookings and advertising for the Buckner Boulevard Drive-in cease at the end of May (29th) with the great triple feature of “The Pack,” “Mansion of the Doomed,” and “Giant Spider Invasion.” As this would time out to exactly 30 years of operation, that could suggest that a leasing arrangement may spell the end of the Buckner.
The Lochwood Village Shopping Center opened Aug. 15, 1957. Its success led to expansion. That included the Lochwood Cinema which opened in 1966 as part of the General Cinema Corp. (GCC) Circuit. The Lochwood was situated at the confluence of N. Garland Rd., Jupiter Rd. and Lochwood Blvd. Lochwood Cinema was the chain’s third Dallas location along with Big Town, NorthPark and joined by the similar Park Plaza which would open the following month in Arlington.
The $378,000 theater had the distinctive GCC white brick walls, an art gallery entrance, smokers area, giant Cinema sign, and 507 parking spaces. GCC said it was the first White Rock area theater to be constructed in 20 years. The theater opened April 7, 1966 with That Darn Cat. Coincidentally, Interstate’s Belaire Theater in Hurst opened to the public a day after an invitational screening with the same film on the same date.
Much like the aforementioned Park Plaza, GCC twinned the Lochwood. The shopping center became the Treehouse Mall as a number of the shops were placed into an enclosed mall in 1974, a practice not uncommon in that era. General Cinema renamed the Lochwood as the Treehouse in June of 1974. A downturn and a new owner led the mall to change names to the Lochwood Mall in 1979 but the retail prospects continued to dim. General Cinema changed the name away from the Treehouse and back to its original Lochwood nameplate accordingly.
General Cinema would get roughly its 20 years of life from the property and would drop it from the circuit. I believe it soldiered on briefly as the Cine 2 before becoming vacant and considered by locals an eyesore by the beginning of the 1990s. Pigeons were the only customers of the deserted theater which was demolished along with the shopping complex in 1990/1. The White Rock Marketplace took the place of the mall which was still in existence as of the 2010s.
The Mirror and its four antecedents only existed at one address: 1517 Elm. Doing business first as the Garden Theater (1912), then the Jefferson Theater (1915), then then Pantages, then the Ritz (1928), and finally the Mirror (1931) which burned down in 1941 after ten years in operation. The nearby Capitol operated at 1521 Elm while the unrelated Telenews/Dallas operated only at 1515 Elm.
1515 Elm was initially a paint store when the theater at 1517 Elm opened as the Garden Theater in 1912 as well as its change to the Jefferson Theater in 1915. 1515 Elm would became three grocery stores (Piggly Wiggly, briefly Lotus Foods, and Helpy-Selfy) during which time the theater was the Pantages and Ritz. 1515 Elm was home to several businesses including Van Winkle’s Book Store and a tavern at the end of the theater’s life which would then be known as the Mirror Theater before the theater burned down in 1941. 1517 Elm would become a retail space adjoining the Telenews in 1941/2.
The Mirror’s neighboring store at 1519 Elm was a well-placed candy store considering that at 1521 Elm was home to the “new” Capitol Theater in its second home at 1521 Elm. But that became a mixed blessing on August 3, 1941 when the Mirror burned badly ending its run as a showplace and took the candy store — though not the Capitol Theater — with it.
The Garden Theater was opened in 1912 playing motion pictures and some live performances. On March 8, 1915, the theater under new ownership of C.H. Verzchoyle and William E. Wetherford decided to stress live theater and renamed it the Jefferson Theater. They stressed and advertised that the location would be home to repertory presentations and “not moving pictures."
While reports said the project was profitable, the theater quickly was under the direction of Ray Stinnett who also owned the Cycle Park locally. Stinnett reconsidered the programming and returned the theater to its moving picture roots. He then sold the Jefferson to the Southern Enterprises circuit in 1920 which continued motion pictures but closed the theater early in 1922.
Stinnett resurrected the theater re-opening it in November of 1922 initially as the Jefferson and trying to position it as first-run house and musical comedy showplace. Obviously liking the live musical comedy aspects’ prospects, Stinnett changed the name of the theater to the Pantages in 1926 after remodeling it and trying to do move into live vaudeville. The vaudeville concept was said to be a very expensive failure for Stinnett who transferred the theater to a new operator.
On October 15, 1928, the Pantages was renamed the Ritz and billed itself as the first second-run Vitaphone movie theater in the United States. For a discount price, you could see second-run talkies. Now run by Robb and Rowley Theater Circuit and managed by W.B. Underwood, R&R invested $40,000 to remodel, redecorate, and bring sound film to the location. W.B. King was instrumental in the redesign with drapes, canopies, new front lobby and a kiosk at the theater’s entrance. They opened appropriately enough with “Lights of New York,” the first all-talking feature.
On February 7, 1931, R&R sold the Ritz along with the Rosewin and Midway as well as other locations in a $2.5 million deal by infamous millionaire Howard Hughes and partner Harold B. Franklin’s Hughes-Franklin Theater Company. The move was part of a larger $15 million transaction to strengthen the circuit.
Robb and Rowley were still managing the property and had the influx of money to remodel and refurnish the Ritz after the Hughes' transaction. In one of his last decisions for Hughes-Franklin, Franklin visited the Ritz and determined that Dallas was one of the bright spots in the country and that the theater location should reflect that. W. Scott Dunne was the architect of the redesign and the theater only shut down three weeks to become a “house of mirrors” renamed the Mirror Theater. Two shifts of workers worked full 24-hour schedules to make the redesign a reality. A perforated screen allowed for sound speakers behind the screen instead of the two horns used in the Vitaphone presentations. And the mirrored marquee and mirrored interior panels along with the flashing neon lights delivered Franklin’s vision and Dunne’s designs.
Before the theater was reopened, Franklin left Hughes to operated Paramount and United Artists theaters. The Mirror Theater opened Christmas Day 1931 with “Five Star Final” as its first screen attraction. While known primarily as a second run house, the Mirror capitalized on westerns from the minor film companies to stage live appearances. Under new operator, Interstate Theater Circuit, Gene Autry, Buck Jones, Tex Ritter, Monogram’s John King were among the stars to appear on the Mirror’s stage.
On August 2, 1941, a four-alarm fire decimated the Mirror during closing hours with the balcony crashing to the main floor. It was fortunate the theater was empty because the fire officials said the non-fireproof insulation engulfed the theater quickly and sparking electrical cables were visible. Just three weeks later, plans to build a new and unrelated newsreel theater were finalized at 1515 Elm to replace the former retail space and would be known first as the Telenews and then the Dallas Theater.
On September of 1941, Rear Admiral Adolphus Andrews of the U.S. Navy who owned the 1517 Elm property housing the still standing but charred Mirror was able to make a business trip to inspect the wreckage of the Mirror Theater. He ultimately determined that the building should be razed. 1517 was rebuilt as a retail space and housed a gift store and a game company above. Thus, the Garden/Jefferson/Pantages/Ritz/Mirror theatrical era ended after 29 years.
The Chalk Hill Drive-In opened on July 4, 1941 just two weeks after the Northwest Drive-In had its Grand Opening. Opening feature was “The Invisible Woman”. This drive-in had a capacity for 408 cars on 12.5 acres. There were 204 in-ground speakers and a playground for kids was added. It was operated by W.G. Underwood and Claude Ezell who operated the both the Northwest Drive-In and another in San Antonio.
The Chalk Hill started doing live stage shows prior to the movies in 1943 to five a full evening’s performance. The original design of the Chalk Hill was identical to that of the Northwest with a single star along with the drive-in’s name. The theater modernized the look of the tower with a clown’s face and neon lighting. Additionally, in 1954, the Chalk Hill replaced its screen with an 80-foot curved screen for CinemaScope films. Its first two in June were “King of the Khyber Rifles” followed by “The Robe.”
The Chalk Hill Drive-In became part of the Texas Southwest Drive-In Theatres circuit with the Buckner and Denton Rd. in 1972 and 1973. It closed for the season in 1973 and while there are many recollections of the theater’s continuance, no advertisements, bookings or re-opening announcements are listed. Steve Fitch’s two iconic photographs of the Chalk Hill from 1973 — one showing the panoramic screen and playground and the other showing the clown screen tower at dusk — would also be the ultimate end points to the theater if that were confirmed.
The Century Drive-In’s tract of land originally was home to the Downs Drive-in at 2510 W. Main St. in Grand Prairie. In 1949, the Downs became the third drive-in theater to open in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Its original screen burned and was replaced in 1957. And not long after being sold to a new owner, it closed on January 20, 1970, was bulldozed and replaced by the newly-named Century Drive-in which opened June 13th, 1970. It closed in 1987 and was later bulldozed.
The Downs was started and operated by Tim G. Ferguson, Truman Hendrix and H.S. Ferguson. The Downs was named after the nearby Arlington Downs Racetrack which had opened in 1929 and whose racetrack and grandstand extended eastward toward the drive-in less than a mile away. Located midway between Dallas and Fort Worth and with Irving within striking distance to the North, the Downs was well positioned. The opening of a GM factory in 1951 just across the way would soon add to the traffic and visibility of the area.
Ferguson complained about the availability of first-run film titles at his theater and brought a $150,000 Sherman Antitrust-based lawsuit against the five Grand Prairie theater owners as well as the major film studios. Ferguson’s drive to have more of a voice for drive-in theaters generally led him to become a founder and president of the Texas Drive-in Theater Owners Association.
The Downs theater tower burned to the ground in a spectacular 4-alarm fire on January 19, 1957 where the film “Fury at Gun Sight Pass” was playing. Fortunately, motorists backed away and were unharmed by the $15,000 fire. The fire was attributed to the high winds combined with the screen tower’s neon lights which were excised from the redesigned screen tower. The Downs racetrack closed in 1958 but the theater retained its name.
The theater’s positioning as a family-friendly spot was enhanced by its “Candy Cane City” amusement playground. The opening of a larger park — Six Flags theme park — in 1961 provided yet more family-centric traffic near the Downs which continued to thrive in the decade. Its success led the McLendon Theater Circuit to purchase the theater with grander plans. As the multiplex era of indoor theaters was beginning and with twin and triple screen drive-ins propping up, McLendon decided to one up the other drive-ins. It would demolish the Downs not long after January 20, 1970’s double feature of “Flare Up” and “Speedway”.
McLendon would create what it called the world’s largest drive-in and first four-screener. With the Arlington Downs a distant memory as a neighboring entity, the newly named Century Drive-In would begin business on June 13, 1970 with “Beneath The Planet of the Apes” with “The Undefeated” and “Two Mules for Sister Sara” with “Topaz”. With four screens with 500 spots each at its opening, the theater did well enough to merit an additional fifth screen. The Century would go on 17 years until 1987 before being bulldozed. The nearly 40 years of drive-in exhibition for the Century/Downs makes it the area’s longest standing addresses for nearly continuous and certainly consecutive years of outdoor operation.
In 1949, the Downs Drive-in at 2510 W. Main St. in Grand Prairie became the third drive-in theater to open in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Its original screen burned and was replaced in 1957. And not long after being sold to a new owner, it closed on January 20, 1970, was bulldozed and replaced by the newly-named Century Drive-in which opened June 13th, 1970. It closed in 1987 and was later bulldozed.
The Downs was started and operated by Tim G. Ferguson, Truman Hendrix and H.S. Ferguson. The Downs was named after the nearby Arlington Downs Racetrack which had opened in 1929 and whose racetrack and grandstand extended eastward toward the drive-in less than a mile away. Located midway between Dallas and Fort Worth and with Irving within striking distance to the North, the Downs was well positioned. The opening of a GM factory in 1951 just across the way would soon add to the traffic and visibility of the area.
Ferguson complained about the availability of first-run film titles at his theater and brought a $150,000 Sherman Antitrust-based lawsuit against the five Grand Prairie theater owners as well as the major film studios. Ferguson’s drive to have more of a voice for drive-in theaters generally led him to become a founder and president of the Texas Drive-in Theater Owners Association.
The Downs theater tower burned to the ground in a spectacular 4-alarm fire on January 19, 1957 where the film “Fury at Gun Sight Pass” was playing. Fortunately, motorists backed away and were unharmed by the $15,000 fire. The fire was attributed to the high winds combined with the screen tower’s neon lights which were excised from the redesigned screen tower. The Downs racetrack closed in 1958 but the theater retained its name.
The theater’s positioning as a family-friendly spot was enhanced by its “Candy Cane City” amusement playground. The opening of a larger park — Six Flags theme park — in 1961 provided yet more family-centric traffic near the Downs which continued to thrive in the decade. Its success led the McLendon Theater Circuit to purchase the theater with grander plans. As the multiplex era of indoor theaters was beginning and with twin and triple screen drive-ins propping up, McLendon decided to one up the other drive-ins. It would demolish the Downs not long after January 20, 1970’s double feature of “Flare Up” and “Speedway”.
McLendon would create what it called the world’s largest drive-in and first four-screener. With the Arlington Downs a distant memory as a neighboring entity, the newly named Century Drive-In would begin business on June 13, 1970 with “Beneath The Planet of the Apes” with “The Undefeated” and “Two Mules for Sister Sara” with “Topaz”. With four screens with 500 spots each at its opening, the theater did well enough to merit an additional fifth screen. The Century would go on 17 years until 1987 before being bulldozed. The nearly 40 years of drive-in exhibition for the Century/Downs makes it the area’s longest standing addresses for nearly continuous and certainly consecutive years of outdoor operation.
The Kiest Boulevard Drive-in opened May 23, 1956 with an invitation only screening of “Navy Wife” and opened to the public the next night with “I’ll Cry Tomorrow.” The 110x65 sq. ft. screen was designed by David P. Yelsi and was made of spun glass, plastic and rubber, the first such installation of its kind and Dallas' largest screen at that time. It was better known for the Indian on its opposite side. 1,000 car lot, panoramic screen accommodating VistaVision, CinemaScope, and high fidelity speakers. The theater was part of the Phil Isley Circuit and opened just one week after the Bruton Road Drive-In. In 1965, the Kiest landed in the Rowley United Chain within the United Artists circuit along with the Granada, Crest, Major, Avenue, Big-D Drive-in, Boulevard Drive-in and nine other theaters in downstate Texas.
A 40'x60' swimming pool with adjoining bath house, nursery for kids, playground and picnic grounds made it a family environment. Yet, when the theater switched to all X-rated features in 1970 during the porno chic era, these amenities wouldn’t have much value. The theatre switched to an African American leaning schedule beginning in 1973 and then back to mainstream fare for what appears to be the final five years for the drive-in 1977-1982. The theater discontinued ads in 1982 which could have been the end of the line for the 26-year old ozoner.
The South Loop Drive-In was a $150,000 drive-in architected by Harvey A. Jordon constructed for Charles H. Brooks that opened March 30, 1950 with “On the Town”. The original screen tower of the South Loop Drive-In had a Snow White mural. According to all reports, special permission was obtained from Walt Disney to use Snow White on the tower. Wings were added to the sides of the tower to play CinemaScope titles. The 675-car capable drive-in would become part of the Isadore B. Adelman Theatre Circuit in which it remained until its closure. The Adelman Circuit was more known for its indoor Delman theaters in Dallas, Houston, and Tulsa but had a good run with the South Loop. Each Saturday, the theater presented a “freeview” which was only free to patrons who paid for the first show; most other drive-in theaters referred to this as the “second feature.” The theater changed to a more traditional, double feature policy.
Amenities included free self-serve car washes while you waited in line. A water drainage and 90-gallon well ensured that the water would be reused. A 200-seat area was constructed for walk-ins in front of the concession stand and another 200-seat area was at the base of the the screen tower. High winds threatened the 60-foot high screen in 1954 so the tower was strengthened 75% according to the owners. But on August 30, 1956, the original tower and its telephone pole structure was blown over. in September 1956, the original was replaced with new signage and a steel-framed tower with Selby screen. The theater stopped advertising after the 10-26-1968 showings of Shenandoah and War Wagon likely closing for the season and not reopening for the spring. There appear to be no further bookings for the location.
The Ervay is probably best remembered for its owners and customers and not so much for its presentation. It was opened by three ex-GIs who didn’t even place an ad for the Dec. 21, 1946 opening. It was operated for a short time by the notorious Jack Ruby in 1953. And it became the Paris Art Theater owned by Jim Sharp who was thrown in jail in 1971 for showing obscene movies at the theater and was also operated by the infamous Charles Musick.
Musick fought Dallas' enforcement of obscenity laws using the First Amendment in the early 1970s. He was charged 22 times with showing obscene films at the Ervay and another 20 or so theaters in the region and had 21 of the cases either quashed or dismissed. Musick appears to be the final operator of the establishment for film exhibition with ads ceasing in July of 1972 and the Paris Theater nameplate being used on Harry Hines thereafter. Musick became the key witness in the murder for hire case against fellow adult theater owner Robert C. Thetford’s murder for hire case revolving around Thetford’s IRS problems and having one of his employees murdered for revealing this to the IRS.
Following its adult film era, it became a live venue mostly for music in the 2000s. The last advertised music show there was The Cliks live concert in March of 2008. It has been used seldom since for live concerts but has been used for political talks, seminars and courses into the 2010s.
Robb & Rowley opened the theater, as noted in the comments above, on March 21st, 1949 (private screening) and March 22d (to the public). R&R eventually became United Artists. UA was said to have allowed its lease to lapse on the Vogue. It closed as a dollar house following August 29, 1972 with Skyjacked and Kelly’s Heroes playing for a dollar. The next day, the Texas Theatre just down the street became United Artists' replacement converting it from first run to a dollar house.
The UA South 8 opened May 23, 1984 in the multiplex era across the highway from the Red Bird Mall in Oak Cliff. The theater had great visibility from the highway but no direct exit making it a bit challenging to get to. Technically, it was not only UA’s first and last Oak Cliff theater, as of the 2010s, it was the last theater ever built in Oak Cliff. The theater stopped just shy of 15 years as it was shuttered on October 15, 1998 in a wave of closures during the megaplex era.
The UA South was interchangable with any number of UA properties of this era such as the Northstar 8 in Garland. But given the lineage of the UA Circuit’s Dallas existence which subsumed the Robb & Rowley Circuit – a specialist and backer of Oak Cliff – give UA credit for outfitting an auditorium with 70mm projection and being THX certified. Oak Cliff deserved that and gave UA a leg up over the General Cinemas 1-4 and the 5-10 both across the street and adjoining Red Bird Mall. And it sort of worked as the General Cinemas properties had 12 profitable years but then simultaneous years in the red. In October of 1994, both General Cinema multiplexes were shuttered. Unfortunately, the lack of competition just didn’t help the UA South.
Again, giving UA credit, they did book specialty films for the target audience with nice runs of “Sanfoka” and “When We Were Colored”, both films for an African American audience. But with Cinemark’s low-priced, first-run Lancaster-De Soto theater opening just about a 10 minute drive away, the audience was being siphoned off in a new direction. The UA South’s reputation was that is was unsafe which drove audiences away. However, the actual experience on weekdays told a different story: the place was simply empty in the late 1990s; certainly no safety risk and usually a private screening.
When General Cinema closed its Oak Cliff theaters, there were protests staged at General Cinemas NorthPark I&II. When the UA closed the South at the end of October 1998, there was resignation that Oak Cliff perhaps had earned the reputation of non-support of movie exhibition. Or perhaps people understood the challenge of the multiplex in a megaplex environment as the South, UA Prestonwood, Northpark I&II, GCC Carrollton, GCC Prestonwood, and Collin Creek also went down for the count at the same time as the UA South. When Oak Cliff’s Astro Drive-in burned down just one month later, there were no functional movie theaters in all of Oak Cliff, one of Dallas' most populous residential areas with 338,000 people.
Only the reopening of the Texas Theater more than ten years after the UA South and Astro Drive-in closures did projected film come back to Oak Cliff. After being boarded up for several years, the UA South property was converted into a house of worship which was active into the 2010s.
The Wynnewood Theater opened July 1, 1951 as part of the Robb & Rowley Circuit. It basically was in the same chain for 32 years. The theater was retrofitted several times. The first was 1953 for panoramic showings of widescreen films. The next was 1958 with a Todd-AO system. Todd-AO was removed in 1961 for Cinemiracle presentation(s). The theater was twinned in April 1973. It closed Sept. 28, 1983, reopened for a period of time as an adult theater, sold to a developer but was demolished in 1999. Its address was 275 Wynnewood Village.
The Wynnewood got its name from Six Flags founder Angus Wynne who created the $7 million Wynnewood Village Shopping Center in which the theater was housed. Robb & Rowley would get a corner spot when the center was created with 10,200 sq. ft. theater plans by Pettigrew and Worley. Unlike many suburbans of the period, the Wynnewood was budgeted at north of $250,000, 1,400 seats, and had 400 targeted parking spots of the 2,000 available in the center.
On July 1, 1951, the slightly toned-down 1,000 seat Wynnewood Theater opened with “Smuggler’s Island” with a ten-seat soundproof cryroom, retractor seats and managed by Pat Murphree formerly of the Heights Theater to manage the facility for Rowley United Theaters. The Pettirgrew, Worley & Company architected theater’s final look didn’t quite match the highly stylized look of the original concept drawings. However, it did match the DeWitt and Swank design of the overall Wynnewood Shopping Center in which it was housed. The two firms did work together on the final design for the theater.
The R&R Circuit was focused on Oak Cliff with 7 theaters and this was clearly its jewel. Just two years into its run, the Wynnewood was retrofitted with a panoramic screen on Sept. 24, 1953 which reduced the house to 944 seats. An even more ambitious project happened in March 1958. Rowley United (having bought out the Robb family in 1955) spent $100,000 dollars on a Todd-AO system to show “South Pacific.” A six-track sound system, a 22x44 screen was brought in new 70mm projector, and eight surround speakers on the wall making it easily the most technologically challenging show for the suburban. Many Hollywood stars and producers flew in for the event. On the premiere’s night, a $25 after-party featuring Carmen Cavallaro saw stars such as Linda Darnell, Margaret O’Brien, Don Murray, and Rocky Marciano among others. All theater seats were reupholstered for the premiere and road show engagement, an improved box office, and redecoration all took place. In an incredible 32-week run 130,000 went to this Oak Cliff theater to the “South Pacific” in Todd A-0. South Pacific would return for a non-AO run in 1971.
Rowley then installed a costly Cinemiracle system in early 1961 in time for the showing of “Windjammer.” Todd-AO was removed. Three projectors operated with four projectionists allowed the wall to wall screen of the now 800 seat theater. Five speakers behind the screen and one on each side of the house. Only Houson’s Rivoli and the Wynnewood were said to play this in Texas.
Innovation pretty much stopped there as Hollywood steered away from such technology and undoubtedly “Windjammer” didn’t make back its investment. Rowley United positioned the Wynnewood of the 1960s as a family friendly house. In a single year, the Wynnewood had 50 weeks of G rated fare in 1968 with 22 weeks with Disney product. Rowley United became United Artists after a stock transfer and decided to twin both the Cine and the Wynnewood. The Wynnewood was halved with 400 seats in each house, had new screens installed, and was closed for two months in March and April of 1973.
In the 1980s, audiences were moving toward the multiplexes and Oak Cliff had the Redbird Cinemas which were doing decent business siphoning business away from the Wynnewood. In the summer of 1983, the Wynnewood became a dollar house and closed quietly with second-runs of “The Twilight Zone” and splitting “The Verdict” and “Star Chamber” on Sept. 28, 1983. The move came at the same time UA was breaking ground for an 8-screen house across the street from the Redbird Mall several miles south of the Wynnewood. A 32-year run for the R&R/UA circuit was pretty good. UA’s presence continued with the South opening May 23, 1984.
UA either subleased or operated under its art/adult nameplate with the Wynnewood re-opening trying adult fare for a brief period and playing Caligula in May of 1984. Jerry Moore Investments purchased the Wynnewood Theatre in Oak Cliff from United Artists in 1992. The Houston-based mall developer probably had grand plans and rumors abounded that a multiplex would rise in the Wynnewood and the Ward’s store when it went out of business. That never happened. The Wynnewood theater almost looked it was hoping that it would be bulldozed after sitting vacant for years. That day would come when it was excised from the shopping center in May of 1999 though would stand just a little bit longer than the UA presence in Oak Cliff which shuttered the UA South 8 in October 1998.
The corner of Akard and Elm is an intriguing one in Dallas cinema history. Of course, home to the Fox Theater in the 1920s and into the 1960s, the original Palace Theater was hastily carved out within a storefront by legendary Dallas exhibitor P.G. Cameron in 1906 in the same building. Cameron played Edison films with the licensed Edison projector with a 50 cent bed sheet to paying audiences who stood and watched the short films. Cameron would then rent chairs for patrons to be more comfortable.
The Nickelodeon era at this and other nearby locations provided Dallas with its first novelty theater row with the Princess, Palace, Candy and Empress together in rather unsubstantial show places. The Palace was no palace and the Empress was not regal. While not the first to exhibit movies, Cameron was a pioneer who left the Palace and moved to the Lyric as well as many other local theaters.
The Palace was gone and the building would get a major facelift at the start of the 1920s and renamed the Roos Building for the popular Gus Roos men’s clothing store. Within the Roos Building was an improved theater experience. A 280-seat theater known as the Fox Theater was created by Fooshee and Cheek Architects within the Italian Renaissance building.
When one thinks of the Fox Theatre, one might recall the glory days of the Fox in Atlanta, San Francisco, St. Louis, or Detroit. The Dallas Fox in name only was actually started by and named for local businessman Max Fox, no relation to the fabulous Fox' lineage. Fox also operated the original Strand Theater in Dallas in the late 1910s and into the 1920s. The Fox opened in February of 1922 with a soft launch. Its grand opening was March 20, 1922 with Mary Pickford’s “Through the Back Door.” If one wants to make a connection to the film’s title and the Fox Theater’s business trajectory, so be it. Matt Fox left the exhibition business before the advent of sound but the theater bearing his name carried on under new management.
The Fox was a true independent running eclectic fare that ranged from standard film fare, live burlesque-centric acts and film shorts, to four-wall feature films that might contain exploitation and risqué content with little advertising. While the Queen, Majestic and others were creating a true movie boom in Dallas, the Fox stuck more to lower class fare and presentation. The Fox made the transition to sound, survived a minor fire in 1929, and soldiered through the Depression probably thanks to the success and traffic generated by the Roos Men’s store. In 1932, two tear gas incidents took place as a man threw tear gas canisters apparently to rob purses and other left behind items. As a sign of the time, a woman burned in the tear gas incident lived in a tent camp in south Dallas.
The Fox hit its stride in the 1940s playing high profile films that had been banned or were controversial. Alfred Sack of Sack Amusements would lease the theater in what appears to have been a four-wall arrangement to exhibit his racy – often foreign – films and his exploitation films such as “Bucket of Blood.” In other times, the theater was leased to the VFW for a weeklong-engagement of “Ravaged Earth.” But the racy films were winners and provided the Fox with consistent fare. The first feature film entirely shot in a nudist camp, “Elysia,” played three weeks in its initial run and sold a phenominal 11,462 tickets “including many repeat patrons” according to reports. Ecstasy, also exhibited by Sack, filled the house and said the report, “The 50 cent movie customers, after their first timidity, have patronized the picture (due to artistic rather than exploitative reasons) without glancing around to see if anybody recognized them entering or leaving the Fox.” But – that said – was the Fox’s reputation at the point and for the rest of its existence.
The racy films came with much scrutiny by local officials. A newsreel about a nudist colony by H.M. Glidden was seized and appears to be the first arrest of the Fox operators in October 1943. After the war, many of Sack’s more artistic foreign films were also doing well for the Fox so much so that Sack would create his own art house called the Coronet north of downtown. Once art films found their place in post-war suburban theaters such as the Fine Arts and Coronet, there was only one for the Fox to go and that was even more risqué. The films got much less artistic and more exploitative drawing questionable audiences as it became much more akin to a grindhouse with continuous shows all day. If the Fox had only stopped before 1955, the story of the theater would have been just that. Unfortunately, a wall fell killing four and injuring eight in June of 1955. Just two months later, the theater cooperated in a local raid leading to 20 charges of sodomy over a five-day undercover sting.
The Fox became known less for film and more associated with the burlesque scene in the late 1950s and just into the 1960s as the Barney Weinstein’s Theatre Lounge moved downtown from the Colonial Theater and Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club became the places to go. The word “Theater” was replaced with “Burlesk” on the marquee — of course — followed by “closed” as the establishment finally ceased operation. A classified ad in October 1961 has all of the contents including the seats for sale which marks the end of the Fox. The building appears to have been demolished in February 1962 replaced by the skyscraper First National Bank Building during a massive City of Tomorrow renewal plan. The historic film location at Elm and Akard was no more.