The Olympic was located on the NE corner of 7th and Polk Streets. Many years after it burned and the rumble cleared away a new building rose there which housed the Colberts Department Store for decades. The Colberts building burned September 23, 1977 heavily damaging the building next door which had originally housed the Texas Theater. After the fire both the buildings were razed and replaced with a flat, ugly, parking lot leaving a gaping hole on Polk Street.
In Amarillo there two sets of numbered streets, those to the north of the railroad yards always carry the N. designation in front of the street name while streets south of the yards usually don’t require the S. designation since it was the older more established part of town. 317 E 4th is the simple address for the Liberty Theater. The city people don’t care anything about the historic building. They want to ram it with bulldozers and raze it to the ground so they can make another flat, ugly, asphalt parking lot. The bad news is: they own it. That block where the Liberty now stands alone was once full of historic old buildings. There were notable structures along both sides of E 4th St where you now see all those flat, ugly parking lots.
Westgate Mall had been open almost 6 years when United Artists acquired the former Hub Clothiers/later Moning’s Department Store space and converted it to a state of the art 6 screen theater opening May 25, 1988. I saw “CROCODILE DUNDEE 2” that day. The auditoriums were considerably larger and nicer than the “shoebox” UA-6 a couple miles east on I-40. The Westgate 6 converted to a second run dollar theater when UA opened their Amarillo Star 14 all-stadium seating Theater across the freeway in 1998. UA decided not to keep the theater and it was closed for a time in the early 2000s. Premier Cinema took over the location reopening the theater as a second run discount venue in the spring of 2004. Some recent remodeling has improved the theater quite a bit.
The State was one of the 3 remaining Downtown Amarillo theaters by the late ‘60s. It seemed an enormous palace of a theater when I went to see my first movie there July 13, 1966, “BATTLE OF THE BULGE”. The Downtown theaters were places that had always existed to me because they were built long before my arrival on this planet. At the time I never had a thought that they would ever be gone. I saw 106 movies at the State. The last was a re-issue of “JAWS” February 14, 1976, my 8th time to see the sharkfest. Somehow the State slipped into oblivion while I was excitedly seeing flicks in all the new multi-screen theaters. In '78 they tried to keep it going by showing Spanish movies, always a sign of doom. Amarillo National Bank bought up the whole block, leveled everything, building their new Plaza II skyscraper on the east side, and a 4-level parking garage on the Polk St side where the State and Victory Theaters were located. A big concrete wall where flickering lights once beckoned movie goers.
The Fox Theater on Wolflin Ave opened in September 1968 showing “THE ODD COUPLE”. It played for weeks and weeks but I never wanted to see a movie about 2 old guys so I didn’t go to the theater until the premier of “BARBARELLA” December 3, 1968. I saw 262 movies there before they shut the place down July 27, 1992. The last was “DEEP COVER” June 20, 1992. The building sat empty and forlorn until it was demolished in the summer of ‘93. A Taco Bell and other businesses are now located at the spot where movies were once shown.
I took that photo of the Western Plaza Cinema February 12, 1969. I was on my way to see Zeffirelli’s “ROMEO AND JULIET”. The theater’s first movie was “THE GRADUATE” and I saw it 3 times in the next 2 days (March 29-30, 1968). When the theater was twined in 1974 there were still almost 500 seats on each side. February 7, 1974 I attended the first movie I had ever gone to by myself in Theater One. No one else came to the noon showing so I sat by myself in the empty theater for more than 3 hours watching “PAPILLION”. The theater went dark in ‘91 but was opened as Jolly’s Comedy Club in '92 with movies in one theater and live stand up in the other. The last movie I saw there was “BOB ROBERTS”, November 4, 1992. A couple of hotels now stand where the WP Cinema once was and the Western Plaza Mall is long gone, replaced by a new shopping center with restaurants all around. You’d never know it was ever there.
The Walmart Super Center on Georgia is now located where the Twin Drive-in once stood. The Palo Duro Drive-in was on the other side of the Canyon E-way from it. My first movie there was “WILD ANGELS” September 12, 1966, the one starring Nancy Sinatra. The last was “COLD TURKEY” October 28, 1972. It was a very nice drive-in and stayed in business all the way into 1985. Then suddenly the front screen, the classic one seen in the photo, burned down. I think they showed a few more movies on the back screen before giving up. The land stayed vacant for almost 20 years until Walmart bought it ‘04. Walmart’s huge parking lot could hold a 3 screener.
I was only at The Trail Drive-in once. The movie was so bad I never even listed it in my Movie Log. After the closure of the air base and the diminished traffic and activity in that direction the Trail was doomed. They tried X-rated movies for a while then Spanish flicks and amazingly ran family pictures for a month or so but it closed long before all the other drive-ins in town except the Palo Duro. Shortly after that it burned down. I don’t know why so many Amarillo drive-in screens burned down.
One of my biggest regrets is having never gone inside this theater. I walked downtown almost daily with my friend, Dave, who carried lunch to his projectionist father there. I always stood outside, smelling the popcorn, and waiting. Then one day in ‘65 or so the theater had been gutted and turned into more retail space for Fefferman’s Department Store which was next door. Now it’s just an ugly, flat parking lot at the Police Station.
This theater closed before I knew what movies were but I remember all the glass on the front of the building was mirrored. You saw your reflection when you passed by. Surely someone has photos of it. All the other buildings around it have been torn down. It had it’s own parking lot. The building was the home of a fraternal organization for a while.
Showplace 4 opened in April 1977. It did not use union projectionists so I was not allowed to see movies there since I was associated with IATSE Local 469. They picketed the place for months but this is Texas so all their effort was in vain. My first movie there was August 14, 1977, “Mac ARTHUR”. I went with a union member. SP4 was a first run theater until the ‘90s when they started showing second run movies for a dollar. It was a very simple theater and died quietly in 2002. But I did see the first “STAR TREK” movie there December 7, 1979.
I only saw two movies at this drive-in, “CLARENCE THE CROSS-EYED LION” and “THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING”, May 5, 1967. I remember I had no money to buy food and food was the 2nd best thing about drive-in movies. It always seemed an impressive sight to go down the Canyon E-way and there were these two drive-in theaters across the highway from each other. Of course, I remember when there was no freeway and the Canyon highway was a very dangerous 3 lane road. The Randall County Courthouse annex ended up on this spot. The Veterans War Memorial is on the north portion of the old theater property. As a kid it always seemed odd to me that the Palo Duro Drive-in was on the Tascosa HS side of town and the Tascosa Drive-in was on the Palo Duro HS side of town.
The first movie of my life was at The Paramount, January 20, 1966, “THUNDERBALL”. I stayed through 2 showings. The last was “HEADS I KILL YOU, TAILS YOU DIE” an incredibly bad spaghetti western I saw just before they closed it down. It was one of the most beautiful theaters ever built. I got in 206 shows from ‘66 to '75. The good news: the building still there, it will never be a parking lot, and I’m just a LOTTO win away from putting it back the way it was.
Like the Paramount not enough can ever be said about this wonderful theater. I saw my first movie there October 12, 1966, “KHARTOUM”, the last was “CAVEMAN” April 20, 1981. I only got to see 59 movies at the Esquire. Then it was torn down in ‘82. What’s wrong with you earth people? At least they didn’t make a flat, ugly parking lot out of it.
I stood in a line of about 300 people waiting to get into the 9:45 PM showing of “STAR WARS” July 1, 1977. The south theater had stereo sound but the north was mono. This ABC Cinema Twin opened March 20, 1975. It was the first theater built in the city with two separate auditoriums. (Western Plaza Cinema and the Fox had their single auditoriums converted to twin with a wall down the center). Opening night I saw “YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN”. ABC Interstate considered this their replacement for the Paramount which they closed earlier that day. Cinema Twin went downhill in the mid ‘80s but perked up for a while with booming attendance for “JURASSIC PARK” in 1993. The theater hung on for only a short time after the coming of the megaplexes, closing in 1998. The last time I tried to see a movie there (a 9:30 PM showing) a kid came to the ticket window and said, “We can’t show the movie 'cause…uh…the bulb went out in the projector and we don’t knew where the new ones are…”. A new operator tried showing Spanish movies for a while in '99 but no one came. It would be a great place for a dinner and movie venue or an “indy” theater. There’s plenty of parking.
The United Artist-6 opened June 20, 1980. The night before at the “Pre Grand Opening Gala” (with tickets from Z-93). I saw “THE BLUES BROTHERS”. In 1984 it became the only venue to have THX sound in Amarillo history. Before it closed in June 1998 I had seen 1,182 movies there, the last being “SLIDING DOORS” on May 25, 1998. To date it is the theater where I have seen the most movies. The theater was used for storage until it was demolished August 23, 2002. A hotel now sits on this hallowed ground on I-40 behind the Outback Steakhouse.
This theater was built as the Mann’s Fox 4. It opened with much ado, including some minor stars from Hollywood making an appearance, June 14, 1979. It was a first run theater showing new movies as a well as “independent” and foreign films (something new for Amarillo). The first movie I saw there was “HOMETOWN USA” at the grand opening 6-14-79. With the opening of the UA-6 and then Westgate UA-6 a few years later the Fox 4 dropped new movies and became a second run, dollar admission theater. Late in the theater’s history my friend, Tom Sharp, was the projectionist, ticket seller/taker, and he ran the concession all at the same time. Cinemark bought the theater about 1996 to gain a foothold in Amarillo, later becoming the operator of the Hollywood 16. The Fox 4 remained a dollar theater until it closed in mid 1998. New owners took over the shopping center in which it was located and demolished it but found no need to build a flat, ugly parking lot in its place.
This was never a real theater. Just a room with a screen hanging from the ceiling and a 16-mm projector at the back. The audience sat in metal fold up chairs. When the film broke too many times someone would come out and say, “That’s all for tonight, folks.”
Hub Clothiers purchased the old theater and adjacent buildings, remodeled them, and then operated a very fine store there for decades. The structure remained empty for about a decade after The Hub went out of business. Then it was all demolished and replaced with an ugly, flat, asphalt parking lot with room for maybe a dozen cars on Polk St.
The Hollywood 16 was built by the Starplex Theater chain but sold to Cinemark only a week after opening. The complex opened February 13, 1998. I saw my first movie there that night, “SPHERE”, starring Dustin Hoffman. It took me until October 9, 1998 to finally see a movie in all 16 auditoriums. The theater featured 3 concession areas, one at the front and another at each end of the concourse which provides access to the auditoriums. That did not last long, however, and the inside concessions were removed within a year. By October 2013 I had seen 1,000 movies at the Hollywood 16. I assume they’ll add an IMAX theater soon.
The Victory Theater was open until early 1973. That’s my friend, Dave, working the ticket booth in the photo. His father was the projectionist at the time. The only movies I ever saw there were “BARBARELLA” and “JOE HILL”, two older films in a double feature for a dollar March 7, 1972. (Actually I got in free)
The Sunset Drive-in was located on W. 9th (historic Old Route 66). The backend of the theater was on 11th. In later years people living in the new residential area south of 11th could see the movies on the screen. The area is now the Winchester Apartment complex.
The screen shown and talked about here is the second or “South” screen as it was called when added to the drive-in back in ‘67. The original Tascosa screen was at the bottom of the hill where the RV park is now located at Dumas E-way and N 24th St. The original screen, which burned in the late '70s, was a classic, old, and quite impressive drive-in theater structure with a mural on the front. That screen was widened in the late '50s in order to show the bigger format films.
There are photos available.
The Texas Theater was actually located to the right of the location in the photo, next door to Colberts Department Store. After the theater closed in the 50s the building housed the Downtown Skaggs Drugstore. Skaggs closed January 17, 1970 and the building remained empty. The Colberts building burned September 23, 1977 and a short time later the remains of the department store and the old theater were demolished and replaced with just another flat, ugly parking lot on the once glittering Polk St.
The Olympic was located on the NE corner of 7th and Polk Streets. Many years after it burned and the rumble cleared away a new building rose there which housed the Colberts Department Store for decades. The Colberts building burned September 23, 1977 heavily damaging the building next door which had originally housed the Texas Theater. After the fire both the buildings were razed and replaced with a flat, ugly, parking lot leaving a gaping hole on Polk Street.
In Amarillo there two sets of numbered streets, those to the north of the railroad yards always carry the N. designation in front of the street name while streets south of the yards usually don’t require the S. designation since it was the older more established part of town. 317 E 4th is the simple address for the Liberty Theater. The city people don’t care anything about the historic building. They want to ram it with bulldozers and raze it to the ground so they can make another flat, ugly, asphalt parking lot. The bad news is: they own it. That block where the Liberty now stands alone was once full of historic old buildings. There were notable structures along both sides of E 4th St where you now see all those flat, ugly parking lots.
Westgate Mall had been open almost 6 years when United Artists acquired the former Hub Clothiers/later Moning’s Department Store space and converted it to a state of the art 6 screen theater opening May 25, 1988. I saw “CROCODILE DUNDEE 2” that day. The auditoriums were considerably larger and nicer than the “shoebox” UA-6 a couple miles east on I-40. The Westgate 6 converted to a second run dollar theater when UA opened their Amarillo Star 14 all-stadium seating Theater across the freeway in 1998. UA decided not to keep the theater and it was closed for a time in the early 2000s. Premier Cinema took over the location reopening the theater as a second run discount venue in the spring of 2004. Some recent remodeling has improved the theater quite a bit.
The State was one of the 3 remaining Downtown Amarillo theaters by the late ‘60s. It seemed an enormous palace of a theater when I went to see my first movie there July 13, 1966, “BATTLE OF THE BULGE”. The Downtown theaters were places that had always existed to me because they were built long before my arrival on this planet. At the time I never had a thought that they would ever be gone. I saw 106 movies at the State. The last was a re-issue of “JAWS” February 14, 1976, my 8th time to see the sharkfest. Somehow the State slipped into oblivion while I was excitedly seeing flicks in all the new multi-screen theaters. In '78 they tried to keep it going by showing Spanish movies, always a sign of doom. Amarillo National Bank bought up the whole block, leveled everything, building their new Plaza II skyscraper on the east side, and a 4-level parking garage on the Polk St side where the State and Victory Theaters were located. A big concrete wall where flickering lights once beckoned movie goers.
The Fox Theater on Wolflin Ave opened in September 1968 showing “THE ODD COUPLE”. It played for weeks and weeks but I never wanted to see a movie about 2 old guys so I didn’t go to the theater until the premier of “BARBARELLA” December 3, 1968. I saw 262 movies there before they shut the place down July 27, 1992. The last was “DEEP COVER” June 20, 1992. The building sat empty and forlorn until it was demolished in the summer of ‘93. A Taco Bell and other businesses are now located at the spot where movies were once shown.
I took that photo of the Western Plaza Cinema February 12, 1969. I was on my way to see Zeffirelli’s “ROMEO AND JULIET”. The theater’s first movie was “THE GRADUATE” and I saw it 3 times in the next 2 days (March 29-30, 1968). When the theater was twined in 1974 there were still almost 500 seats on each side. February 7, 1974 I attended the first movie I had ever gone to by myself in Theater One. No one else came to the noon showing so I sat by myself in the empty theater for more than 3 hours watching “PAPILLION”. The theater went dark in ‘91 but was opened as Jolly’s Comedy Club in '92 with movies in one theater and live stand up in the other. The last movie I saw there was “BOB ROBERTS”, November 4, 1992. A couple of hotels now stand where the WP Cinema once was and the Western Plaza Mall is long gone, replaced by a new shopping center with restaurants all around. You’d never know it was ever there.
The Walmart Super Center on Georgia is now located where the Twin Drive-in once stood. The Palo Duro Drive-in was on the other side of the Canyon E-way from it. My first movie there was “WILD ANGELS” September 12, 1966, the one starring Nancy Sinatra. The last was “COLD TURKEY” October 28, 1972. It was a very nice drive-in and stayed in business all the way into 1985. Then suddenly the front screen, the classic one seen in the photo, burned down. I think they showed a few more movies on the back screen before giving up. The land stayed vacant for almost 20 years until Walmart bought it ‘04. Walmart’s huge parking lot could hold a 3 screener.
I was only at The Trail Drive-in once. The movie was so bad I never even listed it in my Movie Log. After the closure of the air base and the diminished traffic and activity in that direction the Trail was doomed. They tried X-rated movies for a while then Spanish flicks and amazingly ran family pictures for a month or so but it closed long before all the other drive-ins in town except the Palo Duro. Shortly after that it burned down. I don’t know why so many Amarillo drive-in screens burned down.
One of my biggest regrets is having never gone inside this theater. I walked downtown almost daily with my friend, Dave, who carried lunch to his projectionist father there. I always stood outside, smelling the popcorn, and waiting. Then one day in ‘65 or so the theater had been gutted and turned into more retail space for Fefferman’s Department Store which was next door. Now it’s just an ugly, flat parking lot at the Police Station.
This theater closed before I knew what movies were but I remember all the glass on the front of the building was mirrored. You saw your reflection when you passed by. Surely someone has photos of it. All the other buildings around it have been torn down. It had it’s own parking lot. The building was the home of a fraternal organization for a while.
Showplace 4 opened in April 1977. It did not use union projectionists so I was not allowed to see movies there since I was associated with IATSE Local 469. They picketed the place for months but this is Texas so all their effort was in vain. My first movie there was August 14, 1977, “Mac ARTHUR”. I went with a union member. SP4 was a first run theater until the ‘90s when they started showing second run movies for a dollar. It was a very simple theater and died quietly in 2002. But I did see the first “STAR TREK” movie there December 7, 1979.
I only saw two movies at this drive-in, “CLARENCE THE CROSS-EYED LION” and “THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING”, May 5, 1967. I remember I had no money to buy food and food was the 2nd best thing about drive-in movies. It always seemed an impressive sight to go down the Canyon E-way and there were these two drive-in theaters across the highway from each other. Of course, I remember when there was no freeway and the Canyon highway was a very dangerous 3 lane road. The Randall County Courthouse annex ended up on this spot. The Veterans War Memorial is on the north portion of the old theater property. As a kid it always seemed odd to me that the Palo Duro Drive-in was on the Tascosa HS side of town and the Tascosa Drive-in was on the Palo Duro HS side of town.
The first movie of my life was at The Paramount, January 20, 1966, “THUNDERBALL”. I stayed through 2 showings. The last was “HEADS I KILL YOU, TAILS YOU DIE” an incredibly bad spaghetti western I saw just before they closed it down. It was one of the most beautiful theaters ever built. I got in 206 shows from ‘66 to '75. The good news: the building still there, it will never be a parking lot, and I’m just a LOTTO win away from putting it back the way it was.
Like the Paramount not enough can ever be said about this wonderful theater. I saw my first movie there October 12, 1966, “KHARTOUM”, the last was “CAVEMAN” April 20, 1981. I only got to see 59 movies at the Esquire. Then it was torn down in ‘82. What’s wrong with you earth people? At least they didn’t make a flat, ugly parking lot out of it.
I stood in a line of about 300 people waiting to get into the 9:45 PM showing of “STAR WARS” July 1, 1977. The south theater had stereo sound but the north was mono. This ABC Cinema Twin opened March 20, 1975. It was the first theater built in the city with two separate auditoriums. (Western Plaza Cinema and the Fox had their single auditoriums converted to twin with a wall down the center). Opening night I saw “YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN”. ABC Interstate considered this their replacement for the Paramount which they closed earlier that day. Cinema Twin went downhill in the mid ‘80s but perked up for a while with booming attendance for “JURASSIC PARK” in 1993. The theater hung on for only a short time after the coming of the megaplexes, closing in 1998. The last time I tried to see a movie there (a 9:30 PM showing) a kid came to the ticket window and said, “We can’t show the movie 'cause…uh…the bulb went out in the projector and we don’t knew where the new ones are…”. A new operator tried showing Spanish movies for a while in '99 but no one came. It would be a great place for a dinner and movie venue or an “indy” theater. There’s plenty of parking.
The United Artist-6 opened June 20, 1980. The night before at the “Pre Grand Opening Gala” (with tickets from Z-93). I saw “THE BLUES BROTHERS”. In 1984 it became the only venue to have THX sound in Amarillo history. Before it closed in June 1998 I had seen 1,182 movies there, the last being “SLIDING DOORS” on May 25, 1998. To date it is the theater where I have seen the most movies. The theater was used for storage until it was demolished August 23, 2002. A hotel now sits on this hallowed ground on I-40 behind the Outback Steakhouse.
This theater was built as the Mann’s Fox 4. It opened with much ado, including some minor stars from Hollywood making an appearance, June 14, 1979. It was a first run theater showing new movies as a well as “independent” and foreign films (something new for Amarillo). The first movie I saw there was “HOMETOWN USA” at the grand opening 6-14-79. With the opening of the UA-6 and then Westgate UA-6 a few years later the Fox 4 dropped new movies and became a second run, dollar admission theater. Late in the theater’s history my friend, Tom Sharp, was the projectionist, ticket seller/taker, and he ran the concession all at the same time. Cinemark bought the theater about 1996 to gain a foothold in Amarillo, later becoming the operator of the Hollywood 16. The Fox 4 remained a dollar theater until it closed in mid 1998. New owners took over the shopping center in which it was located and demolished it but found no need to build a flat, ugly parking lot in its place.
This was never a real theater. Just a room with a screen hanging from the ceiling and a 16-mm projector at the back. The audience sat in metal fold up chairs. When the film broke too many times someone would come out and say, “That’s all for tonight, folks.”
Hub Clothiers purchased the old theater and adjacent buildings, remodeled them, and then operated a very fine store there for decades. The structure remained empty for about a decade after The Hub went out of business. Then it was all demolished and replaced with an ugly, flat, asphalt parking lot with room for maybe a dozen cars on Polk St.
The Hollywood 16 was built by the Starplex Theater chain but sold to Cinemark only a week after opening. The complex opened February 13, 1998. I saw my first movie there that night, “SPHERE”, starring Dustin Hoffman. It took me until October 9, 1998 to finally see a movie in all 16 auditoriums. The theater featured 3 concession areas, one at the front and another at each end of the concourse which provides access to the auditoriums. That did not last long, however, and the inside concessions were removed within a year. By October 2013 I had seen 1,000 movies at the Hollywood 16. I assume they’ll add an IMAX theater soon.
The Victory Theater was open until early 1973. That’s my friend, Dave, working the ticket booth in the photo. His father was the projectionist at the time. The only movies I ever saw there were “BARBARELLA” and “JOE HILL”, two older films in a double feature for a dollar March 7, 1972. (Actually I got in free)
The Sunset Drive-in was located on W. 9th (historic Old Route 66). The backend of the theater was on 11th. In later years people living in the new residential area south of 11th could see the movies on the screen. The area is now the Winchester Apartment complex.
The screen shown and talked about here is the second or “South” screen as it was called when added to the drive-in back in ‘67. The original Tascosa screen was at the bottom of the hill where the RV park is now located at Dumas E-way and N 24th St. The original screen, which burned in the late '70s, was a classic, old, and quite impressive drive-in theater structure with a mural on the front. That screen was widened in the late '50s in order to show the bigger format films. There are photos available.
The UA Amarillo Star 14 Theater opened November 20, 1998. It now contains an IMAX auditorium.
The Texas Theater was actually located to the right of the location in the photo, next door to Colberts Department Store. After the theater closed in the 50s the building housed the Downtown Skaggs Drugstore. Skaggs closed January 17, 1970 and the building remained empty. The Colberts building burned September 23, 1977 and a short time later the remains of the department store and the old theater were demolished and replaced with just another flat, ugly parking lot on the once glittering Polk St.