McSwain Theatre

I’m interested in quality photos of the large metal McSwain Theatre marque, the one that was there from the ‘60s through the recent renovation. Please contact me at ryanmcswain at gmail dot com if you have access to any. Thanks!

great pictures All. thanks.

You’ll enjoy this link with lots of pictures,
http://mcswaintheatre.net/index_20.htm

From 2010, photos of the McSwain Theatre in Ada. [Please click thumbnails for larger view].

The obituary of Foster McSwain was published in Boxoffice, May 19, 1969. It says that upon arriving in Ada in 1917 “…he acquired the Ada Liberty, following up this purchase with the Majestic, which he renamed the American. In 1919 he purchased a site at Main and Townsend streets and built thereon the McSwain, which still bears that name. During the big days of his operation here, he also built the Ritz and Kiva theatres, which he operated several years. Both these theatres have long been dismantled.”

McSwain operated the theaters in Ada in partnership with Griffith Consolidated Theatres starting in the 1920s and eventually became a director of Griffith, later to become Video Independent Theatres, and vice president of the Griffith Realty Company.

The McSwain Theatre got an extensive refurbishing in 1956, according to Boxoffice of May 19 that year. In addition to redecorating the lobby and auditorium, installing air conditioning, tiling the rest rooms, and adding new glass doors for the entrance, Video Independent installed a new marquee. According to a June 23 item, the house had reopened after ten weeks. There was new carpeting throughout,the seats on the main floor had been reupholstered and entirely new seats had been installed in the balcony.

The McSwain was twinned in 1972. The May 15 issue of Boxoffice said: “The new Mini penthouse theatre in Ada, created from the balcony of the McSwain Theatre, began operation April 27, with ‘The Hospital’ as its first film.”

In 1991, the dark McSwain could have been picked up for a song. The May issue of Boxoffice said the house, in good condition, with two screens, heating and air conditioning, but lacking seats, concession stand, and projection equipment, was available on a lease-purchase arrangement, or for immediate sale at $40,000.

Advacned link with vintage interior / exterior photographs of the McSwain -
View link

Here is a February 1940 ad from the Ada Evening News:
http://tinyurl.com/qjjl2h

There was a boxing exhibition at the McSwain on 5/24/22, according to the Ada Evening News. Ringside seats $1.50, Ladies half price. In the same issue was this prescient comment from our old friend Samuel Roxy Rothafel:

In 10 years the motion picture will rival grand opera as an artistic
production. This is the prophecy, not by the ghost of Bill Nye talking over the ouija board, but by Samuel L. Rothafel, celebrated designer and director of the Capitol theater in New York. If Rothafel is right, the movies have a long way to go and it will have
to be at a fast clip. The movies, however, come in for a lot of unjust criticism. Critics forget that the motion picture is a baby among the various kinds of theatical entertainments.

Rothafel has a golden dream of future movies. He believes movie
theaters will be shaped like an egg, the pictures made realistic by a fusion of colors, high-grade music, magic lighting effects, the characters “talking” their lines, with sounds and even odors reproduced to complete the hypnotic state of the audience.

Rothafel even predicts that movie theaters will be endowed by national state and city governments, like the endowed theaters of ancient Greece. In the background, however, is the possibility that 10 years from now movie theaters may be closed, with the finest movies broadcasted by wireless to the humblest home. In that case, you wonder, who would pay the actors? It would be the same process as the future of radio music. The finest of vocal and instrumental talent will undoubtedly be employed by the radio industry as a free inducement to further the sales of their instruments.

The Chickasaw Nation, current owner of the McSwain Theatre, is renovating the building for aesthetic enhancement and structural integrity. In addition, the façade of the building is being restored to reflect its 1920s origin, and the top story will now house an art gallery, replacing the old living quarters. As for the address, the building has never moved, and there is only one McSwain Theatre in Ada, OK. Here is a pertinent link to an article published in the Dec. 2005 issue of the Chickasaw Times and posted on Chickasaw.net: http://www.chickasaw.net/governor/index_2752.htm

I saw the 1908 date in the linker above so maybe there was 2 of these theatre with same name in differant years.

The address for the McSwain Musical Theatre is 130 W Main St regardless of what the Ada Business Search shows. The plague is interesting. It is possible that there was an earlier McSwain Theatre at another location and the current theatre was its replacement.