Paris Arts Theatre

The Gayety Theatre launched on February 5, 1927 with vaudeville and silent films. The theater was bombed at least five times for using non-union workers in the early 1930s. It was sold twice thereafter.

In January of 1935, the venue was renamed as the Roxy with exploitation films. On September 1, 1935 the venue became the Capitol Theatre with “The Eagle and the Hawk.” The Capitol switched to vaudeville with film for its one-year sublease. The venue returned to the Roxy nameplate in September 1936 playing exploitation films and fourth-run double features. A.M. Cauble took over the theater likely on another one-year sublease at the Roxy hiring union workers in September of 1937. Police showed up and stopped what it termed a strip tease show there in one of its first days of operation.The Roxy booked four wall films including “Marihuana” and “Narcotics.”

The venue closed for a period in the late 1930s and Katherine Brink reopened it as a third-tier double feature house.It failed and was sold at a sheriff’s auction for a meager $2,500. New operator E. “Bud” Claybrook took on the venue reopening it as a 310-seat movie theater on February 15, 1942 called the Uptown Theatre with James Cagney in “The Oklahoma Kid” and Ann Sheridan in “Naughty But Nice” supported by the Disney cartoon, “Donald Duck’s Golf Game.” The Uptown discontinued films not long after a 1958 minor fire. It became a house of worship called Life Temple Church until 1964.

The theatre returned to movie exhibition on October 9, 1964 as the Patria Theatre for Mr. and Mrs. Jose Antonio Ramirez who came to Tulsa from Cuba. They decided to show Spanish language films at the venerable theater. Opening films were Enrique Rambu in “Aventuras de Joselito y Pulgarcito” and Tin-Tan and Lon Chaney in “La Casa del Terror.” That lasted a year closing in 1965.

It was renamed as the Paris Art Theater relaunching on May 13, 1965. Mr. Ramirez was arrested at least twice for indecent exhibition of films. The theater’s last day was August 17, 1967 when the theatre was finally bombed for the last time. The blast destroyed the box office and caused extensive interior damage. The building has since been razed.

Shown here are the type of burleque shows that were presented on the Uptown Theatre stage.
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This peppy album plays snappy burlesque tunes,
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Photo right of this 1910 image, where the “Tulsa” arch joins onto the drug store/hotel, is where the Uptown Theatre would later be built. Lyric Theatre is visible photo left.

This 1957 photo illustrates that the Uptown Theatre had a new paint job that restored the edicafe to its 1930 look. Further up Main Street can be seen the Cozy Theatre.
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/JPG/B1690.jpg

Even toward the sad end, in a most run down condition, this crappy burlesque house supplied its burlesque queens with live music. The band was made up of an organ, drums, sax, and clarinet.
On the below sites one can listen to samples of classic burlesque music-
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and another site-
http://www.spaceagepop.com/lester.htm

Under the title “Main Street, Circa 1929” can be seen a fuzzy image of the Uptown when it was still known as Gayety. As can be seen, by ‘29 this area was alreayd tough and seedy, including the shown theatre.
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/BFC/index.htm

Basically the Uptown Theatre was a burlesque house known under various names at various times. Apparently this theatre took on a new name whenever it strived to be a respectable movie house, but somehow always seemed to revert back to bump & grind burlesque stage shows. The Uptown ended its days as Paris Art, a run down strip joint which also exhibited adult films between risque acts.

This was one of the coolest theater designs I ever saw. The UPTOWN Theater was constructed near the top of a railroad viaduct, and had a long auditorium with an extremely steep rake in order for rear exit doors to meet an alley far below the front facade. Located near the Union Train Depot, this house attracted travelers killing time on layover.
On the other end of the same viaduct was the COZY Theater, with pretty much the same floor plan, but nearly as high off the ground as the UPTOWN.