X-Cite Cinema
17 N. Harvey Avenue,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73103
17 N. Harvey Avenue,
Oklahoma City,
OK
73103
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Off topic, but, Oklahomo Cowboy, I cannot begin to understand how connection to my stuff (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com) would be faster using dial-up since most of my articles are so graphics-intense. Are you sure about that … I’m wondering if it was a one-time blip or something.
Thanks,
Doug
Advertisements in old issues of City Key Magazine show this cinema went under the name X-cite during its last couple of years in business.
Architectural color drawings and a history of the (doomed) urban renewal project can be found here. For some odd reason the below site works best using dial up connection;
View link
AcademiX was a reverse cinema, meaning; from the lobby one entered the 150 seat auditorium from either side of the movie screen, and faced the projection booth. Restrooms were located beneath the booth, and rear emergency exit (alarmed) doors were located here.
Could they have come up with a more imbecilic theatre name?
Forty years ago local and Federal agencies combined forces to conceive a colossal urban renewal project that was intended to transform Oklahoma City’s aging downtown area into the nations showcase retail and luxury condominium district. Famed architect I.M. Pie was commissioned to create utopian plans for an extravagant, futuristic, enclosed downtown mall.
A high rise Sheraton Hotel, the Myriad Convention Center, and a couple of urbane skyscrapers were erected before it was soon realized that this was a prohibitively expensive scheme.
Unfortunately four priceless movie palaces and nine smaller theatres (along with other gorgeous structures) were razed to make way for a project that could have never been fullfilled. A sad loss.
Another victim of urban renewal, the entire block where the storefront AcademiX stood was razed to make way for an office complex that was never built. Today this area is a parking lot.
OKC porn theatres were sometimes harassed by law enforcement. However, during the first half of the last century burlesque stage shows were seldom raided, no matter how raunchy the act.
Or to add on the above comment: Sounds to me that they had to move locations because of being raided perhaps. (Being a Bible Best state, this would not suprise me in the least.) Get raided & forced to shut up shop, then move to a new location until it happens again.