Overton Theatre
210-212 Henderson Street,
Overton,
TX
75684
210-212 Henderson Street,
Overton,
TX
75684
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The July 2, 1938 issue of Boxoffice said that Ted Lewis, of Texarkana, would open his new theater at Overton on July 8. The building was owned by local businessmen and Lewis would operate the house under contract. It would be in competition with the Jefferson Amusement Company, but the article didn’t mention any theatre names.
Jefferson might have had two theaters in Overton, as a November 15, 1941 issue of Motion Picture Herald mentioned houses called the Gem and the Strand there, though it didn’t name the operators. The two houses had enjoyed a 60 day clearance over the Overton Theatre, which an arbiter had cut to 14 days.
Additional Overton Theatre history & exterior photos via the CinemaTour page.
http://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/23452.html
1930’s photo added courtesy of Michael Brown, via the Vintage Neon Heaven Facebook page. The film on the marquee was released in 1932, so the 1938 opening year may be incorrect. Or it was a re-release.
Overton Theatre on Flickr.
Hello Loretta and John, I live in Noonday and would be thrilled to help with the restoration. Ideally I will win the lottery and give you 200K to just giterdun but all I can offer is my services for free. I can do carpentry, sheetrock, electrical, plumbing, roofing, painting, come to think of it I’m a frikkin handyman. Not that it matters but we might even be related: my Gmom is the daughter of John Wesley Posey and Amanda Richardson—anyway give me holler. Anybody know a more direct way to contact them please post. rmcgehee at troupisd.org 5 7 4 0 6 5 0
Does anyone have an old photo of this theater in its heyday?
Art deco masterpiece. Marquee is wonderful and tile work too. Reminds me of the set done for the film House of Wax made about 10 years ago. An entire art deco small town with a movie theatre playing Whatever Happened To Baby Jane on a loop. Check it out. Such an artistic set and film. This great theatre should be saved.
No obvious restoration efforts observed at this time. Photo taken 2014.
Looks like it will need a lot of work from the photos.
Thanks Nick, for taking care of the story,Once again.
The only mention of a Paul Horton in connection with Overton I’ve been able to find in Boxoffice is in the brief September 5, 1953, item which said that the Redwood Drive-In had opened.
A January 14, 1956, Boxoffice item said that James Brakeall had bought the Overton Theatre from Bill Hall, who had “…operated the theatre for more than twelve years….”
Overton, Texas is a quiet town. Much like Washington, Georgia. But while the folks in Washington were unable to save the Wilkes Theatre, the folks in Overton are saving the famed Overton Theatre.
Of course they are battling the same problems that the Miller Theatre in Augusta faced — moldy curtains, torn stage curtains, leaky roof, bird droppings and so on. The theatre was built in 1938 and remained open until 1965. John Cohagen’s father-in-law was the projectionist during the 40s. He said movies were 15-cents. And one could get a Coke for 5-cents and candy for 5-cents.
As stated above, The Overton Theatre was bought by Loretta and John Posey, a husband and wife team that want the theatre open for the small town of 2400.
The Overton area was served by the small Redwood Drive-In which held 100 cars and was owned by Paul Horton. I couldn’t find out if he also owned the Overton Theatre.
Contributed by Tyler Morning Telegraph/Mike Rogers.
Iam old theatre dawg,Chuck 1231.
Thanks Chuck 1231.i am a rookie.
Maybe,they can take what i wrote and combine them since theyare the same theatre to help folks searching for the theatre.DAVIS THEATRE/OVERTON THEATRE. I guess that does happen often with theatres.
Thanks Chuck!
The Overton Theatre opened in 1938. The July 23 issue of Boxoffice said that the house sold out two shows. Among guests at the opening was W.B. King of King Scenic Company, the decorator of the theater.
The January 29, 1938, issue of Boxoffice ran an item about the origin’s of the Overton Theatre, which was to compete with the Jefferson Amusement company’s Strand Theatre:[quote]“Business men have raised money to finance a new and independent theatre there, according to information reaching Dallas during the week. The new house will be operated by T. W. (Ted) Lewis of Texarkana, where he now operates the Princess and a Negro house, the report said. Lewis is a died-in-the-wool independent.
The mayor of Overton is said to be head of a $25,000 stock company behind the new theatre building, construction on which is ready to start, the report said.“[/quote]A March 12 Boxoffice item said that Ted Lewis had reported that $40,000 was available for building and equipping the new theater he would operate at Overton. The July 2 issue of Boxoffice reported that the Overton Theatre was scheduled to open on July 8.
I’ve been trying to find out who designed this theater, but so far no luck.
This is being restored.
http://cinematreasures.org/news/22177_0_1_0_M/
I have to disagree, Joe. The Cinematour page says “Also known as Davis”.
Is there any evidence other than photo captions by Flickr users that this place ever operated under the name Davis Theatre? As the name Davis belongs to the furniture company now using the building it seems most likely that, when a theater, it was always called the Overton, and the furniture store’s owners just painted their name over the original name on the vertical sign when they took over the building.
Cinematour’s page for this theater has information about it provided by Overtonite (Overtonian?) Charles Creekmur, and he says nothing about the theatre ever having had any name other than Overton. The page also links to a 1967 playbill for the Overton Theatre, so it was still using that name at that time.
I liked the last one. I imagine the style should be changed to Art Deco.