Continental Theatre
7650 E. Skelly Drive,
Tulsa,
OK
74129
7650 E. Skelly Drive,
Tulsa,
OK
74129
3 people
favorited this theater
Tulsa’s Continental Theatre was sister house to the Continental in Oklahoma City. Both houses specialized in reserved seat, road show engagements.
This house opened March 16, 1966 with Charlton Heston in “The Agony and the Ecstasy”. It was decorated in a black/white/chrome International flair. The continental style, 1,000 seat auditorium contained overstuffed rocking chair theatre seats, a curved, mammoth sized screen, and lush drapery.
Barton Theatres sunk a great sum of money into building both Continental Theatres. Unfortunately, it was at this same time that twin cinemas were coming into vogue, and road show attractions were falling out of favor with the movie-going public. Thus, neither cinema ever attained financial success. It was closed March 15, 1981 with Neil Diamond in “The Jazz Singer”.
After sitting vacant, the Tulsa Continental Theatre was razed in 1981.
Contributed by
Ben Miller
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
This was a great theatre. I worked at the Continental from Nov 1978 through Jan 1980. If I remember correctly, the seat count was just over 900. We had a good winter (‘78) and summer ('79) with The Jerk and Moonraker, respectively.
Isn’t this were STAR WARS debuted in the Summer of 1977?
I believe I went to a Midnight showing there.
We moved away from T-Town in 1986.
First-run STAR WARS in Tulsa was at Southroads Mall.
I remember going to the last showing of the last movie that played here, when I was a sophomore in high school. It was “The Jazz Singer”, with Neal Diamond.
I saw Starwars opening night May 1977 at Southroads mall…it blew everyone inside away!
Man, when they closed a theatre in this town, they covered it—on page 1! (“Tulsa’s Continental Theater Has Its Last Picture Show/Site Yielding to Office Complex,” Monday, March 16, 1981, Tulsa World).
Opened on the day of the second “Watts Riots,” Wednesday, March 16, 1966, with a five month-old movie, Carol Reed’s film of Irving Stone’s book, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY in an invitation only premiere for the Tulsa Psychiatric Foundation (public seats the next day.)
Closed for good practically on its 15th birthday (kennyjrz memory is correct) with TV producer Jerry Leider’s troubled feature remake of THE JAZZ SINGER, on Sunday, March 15, 1981. Manager Van Lee Lowe was already contending with reduced staff (“Another girl quit Thursday.”) when the curtain finally went down (“This is a shame…”).
A 3/21/1966 issue if Boxoffice referenced that this theatre actually opened 10/21/1965.
Scott Neff… That 10/21/1965 date was for the opening of the Continental in Oklahoma City.
davegkuhn… The Southroads Mall opening of “Star Wars” was June 24th, 1977 (not in May).
Grand opening ad:
Continental Theatre opening 13 Mar 1966, Sun Tulsa World (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Newspapers.com
closed March 15th, 1981.