Stevens Theater

Scheduled to be built in 1941/2, the theatre was delayed in part by WW2. The $100,000 Oak Cliff theater became Robb and Rowley (R&R) Circuit’s first post-war theater. Originally scheduled to be nestled in a triangular tract just off of Stevens Park at Colorado and Hampton, the delayed project moved just to the north to 2007 Fort Worth Avenue. Corgan and Moore as the architects. It opened January 24, 1946 with Shirley Temple’s “Kiss and Tell.” R&R was ambitious positioning the Stevens as the first run house and moving its Texas to second-run status. That move proved to be unsuccessful.

The Stevens was demoted from first run to second run then dropping matinees as the theater struggled to find its audience. R&R closed the theater January 18, 1958 following a double feature of Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Land Unknown just a week shy of its 12th anniversary. Second life for the theater occurred that summer when two teenagers — Gary Gilliand and Don Shaw Jr. — reopened the theater July of 1958 for a short period. Another life came for the theater with a new manager in 1960. The Stevens closed yet again but found its niche when it reopened in 1961 by Manuel Avila who successfully rebranded it as a Hispanic theater with both film and occasional live Latin variety shows.

During the film licensing era, the Stevens ran into some problems in the early 1960s with the Dallas Movie Classification Board for running many films without submitting them for classification. The board got a Spanish speaking member aboard to help move the process along. When the Teatro Panamericano changed its name and tried to go upscale catering to a new audience, the Stevens surged in Dallas with Hispanic audiences. Avila continued to bring Hispanic films to the area for more than two decades including both subtitled American films such as Vaselina (Grease) and a heavy slate of imported films as the theater continued into the 1980s.

Avila was honored with a group of Mexican American business owners in 1985 by the Mexican America Legal Defense and Educational Fund for his contributions to the city of Dallas for then nearly 25 years of operation. And he sponsored a Stevens Theater baseball team. The theater finally closed after more than four decades and has since been demolished.

The Stevens was owned and managed by Manuel Avila when I worked there in 1973-74. The booth was rather large compared to most booths and had three projectors (Simplex as I remember); this may have been the only theatre in Dallas that had three projectors although I’m not sure about earlier theatres. Next to the booth was an observation room/cry room which we had to go through to enter the booth. When this was built, it was one of the larger neighborhood theatres.

Many thanks to kencmcintyre for the photo links! It appears that the Stevens' box office was the one moved to the Texas Theatre for the ‘JFK’. If anyone knows any more about this, we’d love to hear it!

My father, Al Temple, managed the Stevens from 1947-1950. We lived in the old Texan Courts a couple of blocks behind the theater. I spent a lot of time at the movies!

Saw the first movie I ever remember seeing at the Stevens when my Father managed that theater. I was 5 years old, happened in 1949, and film was The Third Man. What I remember most about it is the Anton Karas zither music and the dark chase scene in which Harry Lime (Orson Welles) was killed.