Texas Theater

I was a soldier stationed at Ft. Hood in 1968 and 1969. I visited Ft.Hood/Killeen 30 years later in 1998 and the building which housed what I believe were the Ritz and the Texas Theaters at 314 E. Avenue D in downtown Killeen was still standing. All identifying signage was gone, but the façade of the two theaters, adjacent to one another, was instantly recognizable to me; the poster cases on the front of the building were still there and the same heavy, wooden, entrance doors were intact. To my amazement when I tried the door of what I believe was the Texas Theater, it swung open. Since the two theaters were next door to each other with nearly identical facades, it could have actually been the door of the Ritz. Inside, the lobby which hosted the refreshment stand was unrecognizable; all counters and vestiges had been removed. One of the distinctive architectural features of that theater was that when you passed from the lobby into the auditorium, you had to walk up a slightly inclined ramp, through a narrow door, and then down a ramp into the theater. It must have been designed that way to accommodate the raked seating area. That feature was still intact. Although it was clear that I was inside the auditorium, unfortunately beyond that point it was too dark to see much else or to venture any further.

During the years that I was at Ft. Hood, the Texas was a very distinctive old movie theater which along with the other three downtown Killeen theaters provided a comfortable, affordable, few hours of escape and entertainment for throngs of soldiers coping with the familiar, not uncommon, sense of loss of separation from family and friends and the stress of an uncertain future. The Texas, which followed the format of its sister theaters in Killen at the time, nearly always provided a double bill. Reading back over the journal I kept during those times, I find that I saw at the Texas the movies “The Flim-Flam Man ” on the night of Monday 12/2/1968, “Petulia” on Saturday 12/14/1968, and “Bedazzled” and “A Flea In Her Ear” on Saturday 2/21/1969.

Address is 320 E Avenue D. It was directly next door to the Ritz Theater. Today it is divided retail spaces using two addresses, 320 & 324, with a women’s clothing store in the 320 space as of 2018.