Capri Theater
743 S. 75th Street,
Houston,
TX
77023
743 S. 75th Street,
Houston,
TX
77023
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The Al Ray Theatre Circuit took on the Avalon rebranding it as the Fiesta Theatre on January 14, 1962 with Pedro Armendariz in “La Carcel de Cananea” and Silvia Paňal in “Pecado Mortal.” That seems to have ended in 1964.
It rebranded as the Capri Art Cinema on July 7, 1965 with “At Lil’s Place,” “Nudist Memories,” and “Soho Strip.” The venue appears to have closed as the Capri Theatre on July 29, 1979 at end of lease with the last known bookings being Christina Lindberg in “Anita: Swedish Nymphet” and Bree Anthony in “Satan Was a Lady.”
The former adult venue became home to the United With Christ Cathedral, a house of worship in February of 1988 likely to reduce taxing liability on the property. The name of this venue should be the Capri Theatre. The building was torn down further reducing its taxing liability.
I visited my friend, Rick Uhlhorn, the manager at the Avalon/Capri when it ran adult fare. I’d go in and watch the film as long as I could stand it. They were mind numbinly awful. I could feel brain cells dying by the minute.
For a while, the Avalon showed real art films. Foreign titles etc. They ran a film of the Bolshoi ballet company. Someone called up and asked if it was a live stage show with the Bolshoi. No, they replied, it was a film. They figured that if they booked the real Bolshoi, tickets would be $750 a seat.
They did have live stage plays briefly. Hal March, of the tv show $64,000 Question was the star of one production. I’m sure it did not make money.
Al Zarzana owned the Avalon in the 70’s when it was adult fare. Rick Uhlhorn was the manager. They tried haveing live striippers in there for a while.
I remember this being an adult movie theater in the 70s. It sat/sits across the street from the Weingarten shopping center on Lawndale
The name was changed to the Capri as early as 1967, according to the item in Boxoffice of January 30 that year. I haven’t found the opening year, but this Avalon was mentioned in Boxoffice of October 2, 1948, as one of several houses that had recently installed Altec Lansing sound equipment. That might be an indication that it was then under construction.