Electric Theater
424 East California Street,
Gainesville,
TX
76240
424 East California Street,
Gainesville,
TX
76240
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Electric Airdome
Nearby Theaters
The Electric Theater also known as the Electric Airdome was a short term project of movie entrepreneur Henry Bertram.
Contributed by
Billy Holcomb / Billy Smith / Don Lewis
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
What’s with Gainesville, TX and a host of oddly named short term theatres. Happy Hour, Electric and Favorite. How big was this community in 1907 that three theatres opened? That would be interesting.
An image of the Electric Theatre and the theatre’s former location in Gainesville here.
Hello rvb. Is your question about Gainesville a rhetorical one?
Don…
Rhetorical no. By definition that would mean that the answer would be implied in the question. Maybe the second question should be asked first. What were the circumstances in Gainesville in 1907 that warranted the openind of three theatres? Population statistics in later years indicate that this was never a large town. As for the three odd ball names, quien sabe?
Also, since you’ve found these images on flikr do you plan on providing a link for each one they have to this site and reciprocating with IDs for them that you’ve found here. How obsessive compulsive are you? I’ve actually looked at every Long Island theatre on the Classic Image site with the intention of linking any they have with this site. But my immediate focus is posting about eight theatres that I’m researching.
“Found” the images on flickr? You need to take a breath and another look at flickr. I am part of a group effort that posted the Gainesville photos to our vanishing movie theaters site. And we also researched and posted most of the Gainesville theaters on Cinema Treasures.
It occurs to me that you should concentrate on your New York research because you sure don’t know any Texas history, not to mention Gainesville.
Don…
I was planning on concentrating on that which I know, which is mostly Long Island plus some experience upstate New York, Toronto and Philadelphia. The only reason I even got involved with the Happy Hour, Electric and Favorite theatres is I was looking at what’s new and found the names unusual. My question still stands, what was the population of Gainesville in 1907 that it warrented so many theatres.
I do not wish to et involved, but there is not really a huge story behind these theaters at Gainesville.
The Majestic opened in 1905, and a couple months later the Favorite was opened.
In early 1907 the Happy Hour as opended, and within two months the Majestic & Favorite were closed.
A second Majjestic was opened, and gainesville had again only two theaters, which lasted 3 years.
In 1909 the second Majestic became the Lyric, and Happy Hour was closed leaving Gainesville with only one theater, but later that
year the Lyric was closed and Electric was opened, and Gainesville
again had only one theater.
In 1910 a 3rd Majestic was opened while the electric was closed and
Gainesville again had only the Majestic.
So see it was not all it looked to be, as Gainesville had around 15
thousand population.
Over the years Gainesville had a number of theaters.
At one time during the 40’s there was 6 theaters operating in the
town.
Don Lewis—Billy Smith—Billy Holcomb
Thanks for the info. You’ve really done your homework on this one.