Colón Theater
507 S. El Paso Street,
El Paso,
TX
79901
507 S. El Paso Street,
El Paso,
TX
79901
7 people
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The papers of architect Otto H. Thorman show that he designed alterations for the Colon Theatre in 1943. The original architect of the 1919 theater was Percy W. McGhee.
Teatro Colon appears to have gone out of business after over 60 years of operation on December 31, 1980 although could have continued past that date. Eduardo Diaz, Sr. served as its main projectionist there for over 40 years. It also housed a district office of Azteca Films Distributing which sent Spanish language films to theaters in the Southwest. Much as happened with the Hollywood studios, Azteca was sued when a competing theater in another city said the Azteca run theatre controlled 90% of its own bookings which they felt was an antitrust violation.
This opened on November 27th, 1919. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
A Photo of the Colon Theatre I took in Jan 2012..
Randy A Carlisle – Historical Photographer
Is that the crest hanging above what was the screen in the 1/24/09 shot I posted earlier?
I am a Colon… It was really awesome for me and my family to get a tour of this theater. The family crest hangs in the theater today. I’m glad I got to share this experience with my mother, to remember when she and my father, Joseph Blas Colon used to go on dates during their youth in El Paso. My father is now deceased but I have many memories and proud to be a Colon. By the way… The accent mark is supposed to go over the second “o.”. (iPad does not have special characters so I can’t type it here.)
El Colon is described in detail in Cynthia Farah Haines “Showtime! From Opera Houses to Picture Palaces in El Paso” (Texas Western Press 2006).
tisloews……..You’re absolutely right, a whole lot better!!
Thanks Larry, COLOGNE does smell better.
Please note spelling of theatre, in neon, above marquee. There is an ACCENT mark between the L & O. It would be pronounced the same as COLOGNE.
This theatre has nothing to do with the human bowel system.
Nice shots of the COLON THEATRE no pun intended.
Here is an October 1972 ad from the El Paso Herald-Post:
http://tinyurl.com/osqyzv
The above photos are a sad commentary to what was a pretty decent movie theatre. Very haunting, in a sense.
Closer view…
View link
Here’s a shot of the interior taken Jan 2009. At least they didn’t gut out the interior…. The portholes for the projector are still on the back wall. Taken from the balcony.
View link
Colon is the Spanish name for Columbus, the explorer. As indicated above, it is pronounced with the accent/emphasis on the second ‘o’ syllable.
Cristobal Colon is Christopher Columbus. There is also an accent in the first name – over the “o” so that’s where the emphasis is.
This theater was open as a movie house in 1976. It was a store when I last saw it in 1995.
I appreciate someone taking the time to explain the true pronunciation. Since I am of the Colon heritage, I am use to people not pronouncing my name properly. We take pride in our last names and our family ties, that anyone would want it pronounced as it should be. So thank you!
I agree. It’s high time we cleansed this page of all the colon jokes.
OK guys!!! The colon comments were, I have to admit, very funny.However, did it occur to anyone that there is an ACCENT mark between the L and O to change the pronunciation. The theatre name would be pronounced the same as COLOGNE.
Was that from a colonoscopy?
Wow, it’s hard to believe the street in that area is completely clear of both cars and pedestrians. I passed by there this past Saturday and it’s always swamped. To be fair, it is very close to a major border crossing.
Here are two undated photos from the Library of Congress:
http://tinyurl.com/2ke53f
http://tinyurl.com/34erhq
The Colon was recently twinned – it’s now the Semi-Colon.
If I had owned this theater back in its heyday… Dunno. Would really have rethought long, hard and diligently for a name change. “Colon” may very stand for “Columbus,” but it’s way too easy a cheapshot target, as we have seen above.
“Colony?” “Cologne?” “Color?” (as in “De Colores” and in keeping with the Tex-Mex flavor of the city?) Too late for it now, but it was a thought… :(
This theatre is in the opening credits for “The Orginal Latin Kings Of Comey” it goes by quick but if you stop the DVD you will see that it is the Colon. Thank You for you time :)