Thompson Theatre
W. Main Street and 5th Street,
Barnsdall,
OK
74002
W. Main Street and 5th Street,
Barnsdall,
OK
74002
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Runyon Theatre, Barnsdall Theatre, Roxy Theatre
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The Runyon Theatre was opened by E.A. Runyon in 1915 when it had 750 seats. It was closed in 1930 only to reopen and close again in 1932. It reopened and in 1939 it was renamed Barnsdall Theatre. It continued until fall of 1950 when it was briefly renamed Roxy Theatre. On May 4, 1953 it was damaged by fire. It was reopened on November 24, 1953. It was closed for remodeling on May 17, 1955. It reopened as the Thompson Theatre on July 1 1955. Closed in 1959, it reopened on July 5, 1961. It was still open in the 1970’s
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Cactus Jack
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
Perusing google maps, the Barnsdall Theatre is an attractive three story structure located on main & 5th. An extremely long auditorium runs along 5th St., but shows no evidence of having a balcony.
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The Barnsdall Theatre was renamed the Roxy Theatre in 1950, as reported in the September 2 issue of Boxoffice. The house had recently been purchased by the Tidwell brothers, who were renovating and redecorating inside and out.
This dying web page has a small section with a few paragraphs about the theater. It was originally opened as the Airdome Theatre, sometime early in the silent movie era. It closed in the 1950s, but was briefly reopened in the 1990s. The page used to have two photos of the theater, but all the links are broken and they no longer display.
Joe Vogel, are you saying this theatre should be listed as the Roxy Theatre since that was the last operating name, with Bamsdall Theatre and Runyon Theatre as AKA’s?
Listing a theater under its final name is standard at Cinema Treasures, unless the house only operated for a short time under the later name. If this theater’s run as the Roxy was brief, then more people are apt to remember it as the Barnsdall, but if it operated as the Roxy for at least a few years then the listing name should probably be changed. I haven’t checked the FDY’s to see how long after 1950 it was open.
Evidently the Name Roxy was short lived, by 1951 it is listed as the Barnsdall Theatre with 600 seats. So Roxy should be an AKA. The Theatre was located at the corner of W. Main at 5th Street.
This cinema was still the Barnsdall in 1958, when Universal played the David Niven, My Man Godfrey there.
This is likely two different theatres. C.A. Runyon launched the Runyon Theatre in 1915. During the Depression, the theatre closed twice reopening in 1930 and 1932. Runyon retired at the end of May 1939 with a show consisting of movies and live acts until midnight on his final night. Walter J. Logan took over the venue in 1939 renaming it the Barnsdall Theatre.
After ten years of operation, Logan departed and new operators used the name of the Roxy Theatre in the Fall of 1950. The reason that the Roxy had a short run is that it was leveled by a May 4, 1953 fire. That likely ends this theater’s run.
It appears to have been replaced by the Thompson Theatre which was active from 1954/5 to early in 1961 closing and reopening by Gene Thompson and Bill Petty months later in 1961. The theatre was still active late in 1969 as the Thompson Theatre.
Actually, the Roxy did not end its run with the 1953 fire.
After the fire, part owner and manager Roy D. Tidwell announced four days later that he would rebuild the theater and will start work as soon as settlement is made with insurance companies. The then-650-seat Roxy in the early morning hours of May 3, 1953 was preparing to show its first out of a three-day run of “Everything I Have Is Yours” plus an unnamed comedy and newsreel when the fire was discovered around 3:00 AM that morning, causing an estimate $100,000 in damage. Former Roxy owners Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Edwards also traveled all the way to Barnsdall from their home in Puento, California, to clean up the damage.
When Cleveland, Oklahoma resident John C. Sanders leased the theater building during construction, Sanders and manager Ed Burlson (also from Cleveland) reopened the Roxy Theatre’s doors on November 24, 1953 with Bing Crosby in “Little Boy Lost” (unknown if extras added). It had 450 seats in total which was 200 seats less than the older 650-seat Roxy, and features a unique spun glass hung ceiling as well as green plastered walls. Sanders also knew about the popularity of 3D and widescreen formats at the time, and the theater ran its first 3D feature the following week. CinemaScope was installed there in March 1955.
It ran seven-days-a-week, but in May 1955 only, the Roxy ran only four days a week (except Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays), until closing with John Payne in “Silver Lode” along with an unnamed Donald Duck cartoon on May 17, 1955 due to extensive remodeling, major renovation, and the theater being purchased by ex-Barnsdall and then-Bismarck, North Dakota resident Gene E. Thompson from Tulsa resident D. McGlumphy, who purchased the theater also during 1953 reconstruction. McGlumphy also helped rebuild the theater and leased it over to Sanders. Sanders only operated the Roxy for a few months before Joel Johnson took the Roxy in 1954. Thompson on June 16, 1955 traveled to Oklahoma City to sign contracts and also to make arrangement for a theatrical engineer to Barnsdall and equip the theater for showing features.
The Roxy Theatre was renamed the Thompson Theatre and reopened its doors on July 1, 1955 with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in “3 Ring Circus” along with an unnamed comedy, unnamed cartoon, and a newsreel. The Thompson Theatre did had a full-year closure from late-1959 until reopening on July 5, 1961 with Elvis in “The Flaming Star” following Thompson’s retirement from the Air Force in North Dakota and him returning to his home in Barnsdall. It was still open in the early-1970s.