Woodward Arts Theatre
818 Main Street,
Woodward,
OK
73801
818 Main Street,
Woodward,
OK
73801
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The Woodward Theatre opened its doors on November 8, 1929 with Buddy Rogers in “Illusion” along with the two-reel comedy “He Did His Best” and the one-reel comedy “Radio Rhythm”.
In response to Joe Vogel’s comments on 4 December 2010:
My name is Bailey Prior, and Leonard Henry Bailey is my great-grandfather. I can verify that he was the architect of the Woodward Arts Theatre.
LHB was born in London, England, 12 August 1880, came to Oklahoma City in 1903 and was the architect of many buildings within the state, including the Masonic Temple, which now houses the museum of the bomb memorial.
Here are a couple of photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25726169@N03/5836316810/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/25726169@N03/5836317190/in/photostream
I think that the article in Oklahoma Today, cited in a comment above by Cosmic Ray, got the architect’s middle initial wrong. Interent searches for an architect named Leonard S. Bailey provide no results that are not related to that magazine article and this theater.
However, the career of noted Oklahoma City architect Leonard H. Bailey is well documented, and provides many Internet search results. At least one theater, the Liberty in Oklahoma City, is attributed to him. Surely it must have been Leonard H. Bailey who was the architect of the Woodward Arts Theatre.
Roadside Oklahoma pages have sharp photos of the Woodward Theatre.
http://www.roadsideoklahoma.com/node/750
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yl668aj
NIce looking theatre.
Here is a 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ck8cwr
Architect Leonard S. Bailey designed the Woodward Theatre. OKLAHOMA TODAY MAGAZINE (Vol 32, Number 4, Fall 1982, pp 18, 19, 20) published a complete history of this movie house, listing original financier, owners, construction company, etc. There are also nice theatre photographs.
To read the entire article and see photos, click this site-
View link
Check out an antique postcard view of nearby Fort Supply Opera House. Go to Archives page, then enter words Fort Supply Opera House,
http://okhistory.cuadra.com/star/public.html
What’s happened in Woodward? Is the movie theatre closed? Recently, I noticed that the only movie theatre in Woodward is out of business. I think it’s called Lakeside or Lakeshore. I can’t believe a town the size of Woodward has no movie theatre. Is it for sale? I heard a rumor about tax problems. The reason I’m attaching this inquiry to the beautiful Woodward Arts Theatre’s site is that I can’t find a site for the dumpy little tri-plex that took its place. Surely, you people of Woodward would support a movie theatre. Even a little tri-plex is better than no theatre. You have to support your local community or the evil empire (Wally-World) will consume everything!
This is a beautiful theatre located in downtown Woodward. Too bad it doesn’t still show movies. They built a 3-plex next to what used to be their drive-in. The drivein’s long gone, and the 3-plex isn’t very interesting; however, the Woodward is grand! Thankfully, it’s been preserved.