Capital Plaza Cinema I, II, III
1101 Reinli Street,
Austin,
TX
78723
1101 Reinli Street,
Austin,
TX
78723
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.
Architects: William C. Riseman
Functions: Church
Previous Names: Capitl Plaza Theater
Nearby Theaters
Opened December 25, 1963 with Paul Newman in “The Prize”. It was split into three screens on December 12, 1980 and closed in 1989. After closing the building was a bar, sound stage and is now a church.
Contributed by
Sam R
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
When General Drive-In Corporation (which became General Cinema Corporation in 1964) began building indoor theaters in shopping centers throughout the country in the 1960s, the company hired architect William Reisman to design them. There were a handful of basic plans, and virtually all new General Cinema houses for more than a decade were variations on one or another of them.
This weblog post has renderings of six of the the GC houses Reisman designed. I don’t think the house at Capital Plaza is among them, but it might have resembled one of them.
Sad. I now live in that neighborhood an never knew it was a former movie theater.
I certainly wouldn’t have recognized this plain, boxy building as a former theater. This Facebook page has one of the renderings I linked to in my previous comment, which depicts one of the six prototype theaters that architect William Reisman designed for GCC in the 1960s.
The member who posted it says that this particular design looked most like the Capital Plaza, and one commenter downthread says “…that pretty much looks like it.” There are dozens of comments from people who attended the theater or worked at it, and I’ve found none who say that it didn’t look like the drawing, so I think we can assume that the Capital Plaza’s design was indeed based on that particular William Reisman prototype.
I worked there in the mid 70’s and that rendering on the facebook page looks very much like the building itself.
I remember this place well, even though I was very young at the time. It was a nice theater back in the 60s when my dad took us to see 2001: A Space Odyssey here. I also recall seeing some Disney films in re-release. I was disappointed when they chopped it into three narrow hallway-type theaters. They just ruined a great cinema when they did that.
This opened on Christmas day, 1963 with the largest screen in the Southwest. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
3 screens on December 12th, 1980. Another ad in the photo section.