Princess Theater

507 Main Street,
Memphis, TX 79245

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dorstar
dorstar on June 18, 2022 at 5:08 pm

Samuel “Sam” D. Harle, a local druggist in Memphis, owned the Princess Theater by 1914 according to the local newspaper, The Memphis Democrat and the Hall County Deed records. In September 1914, the movies shown in the theater on Saturday was a special feature film “The American and the Mexico War” under the management of Bert London. Tickets were 5c and 10c, the same old price.

The other movie house in Memphis in 1914 was The Dixie. - Memphis Democrat, 30 September 1914.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on August 30, 2018 at 9:13 pm

The August 21, 1919 issue of The Memphis Democrat (PDF here) has ads for both the Princess and a house called the Majestic Theatre (actually there are two ads for the Princess, and both theaters are mentioned several times in the text on the page.)

The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two houses at Memphis, Texas: the Princess and the Opera House. I’m thinking it’s possible that the Opera House became the Majestic. Later either the Majestic or the Princess might have become a house called the Palace, and the other might have become the Gem

Issues of Exhibitors' Herald from early 1926 have capsule movie reviews from two Memphis exhibitors, W. H. Hall of the Gem Theatre and Mrs. Edgar Adams, of the Palace theatre. The Gem is also mentioned in the October 17, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News.

The 1926 FDY lists only the 500-seat Palace at Memphis, but the 1927 edition lists both the Palace and the 450-seat Gem. Those two continue to be listed through 1931. In 1932 the 450-seat Gem is gone and the 450-seat Ritz appears. The Palace and the Ritz both continue in the FDY listings through 1957, the last year the FDY listed all the theaters in the U.S. by town.

The Texas Theatre first appeared in the 1934 FDY, and was last listed in 1954. There is a possibility that the house on Main Street that we have listed as the Texas as actually the location of the Palace, but I’ve commented about that on the Texas Theatre page.