Ford Theatre

Joe Vogel on May 6, 2022 at 8:44 pm

There appears to have been two houses called the Ford Theatre in Rankin, opened four years apart. The December 20, 1952 issue of Boxoffice listed the 580-seat Ford Theatre as one of the many new movie houses opened in the United States that year. But then there is this item from the February 27, 1948 issue of The Rankin News:

“New Theatre Opens On Friday Night To Packed Audience

“The new ‘Ford’ Theatre held its grand opening here last Friday night, playing to a packed house. The theatre has had good attendance every show since. H. Ford Taylor, of Ballinger, who owns the theatre, announced that he will build a second show house across the street when it is needed. He says he has purchased two lots across the street from the new one for that purpose. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were here several days prior and after the opening of the show.”

The May 14, 1952 issue of The Exhibitor confirms the opening of the Ford Theatre early that month. I’ve been unable to discover what then became of the 1948 Ford Theatre, but it probably closed. In the 1940s and 1950s, Rankin was an oil patch boomtown, but its population now is probably less than half its peak. Not much remains of the business district along Main Street, which is most likely where the theaters were located.

The first Ford was not Rankin’s first movie theater. The July 13, 1929 issue of Motion Picture News mentioned a house called the Palace Theatre.