Seaside Theatre

The Seaside Electric Theatre was Corpus Christi’s second movie theatre and the building housing it would be swept away by a hurricane just about ten years later. But to tourists and residents, alike, it was one of the earliest places to watch a film in town opening in the late-Fall of 1908. The $50,000 Seaside Theatre was built to the plans of San Antonio based architect R.L. Pierce.

Corpus Christi had its share of nickelodeons by the end of first decade of the 20th Century including its very first in Bowden & Fowler’s Crystal Electric Theatre housed in an existing retail building. But the first films many local residents saw were exhibited at the Pavilion by the year-old Seaside Hotel just feet away from the Gulf of Mexico in 1904. These early films included the playing of “The Great Train Robbery” on New Year’s Eve in 1904 and “Tracked by Bloodhounds". So popular were films to residents and tourists that a permanent movie theatre was established less than five years later and was called in its opening years as the Seaside Electric Theatre.

The origins of the theatre are found in its neighboring hotel. Austin R.A. Brice’s Seaside Hotel in Corpus Christi had opened late in 1903. That venue wasn’t at the scope that city officials had wanted and Brice used an existing structure limited the hotel’s size. When purchased in 1905, the hotel got a major refresh launching January 1, 1906 by W.A. Fitch and J.J. Copley. After Fitch and Copley sold the venue in 1907 to oilman Jack W. Ennis of Batson, Texas, it was Ennis who brought the city its tourist destination area following the 1907 tourist season.

Ennis re-imagined the entire area complete with an enhanced pavilion with tourist attractions and a major addition to the hotel given it the number of rooms with Gulf views that the city desired. Ennis also announced a new, year-round electric theatre project in January of 1908. The Seaside Electric Theatre launched with an inclined floor, fixed seating, a box office and a projection booth. In the Taylor Street sidewalk were helpful embedded letters spelling out Seaside Theatre. Though it missed its intended opening date for tourist season of 1908, it had joined the Crystal Theatre as the first two movie theatres in Corpus Christi. The Seaside Electric Theatre had the distinction of being the first, new-build venue in town to play motion pictures. Additionally, the Seaside sported a stage for live vaudeville and other events, as well.

C.L. Saxton & Fred Bouvier took on the Seaside Theatre following the 1911 tourist season, giving the venue a refresh that brought in improved fire egresses and better sightlines to the auditorium. They would also remove vaudeville from the Seaside Theatre’s program mix from the beginning of 1912. Additionally, within three years Fred Bouvier would create Lloyds Pleasure Pier about 100-yards away, dubbed “The Coney Island of the Gulf” in its five seasons of operation. The Seaside Theater had dropped “electric” early on and last advertised late in 1915. The trade press reported that E.M. Hill sold off the equipment from the Seaside to the Rex Theatre including his two 6B Powers projectors in 1916 apparently ending the operation. Given the timing, it’s possible that the Seaside Theatre had suffered flood damage from the 1916 tropical storm that season. But the fate of the building housing the former Seaside Theatre is infamous and not in doubt.

On September 14, 1919, a hurricane hit the area and, though the building apparently survived the impact of the storm, a devastating surge of water hit the area. Unfortunately, people by the Gulf didn’t foresee the surge after the storm and many didn’t take refuge quickly enough as the Seaside Hotel, Pavilion, former Seaside Theatre, and every other commercial building around it was completely washed away. Though the official confirmed death count was listed at 284, it was considered an underestimate.

The Seaside (Electric) Theatre was obviously forgotten as much improved movie houses were found a block or two away inland on Chaparral Street in the city’s central business district. Yet, more than fifty years after the devastating hurricane and following many changes to the waterfront area of Corpus Christi, the ghost lettering spelling out “Seaside Theatre” still remained intact in the sidewalk making the exact location of the theatre on Taylor Street at N. Water Street easy to spot.

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