Lobo Theater
3013 Central Avenue NE,
Albuquerque,
NM
87106
3013 Central Avenue NE,
Albuquerque,
NM
87106
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By 1964, the Lobo Theatre was being operated by Frontier Theatres, as noted in the August 24 issue of Boxoffice.
Undated photo added courtesy of Anthony Gomez. Looks like the city didn’t care about the placement of their streetlamp.
1938 photo added too, courtesy of Dom Otero.
Grand opening ad in the photo section.
Ms. Blanche Hatton, as the family story goes, was the manager of the Lobo. For about four decades. (She was in the theater business when Roentgen discovered x-rays (that’s a joke), and didn’t retire until she was well into her nineties.)
Anyway, back to the story. Miss Hatton was closing the Lobo late one night(she was alone in the theater) when, with the “petty cash box” in hand, she was met with an armed intruder in the Lobo lobby.
“Give me the cash!” the robber demanded.
“You want the cash?” Miss Hatton asked. “Here,” she said, “take it!”
Miss Hatton hurled the cash box at the intruder. The weight of the contents of the box was sufficient to knock the pathetic, hapless robber unconscious. When the cops arrived, the bad guy was arrested, and Miss Hatton deposited the receipts early the next morning. By the way, she was close to eighty years old when she took out the punk who was 60 years her junior.
Here’s to Miss Blanche Hatton!
A Photo I took of the LOBO Theatre back in Nov of 2008 .. Randy A Carlisle – Historical Photographer
Nice pictures guys thanks.
The Lobo getting ready for the Oscars in 1995:
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I find it appropriate that the Lobo should become a church, for it is where I attended a dozen showings of “Gigi,” which I certainly worship.
A 1974 view of the Lobo Theater in Albuquerque.
I know the people operating it when i was last there in ‘96 worked very hard to keep it running. I always thought it was the pride of Nob Hill. It’s a shame if the area can’t support it any more.
The Lobo was the last of the great Albuquerque theaters. Catering to UNM students and die-hard “Rocky Horror” fans, it was the last theater in the city that still featured an accessible balcony (The Highland Theater, in operation at the same time, still had a balcony, but it was in poor repair and patrons were not allowed to access it). The last film I saw there was Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. That was several years before it closed. They used to have a great Oscar telecast there. Sadly, this great lady has become a church.
Hello!
My name is Ryan Makkonen and I am the head of the New Mexico Film Club based out of UNM. I spoke with a local filmmaker named Billy and he told me that the Lobo Theatre available to be rented on certain nights. The reason we are contacting you is we were wondering if it would be possible to rent the Lobo Theatre on Sunday nights around midnight so that the club can take submissions so that we can show films from all over New Mexico so that all filmmakers in NM can have their films seen. Could you please contact us at Thank you so much for your free time and have a wonderful day! God Bless!
Sincerely,
Ryan Makkonen
Film Club Founder
Abq. Film Club Coordinator
Makk One Productions Founder
http://www.myspace.com/nmfilmmakers
The function should be church as that is the current occupant.
Here’s a picture of the theatre that I took in 1998.
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So sad to hear that it has closed. I saw a midnight of “Quadrophenia” there in 1998, the same lineup was playing as is shown in this picture, so I assume it was the same time. Here’s hoping someone can breathe life back into this great venue.