Ector Theatre

500 N. Texas Avenue,
Odessa, TX 79761

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rivest266
rivest266 on June 21, 2017 at 7:23 pm

Reopening ?: http://www.oaoa.com/news/government/city_of_odessa/article_1079a1de-1f25-11e7-9b23-ef78af1d73e7.html?mode=image&photo=0

rivest266
rivest266 on June 21, 2017 at 7:22 pm

another article below:

Found on Newspapers.com

rivest266
rivest266 on June 21, 2017 at 7:21 pm

full-page grand opening ad from July 31st, 1951 uploaded in the photo section and below:

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on October 4, 2016 at 12:33 pm

The Ector closed in June 2016. The story was in first posted in CT’s own Breaking News section. Here is an updated version.

http://www.azfamily.com/story/32308201/ector-county-theater-last-showing-tonight

Don Lewis
Don Lewis on January 21, 2012 at 10:43 am

A 1987 photo of the Ector Theatre in Odessa.

millsbranch
millsbranch on April 7, 2011 at 3:50 pm

Chuck—Hodge—Not Hall operated the Ector 1951-1985, it was opened
August 1, 1951 with Half Angel starring Joseph Cotton & Loretta Young
H. J. Hodge still resides at Odessa, and came to the city with the
opening of the new Ector in 1951
Billy Holcomnb

Don Lewis
Don Lewis on February 28, 2009 at 7:15 pm

An image of a rare piece of Odessa theater history. These booklets were handed out to commemorate the Ector Theatre’s grand opening in 1951.

Don Lewis
Don Lewis on April 22, 2008 at 4:27 pm

A 1987 view of the Ector Theater in Odessa.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on September 11, 2007 at 8:11 pm

The 1967 FDY lists the Ector as part of H&H Theaters. The manager was H.J. Hodge, Jr. Other Odessa theaters in the chain at the time were the Broncho Drive-In and the Lyric Theater.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on February 2, 2007 at 9:27 am

Pity the poor cashier in this 1972 story. She survives the hurricane in the morning and then gets robbed at night:

Police arrested a 26-year-old Odessa man Monday night minutes after a gunman made off with $326 in a brazen armed robbery of a busy Downtown Odessa movie theater. James Albert Posteal, 324 South Lindy, remained in the city jail Tuesday in lieu of $25,000 bond set by Municipal Judge Cecil Hardwick. He is named in an armed
robbery complaint filed with Justice of the Peace Otis Moore. Officers nabbed Posteal as he sat nervously in the balcony of the Scott Theater, 700 North Texas, just moments after an armed bandit forced the ticket-seller to hand over $326 at the Ector Theater just two blocks north at 500 North Texas.

Officers said witness to the stickup saw the bandit run to the south of the Ector Theater into the alley behind the 600 block of North Texas following the holdup at 9:10 p.m. Monday. The witness said she saw the man strip off a white shirt and a hat and fling them in the alley as he ran. She told officers the man then walked calmly to the Scott Theater, purchased a ticket and went in.

According to the robbery victim, Rose Bogard, 1939 North Tom Green, the bandit walked up to the box office of the Ector and shoved a bread wrapper through the small hole in the window and told her to fill it up with money. “I got nervous and dropped the bread wrapper on the floor,” she said. “I bent down to pick it up and when I got back up, he had a pistol pointed at me. He told me again to fill it up, and threatened to kill me.” “I got all the money from the register and put it in the bag. It was hard to get the cash into the bread wrapper,” the attendant said.

The gunman then ordered the woman to get down on the floor of the cramped box office. “He kept telling me to get down further, but I told him I was down as far as I could go. He told me to stay down and took off.‘’ She said she was on the floor a few seconds and then raised up and the man was gone. She said the man had a nickel-plated pistol.

Officer Ben Miller, a beat patrolman with the police department, was standing inside
the theater lobby talking to the manager, T. A. Collins, 1701 Rosewood, when the bandit
struck. Miller apparently saw the thief run from the box office and began pursuing him on foot. The ticket-seller said she then called the emergency police number and several patrol cars responded within moments. After talking with Miller and the witness, officers went into the Scott Theater where they arrested the suspect in the balcony. Officers said the man offered no resistance. The cash and a pistol were recovered, police said, along with the discarded shirt and hat from the alley.

Rose Bogard has been the attendant at the theater’s box office off and on for 10 years, she
said. During the days she is the complaint clerk for the Municipal Court of the City of
Odessa. She has been a city employee for the past 12 years, beginning as a meter maid, a position she held about a year and a half. “My day just started off bad altogether,"she said. “When I was going to work at about 6 p.m., I saw that tornado up in the air south of town.” “You never know how you’ll react until it happens…I thought I’d stay calm and remember important details about how the robber looked so I could give a description of him…but all I could think of or see was that big pistol pointed at me,” she said.