Plaza Theatre

120 S. Houston Street,
Wharton, TX 77488

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sepiatone
sepiatone on January 10, 2019 at 9:24 pm

I found the opening day ad for the triplexed Plaza Theatre. The grand opening day was actually a year later – June 26, 1974. The three premier features were “American Graffiti” (Plaza I), “Sugar Hill” with Marki Bey (Plaza II), and “The Way We Were” with Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand (Plaza III).

hfisher
hfisher on May 29, 2015 at 8:48 pm

I saw the first Police Academy movie at this theatre when I was about 12 years old. This was in the summer of 1984 about a year before it closed.

Greg100
Greg100 on November 11, 2013 at 8:11 pm

I was the general manager of the Plaza theatre from summer of 1972 until June 1975. I also managed the Rio theatre at the same time. While manager, the Plaza underwent a major conversion from a single screen to a triple screen unit. At this time the theatre was owned and operated by Frels Theatres. Please see my post at the Rio site.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on April 7, 2012 at 11:03 pm

The architect’s correct name was Ernest L. Shult. The Plaza was listed as a 1941 project in a list of Shult’s theater designs published in the 1950 edition of Theatre Catalog.

The official web site for the Plaza Theatre has moved to this URL.

sepiatone
sepiatone on November 3, 2010 at 7:38 pm

The Plaza opened at 7:15 p.m. on March 19, 1942. The premier feature was “The Vanishing Virginian” with Frank Morgan and Kathryn Grayson. The Plaza was operated by Long Theatres, and Ernest Shultz of Rosenberg, Texas was the Plaza’s architect.

Silicon Sam
Silicon Sam on March 1, 2009 at 4:45 am

Historical Marker outside the Plaza Theater HERE

sepiatone
sepiatone on October 10, 2008 at 8:39 pm

The last movie to show at the Plaza before it closed was Horton Foote’s “1918”. That was in June 1985.

Exquisitely Bored in Nacogdoches
Exquisitely Bored in Nacogdoches on February 18, 2007 at 7:13 pm

Here are some pictures I took on 2/16/07, as the Lamplighters were putting on their final performance of hometown boy Horton Foote’s screenplay to “To Kill a Mockingbird”:

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