Continental Theatre

7650 E. Skelly Drive,
Tulsa, OK 74129

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Tulsa’s Continental Theatre was sister house to the Continental in Oklahoma City. Both houses specialized in reserved seat, road show engagements.

This house opened March 16, 1966 with Charlton Heston in “The Agony and the Ecstasy”. It was decorated in a black/white/chrome International flair. The continental style, 1,000 seat auditorium contained overstuffed rocking chair theatre seats, a curved, mammoth sized screen, and lush drapery.

Barton Theatres sunk a great sum of money into building both Continental Theatres. Unfortunately, it was at this same time that twin cinemas were coming into vogue, and road show attractions were falling out of favor with the movie-going public. Thus, neither cinema ever attained financial success. It was closed March 15, 1981 with Neil Diamond in “The Jazz Singer”.

After sitting vacant, the Tulsa Continental Theatre was razed in 1981.

Contributed by Ben Miller

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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)

jackh62 on September 23, 2012 at 12:30 pm

This was a great theatre. I worked at the Continental from Nov 1978 through Jan 1980. If I remember correctly, the seat count was just over 900. We had a good winter (‘78) and summer ('79) with The Jerk and Moonraker, respectively.

BillyOK on January 16, 2014 at 4:38 pm

Isn’t this were STAR WARS debuted in the Summer of 1977?
I believe I went to a Midnight showing there.
We moved away from T-Town in 1986.

Coate on January 16, 2014 at 4:47 pm

First-run STAR WARS in Tulsa was at Southroads Mall.

kennyjrz on September 14, 2014 at 5:38 am

I remember going to the last showing of the last movie that played here, when I was a sophomore in high school. It was “The Jazz Singer”, with Neal Diamond.

davegkuhn on December 17, 2015 at 2:08 pm

I saw Starwars opening night May 1977 at Southroads mall…it blew everyone inside away!

OKCdoorman on November 15, 2016 at 7:18 pm

Man, when they closed a theatre in this town, they covered it—on page 1! (“Tulsa’s Continental Theater Has Its Last Picture Show/Site Yielding to Office Complex,” Monday, March 16, 1981, Tulsa World).

Opened on the day of the second “Watts Riots,” Wednesday, March 16, 1966, with a five month-old movie, Carol Reed’s film of Irving Stone’s book, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY in an invitation only premiere for the Tulsa Psychiatric Foundation (public seats the next day.)

Closed for good practically on its 15th birthday (kennyjrz memory is correct) with TV producer Jerry Leider’s troubled feature remake of THE JAZZ SINGER, on Sunday, March 15, 1981. Manager Van Lee Lowe was already contending with reduced staff (“Another girl quit Thursday.”) when the curtain finally went down (“This is a shame…”).