Franklin Theater

Originally the Grand Opera House, it was owned and managed by Oscar Korns. The opera house was remodeled into a theater in 1910. In 1927, when the theater was renamed the Franklin Theater, Gilda Gray’s Cabaret played here. About 1932, the theater became a “talkie”.

According to “Bay City and Matagorda County: A History” by Junann J. Stieghorst (1965), in the early-1920’s, Mrs. Grady Kiser Chapman played piano during the movies on weekday afternoons and Saturdays. A banjoist named Glenn Ellis would join her occasionally. Chapman would “become so engrossed” in the movie that she would play progressively faster and louder until L.E. Miller, manager, would tap her on the shoulder to bring her back to reality.

Clara Bow, the one-time “It Girl”, was called “The Flame” because of her red hair, and Miller would admit all red-haired people for free when one of her movies was showing.

The Franklin Theater was operated by Long Theaters by 1943 and they were still the operators in 1950.

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