Grand Theatre

dallasmovietheaters on December 9, 2022 at 4:14 pm

The Peoples Theatre launched in February of 1909 on Third Avenue. In 1914, it was re named for Mabel Bea Vert and was technically the Bea Vert Theatre. She retired from the operation and on September 5, 1914, it became the Wilro Theatre purportedly named after Zigomar Wilro. However, it’s also a fusion of the owners Catherin Williams and Mr. Rose or Willro which likely is how the name was conceptualized. The theater’s monikers of “Bea Vert” and “Wilro” are the only such entries carrying those nameplates in the Cinema Treasures database.

Brown and Greene took over the location months later renaming it as the more routine Grand Theatre beginning with the December 15, 1914 show. Four reels of motion pictures or fewer cost five cents and five or more reels cost ten cents. And you got to hear the Wurlitzer piano no matter how long the films were. The Grand departed following the September 4, 1915 showing of “The Three of Us.” It would become home to a fraternal organization, the Modern Woodmen.