February 6, 1947 grand opening ad for the Dixie Theatre in photos. It was located at 645 St. Charles Street at the corner of 7th Street and had been demolished late in the 20th Century.
The Fox closed at the end of its 30-year leasing agreement on August 29, 1964 with “The Shepherd on the Hills.” John A. Cenac refreshed the venue deciding to give it one more chance beginning on July 30, 1965 with Elvis Presley in “Tickle Me.” It appears to have closed September 22, 1966 with “How to Steal on a Million.” It was remodeled for retail purposes.
The Auburn Drive-In was another of J.E. Isaac, Sr.’s area properties for Cumberland Amusement Circuit. It opened June 4, 1952. It stopped advertising following “Ben Hur” on July 30, 1961.
I think the Starlight / Marian Theatre information is conflated with that of the Auburn Starlight / Marian. This venue opened as Isaac’s New Novo Theatre. Its address - 401 West Main Street. It opened December 23, 1937 with “Heidi”. In 1971, it was sold and at year’s end, it just became the Novo Theatre.
Lynch, Kentucky was established by the U.S. Coal and Coke Company - a subsidiary of US Steel in 1917. Lynch Theatre #2 was built by US Steel and launched on March 19, 1937 with “The Great O'Malley.” Representatives from U.S. Coal and Coke and US Steel made opening remarks and presented a $50 check to Harry Moses for freeing a trapped coal mine worker from a live trolley wire.
Operator Sam Isaac installed widescreen projection to present CinemaScope titles on March 11, 1956 with “The McConnell Story.” But that was short-lived as the venue closed as Isaac’s Lynch Theatre on August 3, 1956 with “Paths of Glory” and “Harlem Globetrotters.”
Lynch Theatre #1 was ostensibly the sound-era name for its originally-titled Victory Theatre. It was established by the same folks as part of the Lynch Amusement Hall. The Lynch’s sound era with Western Electric Sound on film was on October 12, 1930. That transition was also short-lived. Lynch Theatre #1 blew up in a nitrate film explosion in its projection booth during its final showtimes of January 15, 1931. The barber shop, pool room and dance hall were obliterated as well. Dynamite was used from the coal mines to prevent further fire spreading.
The new suburban, standalone Sears store had opened here on October 12, 1966. But a plan had been drawn up in 1964 that would add other stores between Sears and what would be Woolworth’s some five years later. Prior to the Mall’s opening, both the Southland Cinema and Kirschman’s opened on July 17/18, 1968 (open house / grand opening with “Bondelero!”) and July 19, 1968, respectively. Like many suburban era theaters of its era, the Southland Cinema had wider aisles reducing seat count - here to 600 - and had free parking and other technological amenities not offered in aging downtown venues. Downtown Houma would never quite be the same.
The Southland Mall then opened officially on February 26, 1969 with its Phase I completed. Its original 19 stores were Winn-Dixie Grocers, A&G Cafeteria, K&B Drugs, Shainberg’s, Southland Camera joining Southland Cinema, Kirschman’s, Woolworth’s and Sears. Phase II of the Southland Mall began in 1970/1 bringing new shopping options including the D.H. Holmes department store anchor on the west side and the twinning of the Southland Cinema on May 27, 1971.
Approaching its ten-year anniversary, Gulf upped the ante to four screens on June 1st, 1978. The Southland further expanded with a JCPenney anchor in 1981. In September of 1986, United Artists Theatres circuit bought out Gulf States acquiring the former Woolco Twin and the Southland 4. The venue became the UA Southland Cinema 4 on July 10, 1987.
By the 1990s, the megaplex era had arrived and Houma now had its 10-screen house with Gulf States Theatres re-emerging with the Houma Palace 10 in late 1999. UA cut the Twin on October 21, 1999 and then here on July 20, 2000 and they were “Gone in 60 Seconds,” one of the last UA screenings.
The theatre had an improbable revival as an Atlanta-based pair took on the venue as the Southland Cinemas on May 29, 2004. It was now a deep discount, $1.95 sub-run house. If reports are accurate, the HVAC associated with the first auditorium was not serviced by the Mall and let to two different legal disagreements. Ultimately, it was operated with three auditoriums with its opening films of “Walking Tall,” “Passion of the Christ,” and “Johnson Family Vacation.” The combination of declining attendance, mounting operational losses, and inability to then repair all of the facility’s underperforming HVAC units (estimated at $40,000) encouraged the operators to move along. (The same operational concerns had been cited by Chick-Fil-A which also ankled the Mall and was a bellwether for the Mall’s impending downturn.) The Southland 4 closed permanently just prior to its 40th anniversary - likely at end of lease - on November 29, 2007. The original Sears store closed in July of 2016.
The Park Theatre - a post-War, 1,200 seat suburban operation - launched October 8, 1948 with its grand opening ad in photos featuring “Easter Parade” as the opening film. But on April 19, 1949, its plaster ceiling collapsed on a gathering audience injuring 39 people.
The theatre closed and reopened with a lighter weight, asbestos ceiling tile construction with a grand reopening on July 3, 1949. The venue was retrofitted with widescreen projection to present CinemaScope titles. It closed at the end of its thirty year leasing agreement on its 30th Anniversary, Oct. 8, 1978 with “The Executioner and Truck Turner.” No word if asbestos remediation has taken place.
O.L. Allen announced the WW2 era Lake Theatre in 1944 which was greenlit by the War Production Board for the benefit of Dow Chemical employees. It was a multi-use building with two retailers and the theater. It opened February 1, 1945 with “Tahiti Nights" and an opening policy of midnight shows for the second shift workers. However, that was scuttled early on by local, non-Dow employees and the theatre shifted to Wendnesday matinees in addition to the weekend mats.
Fast forward to June 13, 1997 when the Starplex 10 Cinemas in Lake Jackson was a game changer that allowed J.C. Mitchell and Company to close the Lake Theatre on June 12, 1997 and they donated the facility to the City of Lake Jackson. The Cinema 1 & 2 was downgraded to discount status and continued to offer the Starplex discount kiddie matinees.
The Ray Theatre was Ray Clouse’s second venue after the Pix Theatre. The new build project was designed by local architect Noah Webster Overstreet, Sr., of N.W. Overstreet & Associates. It opened May 4, 1941 with “One Night at the Tropics.”
The National Theatre launched with vaudeville on November 18, 1911 on Tremont Street. The building cost $500,000 - above average for a 1911-built theater but not overwhelmingly as it had 3,300 seats. It would not be unfair to place it with architect Clarence Howard Blackall’s top Boston venues though two steps down from the Colonial and one each from the Metro and Olympia. However, its name and programatic direction didn’t get on track. Just six years later, it became the Boston Hippodrome on November 24, 1917.
It had a brief run as the Waldorf as they tried photoplays and vaudeville for a year from March 17th, 1919 to to April 20, 1920 to no avail. It reopened Jun 11, 1920 reverting to the National Theatre. That lasted six months. It found new operators on Christmas of 1920 and tried legit stage. That appears to have stalled in early 1923. Its biggest booking was actress and notorious drug user Juanita Hansen on the vaudeville circuit who sold out the 3,300 seat theatre for the first time likely since opening day, 1911, for a multiple live appearance show with “The Drug Traffic" as she talked about her struggles with cocaine and life with the addicted star, Wallace Reid.
E.M. Loew took it on the venue on July 13, 1928 wiring it for sound soon thereafter and giving it its first real marketing / advertising since 1923. In 1932, seating was reduced to the main floor indicating that Loew likely re-seated the main floor and gave up servicing the vast reaches of the third and second balconies. Loew left on July 13, 1938 - exactly 10 years and, therefore, likely a sublease expiry only to return for an extended encore run. Loew left in April of 1968 ending a long, 40-year run on a third-run, grind policy.
The venue had a last film run as an independent by the operator of the West End Cinema. The National’s last advertised movie was May 11, 1969 with Stella Stevens in “The Mad Room” and and Jack Palance in “Torture Garden.” In 1971, it became the home of the Boston Center for the Arts and Stage I Theatre at the National Theatre.
The City of Boston had acquired it in 1975 operating it as the National Theatre with opera and other live events. But it closed the National in 1978 for a variety of code compliance issues.
Its lack of architectural firepower, cost of code upgrades, and lengthy dormancy doomed it. The National’s last ad was in August of 1996 asking for bidders to demolish it. That took place in 1997. Its structural resolve wasn’t in question as the building was stout until the midpoint of its razing.
The new Opera House in Dunsmuir opened with a live play on October 17, 1903 called “Shooting the Chutes.” Saloon operator J.C. Wagoner also operated a tavern in the multi-use, two story building. The Opera House scuffled as the G&L Theatre and the Auditorium were counter programming effectively with movies. One of the last events under the Opera House moniker was a game called “Basket Ball” featuring two teams showing great speed and skill in 1916.
A new operator took over the venue on March 1, 1916 and it became the Lyric Theatre. Better operators Creque and Webster came along later in the year renaming it the Strand Theatre on September 30, 1916 with more favorable films and better projection.
In 1922, the entirety of the building was given over to the Strand with a second floor balcony and a main floor. In October of 1926, a three manual Robert Morton pipe organ improved film presentations as the theatre tried to fend off the new-build California Theatre.
With sound an issue, the Strand changed owners three times between 1928 and 1929 - a bad sign. And the Strand appears to have closed following the October 5, 1929 showing of “Captain Cowboy” and an episode of the serial, “Police Reporter” and a George LeMaire comedy short. The Strand basement flooded following heavy rains and W.A. Waschau’s license to operate the theatre expired in early 1930… and that was that.
The space was converted to the Strand Cafe in 1931 and housed J.C. Wagoner’s second-hand furniture store beginning in 1934.
Frank Talmage opened the new Auditorium on July 4, 1913 - a two day celebration - with dancing. Its “formal opening” was as the Auditorium Theater on October 7, 1913 with a stage play, “Officer 666.” Gardner and Lee of the G&L Theatre took on the programming in 1914 switching it to vaudeville and movies. By the end of World War I it was primarily used for events prior to burning down in 1921.
Film executive H. G. McNeese of the Selznick Distributing Corporation of Dallas was also an active small town theatre operator in Texas. In 1927, he acquired the existing Gem Theatre - renaming it the Palace - and built a new theatre in an existing building, the Ken-Tex in downtown Kennedy, Texas. The venue launched on June 14, 1927. McNeese’s plan of buying and selling late silent-era theaters must have worked as a year later, he sold the venue to Hall Industries.
Citing name standardization, they adopted the much less interesting Rialto Theatre on March 8, 1928. They would equip it with sound to remain viable. Hall Indutries also reduced the town to a oner closing its earlier Gem / Palace Theatre. Hall also gave it a widescreen transformation to present CinemaScope titles. Its last advertised show was March 15, 1982 with “Zoot Suit.”
The most unusual item to happen is that the John Wayne, Keenan Wynn, Jeff Chandler, Greer Garson and others Movietime Tour 1951 were forced to make an unscheduled stop when the town blockaded its entry point forcing the tour to either turn around or make an appearance. Photos show Wayne and company in front of the movie theater. Efforts to preserve the venue decades later failed by 2010 as the marquee was offered for sale and removed in 2019. The venue appears to be vacant in the 2020s.
Sam L. Taylor watched his Kozy Theatre burn down in a nitrate film explosion in the projection booth during a busy showing of “Mutiny on the Bounty” on January 23, 1936 which took out the Kozy Ice Cream Shoppe and Taylor’s home all in the same building. Fortunately nobody was killed.
Taylor had seen this before as he watched Fayard’s Pictorium, the nickelodeon he was operating in 1914, also get wiped out by fire. After the Kozy 1936 fire, he signed up local contractor Bernard L. Knost to rebuild a new venue called the Avalon Theatre. The plans were drawn by Moise H. Goldstein, Sr. of New Orleans.
Taylor was a programmer since the 1910s in P-C and knew he his duty was to fulfill the contract for “Mutiny on the Bounty” - the first film shown at the new Avalon on April 19, 1936. It was joined by the Moonlite Drive-In in 1950. Slidell Theatres Circuit took it on in the 1950s steering it to closure in 1959. George Bourgeois & Associates relit it and became the final operators in 1960.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed a great percentage of Pass Christian including the downtown containing the Avalon - which had become an antique store and a book store. A picture in photos shows just the auditorium remaining as the front and lobby were washed away in 2005. This theatre was at 109 East Scenic Drive.
Closed for a streamline moderne refresh in 1946 and came back with that new look on April 13, 1946. The last show listed is January 29, 1956 with a double feature of “The Human Jungle” and “Overland Pacific.” That times out with a ten-year leasing expiry. It became the Regal Furniture Store in 1957. Its neighbor, the Booker T Grill continued into the 1990s as part of the Farish Street Historic District well after the theatre closed.
R.W. Tyson’s Capitol Theatre opened nearby on the same block in 1933 and he decided to have double the fun when he opened the State Theatre here on June 11, 1935 with Columbia Pictures' distributed UK feature with Jessie Matthews in “Evergreen” supported by the Columbia Pictures Andy Clyde short, “Sawbones,” a Columbia “Spice of Life” comedy series short, and a Columbia “Sport Thrills series short, "Flying Pigskins.”
The State Theatre closed at the expiry of a 20-year leasing term on August 11, 1955 with Glenn Ford and William Holden in “The Man from Colorado.” Its next advertisement listed 550 seats for sale along with the Walker Screen, Simplex projectors, Western Electric sound, Carrier HVAC, and more indications of a potential forthcoming demolition. It did join the parking lot brigade.
The Jackson Square Mall Shopping Center was announced in August of 1966 as a regional mall anchored by a Zaire’s department store - its first in the State of Mississippi. The plaza looks to have been downsized between initial drawing and groundbreaking that took place on May Day 1968 at I-20 and I-55. A suburban luxury cinema was added to the drawings that would open a year after the center and operated by Atco of Atlanta.
Zayre department store unofficially launched the center on November 14, 1968. The grand opening was held for the entire center on February 26, 1969. Atco prepped its Ultra-Vision theater, the first such in the state of Mississippi. Its 70' wide screen matched the Deville Cinema’s as the suburban theaters would pressure the two remaining downtown houses for best clearances and the remaining patrons. The Jackson Square Theatre opening was on April 24, 1970 with “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”
Atco left the building with ABC Interstate taking over May 1, 1974. In June of 1978, Plitt Southern acquired the ABC Interstate portfolio. Effective November 3, 1978, the Jackson Square Theatre became a Plitt Southern location. Plitt dishonorably discharged the Jackson Square here on Labor Day, September 6, 1982 with “An Officer and a Gentleman.” They made the right call. Zayre left the plaza on December 31, 1987 leading a a swift descent into greyfield status for the shopping center.
A church took over the theatre under the Jesusislordchurch namesake to reduce taxing liabilities and then the City of Jackson followed suit trying to prop up the remainder of the former Jackson Square Mall Plaza which changed its name to The City Plaza - and looking ramshackle in the 2020s.
The Marvel Theatorium, believed to be downtown Jackson’s third nickelodeon, opened June 14, 1907. On December 14, 1908, it became the Hippodrome. It closed in 1909.
February 6, 1947 grand opening ad for the Dixie Theatre in photos. It was located at 645 St. Charles Street at the corner of 7th Street and had been demolished late in the 20th Century.
The Fox closed at the end of its 30-year leasing agreement on August 29, 1964 with “The Shepherd on the Hills.” John A. Cenac refreshed the venue deciding to give it one more chance beginning on July 30, 1965 with Elvis Presley in “Tickle Me.” It appears to have closed September 22, 1966 with “How to Steal on a Million.” It was remodeled for retail purposes.
Thanks for the note - I forgot to mention that he staged early rock and roll shows to good effect.
The Auburn Drive-In was another of J.E. Isaac, Sr.’s area properties for Cumberland Amusement Circuit. It opened June 4, 1952. It stopped advertising following “Ben Hur” on July 30, 1961.
I think the Starlight / Marian Theatre information is conflated with that of the Auburn Starlight / Marian. This venue opened as Isaac’s New Novo Theatre. Its address - 401 West Main Street. It opened December 23, 1937 with “Heidi”. In 1971, it was sold and at year’s end, it just became the Novo Theatre.
Lynch, Kentucky was established by the U.S. Coal and Coke Company - a subsidiary of US Steel in 1917. Lynch Theatre #2 was built by US Steel and launched on March 19, 1937 with “The Great O'Malley.” Representatives from U.S. Coal and Coke and US Steel made opening remarks and presented a $50 check to Harry Moses for freeing a trapped coal mine worker from a live trolley wire.
Operator Sam Isaac installed widescreen projection to present CinemaScope titles on March 11, 1956 with “The McConnell Story.” But that was short-lived as the venue closed as Isaac’s Lynch Theatre on August 3, 1956 with “Paths of Glory” and “Harlem Globetrotters.”
Lynch Theatre #1 was ostensibly the sound-era name for its originally-titled Victory Theatre. It was established by the same folks as part of the Lynch Amusement Hall. The Lynch’s sound era with Western Electric Sound on film was on October 12, 1930. That transition was also short-lived. Lynch Theatre #1 blew up in a nitrate film explosion in its projection booth during its final showtimes of January 15, 1931. The barber shop, pool room and dance hall were obliterated as well. Dynamite was used from the coal mines to prevent further fire spreading.
The new suburban, standalone Sears store had opened here on October 12, 1966. But a plan had been drawn up in 1964 that would add other stores between Sears and what would be Woolworth’s some five years later. Prior to the Mall’s opening, both the Southland Cinema and Kirschman’s opened on July 17/18, 1968 (open house / grand opening with “Bondelero!”) and July 19, 1968, respectively. Like many suburban era theaters of its era, the Southland Cinema had wider aisles reducing seat count - here to 600 - and had free parking and other technological amenities not offered in aging downtown venues. Downtown Houma would never quite be the same.
The Southland Mall then opened officially on February 26, 1969 with its Phase I completed. Its original 19 stores were Winn-Dixie Grocers, A&G Cafeteria, K&B Drugs, Shainberg’s, Southland Camera joining Southland Cinema, Kirschman’s, Woolworth’s and Sears. Phase II of the Southland Mall began in 1970/1 bringing new shopping options including the D.H. Holmes department store anchor on the west side and the twinning of the Southland Cinema on May 27, 1971.
Approaching its ten-year anniversary, Gulf upped the ante to four screens on June 1st, 1978. The Southland further expanded with a JCPenney anchor in 1981. In September of 1986, United Artists Theatres circuit bought out Gulf States acquiring the former Woolco Twin and the Southland 4. The venue became the UA Southland Cinema 4 on July 10, 1987.
By the 1990s, the megaplex era had arrived and Houma now had its 10-screen house with Gulf States Theatres re-emerging with the Houma Palace 10 in late 1999. UA cut the Twin on October 21, 1999 and then here on July 20, 2000 and they were “Gone in 60 Seconds,” one of the last UA screenings.
The theatre had an improbable revival as an Atlanta-based pair took on the venue as the Southland Cinemas on May 29, 2004. It was now a deep discount, $1.95 sub-run house. If reports are accurate, the HVAC associated with the first auditorium was not serviced by the Mall and let to two different legal disagreements. Ultimately, it was operated with three auditoriums with its opening films of “Walking Tall,” “Passion of the Christ,” and “Johnson Family Vacation.” The combination of declining attendance, mounting operational losses, and inability to then repair all of the facility’s underperforming HVAC units (estimated at $40,000) encouraged the operators to move along. (The same operational concerns had been cited by Chick-Fil-A which also ankled the Mall and was a bellwether for the Mall’s impending downturn.) The Southland 4 closed permanently just prior to its 40th anniversary - likely at end of lease - on November 29, 2007. The original Sears store closed in July of 2016.
End of the line
The Park Theatre - a post-War, 1,200 seat suburban operation - launched October 8, 1948 with its grand opening ad in photos featuring “Easter Parade” as the opening film. But on April 19, 1949, its plaster ceiling collapsed on a gathering audience injuring 39 people.
The theatre closed and reopened with a lighter weight, asbestos ceiling tile construction with a grand reopening on July 3, 1949. The venue was retrofitted with widescreen projection to present CinemaScope titles. It closed at the end of its thirty year leasing agreement on its 30th Anniversary, Oct. 8, 1978 with “The Executioner and Truck Turner.” No word if asbestos remediation has taken place.
October 8, 1948 grand opening ad with “Easter Parade” as the opening film
O.L. Allen announced the WW2 era Lake Theatre in 1944 which was greenlit by the War Production Board for the benefit of Dow Chemical employees. It was a multi-use building with two retailers and the theater. It opened February 1, 1945 with “Tahiti Nights" and an opening policy of midnight shows for the second shift workers. However, that was scuttled early on by local, non-Dow employees and the theatre shifted to Wendnesday matinees in addition to the weekend mats.
Fast forward to June 13, 1997 when the Starplex 10 Cinemas in Lake Jackson was a game changer that allowed J.C. Mitchell and Company to close the Lake Theatre on June 12, 1997 and they donated the facility to the City of Lake Jackson. The Cinema 1 & 2 was downgraded to discount status and continued to offer the Starplex discount kiddie matinees.
June 13, 1997 grand opening ad in photos.
The Cameo opened Christmas Day 1938 with Wayne Morris “Valley of the Giants” and Ann Shirley in “Girls School”
The Ray Theatre was Ray Clouse’s second venue after the Pix Theatre. The new build project was designed by local architect Noah Webster Overstreet, Sr., of N.W. Overstreet & Associates. It opened May 4, 1941 with “One Night at the Tropics.”
The National Theatre launched with vaudeville on November 18, 1911 on Tremont Street. The building cost $500,000 - above average for a 1911-built theater but not overwhelmingly as it had 3,300 seats. It would not be unfair to place it with architect Clarence Howard Blackall’s top Boston venues though two steps down from the Colonial and one each from the Metro and Olympia. However, its name and programatic direction didn’t get on track. Just six years later, it became the Boston Hippodrome on November 24, 1917.
It had a brief run as the Waldorf as they tried photoplays and vaudeville for a year from March 17th, 1919 to to April 20, 1920 to no avail. It reopened Jun 11, 1920 reverting to the National Theatre. That lasted six months. It found new operators on Christmas of 1920 and tried legit stage. That appears to have stalled in early 1923. Its biggest booking was actress and notorious drug user Juanita Hansen on the vaudeville circuit who sold out the 3,300 seat theatre for the first time likely since opening day, 1911, for a multiple live appearance show with “The Drug Traffic" as she talked about her struggles with cocaine and life with the addicted star, Wallace Reid.
E.M. Loew took it on the venue on July 13, 1928 wiring it for sound soon thereafter and giving it its first real marketing / advertising since 1923. In 1932, seating was reduced to the main floor indicating that Loew likely re-seated the main floor and gave up servicing the vast reaches of the third and second balconies. Loew left on July 13, 1938 - exactly 10 years and, therefore, likely a sublease expiry only to return for an extended encore run. Loew left in April of 1968 ending a long, 40-year run on a third-run, grind policy.
The venue had a last film run as an independent by the operator of the West End Cinema. The National’s last advertised movie was May 11, 1969 with Stella Stevens in “The Mad Room” and and Jack Palance in “Torture Garden.” In 1971, it became the home of the Boston Center for the Arts and Stage I Theatre at the National Theatre.
The City of Boston had acquired it in 1975 operating it as the National Theatre with opera and other live events. But it closed the National in 1978 for a variety of code compliance issues.
Its lack of architectural firepower, cost of code upgrades, and lengthy dormancy doomed it. The National’s last ad was in August of 1996 asking for bidders to demolish it. That took place in 1997. Its structural resolve wasn’t in question as the building was stout until the midpoint of its razing.
The new Opera House in Dunsmuir opened with a live play on October 17, 1903 called “Shooting the Chutes.” Saloon operator J.C. Wagoner also operated a tavern in the multi-use, two story building. The Opera House scuffled as the G&L Theatre and the Auditorium were counter programming effectively with movies. One of the last events under the Opera House moniker was a game called “Basket Ball” featuring two teams showing great speed and skill in 1916.
A new operator took over the venue on March 1, 1916 and it became the Lyric Theatre. Better operators Creque and Webster came along later in the year renaming it the Strand Theatre on September 30, 1916 with more favorable films and better projection.
In 1922, the entirety of the building was given over to the Strand with a second floor balcony and a main floor. In October of 1926, a three manual Robert Morton pipe organ improved film presentations as the theatre tried to fend off the new-build California Theatre.
With sound an issue, the Strand changed owners three times between 1928 and 1929 - a bad sign. And the Strand appears to have closed following the October 5, 1929 showing of “Captain Cowboy” and an episode of the serial, “Police Reporter” and a George LeMaire comedy short. The Strand basement flooded following heavy rains and W.A. Waschau’s license to operate the theatre expired in early 1930… and that was that.
The space was converted to the Strand Cafe in 1931 and housed J.C. Wagoner’s second-hand furniture store beginning in 1934.
Frank Talmage opened the new Auditorium on July 4, 1913 - a two day celebration - with dancing. Its “formal opening” was as the Auditorium Theater on October 7, 1913 with a stage play, “Officer 666.” Gardner and Lee of the G&L Theatre took on the programming in 1914 switching it to vaudeville and movies. By the end of World War I it was primarily used for events prior to burning down in 1921.
Film executive H. G. McNeese of the Selznick Distributing Corporation of Dallas was also an active small town theatre operator in Texas. In 1927, he acquired the existing Gem Theatre - renaming it the Palace - and built a new theatre in an existing building, the Ken-Tex in downtown Kennedy, Texas. The venue launched on June 14, 1927. McNeese’s plan of buying and selling late silent-era theaters must have worked as a year later, he sold the venue to Hall Industries.
Citing name standardization, they adopted the much less interesting Rialto Theatre on March 8, 1928. They would equip it with sound to remain viable. Hall Indutries also reduced the town to a oner closing its earlier Gem / Palace Theatre. Hall also gave it a widescreen transformation to present CinemaScope titles. Its last advertised show was March 15, 1982 with “Zoot Suit.”
The most unusual item to happen is that the John Wayne, Keenan Wynn, Jeff Chandler, Greer Garson and others Movietime Tour 1951 were forced to make an unscheduled stop when the town blockaded its entry point forcing the tour to either turn around or make an appearance. Photos show Wayne and company in front of the movie theater. Efforts to preserve the venue decades later failed by 2010 as the marquee was offered for sale and removed in 2019. The venue appears to be vacant in the 2020s.
The Ken-Tex Theatre opens on June 14, 1927 by H.G. McNeese. He also bought the Palace and renamed it the Gem Theatre.
Grand opening January 5, 1950 ad in photos
Sam L. Taylor watched his Kozy Theatre burn down in a nitrate film explosion in the projection booth during a busy showing of “Mutiny on the Bounty” on January 23, 1936 which took out the Kozy Ice Cream Shoppe and Taylor’s home all in the same building. Fortunately nobody was killed.
Taylor had seen this before as he watched Fayard’s Pictorium, the nickelodeon he was operating in 1914, also get wiped out by fire. After the Kozy 1936 fire, he signed up local contractor Bernard L. Knost to rebuild a new venue called the Avalon Theatre. The plans were drawn by Moise H. Goldstein, Sr. of New Orleans.
Taylor was a programmer since the 1910s in P-C and knew he his duty was to fulfill the contract for “Mutiny on the Bounty” - the first film shown at the new Avalon on April 19, 1936. It was joined by the Moonlite Drive-In in 1950. Slidell Theatres Circuit took it on in the 1950s steering it to closure in 1959. George Bourgeois & Associates relit it and became the final operators in 1960.
Hurricane Katrina destroyed a great percentage of Pass Christian including the downtown containing the Avalon - which had become an antique store and a book store. A picture in photos shows just the auditorium remaining as the front and lobby were washed away in 2005. This theatre was at 109 East Scenic Drive.
Closed for a streamline moderne refresh in 1946 and came back with that new look on April 13, 1946. The last show listed is January 29, 1956 with a double feature of “The Human Jungle” and “Overland Pacific.” That times out with a ten-year leasing expiry. It became the Regal Furniture Store in 1957. Its neighbor, the Booker T Grill continued into the 1990s as part of the Farish Street Historic District well after the theatre closed.
R.W. Tyson’s Capitol Theatre opened nearby on the same block in 1933 and he decided to have double the fun when he opened the State Theatre here on June 11, 1935 with Columbia Pictures' distributed UK feature with Jessie Matthews in “Evergreen” supported by the Columbia Pictures Andy Clyde short, “Sawbones,” a Columbia “Spice of Life” comedy series short, and a Columbia “Sport Thrills series short, "Flying Pigskins.”
The State Theatre closed at the expiry of a 20-year leasing term on August 11, 1955 with Glenn Ford and William Holden in “The Man from Colorado.” Its next advertisement listed 550 seats for sale along with the Walker Screen, Simplex projectors, Western Electric sound, Carrier HVAC, and more indications of a potential forthcoming demolition. It did join the parking lot brigade.
The Jackson Square Mall Shopping Center was announced in August of 1966 as a regional mall anchored by a Zaire’s department store - its first in the State of Mississippi. The plaza looks to have been downsized between initial drawing and groundbreaking that took place on May Day 1968 at I-20 and I-55. A suburban luxury cinema was added to the drawings that would open a year after the center and operated by Atco of Atlanta.
Zayre department store unofficially launched the center on November 14, 1968. The grand opening was held for the entire center on February 26, 1969. Atco prepped its Ultra-Vision theater, the first such in the state of Mississippi. Its 70' wide screen matched the Deville Cinema’s as the suburban theaters would pressure the two remaining downtown houses for best clearances and the remaining patrons. The Jackson Square Theatre opening was on April 24, 1970 with “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”
Atco left the building with ABC Interstate taking over May 1, 1974. In June of 1978, Plitt Southern acquired the ABC Interstate portfolio. Effective November 3, 1978, the Jackson Square Theatre became a Plitt Southern location. Plitt dishonorably discharged the Jackson Square here on Labor Day, September 6, 1982 with “An Officer and a Gentleman.” They made the right call. Zayre left the plaza on December 31, 1987 leading a a swift descent into greyfield status for the shopping center.
A church took over the theatre under the Jesusislordchurch namesake to reduce taxing liabilities and then the City of Jackson followed suit trying to prop up the remainder of the former Jackson Square Mall Plaza which changed its name to The City Plaza - and looking ramshackle in the 2020s.
The Marvel Theatorium, believed to be downtown Jackson’s third nickelodeon, opened June 14, 1907. On December 14, 1908, it became the Hippodrome. It closed in 1909.