Finne Arts Theatre

dallasmovietheaters on May 26, 2025 at 4:39 am

Adding a bit more here:

The Ritz Theatre was announced in August of 1938 to be built by Bijou Entertainment for $30,000 by Cain & Cain Contractors. The 500-seat Ritz opened on December 4, 1938 as Fort Worth’s second African American theater at that point. Dallas-based Houston & Smith were the architects. M.C. Maxwell was its long-running operator and may have closed there in 1960. The building was purportedly to be demolished imminently in 1966 as a parking lot for the Convention Center project - but that was halted at the 11th hour.

At that same address, the Cinne Arts Theatre opened for adults with unrated short films on May 21, 1970, moving from Main Street. Cinne Arts was already in a court battle in 1970 in the case of State of Texas v. Steve Scott & Cine Arts Theatre, Inc. on a spurious obscenity case. On July 21, 1970, the venue became the Finne Arts Adult Theatre operating as a private membership policy. They appear to have transitioned from 16mm shorts to 35mm features. Later in 1970, they transitioned to a $3, sub-run discount adult theater policy.

On April 21, 1973, a film was run with the ad, “Extra Special Feature” for a $5 admission. The Finne Arts made the front page of the newspaper on April 23, 1973 for the local sheriff Lon Evans confiscating that feature film which turned out to be “Deep Throat” on 35mm.

In 1974, a live stage show was added to the fare. In 1975, it switched to unrated, “XXX” films open 24 hours on weekends. In April of 1986, local authorities put the hammer down on pornography closing almost all of the venues including the Finne Arts and the nearby Ellwest Theatre at 907 Houston. The theater was raided one final time seizing all films using the RICO Act as their basis. The court docket said that RICO was triggered as this was the 199th charge against the Finne Arts Theatre - and there would be no 200th. Its final operating day appears to be May 27, 1986.

Cinne Arts Theatres Inc. was a circuit of Southwest adult theaters in cities including Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, Wichita Falls, Austin, Albuquerque, NM, New Orleans, and one in Tampa, Florida. All Cinne Arts (two n’s) named theaters changed to Finne (two n’s).