Montaner Theatre

The Montaner Theatre was the town’s second silent-era movie venue. Silent films were originally shown in Taos Hall - the name given to the 1890’s built Barron’s Hall. J.B. Brooks took on Barron’s in 1900 and renamed it as Taos Hall. The live event space became a silent movie house primarily by the end of the 1910’s and into the mid-1920’s.

State Senator José Montaner, who also ran an English language newspaper (Taos Valley News) and a Spanish language local newspaper (Revisita de Taos), decided to build a $25,000 new-build facility in 1925 called the Montaner Theatre in the west portion of the downtown Taos Plaza. It opened with Fred Muller as the manager on August 12, 1925 with Thomas Meighan as “The Alaskan”. A neighboring drug store served as the venue’s de facto concession stand. The theater’s Minusa Gold Fibre screen provided bright images and a piano accompanied the silent films. Teenaged Taos native Theodora Martinez y Salazar was the primary accompanist for the silent films.

The Montaner building had a dance hall on its upper floor. As the theatre scuffled in its ability to transition to sound in the latter stages of the 1920’s, the dance hall of the Montaner Theatre and Dance Hall became the favored option. Movies were shown just four times a week in the winter months. That changed when the theatre was purchased by the newly-formed Taos Amusement Company (TAC) in September of 1932. TAC installed sound and changed the fortunes of the local movie industry. Sound on film technology improved presentations in 1935 but the venue was not ideal and TAC looked at other options.

The Montaner Theatre operated into 1937/1938 when TAC had new plans commissioning a new, new-build Plaza center theatre. It was called the New Montaner Theatre in planning stages and possibly at opening in 1938 before becoming the Taos Theatre and, later, the Taos Plaza Theatre. The Montaner Theatre box office ledger shows that its most successful film in its history - whilst open from 1925 to 1938 - was Mae West in “She Done Him Wrong”.

The previous Montaner Theatre was closed and done wrong suffering a major fire in 1939 though surviving with its interior gutted. The repaired structure became home to the long-running Taos Drug / Walgreens in downtown Taos. The building then became home to the Fields Art Gallery before they moved to new digs. The building is still standing and part of the historically significant Taos Plaza.

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