Vic Theatre
Karnes City,
TX
78118
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Hall Industries Theaters
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Victoria Theatre, Joyland Theatre, Karnes Theatre
Nearby Theaters
No theaters found within 30 miles
The Joyland Theatre was a diminutive silent theatre - the second operation as a hard top cinema in downtown Karnes City following the Armory Theatre operated by August E. Weigang. The 195-seat theatre opened in 1926 in an existing commercial building. It scuffled at the transition to sound during the onset of the Depression. Hall Industries operated here briefly before selling to Doyle F. Luckie - a chain operator of small-town theaters in Texas and Oklahoma.
He transformed the venue into Luckie’s Karnes Theatre - a Streamline Moderne style venue with expanded seating and a sloped floor with 298 seats. It was taken over by Mr. and Mrs. Dave Smason - a couple who performed at the State-Lake Theatre in the 1920’s in Chicago before he became band leader at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre and briefly at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre. The pair bought the Karnes Theatre in January of 1940.
After the War, the Smasons build the new Karnes Theatre. It opened on August 26, 1946. The former Joyland/Karnes became the Vic Theatre in its rebranding as a Spanish language theatre on August 28, 1946 with Manuel Mendel in “Bartolo Toca la Flauta.” It is sometimes listed as the Victoria Theatre. It was definitely still open in 1957 though likely not much after that.
Contributed by
dallasmovetheaters
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
dallas, hope you can find information to establish the Karnes on CT.
Here’s an interesting tidbit from the December 24, 1953 issue of Boxoffice: “We have been informed that Dave Smason, owner-manager of the Vic Theatre, Karnes City, is anxious to start a stage show policy at his house.” Given that the house ran Spanish language movies, I would imagine that the stage shows were in Spanish as well, perhaps featuring some of the Mexican vaudeville acts which often toured the southwest into the 1960s.