Historic Houston Theaters

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

I saw Rocky Horror at the Alabama, twice

[Amsterdam]

I remember seeing "The Sound of Music" there in 1965.....it was at the Alabama for more than a year!

 

I remember that. The same happened with "Fiddler On The Roof" and Dr. "Zhivago" at the Tower Theater.

 

[IronTiger]

I'm back with another 1989 advertisement from the Post advertising smut. This time it's from three theaters. I immediately figured that all three were once real legitimate theaters at the time, but had eventually deteriorated to the point of showing X-rated movies (and Karate Kid III for some odd reason).

I couldn't find much on Cinema West. It appears to be in the same building as "Tarab Café" is in now.

The second, "Star Theatre" still came up as "Adult Video" in Googling the address, but it was the Santa Rosa Theater, which was opened in 1946 but torn down in 2007 (closure unknown). It's now a small shopping center (link).

The third has the address for Family Dollar, but it's not there anymore. It seems that it was where Capital One Bank is in what I presume was a Deauville Shopping Center at the NE corner of I-45 and Greens. (The fact that an adult movie theater was already cropping up just north of Greenspoint Mall in 1989 suggests that Greenspoint has been in decline for a while now)

[LarryDierker]

It's odd to me that one is showing Karate Kid 3. Family Films on one screen and porn on the other.

[acamarillo]

Deauville Center is south of 525, and about a mile south of Greenspoint between 525 and West.  It also had a Furr's, Randall's, and Bobbie MGee's.  The movies were converted to adult by about 1980-81, just after Greenspoint opened.  I don't think it was so much evidence of Greenspoint's decline as it was that Greenspoint was built in an area that was already showing signs of stress and probably should have been put somewhere else.

[mkultra25]

It's odd to me that one is showing Karate Kid 3. Family Films on one screen and porn on the other.

 

The Deauville twin theater's lobby was bisected by the concession counter - if you were entering the part serving screen one, you'd be on one side of the counter, and if entering the part serving screen two, you'd be on the other side (I use "side" loosely here - in reality, it was two separate, parallel counters, with the staff stationed between them and serving customers from both screens). IOW, customers waiting to be served on one side were facing customers waiting to be served on the other. This could get interesting after they started showing porn exclusively on one screen. 

 

Pretty sure this theater has been discussed here previously. 

Edited April 10, 2015 by mkultra25

[brian0123]

Old thread reviving... but does anyone know/have pictures of the old Woodlake at Gessner and Westheimer (currently an event/wedding center)? My dad was a projectionist there in the 80's and would take my 4yo self to work and let me climb around in the projectionist booth. I'd love to find some old photos/videos of it. I have a ton of memories of it and thought it would be fun to compare what my 4yo mind remembers vs reality. Thanks

[Michelle C]

In the early fifties we lived on Lincoln street which is now part of  Montrose Blvd. My cousin and I would walk down to the Tower theatre on Saturday afternoon for movies. About 1955 we moved to the West end on Gibson street near the intersection of Washington and Shepherd. My older cousin and I would catch the bus on Washington to downtown and go to the Majestic. Lowes, or Metropolitan. I was only ten to thirteen years old and scared to ride the bus alone, so I would walk down to the Yale theatre at Yale and Washington. My mom and dad moved to Sul Ross street in the Montrose area in 58 and the theatre of choice was the Alabama theatre.

[Reefmonkey]

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good articles on the history of Vaudeville in Houston? I'd love to know where some of the theaters were, and if any of them are still standing. I remember in about 2000 going to a bar in downtown that looked like it had been an old theater, and am racking my brain for the name, that was theater-oriented. I know a lot of vaudeville houses got converted to movie theaters in the 30s, I wonder if any of the old theaters tha are still standing were once vaudeville houses?

[mkultra25]

The 1923 Majestic was both a vaudeville house and a motion picture theater. 

 

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1672

 

There's some discussion of its vaudeville background in David Welling's book Cinema Houston - you can view it via Google Books, although not all pages are available:

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=R6XDCyvuGSkC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=vaudeville+houston&source=bl&ots=JA1wSYBlY2&sig=XbOB2_3mcBo-50koUm0HUtYZTUc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAjgKahUKEwj-weKz_8LHAhWBr4AKHWmXBPY#v=onepage&q=vaudeville%20houston&f=false

 

 

[Croberts]

I worked plays at the Houston Music Theater (theater in the round, Sharpstown) in the early 1970s, doing sets and lights. I believe it was an organization set up by Chris Wilson, but I do not remember the name of the theater,company We did childrens plays and there were also concerts, I remember a Moody Blues concert. 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Croberts

[Charles Stuber]

On 7/22/2005 at 9:10 PM, TexasHome said:

I was about 16 when they disappeared from Clear Lake City. One time I was in there close to closing time and saw the manager putting money in the safe. It was under the floor mat just inside the main entrance door!

After they closed up, a fabric store by the name of Hancock Fabrics moved in and is still there. It had to have looked strange but we were in there not long ago and the floor mat is still covering the safe. The employees must have thought I was out of my mind lifting the mat up to see if the safe was still there. It is.

Hancock's moved in after Piggily Wiggily moved out.  I was the original Hancock Fabrics manager that opened that store July 4th, 1974.  I had the original floor safe installed by Baker Safe & Lock Company just prior to opening.

[Drooper N. Snork]

On 9/6/2005 at 9:40 PM, Whitenoize said:

The theater you are thinking about was called the 'Palm Theater'.

It was located on the Hwy 90 and Guenther.

I used to go there with my mom in the 80s.

I remember they had a Q-bert video game in the lobby.

That theater was great. Too bad they tore it down.

 

Was the Palm the same theater with the huge mural out front depicting Fort Bend? The actual military fort that the County was named after. Or was that mural on a Drive-In further out on 90...

  

I would love to locate a picture of that mural.

[handcrew]

Hey IronTiger, thanks for posting the 1989 ad from the newspaper.  I am on the hunt for Houston newspaper movie ads from the 1960s-1980s (grew up and lived in Houston from 1971-1989).  Where did you find this?

[FilioScotia]

Here's a reposting of something I posted here in 2006 about the Cinema West and its owner Joe Spiegel.

 

The original Cinema West was in a strip center on West Alabama, out where it merges with Westheimer. The guy who owned it was an interesting guy. Joe Spiegel graduated from the University of Houston with a business degree in the mid 60s, and his father gave him a hundred thousand dollars to start up his first business. Softcore porn was common at that time, but Spiegel could see that hardcore porn was slipping into the mainstream. He thought it could be profitable, so he took advantage of the public's relaxing attitudes and opened Houston's first hardcore porn house.

 

It made so much money that Spiegel was able to build a free-standing adult theatre on Richmond, and open another adult movie house in the Rice Village off Kirby - Cinema West II. His long range plan was to use his adult theater profits to buy legitimate family movie houses and ultimately get out of porn altogether, which is exactly what he did. At one time in the 70s and 80s, Spiegel owned several neighborhood houses around the city.

 

In his spare time, Spiegel was a big softball fan and player. He organized and sponsored teams in the city softball leagues and tournaments for a long time, and they were good. He had their trophies on display in the Cinema West lobby. I always liked Joe Spiegel. He wasn't a porn-meister, and he never got involved in producing adult films. He was, and probably still is, a smart businessman who used the growing popularity of adult movies to launch his business career. 

 

[57Tbird]

On 1/31/2020 at 1:56 PM, handcrew said:

Hey IronTiger, thanks for posting the 1989 ad from the newspaper.  I am on the hunt for Houston newspaper movie ads from the 1960s-1980s (grew up and lived in Houston from 1971-1989).  Where did you find this?

Here is one from a July 24, 1969 Houston Chronicle...

[mkultra25]

19 hours ago, 57Tbird said:

Here is one from a July 24, 1969 Houston Chronicle...

 

Nice. I saw Ice Station Zebra at the General Cinema Northline during this engagement. Despite the ridicule that's been heaped on it over the years, it made a powerful impression on me, as it was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. Apparently it made a powerful impression on Howard Hughes, too, as he became mildly obsessed with it and was said to have screened it over and over again in his home screening room. 

 

It must have taken a while to make it to the Houston market, as it premiered in October 1968. 

[IronTiger]

On 1/31/2020 at 1:56 PM, handcrew said:

Hey IronTiger, thanks for posting the 1989 ad from the newspaper.  I am on the hunt for Houston newspaper movie ads from the 1960s-1980s (grew up and lived in Houston from 1971-1989).  Where did you find this?

Found 'em from newspaper microfilm. Luckily, the Houston Chronicle (but not the Post, sadly) has been fully digitized (ads and all) on the Houston Library website, all you need is a Houston library card.

[sinister1]

On ‎9‎/‎2‎/‎2008 at 10:14 AM, Vertigo58 said:

Now you really have my curiousity going!

Could this 2006 Fulton be the very same location of what was once known as The Stardust Ballroom? Is this where Fulton curves and bends in front of Moody Park???

I was told that the old (now gone) Stardust was once a bowling alley but I also heard there was a theater next door? They said it was converted in the 50's?

This is real hardcore Houston history as far as I am concerned anyway.

The Stardust was finally swept away around 1989?

Maybe here is the question: What now stands at 2006 Fulton? Anyone?

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/pg/PachucosYPachucasDeHoustonTejas/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2179715828736095 

Edited February 26, 2020 by sinister1

[HoustonMidtown]

River Oaks Theatre closing

 

https://preview.houstonchronicle.com/movies-tv/the-river-oaks-theatre-closes-what-should-16051495

[mkultra25]

The best possible outcome for the River Oaks would be for another tenant to continue theatrical film exhibition there. But people aren't exactly lining up to jump into the exhibition industry in the current climate, to put it mildly, and if Landmark couldn't make it work financially, can anyone? It could have been a good fit for an Alamo Drafthouse location, but would have probably required some remodeling to fit their business model, and given their current bankruptcy proceedings and the associated closure of several of their existing locations, any kind of expansion is almost certainly a non-starter for at least the near future. 

Single-screen (and quasi-single-screen, like the River Oaks) vintage neighborhood theaters have long been nearly extinct, even when the industry was doing much better than it is now. It would take a deep-pocketed benefactor with a lot of patience to keep the River Oaks open in something like its current form, but I'm afraid it's more likely destined for either a repurposing like the venues mentioned in the Chron piece, or an outright demolition when Weingarten decides to replace that section of the shopping center with something larger and newer, like they previously did across the street. 

[samagon]

not an update yet, I guess we find out Wednesday what the future holds for the River Oaks Theater.

https://preview.houstonchronicle.com/movies-tv/city-to-announce-fate-of-the-river-oaks-theater-16819149

Edited February 1, 2022 by samagon

[IntheKnowHouston]

2 hours ago, samagon said:

not an update yet, I guess we find out Wednesday what the future holds for the River Oaks Theater.

https://preview.houstonchronicle.com/movies-tv/city-to-announce-fate-of-the-river-oaks-theater-16819149

 

Although we're awaiting news on the future of the River Oaks Theater today, it's possible this may be a Star Cinema Grill or an extension of the brand in some way.

Last month, I saw a new filing for River Oaks Theater Inc. connected to the owner of Star Cinema Grill. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I'm glad to see the business will likely be saved.

I hope the new owner and management will keep the indie spirit of River Oaks Theater. However, cosmetic interior renovations would be great for this venue. Star Cinema Grill theaters are nice. I've always enjoyed the seating and overall experience much better than Studio Movie Grill. But I think IPic is superior to both. My fingers are crossed that the River Oaks Theater will be similar to Star Cinema Grill (or IPic) if renovations are planned. I am looking forward to what's to come.

[samagon]

I can't imagine seeing any current blockbusters there no matter how much lipstick they put on.

it'll definitely be indie, but trendy indie, if that can be a thing. Bubba Hotep is probably the last film I saw there. I can't imagine any of the people I see frequenting that area these days wanting anything to do with that film.

[mkultra25]

23 hours ago, samagon said:

Bubba Hotep is probably the last film I saw there. I can't imagine any of the people I see frequenting that area these days wanting anything to do with that film.

I'd love to see how they'd react to the scene with Elvis and the nurse with the rubber gloves. 

On a more serious note, it would be great if they got rid of the God-awful upstairs screening rooms and restored the balcony, but it'll never happen. It's hard enough for theaters to make enough money to stay afloat with multiple screens these days. The number of viable single-screen venues that are still operating is vanishingly small.  

[samagon]

officially official. Star Cinema Grill.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/article/Exclusive-Star-Cinema-Grill-to-reopen-River-Oaks-16826710.php

glad to see they're able to keep this operational.

[Reefmonkey]

I saw this pic of the Alabama Theatre showing Empire Strikes Back on one of those annoying clickbait listicles on Facebook, but had to share. I never got to know the Alabama Theatre as a movie theatre, just enjoyed it as a Bookstop starting in high school, was sad when the interior character that had been preserved when it was a book store was obliterated by Trader Joes.

[Earlydays]

We saw the Sound of Music there...it played for almost two years.

[gene]

since no one has posted on here lately...

https://riveroakstheater.com/

Opening soon! 

(if you drive by you will see they have redone all the concrete around the theater...sidewalks, patio/entry, disability ramp and more! looks pretty amazing...my guess is an early to mid summer opening) 

The River Oaks Theater is proud to be Houston’s premier art house cinema, where we will celebrate the lasting beauty and power of film. Paying homage to the theater’s rich history, we will feature cinema events such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and host various film festivals, ensuring that film lovers can enjoy their movie experiences within this important cinematic gem.

Guests of the River Oaks Theater will be able to enjoy an enhanced cinema experience with a focus on unmatched hospitality, high-quality food and beverages, flawless presentation, and other cutting-edge theater amenities.

“The River Oaks Theater is a historical and cultural pillar in the city of Houston.” - Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner

River Oaks Theater, Inc., is an affiliate of the Star Cinema Grill Group, a Houston-based dine-in-theater concept which currently operates eleven movie theaters in Texas and Illinois. River Oaks Theater, Inc. plans to preserve the theater’s rich history and Art Deco design, as well as its name, River Oaks Theater, so it continues to remain a top destination in Texas for movie fans.