foxmulder Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 I can't pass by without wondering about this movie theather, The HCAD website says it's has an auditorium, It is located in front of Fiesta on Lawndale and 75th. Anyone have any info on it? Here is the link http://www.oldastroworld.com/album/slides/DSCN0326.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 (edited) that's at 743 75th - the hcad record for 741 75th st. (under living hope church) lists it as a religious institution...hmmedit - i see what you're talking about now - under "building features" it says auditorium/theater... Edited December 28, 2005 by sevfiv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beauford Posted December 29, 2005 Share Posted December 29, 2005 I can't pass by without wondering about this movie theather, The HCAD website says it's has an auditorium, It is located in front of Fiesta on Lawndale and 75th. Anyone have any info on it? Here is the link http://www.oldastroworld.com/album/slides/DSCN0326.htmlI can't pass by without wondering about this movie theather, The HCAD website says it's has an auditorium, It is located in front of Fiesta on Lawndale and 75th. Anyone have any info on it? Here is the link http://www.oldastroworld.com/album/slides/DSCN0326.htmlFor many years this was the Avalon Theatre.... fell on hard times when Interstate Theatres opened the Broadway Theatre nearby. It folded and later was reopened showing Porn films.... this too failed, probably because of the VHS explosion and you could rent your movies and not been seen attending the Avalon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrage Posted December 29, 2005 Share Posted December 29, 2005 Another movie theater that became a church was the Garden Oaks on North Shepherd.Another one you can put on that list is The Granada on Jensen & Tidwell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxmulder Posted December 29, 2005 Author Share Posted December 29, 2005 I remember one on Navigation area near the sheriffs office that was recenlty converted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted December 29, 2005 Share Posted December 29, 2005 For many years this was the Avalon Theatre.... fell on hard times when Interstate Theatres opened the Broadway Theatre nearby. It folded and later was reopened showing Porn films.... this too failed, probably because of the VHS explosion and you could rent your movies and not been seen attending the Avalon!Did it ever go by another name? I couldn't find it on Cinematreasures or any other references. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beauford Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 I remember one on Navigation area near the sheriffs office that was recenlty converted.You may me thinking of the Navaway Theatre, located on Navigation Blvd, just west of Wayside Drive.My cousins lived on Ave. Q and Wayside when I was a child and only went to this theatre maybe 2 or 3 times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 (edited) that's at 743 75th - the hcad record for 741 75th st. (under living hope church) lists it as a religious institution...hmmedit - i see what you're talking about now - under "building features" it says auditorium/theater...Sev, I meant to tell you about another Movie theater turned into a church that is in Baytown, It is over by the older part of town, by the Exxon refinery, and Texas ave. I think it is Texas Ave. Edited January 2, 2006 by TJones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxmulder Posted January 3, 2006 Author Share Posted January 3, 2006 You may me thinking of the Navaway Theatre, located on Navigation Blvd, just west of Wayside Drive.My cousins lived on Ave. Q and Wayside when I was a child and only went to this theatre maybe 2 or 3 times.Hmm It's still there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beauford Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 I remember one on Navigation area near the sheriffs office that was recenlty converted.You may me thinking of the Navaway Theatre, located on Navigation Blvd, just west of Wayside Drive.My cousins lived on Ave. Q and Wayside when I was a child and only went to this theatre maybe 2 or 3 times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djrage Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 You may me thinking of the Navaway Theatre, located on Navigation Blvd, just west of Wayside Drive.My cousins lived on Ave. Q and Wayside when I was a child and only went to this theatre maybe 2 or 3 times.The Navaway was torn down sometime in the early 80s. I want to say after Hurricane Alicia. The location is a parking lot for a church next door now. I used to see that theatre as we were going to or leaving my grandmothers house when I was really little (mid 70s). I was intriged by it being an abandoned theatre. I wanted to know what it looked like inside. I remember asking my parents about it and wanting to see the inside of it and they told me there were rats and roaches in it. I think this is where my interest in abandoned buildings began. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racehorse Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 that's at 743 75th - the hcad record for 741 75th st. (under living hope church) lists it as a religious institution...hmmedit - i see what you're talking about now - under "building features" it says auditorium/theater...Avalon theater gone Sep 2009 open lot now1.5 acrs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FilioScotia Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 (edited) Avalon theater gone Sep 2009 open lot now1.5 acrs.A pity. I remember when the Avalon stopped showing movies in the mid 50s. It sat empty for a few years, until the late 50s when the owners did some paint-up fix-up and started booking road show productions of Broadway plays. I remember seeing At War With the Army with Maurice Gosfield in a leading role. You may or may not remember Gosfield as the guy who played Private Doberman on the old Phil Silvers TV sitcom You'll Never Get Rich. Getting a part in a road show was an extension of Gosfield's 15 minutes of fame. The Avalon also booked A Hole in the Head, with Hal March. He's better remembered as the quiz-master on the $64 Thousand Dollar Question TV show. The Avalon's zenith in legitimate theatre was when it was one of the stops in Diana Barrymore's doomed effort to sober up and have something resembling a stage career by proving that she could act. She did a national tour of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, which stopped at the Avalon for a couple of weekends. She got decent reviews, because she managed to stay on the wagon, most of the time. Sadly, when the tour ended, she couldn't get another play, and she died a year later at the age of 38. She lived and died just like her father, John Barrymore.Incredibly, the Barrymore curse lives on. I read the other day that John's grand-daughter Drew Barrymore recently confessed to Parade Magazine that's she's "not sober" most of the time these days. My own personal memories of the Avalon came by virtue of the acting academy that a University of Houston Drama Prof and some others started in 1959. It was the Avalon Studio Theatre and Workshop -- a summer drama school in a store front around the corner on Lawndale. I was a 10th grader at Pasadena High School, and thought it would be fun so I signed up. It was the real thing, with real acting classes taught by local professional theatre people, and our final exam was a single performance of the play Stage Door by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman. They picked that play because it has a very large cast and they wanted all of the 60 or 70 people in the acting school to have a role or have something to do with getting the play done. Interestingly, the "students" ranged in age from teenagers like me to adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s. We all had a lot of fun, and when it was over we all went our separate ways. Cat On a Hot Tin Roof was the last play the Avalon owners were able to book, because those road shows just didn't make much money. So they closed it again. We know its history from there forward. I'm saddened to know it's gone now. I had some good times there. Edited September 28, 2009 by FilioScotia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmer Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 A pity. I remember when the Avalon stopped showing movies in the mid 50s. It sat empty for a few years, until the late 50s when the owners did some paint-up fix-up and started booking road show productions of Broadway plays...What a great story! Thanks for posting that, Filio! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt. kirk Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 I can't pass by without wondering about this movie theather, The HCAD website says it's has an auditorium, It is located in front of Fiesta on Lawndale and 75th. Anyone have any info on it? Here is the link http://www.oldastrow...s/DSCN0326.htmlhi, the theatre that you are talking about was called the Avalon. im not sure if it had a name before that. also at one time, before becoming a church, it was home to xxx rated movies. fiesta across the street was called weingartens. in the strip center with the theatre there use to be a hardware store called martini's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt. kirk Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 You may me thinking of the Navaway Theatre, located on Navigation Blvd, just west of Wayside Drive.My cousins lived on Ave. Q and Wayside when I was a child and only went to this theatre maybe 2 or 3 times.good memories, use to go to that theatre a lot. also the yale, the broadway, santa rosa, winkler drive in, telephone rd drive in, and there was a drive in on 610 with triple screens. also the airline drive in, red bluff, and one off of shaver in pasadena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racehorse Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 that's at 743 75th - the hcad record for 741 75th st. (under living hope church) lists it as a religious institution...hmmedit - i see what you're talking about now - under "building features" it says auditorium/theater...743 - 75 th was the " Avalon Theater " Built 1939 Now is a open lot no buildings "as of Sep 2009 " one more old flick gone " Racehorse 36 East End To The End Milby class of 54 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTAWACS Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 There are pics of that place being torn down on here somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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