Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Houston: richest, system)

[outafocus]

Originally Posted by Basse Bud

Outafocus,

Who owned the Majestic theater? I've heard several variations, from Red McCombs to the Phantom of The Opera!

I'll never forget dozing off just before the shower scene in "Psycho" at the Majestic, and my
girlfriend screaming and grabbing my arm just as Mrs Bates pulled back the shower curtain!
( I will NEVER forget that one!) ...think I may still have the indention on my arm...!!

It was built by Karl Hoblitzelle and operated by Interstate Theatres. Interstate once owned and operated most of the theatres in Texas. An antitrust suit made Interstate divest itself of a lot of their theatres. The Interstate theatres in San Antonio that were sold off because of the suit included the Texas, Woodlawn, Laurel, Uptown, Sunset, and Empire. The theatres Interstate kept were the Aztec, Majestic and Broadway. When they built the Wonder in 1966 they had to get rid of the Aztec.

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collection...ngs/interstate

[Basse Bud]

Outafocus,

Thanks for the link. Very informative. Any idea why the Laurel was reduced to an unused vacant lot?
Seems it could have had some value. Also, where was the Uptown and Sunset located?

[SATX56]

Uptown on Fredericksburg Rd. (occupied) Built in 1928 same as Harlandale Theater.

City of San Antonio | Official Web Site - Historic Preservation

Laurel ...

2310 San Pedro (razed)
Laurel Theatre

[outafocus]

Originally Posted by Basse Bud

Outafocus,

Thanks for the link. Very informative. Any idea why the Laurel was reduced to an unused vacant lot?
Seems it could have had some value. Also, where was the Uptown and Sunset located?

The owner of the Laurel property could not rent the theatre out anymore, and it would have been too costly to renovate it to retail space by leveling the floor etc. He was tired of paying taxes on the property so he had it demolished. It was a shame. The Laurel was one of the nicest suburban theatres in town.

The Sunset was on Nogalitos. It was used as a thrift store a few years ago and it caught fire. I don't know if it was renovated after the fire. I went into the thrift store one day and the projector port windows were still there.

The Uptown still stands as St Ann's Hall on Fredericksburg Road near Five Points.

[tcs]

I have not been on the Forum in a while but the Colonies North Theater mention reminded me of something. We lived on Rock Creek Run and frequently shopped Colonies North HEB, Handy Andy, Winn's I think was there, etc. Don't recall the movie showing at the Colonies but the Vietnam War was in the final stages. We were at the theater watching I don't know and a guy in a suit came down from the projection booth with a hand held radio, plugged in a hand held microphone under the screen and said stop the picture. He held the mic over the radio speaker and we were listening to the news program, and feedback, and getting ready to witness the end of that war. This went on for about 10 minutes then it was apparent that the war was not done yet. So we took a theater vote, I think, and watched the remainder of the movie. HMM not so interesting but one of those events that you never forget.

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by outafocus

The owner of the Laurel property could not rent the theatre out anymore, and it would have been too costly to renovate it to retail space by leveling the floor etc. He was tired of paying taxes on the property so he had it demolished. It was a shame. The Laurel was one of the nicest suburban theatres in town.

The Sunset was on Nogalitos. It was used as a thrift store a few years ago and it caught fire. I don't know if it was renovated after the fire. I went into the thrift store one day and the projector port windows were still there.

The Uptown still stands as St Ann's Hall on Fredericksburg Road near Five Points.

I don't recall the "Sunset" at all. Was it at Division and Nogalitos? I recall the thrift store there that caught on fire. Seems like a firefighter was injured or killed in the fire. Building is gone now if I recall correctly.

[outafocus]

Originally Posted by SATX56

I don't recall the "Sunset" at all. Was it at Division and Nogalitos? I recall the thrift store there that caught on fire. Seems like a firefighter was injured or killed in the fire. Building is gone now if I recall correctly.

I remember it was a bad fire, and I seem to remember it was multi alarms or someone got hurt or killed. I doubt they rebuilt it then. I seldom go to that part of town, but it probably was at Nogalitos and Division. My Theater Almanac shows the address was 3950 Nogalitos.


There were a lot of theatres I never even saw, let alone worked! I did see Bambi at the Highland Theatre on Hackberry in 1957. The Hi-Ho still stands on South Presa St. It was a quonset hut theatre! I never saw a movie there but was good friends with the owner in later years. The Star was on Government Hill, and the Ritz was just east of downtown. The South San was on Quintana Street. One theatre that was relatively new that few remember was the Cine Mexico twin theatre built at the Centeno marketplace on Castroville road in 1976. A drive in that few remember was the Roxy on Pleasanton Road @ Moursund. The Parkair Drive In on Clark@ Goliad, The El Charro DI on Merida @ Hamilton, the Fiesta DI on Commerce @ General McMullen. The ORIGINAL San Pedro Drive In was on San Pedro @ Rampart. There was a State Theatre, the Prince and Princess, the Obrego and the Nacional. the Palace,and the Joy. There are more, but those are the only ones that come to mind right now.


tcs, I don't remember the story of stopping the show and someone thinking the war was ending, but that sounds like something Mr. Reynolds would do!

[ranchodrive]

Originally Posted by SATX56

I don't recall the "Sunset" at all. Was it at Division and Nogalitos? I recall the thrift store there that caught on fire. Seems like a firefighter was injured or killed in the fire. Building is gone now if I recall correctly.

I have never heard of the Sunset.
So I entered, “Sunset theater in San Antonio, Texas” on google search.


A window came up with different links on different subjects.

This link comes closes with information about a Sunset theater.
( by the way, this is only a screen-shot, the link is at the bottom)




But when I go to the link, it shows this map of Saldana St.



Here’s the link :
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...BCIoUD3QsL5_rw

[TiredandRetired]

I remember a small movie theater in a strip center on Callahan Rd. near Culebra or maybe Ingram in the late seventies or early eighties. I saw Marathon Man there

[outafocus]

Originally Posted by TiredandRetired

I remember a small movie theater in a strip center on Callahan Rd. near Culebra or maybe Ingram in the late seventies or early eighties. I saw Marathon Man there

That was the Callaghan Twin. It opened in 1973, about the same time as the Westwood Twin at W Military @ Marbach, the Perrin Twin on Naco Perrin, and the Universal Cinema on Pat Booker. The Callaghan and Westwood were opened by retired military men. The Perrin was built by Bonanza Steak House as an experiment to have people eat at Bonanza, then go next door to see a movie, and the Universal Cinema was opened by Tommy Reynolds. The Perrin, Callaghan and Westwood were all taken over by Cinemas Southwest out of Corpus Christi. The Universal was operated by Santikos for a while, then went to Movie One Theatres.