I saw Jayne Mansfield in the original “Promises! Promises!” first-run in 1963 at the SkyView. I think it played there because it was the northernmost drive-in theater in the Birmingham area and was either outside of city jurisdiction or just too out-of-the-way to bother with. There was also a preview for “Two Thousand Maniacs” (1964), the first Gore-fest movie from Hershell Gordon Lewis and Birmingham native schlockmeister David F. Friedman.
Years later going to and from Memphis, I frequently drove up and down I-65 past the SkyView. There was very little left of it but the projection/concession stand building, and you could see the big holes in the front wall where they had taken the projectors out.
Here’s a “Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” update. In the version currently on YouTube [1], in the chase sequence at 2:23:07, they go right by the State. The marquee has Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum in “Cape Fear” (1962) [2].
It was still a bowling alley when I left Birmingham in 1963. Twenty years later, in my UAB grad school days from 1983 to 1989, I went there several times; but the only movie I can recall seeing there is “Desert Hearts” (1985) with Helen Shaver.
Stan is right about the conversion being a “natural fit”: the auditoriums (ia?) were about two bowling lanes each. Maybe three. We lived on Saulter Road about a mile and a half away.
The Melba on 2nd Avenue North and the Empire on 3rd were both just West, not East, of 21st Street. Alabama and Lyric were on opposite sides of 3rd Avenue North at 18th Street. The Ritz was on 2nd Avenue North, a couple of blocks further West, not far from the Thomas Jefferson Hotel.
The theater three doors up from the Melba was the Royal. A little further West, between 19th and 20th Streets, there was a cluster of theaters on the South side of Second Avenue North: the Galax, the Strand/Newmar, and the Alcazar/Capitol/Newmar. The names changed periodically so it can get a little confusing. The Royal, Capitol, and Galax were closed before I arrived in Birmingham at the age of nine in 1954, but I remember going to all the others.
I saw several movies at the Fremont on various trips to downtown Las Vegas: “The Owl and the Pussycat” (Barbra Streisand and George Segal, 1970); “Sleeper” (Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, 1973); and “Galaxy of Terror” (Erin Moran, Robert Englund, Edward Albert, and Ray Walston, 1981). So it was open at least that late.
After it was demolished I believe it was assimilated by the Fremont hotel-casino. Resistance was futile….
Cheers.
My grandparents lived in Tulia and we visited them from the 1950s up to the early 70s. I remember seeing Sandra Dee in “Tammy and the Doctor” at that drive-in, which would have been fall of 1963 or early 64; possibly at Christmas break since I was a Freshman in college then. It also had Peter Fonda and Adam West, but I didn’t remember them.
Later I remember driving by and seeing a sign on the theater saying “Closed—Royal Open.” The Royal was and is the last operating indoor theater in downtown Tulia, listed elsewhere on this site. That was probably around 1966.
Here’s a link to one of those topographic maps, this one from 1965:
I knew it was on the North side of Highway 86, but thought it was further West. Turns out it was much closer to town. Wikimapia shows some kind of commercial site, with a large building and a couple of parked tractor-trailers; Here’s the link, but you have to select “Bing Satellite” manually.
I’ve driven through Cross Plains many times. Last trip, the lady curator at the Robert E. Howard House said the Pioneer was “East on Route 36,” but I never could find anything resembling a former drive-in on any of the map apps. Finally I saw a note somewhere that it was “…about seven miles East, halfway to Rising Star,” implying that it served both communities. There’s a small lot on the south side of 36 about 1 km East of the “Pioneer Cemetery” with curved ridges looking like a drive-in parking area. This also fits with another description I saw, “containing a trailer house and a few unidentified structures.” I think this is the most likely location.
I think this is where I saw the classic exploitation film “Trader Hornee” (the ‘e’s are silent) in 1971. It was produced by Birmingham native schlockmeister David F. Friedman, who also appears in a cameo in the film.
The location fits with what I remember, slightly South and East of the University Hospital complex. The theater was very small, with only two employees: a ticket-taker/concessionaire and a manager/projectionist. It may have been a recycled “Jerry Lewis Cinema” which was common at the time.
The Birmingham Rewound website shows an ad for “Johnny Be Good” with Alan Freed and Chuck Berry showing at the Lyric in March 1960. That’s the last one I could find.
I missed that one, but I did go to the Lyric a few times as a kid. Saw “Earth Versus the Flying Saucers,” “The Werewolf,” “The Land Unknown,” and a few others in that cultural niche. I think the last one I saw there was a spin-off clone of “Jason and the Argonauts,” with a bunch of Italian body-builders but without the Ray Harryhausen animation, probably in 1959.
The Strand closed in late 1962. Rewound shows an article on the closing in December and an ad for “Tower of London” in November. I remember seeing that one, Vincent Price as Richard III in the last show at the Strand. I probably didn’t appreciate the full significance of it all at the time.
I was in Bham from summer 1954 to fall 1963, from age 9 to 18. The Strand was named the Newmar when I arrived and changed back to the Strand later. I don’t remember the Galax, the Royal, or the original Newmar/Capitol/Alcazar at all.
I believe I may have seen the last film shown at the Strand—“Tower of London” starring Vincent Price. I was only 17, but definitely remember Vincent chewing the scenery.
I used to bicycle past this theater in the early 1990s when I lived in Westlake. It had apparently been closed for some time.
Here’s a link to a youTube video of the demolition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owHjj0ZLHZY
But it’s called the “Hilliard Theater” in the video.
RIP.
I was in Ballinger last Saturday night (11 Feb 2017) and was surprised to find the marquee all lit up. It was the first time I had ever seen that; and I’ve been walking and driving past it, sometimes at long intervals, since the early 1950s.
Apparently a local barbecue chef/entrepreneur has reopened it for lunch and dinner during the week and with country & western music on weekends. I went back on Sunday. It was closed, but the operator was there and was kind enough to give us a short tour of the place, the first time I had ever been in the building.
It’s very narrow inside, the same width as the front, and they’ve put in tables in place of the theater seats. The walls are the original natural local limestone masonry and the stage is quite large. The new screen goes up and down electrically, but I don’t know what they do about projection—probably digital. The balcony has been turned into a VIP lounge area, and the projection booth has been replaced by restrooms along a hallway right behind the upper front windows.
I took some pictures and will post them when I get a chance. Sorry I didn’t think to get any of the marquee and vertical illuminated. It was brilliant with lots of red and yellow.
Here’s a link to their website with copyright date 2017:
http://www.texasvenuebbq.com/index.php
Another part of the same site. Some more photos, including a couple of interiors: http://www.texasvenuebbq.com/photoGalleries/index/gallery/limit:0
Some photos on Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-old-texas-theater-ballinger-2?select=xoWSarBtPy9YSi9hHX8TPQ&reviewid=5K9R_-TZvIEQvWjsfHQt0w
Tripadvisor with a photo of the lit-up vertical; postings are from September 2016: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g55437-d7061155-Reviews-The_Old_Texas_Theater-Ballinger_Texas.html
The old Studio has been gutted and transformed (probably complete by now) into “The Bluff,” a Cajun restaurant and music hall. The post includes several pictures that brought back both fond and painful memories. They will still have a stage in the “Music Room”/auditorium, and the alley just outside the North exit door where I used to park my bike will become an outdoor patio.
I definitely remember seeing “Night of the Lepus” and “Elvis on Tour” at the Hillcrest. Both were released in 1972 and I was in Korea until mid-November 72, so it was December 72 at the earliest or more likely early 73. So the Hillcrest was open at least until then.
“Lepus” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069005/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 was a sci-fi horror movie about giant rabbits terrorizing the countryside, with Rory Calhoun, Stuart Whitman, DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy from Star Trek) and Janet Leigh (!) The only giant rabbit movie I’m aware of. Obviously an underappreciated genre.
After going by the old Quartet this past Monday (26 Oct, details posted under the Quartet) I went down Highland and drove by the old Studio. The entrance is now boarded up with plywood: the theater entrance and box office are sealed off, but the two flanking storefront doors are not blocked.
Visiting Memphis this past weekend, I went by the Quartet on Monday. The main entrance is now a sandwich shop and the auditorium exits on the South side of the building are now small storefronts.
I saw Jayne Mansfield in the original “Promises! Promises!” first-run in 1963 at the SkyView. I think it played there because it was the northernmost drive-in theater in the Birmingham area and was either outside of city jurisdiction or just too out-of-the-way to bother with. There was also a preview for “Two Thousand Maniacs” (1964), the first Gore-fest movie from Hershell Gordon Lewis and Birmingham native schlockmeister David F. Friedman. Years later going to and from Memphis, I frequently drove up and down I-65 past the SkyView. There was very little left of it but the projection/concession stand building, and you could see the big holes in the front wall where they had taken the projectors out.
Robert Mitchum in “The Enemy Below” on the marquee places it in mid-1957. That’s consistent with the cars and the bus.
Opened 26 December 1927–the same day as the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, AL.
Here’s a “Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” update. In the version currently on YouTube [1], in the chase sequence at 2:23:07, they go right by the State. The marquee has Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum in “Cape Fear” (1962) [2].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhxxGDcWWoc
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055824/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2
Cheers.
Both movies on the marquee were released in 1940.
Saw a couple of “Adult” films there in 1968-69.
It was still a bowling alley when I left Birmingham in 1963. Twenty years later, in my UAB grad school days from 1983 to 1989, I went there several times; but the only movie I can recall seeing there is “Desert Hearts” (1985) with Helen Shaver. Stan is right about the conversion being a “natural fit”: the auditoriums (ia?) were about two bowling lanes each. Maybe three. We lived on Saulter Road about a mile and a half away.
The Melba on 2nd Avenue North and the Empire on 3rd were both just West, not East, of 21st Street. Alabama and Lyric were on opposite sides of 3rd Avenue North at 18th Street. The Ritz was on 2nd Avenue North, a couple of blocks further West, not far from the Thomas Jefferson Hotel. The theater three doors up from the Melba was the Royal. A little further West, between 19th and 20th Streets, there was a cluster of theaters on the South side of Second Avenue North: the Galax, the Strand/Newmar, and the Alcazar/Capitol/Newmar. The names changed periodically so it can get a little confusing. The Royal, Capitol, and Galax were closed before I arrived in Birmingham at the age of nine in 1954, but I remember going to all the others.
I saw several movies at the Fremont on various trips to downtown Las Vegas: “The Owl and the Pussycat” (Barbra Streisand and George Segal, 1970); “Sleeper” (Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, 1973); and “Galaxy of Terror” (Erin Moran, Robert Englund, Edward Albert, and Ray Walston, 1981). So it was open at least that late. After it was demolished I believe it was assimilated by the Fremont hotel-casino. Resistance was futile…. Cheers.
The details of the mezzanine, central dome, and projection booth are wrong.
My grandparents lived in Tulia and we visited them from the 1950s up to the early 70s. I remember seeing Sandra Dee in “Tammy and the Doctor” at that drive-in, which would have been fall of 1963 or early 64; possibly at Christmas break since I was a Freshman in college then. It also had Peter Fonda and Adam West, but I didn’t remember them.
Later I remember driving by and seeing a sign on the theater saying “Closed—Royal Open.” The Royal was and is the last operating indoor theater in downtown Tulia, listed elsewhere on this site. That was probably around 1966.
Here’s a link to one of those topographic maps, this one from 1965:
https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/texas/txu-pclmaps-topo-tx-tulia-1965.jpg
I knew it was on the North side of Highway 86, but thought it was further West. Turns out it was much closer to town. Wikimapia shows some kind of commercial site, with a large building and a couple of parked tractor-trailers; Here’s the link, but you have to select “Bing Satellite” manually.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.529770&lon=-101.783513&z=19&m=bs&search=Tulia
I’ve driven through Cross Plains many times. Last trip, the lady curator at the Robert E. Howard House said the Pioneer was “East on Route 36,” but I never could find anything resembling a former drive-in on any of the map apps. Finally I saw a note somewhere that it was “…about seven miles East, halfway to Rising Star,” implying that it served both communities. There’s a small lot on the south side of 36 about 1 km East of the “Pioneer Cemetery” with curved ridges looking like a drive-in parking area. This also fits with another description I saw, “containing a trailer house and a few unidentified structures.” I think this is the most likely location.
I think this is where I saw the classic exploitation film “Trader Hornee” (the ‘e’s are silent) in 1971. It was produced by Birmingham native schlockmeister David F. Friedman, who also appears in a cameo in the film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066479/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/David_Friedman
The location fits with what I remember, slightly South and East of the University Hospital complex. The theater was very small, with only two employees: a ticket-taker/concessionaire and a manager/projectionist. It may have been a recycled “Jerry Lewis Cinema” which was common at the time.
The Birmingham Rewound website shows an ad for “Johnny Be Good” with Alan Freed and Chuck Berry showing at the Lyric in March 1960. That’s the last one I could find.
http://www.birminghamrewound.com/features/1960-03.htm
I missed that one, but I did go to the Lyric a few times as a kid. Saw “Earth Versus the Flying Saucers,” “The Werewolf,” “The Land Unknown,” and a few others in that cultural niche. I think the last one I saw there was a spin-off clone of “Jason and the Argonauts,” with a bunch of Italian body-builders but without the Ray Harryhausen animation, probably in 1959.
The Strand closed in late 1962. Rewound shows an article on the closing in December and an ad for “Tower of London” in November. I remember seeing that one, Vincent Price as Richard III in the last show at the Strand. I probably didn’t appreciate the full significance of it all at the time.
http://www.birminghamrewound.com/features/1962-12.htm
I was in Bham from summer 1954 to fall 1963, from age 9 to 18. The Strand was named the Newmar when I arrived and changed back to the Strand later. I don’t remember the Galax, the Royal, or the original Newmar/Capitol/Alcazar at all.
I believe I may have seen the last film shown at the Strand—“Tower of London” starring Vincent Price. I was only 17, but definitely remember Vincent chewing the scenery.
I used to bicycle past this theater in the early 1990s when I lived in Westlake. It had apparently been closed for some time. Here’s a link to a youTube video of the demolition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owHjj0ZLHZY But it’s called the “Hilliard Theater” in the video. RIP.
It opened 9 January 2017. Looks like a nice place.
http://ilovememphisblog.com/2017/01/a-new-place-for-memphis-music-the-bluff-on-highland/
I was in Ballinger last Saturday night (11 Feb 2017) and was surprised to find the marquee all lit up. It was the first time I had ever seen that; and I’ve been walking and driving past it, sometimes at long intervals, since the early 1950s.
Apparently a local barbecue chef/entrepreneur has reopened it for lunch and dinner during the week and with country & western music on weekends. I went back on Sunday. It was closed, but the operator was there and was kind enough to give us a short tour of the place, the first time I had ever been in the building.
It’s very narrow inside, the same width as the front, and they’ve put in tables in place of the theater seats. The walls are the original natural local limestone masonry and the stage is quite large. The new screen goes up and down electrically, but I don’t know what they do about projection—probably digital. The balcony has been turned into a VIP lounge area, and the projection booth has been replaced by restrooms along a hallway right behind the upper front windows.
I took some pictures and will post them when I get a chance. Sorry I didn’t think to get any of the marquee and vertical illuminated. It was brilliant with lots of red and yellow.
Here’s a link to their website with copyright date 2017: http://www.texasvenuebbq.com/index.php
Another part of the same site. Some more photos, including a couple of interiors: http://www.texasvenuebbq.com/photoGalleries/index/gallery/limit:0
Some photos on Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/the-old-texas-theater-ballinger-2?select=xoWSarBtPy9YSi9hHX8TPQ&reviewid=5K9R_-TZvIEQvWjsfHQt0w
Tripadvisor with a photo of the lit-up vertical; postings are from September 2016: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g55437-d7061155-Reviews-The_Old_Texas_Theater-Ballinger_Texas.html
Googling the Street Address 535 S. Highland brought up the following article from last May’s Memphis Business Journal:
http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2016/05/27/see-inside-the-bluff-on-the-highland-strip.html#g2
The old Studio has been gutted and transformed (probably complete by now) into “The Bluff,” a Cajun restaurant and music hall. The post includes several pictures that brought back both fond and painful memories. They will still have a stage in the “Music Room”/auditorium, and the alley just outside the North exit door where I used to park my bike will become an outdoor patio.
I guess that’s progress, folks….
The Vista Pointe apartment complex was later built on the site. I lived there From September 2001 to June 2003.
Saw the original “Planet of the Apes” there in 1968. I was in USAF Navigator School at MAther AFB which was just down the road.
I definitely remember seeing “Night of the Lepus” and “Elvis on Tour” at the Hillcrest. Both were released in 1972 and I was in Korea until mid-November 72, so it was December 72 at the earliest or more likely early 73. So the Hillcrest was open at least until then.
“Lepus” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069005/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 was a sci-fi horror movie about giant rabbits terrorizing the countryside, with Rory Calhoun, Stuart Whitman, DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy from Star Trek) and Janet Leigh (!) The only giant rabbit movie I’m aware of. Obviously an underappreciated genre.
Across the street from the new Texas
After going by the old Quartet this past Monday (26 Oct, details posted under the Quartet) I went down Highland and drove by the old Studio. The entrance is now boarded up with plywood: the theater entrance and box office are sealed off, but the two flanking storefront doors are not blocked.
Visiting Memphis this past weekend, I went by the Quartet on Monday. The main entrance is now a sandwich shop and the auditorium exits on the South side of the building are now small storefronts.