Bluebonnet Theater

dallasmovietheaters on November 21, 2025 at 5:29 am

This venue opened as the Bluebonnet Gardens Theatre on November 4, 1926 with Mary Pickford in “Little Annie Rooney.” The silent theater’s formative days were rustic with large fireplace with real fire (a bit risky in the days of explosive nitrate prints), indoor trees, and wall decor including elk heads.

The venue changed to the Bluebonnet Theatre wiring for Vitaphone sound in June of 1929 and subsequently was dynamited likely due to hiring non-union sound projectionists. The rustic look and non-union policy ended with a major redesign by Interstate Theatres which relaunched it as the New Bluebonnet (aka “Don’t Dynamite Us, Please”) on August 19, 1936 with “Mutiny on the Bounty.” All new seating and improved sound system was a short term success.

The Bluebonnet scuffled at the outset of the TV age as the neighborhood changed and the programming veered between third-tier sub-run double and triple features and four-wall exploitation. It closed February 1, 1953 with a double feature of the Producers Releasing Corporation’s bad girl exploitation opuses of “Secrets of a Sorority Girl” and “Why Girls Leave Home.”

in 1954, it became a house of worship. In 1959, it had a brief rebranding as the Jubilee Theatre with live country music. It returned to a house of worship in 1960.

kencmcintyre on July 2, 2009 at 12:44 am

Here is a photo circa 1930s:
http://tinyurl.com/md4z9c

JackCoursey on June 30, 2005 at 7:59 pm

Was unable to locate the Bluebonnet a couple of years ago when I was in the Houston area. It appears to have been demolished some years ago.