Rex Theatre
209 W. 6th Street,
Okmulgee,
OK
74447
209 W. 6th Street,
Okmulgee,
OK
74447
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Griffith Amusement Company
Styles: Neo-Classical
Previous Names: Cozy Theatre
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The Cozy Theatre was built inside former retail space. It was a small theatre, probably furnished by a local interior decorator who did a nice job on limited funds. It was opened December 14, 1914. A large concession stand dominated a cramped, narrow lobby.
The auditorium, fashioned to resemble a tent with canvas wall panels and a flax covered ceiling, was of the “reverse” floor plan, meaning the projection booth was situated in the rear of the auditorim, the screen backed up to the lobby wall, and seats faced entrance doors.
Around 1937 it was renamed Rex Theatre. It was listed as (Closed) in 1941-1943) and possibly never reopened.
The space became a jewelry store until the building burned down in the mid-1990’s.
Contributed by
Ben Miller
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Oklahoma State Historical Society has vintage photos of this cinema when it was known as Rex. To see images type in name ‘Rex Theatre’ on below site -
View link
A January 12, 1946, Boxoffice article about the death of Tulsa exhibitor John Edward Feeney says “In 1914 he bought the Cozy Theatre at Okmulgee….” Was this an entirely different Cozy Theatre, or did it become the Rex and then later go back to the name Cozy? The building in the Historical Society photo certainly looks as though it would have been built before 1914, and that marquee could easily have dated from the early 20th century.
This site has clear vintage interior/exterior shots of the old Cozy Theater when it was known as the Rex Theatre.
http://www.roadsideoklahoma.com/node/579
The buildings at 219 W. 6th Street in Google street view are not the ones in the vintage photo of the Rex, and the Rex building is supposed to have burned down anyway. 219 houses a restaurant called Kirby’s Café. I’m sure we have the wrong address for the theater. The July, 1920 Sanborn map shows a retail shop at 219 W. 6th, though our history suggests that the house remained in operation into the early 1940s.
The 1920 Sanborn does show a theater on this block, but it was at 207-209 W. 6th. The theater on the map is not configured like the Rex in the photo (it has a center entrance flanked by a small office on one side and a cigar store on the other) but it could have been remodeled at some point. The 1926 FDY lists the Cozy with 450 seats. The theater at 207-209 in 1920 was big enough to have accommodated that many seats, but the building at 219 definitely wasn’t.