Cinema Vegas Theatre

After reading these comments I called my gay Uncle Mumford in NYC to talk about this joint. Uncle said that while earning his BS at OCU he used to go to see gay movies in the #3 screening room. He described the decoration as walls painted a rich golden brown, trimmed in rust tones, with brown fiberglass upholstered theatre chairs. He told me that a couple of months before his 1984 graduation this adult theatre halted gay film presentation when walls were ripped down from the two smaller auditoriums in order to make the viewing area into one single screen cinema. At that point the lobby was also expanded to include a video rental outlet, and hard porn video projection replaced soft core films.

A most reliable source recently infomed me that the actual name of this cinema was Fine Arts Cinema, 5219 NW. 10th.
The Fine Arts was located within a large entertainment complex that opened around 1970 and was suppose to attract a family trade. It originally featured an ice skating rink, a vaudeville theatre that featured both new and classic acts, a large game arcade, an ornate nightclub centered arouand an indoor swimming pool, and the Fine Arts Cinema 3.
For one reason or another every enterprize within this mall was a complete dud. The ice rink and vaudeville theatre quickly folded and were made over into girley show bars. The Fine Arts Cinema 3 went X-rated. After conversion into an adult enterprise the whole affair was a profitable success.
During its last few years the cinema was converted to a single screen auditorium and renamed Vegas Adult Video & Cinema.

Screen three tended to push the limits by showing gay porn, along with 1950s gay beefcake films represented in this spicy montage.
Law enforcement didn’t bother to bust gay screenings, for to do so would be the same as admitting that queens actually dwelt within “butch” OKC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNKGN5GMw4s

Midway originally started out as the Animal House and occupied the eastern end of the building, with the cinema occupying the western ¾. Then, it became Midway and the cinema closed and remained empty for many years. The owner of Midway secured the entire building and moved the bar into the western portion, with plans to renovate the original area and incorporate it into the larger portion, but this has yet to happen.

This theatre was never known as the “Three ball Cinema” as another poster asserted, AS you can see from the posted images, especially the article from 1976, the theatre was originally known as the Cinema Vegas Theatre. Nor did it ever have three screens.