Circle Cinema
10 S. Lewis Avenue,
Tulsa,
OK
74104
10 S. Lewis Avenue,
Tulsa,
OK
74104
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 37 comments
It closed as an adult cinema in 1991.
Closed by Family on March 24th, 1978.
Circle theatre closing 24 Mar 1978, Fri Tulsa World (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Newspapers.com
1978 grand reopening ad as adult cinema posted.
Grand opening ad:
Went to the Circle many times. The last time to see “Wait Until Dark” with Janet Hopkins. There used to be a barbershop next door(N) and that’s where I got my very first haircut.
Began its porn period phase (“Under New Management”) on Friday, July 7, 1978, with THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN and BABARA BROADCAST after several weeks of being closed. (Tulsa World)
Now open with 3 screens and a pipe organ! Wonderful venue.
Upload of night time pic of Circle featuring an exhibit in Glass…“Keep on Truckin”
Here is an article about the Circle’s addition of an additional screen; they also plan to add a third.
Is the name of this theater reduntant
Did the Rollier & Meta Theatre’s mentioned above as owned by old okie’s parents, ever get added to CT?
I couldn’t find either listed even in a previous names or city search. Just curious.
All the way up to 1967 the Circle Theatre always included a newsreel on the program. Universal News were the last to be shown.
Note in the 1987 photo, when the Circle was a skin flick house, how carefully “parking in back” was worded. Perhaps some dumb patron would have mistaken “parkinng in rear” as a title for an X-rated film. On second thought, that probably was a real porno title.
Hi, I want to apologize for not finding earlier the link to the photo in Lamont that Lost Memory posted last summer. This is NOT the Meta. That was much older. This is the Rollier Theatre. Somewhat ironically, it was torn down about the very time you posted the photo. The decorations in the windows along the street were for the big combination celebration they had in 1993 — Watermelon Days, the 1893 Opening of the Cherokee Strip, and an all-school reunion. (3000 people showed up!)
Perhaps you’re right, Old Okie!
Here is a (not too recent) photo with complete history of this unique “Cinema Treasure” …
View link
The names of the two theaters my parents owned were, yes, the Meta, which eventually became the firehouse for Lamont. The other was the Rollier Theatre, opened in 1947, at which time the Meta was closed. The Rollier Theatre was not a Spanish language house and there were NO Hispanics living in Lamont then. Please excuse me for saying so, but it does seem as if some of you assume a lot from a little. The “EL” was probably part of the title of the movie then playing.
And the names of the two Lamont theatres your parents owned were? …
I have been trying to respond to the questions regarding the theater in Lamont but my comments were not posted. The theater belonged to my parents, Roy and Alvena Rollier, hence the “R” in the marquee. The tiles were not cheap bathroom tiles and it was not built by Griffith Bros. This was an thoroughly independent house, air-conditioned and ahead of its time. Unfortunately, the economy in and around Lamont declined sharply, the population decreased, my mother was dead by then and my father just couldn’t afford to keep it going. It sat unused for years after my father died and fell into disrepair. It was torn down only this year. My parents owned an older theater on the east side of Main Street but built this one in 1946-47 on the west side of Main.
Lost:
Some clues are visible in your photos. The Marquee has an “R” in the center, so don’t think this theatre would have been named Meta. Those two letters hanging on marquee left spell “EL” which indicate this was a Spanish language house (I wonder if Lamont has a large Latino community?). Ground floor walls are covered in pink/maroon tile. Griffith Bros. were well known for using cheap bathroom tile for “redecoration” purposes, so this could have been one of their movie houses.
Perhaps you should go ahead and post this cinema under the name “Lamont Cinema” until the actual name can be uncovered.
Lost; The OHS web site does have antique photos of Lamont, but no theatre views. Type in word “lamont”. This theatre should probably be listed seperately.
Period photos of Tulsa’s Circle Cinema can be seen by typing word “circle”,
View link
To answer Lost Memory’s question — Although I never heard of the Meta Theater in Lamont, I did live there from birth though age 19. My parents owned two theaters there. The first was on the east side of Main Street and they bought it in 1937 or so. Then in 1947 we opened the new Lamont Theatre on the west side of Main Street. It closed in the 1970s and was completely torn down in 2007.
Should anyone want more details about it or about Lamont, feel free to write <>
On the above Oklahoma Historical Society web pages, that photo of a narrow, vaulted ceiling auditorium is actually an image of Cameo Theatre seating.
SEE vintage exterior shots! SEE period interior views! SEE all photos! Type in word “circle”,
View link
As I recall, the Meta used to check out the employees with a doctor before they were hired. It was called a Meta Physical.
Heh heh.
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/JPG/B5212.jpg
From Tulsa Library; Circle Theatre advertising slide.
While it is true that Tulsa’s Circle Cinema was sparse in decoration, to say it had none is an overstatement. Thick carpeting and festve stage drapery aided in brightening the auditorium decor, while attractive lighting sconces lined sidewalls throughout the interior. Indeed the interior did posses an Egyptian aire.