Roxy Theatre
1523 Monroe Street,
Wichita Falls,
TX
76309
1523 Monroe Street,
Wichita Falls,
TX
76309
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Cinne Arts Theatres Inc.
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: Linda Theatre, Coronet Theatre, Old Coronet Theatre, Civic Playhouse, Cinne Arts Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Roxy Theatre was opened February 13, 1938 with Pinky Tomlin in “With Love and Kisses”. It was operated by M&M Theatres. On July 4, 1948 it was closed. It was taken over by an independent operator, reopening on February 15, 1949 with Yvonne De Carlo in “River Lady” as the Linda Theatre. It was closed on September 12, 1954 with Walt Disney’s animated feature “Pinocchio”. Another independent operator took over and it reopened as an arthouse theatre, renamed Coronet Theatre screening Peter Lind Hayes in “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T”, but this was a short-lived venture and it was closed on June 23, 1955 with Dorothy Dandridge in “Bright Road”.
It became a playhouse, followed by a rename to Old Coronet Theatre and then Civic Playhouse which operated from 1958 to 1968. Movies returned in 1969 when it was taken over by the Cinne Arts Theatres Inc. chain and the movies were adult movies. The theatre was taken to court in 1970 and the adult movie “Whatever Happened to Stud Flame” was seized and became the final movie screened as the Cinne Arts Theatre.
Their now an antiques mall.
Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
No, the Parker Square and the Roxy were two different places. The Roxy would have been in the neighborhood north of Kell Boulevard somewhere in the vicinity of Zundelowitz Jr. High School. Parker Square was entered on the south side of Kell somewhere west of Taft Street. I was a regular attendee of the Parker Square Theatre up to 1962. Like the rest of the shopping center it was built to cater to the Country Club district. This was before Sikes Center. I don’t recall the Roxy at all, so it may have ceased operations before the late 1950s when I became an active moviegoer. What Department store later occupied the Parker Square Theatres space? I think there was already a McClurkan’s in the center. Perkins Timberlake perhaps?
I’m going to add the Parker Square, since it doesn’t seem to be an aka for any of the theaters in Ken Roe’s list of 9/21/07.
It opened in 1958.
Maybe what killed the Parker Square was the fact that it was a single screen house. Seating capacity was around 600, maybe bigger.
According to this obituary the former Roxy was until recently the home of a used book store called the Cosmic Squire.
The owner of the Cosmic Squire Book & Music store died in Nov. 2009 and the family was considering selling the building or they may already have done so.
There are a couple of pictures on the Wichita Falls History Facebook page. I remember going to the Roxy and actually saw a silent movie there with my grandmother in the early 1940s. Don’t know why they were showing a silent movie since they showed sound films all of the time. The WF History Facebook page is great. I’ll be telling them about the Cinema Treasures website.
From 2011 a photo of the Roxy Theater Building in Wichita Falls.
On the Wichita Falls History Facebook pages, Julie Coley who used to run an antique store in the old Roxy Theatre building posted a recent article from the WFTimesRecordNews that a man in Wichita Falls has bought the entire strip and wants to restore all of the buildings as to their outside facades. That would be great to see.
Jeanette Crumpler in Dallas, TX
BTW Julie has a picture of the Roxy Theatre on her Photos page of the WFHistory Facebook website. I’m so grateful for her and for Don Lewis too in preserving much of the past.
Jeanette Crumpler in Dallas, TX
The Roxy was a suburban theater operating in one of the city’s first shopping centers, the the Monroe Shopping Center. It opened “With Love and Kisses” on February 13, 1938 by M&M Theatres' R.B. Montgomery and Jack McCollum. They also operated the Tower, Texan and Ritz theaters in W-Falls and the Ritz in Electra. T.R. Richards bought the M&M locations operating as T&R Theatres on May 156, 1947.
T&R granted independence to the Roxy on July 4, 1948 playing Tim Holt in “Thunder Mountain.” Leon L. Leath - an independent that I’ll call LLL Theatres - reopened it as the Linda Theatre on February 15, 1949 with Yvonne DeCarlo in “River Lady.” The Linda closed with “Walt Disney’s Pinocchio” on Stepmber 12, 1954.
Under new operator, Harold Teal - the venue reopened on an art house policy on September 28, 1954 just temporarily as the Linda but doing business as the Coronet Theatre while it awaiting new signage. Its first showtimes were for “5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.” The Coronet ended cinematically on June 23, 1955 with “Bright Road.” Four movie operators (M&M, T&R, LLL, and likely Sack Amusements in some way, shape and form for Teal’s Coronet) should have been it for movies on Monroe. But 15 years later, a new player would bring controversy to the sleepy suburban house.
First things first. The venue became a live, legit house just a month later in 1955 remaining as the Coronet Theater, then renamed as the Old Coronet Theater before becoming the Civic Playhouse for ten years from 1958 to 1968 undoubtedly at the end of a 30-year leasing contract.
In 1969, movies would return to the 31-year old playhouse. Cinne Arts Inc. of Dallas took on the venue spending a razor-thin $1,000 to convert the former playhouse to the Cinne Arts Theater playing adult films… and quickly ending up in court. This included the seizure of its Bell & Howelll 16mm projector within a year of opening their doors. The film that led to the downfall of the Cinne Arts was 1970’s, “What Ever Happened to Stud Flame?“ Well, it was taken away by the local police force along with the projector and held for a lengthy court battle that went all the way to the Texas Supreme Court. The lawsuit did not go the cinema’s way. Just after the court battle ended, the theatre and its contents were sold off in classified listings in 1972. And “Stud” may actually have been its last film as the building was retrofitted for retail purposes.
Despite its brief foray into adult cinema, I would definitely suggest that “Roxy” be retained as this entry’s name. It should be previously known by Cinne Arts Theater as operated previously by Cinne Arts Theatres, Inc.