Kay Theatre
206 E. Grand Avenue,
Ponca City,
OK
74602
206 E. Grand Avenue,
Ponca City,
OK
74602
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 5 comments
All of the above information is interesting though not terribly factual. J.C. Murray and his wife established the Murray Theatre as a new-build facility in downtown Ponca City announcing the project in June of 1919. The Murray Theatre launched November 2, 1919 with a policy of motion pictures with live vaudeville two days a week.
The theatre was sold to Fred Pickerel. With Boller Brothers establishing a new movie palace, the Poncan, in 1926, Pickerel and partner Arthur L. Bogan rehabbed the seven-year old venue to freshen it. Pickerel and Bogan Theaters Circuit, Inc. also operated the Majestic, Mission and Ritz in downtown Ponca City.
Bogan Theaters equipped the Murray with Vitaphone and Movietone sound on March 19, 1929 with the first VItaphone talkie shown there being Al Jolson’s “The Singing Fool.” Bogan also gave the Murray a new air conditioning system in 1931.
As the 20-year lease cycle neared it completion, Bogan sold the Murray in 1938 to a group that would later become Video Independent Theatres Circuit. Under new operators, the Murray Theatre closed for remodeling in July of 1949. It re-emerged as the Kay Theatre as Ponca City was located in Kay County. The opening film as the Kay was “Neptune’s Daughter” on September 2, 1949.
On June 30, 1959, the Kay Theatre closed at the end of a second 20-year lease. It went out in style with a double-feature of “The Hot Angel” and “When Hell Broke Loose.” The theatre was gutted for a retailer, Ben Franklin Variety. The operators took on the Center Theatre rebooting it as the Capri Theatre on November 5, 1959 with “Pillow Talk.
David and Noelle’s list of known Boller Brothers theaters lists the Murray Theatre as a 1919 project, and gives it the AKA Kay Theatre, presumably its opening name.
The book Kay County’s Historic Architecture, by Bret A. Carter, says that the Murray Theatre was located on Grand Avenue. Puzzling over some old photos, I’ve concluded that the Murray Theatre was at the location now occupied by a retail store, Merrifield Office & School Supply, at 206 E. Grand Avenue. The building is probably the same one the theater was in, but if so the front has been remodeled beyond recognition.
This photo (at the WorthPoint collectibles site, so the URL might go dead at some point) shows the Murray Theatre on the right. The building to the right of the theater still stands, and its band of six windows on the second floor is easily recognizable, as is the distinctive parapet of a building across the street.
Cosmic:
Are you sure you aren’t thinking of Governor Marland? Amoungst the vast Marland empire were theatre holdings. His elegant Ponca City villa is pictured here -
View link
That mighty Wurtlitzer is visible in one of those 1939 auditorium views.
Oilman and Governor mentioned above by Rance was Ponca City resident William H. “Alfalfa Bill” Murray. Alfalfa Bill was a fabulously wealthy, rugged, take control type man who caused a nationwide scandal when he married his own adopted daughter. Fortunately for him, Mrs. Murray earned vindication for the newly weds when her beauty, wit, and charm won over the hearts of most everyone.
During the 1940s Mrs. Murray’s name again hit nationwide headlines when her sudden disappearance caused speculation of kidnapping. Several months later the former First Lady of Oklahoma was found living in quiet seclusion in a guest house on the grounds of a convent that had once been one of her mansion, an estate donated to the church by her husband.
View photos of the Murray Theatre interior & exterior by typing in word “murray” -
View link