Al Ray Art Theatre

rivest266 on July 4, 2023 at 1:27 pm

Opened on April 20th, 1960 with “Razzia sur la Chnouf” (1955)

DavidZornig on February 15, 2020 at 6:34 pm

Below history credit Retro Houston Facebook page.

“THE LINDALE, located at 5006 Fulton St. on Houston’s north side, opened on January 30, 1941. The 713 movie house was owned by Oskar Korn whose O. K. Theatres, Inc. circuit also owned the Globe, Port, Grand, Avalon, Galena, Venus and Midway theatres in the Houston area.

The Lindale, which offered matinees only on weekeds, was initially managed by Jimmie Dezendorf. It offered second run features, B-movies and serials with ticket prices at the time it opened were 20 cents for adults and 10 cents for children.

Competition from television and opening larger, more modern theatres like the Fulton and the Granada nearby caused attendance to the Lindale to fall off significantly in the early 1950s. The July 2, 1952 issue of Variety carried a brief story stating that The Lindale had been purchased by the Lin Oaks Baptist Church from OK Theatres for $125,000.00.

As television slowly eroded the need for the neighborhood bijous, the Lindale found new life in 1960 the hands of theatre empresarios Al Zarzana and Ray Boriski. The new owners transformed into a niche theatre than ran foreign and art house films, as well as selected revivals of Hollywood classics.

Like many older theatres, it eventually ran XXX rated movies, before being razed in the 1980s and is now the site of a massive, opulent house, that sits incongruously next to the Metro light rail and amid modest, single story homes."

Tonester456 on July 12, 2009 at 4:32 pm

The theater and the entire block was demolished – and replaced with a large luxury home completely out of place in my working-class neighborhood.

kencmcintyre on April 3, 2009 at 6:50 pm

David Welling’s book “Cinema Houston” mentions the Al Ray and notes that the building has been demolished.