Village Theater
3425 Gulfway Drive,
Port Arthur,
TX
77624
3425 Gulfway Drive,
Port Arthur,
TX
77624
2 people
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This reopened with three screens on November 20th, 1974. Another ad posted.
Grand opening ads including one with the 1967 picture posted.
OCRon, thank you for adding the specifics on the time line.
~ken
giray, thank you for posting this information.Of the indoor theaters you mention I saw movies in all but the Strand in Orange. I never saw a movie at the Circle drive in but I saw quite a few at the Don in Port Arthur. Also, Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf is so very tame compared to anything on TV these days.
A note on the Circle drive in ,beaumont,texas. My family lived for a few years in the apartment under the screen. Nice to just walk out the back door and there was the screen above your head.It also had a playground and some seats in front of the screen. I forget what year, but there was a fire in the apartment while we were living there and it burnt the apartment and the screen. They installed new screen and remodeled the apartment.
Yes it was a nice movie house. My father Jack R. Butts managed the village theater in the 70s till 1980. Yes the roof caved in during a storm. Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf was playing and the churches were all up in arms over it. As my father was the manager I got to see movies free. My father also managed The port theater on 9th ave in port arthur,texas before the village theater and The circle drive-in Theater in beaumont,texas before that.Also some time in there he managed The Neches theater in Port neches,texas and The Strand theater in Orange ,Texas.
John, I do agree with you. My apologies for not thinking longer about what you had written.
Ken, I should have explained myself better. True the photo is crap. You must admit that painting the building that color makes it look crappy. I hate to see when people paint over a beautiful brick building. Wouldn’t you agree?
John, I just read through the postings again and I note that you earlier mentioned you thought this must have been a nice movie house. As such, I do believe your are referring to the quality of the photograph. While, I still don’t think it looks like crap, I agree it is not the best. Also, I apologize for not reading all of the posts again before I posted. I stand by everything else I wrote. Ken
JohnMessick, if you are referring to the quality of the photograph, then you are correct. If you are referring to the content of the photograph then I must disagree. Neither look like crap. The theater had a full balcony and two isles on the main floor. The remodeling and additions made the Village look more up to date. It was not as magnificent as the Loew’s State and the Metropolitan next to it in Houston. Both were demolished some time ago, sadly. Photos of the interior of these classic movie houses seem to be in short supply. Some that haven’t been demolished have been restored and offer more than movies. This is true of the Silver theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. The American Film Institute was instrumental in saving that grand full size theater. The Jefferson theater in Beaumont, TX has been restored to a very polished look without destroying the classic roman interior. I suppose crap is in the eye of the beholder.
The photo that Chuck1231 posted…Doesn’t that look like crap?
Any interior shots?
John, it was a nice movie house. I watched movies in the balcony of the Village, the Jefferson and just about every theater in Jefferson county. It wasn’t until I started college in Wharton Texas that I discovered the segregation between the balcony and the main floor. In my time there I sat in the balcony with friends and on the main floor with friends of every race, color, creed, etc. I don’t know the reason the practice wasn’t in Jefferson. We had our share of racial difficulties, but the theaters weren’t party to it.
Bet this was a really nice moviehouse.
The theater was converted into a three screen cinema after the roof of the original caved in one rainy Saturday morning. The cave in happened a couple of hours before the Saturday kids showing was to screen.