Victory Adult Theatre

Victory Theatre opened with “The great American Broadcast”.

Underwood and Ezell (U&E) Circuit began the Victory Theatre in November of 1941. By June of 1948, U&E decided to close the Texas Theatre a block away and just a month later it would close the Victory. U&E had 15 drive-in theaters at that point and decided to concentrate on o-zoners. Hiram Parks of Lubbock took on the Victory for a brief period before selling it in 1950 to the Colorado Theatre Circuit run by the Benefiel family. In 1965, the circuit sold its last remaining property in the Victory to D.H. Laughler. The theater became the Tex-Art Theatre becoming an adult theater. Sold to George Kimble in 1971, Kimble changed the format to all G-rated family and repertory film hoping that’s what downtown preferred. It wasn’t so in 1973, the theater became the Victory Adult Theatre. The theater is charged with obscenity counts in December of 1973 and appears to either stop advertising or close. The theater was shuttered in 1976 set to be demolished for a project that failed to materialize.

The Victory Theater was open until early 1973. That’s my friend, Dave, working the ticket booth in the photo. His father was the projectionist at the time. The only movies I ever saw there were “BARBARELLA” and “JOE HILL”, two older films in a double feature for a dollar March 7, 1972. (Actually I got in free)