Texas Theatre

110 E. Main Street ,
Grand Prairie, TX 75050

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on May 9, 2024 at 12:03 am

The Texas Theatre operated in two different buildings in the late 1920s. The December 27, 1927 issue of Motion Picture Herald said that: “Mr. and Mrs. Walker opened their new Texas Theater at Grand Prairie Nov. 14th.” The Texas Theater that J. S. Walker was operating in 1926 when he was submitting capsule movie reviews to the trade journals was at a different location.

The May 7, 1927 issue of Moving Picture World had this notice: “GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS.— J. S. Walker, manager of Texas Theatre, has purchased two lots on Main street as site for proposed new moving picture theatre.” Just over seven months later Mr. Walker opened the new Texas Theatre. Walker had been leasing the original location, a former garage, at least as early as December, 1925, according to a lawsuit over the property (to which Mr. Walker was not a party.) I’ve been unable to discover the address of the original Texas Theatre.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on April 2, 2020 at 4:54 pm

Randy A. Carlisle: The photos we have definitely show two different buildings. As we have a photo of the Texas dating from 1946 and another with a 1948 movie on the marquee, it’s obvious that some sort of mistake has been made in the theater descriptions. The name Texas Theatre shows up in the local paper all through the 1930s and into the 1940s, but I haven’t found the name Texan Theatre in it. Neither have I found any articles about a fire in 1943, only the one article about the reopening after the fire in 1931.

Randy A Carlisle
Randy A Carlisle on April 2, 2020 at 12:29 pm

From my understanding, the Texas & Texan was 2 totally different theater’s. 2 different locations.. Anyone??

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on March 31, 2020 at 11:16 pm

J. S. Walker of the Texas Theatre, Grand Prairie, was a frequent contributor of capsule movie reviews to various theater industry trade journals as early as March, 1926.

Items from the Grand Prairie Daily News from January through early April, 1931 reveal that the Texas Theatre suffered a major fire early that year and was “practically rebuilt,” reopening at the end of March. J. S. Walker was still operating the Texas at least as late as 1940.