Texas Theatre
136 S. Main Street,
Rusk,
TX
75785
136 S. Main Street,
Rusk,
TX
75785
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Hey Mr. Vogel, I can help out here. It opened July 28, 1931 with “Whoopee” starring Ed Cantor and ran its final show on December 20, 1946 with a midnight showing of “The Phantom Speaks” . The owner’s name was actually J.H. Hughes. One thing I’ve found neat is that when the Texas closed, the entire staff simply put on new t-shirts and walked on over to the new Cherokee and started working. Now, the Astor, that one has plagued me for a few years now trying to find info on.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth291498/m1/1/ (open) https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth326134/m1/1/ (close)
The Texas Theatre first appears in the FDY in 1932, a new rival to the town’s 300-seat Astor Theatre. The May 12, 1931 issue of Motion Picture Times said: “The Texas will be the name of a new house in Rusk, Texas, put in by Rau & Hughes in opposition to H. C. Houston operating the Astor. Rusk has between 3,000 and 4,000 population.”
A item in a later issue of the same journal says that J. T. Hughes had ordered “…500 beautiful upholstered chairs” for his new theater at Rusk (not quite the 575 seats the 1932 Year Book claimed the house had.) I haven’t found the opening date, but “J. T. Hughes, of the Texas at Rusk, was a recent visitor to the Dallas market and at the TIMES office” according to the December 22, 1931 issue of Motion Picture Times.