Ward Theatre

Sam Lewis, Lewis Homan and R.E. Rushing opened the Ward Theatre with Yvonne De Carlo in “Song of Scheherazade” on July 2, 1948 across from the Mohanans Court House. Architectural plans were by Jack M. Corgan of Dallas. The Streamline Moderne style theatre seated an optimistic 800 folks.

The trio of operators were going up against the two established theatres in town. They would also add the Corral Drive-In the following year. The operators would launch a suit against Theatre Enterprises, Inc. - operators of the Texan Theatre and Palace Theatre. It would become known as Rushing v. MGM Distributing of Texas as their 1954 court case claimed collusion was preventing them from gaining access to A and AA film titles of the era. They lost the court battle. And they then appear to have thrown in the towel in 1958.

The former theatre was converted for auto services and was still standing in that use in the 2020’s.

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