E-Tex Theatre

The E-Tex Theatre was one of three recognized hardtop cinemas in diminutive Cushing, Texas. The town also had an informal, open air movie operation, as well. In planning stages, the E-Tex was called the East Texas Theatre reflecting Cushing’s location in the eastern part of the State. The theatre was successful lasting from just months prior to World War II and lasting into the 1960’s in downtown Cushing. Its main floor was reserved for White patrons with African American and other races restricted to the E-Tex’s balcony seating.

The town’s first cinema, the Crown Theatre, operating within 20 years of Cushing’s launch as a railroad town known for transporting the area’s cotton products and pine lumber. This brought a diverse population to the area. The Crown Theatre operated throughout the 1920’s likely using the signage from the Crown Theatre that had gone out of business about 20 miles away in Nacodoches.

Just prior to the start of the 1930’s, things had changed for the town which had tripled in size to some 1,500 residents - and those changes would find it retreating in size significantly.

The film industry was converting to sound - a transition apparently beyond the Crown’s financial reach; the cotton industry had been almost completely destroyed by the boll weevil lessening freight need and cotton pickers; and the pine trees were being deforested at a ruthless pace as lumberers needed volume of product due to its low costs compared to more valued woods. Oh, and the Great Depression had hit. By 1931, the town had decreased in size to around 400 people and the Crown Theatre closed leaving a cinema-less downtown.

In November of 1939, Jack Saunders opened the short-lived New Theatre - Cushing’s second movie house - but it was a quick failure. Not long after, however, O.L. Smith of Alto, Texas took over the Payne Building in downtown Cushing to create the East Texas Theatre in the Summer of 1941 with a balcony and what he called “good sound.” Four changes of shows were given each week to ensure variety.

The new venue launched on June 18, 1941 with Judy Garland in “Little Nellie Kelly” supported by a Pete Smith Specialty short. It also launched as the E-Tex Theatre possibly because that would require a more compact and cheaper exterior sign. (It also gave the State of Texas two really cool theater names with the E-Tex and the El-Tex Theatre in Elgin.)

Among the well wishers of the opening were the town’s merchants including Strickland’s Grocery, Cushing Hardware & Furniture, Knight’s Variety, Gage’s Cafe, and Cushing Motor Company. And the town of Cushing supported its movie house for some 20 years surviving the onset of television but was finally not viable when the town’s size dipped nearly 20% in the 1960 census to under 400 residents. An informal open air theater was created as a gathering point thereafter though not recognized in the trades. The building was demolished and would have stood two doors down from Cushing’s current City Hall.

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