Majestic Theatre (San Antonio)

Last updated

Majestic Theatre
Majestic (12).JPG
Majestic Theatre (San Antonio)
Address224 E. Houston Street
San Antonio, Texas
United States
Owner City of San Antonio
Operator Ambassador Theatre Group
Capacity 2,264
Construction
OpenedJune 14, 1929
Reopened1989
Tenants
Las Casas Foundation
Website
www.majesticempire.com
Majestic Theatre
USA Texas location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Majestic Theatre, San Antonio
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Majestic Theatre, San Antonio
Location San Antonio, Texas
Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Coordinates 29°25′34″N98°29′24″W / 29.42611°N 98.49000°W / 29.42611; -98.49000
Built1929
ArchitectEberson, John
Architectural styleSkyscraper, Mission/Spanish Revival
NRHP reference No. 75001952 [1]
RTHL No. 5972
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 1, 1975
Designated RTHL1991

The Majestic Theatre is San Antonio's oldest and largest atmospheric theatre. The theatre seats 2,264 people and was designed by architect John Eberson, for Karl Hoblitzelle's Interstate Theatres in 1929.

Contents

In 1975, the theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a Texas Historic Landmark in 1991 and a National Historic Landmark April 19, 1993. The theatre was home to the San Antonio Symphony from 1989 to 2014. For many years, it remained the largest theatre in Texas and the second largest movie theatre in the United States. It was also the first theatre in the state to be totally air-conditioned.

History

The land on which the office building-theatre complex now stands was leased to Karl Hoblitzelle from J. M. Nix, who had purchased it in 1920 from the Enterprise Company of Dallas. The land came with the curious deed restriction that, until April 5, 1928, "'neither aforesaid land nor any building or improvement or any part thereon shall be used or occupied for theatrical, motion picture, or amusement purposes at any time...'" [2]

Sufficiently exceeding the listed time restriction, the theatre's opening on June 14, 1929, in many ways symbolized a progressiveness with which San Antonio wished to identify. The city actually deemed the month of the opening "Prosperity Month," celebrating the recent era of development Texas was experiencing. In size, the Greater Majestic was second in the nation only to Atlanta, Georgia's Fox Theatre, and it was the first theatre in Texas to be fully air-conditioned, something that alone was a major attraction in the 1920s South. Advertisements heralding "'an acre of cool, comfortable seats'" were "further emphasized by the snow which topped the letters of the theatre's name," [3] prompting society women to wear fur coats to the June opening. [4] The 4,000-seat theatre was filled to capacity for opening day entertainment, which consisted of the musical film, Follies of 1929 and live performances by Mexican Troubador Don Galvan, "The Banjo Boy," the "Seven Nelsons" acrobatic troupe, Eddie Sauer and his "Syncopaters," and the Father of Country Music, Jimmie Rodgers, who himself received 18 curtain calls. [5] Each week, the program offered included a new film and a new lineup of star performers. In 1930, the Great Depression caused the Majestic to close for several weeks, until it was able to reopen "because Americans were turning to movies for escape." The Majestic provided that escape with a schedule of films and live entertainment through the 1940s and 50s. [6]

Theatre features included a huge cast-iron canopy covering the sidewalk, a vertical sign 76-feet tall topped with "a strutting peacock ... walking as a huge ball rotated under his feet," and a cave-like single-story lobby that included copper lanterns, ceiling murals, and an aquarium filled with tropical fish. [7] Inside the theatre's auditorium were stuffed birds perched on balconies or frozen mid-flight via ceiling wire, replicas of well-known Greek, Roman, and Renaissance sculptures, and specially treated cypress trees brought from Spain and placed on upper-level niches. The Baroque tendency to decorate with mask-like faces is exemplified by carvings alongside the stage and under the mezzanine balcony, and in direct translation of atmospheric theater design, the Majestic's blue ceiling "cloud scape" disguises the interior dome as an evening sky in conjunction with a cloud projector and small bulbs simulating stars. The bulbs are actually positioned according to consultations with experts at the National Geographic Society, who instructed the designer as to the positioning of the real stars on the night of the theater's opening.

In January 2017, the Majestic replaced the white peacock, which had tarnished gray and become "decrepit" over the years with a new one purchased for $3,600 from Joel Donahue, a California taxidermist. There are twenty-seven other stuffed birds in the theatre, including a second, less ostentatious peacock on the opposite side of the new addition. [8] At the Majestic grand opening in 1929, the facility was billed as having "one of the largest collections of stuffed birds in Texas," including a large white peacock. [9] Later in 2017, the theatre hosted the San Antonio portions of Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief.

Premieres

The world premiere of West Point of the Air (1935) was held at the Majestic on March 22, 1935.

The world premiere of The Texans (1938) was held at the Majestic on July 16, 1938. [10]

The world premiere of The Lusty Men (1952) was held at the Majestic in 1952 with stars Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy and Arthur Hunnicutt attending. [10] Selena (1997) starring Jennifer Lopez was filmed inside the theatre.

The world premiere of To Hell and Back (1955) was held at the Majestic on August 17, 1955. In the movie Texan Audie Murphy plays himself as World War II's most decorated combat soldier. The premiere was held on the tenth anniversary of Murphy's army discharge at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. [11]

The world premiere of The Alamo (2004) was held at the Majestic on March 27, 2004 with Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson, Emilio Echevarria, Jordi Molla, native Texan writer/director John Lee Hancock and Academy Award-winning producer Mark Johnson in attendance. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castro Theatre</span> Historic movie palace in the Castro District of San Francisco

The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in the Castro District of San Francisco, California. The venue became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque façade that pays homage—in its great arched central window surmounted by a scrolling pediment framing a niche—to the basilica of Mission Dolores nearby. Its designer, Timothy L. Pflueger, also designed Oakland's Paramount Theater and other movie theaters in California during that period. The theater has over 1,400 seats. The theater's ceiling is the last known leatherette ceiling in the United States and possibly the world. Another leatherette ceiling was demolished just a few years ago. To make the ceiling look as though it is leather requires a special technique regarded as lost today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaii Theatre</span> United States historic place

The Hawaii Theatre is a historic 1922 theatre in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, located at 1130 Bethel Street, between Hotel and Pauahi Streets, on the edge of Chinatown. It is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movie palace</span> Type of movie theater

A movie palace is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains in the 1980s and 1990s signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Theatre (Detroit)</span> Theater and former movie theater in Detroit, Michigan, US

The Fox Theatre is a performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, near the Grand Circus Park Historic District. Opened in 1928 as a flagship movie palace in the Fox Theatres chain, it was at over 5,000 seats the largest theater in the city. Designed by theater architect C. Howard Crane, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freeman Coliseum</span> Sports and concert venue located in San Antonio

Freeman Coliseum is a sports and concert venue located in San Antonio, Texas. It has been host to thousands of events including the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, concerts, trade shows, motor sports, circus, professional sports including professional bull riding, basketball, hockey, boxing and wrestling. It was the largest indoor arena in San Antonio until HemisFair Arena opened in 1968. Since then, many top recording artists have made their San Antonio concert debuts at the Coliseum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Lake Theatre</span>

The Grand Lake Theatre is a historic movie palace located at 3200 Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue in the Grand Lake neighborhood of Oakland, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Theater (Jersey City, New Jersey)</span> Theater in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States

The Stanley Theater at Kennedy Boulevard and Pavonia Avenue is near Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paramount Theatre (Austin, Texas)</span>

The Paramount Theatre is a live theatre venue/movie theatre located in downtown Austin, Texas. The classical revival style structure was built in 1915. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on June 23, 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Eberson</span>

John Adolph Emil Eberson was an Austrian-American architect best known for the development and promotion of movie palace designs in the atmospheric theatre style. He designed over 500 theatres in his lifetime, earning the nickname "Opera House John". His most notable surviving theatres in the United States include the Tampa Theatre (1926), Palace Theatre Marion (1928), Palace Theatre Louisville (1928), Majestic Theatre (1929), Akron Civic Theatre (1929) and Paramount Theatre (1929). Remaining international examples in the atmospheric style include both the Capitol Theatre (1928) and State Theatre (1929) in Sydney, Australia, The Forum (1929), Melbourne, Australia), the Lewis J. Warner Memorial Theater (1932) at Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts and Le Grand Rex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmospheric theatre</span> Type of movie theater

An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace design which was popular in the late 1920s. Atmospheric theatres were designed and decorated to evoke the feeling of a particular time and place for patrons, through the use of projectors, architectural elements and ornamentation that evoked a sense of being outdoors. This was intended to make the patron a more active participant in the setting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of San Antonio</span>

The culture of San Antonio reflects the history and culture of one of the state's oldest and largest cities straddling the regional and cultural divide between South and Central Texas. Historically, San Antonio culture comes from a blend of Central Texas and South Texas (Southwestern) culture. Founded as a Spanish outpost and the first civil settlement in Texas, San Antonio is heavily influenced by Mexican American culture due to Texas formerly being part of Mexico and, previously, the Spanish Empire. The city also has significant German, Anglo, and African American cultural influences. San Antonio offers a host of cultural institutions, events, restaurants and nightlife in South Texas for both residents and visitors alike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aztec Theatre (San Antonio)</span> Theatre

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majestic Theatre (Detroit)</span> United States historic place

The Majestic Theatre is a theatre located at 4126-4140 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

Majestic Theatre or Majestic Theater may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majestic Theatre (Dallas)</span> Performing arts theater in the City Center District of Downtown Dallas

The Majestic Theatre is a performing arts theater in the City Center District of Downtown Dallas. It is the last remnant of Theater Row, the city's historic entertainment center on Elm Street, and is a contributing property in the Harwood Street Historic District. The structure is a Dallas Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Theatre (Minneapolis)</span>

The State Theatre is a historic theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It is one of four restored theatres in the Hennepin Theatre District.

The Woodlawn Theatre is located in San Antonio, Texas, and is one of the few theaters remaining designed by architect John Eberson. Eberson also designed the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio. The Woodlawn Theatre is designed in an art deco fashion, and was previously a prevalent movie theater, including hosting the world premiere of The Alamo in 1960. As of 2012, it is located in an area of San Antonio featuring buildings designed in art deco fashion known as the Deco District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R.J. O'Donnell</span>

Robert J. O'Donnell (1891–1959) was an American businessman and philanthropist who, with partner Karl Hoblitzelle, managed the Interstate Theater chain as vice president and general manager from 1925 until his death from lung cancer in 1959. O'Donnell is best known for helping facilitate the growth of the "Majestic" chain of theaters during the "classical Hollywood narrative" and later for his philanthropic work both with the Variety Club Children's Charity and the Robert J. O'Donnell Film Series Endowment Fund for the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indiana Theatre (Terre Haute, Indiana)</span> United States historic place

The Indiana Theatre is a historic theater in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1997 and is located in the Wabash Avenue-East Historic District. It opened on January 28, 1922. The theatre was built by Terre Haute resident T. W. Barhydt and was designed by John Eberson. Eberson, who later developed the atmospheric theater style of movie palace, first experimented with atmospheric design elements at the theatre. Eberson stated, "Into this Indiana Theatre I have put my very best efforts and endeavors in the art of designing a modern theatre such as I have often pictured as what I would do were I given a free hand." Through this quote Eberson suggests that the Indiana Theatre embodies the raw beginning of his experiment with a "dream" theater that marked the beginning shift to his atmospheric style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Hoblitzelle</span> American philanthropist and real estate inventor (1879–1967)

Karl Hoblitzelle was an American theater owner, real estate investor, and philanthropist. He was the co-founder of the Interstate Theaters Company, a chain of vaudeville theaters, now a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. He was the first theater owner to add air conditioning to movie theaters in the United States, and the first to add sound in the Southwest. He also helped support the construction of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. Preddy, Jane. "The Greater Majestic Theatre." Marquee: Journal of the Theatre Historical Society of America 20 (1988): 5.
  3. Preddy, Jane. "The Greater Majestic Theatre." Marquee: Journal of the Theatre Historical Society of America 20 (1988): 5-7.
  4. "Majestic Theatre". Frommer's 2010-2-15.
  5. Preddy, Jane. "The Greater Majestic Theatre." Marquee: Journal of the Theatre Historical Society of America 20 (1988): 7.
  6. Pinkard, Tommie. "The Stars Shine Again at the Majestic". Texas Highways January 1983: 22.
  7. Preddy, Jane. "The Greater Majestic Theatre." Marquee: Journal of the Theatre Historical Society of America 20 (1988): 9-10.
  8. Deborah Martin, "Majestic now can be proud as peacock", San Antonio Express News , March 19, 2017, pp. 1, A22.
  9. San Antonio Light, June 9, 1929, quoted in San Antonio Express-News, March 19, 2017, p. A22.
  10. 1 2 Thompson, Frank. Texas Hollywood: Filmmaking in San Antonio Since 1910. San Antonio: Maverick Publishing Company, 2002.
  11. The Handbook of Texas Music, second edition, Retrieved 11 August 2013
  12. The Free Library, Confirmed 11 August 2013