The Plaza Theatre on opening night. Image provided by the
El Paso Community Foundation.
Plaza Theatre
El Paso, Texas
The
Plaza Theatre, located at 125 Pioneer Plaza in downtown El Paso, Texas,
represents an important era in American movie theater history and is a
unique example of the atmospheric theater style of the 1920s. It has
been described as an “exceptional, intact example of an atmospheric
movie palace in the United States” and its Spanish Colonial Revival
style design reveals much of the unique bi-national and bi-cultural
heritage of the American Southwest.[1]
For more than forty years it was a local institution entertaining
several generations of people from west Texas, southern New Mexico and
northern Mexico with films, live performances, celebrities, and public
events. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in
2003 was upgraded to a site of national significance.
The
Plaza Theatre was built in 1929-30, in the midst of the Great
Depression. The border cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez,
Chihuahua had grown significantly in the early years of the 20th
century. By the late 1920s, El Paso was a booming city of more than
100,000 residents with a thriving downtown commercial district. The site
of the theater was at the end of a one mile stretch of El Paso Street
between Pioneer Plaza and the international bridge to Ciudad Juárez, a
thoroughfare sometimes referred to as the "Broadway of the Southwest."[2]
In 1927
the site was purchased by Louis L. Dent Inc. for a development by Dent
Theaters Inc., a Dallas-based theater chain expanding in the new sound
movie market. During plans to construct the Plaza Theatre, Dent Theaters
was purchased by Paramount-Famous-Pictures-Lasky Corporation. The
theater was designed by W. Scott Dunne, a Dallas-based architect and was
built by H.T. Ponsford and Sons, an El Paso construction company. The
grand opening of the Plaza Theatre took place on September 12, 1930 with
a screening of the romantic musical comedy Follow Thru.[3]
Along with the feature film, the audience enjoyed a message from the
leading man, Buddy Rogers, a Paramount Sound News newsreel, and a Laurel
and Hardy short film.
The
Plaza Theatre was designed and built in the Spanish Revival tradition of
the early 20th century. The lavish interior was described by the El Paso
Morning Times as reflecting the "fabled beauty of Old Spain and
the charm of Old Mexico." The Plaza was designed as an "atmospheric"
theater; one that creates the illusion of being at an outdoor stage in
an open starlit area. A simple vaulted ceiling with technical lighting
features simulated clouds and twinkling stars. The 2410 seat theater had
many first or unique features. When completed, it was the largest movie
theater west of Dallas. It featured the most extensive refrigeration
system available, providing cool air-conditioning to patrons and
performers. It had the first refrigerated drinking water system in a
public building in the country. It was the first theater to use a
telephone communications system known as a "telecheck" throughout the
auditorium.[4]
One of the most impressive features of the Plaza was its massive
Wurlitzer Balaban III organ, built to Dunne's specifications. It
featured 15 ranks and 961 pipes and was one of only six produced by the
Wurlitzer Company. In building the Plaza, a seventy foot long and eight
foot wide steel I-beam was used to support the mezzanine and balcony.
This was said to have been the single biggest piece of steel west of
Chicago, possibly in the entire country.
[5]
The
Plaza thrived during the 1940s and 1950s. World premieres at the theater
brought major motion picture stars to El Paso including John Wayne,
Randolph Scott, and James Stewart. Major films, including 70mm wide
screen productions, as well as live entertainment, continued to draw
large crowds into the 1960s. A 1965 remodeling of the Plaza brought a
new spurt of popularity but suburban cinemas and multi-screen theaters
were drawing people away from downtown sites. In 1976 the last film was
shown at the Plaza Theatre.[6]
The
Mighty Wurlitzer, however, was saved. In 1959 a group of dedicated
volunteers restored the organ but with the decline of the theater it too
was threatened. The Mighty Wurlitzer's last theater performance was in
1972. It was purchased by a Dallas resident and was soon forgotten.
Later, El Pasoan Karl Wyler and his wife Glyn became major forces in
returning the organ to El Paso and having it fully restored. The El Paso
Community Foundation arranged for its return and restoration and in 1998
the Mighty Wurlitzer was placed in its new home, the Sunland Park Mall,
where it has regularly entertained thousands of people.[7]
The
Plaza Theatre was entered in the National Register of Historic Places as
a locally significant site in 1987. During the 1990s the El Paso
Community Foundation and the Plaza Theatre Corporation led the move to
restore the site. In 2000, the restoration effort was designated as an
official project of Save America's Treasures, a program of the National
Trust for Historic Preservation and the White House Millennium Council.
From 2000-2004 a variety of federal, state, and local grants were
acquired to help with the project. In 2004 the Plaza Theatre was
upgraded on National Register of Historic Places to a site of national
significance.
[1] Emily
Hotaling Eig, “Plaza Theater National Register of Historic Places
Inventory-Nomination Form,” Sec. C, 1.
[2] Cynthia
Farrah Hines, "Plaza Theater: Showcase of the Southwest,"
unpublished manuscript, 2.
[3] Hotaling
Eig, "Plaza Theater National Register," 11.
[4] Hotaling
Eig, "Plaza Theater National Register," 6; Farah Haines, "Plaza
Theater," 10-11.
[5] Hotaling
Eig, "Plaza Theater National Register," 6.
[6] Farrah
Haines, ""Plaza Theater, " 33, 34, 35. Some Spanish language films
were shown in 1978.
[7] Farrah
Haines, "Plaza Theater," 16-17.
