The Alabama and River Oaks Theatres

Both the Alabama and the River Oaks Theatres were part of a legendary circuit of Texas Theatres called Interstate. Interstate Amusements was founded in 1905, and its first theatre, the Dallas Majestic, opened in 1906—making this the 100th anniversary of the company.

The Dallas Majestic first operated as a vaudeville house with a large stage and architectural style that mimicked a European Opera House. Karl Hoblitzelle was the company’s president and founder. He had cut his entertainment teeth as a young assistant to the managers of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Hoblitzelle would remain the president of the company until his death in 1967. Throughout his career he was a powerful figure in Texas, not only in the Hollywood entertainment business, but also as president of Republic National Bank in Dallas, and as an influential philanthropist working through the Hoblitzelle Foundation to support education, health, and culture.

Movies began to replace vaudeville acts in the Interstate Circuit by 1921, but as it built more theatres, it continued to include stages as part of each auditorium. These stages were used to host personal appearances by movie stars during their promotional tours for new films. They were also offered free of charge to community organizations for their events when the theatres were not showing films. During WWII they were the platform for war bond drives and a myriad of contests and promotions. Community involvement was always an important mission of the company.

The Alabama Theatre opened October 23, 1939 with the film “Man About Town”, starring Jack Benny and Dorothy Lamour and the River Oaks Theatre opened November 28, 1939 with the film “Bachelor Mother” starring David Niven and Ginger Rogers. Both theatres were both built as part of a move by Interstate to seek a presence in the ‘suburbs’; the Alabama was considered a roadshow theatre, showing the larger blockbusters. Local motion picture sound engineer Dan Sessions, and former usher at the largest of Interstate’s downtown theatres, the Majestic, remembers just how long some of this big engagements lasted at the theatre.

“A good friend of mine needed a job. So I referred him to a guy that I knew that worked at the Alabama Theatre and he did get a job there. He worked in the Alabama Theatre beginning in 1965 and that was the year the Sound of Music came out and the entire run of that movie was at the Alabama Theatre— it ran there close to a year. The only movie he ever saw when he worked there was Sound of Music. I mean, he could tell you every line, when every song was going to start. It was just amazing.”

Noted Alley Company actor Charles Krohn worked as the assistant manager of the Alabama in 1948, and he remembers when Cinemascope was introduced at the Alabama.

“While I was there, they renovated the theatre…and they replaced the screen with the Cinemascope screen. I was there for the 1st showing of a Cinemascope film in Houston. And it was the Robe which I think was the first cinemascope film made, and that was a big event, searchlights outside and what have you. That would have been the late 1950’s and as you know, that was Hollywood’s attempt to get people from their homes watching TV to come back to the theatre. If it hadn’t been for that, most of those theatres would have closed up, because they weren’t making it in the ticket sales.”