Arcadia Publishing releases a new book next week titled, “Historic Dallas Theatres” by local historian D. Troy Sherrod. The book examines Dallas as the showbiz capital of Texas during the 20th century.
There was a time when the city had more than 100 theaters. In fact, Elm Street had almost as many vaudeville theaters and movie houses as Broadway. Only a few iconic structures remain today. The book takes us through different neighborhoods, including Downtown, East Dallas and Oak Cliff, and it devotes entire chapters to the burlesque scene and segregation.
Our neighborhood makes plenty of appearances with iconic structures such as the Lakewood Theatre, listed as “the best remaining example of an Art Deco theater in Dallas.” But the East Dallas chapter is full of other historic theaters that we don’t see today.
There’s the Arcadia Theatre, which opened in 1927 as the city’s first theater with sound. In the 1980s, it became a nightclub until it burned down in 2006. Now, the site is home it’s Trader Joe’s.
At the corner of Mockingbird and Skillman, there was the Wilshire Theatre that operated from 1946-1978.
The Peak Theatre in Old East Dallas burned down in 1956, and the owner was charged with arson. Today, the Peak/Live Oak site is home to a residential community.
Those are just a few of the historic theaters examined in the book, which comes out Feb. 3. There’s also the Granada, the Captain Theatre on North Henderson, the Grand Theatre on East Grand, the Buckner Drive-In in far East Dallas and, of course, Casa Linda.
Sherrod, the author, is a fourth-generation resident of Dallas with roots in local showbiz. His research and photos came from his own collections as well as Dallas Morning News archives, the Dallas Public Library and SMU libraries.
