Campus Life: Texas; After 5 Decades, A Movie Theater Shuts Its Doors from the New York Times Published: July 8, 1990 A landmark campus-area movie theater has shut its doors. The Varsity Theater, which opened when Franklin D. Roosevelt was ending his first Presidential term, had long been a haven for hundreds of thousands of University of Texas students. The theater, built in the lavish Art Deco tradition that thrived in the 1930s, opened cater-corner to the student union in late 1936 as the first suburban movie house in Austins Hyde Park neighborhood. But it showed its last film on May 17 after having struggled for more than a decade to attract student audiences, finally giving way to a Tower Records store. The Sacramento, Calif.-based chain plans to open its first Texas store in the building. A Different Place Steve Wilson, who managed the Varsity during its last 10 years, said that although Tower officials have announced they will keep the buildings theater motif, he believes the campus area is losing part of its character. Its going to be a fancy new building, but the effect is never going to be the same, Mr. Wilson said. A few days after it closed, we went in there to get the old seats out and it already looked like a different place. The theaters financial troubles began as early as the mid-1970s when its owner, ABC Interstate Theaters, decided to sell because fewer tickets were being sold. The new operators changed the format from first-run movies to repertory theater, showing primarily classic and cult double features and changing movies frequently. That failed to attract many customers and they soon switched to nonmainstream art films, but the business again began having trouble paying its bills. Blake Alexander, a professor of architecture history who frequented the theater, said that while he is sad to see it close, he believes the Varsity had seen its day both as an architectural institution and as a place to see alternative films. Change in the Culture In 1980, the managers were forced to close the balcony and convert the space into another auditorium to draw larger crowds. Finally, in 1988 they changed the format from art films to second-run mainstream movies with a $1 ticket price. Up until they did away with the balcony, it was really quite a nice theater, said Mr. Alexander, describing the delicate plaster work on the walls, the bold carpet design and the balcony lounge, replete with period furniture. It was much more a movie-theater experience than what passes for a theater experience today. Its passing will mark a change in the culture of the campus area. David Winter, a graduate special student in education from Detroit, said the theaters demise marks what he believes is the continuing standardization of the campus area. I think there is a relatively homogeneous unit that is college town, said Mr. Winter, who had gone to the theater frequently since arriving on campus in 1987. Austin, rather than maintaining its unique character, is becoming just like any other college town, Mr. Winter said. Every college town has its Tower Records and other chains. Those things arent necessarily evil, theyre just not unique. Mural of Movie Scenes Russell M. Solomon, president of Tower Records, said he intends to maintain as much of the cultural integrity of the theater as possible, including a 4,000-square-foot mural painted on the buildings side in 1979 depicting scenes from classics like Orson Welless Citizen Kane and Harold Lloyds Safety Last. The marquee will also be kept, Mr. Solomon said. Were going to put our name on it, of course, but the building will still look like a theater. Mr. Solomon said he realizes that the theater was an Austin institution for decades but believes the building will better serve Austin, an avid music town, by offering students a selection not available now. We like to identify with cities that have a music tradition, like Austin and Nashville and New Orleans and Detroit, he said. What can I do? Its a choice piece of property and a perfect location. If the locals really wanted it to stay a theater, they would have supported it. Photo: The Varsity Theater in Austin, Tex., in 1936. The movie theater, once a haven for students of the University of Texas, has closed its doors recently after having struggled financially since the mid-1970s. (Austin History Center)
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:48:08 +0000
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