Palms Theater & Dairy Queen

I've received a couple of questions asking if I had any pictures of the Palms Theater and the Dairy Queen.  I don't have many, but here are a few.  

(Here's an earlier post with aerial photos showing the location of these social centers of old Sugar Land.)

1970s?

1970s?

Ticket booth & front doors, early 1950s

Inside the front doors, early 1950s

Refreshments counter, 1950s (thanks Judy Diamond)

I hope Coach didn't see the cigarettes on the table.

The Palms Theater (Continued)

I thought you might be interested in some background on Monte Hale, the western movie idol posing with Ida Seitz Plokuda & Mickey Wanjura Dylla in the picture shown in last week's post.  (He had a bit part in "Giant.")

Link to info on Monte Hale. 

After looking closely at the photo from last week, I had to research "The Mask."  I found info at the link below.  It was a 3-D film made in Canada - that country's first horror film!  Sounds like it's pretty horrible.

Link to info on "The Mask."

I wonder if anyone else remembers "The Tingler."  It was another horror movie with a technological gimmick.  Theater operators put buzzers under random seats & set them off at suspenseful moments in the film.  I remember seeing "The Mask" and wearing the disposable 3-D 'glasses' with red & green lenses.  I'm pretty sure I saw "The Tingler," but I don't recall the buzzers.  (Notice that the trailer is available on IMDb, if you need a reminder.)

Link to info on "The Tingler."

The Palms Theater

Here are some images relating to The Palms Theater.  I've posted a couple before, but I thought I'd put them all together in a set.

I think you'll be able to determine the theater's location from the photos.  If not, it was located on the southeast corner of Highway-90A & Ulrich Street.  (Roughly a few yards west of the parking lot in front of Imperial's current headquarters building.)

Here's a short article at the City's Web site.

The article says it opened in 1950.  I'm vague on details, but I think it opened briefly in 1949, then suffered a fire.  Mart Cole closed it for repairs & reopened it shortly thereafter.  I may be wrong about this -- maybe the fire occurred before the opening & extended the period of construction.

I vaguely recall paying less than $.10 admission when I was very young.  I thought it was $.07, but based on these tickets, maybe it was $.09.  They come from the The Cole Theater in Halletsville, which is still in operation.  I've tried to find out where Cole had theaters, but I haven't had much luck tracking down a definitive source.  I know they had movie houses in Richmond, Rosenberg & Halletsville, as well as Sugar Land. 

As the City's article said, D. P. Morton managed The Palms.  Here he is in a photo from the '60s.

These next photos show the exterior of the building.  The young woman in the last photo is Mickey Wanjura Dylla (SLHS '50).  She worked at The Palms in its early years.

Here are some photos depicting that part of town in the early '50s.  The 1st shows E. R. Cooper on a horse in front of the theater.  No one knows why he's there.  The 2nd shows Mickey in the front drive.  Her pictures may have been used in some sort of promotional campaign.

 
This next picture shows Ida Seitz Plokuda (SLHS '52') & Mickey with western movie star, Monte Hale.  I assume he was promoting one of his movies at The Palms.  Note the wall paper with the palm-tree theme.

Here's another photo showing the interior of the theater.  (Sorry it's a poor scan.)  D. P. & Sid Lasher are standing in the lobby in front of the display case to the right of the refreshment stand.  Notice the popcorn bags behind D. P.  The popcorn machine was on the far-right side of the candy counter.  Behind Sid but out of view is a ramp into the theater.  There was a similar display case & ramp on the left-hand side of the candy counter.

Here are a couple of old movie ads.  The first comes from The Fort Bend Mirror published on October 14, 1965.  The 2nd is a lobby card/schedule for December, 1954.  I'll bet "Killer Leopard" with Johnny Sheffield was a big hit with Sugar Land's cineasts.

Front Doors Of The Palms Theater, 1950s

This photo comes from the Seitz-Plokuda family collection. I can't identify the woman at the door. Notice the Sugar Land Gators sticker on the left of the ticket booth. I can't make out exactly what the sign further to the left says, but it's advertising a contest for some kind of product.

(Update) Bruce has identified the woman as Mickey Wanjura. She worked at The Palms in the 50s.

Entertainment at The Palms Theater!

The image below shows an ad published in The Fort Bend Mirror on October 13, 1965. The Palms Theater was putting on a combination horror movie and stage show, which was pretty rare. I don't remember attending this show - judging by the description I would remember it if I did.

I DO remember attending a stage show, but it was a matinee magic show for kids. At one point the magician asked for a volunteer to participate in a trick. Ralph Barnidge was the victim. He may have been an usher at the time, which means he was probably a plant. Anyway, the magician hypnotized him and put a spell on him so he couldn't bend his right arm after he extended it straight out. The magician brought him out of the trance and then asked him quite casually to extend his right arm. Of course, he couldn't bend it once it was extended from his body. Somebody needs to ask him if the trick was legit.

I can remember lots of incidents that happened at The Palms, or The Psalms as some of my crowd called it. I know we've talked about this before, but you could get a 'ship wreck' or 'suicide' at the fountain. Those were the names for a mixture of all the drinks available at the fountain - I think there were just four. Of course, you could also get candy cigarettes, Slo-Pokes (which would pull out your fillings), Junior Mints, Red Hots, and all kinds of other stuff. Their popcorn was the best - probably the result of years of baked-in oil, salt, etc.

Who could forget "The Tingler," "The Skull," "The Killer Shrews," and some of the 3-D movies.