The Ruins of the Hollywood Theatre

First, a little backstory.

That’s the building my loft is in - the Electric Building.  From 1930 to about 1976, it also housed the Hollywood Theatre, one of the grand Art Deco movie houses on 7th Street in downtown Fort Worth.

Fort Worth lost her grand movie palaces downtown in the ’70s. The Palace, the Worth, the Hollywood…all gone.

Right?

Well, it’s not that simple.

Those of us who are Fort Worth architecture/history geeks know that the Hollywood Theater isn’t technically *gone* gone - rather, it was gutted for use as a bank, then as a parking garage. We’ve all read how bits and pieces of the theater are still there in the garage. As it turns out, though, there’s far, far more of the Hollywood left than we know.

In fact, a huge part of the Hollywood is *still intact.*

It’s sealed away in the innards of the Electric Building, locked off from human contact. Somehow, between the remodelings, the bank, the apartments, and the garage, a big chunk of the grand old movie house escaped virtually untouched. Now, it rests. The projector no longer hums and clatters, the screen is no longer filled with images of movie stars. Nobody comes around anymore. It’s in disrepair, covered in dust thick enough to swim in, slumbering in an endless night as black as pitch.

It is, however, still there.

Fellow Fort Worth Forum member mbdalton1 had the rare opportunity to see these ruins, and was allowed to take photos. She had no way to host them, and she has very graciously allowed me to host them for her, and now I present them to you. Get ready for a time warp.

Let us begin in one of the restrooms. Here, you see one of the vanity areas. For those of us who have only ever seen black & white photos of the place, enjoy the sight of color. Again, it’s pitch black and the air is clouded with thick dust. We only see this because of the flash of the camera.

Here, another angle of the vanity. Note the graffiti on the wall, sealed away for so many years. Imagine how long those names have been there, and what those people might be doing now.

Next, an aside. I cropped out the graffiti, and ran it through a wonderful Photoshop filter known as “Mr. Contrast,” capable of abilities far beyond the scope of Photoshop’s normal Contrast tool. The names popped out at me.

Next, the toilets in this same restroom.

While we’re up in this area, check out this former water fountain. The detailing and trim is all still intact.

A closeup of the water fountain. This sort of ornate trim used to be the standard, not the exception. Even in its state of disrepair, the beauty of this place puts modern movie houses to absolute shame. Imagine what the Hollywood was like in person in her golden era.

Moving right along, this old wall safe is still in place. I think somebody made off with the money a long time ago, though.

The outer door of the wall safe.

Here, we have a storage area.

This little room is a janitor’s closet.

As you might have guessed, I’ve been saving the bombshells for the end. Let’s start small. Here is the area underneath the balcony.

Another angle.

Here, a small spiral staircase.

Now, we’re heading up the staircase into the balcony lobby.

Make sure you have a cushion on the floor, because your jaw will start dropping here. This is the balcony lobby, amazingly still intact after all these years.

Let’s head to the balcony, shall we? Yes, it’s still there. Here, we’re looking at the ceiling detail in the balcony. The great black dust-filled void beyond?

The theater.

Wanting to bring out some of the details in the blackness beyond, I ran a section of that photo through the Mr. Contrast filter, fiddled with the settings, and got this. You can see the wall & ceiling better in this. Yes, that’s the theater. It’s still there. This image reminds me of something you’d see in a documentary about filming the wreckage of the Titanic.

Looking back up the balcony, we see that, yes, the projection room is still there.

Here, a staircase that I believe we saw in the balcony lobby pic that leads to the projection room.

Finally, another amazing detail. Fans of the book “Cowtown Moderne” by Judith Singer Cohen will recognize these light fixtures in the photo looking towards the seating and balcony in the book.

Another shot of the theater light. Even in this condition, it’s still a stunningly beautiful thing.

Finally, a closeup of the light.

So, there you have it. Fort Worth’s very own lost ruins. The Hollywood hasn’t left us - it’s just been hiding. This Art Deco gem is just sleeping, deep inside the Electric Building. Perhaps one day it will get to see light once more.

Massive, massive thanks to mbdalton1 for letting me share her amazing photos.

It’s very cool, living mere feet from these ruins.