DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my take on what the official marker has to say about the Cole Theatre in Rosenberg, Fort Bend County. On August 16, 1919, two Czech immigrants — Fred Felcman and Miles Podlipny — opened their doors and called the place the Liberty Theatre. They were showing silent pictures and Czech films, and you can imagine what that meant to a community with roots reaching back across the Atlantic.
A little piece of home, flickering on a screen in Texas. Then 1935 rolls around, new owner by the name of Mart Cole takes the reins, and right away things start to change. The name changes — Liberty becomes Cole — and the whole face of the building gets remade into that sleek art deco style that said, loud and clear, we are in the modern age now.
Saturday matinees brought in the cowboy pictures, the kind that had kids lining up around the block in their boots. And the performers who came through — The Ink Spots, Shirley Temple, John Wayne. That stage saw some names.
Come the nineteen-fifties and sixties, the theatre was running what they called Bank Nights, drawing the whole community in together, that particular Texas magic of a crowd hoping their number gets called. But here's the part the marker doesn't let us look away from — while that building was a meeting place for everyone in Rosenberg, the floor and the balcony were segregated by race, and that didn't end until 1968. A staple of the community, yes, and also a place that carried that weight for decades.
The theatre kept its doors open until 1982 — sixty-three years of operation in all. Later owners came along and staged opries inside those walls, and at some point a TV production studio took up residence there too. That building on the main street of Rosenberg has been standing and serving and carrying stories for over a century now.
Some places just refuse to be forgotten.
What the marker says
On August 16, 1919, Czech immigrants Fred Felcman and Miles Podlipny opened the Liberty Theatre, showing silent and Czech films. Renamed Cole Theatre after new owner Mart Cole in 1935 and remodeled into an art deco fa��ade, the theatre offered Saturday matinee cowboy pictures and hosted performers such as The Ink Spots, Shirley Temple and John Wayne. In the 1950s-60s, "Bank Nights" brought the community together. While the theater was a meeting place for all, patrons were racially segregated between the floor and balcony levels until 1968. After 63 years in operation, the theater closed in 1982. Later owners staged opries and a TV production studio. The theater has been a staple of Rosenberg for over a century. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2022