DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. At the turn of the century, if you wanted a big night out in Fort Worth, your options were pretty much what you'd expect — saloon, dance hall, church, or school. That was the entertainment landscape, and for a city with Fort Worth's ambitions, that just wasn't going to hold.
Then 1905 rolled around, and a man named Karl Hoblitzelle founded something called the Interstate Amusement Company. He looked at the map, looked at the Southwest, and he chose Fort Worth for his Vaudeville Theater Circuit. That decision was about to change things considerably.
By 1910 and into 1911, Interstate had built one of its famous Atmospheric Majestic Theaters right at Tenth and Commerce streets. Now when I say lavish, I want you to understand I mean lavish. Turkish rugs on the floors.
French doors and mirrors on the walls. Plush Spanish leather upholstery on the seats. And the lobby — marble floors, hand-painted walls, and ceilings finished in eighteen karat gold leaf.
Eighteen karat. In Fort Worth, Texas. The place seated 1,356 people, and it reportedly held two national firsts: the country's first indirect stage lighting system, and the country's largest concrete arch — an eighty-foot balcony support beam.
Eighty feet of concrete holding up that balcony while Will Rogers cracked wise from the stage below. Walter Huston performed there. Tallulah Bankhead performed there.
Fred Allen performed there. Fort Worth was on the circuit, and the Majestic was the room that proved it. In 1922 the theater added feature movies alongside its vaudeville program, and by 1932 it had discontinued vaudeville altogether — strictly motion pictures from that point forward.
And that's where the story takes its turn. The magic faded the way it sometimes does, quietly and then all at once. The Majestic fell on hard times and closed in 1953.
People tried to bring it back — efforts were made to restore it — but in 1970 it was razed to make room for the new Tarrant County Convention Center. The gold leaf ceilings, the marble floors, the eighty-foot arch — all of it gone. What stood at Tenth and Commerce is now just a chapter the marker's doing its level best to keep alive.
What the marker says
At the turn of the century Ft. Worth's live entertainment consisted chiefly of saloon, dance hall, church, and school presentations. Matters changed in 1905 when Karl Hoblitzelle founded the Interstate Amusement Company and chose Ft. Worth for its Southwest Vaudeville Theater Circuit. One of Interstate's famous "Atmospheric" Majestic Theaters was built at Tenth and Commerce streets (one block south) in 1910-11. The Majestic's lavish interior included Turkish rugs, French doors and mirrors, plush Spanish leather upholstery and a lobby with marble floors, hand-painted walls, and 18 karat gold leaf ceilings. The 1,356-seat theater reportedly contained the country's first indirect stage lighting system and the country's largest concrete arch, an 80-foot balcony support beam. Performers on Ft. Worth's Majestic stage included Will Rogers, Walter Huston, Tallulah Bankhead, and Fred Allen. The Theater added feature movies to its vaudeville program in 1922 and in 1932 discontinued its vaudeville presentations. Thereafter strictly a motion picture theater the Majestic fell on hard times and closed in 1953. Despite efforts to restore it, the Majestic was razed in 1970 to make room for the new Tarrant County Convention Center. (1993)