Rivers Oaks Theatre Is Old!

A historic Houston movie theatre has a birthday. It turns 70 years old. A few years back the local public was in an outrage when some suggested tearing down the aging Houston monument. Yet, like the quaint children’s book The Little House, the city continued to grow around the art deco vintage theatre without touching it.

A Starbucks flanks each side of this theatre’s street. A walloping Barnes and Nobles plus parking garage rises from the ground right across from it. The theatre sighs in relief. Despite its cracks and its tired and faded green carpet, the theatre lives on.

You may guess my excitement to participate in this celebration. The advertisement promises cocktails, pizza, and cake. The ultimate sell is that the premiering movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starring the famous Jimmy Stewart, will only cost me two shiny quarters!

Ready and willing, my friend Emily and I head towards the River Oaks district. We have a quick bite at Café Express, relate shoddy directions over a dying cell phone, and we are ready to celebrate the aging theatre minus our third party roaming Houston with shoddy directions and a dead cell phone.

We roll into the gigantic parking garage attached to the new Barnes and Nobles shopping area, walk across the street, pay our 50 cents to the box office and enter the River Oaks Theatre. Elated, I float up the stairs to the cocktail bar. Emily orders a bubbly glass of champagne, I sip on a glass of cabernet sauvignon and add to the film chatter emanating in the little space around the bar.

Excited to sit in the theatre with alcohol, we walk downstairs and find the seats are ripe for picking. We both expect a large crowd but a 1930s Looney Tunes cartoons finishes playing and there is no more than thirty people in the theatre.

Then, to our surprise, a trivia game begins and is hosted by what seems is a local vendor who possible owns a local film shop. The best part is that there are prizes and Emily is a movie GENIUS!

Two prizes later and we are ready to watch the premiering movie.

Did I laugh? Yes, and sometimes at parts I don’t suppose were meant to be funny. Did I cry? No. Do I encourage others to celebrate this aging structure’s birthday? Please do! Will I go next year? Maybe; depends on what I am doing then.