Aerial View: Movie Row from the Rear
by Paula Bosse
by Paula Bosse
This is a cool aerial shot of downtown, looking toward the south, with a nice look at the back side of the waning Movie Row, with the Pacific Avenue rear entrances of the Majestic and Capri theaters visible. I’m not sure of the date, but the Melba Theater was renamed the Capri on Dec. 25, 1959 and was ultimately demolished in 1980 or 1981, and the Medical Arts Building (seen in the middle at the far right) was demolished in 1977. I’m guessing the ’70s, if only because of the vast expanse of parking lots.
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Sources & Notes
Another instance of muddled/incomplete notes on my end. This is a screenshot from… something. I don’t remember if the image seen here is a photo or is from moving footage shot over Dallas.
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Copyright © 2021 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
I was a qualified union arial cameraman in the early 80’s which was really difficult. I always worked with Max Stone (I think that was his last name) on a Jet Ranger which I also did KVIL traffic reports. Just mounting the Continental Camera Mount was scary as it had me hanging out of the helicopter. I shot a great deal of downtown trying to capture the footage of the Dallas opening. This footage may be in my storage place.
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I see at least two things that narrow the date down a little. The cooling towers on top of the Medical Arts parking garage in the lower center of the photo were added in 1963 to cool the new Republic Center Tower and the Neiman Marcus parking garage in the upper right was built in 1967.
If this photo was taken after Bryan Tower was built in 1972 then it may have been visible in the lower right like in this Google Earth view:
But the view would only be the same if the field of view of the camera lens was the same as the virtual lens in Google Earth.
I can’t identify any specific vehicle but they feel like the 70s instead of the 60s.
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We often are nostalgic about old buildings. (For instance, 60 years later, I still remember being astounded that the Medical Arts building had elevator operators!) But, I cannot help but be grateful that in 2021, a lovely park now covers what was acres of asphalt in the older photo. Thank you, Robert Decherd and the Belo Parks folks.
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Note the “7” behind the “Capri.”So definitely from 1971 or later, which was the year Gordon McLendon divided the Melba – sorry, Capri – into 7 small screens (some very small and in the basement!)
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Wonderful post. KVIL and Gordon McLendon in the comments! Doesn’t get any better than that. I once did a paper on Gordon McLendon in Darwin Payne’s class at SMU many, many years ago. Spent a few days at the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech going through McLendon’s files. McLendon was a most interesting man.
I love your blog, Paula!
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Thank you, Greg!
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I saw a televised close circuit Indy 500 in one of the thesters, Patton, The Wild Bunch and James Brown…
Not an existing theater today that could match the Majestic or the Capri for the viewing experience…..
Top left is the old police station, top center , the concaved agua blue building was a hotel….cant remember the name.
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Oh you mean the Statler!
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[…] bird’s-eye view of downtown (including the Municipal Building) is this “Aerial View: Movie Row from the Rear.” I think it was a screenshot from a film I came across somewhere, but my notes are shockingly […]
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[…] “AERIAL VIEW: MOVIE ROW FROM THE REAR“ […]
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