In July of 1910 a simple announcement in the Tulsa Tribune changed the course of history for the little town of Durant, Oklahoma: “Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Allison will leave Monday for Durant, Oklahoma where they will make their future home.”
Arthur J. Allison, manager of Tulsa’s B. & P. Palace had a reputation as a “vigorous, progressive young man of brain and means” and the pool hall and barber shop had done well under his management. However, Arthur had ambitious goals and moved to Durant to open a grand movie theater and vaudeville house.
On Third Avenue there was a building occupied by a shoe repair shop and an ice cream parlor. The shoe repair shop moved across the street and Mr. Allison set to work to convert it into a theater. By October he was seating his audience.
The Orpheum Theatre, “designed after the Orpheum Theatre of Chicago” had an arched stucco front, welcoming lobby, stucco ticket office, and a double entrance with mahogany swinging doors. It was illuminated with forty electric lights. The theater floors inclined toward the rear, ensuring that all 225 seats had a good view of the plaster of Paris screen. There was a large skylight in the center of the roof for ventilation. A safety feature was the fire-proof “operations room” with an entrance from the ticket office, not the auditorium. And of course the movies were projected by Mr. Edison’s newest improved machine.
Arthur and his wife, Mary, were welcomed to Durant by a standing-room-only crowd on the opening night of the Orpheum. The Durant Democrat declared: “The pictures were shown in a faultless manner and in addition to piano music, a snare drum and traps were used, adding materially to the entertainment.” (Audiences, accustomed to the sound effects of radio shows, expected the silent movies to be accompanied by live piano music and the sounds of bells, whistles, and drums.) Miss Prentice Meacham sang the “illustrated songs “presented separately from the films.
Mr. Allison promised to provide moral entertainment: “Fathers and mothers, young ladies and children, are assured every courtesy and protection.” One of the shows he procured was the “Pride of Oklahoma” program- two days of films depicting life on the 101 Ranch. One film claimed to show the “last real buffalo hunt you will ever have the opportunity to witness”. Another showed the day-to-day operations of the famous ranch.
In November of 1910 opera seats installed. Crowds were even more comfortable and the paper offered reviews and plot summaries for shows.
Changes were also made in January, 1911. A new film service, “biograph pictures” and a canvas screen were part of the upgrade. Movies were not the only entertainment that drew crowds. From February to May, the Wilson Brothers from Los Angeles were featured singers.
In March, Mr. Allison purchased a glorious sign for the Orpheum. The electric creation, containing five hundred lights, was five feet wide and eight feet high and depicted a juggling clown. The news article also mentions that Mr. Allison purchased the People’s Theater and was improving it. He installed a new picture machine and a new canvas. At the Orpheum he used the Independent Film service, and at the People’s he used the Licensed Film service, thus providing variety for audiences.
Unexpectedly, in March of 1913, Mr. Allison sold the Orpheum to a Mr. Gill from Commerce, Texas. He declared the theater in capable hands, as Mr. Gill had four years of experience. He also told the editor of the Bryan County Democrat that he had no plans to leave Durant, but if he did, he would likely return. The Allisons did leave, and are mentioned in various newspapers while residing in New Jersey, Ohio, and Massachusetts over the next three years. They are listed in the New Jersey state census in 1915, where Mr. Allison was a theater manager.
By June of 1913 Mr. Gill had sold the Orpheum. The new owners were Ed Sittle and O. A. Benfer of Denison, with Mrs. Sittle as manager. Both were young, but with “considerable experience”. They owned the Aladdin and the Arcade in Denison.
In December of 1914 Sittle and Benfer gave 150 tickets for the matinee to the poor of Durant. One man, who brought his eight children, commented that he had never been inside a theater before. Mrs. Luna Brown Mattox was the pianist for the Orpheum.
From December 1914 through January 1915 the Presbyterian church met in the Orpheum while their new building was being constructed. Orpheum ads carried the slogan “Kool-Klean-Komfortable”.
In April of 1916 the Orpheum was sold to Richard R. Webber, who was “almost raised in the motion picture business” in Muskogee. In May there was an ad in the paper for ushers. The High School operetta was presented at the Orpheum. The theater was also used for announcements: election results, sporting event scores. Webber had the results wired to him and then flashed them on the screen.
In June of 1916 Webber sold the Orpheum to E. L. Pritchett. By that time Arthur Allison was back in Oklahoma and bought his beloved theater from Mr. Pritchett. An item in the Evening Review of East Liverpool, Ohio reported that Mrs. A. J. Allison, of Taunton, Massachusetts, had been visiting her mother, but would “leave soon for Ardmore, Oklahoma”.
The Durant Daily Democrat of July 21, 1916 was happy to announce “The Orpheum Theatre, again in the capable hands of A. J. Allison, was opened to the public Saturday.”
In October the Orpheum suffered a minor setback. A fire started in the operator’s booth, but because it was “fire proof” and closed off from the auditorium, there was little damage except from smoke. The Orpheum was closed two days while the entire theater was painted and repapered, and a new machine was installed. The public was assured that the Orpheum was “as safe as a show house can be”. Later that month Allison worked with local women’s groups to secure and present children’s films once a week.
In December there was a fund-raising campaign and voting contest. The church, school, lodge or society receiving the most votes between December 4 and December 24 won $50. There was another incentive in January of 1917. Any boy made up like Chaplain got in free to the matinee.
Major changes took place in March of 1917. A new “theater company” was incorporated, made up of A. J. Allison, C. H. Crook, James E. Downen, and Cecil A. Bilbo. They had $15,000 in capital. Workmen began tearing out the building occupied by the Orpheum and then took down the partition between it and the building on the north side, occupied by the Edgar M. Williams Co. Allison soon announced the opening of the new $25,000 Liberty Theater.
In August he stood on the stage and shared his plans with a packed house. He assured them that he would listen to their requests and try to please them with the films he showed. He also explained that the “fine 16-piece unit orchestra” could not be used due to “two or three small pieces” not being in working order. A company representative had been dispatched to repair it. This was probably a reference to a version of the American Fotoplayer, a player piano augmented by an assortment of horns, bells, and whistle effects.
A detailed description of the building was included in the newspaper. The “house staff” included C.H. Crook, president; James. E. Donen, treasurer; A. J. Allison, manager; Mrs. A. J. Allison, cashier; W. N. Hardt, operator; Mrs. Kenton Mattox, music; Frank Love, stage manager; Allie Wilson, property manager.
In another bold move, Mr. Allison bought out the Bungalow and Colonial theaters in February, 1918, becoming “the owner of all the theaters in the city”. The Colonial was temporarily closed and was afterward used as a stage for guest speakers. The Bungalow was used for vaudeville acts, and the “big show” was always at the Liberty.
In December of 1920 Arthur Allison finally retired and sold the Liberty and Bungalow theaters to the Rabb & Rowley syndicate of Dallas. They owned nine theaters in Texas.
Arthur died in Los Angeles in 1964.