Driving through downtown Kilgore, look toward the historic Crim Theatre and Texas Theater buildings. They two landmarks sit across the street from each other.
The Crim, at 112 S Kilgore, and constructed in 1938, opened on June 21, 1939 with Cary Grant starring in Only Angels Have Wings. East Texas Theatres Inc. built it to be the most modern movie house in the state, a goal fully realized at the time. Paramount Pictures operated the theater through its subsidiary, Julius Gordon, drawing large crowds during Kilgore’s oil boom years.
The Crim Theatre closed in the mid 1960s, after which the Crim name moved across the street to the Texan Theatre, which remained in operation until 1972. The original Crim building later served multiple purposes over the decades, including use as a restaurant plus a city storage facility. Though the interior now sits empty, the restored neon marquee, relit in 2015, still glows at night as a reminder of Kilgore’s cinematic past.
Across the street stands the Texan Theatre, a fixture in downtown Kilgore since 1942. Built after the Crim closed to continue serving moviegoers, the Texan endured a difficult history that included two major fires. The first fire destroyed the building, while a later blaze began in the kitchen during its years as a catfish restaurant in the 1980s.
Today, the Texan Theatre is entering a new chapter. The theater is now owned by the City of Kilgore and serves as an event space. Standing here, with the Crim Theatre on one side of the street plus the Texan on the other, you are at the heart of Kilgore’s entertainment history, a place where movie lights once dimmed, crowds gathered, plus downtown life came alive.
