OKLA Theater Preservation Society
Let’s Bring
Her Back
McAlester’s 1931 Art Deco treasure has been dark since 1989. We’re opening her in time for her hundredth birthday.
18 E. Choctaw Ave · McAlester, Oklahoma · Est. 1931
She isn’t starting from nothing
Before we ask you for anything, here’s what’s already been paid for, and who paid for it.
Lead paint and asbestos, gone
$200,000 · state grant · 2012
The neon marquee, relit
$30,000 · McAlester businesses
ADA restrooms
done
Three-phase power
done
A full HVAC system
donated. Waiting to go in.
Seats for the balcony
in hand
Architects
commissioned
On the National Register of Historic Places
since 2003
Her story
She opened on a Friday
The Palace burned down in December of 1930. Six months later, only six, the OKLA opened in its place.
Wallace Wilkerson handed the architect W. Scott Dunn fifty thousand dollars and the walls that survived the fire. Dunn gave McAlester eight hundred seats under a painted sky. He called it revised moderne, semi-atmospheric. The morning after she opened, the News-Capital wrote that she was on a par with the very best found in larger cities.
The balcony cost a quarter. The main floor cost thirty-five cents.
Howard Hughes owned her lease for a year. Forrest Tucker came in person for the premiere of Rock Island Trail in 1950, a hundred years after the railroad reached town.
She ran films for fifty-eight years. The last one was Uncle Buck. September 4th, 1989. She was the last single screen left in McAlester, and then she was dark.
“Greetings, McAlester. The OKLA Theatre opens.” News-Capital, July 1931. Spelled “Theatre,” as it was then.
The original vertical blade sign, 1931
Nearly everyone in this town over forty-five saw a movie in that room.
The room, lit again. The whole point of Phase One
Three phases. Five years. One deadline.
She turns a hundred in 2031.
Phase 1 · one year
Make her safe. Open the first floor. Turn the lights on for an audience.
Phase 2 · two years
Doors open. Restore the balcony. Learn how to run a theater again.
Phase 3 · two years
Finish her, third floor and all, in time for the centennial.
$1.5 million by 2031.
Why she matters
There is nothing like her in southeast Oklahoma
Fifteen active theaters in this state. The nearest is ninety minutes away. Every other one is in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, or Norman.
Downtown McAlester closes at five o’clock. A theater with a Tuesday matinee and a Friday night show is five blocks of shops, restaurants and banks with a reason to stay open.
People are already asking for her.
The Dancing Rabbit Music Festival
Spotlight Series
Shared Blessings
Battle of the Bands
A high school reunion
Booked the lobby
She has a waiting list and no doors.
Downtown McAlester: five blocks that close at five
Fifteen active theaters. None in southeast Oklahoma.
Be part of it
Be one of the first hundred
The campaign starts today. Nobody has given yet, so you’d be first. That’s not a warning. It’s an invitation, and it only works once.
Balcony · $10 / mo
Friends of the OKLA. Your name on the founding wall, a sticker, and first crack at opening night.
Most popular
Take your seat · $250
One of eight hundred. A brass plate with your name on it, or with hers. The balcony is being resurfaced right now.
Give nineteen thirty-one
$19.31, the year she opened. Or ten times that. Or a hundred. A one-time gift, any size.
In 1931 the balcony cost a quarter.
Watch her come back.
Updates as the work happens: what we finish, what we find, and what comes next. Never more than you’d want.
