Since its grand opening on Feb. 7, 1914, the Waco Hippodrome has been the home to various forms of 20th-century entertainment — from road shows and vaudeville tours to movies, concerts, local talent shows and pageants.

It has even played host to church bodies in its almost century-old existence.

But its survival is now in doubt. On Feb. 25, the board of directors of the Waco Performing Arts Company — the community-based, nonprofit organization that managed the facility — abruptly canceled that night’s show and shuttered the doors.

It’s not the first unlucky incident to hit the venerable structure, which is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

In November 1928, a projectionist allowed a film’s first reel to come undone, and the volatile celluloid came too close to the kerosene lamp and set the room ablaze. The fire burned the front of the building.

A renovation project allowed for the installation of equipment to play “Talkies,” or sound/motion pictures, and resulted in a complete facade change to Spanish Colonial Revival from its stately, dark-brick face with classical detailing,

Work on the Hippodrome began in 1913 on land originally donated to city officials by Mrs. William Bruestadt.

A consortium of businessmen, organized by Thomas P. Finnegan, hired Dallas architects Otto Land and Frank Witchell, and Waco’s Roy E. Lane to design the structure for live acts and cinema entertainment.

With its ornate domed ceiling, gold-leaf trim and proscenium arch, the Waco Hippodrome was deemed an architectural treasure by the fans of its chief designer, Lane.

1st show

When it first opened, admission was a nickel for children, a dime for adults and a quarter for box seats. The opening-night performance included a magician, five-piece orchestra and a “live seal act.”

Earl Henry Hulsey and J.P. Harrison operated the Hippodrome from its opening until 1928. Hulsey (1880-1961) was a showbiz entrepreneur who owned several movie houses across the state. The house was known colloquially in Waco as “Hulsey’s Hipp.”

When it reopened in 1929, it was redubbed the Waco Theater and was operated by Louis Dent for Southern Enterprises, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures.

But it was more than just a movie house. From 1932-56, WACO-AM broadcast the “Jones’ Fine Bread Kiddie Matinee Show,” a 30-minute youth talent contest each Saturday, hosted by Mary Holliday.

Holliday (1901-69), thought to be the first female on-air talent in Texas, started work in radio in 1925 as a studio pianist at WJAD-AM, which became WACO-AM in 1927.

The show launched shortly thereafter but was moved to the Waco Theater in 1932 because of its enormous popularity. The young performers got in free, but the audience paid a quarter a head to get in.

The children competed for humble cash prizes of 50 cents to $2. The show’s most-famous alumnus was honky-tonk singer Hank Thompson (1925-2007), “The King of Western Swing.”

Besides being a movie house, the Waco Theater brought live acts to town, including Elvis Presley, Ann Margaret and even John Wayne.

In fact, legend has it the largest crowd ever seen at the Waco Theater was more than 10,000 folks to see The Duke in the flesh. Mind you, the Hippodrome seats fewer than 1,000.

After decades of primarily hosting the movie trade, in 1978, the theater closed. In disrepair and crumbling, the structure was not reopened until Feb. 26, 1987, after a $2.4 million renovation campaign ($4.4 million in 2009 dollars).

Since its renaissance, it has hosted Broadway tours, comedians, rock concerts and civic events, as well as the local premieres of Waco filmmakers. It also started a series of film revivals in summer 2009.

Sources: CinemaTreasures.org, The Texas Collection at Baylor University, Tribune-Herald clip files, Jennifer Warren, WacoPerformingArts.org.