Cine El Rey

Plans for the theater were drawn up by a Dallas company, Texas Consolidated Theaters. The company already owned three English-language theaters in McAllen. The contractor on Cine El Rey was W.E. Crawford. The theater opened in May 1947 and served the influx of Mexican agricultural workers who came to McAllen and wanted to see Spanish-language films. The Brocero program allowed five million Mexican workers to labor on American farms due to the labor shortages caused by World War II. Opening night of Cine El Rey was a special event for the local Hispanic community, and ushers were dressed in Mexican folk costumes. The first film screened - There are Dead People Who Make No Noise (Hay Muertos Que No Hacen Ruido) - starred the Mexican comic actor German Valdes; invitations for opening night were printed in Spanish. The 1930s and 1940s were the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, with Mexican westerns (charro) and comedies being the most popular. The new theater advertised in the local Spanish language newspaper El Echo, and an English language newspaper, the McAllen Evening Monitor. Feline Perez, a local artist, hand-painted large posters to advertise each film in the early years of the theater.

The three-story building is about fifty feet wide by one hundred seventy-five feet long. The lower front and the recessed entryway walls are covered by red or ivory-colored enameled metal plates, screwed to lumber attached to the underlying bricks. The foyer and lobby floors are gold, terracotta and salmon terrazo tile with a design motif on some of a terracotta circle bisected by two parallel lines. A heavy rainstorm shortly before the theater was about to open collapsed the building's roof, but it was able to be replaced in time.

Cine El Rey was owned by ABC-Interstate until 1973, when it was purchased by Eduardo Izaguirre. Mr. Izaguirre continued showing Spanish-language films, but added second-run American films, too. Unable to compete financially with larger theaters, the theater closed in 1988. In June 2001, the Cine El Rey building was bought from Mr. Izaguirre by Luis and Ann Munoz, who went about rehabilitating the building while retaining as much of the historic materials as they could. They intended to create the atmosphere of a 1940s Mexican Theater while creating a modern performing arts center to showcase films, live theater performances, small concerts, and local meetings.

Brothers Bert and Isaac Guerra purchased Cine El Rey in 2007. When the brothers show movies in the theater, they are independent films, with appearances by directors or actors. Perfomances at the arts center have been cancelled since mid-March 2020 due to the pandemic. The owners hope to be able to retain the building until it is safe to re-open. The privately-owned live performance venue did not qualify for government aid in the first round of assistance because the brothers do not have employees and are not a Small Business. A local Congressman, Vicente Gonalez, is working to ensure that live performance venues such as Cine El Rey are covered in the second round of federal aid. In the meantime, the Guerra brothers suggested donations of $5 via the Cine El Rey Facebook page.

D'Guyves, Emily. "Historic Cine El Rey in peril amid pandemic." The Monitor (McAllen, TX) May 3rd 2020. Local News sec.

D'Guyves, Emily. "Rep. Gonzalez joins bipartisan effort to support live entertainment venues." The Monitor (McAllen, TX) June 12th 2020. Local News sec.

Munoz, Luis and Ann. Smith, Gregory W.. NRHP nomination of Cine El Rey. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2002.

Shah, Deval "Pino". Alger, Geoff. McAllen Architecture: A Visual Journey. Pharr, TX. Deval Pino Shah, ArtByPino.com, Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Series, 2018.