Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Wednesday's parting shots

On this date (Jan. 21) in 2018: The five-screen Landmark Sunshine Theater closed after 17 years in business. 

Read our post about it here. 

Now in its place on Houston between Eldreidge and Forsyth: a nine-story office building with a private dining club on the ground floor (photo below from this morning)...
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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2026 at 9:07 PM

    That was a shame.

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  2. UnknownJanuary 21, 2026 at 9:49 PM

    I really miss the Sunshine movie theater as I used to go there all the time to see a lot of independent films and after the movie was over the director and stars would go up onto the stage for questions and answers with the audience. Great times.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2026 at 12:03 AM

    jeez rub it in!

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2026 at 12:16 AM

    The last film I saw there was The Eagle Huntress. An amazingly beautiful film. Miss that theater.

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2026 at 11:04 AM

    I still grieve the closing of Sunshine Cinema as I walk past it every time. Such a shame.

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  6. MarjorieJanuary 22, 2026 at 1:54 PM

    This will never, ever not make me sad. What a huge loss, architecturally and historically. (BTW, discovered that Max Steuer, the lawyer who successfully defended the factory owners in the Triangle Factory Fire, apparently owned the theater for a few years when it was the Houston Hippodrome. Ironically there was a small fire in the projection booth that caused a panic and two trampling deaths; the resulting court case was the source of the Supreme Court case reference to calling out "fire" in a crowded theater. (Source: https://fortamsterdamnyc.blogspot.com/2014/03/dinner-and-movie-for-over-100-years-at.html.)

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  7. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2026 at 3:54 PM

    Never could figure out why this wonderful theatre could not be saved or at least have landmark status. Instead we have this visual atrocity in its place.

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  8. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2026 at 4:13 PM

    Really miss Sunshine..should have been landmarked.

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  9. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2026 at 8:04 PM

    Very sad. What an eyesore on our visual landscape as well.

    ReplyDelete

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