Picadilly Cafeteria: this building is next door to the Rio and was once a theater as well. It was later the Picadilly Cafeteria and the outline of the lettering can still be seen on the door. In the late 90's it was an antique shop called Accent Design and now is being demolished inside...am not sure of the status of this building now.
Scott Theater This theater was originally a single screen but the balcony was split up into 2 smaller theaters in the 70's. The Scott closed in the early 80's and according to the real estate agent selling it, no projection equipment is left inside. I asked the agent to show me the inside back in 2000 but he did not have the keys. A church group was renting the theater in the early-mid 90's.
Lyric Theater: This theater was located in the 200 block of Grant. Here is a link to a photo we found while searching for the Lyric. This appears to be from the mid-late 70's. The Lyric changed into an adult theater sometime in the 60's, showing such fare as "The Sex Shuffle" in "Sexadelic Color!" If you can believe it, films such as these was advertised in the Odessa American newspaper back in the 60's. If you look closely in the photo, you can see an advertisement for an adult book store which is still operating in another location. The Lyric has been demolished.
Ector Theater The Ector was able to hold out the longest of the old Odessa theaters, closing in 1985 after a showing of the James Bond film "From a View to a Kill". The theater was refurbished in the late 1990's early 2000's and re-opened with a grand opening gala showing of "Rebel Without a Cause" in August 2001. The theater then began showing classic films such as "Pillow Talk" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Here is a link to archived pages of the Ector web site. This site is no longer active. The showing of old movies appears to not have met with success as it appears it ceased sometime in late 2003/early 2004. On several occasions attending the Ector for movies there were problems with the sound such as poor sound focus or the speaker cabinets being unplugged. The theater was equipped with surround speakers and tube-type amps, however these were not being used in the renovated theater.
