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Rig Theater

Coordinates: 31°45′20″N 103°08′46″W / 31.75556°N 103.14611°W / 31.75556; -103.14611 (Rig Theater)
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Rig Theater
Rig Theater is located in Texas
Rig Theater
Rig Theater is located in the United States
Rig Theater
Location213-215 E. Hendricks Blvd, Wink, Texas
Coordinates31°45′20″N 103°08′46″W / 31.75556°N 103.14611°W / 31.75556; -103.14611 (Rig Theater)
Arealess than one acre
Built1928
Built byGriffith Amusement Co.
Architectural styleEarly Commercial
NRHP reference No.03000770[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 14, 2003

The Rig Theater is a former cinema on East Hendricks Boulevard in Wink, Texas. It was built in 1928. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.[1] It had a single screen as a cinema and had a seating capacity of 605.[2][3] At the time of the theater's construction it was the only building in Wink made from masonry other than the town's school.[4]

The Rig Theater was the childhood cinema of the young singer-songwriter Roy Orbison, where he spent many hours.[5] Orbison performed at the Rig with his early bands, the Teen Kings and the Wink Westerners. Walt Quigley, a Roy Orbison tribute artist, is raising funds to reopen the Rig Theater and to move Wink's Roy Orbison Museum into the theater's lobby.[6] Graffiti by Orbison and his friends from 1951 was found in the stairway to the balcony in 1999, and is preserved in a display at the Roy Orbison Museum.[7]

It is a two-part Early Commercial-style two-story building.[7]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. ^ "Rig Theater in Wink, Texas". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  3. ^ "The Rig Theater in Wink, Texas". Texas Escapes. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  4. ^ Roger Marvin Olien; Diana Davids Hinton (1982). Oil booms: social change in five Texas towns. University of Nebraska Press. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-8032-3550-2.
  5. ^ Mark Stuart Spicer; John Rudolph Covach (2010). Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music. University of Michigan Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-472-03400-0.
  6. ^ Jimmy Patterson (February 15, 2009). "Roy Orbison: Wink residents perpetuate the Orbison legacy". MRT. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  7. ^ a b Walter Quigley Thomas, Jr. (October 2002). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Rig Theater". National Archives. Retrieved April 19, 2018. (Downloading may be slow.) With three photos.