The many curtain calls of Dallas’ Magnolia Lounge
From talking motion pictures to live theater, this versatile performance space from the ’30s in Fair Park has seen it all.
Margo Jones (right) of Theater 54 points out the play scheduled at the theater for March 23, 1954, to Mrs. Al Silver (left) and Mr. and Mrs. Arch B. Swank Jr. (Patsy Swank). Photograph published in The Dallas Morning News on Jan. 17, 1954.(DMN File Photo)
The Magnolia Lounge in Fair Park has lived several lives.
During the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936, it served as a rest stop for fairgoers, and shortly after, it was reconfigured into a performance space for traveling vaudeville performers. Ten years after the lounge’s opening, theater powerhouse Margo Jones fashioned it into one of America’s first professional theater-in-the-round stages: a layout where audience members surrounded the stage.