Marker Inscription
Entertainment/Recreation, Architecture
Historic Place
Rig Theatre
The landmarks the nation chose to remember.
About this site
Rig Theatre is a historic place in Wink, Winkler County, dedicated in 2003. It is one of 17 historic sites cataloged in Winkler County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas.
The site sits at 31.7559, -103.1572 near Wink. The nearest cataloged historic site is Winkler County Discovery Well (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Wink, Roy Orbison, and Old Duval Townsite.
This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #2003000770. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
History
Built in 1928 on East Hendricks Boulevard, the Rig Theatre was Wink's first masonry building other than the town school, a two-story polychromatic-brick commercial block housing an 850-seat theater with a stage plus ground-floor retail and upstairs offices. It was named for the oil derricks that defined the Permian Basin boomtown, and its marquee once carried a miniature replica of a drilling rig. The Rig was the boyhood movie house of singer-songwriter Roy Orbison, who performed there with his early bands the Wink Westerners and the Teen Kings; 1951 stairwell graffiti he left with friends was discovered in 1999 and moved to the Roy Orbison Museum. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Sources: en.wikipedia.orgatlas.thc.texas.govcinematreasures.org
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Nearby in Winkler County
Historical Marker
Winkler County Discovery Well
Winkler · 1972
Historical Marker
Wink
Wink · 1964
Historical Marker
Roy Orbison
Wink · 2009
Historical Marker
Old Duval Townsite
Kermit · 1968
Cemetery
Kermit Cemetery
Kermit · 2008
Historical Marker
Community Church
Kermit · 1966
Historical Marker
Winkler County Courthouse
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Historical Marker
Winkler, Colonel C. M.
Kermit · 1963