Mary’s University and earned a business degree. Louis Santikos re-entered the theater business here, building and opening the Olmos Theatre on San Pedro Avenue.īarely able to speak English, John Santikos enrolled at St. In the 1940s, the family - including John, older sister Kiki and younger brother Dean, now deceased - fled the Greek Civil War and returned to San Antonio. He later sold most of his business in San Antonio and became a film distributor in his home country. Louis Santikos returned to Greece in 1924, married and had three children. Entertainment at the theater included silent movies, vaudeville and symphony concerts. Its first show was “Poor Men’s Wives,” starring silent film actress Barbara La Marr. Located across the street from the Alamo, the movie house was lavishly built with velvet-like flooring, a winding staircase and a hand-painted domed roof. Louis Santikos built the Palace Theatre in 1923, which was dubbed “San Antonio’s million-dollar theater.” “He was an enterprising man, and he went into the business world right away.” “He thought it was pretty good business here,” John Santikos said. Louis Santikos accepted, and he started in 1918 by operating the Rialto Theatre on Houston Street, which he later bought. He later was invited by San Antonio businessmen to move to the city and enter the theater business here. Sensing a business opportunity, he saved his money and purchased the property in 1911. Louis Santikos was working at a grocery store in Waco there when he noticed long lines at the Rex Theatre, a nickelodeon across the street. when he moved to Waco from Greece in the early 1900s. Santikos inherited the chain from his father, Louis Santikos, who first came to the U.S. “I have always been the worst critic of my operations.” “I don’t want to miss anything,” he said, looking toward the lobby from the theater’s second floor. Upon recently stepping into the lobby of the Palladium, what he considers his best cinema, he shuffles around trashcans and tables, checks for loose floor tiles and instructs staff how to arrange merchandise behind counters. “I like to use my creativity in providing these theaters.” “What interests me the most is providing a venue that is as perfect as possible for people to enjoy,” he said, his voice characteristically Greek-accented. His favorite aspect of running theaters, and a big reason he has been in the business for so long, is bringing people the pleasure of film. Santikos, who declined to specify the chain’s revenue, said he and his father have been driven by the adventure that goes with the theater business rather than the money behind it. He has no business partners, and he won’t say who will inherit his assets. Now 83, Santikos has no plans to retire and no one in his family wants to take over the iconic brand.
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