Downtown Amarillo Underground Tunnels a Movie Theater Location?

One of the first things I learned when I started working in downtown Amarillo was that there were tunnels connecting different businesses in the area. They did come in handy. I would use the tunnels in my building to walk in the winter months.

It was a great way to get some steps in during the winter months. It was used a lot for that purpose. Plus the tunnel has a door that leads to a bunch of inspirational sayings.

OK, I would also admit that I would use it from time to time to cut across the downtown area when I needed to get a snack or an iced tea. One of the entrances got us pretty darn close to the Toot n Totum downtown. So when we needed an afternoon pick-me-up we would use the tunnel from our bank to the other that brought us right across to the promised land.

So during one of our Monday meetings at the radio station we were discussing the tunnels in downtown Amarillo. Someone brought up that they thought there was a movie theater in one of them.

This sparked my interest. Really? Where has this been all my life? I knew one of the tunnels lead to a door that had a bunch of positive sayings and stickers. That was a thing. I didn't know anything about movie theaters.

So I got to thinking about it a bit more. In the basement of Happy State Bank, they have the Virgil Patterson Auditorium. In it there was an area that had theater-type seating. There is a stage.

That stage does actually have a screen that comes out of the ceiling. It was used for different videos and presentations. Was this the movie theater that was being talked about? I could see how people could think that this was the case.

I promise you it is not a movie theater. Though really that would have made work a bit more fun.