The Schulman Theatres story starts in 1908 on Canal Street in New Orleans where Abraham Schulman exhibited movies with his sister Leah Lazuraous. Abraham later moved to Houston and opened the first Schulman Theater and during the 1910s, it became a small chain.
In 1926, the Houston operations were sold and Abraham moved to Bryan with his son Morris. Together, they purchased the Queen and Dixie Theatres on Main Street. The old Bryan City Hall was purchased in 1928 and converted into the Palace Theater - a premiere facility offering both Vaudville stage shows and the new talking films. Morris Schulman was a creative and community-minded businessman.
He would send buses to nearby College Station to give free rides to college students wanting to see his shows. During the depression, he started the tradition of "Christmas Canned Food Shows" to help the city mission feed transients who came through Bryan looking for work. This tradition continued until the mid 1990s, when canned food drives through public schools became popular and more effective.
The Queen Theater was torn down and rebuilt in 1939 with the first "conditioned air" system in any theater west of the Mississippi. After that, the Palace Theater was upgraded to include conditioned air as well. The three Bryan theaters ran successfully for many years, but days of single screen theaters passed and the Palace was the last of the three to close its doors in 1985.
