Hollywood turned out as ‘Alamo’ epic debuted 65 years ago in San Antonio

By the time “The Alamo” made its world premiere 65 years ago at the Woodlawn Theatre on Fredericksburg Road, the city had already been celebrating John Wayne’s $12 million epic.

The film’s star-studded debut on Oct. 24, 1960, was the culmination of a three-day celebration that included a river parade, concert, numerous receptions and an outdoor dance featuring a 30-foot Alamo cake, according to newspaper archives.

It was a rainy night when “The Alamo” premiered, with many of the fans gathered outside Woodlawn holding umbrellas and sharing shelter from the rain. The damp, dreary weather didn’t seem to affect the fans’ excitement to see Hollywood celebrities, records show.

The premiere brought the film’s stars back to Texas, where the movie was shot in late 1959. The movie’s three-month shoot took place on a set dubbed Alamo Village that was built outside Brackettville, about 100 miles west of San Antonio.

“The Alamo” was shot in 83 days and used 7,000 extras.

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Wayne, who played Davy Crockett in the film, also directed and produced it. Other stars included Richard Widmark, Richard Boone, Frankie Avalon and Chill Wills.

In a 2010 interview with the San Antonio Express-News, Wayne’s widow Pilar talked of her husband’s decade-long dedication to getting “The Alamo” made, ultimately using much of his own money to get it done.

“He had this dream about making ‘The Alamo.’ He loved the story and the heroism and the history of the Alamo, and he wanted to put it on screen,” she said.

“The Alamo” was the most expensive film ever made in the continental United States at the time of its release, archives show.

Wayne told reporters he borrowed “from banks and friends” to secure the film’s financing after his personal accounts were nearly drained.

“He was very sentimental about it, and he didn’t care what it cost or anything,” Pilar Wayne said. “He just mortgaged the house and put everything that he had in the bank into the movie. It took a long time to make the money back, but eventually he did all right.”

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Though “The Alamo” was criticized for its lack of accuracy – Wayne even admitted to taking historical license – the film won one of the industry’s highest honors. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, and won for best sound.

The film’s domestic box office take was $7.9 million, several million short of its final cost. Wayne later sold his rights to the film to United Artists, the studio that released the movie, and “The Alamo” eventually made money after NBC bought its television rights in 1971.

Loop 1604 gets its name

On Oct. 24, 1977, San Antonio’s FM 1604 was officially designated Loop 1604.

Bexar County Commissioners Court named a portion of the loop in honor of Charles W. Anderson, who served as Bexar County judge for 25 years, according to records kept by the San Antonio Public Library’s Texana/Genealogy Department. Anderson died in 1964.

As many San Antonians know, parts of Loop 1604 have been under construction the past few years to accommodate growth on the city’s North and West sides.

A $463 million interchange between Loop 1604 and Interstate 10 on the Northwest Side is replacing a cloverleaf design dating to the 1980s. It is scheduled to be finished in 2027, and the Texas Department of Transportation expects all the flyovers will open by the end of next year.

The interchange is part of TxDOT’s $1.4 billion Loop 1604 North Expansion Project, which will expand the highway from four to 10 lanes across a long stretch of the North Side. The project broke ground in 2021, and TxDOT expects to complete it in 2028.