Karl Hoblitzelle

Karl Hoblitzelle (October 22, 1879 – March 8, 1967) was an American theater owner, real estate investor, and philanthropist. He was the co-founder of the Interstate Theaters Company, a chain of vaudeville theaters (later movie theaters), now a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. He was the first theater owner to add air conditioning to movie theaters in the United States, and the first to add sound in the Southwest. He also helped support the construction of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Early life Karl Hoblitzelle was born on October 22, 1879, in St. Louis, Missouri. His father, Clarence Linden Hoblitzelle, was a veteran of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. By 1905, Hoblitzelle and his brother George K. co-founded the Interstate Theaters Company. His estate went to the Hoblitzelle Foundation.