Driving down Main Street in downtown Arkadelphia, you will see the Arkadelphia Arts Center across from Print Mania. What many might not know however, is that the building that now houses the art center used to be the home to Arkadelphia’s very own movie theater some time ago. The Royal Theater opened in 1932 and closed near 1950. Remnants of the theater still exist today that can be seen in the center. As you walk to the front of the center you can see how the ticket booth once existed with an outside window but the marquee no longer dresses the building.
The Royal Theater had a large seating area with a balcony and had one screen to show films. Inside of the art center, where you would visit the public viewing area, you can imagine the theater’s lobby and concessions areas. When the theater closed in the 1950s, the theater scene was replaced by the Twin Cinema that opened in the same parking lot where Pizza Hut is now located. The Twin Cinema featured newer projectors and sound equipment and it offered two movies instead of just one. The show times were at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. so customers could enjoy a meal at Pizza Hut and then go to a late show.
The Twin Cinema was a popular attraction to teenagers and college students as well as families in the community. Another theater attraction was the Skyvue Drive-In Theater. The drive-in opened prior to 1955 and was operated by Rowley United Theaters. It was located across the highway from Pizza Hut. Today you can still see the entrance road to the drive-in at the bottom of the hill. The drive-in closed in the mid-1970s.
While a movie theater presence no longer exists in Arkadelphia, the decline of small town movie theaters happened to be a trend nationally. Dr. Jeff Root, Dean of Humanities, says that there were many factors that led to such a decline.
“The audience became fragmented and the economics of the business changed as a result,” Root said. “When I was going to the movies in Arkadelphia as a child and as a teenager, cable TV and VCRs had not arrived. You couldn’t rent movies or choose from countless cable networks.”
As the competition from other media began to rise, the business model of the theater industry began to change. The industry wanted to give cable TV a run for its money.
“The industry invested in larger facilities with many more screens and explosive sound systems to give movie goers something they couldn’t get on their TV sets at home,” Root said. “A huge building with a dozen screens isn’t conducive to a town of 10,000, even if it has two colleges.”
Even though a movie theater has not existed in Arkadelphia in decades, there are continued rumors of the possibility of reintroducing the community back to the movies as a strategy to create growth. The nicest theater for people to visit is 45 minutes away and Root says that many people have believed that Arkadelphia could be the exception to the rule and that the city could support a theater.
“There have been a few headlines in the local paper in recent years that were encouraging, even to the point of almost promising that a theater would be built,” Root said. “I am sure that theater chains have studied the possibility, but none yet has pulled the trigger and given it a try.”
Dr. Root, along with many Ouachita students agree that they hope one day Arkadelphia will introduce a new theater. Hopefully, if a theater were to open, there would be large crowds lining up at the door, but there is still the question of whether or not Arkadelphia could sustain it.
“I would love to have a movie theater in town and I think it would provide something fun for students to do,” Hannah Hart, a sophomore biology, chemistry and Spanish major from Little Rock, Ark., said. “However I am not sure how successful it would be. Students might not be able to afford to go regularly so it would be left to the community to go. There would probably also be dry patches such as when the college students go home for the summer.”
by Sydney Bratton
