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Arkansas Picture Palaces

Arkansas Picture Palaces

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Within a decade of Edison's 1903 eight-minute movie, "The Great Train Robbery," silent motion pictures were playing in almost every Arkansas town. In larger cities, opera houses were quickly converted to movie theaters and Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Charlie Chaplin and Lillian Gish became household names.

Smaller communities were thrilled when "tent movies" stopped and ran one-reelers for a few days. Operating on a circuit schedule, the "traveling picture shows" were shown after dark, inside a tent that might seat up to 100 people. A hand-cranked projector could churn out an entire movie in about 15 minutes, so it was often repeated to the same audience for the admission price of ten cents.

If movies killed vaudeville, it was a slow death in Arkansas. Live stage shows often shared the billing with silent movies throughout the Roaring '20s and well into the 1930s. In fact, the first silent movies were played in theaters as "fillers" between live acts. As films improved and grew in length and quality, they received top billing and live stage acts became the sideshow entertainment.

Movies Take Over the House

The Landers Theater in Batesville is a prime example of how the movie industry started in Arkansas. Built about 1906 on upper Main Street, the three-story, stone-and-brick building was designed with a stage for traveling thespians. Originally named the Gem Opera House, by 1923 it was a full-fledged movie theater, with stage acts appearing only several times each year. Humorist-actor Will Rogers and several other cowboy actors made personal appearances at the Landers, along with scheduled beauty pageants and benefit shows. The first "talking picture" to appear in the region premiered at the Landers in April of 1931.

To many movie fans, the first "talkies" were a nuisance - with unsynchronized sound and constant interruptions from the projection room. It would take Arkansas-native Freeman Harry Owens (1890-1979) to perfect a sound-on-film system that revolutionized the movie business. Born in Pine Bluff in 1890, Owens was a boyhood friend of Max Aaronson, who became the first starring cowboy in Westerns. Aaronson changed his name to Gilbert Anderson, but the nation knew him as "Bronco

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Billy." By 1926, he had starred in more than 400 movies. Anderson gave Owens his first job in movies - operating a silent movie camera. By the time he retired, Owens held patents to some 2,000 improvements in photography and cinematography.

From just after the Batesville theater opened until it closed in the 1990s, three generations of the Landers family operated it. The stately old building, with its trademark nude lighting fixtures on the interior walls and colorful neon marquee, was remodeled numerous times. Since closing, the Landers has been used on several occasions to host live music performances. Although the theater has deteriorated much since the movies quit showing, a new owner is working to restore the building.

Other proposed restorations in Arkansas include The New Theatre in Fort Smith. Built as a playhouse for the performing arts in 1911, the handsome 1200-seat opera house may have been the most impressive ever constructed in the state. Designed by the Boller Brothers of Kansas City, the New Theatre was styled after the famous New Amsterdam Theater in New York. During its early years, the Fort Smith theater hosted acts such as magician Harry Houdini and child actress Shirley Temple. It also hosted silent movie showings and eventually became aYour Sport Gear Carriers are Here part of the Malco Theatre chain by the 1930s. The majestic old opera and movie house, with its double balcony and ornate decorations, closed in the 1970s and has remained vacant. In 1995, a citizens group called "Music Fort Smith" purchased the property with plans to restore the facility for public use.

Stephens Inc. President and CEO Warren Stephens recently purchased the Center Theater in downtown Little Rock and reportedly plans to turn property - closed for more than 25 years - into a combination cabaret and vintage movie theater.

Gone With the Wind

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Kriss Hammond, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com


About the Author

Kriss Hammond, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo at www.jetsettersmagazine.com Leave your email next to the logo for FREE e travel newsletter.