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Royal Theatre

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1920s; 1948–1949 remodeled, Ginocchio and Cromwell. 111 S. Market St.
  • (Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, A Division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, Mason Toms, photographer)

This movie house is remarkable for its bold and colorful signage. While the upper facade is plain, painted green, and decorated only with simple geometric banding in white, the marquee and building’s name are bright and eye-catching. The vertical sign carrying the theater’s name is spelled out in lights on a blue background bordered by panels of orange, turquoise, and red, and the sign rises well above the building’s parapet wall. The triangular shaped marquee is outlined in the same colors. A semicircular ticket booth stands between two sets of doors, and the lower half of the first story is clad in dark red glazed tiles. Opened in the 1920s as the Imp Theater, the theater changed its name in the 1950s when the owners acquired the marquee’s Royal sign from a theater in Little Rock. The theater is now a center for the performing arts.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Cyrus A. Sutherland with Gregory Herman, Claudia Shannon, Jean Sizemore Jeannie M. Whayne and Contributors
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Data

What's Nearby

Gann Museum (Gann Building)
Dewell and Martha Gann House
Saline County Courthouse

Citation

Cyrus A. Sutherland with Gregory Herman, Claudia Shannon, Jean Sizemore Jeannie M. Whayne and Contributors, "Royal Theatre", [Benton, Arkansas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/AR-01-SA2.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Arkansas

Buildings of Arkansas, Cyrus A. Sutherland and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018, 167-167.

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