Capitol Theater

Looks like the Capitol had 2 organs during the 1920’s. Lostmemory mentions Wurlitzer opus 371 installed in 1920. In 1926 Wurlitzer installed their opus 1330, a style E X, (2 manuals 7 ranks in 2 chambers). I’ve noticed a couple of other examples of theatres which replaced their organs within just a few years. Of course, being played 8 to 12 hours a day, 7 days a week would wear out the leathers in the organ pretty quickly.

Sad only this much is written.

The Capitol Theatre at the Main Street address was the first Capitol Theater in Little Rock, opened in the late 1920’s. The trifecta of the consent degree, the post-war drop in movie attendance and the advent of television doomed the Capitol as it did many a movie theater in the fifties. But someone at Rowley Theatres must have decided that the state capital Of Arkansas needed a Capitol Theater so they changed the name of the Pulaski Theater at 324 West Capitol to the Capitol Theater in the mid-50’s; that is the theater in the pictured mentioned above. At the same time, they upgraded the theater to 70MM Todd-AO and made it the roadshow theater for Little Rock. In the early-to-mid 70’s, this Capitol Theater bit the dust during the long goodbye to the downtown movie palaces and was replaced by a high-rise bank building.

The Capitol Theater was not on Main St, but on Capitol St. Look at the picture above. The theater is on the right and the Arkansas State Capitol is in the distance at the end of Capitol St. Robert H. Gibbons