Royal Theatre
111 S. Market Street,
Benton,
AR
72015
111 S. Market Street,
Benton,
AR
72015
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 13 comments
Now housed 597 seats.
The Imp Theatre was renamed the Benton Theatre on February 22, 1949 following extensive remodeling that also expanded its seating capacity from 590 to 800, and was twinned in 1978 when a second smaller screen was added above the former balcony.
The Royal Theatre closed as a movie theater in 1996 after the Wallace Kauffman’s sons Warren and Randy sold the Royal to Jerry Van Dyke who renovated the Royal, with United Artists being its last operator as a movie theater. It was reverted back as a single-screener and its original capacity of 597 seats, housing performing arts ever since.
There are two Imp Theatres in Benton. This is the second Imp Theatre that was the replacement of an earlier first Imp Theatre that was reportedly short-lived.
After World War I, movie theaters in Benton immediately grew to three theaters, which were the (first) Imp, the Palace, and the Victory. The first Imp was very short-lived since the original location’s opening in 1919, and got burned down in a May 12, 1920 fire that was reported as arson. The first Imp Theatre did reopen later that year but closed the following year in 1921 because of financial troubles, but also cause the short closure to the nearby Palace. The second Imp Theatre opened nearby at the current location on January 14, 1922 as a movie theater.
The Imp Theatre opened its doors on January 14, 1922, with Wallace Kauffman of nearby Princeton being its original projectionist, who had lived in Benton since 1917 and previously worked at a similar establishment in Fordyce, started working for Alice Wooten, owner of the Independent Motion Pictures company, which is where the name of the theater came from. It originally housed 590 seats.
Kauffman ran the business alone until early-1949, when a new deal with Rowley United to handle all bookings and record keeping. Alongside his theater business in Benton, Kauffman also operate theaters in Malvern, Arkadelphia, and Magnolia, who also signed similar deals with Rowley United. After a brief closure following extensive remodeling that also expanded the seating amount to 800 seats, the Imp Theatre was renamed the Royal Theatre on February 22, 1949, reopening with James Stewart in “You Gotta Stay Happy” (unknown if extras added).
Despite being operated by United Artists throughout the rest of time as a movie theater, the Kauffman family ran the theater for many generations. Wallace unfortunately died in 1974 and the work was shift to his son Warren. Four years later in 1978, it was twinned when a second screen was added upstairs on the former enclosed balcony. Warren retired in 1986, and was followed by another son Randy Kauffman to take the job.
Randy managed the family business for ten years before he sold it in 1996 to Jerry Van Dyke, the brother of the legendary Dick, who at the time had played Luther Van Dam on the ABC series ‘Coach’. Jerry also purchased a couple of shops around the theater, creating a candy shop on one side of the Royal and a restaurant called Jerry Van Dyke’s Soda Shop on the other.
In 2000, Van Dyke turned control of the Royal Theatre over to a local group of thespians known then as the Central Arkansas Community Players, which changed its name to the Royal Players. The Royal Players began running and maintaining the Royal Theatre, repurposing it for live theater. The Royal was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 27, 2003. Jerry died on January 5, 2018 in his Malvern home.
United Artists operated the Royal during its later years. Benton also had a separate twin-screener nearby called the Boggs Twin Cinema that was first operated by Gene Boggs Enterprises. I cannot find as much information about it rather than the Boggs opened sometime in the 1970s.
Greetings all, I see there haven’t been many comments left on this page in quite some time. I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Timothy A Samuelson. I am taking over as the Facilities Director at the Royal. This building has been important throughout my life and it is truly an honor to be contributing to its history and lineage by adding my mark. I would like to ask that anyone that has pictures or stories about this space please contact me via my email: . These past few weeks have been very hectic for our organization. We began the initial phases of the renovation and restoration of this magnificent space beginning with the upstairs office. I can confirm the stories that the safe is still in the room and is, in fact missing the door (I was really hoping to find it, but my hunt has yielded no fruit) On top of locating the safe, we uncovered the original wall paneling that had been hidden away behind layers of cover-ups. We also located the bell system that was used to page between downstairs and upstairs. I’m having a small display case for the bell made and it will be proudly displayed on the desk. The desk in the office is also the original desk. (signed and dated by the builder in 1919) All items uncovered including the carpet that was installed in the 1949 remodel will be kept in the closest condition to original as possible. As we complete the office in the next few days, we will begin to reach out into the rest of the upstairs space which has been closed to patrons for as long as I can remember. Our plans for the upstairs space are a small black-box theatre space that can be used for smaller performances, recitals, movies, lectures, and many more events. This upstairs will become the brain of our youth theatre program, the Young Players. My plans are to establish a sanctuary for the youth of the community to take place in after school programs geared towards education and the arts. Any help that anybody could offer us in this time of progress would be greatly appreciated as we would like to have all work on the building and a second space we are attempting to acquire complete for the 100th anniversaries of the spaces. If you would like to get involved in our project, whether it be in the form of donations or the contribution of a story, please feel free to contact me. My email again is . Thank you all
Nice old school looking theatre.
Here is another photo of the Royal:
http://tinyurl.com/nwws53
To answer R. Robinson’s question….Sadly Warren Lee passed away in 1999. He was my beloved grandfather! I miss him and the old days at the theatre more and more. I am the daughter of Randy Kauffman who also owned the theatre in its later years.
To follow up on ken mc, Rowley United Theatres became a wholly owned subsidiary of United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc., and it was then known as the ‘Rowley United Division.“ He is correct, Rowley operated many theatres in Texas, but also had properties in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Rowley operated many theatres in Little Rock, plus what became know as "The Big 8,” which included theatre operations in Fort Smith, Clarksville, Morrilton, Conway, Benton, Malvern, Arkadelphia and Magnolia. Both Benton and Magnolia were “partnership towns.” United Artists owned 50% and Magnolia owned 50%. The Kauffman family in Benton (Warren Lee Kauffman was the last one to manage the theatre under this arrangement) and W.P. Florence of Magnolia were the “partners.” Clarence L. Hobbs was the District Manager for several years, and managed theatres in Morrilton and Conway before that. He was based out of Conway, prior to moving to Tulsa. I worked as a manager of the 65 Drive-In for Mr. Hobbs, the old Conway Theatre, and the UA Cinema 1 & 2 in Conway. I also was interim manager for the theatres in Morrilton for a short period, and ran the UA Cinema 1 & 2 in Arkadelphia for several years.
Question: Does anyone know what happened to Warren Lee Kauffman of Benton? Is he still alive? The other partner, W.P. Florence of Magnolia, died a few years back. Thanks, Richard Robinson
The Royal was operated by Rowley United Theaters out of Dallas in the early sixties. This chain ran a large number of theaters in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Texas was the primary emphasis, it appears.
The Royal Players are currently working on SOUTH PACIFIC, with shows Oct 14-17 and 21-24; call 501-315-live for ticket reservations.
Upcoming: Oct 18-19, ANNIE tryouts with play scheduled for early Dec 2004.
Additional: HARVEY, GUYS and DOLLS
Some more info on the history from an article about the theatre and it being placed to the National Register
Cheryl Nichols, a private contractor in historic preservation, prepared the nomination for the Royal Players. Assisting her with her research for the nomination presentation was Shannon Moss, a Royal Players board member, who was an employee of the Royal Theatre for many years; and Steve Perdue, curator of the Arkansas Room at the Saline County Public Library.
“Cheryl made the presentation to the board,” Webb said. “The board members were pleased to see the relationship between the Royal and the Center Theater in Little Rock. The same architects designed both theaters.”
The State Review Board is comprised of “about a dozen people, made up of historic preservationists from around the state,” Webb said.
In Nichols' presentation, she noted that Alice Wooten was the original owner of the IMP Theatre (which later became the Royal) and sold it to Wallace Kauffman in 1922. Generations of the Kauffman family continued to own the Royal Theatre until 1996. Wallace and Lena Kauffman passed ownership to their son, Warren Lee Kauffman, and the last of the family to own it, Randy Kauffman, sold it to entertainer Jerry Van Dyke. Van Dyke gave the theater to the Royal Players less than three years ago.
The original section of the Royal Theatre was built in 1920 when it was known as the IMP, with IMP being an acronym for Independent Motion Pictures, Nichols' presentation noted.
The following summary about the theater’s history was considered by the board:
“Occupying one lot near the center of the west side of the 100 block of Market Street in downtown Benton, the Royal Theatre is a free-standing, two-story brick building with a partial basement. The theater was remodeled and enlarged in 1948-49 when the existing facade was created and a flat-roofed addition was built at the rear of the original 1920 gable-roofed section of the building.
“The remodeling was the work of the Little Rock architectural firm of Ginocchio and Cromwell, who incorporated into their design for the Royal some of the same materials they used in a contemporaneous project, the Center Theater in Little rock. The Royal Theatre’s most striking features – the neon-trimmed marquee and the vertical Royal sign – came from the theater in Little Rock that was remodeled as the Center Theater.”
Nichols explained that since 1949 the only major change to the exterior of the Royal Theatre has been a new color scheme: The buff brick and much of the maroon tile were painted dark green in the late 1990s. Otherwise, the facade is almost exactly as it was designed in the late 1940s.
The Royal Theatre’s main (east) facade originally derived much of its modern, streamlined look from bricks laid in patterns that created two vertical lines running up each side of the facade and traced a large square in the center of the facade, over the marquee, Nichols noted.
Movies were continued to be shown at the Royal until 2000. The lobby is largely unchanged since 1949, she noted, except for the addition in 1959 of a new concession stand. The original concession stand, which opens to the outside as well as into the lobby, still exists and is used as an office. The basic configuration of the theater auditorium in intact, although the balcony was enclosed in 1978 when it became the location of a second movie screen.
When Jerry Van Dyke bought the theater in 1996, he covered the walls in the main auditorium with velvet and installed newer seating. Original wall light fixtures are intact and the original decorative motifs are thought to remain on the walls under the velvet. The main auditorium also retains its 1949 acoustical tile ceiling and original seating is intact in the balcony.