Vester Theatre
114 E. Second Avenue,
Pine Bluff,
AR
71601
114 E. Second Avenue,
Pine Bluff,
AR
71601
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P.K. Miller opened the first movie theatre equipped with sound for African American audiences in Pine Bluff. Miller named it after his wife, Vester, launching on July 14, 1938. Pine Bluff Mayor J.P McGaughy addressed the sold-out theatre. Miller also operated the Hotel P.K. for African American patrons at that time.
Miller and his wife had moved from Wabbaseka, Arkansas, where they ran a mortuary. They created a Pine Bluff mortuary in 1928, the P.K. Miller Mortuary (still operating in the 2020’s) and they created a casket factory. In the silent era, Pine Bluff had four silent film theaters for African American patrons. The longest-running was the Miller Theatre that operated from 1912 to 1917. At its launch, it was purportedly the only African American silent theatre in Arkansas at the outset of World War I.
The Miller Theatre was joined briefly by the Gem Theatre on State Street. The Moving Picture House, predated the Miller and may have been in the same building as the Gem Theatre. Following the Miller Theater’s closure was the last African American theatre, the Elgin turned Enterprise Theatre at 213 State Street in 1920/1. The Vester Theatre was the first African American theatre in Pine Bluff for 17-plus years.
The Vester Theatre appears to have closed at the end of its 20-year leasing agreement in 1958. The building has since been torn down.
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Addition: This was at one stretch operated by Bijou Amusement Company Circuit of Nashville, the largest African American circuit of movie theaters.