Village Theatres

dallasmovietheaters on March 30, 2025 at 6:14 am

Designed as a Jerry Lewis Cinema, architect Charles W. Yeager’s design kept the town’s aesthetic continuity, retaining neighboring mature trees and mountain harmony. It eschewed the standard Lewis design with a 366-seat auditorium and a much smaller parking lot due to the preservation of the trees.

And then the operation really strayed as Lewis ankled the nationwide project and Network Cinema, its parent company, went into freefall financial ruin. So Lewis was scrubbed from the building plans' exterior signage as it opened as the Big Bear Theatre on July 14, 1972 with Walt Disney’s “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and “In Search of the Castaways.“ And even the Lewis' no “R” policy wasn’t followed as the venue had a big hit with “The Godfather” the next year.

The venue closed at the end of its 40 year lease on August 14, 2012 with “Dark Knight Rises” and “Total Recall (2012).”