Arcade Theatre

The original Cosy Theatre was opened here by E.L. Cooper in a multipurpose building that was expanded by Dr. I.U. Temple. The building was a single-floor, single purpose retail building. Dr. Temple took the one floor building and made it two floors. He attracted a nickelodeon opened by Cooper in December of 1910 with films and 200 chairs. The Cosy Theatre adjoined the Hotel St. George with a small courtyard. Dr. Temple liked adding floors to buildings and he would take the former St. George turned Hotel Dorion to create the Temple Hotel (opening as a six-story hotel on September 26, 1937) long after the theatre had vacated the original property.

Downey and Rhodes took on the Cosy Theatre and expanded seat capacity promising 600 seats and apparently sloped the floor for better sight lines. This was very likely the end of the courtyard concept as the theatre may have expanded toward the hotel and likely the rear of the property, as well. The pair changed the theatre’s front and changed the venue’s name to the Temple Theatre on September 23, 1915. The opening was a combination of short films and vaudeville including a Charlie Chaplin film. E.L. Cooper then took on the Orpheum Theatre un-retiring the Cosy Theatre nameplate in April of 1916 by renaming it as the Cosy Theatre on April 21, 1916.

Guy G. Matlock took on the Temple Theatre changing its name to the Arcade Theatre on April 22, 1917 screening Theda Bara in “The Greater Love”. Matlock got a monopoly in local theatres by taking over the Cosy Theatre and Temple/Arcade, while already controlling the Pastime Theatre and Alta Theatre. The Arcade Theatre additionally had the Minerva Shoe Shining Parlor so that movie goers could attend films in style.

The Arcade Theatre closed briefly during the influenza pandemic of 1918 along with all theatres locally. The opening of the Rivoli Theatre in 1921 was the beginning of the end for the late nickelodeon era theatres in town. Matlock and Greulich closed the Arcade Theatre on March 26, 1923 permanently with William Russell in “A Self-Made Man” supported by a newsreel and the comedy short, “Shine ‘em Up” with Jobyna Ralston. The theatre was removed and the space converted to the second of three homes for the Economy Drug Store.

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