Defunct neighborhood movie theater will be back, this time with a plot twist
“Mighty Joe Young” was a forgettable movie, and probably would have passed from the memories of many of us by now if it weren’t for the fact that its title is still displayed on the Casa Linda Theatre sign off Garland Road at Buckner.
For more than five years, the sign has served as a reminder that the space where the movie played was abandoned.
That’s about to change.
Last month, Theatre Brothers Ltd. bought the space from its longtime owner, Bart McLendon, whose father, Gordon McLendon, opened the theater in 1945. The Casa Linda was one of the last neighborhood theaters in Dallas that still showed first-run movies and, though popular with neighborhood residents, was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain when it closed in 1999.
Partners Barry Waranch and Keith Koop, who own the real estate investment company under which the Theatre Brothers Ltd. name exists, say they have yet to decide exactly what they’ll do with the space. But they haven’t had any shortage of interest, Waranch says.
“People have a lot of passion for the Casa Linda shopping center, and there has been a tremendous amount of interest,” he says. “The primary interest has been from live theater companies, and we’ve got our sights set on a couple of different prospective users.”
That should be good news to neighborhood residents.
“It [the theater] has always been a topic of conversation at every gathering, every meeting,” says Cindy Bourne, president of Casa Linda Estates Neighborhood Association. “People want to see something in there that is family-oriented.”
She acknowledges that whatever ends up there, it won’t be an easy task getting there.
“It’s going to take somebody very dedicated and with enough resources to go in and turn it into whatever it’s going to be. That building is in very bad disrepair.”
Waranch and Koop seem up to the task.
“We’re huge supporters of Lakewood and East Dallas, and we’re just trying to bring some neat stuff to the area,” Waranch says, adding that they hope to have a lease deal lined up by the end of this month.
They also don’t plan to make any renovations to the theater’s exterior, Waranch says. That’s music to the ears of many neighborhood residents and to city councilman Gary Griffith.
“I’m aware of the trauma everyone went through when that Mobil station came down,” Griffith says of a nearby landmark gas station that was demolished almost overnight.
“I think the community would like to see that façade maintained to recognize that the McLendon family was a real pioneer in the suburban cinema business.”
Preserving the theater was one of Griffith’s goals from the start of his term.
“It was important to me as a councilman to strengthen all the shopping centers in District 9, and a good place to start was that theater,” Griffith says. “So I’ve been pushing it along, trying to be helpful and answering questions.”
Bourne shares Griffith’s goals and hopes the theater deal helps revitalize the rest of the shopping center, calling the retailers there now “a mixed bag.”
“The citizens who shop there have been very discouraged at the types of businesses moving in,” Bourne says. “People don’t particularly want to see more check-cashing businesses, so we decided to get together and not only let the shopping center know who we are, but what our buying power is, how many kids we have. We’re a much younger demographic than people think.”
It’s a demographic, she says, that will be behind the theater’s new owners “100 percent,” provided they do the right thing with the space.
“I just feel certain that we are finally making the kind of process we need to,” she says.
