Alamo Drafthouse may be interested in the Lakewood Theater. So is a second theater group with whom the owners say they are “further down the road.”
Though it’s still a fairly strong possibility that the historic neighborhood theater won’t end up as a theater at all, it gives nostalgic types and movie buffs hope to latch onto.
If it happens, it would be the fourth reinvention of the Lakewood Theater since it opened in 1938. The last time it operated as mainly as movie theater was more than two decades ago. The theater had been a dollar house in the ’70s —the first in Dallas and a successful one for some time. But that run ended in ’83.
Then longtime neighbor and businessman Burke Barr sank $1 million into renovations and revived the theater. It reopened in 1988, its 50th anniversary, with a gala featuring a baby elephant, a 16-piece swing band, and a showing of its first-ever movie, “Love Finds Andy Hardy,” according to a Sept. 26, 1984 Dallas Morning News article by architecture critic David Dillon. He didn’t think much of the renovations, declaring them too bold and garish for the art deco icon.
“But from another perspective, such judgments are beside the point,” Dillon wrote. “The renovation of the Lakewood was essentially a neighborhood effort, carried out by numerous volunteers and underpaid assistants, who stripped wood, painted walls and did whatever else was needed to salvage a neighborhood landmark. In this context it is a smashing success and deserving of praise and emulation.”
The resurrected theater included a 1927 Robert Morton theater pipe organ, a concession stand with yogurt and cappuccino among its offerings, and first-run movies. It rode the swells of neighborhood pride and quirky charm for a few years.
But in 1993, the theater closed for four days, then reopened with second-run movies. By the end of the year, Barr decided not to renew his lease. Once again, the single-screen theater folded to the modern-day megaplexes.
Would it be different this time? If a company retains the theater as a theater, would we put our money where our mouths are? It’s tough to say. Certainly, aging single-screen theaters are finding revival as movie venues all over the country. Others are closing for good, though. If we had the choice between seeing a box office hit at the Lakewood Theater or at NorthPark Center, would we choose the Lakewood? Most likely, especially if it had comfy beanbags and couches like the Inwood, or an app that would reserve both a seat and a fleece blanket and recliner, like the iPic in McKinney.
But would we go enough? Last year showed a 5 percent slump in box office revenue, with people citing high movie ticket prices as the main reason for staying away. The next highest response was a lack of interest in movies. And if the Lakewood Theater can show only one movie at a time, and we don’t want to see the movie showing, would we go? Not likely.
Of course, if a theater group leases or buys the theater, it doesn’t necessarily mean Lakewood would remain a single screen. Craig Kinney, one of the owners, told the DMN that it would be possible to “divvy up the space into three or four houses.” Even the historical theaters Alamo Drafthouse operates have more than one screen and, much to the chagrin of preservationists, that may be economically imperative for the Lakewood Theater to remain a theater.
The question is whether the theater’s great comeback of 1988 should be a cautionary tale, or whether the story would end differently this time.
