The Oct. 31 closing of the Lakewood Theatre has created a new void in the Lakewood Shopping Center, but the leasing agent for the theater’s owners says he is talking with several potential tenants.
Getting movies back on the Lakewood’s historic screen is a priority, says Emmett Ball of Ball & Kraft Realtors, co-trustee for the building’s owners.
“We are talking with people who are very interested,” Ball says. “And the people who are looking at it are considering it as a theater.”
The last movie, the James Dean classic “Rebel Without a Cause,” closed on Halloween afternoon. That was the day the lease on the theater and adjoining retail strip between Abrams Road and La Vista Drive ran out for the previous operator, B.B. Barr.
Lakewood’s final Saturday, Oct. 30, was a sad occasion. The theater was virtually deserted for the afternoon matinee. Concession stand employees served soft drinks from 2-liter plastic bottles. By the 7 p.m. showing, posted signs stated that the theater was out of drinks. Fewer than a dozen people bought movie tickets.
The theater closing is another blow to the historic shopping center, where an arson fire in June destroyed several businesses along Gaston, including the conical-roofed building that housed the Lakewood Lighthouse Seafood Grill. Reconstruction is planned, but has not begun.
“Everybody’s very disappointed that the theater is closed, but it has happened before and they’ve always been able to reopen it,” says Eloise Sherman, president of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce. “We expect it to become a viable theater again.”
Ball declined to identify the parties who are considering the theater space, but he said at least one of them is an out-of-town group with experience in theater operations. He did not rule out the possibility that the balcony might be remodeled into one or more additional screens. The format would be up to the tenants, but the building’s owners don’t want X-rated movies showing there, Ball says.
Barr, who was unavailable for comment, restored the 55-year-old theater in 1984 at an estimated cost of $500,000 and kept it open under several operators for the past 10 years.
The Lakewood Theatre, the only Dallas theater of its era still in its original condition, features painted murals on the lobby walls depicting cowboys, exotic dancers and Walt Disney characters. The restored theater has an 85-year-old pipe organ that rises from the stage floor to be played before weekend showings and female statues above exits on either side of the screen. Outside, a 100-foot marquee tower lit with pink and green neon lights and topped with a glittering ball serves as a beacon for Lakewood.
Ball praised Barr for restoring the theater and for insisting that it be maintained in spotless condition and offer only high-quality, family entertainment. When Barr took over the theater in 1984, it had closed after falling victim to stiff competition with multi-screen theaters. The Lakewood had a lengthy tenure as a suburban theater showing major movies before becoming a dollar cinema and finally closing in 1983.
For most of the time Barr leased the Lakewood, the theater showed first-run movies, but when that format became unprofitable it was changed to a second-run theater in May of this year and finally to a classic movie format several months later.
The Lakewood Theatre is owned by the Lee R. Kraft Trust and Burdah M. Kraft Trust and the Edward T. Moore Heirs; Nations Bank is the agent for the heirs.
Other businesses in the strip adjoining the theater are not affected by the expiration of Barr’s lease, Ball says. The Balcony Club, which has an entrance to the theater, remains open. And in mid-November, the White Swan Cafe moved from a small space on Abrams to the larger space with a patio next to the Balcony Club.
