SPRINGDALE -- Renovations are underway to turn the 65-year-old Apollo Theater into an events venue in downtown Springdale.
Once the hot spot of Emma Avenue, the Apollo was in decline by the early 1970s, when the owner began showing X-rated movies in an effort to make a profit. It was shut down in 1975.
Jim Ritchey, a steel guitar player from Rogers, bought the theater in 1979 and showed "family movies" there until 1985. Afterward, it served as a country music theater until 1995. Since then, the building has been empty and fallen into disrepair.
Tom Lundstrum and Brian Moore of Springdale bought the Apollo from Ritchey in June for $50,000. It'll cost them $500,000 to renovate the condemned building, Lundstrum said. A new roof was installed this fall, and Lundstrum expects the renovations to be completed by March.
The Apollo was constructed by William Sonneman, who built several theaters in Northwest Arkansas. His last name can still be seen high on the front of the Uark Theater building on Fayetteville's Dickson Street.
Sonneman's granddaughter, Sarah Agee of Prairie Grove, said it's "fantastic" that Lundstrum and Moore are renovating the Apollo.
"The Apollo was daddy Bill's favorite," Agee said. "He really enjoyed making it beautiful. It was a showplace."
Lundstrum is trying to restore the Apollo to the way it looked in the 1950s. It won't be easy. For one thing, when it became a country music theater, a facade was installed over the building's original front, and bolts were driven into some of the polished masonry. Replacing only parts of the front may be impossible, Lundstrum said.
"This type of masonry isn't done anymore," he said. "We're trying to match colors that are 65 years old."
Ritchey said the original color was called desert sand. It hasn't faded much, he said.
Springdale's first movie theater was the Princess, which opened on Emma Avenue in 1910, said Susan Young, a spokesman for the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History. The Princess was followed by other downtown Springdale theaters -- the Majestic, Gem, Concord and Shilo. Now, the only theater in Springdale is the Malco Sunset Cinema on U.S. 412, about 2 miles from downtown.
Young did a PowerPoint presentation on the history of Springdale movie theaters. It's called "Going to the Picture Show" and is available on YouTube.com.
Sonneman bought his first Springdale theater, the Concord, in 1931, Young said. He owned two theaters in Fayetteville at the time and eventually owned four in the college town. In 1940, Sonneman opened the Shilo in Springdale.
Young described the Apollo as a "palace" in Sonneman's theater portfolio. Concessions available at the Apollo included popcorn balls and pickle juice served over ice, she said.
Agee, who is executive director of constituency services in Gov. Mike Beebe's office, said she remembers Springdale fondly from her childhood.
"Springdale had a lot of character," Agee said. "You could ride your horse right downtown and go to lunch in the '50s. I'm not sure you could do that right now."
Agee said her mother, Gladys Sonneman, played the organ at the Apollo and two theaters in Fayetteville.
"I enjoyed it, being young and being around that," Agee said. "It was an inventive time."
Jimmy Terry, area manager for Malco theaters, said he was the projectionist for the Apollo's first movie presentation in 1949.
Terry said the building had a pipe organ and two "cry rooms," on each side of the projection rooms. If children began to cry, their parents could take them upstairs and deposit them in the cry rooms, where they wouldn't disturb the audience but could still watch the film through a glass window.
In her presentation, Young said those were initially advertised as "party rooms."
Terry said he worked at the Apollo until 1951, when he started working as a doorman at the Shilo Theater.
Sonneman died in 1969. J.T. Hitt bought the Apollo and began showing X-rated movies in 1971, Young said. After the Apollo was shut down in 1975, Hitt and the projectionist pleaded guilty to obscenity charges and were fined, she said.
"That was pretty much the end of the Apollo as a movie theater and the end of movie theaters in downtown Springdale," she said.
NW News on 11/30/2014