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Friday, July 23, 2010

The Village Theatre

I was thinking today about how when you meet a new person, you initially never know what that relationship will turn in to. I don't just mean guy and girl romantic relationships - but any relationship. Upon first meeting someone, you never know if that person will eventually become one of your closest friends, or ultimately just an acquaintance whose name you can't even remember. When I stop and think back to when I first met some of the people closest to me, I think it's really neat to remember how those friendships started, and then grew.

This made me think about how my grandparents met. (I'm talking about Mamaw and Papaw, my dad's parents.) They actually met when she was 16 and he was 18 while working together at what was then called The Village Theatre, in Highland Park Village. (Now it's called the Regent Highland Park Village Theatre.) I got online and found a picture of The Village Theatre from 1948, right around the time they would have been working there. And here's a picture from inside the theatre that same year. Years later they ended remodeling, and in the process removed the balcony and divided the theatre up into 4 smaller theatres. Papaw worked as an Usher, taking tickets and leading people to their seats. (He's not in this picture, but these are they types of uniforms they wore then.)And Mamaw worked at the concession stand. (Nope, that's not her either.) How cute is that though? The usher and the "candy girl" began dating, got married, had two sons, and have been happily enjoying each other's company for the last 65 years!Here's a recent picture of The Village Theatre. I love that even though it opened in 1931, today it looks exactly the same! You don't find that often in this part of the country. In cities like Boston, everything is a historical landmark of some sort, so the buildings remain standing and well cared for year after year. Unfortunately in Dallas, you just don't see that very often.
While I was trying to find these pictures online, I read that they actually closed this theatre last fall. Apparently they are remodeling it, and some places said the theatre will reopen, while others said it will become more high end clothing stores. What'd I tell ya - Dallas just doesn't keep the good buildings around.

Either way, I think it's cool to think about my grandparents meeting and falling in love there so many years ago. :)

3 comments:

Leanne said...

Blog says update me!

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

this is really neat. what a great story for them. cool photos! good job, sleuth! :)