ARCADIA THEATER: FIRES TO FROZEN FOODS

The Arcadia Theater on Lower Greenville opened in 1927, playing only silent movies, and wouldn’t show its first “talkie” until the 1930s when a vitaphone system was installed. Neighborhood kids would walk to the theater to pay 10 cents to see one of the popular serials, which ran each week with cliffhanger endings. In 1958, the Robert Mitchum vehicle “The Hunters” was on the big screen when a fivealarm fire brought crews to save the historic theater. It survived, would later become a concert venue and eventually burned again in 2006, ending nearly 80 years of history. Today, the corner is busy again as neighbors hustle into Trader Joe’s for groceries.