Uptown Theater
History:
In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.
The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.
Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.
Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.
When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.
The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.
The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.
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AARP Events for Grand Prairie
AARP Events for Grand Prairie
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New Year Restart Workshop Series
Monday, Dec 30, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. CT
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Ring in the New Year Jazz Concert
Sunday, Jan 5, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. CT
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Monday, Jan 6, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. CT
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"Resource/aarp2_master.footer.html");$viewFile = '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'content_for_layout' => '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. Nothing you submit will be shared with other site visitors. </div> <style> .report_button_message { color: #333; font-size: 12px; clear: both; } </style> </div> </div> </div><div class="module clearfix"><div class="module-spacer tout-homefit-750"> <a data-formelementid="CSN-LOCAL-HC-PLSK-02272024" href="/grand-prairie-tx/home-and-community/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-HC-PLSK-02272024"><img class="img-responsive" alt="Explore the free AARP HomeFit Guide" title="Explore the free AARP HomeFit Guide" src="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/touts/HomeFit_750x150.png"></a> </div></div></div> <div class="col-md-4 right-rail thin-rhs"><div class="module clearfix"><!--default--> <!-- module_RHS - AARP Events --> <div class="ar-basic-box module-spacer"> <header> <div class="pull-right"> <a href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS"> <img style="width:30px;" src="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/icons/aarp_event_icon.png" alt="Upcoming AARP Events" /> </a> </div> <h2 class="visible-lg">AARP Events for Grand Prairie</h2> <h2 class="hidden-lg">AARP Events for Grand Prairie</h2> </header> <div class="wrap"> <div class="ar-listing snippet"> <ul class="list"> <li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-123024-yhnz4cwhbv7.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Dec 30, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/inperson-aarp-tx-ring-in-the-new-year-jazz-concert-fort-worth-tx-010524-5yn43frtfmz.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-RING-IN-THE-NEW-YEAR-JAZZ-CONCERT">Ring in the New Year Jazz Concert</a></h2> <p class="time">Sunday, Jan 5, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Keller United Methodist Church</p> <p class="loc">Keller, TX</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-010624-73nzp4z4w29.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Jan 6, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li> </ul> <p><a class="link-red" href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS">View All AARP Events<i class="ml-1 fas fa-chevron-right"></i></a></p> </div> </div> </div> <div aria-hidden="true" class="aarpe-ad-wrapper"> <div class="aarpe-ad en clearfix" id="300x250_53475" data-adsize="300x250"> <script type="text/javascript"> if(typeof AARP.ads !== 'undefined'){ AARP.ads.slots({ id:'300x250_53475', size:'300x250'}); 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The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. Nothing you submit will be shared with other site visitors. </div> <style> .report_button_message { color: #333; font-size: 12px; clear: both; } </style> </div> </div> </div><div class="module clearfix"><div class="module-spacer tout-homefit-750"> <a data-formelementid="CSN-LOCAL-HC-PLSK-02272024" href="/grand-prairie-tx/home-and-community/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-HC-PLSK-02272024"><img class="img-responsive" alt="Explore the free AARP HomeFit Guide" title="Explore the free AARP HomeFit Guide" src="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/touts/HomeFit_750x150.png"></a> </div></div></div> <div class="col-md-4 right-rail thin-rhs"><div class="module clearfix"><!--default--> <!-- module_RHS - AARP Events --> <div class="ar-basic-box module-spacer"> <header> <div class="pull-right"> <a href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS"> <img style="width:30px;" src="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/icons/aarp_event_icon.png" alt="Upcoming AARP Events" /> </a> </div> <h2 class="visible-lg">AARP Events for Grand Prairie</h2> <h2 class="hidden-lg">AARP Events for Grand Prairie</h2> </header> <div class="wrap"> <div class="ar-listing snippet"> <ul class="list"> <li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-123024-yhnz4cwhbv7.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Dec 30, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/inperson-aarp-tx-ring-in-the-new-year-jazz-concert-fort-worth-tx-010524-5yn43frtfmz.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-RING-IN-THE-NEW-YEAR-JAZZ-CONCERT">Ring in the New Year Jazz Concert</a></h2> <p 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Warning (2): include() [<a href='http://php.net/function.include'>function.include</a>]: Failed opening '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/Resource/aarp2_master.footer.html' for inclusion (include_path='/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/lib:.:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php') [APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 242]Code Context<?php // if (!$nowrapper) (Globals::$language == 'es') ? include(APP . "/Resource/aarpe_footer_es.html") : include(APP . "/Resource/aarpe_footer.html"); ?><?php if (!$nowrapper): // MLW - Spanish wrappers TBDinclude (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.footer.html");$viewFile = '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'content_for_layout' => '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. 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}); </script> </div> </div> ', 'scripts_for_layout' => '<title>Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX</title> <meta name="page_title" content="Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX"/> <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"/> <meta content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre" name="description"/> <meta content="Uptown, Theater, Grand, Prairie, TX" name="keywords"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.americantowns.com/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://vccstaging.local.aarp.org/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="og:type" content="place"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta property="og:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="place:location:latitude" content="32.745602"/> <meta property="place:location:longitude" content="-97.002296"/> ', 'title_for_layout' => 'Place Detail - AARP' ) $content_for_layout = '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. 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data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-ARTS_ENT">Arts & Entertainment</a></li> <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem " href="/grand-prairie-tx/museums/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-MUSEUMS" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-MUSEUMS">Museums</a></li> --> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </nav>' $header_custom = '' $breadcrumbs = array( (int) 0 => array( 'title' => 'Things to Do', 'slug' => 'things-to-do' ) ) $row = array( 'title' => 'Back to Things to Do', 'slug' => 'things-to-do' ) $i = (int) 0include - APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 242 include - APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 242 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::renderLayout() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 546 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 481 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 963 AppController::renderPage() - APP/Controller/AppController.php, line 136 PlacesController::display() - 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Warning (2): include(/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/Resource/aarp2_master.bodyTargeting.html) [<a href='http://php.net/function.include'>function.include</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory [APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 243]Code Context<?php if (!$nowrapper): // MLW - Spanish wrappers TBDinclude (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.footer.html");include (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.bodyTargeting.html");$viewFile = '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'content_for_layout' => '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. Nothing you submit will be shared with other site visitors. </div> <style> .report_button_message { color: #333; font-size: 12px; clear: both; } </style> </div> </div> </div><div class="module clearfix"><div class="module-spacer tout-homefit-750"> <a data-formelementid="CSN-LOCAL-HC-PLSK-02272024" href="/grand-prairie-tx/home-and-community/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-HC-PLSK-02272024"><img class="img-responsive" alt="Explore the free AARP HomeFit Guide" title="Explore the free AARP HomeFit Guide" src="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/touts/HomeFit_750x150.png"></a> </div></div></div> <div class="col-md-4 right-rail thin-rhs"><div class="module clearfix"><!--default--> <!-- module_RHS - AARP Events --> <div class="ar-basic-box module-spacer"> <header> <div class="pull-right"> <a href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS"> <img style="width:30px;" src="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/icons/aarp_event_icon.png" alt="Upcoming AARP Events" /> </a> </div> <h2 class="visible-lg">AARP Events for Grand Prairie</h2> <h2 class="hidden-lg">AARP Events for Grand Prairie</h2> </header> <div class="wrap"> <div class="ar-listing snippet"> <ul class="list"> <li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-123024-yhnz4cwhbv7.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Dec 30, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/inperson-aarp-tx-ring-in-the-new-year-jazz-concert-fort-worth-tx-010524-5yn43frtfmz.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-RING-IN-THE-NEW-YEAR-JAZZ-CONCERT">Ring in the New Year Jazz Concert</a></h2> <p class="time">Sunday, Jan 5, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Keller United Methodist Church</p> <p class="loc">Keller, TX</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-010624-73nzp4z4w29.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Jan 6, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li> </ul> <p><a class="link-red" href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS">View All AARP Events<i class="ml-1 fas fa-chevron-right"></i></a></p> </div> </div> </div> <div aria-hidden="true" class="aarpe-ad-wrapper"> <div class="aarpe-ad en clearfix" id="300x250_53475" data-adsize="300x250"> <script type="text/javascript"> if(typeof AARP.ads !== 'undefined'){ AARP.ads.slots({ id:'300x250_53475', size:'300x250'}); 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}); </script> </div> </div> ', 'scripts_for_layout' => '<title>Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX</title> <meta name="page_title" content="Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX"/> <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"/> <meta content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre" name="description"/> <meta content="Uptown, Theater, Grand, Prairie, TX" name="keywords"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.americantowns.com/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://vccstaging.local.aarp.org/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="og:type" content="place"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta property="og:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="place:location:latitude" content="32.745602"/> <meta property="place:location:longitude" content="-97.002296"/> ', 'title_for_layout' => 'Place Detail - AARP' ) $content_for_layout = '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. 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class="time">Sunday, Jan 5, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Keller United Methodist Church</p> <p class="loc">Keller, TX</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-010624-73nzp4z4w29.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Jan 6, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li> </ul> <p><a class="link-red" href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS">View All AARP Events<i class="ml-1 fas fa-chevron-right"></i></a></p> </div> </div> </div> <div aria-hidden="true" class="aarpe-ad-wrapper"> <div class="aarpe-ad en clearfix" id="300x250_53475" data-adsize="300x250"> <script type="text/javascript"> if(typeof AARP.ads !== 'undefined'){ 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Warning (2): include() [<a href='http://php.net/function.include'>function.include</a>]: Failed opening '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/Resource/aarp2_master.bodyTargeting.html' for inclusion (include_path='/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/lib:.:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php') [APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 243]Code Context<?php if (!$nowrapper): // MLW - Spanish wrappers TBDinclude (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.footer.html");include (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.bodyTargeting.html");$viewFile = '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'content_for_layout' => '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. 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}); </script> </div> </div> ', 'scripts_for_layout' => '<title>Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX</title> <meta name="page_title" content="Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX"/> <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"/> <meta content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre" name="description"/> <meta content="Uptown, Theater, Grand, Prairie, TX" name="keywords"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.americantowns.com/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://vccstaging.local.aarp.org/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="og:type" content="place"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta property="og:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="place:location:latitude" content="32.745602"/> <meta property="place:location:longitude" content="-97.002296"/> ', 'title_for_layout' => 'Place Detail - AARP' ) $content_for_layout = '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. 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Warning (2): include(/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/Resource/aarp2_master.resource.footer.root.html) [<a href='http://php.net/function.include'>function.include</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory [APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 244]Code Contextinclude (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.footer.html");include (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.bodyTargeting.html");include (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.resource.footer.root.html");$viewFile = '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'content_for_layout' => '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. Nothing you submit will be shared with other site visitors. </div> <style> .report_button_message { color: #333; font-size: 12px; clear: both; } </style> </div> </div> </div><div class="module clearfix"><div class="module-spacer tout-homefit-750"> <a data-formelementid="CSN-LOCAL-HC-PLSK-02272024" href="/grand-prairie-tx/home-and-community/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-HC-PLSK-02272024"><img class="img-responsive" alt="Explore the free AARP HomeFit Guide" title="Explore the free AARP HomeFit Guide" src="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/touts/HomeFit_750x150.png"></a> </div></div></div> <div class="col-md-4 right-rail thin-rhs"><div class="module clearfix"><!--default--> <!-- module_RHS - AARP Events --> <div class="ar-basic-box module-spacer"> <header> <div class="pull-right"> <a href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS"> <img style="width:30px;" src="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/icons/aarp_event_icon.png" alt="Upcoming AARP Events" /> </a> </div> <h2 class="visible-lg">AARP Events for Grand Prairie</h2> <h2 class="hidden-lg">AARP Events for Grand Prairie</h2> </header> <div class="wrap"> <div class="ar-listing snippet"> <ul class="list"> <li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-123024-yhnz4cwhbv7.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Dec 30, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/inperson-aarp-tx-ring-in-the-new-year-jazz-concert-fort-worth-tx-010524-5yn43frtfmz.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-RING-IN-THE-NEW-YEAR-JAZZ-CONCERT">Ring in the New Year Jazz Concert</a></h2> <p class="time">Sunday, Jan 5, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Keller United Methodist Church</p> <p class="loc">Keller, TX</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-010624-73nzp4z4w29.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Jan 6, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li> </ul> <p><a class="link-red" href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS">View All AARP Events<i class="ml-1 fas fa-chevron-right"></i></a></p> </div> </div> </div> <div aria-hidden="true" class="aarpe-ad-wrapper"> <div class="aarpe-ad en clearfix" id="300x250_53475" data-adsize="300x250"> <script type="text/javascript"> if(typeof AARP.ads !== 'undefined'){ AARP.ads.slots({ id:'300x250_53475', size:'300x250'}); 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}); </script> </div> </div> ', 'scripts_for_layout' => '<title>Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX</title> <meta name="page_title" content="Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX"/> <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"/> <meta content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre" name="description"/> <meta content="Uptown, Theater, Grand, Prairie, TX" name="keywords"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.americantowns.com/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://vccstaging.local.aarp.org/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="og:type" content="place"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta property="og:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="place:location:latitude" content="32.745602"/> <meta property="place:location:longitude" content="-97.002296"/> ', 'title_for_layout' => 'Place Detail - AARP' ) $content_for_layout = '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. 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class="time">Sunday, Jan 5, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Keller United Methodist Church</p> <p class="loc">Keller, TX</p> </li><li class="item" data-pageindex="1"> <h3 class="topic">Featured Event</h3> <h2 class="title"><a href="/aarp-event/virtual-aarp-tx-new-year-restart-workshop-series-dallas-tx-010624-73nzp4z4w29.html" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-EVENTS-NEW-YEAR-RESTART-WORKSHOP-SERIES">New Year Restart Workshop Series</a></h2> <p class="time">Monday, Jan 6, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. CT</p> <p class="venue">Zoom and Facebook</p> <p class="loc">Online Event</p> </li> </ul> <p><a class="link-red" href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/" data-formelementid="LOCAL-BTN-CLK-SEEALL-EVENTS">View All AARP Events<i class="ml-1 fas fa-chevron-right"></i></a></p> </div> </div> </div> <div aria-hidden="true" class="aarpe-ad-wrapper"> <div class="aarpe-ad en clearfix" id="300x250_53475" data-adsize="300x250"> <script type="text/javascript"> if(typeof AARP.ads !== 'undefined'){ 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Warning (2): include() [<a href='http://php.net/function.include'>function.include</a>]: Failed opening '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/Resource/aarp2_master.resource.footer.root.html' for inclusion (include_path='/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/lib:.:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php') [APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 244]Code Contextinclude (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.footer.html");include (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.bodyTargeting.html");include (APP . "Resource/aarp2_master.resource.footer.root.html");$viewFile = '/var/www/vhosts/vcc_staging/app/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'content_for_layout' => '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. 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}); </script> </div> </div> ', 'scripts_for_layout' => '<title>Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX</title> <meta name="page_title" content="Uptown Theater - Grand Prairie, TX"/> <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"/> <meta content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre" name="description"/> <meta content="Uptown, Theater, Grand, Prairie, TX" name="keywords"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.americantowns.com/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://vccstaging.local.aarp.org/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="og:type" content="place"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta property="og:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="place:location:latitude" content="32.745602"/> <meta property="place:location:longitude" content="-97.002296"/> ', 'title_for_layout' => 'Place Detail - AARP' ) $content_for_layout = '<div class="row twoColumnLayout"> <div class="col-md-8 left-rail"><div class="module clearfix"><div class="ar-basic-box"> <div class="module-spacer"> <header><h1 class="article-headline">Uptown Theater</h1></header> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-6 left module-spacer"> <p> <div> <div>120 East Main Street</div> <div> <span>Grand Prairie</span>, <span>TX</span> <span>75050</span> </div> </div> </p> <div> <i class="fa fa-external-link-square"></i> <a href="http://www.uptowntheatergp.com/" target="_blank">Uptown Theater</a> </div> <div><i class="fa fa-phone-square"></i> 972-237-8786</div> </div> <div class="col-sm-6 module-spacer"> <iframe width="100%" height="220" frameborder="0" style="border:0" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyCU5aZylcrTOLke9e3U0F2mXovlZ4bL8yk&q=Uptown+Theater%2C+120+East+Main+Street%2C+Grand+Prairie%2C+TX+75050" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> </div> <div class="module-spacer clearfix"> <p>History:</p> <p>In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre on Main Street in Grand Prairie and moved to Texas from Minnesota. The brothers, who were already in the Theatre business, were excited about the possibilities in this small but growing Texas town of 13,241. Soon after arrival, the family also leased and ran the Texas Theatre, located a block down and across the street from the Wings. The Wings Theatre, which featured second-run movies, was thought to have been a converted grocery store, with a rickety wooden floor and a segregated balcony for its African American customers. The Texas Theatre, originally built as a movie house, also featured second-run movies.</p> <p>The Silver family saw a market for first-run movies in Grand Prairie and soon began the design and construction of their third and most ambitious Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre. The Uptown opened on March 17, 1950 as a first-run movie Theatre with 1,100 seats and also included a small stage for live performances. It opened as an un-segregated Theatre, years before other Theatres in the area followed suit.</p> <p>Considered a state-of-the-art Theatre for its time, the Uptown featured a sloped floor in the seating area for optimal viewing of the stage and screen, a glass enclosed "Cry Room" in the back for mothers and babies, spring-loaded seating units that would return to a vertical position when the seat was vacated vs. the stationary seats in most Theatres, and oversized chairs with ample leg room for customers "of size". A large canvas mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie from its pioneer beginnings to the Dallas skyline as could be seen from downtown Grand Prairie in the 1950's.</p> <p>Entertainment over the years included films, kiddy shows, stage shows, minstrel shows, midnight shows for the Ling Temco/Chance Vought late shifts, and personal appearances by celebrities promoting their films. In the 1960's, battles of the bands and go-go contests replaced stage and minstrel shows.</p> <p>When first opened, adult tickets were 35 cents and tickets for children cost 12 cents. Because of Mrs. Fisher's frugality, the Theatre became known for its popular and unique pickle juice snowcones, which recycled the pickle juice left in the jars of giant pickles, and Old Maid popcorn bags of the half-popped kernels left on the bottom of the popper. During the 1950s, parents routinely dropped off their unattended children as young as three years old for Saturday's kiddy shows. Playing fulltime usher and part-time babysitter at the kiddy shows, Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was ten years old when she started working in the family business. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and working in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office.</p> <p>The Silver brothers and their sister owned and operated the Uptown for 15 years until 1965 when the Uptown ownership was transferred to Mrs. Fisher's daughter, Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Mrs. Easterling continued to operate the Theatre as a movie house well into the 1990's. But as mega-plexes and multi-screened Theatres became the norm, the Uptown eventually relented to the inevitable and closed as a movie Theatre. It was intermittently leased as a church until the City of Grand Prairie purchased the Theatre in 2005 with plans to restore the historic downtown landmark to its former glory, but this time primarily as a live performance arts venue.</p> <p>The restoration and renovation design was performed by noted San Antonio Architect Killis Almond, FAIA, who has numerous theatrical restoration and renovation works to his credit throughout the country. Interestingly, Mr. Almond grew up in Grand Prairie in the 1950's-60's and had fond memories of his many visits to the Uptown as a young boy. The Uptown Theater reopened as a multi-use performing arts center in 2008.</p> </div> <div class="reportthis" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"> <form method="post" action="/grand-prairie-tx/report/place/uptown-theater-grand-prairie-tx.html"> <button type="submit" class="btn btnregister pull-right" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Flag This Place</button> </form> </div> <div class="report_button_message">Please use "Flag This Place" to alert us about content that is inappropriate or needs immediate attention. 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Wings Theatre"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="og:type" content="place"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Uptown Theater"/> <meta property="og:description" content="History: In 1948, two brothers, Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://cdn-aarp.americantowns.com/img/template/thumbs/generic-icon.jpg"/> <meta property="place:location:latitude" content="32.745602"/> <meta property="place:location:longitude" content="-97.002296"/> ' $title_for_layout = 'Place Detail - AARP' $asset_version = '230831' $min = true $nowrapper = false $css = '' $highlighting = '<span class="highlighting">Highlighting Grand Prairie</span>' $location = '<a href="/grand-prairie-tx/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-HOME">Dallas, TX</a>' $no_header = false $header_title = '<a href="/grand-prairie-tx/things-to-do/">Places</a>' $header_subtitle = '' $isPR = false $navbar = '<nav class="section" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="collapse"> <div class="containerx"> <div class="section-toggle">Sections <i class="fas fa-chevron-down"></i></div> <ul class="secondary-menu containerx" id="secondary-menu" role="menu" aria-busy="true"> <li role="presentation" class=""><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem" href="/grand-prairie-tx/aarp-events/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-OLE" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-EVENTS">Online & Local Events</a> </li> <li role="presentation" class="active"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem" href="/grand-prairie-tx/things-to-do/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-TTD" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-THINGSTODO">Things to Do</a></li> <li role="presentation" class=""><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem" href="/grand-prairie-tx/happenings/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-NF" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-HAPPENINGS">News Feed</a> </li> <li role="presentation" class=""><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem" href="/grand-prairie-tx/volunteering/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-VOL" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-VOLUNTEERING">Volunteering</a> </li> <li role="presentation" class=""><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem" href="/grand-prairie-tx/home-and-community/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-HC" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-HC">Home & Community</a> </li> <li role="presentation" class=""><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem" href="/grand-prairie-tx/movies/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-MFG" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-MOVIESFORGROWNUPS">Movies for Grownups</a> </li> <li role="presentation" class="more nosep " id="submenu-more"> <span role="menuitem" class="menuitem" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-MORE">More<i class="fas fa-chevron-down"></i></span> <ul class="secondary-submenu animate slide-in" id="secondary-submenu"> <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem " href="/grand-prairie-tx/discounts/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-LO" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-OFFERS">Local Offers</a></li> <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem " href="/grand-prairie-tx/local-resources/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-LR" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-LOCALRESOURCES">Local Resources</a> </li> <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem " href="/grand-prairie-tx/jobs/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-WJ" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-WORK&JOBS">Work & Jobs</a></li> <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem " href="/grand-prairie-tx/events/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-CC" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-EVENTS">Community Calendar</a></li> <!-- <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem " href="/grand-prairie-tx/healthy-living/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-HEALTHY_LIVING" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-HEALTHY_LIVING">Healthy Living</a></li> <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem " href="/grand-prairie-tx/arts-entertainment/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-ARTS_ENT" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-ARTS_ENT">Arts & Entertainment</a></li> <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" class="menuitem " href="/grand-prairie-tx/museums/?intcmp=CSN-LOCAL-NAV-MUSEUMS" data-formelementid="LOCAL-LNK-CLK-MUSEUMS">Museums</a></li> --> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </nav>' $header_custom = '' $breadcrumbs = array( (int) 0 => array( 'title' => 'Things to Do', 'slug' => 'things-to-do' ) ) $row = array( 'title' => 'Back to Things to Do', 'slug' => 'things-to-do' ) $i = (int) 0include - APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 244 include - APP/View/Layouts/aarp_2023.ctp, line 244 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::renderLayout() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 546 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 481 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 963 AppController::renderPage() - APP/Controller/AppController.php, line 136 PlacesController::display() - APP/Controller/PlacesController.php, line 501 ReflectionMethod::invokeArgs() - [internal], line ?? Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 491 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 193 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 118