A classic movie theater in Hot Springs is currently being restored to its original 1930s design under a new owner who hopes to have the venue open to the public within the next couple of months.
Local Realtor Chris Rix recently purchased Central Theater, 1008 Central Ave., after he became interested in opening a deli in another classic location next door to the venue.
"It started out with the building next door, which is the old Club Cafe building on Central ... I wanted to put a deli in there, and then I started talking to Bill (Volland) the prior owner, and asked him what his plans were as far as the theater and asked him if he would be willing to sell it," Rix said.
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Rix said he wants to fix up the theater not because of a love of movies, but because of what the theater can do for the community in Hot Springs.
"The women's festival, the horror festival, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute, these are all things that are contributing to Hot Springs," Rix said, noting he is not a film buff. "Do I like the (HSDFF)? Yes. Do I occasionally like to catch a film? Yes. I don't sit down and watch TV, I work nonstop. ... You can ask me 'Have you seen?' and my answer is 'no,'" he said.
"When the film festivals come into town, they bring people from out of town. I don't care if it's one or 5,000, they bring people that spend money, and they go to restaurants, and they eat, and they tip, and they take up hotel rooms, and people have to clean the hotel rooms. If those people aren't in town, the employees in the restaurants aren't getting tipped and the housekeepers are off because there's nobody to clean up after," Rix said.
Under the previous owner, the theater hosted the Hot Springs Horror Film Festival and the Hot Springs International Women's Film Festival. Rix said that he intends for Volland to continue hosting those festivals in the theater.
"These things we have to have in our town to keep the economy going," Rix said. "This place is not about me, this is not the Chris Rix theater. This theater is a venue that needs to be used," he said.
"I've always been a follower of arts here in Hot Springs, and we don't really have much of a performing arts venue here," Rix said, noting he intends "opening up the stage besides just movies to actual performing arts like orchestra, opera, jazz."
"The deli is in process next door," Rix said, and he is currently buying restaurant equipment.
"I feel like both of these will be fully functional this year though, and preferably within the next three to six months," he said of both the theater and the deli.
While it will be months before the restoration is finished, Rix said he thinks the building will be able to hold shows within a month, noting, "I'm guessing that within a month or so, if that, we'll probably begin having the doors open."
Rix said he is originally from Hot Springs, but prior to purchasing the venue, he had never been inside the theater.
"I've driven by this theater my entire life ... but this has pretty much been closed my entire life," he said.
"I don't recall, in my life, ever seeing people out in front of it, I don't recall seeing the marquee on maybe once or twice."
"I'd never been in. I'd seen the lobby, and that's about it," Rix said.
"I think this is the first theater in Hot Springs, best I can tell," Rix said, noting "there's very limited resources on this theater." He said he believes the building was built in 1937.
Rix said he is restoring the venue, "not a remodel" and intends to get it back to how it looked when it was operating in the 1930s.
"Right now ... the theater seats 264 people. Both wings, stage left is totally gone, stage right has a few seats, but when I deleted these jewelry cases and a couple other things ... and when I take out that weird octagonal bizarre thing, and put the seats back in here, we'll seat 468 people on the floor," he said.
The venue also has a balcony, and Rix said once he gets it functional again, "the occupancy of this theater will be 750 people."
Rix said the pandemic didn't have much of an effect on his decision to restore the theater and open a deli.
"I thought about it. I definitely thought about it for about five seconds. I'm a dice roller, I ain't even trying to be worried about it because, historically, the swine flu happened, the Spanish flu, we've had pandemics, people get sick and people die, and yeah, that was concerning, it was a little stressful even," Rix said.
"I've been buying restaurant equipment while restaurants are closed, some people might say I'm crazy, and that's all right, because you gotta be a little crazy to take on things that are definitely going to be difficult. I enjoy the challenge," he said.
While the venue is not currently open to the public, Rix has been livestreaming performances via Facebook Live.
"We have been having the Facebook Live performances, I'm really glad to have that happening," he said.
