Uptown Theatre

Uptown Theatre. . , In 1948, brothers Jerry and Sherman Silver, and their sister, Helen Meagher Fisher, a young widow with three children, bought the Wings Theatre, leased the Texas Theatre, and moved from Minnesota to Grand Prairie, a small but growing Texas town of 13,241. The Silver family soon began design of their third Grand Prairie movie house, the Uptown Theatre located at 120 East Main Street. The Uptown opened to much fanfare on March 17, 1950, as a first-run movie theatre with 1,100 seats and a small stage for live performances. , Considered state-of-the-art for its time, the Uptown featured sloped floor seating, a glass enclosed cry room, spring-loaded seats and oversized chairs for customers "of size." A large mural adorned the lobby wall depicting the history of Grand Prairie. , Originally, tickets were 35 cents for adults and 12 cents for children. The Uptown soon became known for its pickle juice snow cones and Old Maid half-popped popcorn bags. Donna Meagher, Mrs. Fisher's youngest daughter, was 10 when she started working as an usher. Her older sister, Pat, was 13 and worked in the more responsible areas of concessions and box office. , Helen Fisher and her husband, Lee Fisher, bought out the Silver brothers in 1959 and continued to operate the Uptown until 1965 when Mrs. Fisher transferred ownership to daughter Donna Meagher Easterling, the young usher who by then had become a local attorney. Ms. Easterling continued to operate the Uptown as a movie house well into the 1990s. , Thanks to the brokerage efforts of Pat Meagher Watson Capps, Ms. Easterling's sister, the City of Grand Prairie purchased the theatre in 2005 with plans to restore it to its former glory. The Uptown reopened on November 8, 2008.