The Malco Theatre

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Hot Springs Central Avenue Historic District

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Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 13, 2024

1. The Malco Theatre Marker

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by David Austin, 5/29/2009:
Sidney Nutt, the continued owner of the former Princess Theatre’s site, ordered the construction of the Malco Theatre in 1935. Brueggeman & Swaim, the contracted architects, designed the building to utilize the remains for the Princess Theater. The completed structure consisted of a single, large auditorium, with a balcony, a lobby, and a structure for offices that faced Central Avenue. The front façade was in the spirit of the modern movement with its Art Deco features. Vertical stucco

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 13, 2024

2. The Malco Theatre Marker

Looking across Central Avenue from the Malco Theatre; the marker is embedded in the sidewalk, beside the streetlamp post.

piers framed windows and multi-colored tiles, and a bright marquee attracted customers from the street. It had an occupational limit of one-thousand seats, which helped to continue the recreational value of Hot Springs tourism.

Although Sydney Nutt was the proprietor of the site and building, he sold his interest in the theater in 1936, which was bought up by M.A. Lightman, founder of Malco Theatres. Lightman was in the early years of developing the Malco chain when he bought the rights to the theater, which would soon become part of a successful franchise in the southern United States. The marquee was renovated to be larger in scale and with brighter, neon lights for more attractive qualities. These new features helped the Malco remain an entertaining venue for Hot Springs through the modern era.

The Malco continued displaying feature films to audiences until 1995, when it again came under new management. Acclaimed magician, Maxwell Blade, became the tenant in the Malco, which became the Theater of Magic. In 1996, Blade shared the theater with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute, whose annual film festival continually attracted international society members of the documentary film genre, along with their audiences. In 2008, the HSDFI became the sole proprietor of the Malco. Their annual film festival had reached an esteemed level, as it became Hot Springs’ highest

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 13, 2024

3. Malco Theatre (west elevation)

The historical marker is embedded in the sidewalk, behind the streetlamp post.

From the National Register Nomination: The theater’s front façade is covered with stucco overlay that make vertical piers of the Art Deco style, which frame the recessed windows of the top two floors. There are six windows per level on the main auditorium wall that indicate separate room spaces. The ground level is covered by the marquee awning that is made of a black frame with white, neon backing for solid-colored lettering. It is lined in Art Deco ornament with white, neon tubes, and a cinematic neon headpiece centered over the awning. The awning extends out over the sidewalk, with angled sides for displaying the marquee to the street and pedestrian traffic. The large, white Malco signs stand over both of the angled sides of the marquee.

profile cultural event.

The theater is significant for associations with entertainment and recreation in Hot Springs in the twentieth century. The building is also significant as an outstanding example of the Art Deco style, with classical cinematic features on the front façade and marquee.

Excerpt:  The Malco Theatre, which was frequented by President Bill Clinton as a boy, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 21, 2010.

Between 1929 and 1964, entrances were segregated — the “Colored” entrance was on the Broadway side of the building, while the “White” entrance was on Central Avenue. The Broadway entrance allowed African Americans to enter the building and go directly to their segregated seating area in the balcony. With advances in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, segregation of entrances and seating arrangements ended. The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program has stated that the Broadway entrance to the theater may be one of only two such formerly segregated entrances still in existence in the United States.

In 2016, Magician Maxwell Blade invested in restoring and renovating the aging theater, hosting its grand re-opening on December 8, 2017. The theater boasts design elements

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 14, 2024

4. Malco Theatre (northwest elevation)

From the National Register Nomination:  The three-storied building is from the early 20th Century Commercial style with an Art Deco street front. It is made of red and light-brown brick, which are covered in a variety of materials on the facing walls of the north and west. The theater stands on a continuous, concrete-cast foundation, while the roof is a flat-top with a parapet. The roofline has four different levels, indicating four different occupational spaces inside: the lobby, the main auditorium, the mezzanine, and the rear entrance and lobby.

such as ceiling tiles, decorative features, and lighting accents that suggest the Art Deco style of the 1920s when Sidney Nutt bought the Princess Theatre and converted it to showing “talking pictures.” However, Maxwell Blade's magic show has also incorporated twenty-first century components such as digital audio and video projection, including three-dimensional backgrounds. Blade has stated that the interior was restored to the way it looked in the 1940s. It has been returned to having one large auditorium rather than being split into two twin theaters. The Malco can currently hold 320 people in its plush seats, as well as another seventy-five in the balcony.

Excerpt:  The Malco Theatre opened on February 21, 1946 in an elegant Art Moderne style, including a fantastic large marquee with the Malco name in graceful script lettering and the stylized intertwined letters M and T for Malco Theatres on the front panel of the marquee. The Malco Theatre was remodeled in 1962, and again in 1995 when it was acquired by illusionist Maxwell Blade.