Qualla: Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse

Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arlington County, CC BY-SA 2.0. On June 17, 1963, Arlington's movie theaters officially desegregated. Among the first to walk into the Arlington Theater on Columbia Pike and buy a ticket was Dorothy Hamm, a Black civil rights activist, and her son Edward Leslie Jr. It was an ordinary act with a long history behind it. The theater had opened in August 1940 as a whites-only establishment, and it had remained whites-only for 23 years. Hamm had spent the late 1950s and early 1960s leading school desegregation efforts in Arlington, and the previous year leading picketing campaigns outside Virginia movie houses. Two Black women had been arrested at Arlington's Glebe Theater and Fairfax's Jefferson Theater in 1962 for the crime of trying to buy a ticket. Their civil suit had forced Neighborhood Theaters Inc. to capitulate. As of June 17, 1963, the whole chain - including the Arlington - was officially desegregated. Dorothy and Edward were among the first through the door. The theater is still there.

Image: Arlington County | CC BY-SA 2.0

Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse: Bowling Alleys Upstairs

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ryanusaurus, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Arlington Theater opened on August 15, 1940, as the centerpiece of what its developer called the Arlington Recreational Center. Dr. Charles P. Munson - a retired dentist who had chaired the Arlington school board - had bought the corner of Columbia Pike and Walter Reed Drive ...

Image: Ryanusaurus | CC BY-SA 4.0

Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse: Dorothy Hamm and the Glebe Theater

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cliff from Arlington, Virginia, USA, CC BY 2.0. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the Arlington Theater operated as a whites-only segregated facility, like nearly every movie house in northern Virginia. By the late 1950s Dorothy Hamm, a civil rights leader and one of the first parents to file school desegregation suits in Arlingt...

Image: Cliff from Arlington, Virginia, USA | CC BY 2.0

Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse: From Single Screen to Drafthouse

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ryanusaurus, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Arlington spent the 1960s and early 1970s as a conventional single-screen neighborhood theater. By the mid-1970s the multiplex era had begun, and single-screen houses everywhere were closing. Owner Tom Sarris kept it open through 1985 mainly on second-run fare. That year Tony...

Image: Ryanusaurus | CC BY-SA 4.0

Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse: A Stage on Columbia Pike

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cliff from Arlington, Virginia, USA, CC BY 2.0. Within a decade the Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse had become one of the most consistently booked comedy venues on the East Coast. The list of comedians who have headlined the main stage reads like a roster of working American comedy: John Mulaney, Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, ...

Image: Cliff from Arlington, Virginia, USA | CC BY 2.0