The oldest part of what now is the Royal Theatre (111 S. Market Street) was built in 1920 by Mrs. Alice Wooten and was known as the Imp. (aka: Independent Motion Pictures.)
In 1922, Wallace Kauffman, who earlier had worked for Mrs. Wooten, took over the Imp until 1949 when it was remodeled and several improvements were made. Mr. Kauffman secured the sign “Royal Theatre” from a theatre in Little Rock. The new Royal Theatre opened on May 12, 1949, and it was the beginning of a forty-seven year run for the Royal Theatre under the management of successive generations of the Kauffman Family. In 1996, Randy Kauffman sold the theatre to Jerry Van Dyke and in 2000, Van Dyke turned the theatre over to the Central Arkansas Community Players, now known as the Royal Players.
