Valley Art Theatre. Harkins Theatres, Phoenix

Harkins Theatres is an American movie theater chain with locations throughout the Southwestern United States. Harkins Theatres is privately owned and operated by its parent company, Harkins Enterprises, LLC. The company currently operates 33 theaters with 501 screens throughout Arizona, California, Colorado and Oklahoma.

In 1931, at the age of sixteen, Dwight “Red” Harkins left Cincinnati, Ohio, on his Harley Davidson motorcycle for Hollywood. Dwight planned to pursue a role in one of the new "talkies." By the time he arrived in Tempe, Arizona, he could no longer afford to continue his quest. After several years in Tempe, he sought out a new career operating a movie-house. In 1933, he opened the State Theatre in Tempe, at the age of 18 after putting $50 down on the lease to take over the State Theatre. The State Theatre was originally the Goodwin Opera House, opened in 1907.

In 1934, Red Harkins built an outdoor theater in Tempe Beach Park, which lasted for only one summer. Afterwards, in 1940, Harkins built the College Theater (currently Harkins Valley Art). The theater contained innovations such as glow-in-the-dark carpet, headphones for the hearing impaired, and automatic drinking fountains. The theater is significant in that it is Tempe's only Depression-era theater.

Harkins Theatres struggled financially because it was unable to book many first-run movies. In 1977, Dan Harkins filed a lawsuit against a group of film distributors alleging they had prevented Harkins from booking many top first-run movie titles. Movie studios began settling with Harkins. As a result of the lawsuit, Harkins Theatres was able to show a run of Walt Disney's & RKO Radio Pictures Fantasia in May 1982, starting a string of successful releases.

The College Theatre is a historic cinema. Now renamed the Valley Art Theatre, it is Arizona's oldest and longest operating movie theatre. It is listed in the Tempe Historic Property Register.