Undated photo and copy credit & courtesy of the Austin History Center Facebook page.

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Undated photo and copy credit & courtesy of the Austin History Center Facebook page.

Queen Theater at 700-702 Congress Avenue. George Littlefield bought the original Queen at 700 Congress and its next door neighbor, the Casino Theater, in 1920 with plans to tear them both down and build an all new expanded theater. He died before the plans came to fruition, but the project continued under J.J. Hegman. The new Queen Theater opened in 1921 with the first electric light sign for a theater in town, first wiring for sound, seating for 900, a lavishly decorated interior, a unique projection room and more.

While running the Queen in the 1920s, the Hegmans battled Texas' Blue Laws, which at the time forbade most commerce on Sundays. Angry that many drugstores and cigar shops operated illegally on Sundays with impunity, the Hegmans began defying the Blue Laws by advertising Sunday pictures. Eventually, all of Austin had to close on Sundays to ensure equal enforcement of the law. We have an online finding aid for the J.J. Hegman Papers: http://bit.ly/14wE31f.