Effingham Theatre
114 N. 5th Street,
Effingham,
IL
62401
114 N. 5th Street,
Effingham,
IL
62401
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Frisina Amusement Company
Architects: S.A. Clausen
Functions: Fraternal Hall
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The Effingham Theatre was opened on November 22, 1927 with vaudeville on the stage and short subjects & a news reel on the screen. It was closed on March 30, 1956 with Scott Brady in “The Vanishing American” & Rod Cameron in “Headline Hunters”. It has since been demolished and the site is now a parking lot for the adjacent bank.
Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
FDYB of 1954 gives address as 112-14-16 N. 5th Street.
Newspaper listings for the Effingham theatre ended in 1956.
November 22, 1927 grand opening ad in photos. Final showing March 30, 1956 - likely the end of a 30-year leasing agreement - with “The Vanishing American” and “Headline Hunters.”
Unlike most openings, the Effingham Theatre did not open with a main movie. Instead it opened with a newsreel, a sportsreel, and a two-reel Pathe comedy, plus five vaudeville performances (including Madam Louise & Company doing “Aerial Oddities”, the Shaun Brothers with the Midnight Hour Radio Biys, the LeRoy, Mable Hart & Company doing the Medley Garden Revue, Nilson & Ardell, and the Four Italian Serenaders). The first main attraction didn’t came until either two or three days later.
As this is the only theater listed at Effingham which opened in 1927, it is probably the house announced in this item from the “Theaters Proposed” column of Variety on June 1 that year: “Effingham, Ill.— $50,000. Owner. Washington Theatre Corp.; Mattoon, 111. Architect. S. A. Clausen, Decatur, Ill. Policy not given.”
Sven Andrew Clausen was one of Decatur’s most active architects of the period.