Isis Theater
1724 Curtis Street,
Denver,
CO
80202
1724 Curtis Street,
Denver,
CO
80202
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The Isis theatre opened as the “finest motion picture theatre in the world” on May 1st, 1913. Grand opening ad posted.
Motion Picture Herald, Jan. 1, 1955: “The New State, renamed from the Isis when it was taken down over a year ago by Norman Probstein, will be torn down to make way for a parking lot. This leaves one theatre, the Gem, in a block that at one time had four theatres. Others are also parking lots.”
Below copy courtesy of Matt Hyde via The Denver Eye Facebook page. (Under a vintage pic I also re-posted to the Isis photos Section.)
Had the largest Wurlitzer in the world for a short time (1915-1917). Of course, when Wurlitzer built a larger one in California in 1917, Denver said ‘this will not do’, and had Wurlitzer build an even larger one for the Municipal Auditorium in 1918. Both consoles survive today. IIRC, the ISIS console is now in California, and the MA console is in Oregon.
this card in the Denver Public Library’s Western History Subject Index says that when the State Theatre was closed and demolished in 1953, its owners bought the Isis Theatre and changed its name to the New State Theatre.
Another card from the Index cites a January 1, 1955, item in the Rocky Mountain News saying that the Isis Theatre building was to be demolished. The Isis must have had the aka New State for less than two years.
An article in The Moving Picture World of January 1, 1916, indicates that the Strand Theatre (later the State), opened in 1915, had been built on the site of the first Isis Theatre. The article doesn’t say whether or not the first Isis operated under another name between the opening of the new Isis in 1913 and the old theater’s demolition.
There is an article about exterior lighting on Denver’s theaters in the October 19, 1912, issue of Electrical Review (Google Books scan) with a drawing of this Isis Theater captioned “How New Isis Theater Will Be Illuminated.”
The text of the same article has this information:
The article indicates that the New Isis was under construction, while the existing Isis was one of the seven movie theaters already in operation on Curtis Street between 14th and 18th Streets. So far I’ve been unable to discover what became of the first Isis when the new house opened. Possibly it was kept open under a new name.From the Estey organ company I find record of them selling an organ to the Isis Theatre, Denver CO in 1910, 3 years before this building opened. Then the Wurlitzer records show THEY sold an organ to the Isis Theatre, Denver CO, in 1915, 2 years after this theatre opened. Certainly theatres upgraded their organs – and believe me, if you had a theatre with an Estey, you needed an upgrade. I can even understand maybe Estey using a contract date rather than an installation date, but 3 years is too long for that. Any suggestions? Was there a previous Isis Theatre?
Mr. O'Malley, I’ve searched, in vain, for images of the Rococco interior of the Denver Theater, demolished not long after extensive and expensive renovations, including gold leaf work, mirror replacements, etc. My late husband worked there for years and took me through nearly the entire building in the very early 70’s after his Army stint. I never could figure out WHY they literally provided the idea for “They Paved Paradise”, leaving only the compass on the sidewalk, destroying a grand lady from the past,leaving the much less glamorous but more functional Paramount across the street.
Here are two photos of the Isis from a 1913 issue of the trade Journal The Moving Picture World. The pictures are rather small, but the interior photo gives an idea of just how big this theater really was. For such an early movie house the place was vast.
Monty-Denver – What can I help you with. I have a good collection of photos, both hardcopy and in jpg. format of most of Denver’s early theaters. Most were obtained from the Denver Public Library and the Colorado Historical Society. I can be contacted by email at or phone at (303) 692-1137. If you live in the Denver area I would be happy to show you what I have and share anything I can. I live at Leetsdale & Quebec in Denver and am home most days of the week. So you can send my an email or give me a call (just leave a message if I am not home) and I will get in contact with you.
Trying to reach Paul O'Malley regarding pictures.
I have just completed by profile of the Isis Theater at 1724 Curtis Street. It contains all the information I have been able to gather about the theater from it’s opening in May 1913 thru the early 1920s, taken from local newspapers, trade magazines, etc. It contains a list of all the photos I have been able to identify, a list of employees taken from the City Directories, etc. If anyone would like a copy of this profile, I can provide it in either Word or PDF format. The file is about 650kb. This is one of five profiles of the movie theaters in the 1700 Block of Curtis Street that I can provide. If interested please contact me at and I will email it to you.
I heard that the CT book is given free of charge to prolific but impecunious contributors. Hint hint.
I have the CT book which, btw, is wonderful so will check out the page or pages on the Isis. Thanks.
Seen the pic of the Isis in the CT book, and wow, what an amazing exterior !
What a beautiful theatre building!
Very helpful. I think the bottom line is that none of these theaters on Curtis have been listed as of yet, with the exception of the Isis.
The photo at http://tinyurl.com/qqdse is in fact a different theater on the same block as the Isis. The theater at 1751 Curtis Street was originally opened as the Paris Theater (seating 2,300)in October 1912, just a few month before the Isis opened at 1724 Curtis. The Paris went thru several changes of ownership in the teens before coming under the control of Brown & Megahan, who changed the name to the Rivoli. In September, 1919 they sold the Rivoli, Isis, Strand (1632 Curtis)and Plaza (1717 Curtis) to Fox. At some time in the 1930s the Rivoli was renamed the Tivoli (just for confusions sake). The Denver Public Library has a good collection of photos of these theaters on their website (http://www.denver.lib.co.us/index.html).
The call numbers for photos of the Isis Theater are – X-24670, X-24671, X-24672, X-24673, X-24674, X-24679, X-24853, X-22628 and CHSX5351. Photos of the Paris Theater include: X-22624, CHSX5351 and CHSX8409. Photos of the Rivoli include: MCC-332, MCC-3353, X-23924, X-24721, X-24730, X-24731, X-24732 and X-24733. I have a hard copy photo of the Tivoli and Plaza theaters from the 1930, but don’t have a call number for the online version. I hope all this is helpful.
Thanks for the information, Paul. This photo from the Library of Congress shows the Fox Rivoli, which replaced the New Isis per above. The address is given as 1751 Curtis, but that may be inaccurate:
http://tinyurl.com/qqdse
The photo in the link http://tinyurl.com/qsgu7 shows the 1600 and 1500 blocks of Curtis Street in the mid 1920s. The State Theater (1630 Curtis Street) is on the site of the original Isis Theater (1632 Curtis Street). The Isis was torn town in 1914 and a new theater (the Strand) was opened on the site in September 1915. The bulding was renovated and reopend as the State in September 1925. The photo at http://tinyurl.com/f64on shows the original Isis Theater in 1911 shortly after the opening of the Princess Theater at 1620 Curtis. The Isis Theater in photos k58v8, qnxwn and nfbf8 is technically the New Isis Theater (1724 Curtis Street)that opened in May 1913. Both Isis theaters were originally owned by Samuel L. Baxter of Denver. The New Isis became a Fox theater in 1919.
The other theaters in the photo at qsgu7 are: the Victory at 1620 Curtis (the former Princess, renamed in 1924); the Colonial at 1629 Curtis (dating from 1911); the Empress at 1625 Curtis (dating from 1907); the America on the ne corner of 16th and Curtis (built in 1917); the Colorado on the nw corner of 16th and Curtis (the renovated and remodeled Tabor Grand Opera House; and, the Rialto at 1544 Curtis Street (originally opened as the United States Theater in 1913).
I have been working on a history of Denver’s early movie theater and have a large database of information and photos I would be happy to share with anyone interested. You can contact be directly at
I may be wrong, but the only theater listed on Curtis is the Isis, which you can’t see in this picture. Are all of the other theaters missing from the Denver listings? By the way, the Chop Suey is not a theater:
http://tinyurl.com/qsgu7
And one from 1935:
http://tinyurl.com/nfbf8
Here is a photo from 1941:
http://tinyurl.com/qnxwn
Here are some photos from the Denver Public Library, circa 1913:
http://tinyurl.com/k58v8
http://tinyurl.com/f64on
The New Isis Theater (1724 Curtis Street) was opened on May 1, 1913. The original owner was Samuel L. Baxter who had been running the Isis Theater at 1632 Curtis Street since the beginning of 1909. He was also the owner of a nickelodeon,the Denver Theater at 1015 17th Street, since the summer of 1907. Baxter sold the New Isis to the firm of Brown & Megahan at the end of 1918. Brown & Megahan also ran the Strand Theater (1640 Curtis Street) built on the site of the old Isis Theater. Brown & Megahan sold the Isis (as well as the Strand, the Plaza [1721 Curtis Street] and the Rivioli [1751 Curtis Street] to the Fox Film Corporation in September 1919. As far as I know the D&R firm were never connected with either the old Isis or the new Isis. They did control the Princess/Victory Theater at 1620 Curtis Street and the Rialto Theater at 1544 Curtis Street in the late teens and early twenties, as well as several redidential theaters. I had the please of knowing Frank Ricketson in the 1980 when I worked at the Denver Center Cinema (Frank Ricketson Theater) when it was part of the Denver Center for the Performing arts.