Gem Theatre
160 South State Street,
Salt Lake City,
UT
84111
160 South State Street,
Salt Lake City,
UT
84111
3 people
favorited this theater
The Gem Theatre in downtown Salt Lake City, was built in 1911 as the Liberty Theatre.
Contributed by
Grant Smith
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
The marquee shot of The Valient and Sword of the COnqueror would be circa 1962; the IMDB date for both films. Useless but interesting information. j
It appears the Gem Theatre was part of a small chain of 14 theatres scattered thru out Utah. They were all under the name of GEM. I wonder if a Gem Theatre still operates today??
Here is a photo of the Liberty Theater at 162 South State Street. Date given for photo is March 15, 1912. Was it named the Liberty Theater because of the figure of the Statue of Liberty mounted on the facade?
This was the Liberty in 1916.
It was a real GEM of a theatre.
I was noticing the pagoda-like boxoffice in that 1912 photo. It’s an interesting bit of Chinoiserie set amid the European classical details of the facade. It looks like there might have been some Art Nouveau stained glass in the arch, the doors, and the upper floor windows as well. I wonder if there are any surviving photos of the interior?
By the sixties it was showing Grade C films.“REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS” and “DRAGSTRIP GIRL” were playing together on Oct.2 1959.
An early Salt Lake City cinema called the Rex may be unlisted at CT. Here are two 1912 photos: archive
Described as the Liberty in this 1913 trade article: archive
tinseltores, I submitted the info for the Gem Theatre. This theatre went through a few name changes, started out as the Bungalow then the Lyceum then the Rex and finally as the Strand. It will be listed under the Strand Theatre when Ken ads it.