Majestic Theater
117 E. Washington Street,
Bloomington,
IL
61701
117 E. Washington Street,
Bloomington,
IL
61701
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The science fiction writer Wilson Tucker worked at the the Majestic Theatre as a projectionist and electrician.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
The Film Daily Yearbook 1941 & 1943 editions give the same information as stated above. In the 1950 edition it is listed with a seating capacity of 1,154 and the subsidiary of Paramount Pictures are no longer operating it.
I was born and raised in Normal, Illinois, across the street from Bloomington and move away in 1960. The Majestic Theater was located one block East of the intersection of Main Street and Washington on the Southwest corner katty corner from the Bloomington Library. I was born in 1938 and I can never remember the theater being open. I remember being told that is was closed in the early 1930s. The theater was torn down in the 1950s and replaced with a savings and loan.
I am wondering if this is where the current Michael’s restaurant is located today. The fascade of the building looks like it may have been a theater and there is a marquee. I have not been inside this building but I have wondered if it was a theater at one point.
According to the excellent book ‘Historic Theatres in Illinois, 1883-1960’ by Konrad Schiecke, ‘the Majestic Theatre opened in 1910 and closed in 1943. It was demolished in 1956.’
A Barton theater organ size 3/11 was installed in the Majestic Theater in 1926.
This article about the history of the Majestic was in today’s Pantagraph.
From the 1930s a postcard view of the Majestic Theater in Bloomington.
This historic “first” doesn’t seem to be listed at CT: Boxoffice
The April 2, 1910, issue of The Billboard said that the new Majestic Theatre in Bloomington was nearing completion and the owners hoped to open on April 11. Guy Martin, manager of the Castle Theatre, was slated to be the manager of the new house. The theater actually opened on April 18, according to the article btkrefft linked to earlier.
The Castle Theatre mentioned in the Billboard item was not the house of that name built in 1916, but an earlier theater which opened in 1904 in a remodeled building on the corner of East and Washington Streets. The fact that the manager of the Majestic was coming from the Castle Theatre raises an interesting possibility. The two houses might have been under the same ownership, and thus it is possible that the Majestic was a new “Castle Theatre” that was a subject of discussion at the December 17, 1909, meeting of the Bloomington City Council. This is from the text of the minutes of that meeting:
The timing of the opening of the Majestic is compatible with a project that was getting underway in late 1909, and the fact that a new Castle Theatre actually was built in 1916 would suggest that the 1909 Castle Theatre project was either left unbuilt, or was opened under a different name- the Majestic. Photos showing the east wall of the Majestic show that it did indeed have pilasters, as discussed in the Council meeting.I’ve been unable to find any other references to an architect named Cooney operating in the Bloomington area during this period, so I have no first name for him, but I’ll keep looking.