Cameo Theatre
620 56th Street,
Kenosha,
WI
53140
620 56th Street,
Kenosha,
WI
53140
1 person
favorited this theater
A tiny downtown showplace with a checkered on-again-off-again history. In 1915 Walter M. Burke purchased a tract of land from the adjacent Bain Wagon works and built the still-standing Burke Building (the namestone still graces the upper floors). The narrow, low first floor was equipped for motion pictures and was named the Burke Theatre. William Meyer was the first manager. Two years or so later, Burke disposed of his interests to a theatrical firm from Joplin, Missouri, which in turn sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mantkus, who operated it for some time until Charles Collins took it over, and eventualy the Kenosha Orpheum Theatre Company held the lease until the mid-1930s when Manning Silverman acquired the theatre. In 1925 a fire damaged the Burke Building, and the theatre was renamed the Cameo.
In about 1933 the Cameo was again remodeled (including the installation of sound equipment) after some years of being dark through the early Great Depression, and Don F. Cross assumed its management. In the early 1940s, Standard Theatres took over the Cameo, and then there was a brief period wen it was called the Ken-Gay (for the nearby Kenosha and Gateway Theatres) when it played features right out of first-run release at those two theatres.
It became the Lathrop Appliance Store in the mid-1940s, but its triangular-shaped marquee still briefly shelters passersby along busy 56th Street.
Contributed by
Louis Rugani
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Actually 3 different organs were installed in this theater. While it was named the Burke Theater a Bennett Pipe Organ, Opus 881, a 2 Manual/9 Rank was installed in 1921. Again under the Burke name a Barton Pipe Organ, 2 Manual/3 Rank was installed in 1925. While the theater was under the Cameo name another Barton Pipe Organ, 2 Manual was installed. The Barton Pipe Organs were made in Oshkosh Wisconsin. It is not known what happened to any of these organs! If you know anything about any of these organs, please email us!
“Gee Dad, it was a "BENNETT/BARTON!”
Does anyone know where it might be possible to get hold of any old photos of this theatre, especially from the 1940s when it was known as The Chief? Also, if anyone has any contacts who worked at the theatre or even went there as audience members I woudl be very interested in getting in contact with them.
Appleton Post Crescent, October 21, 1925: CHIEF HURT IN KENOSHA
$60,000 THEATRE BLAZE
Kenosha â€"</P)â€" Fire which broke out in the boiler room of the Burke
Theatre early Wednesday caused damages amounting to about $60,000. The building was completely gutted. In addition to the theatre a dozen offices above it were burned by the blaze. Chief John Schwartz was injured while fighting the fire when he fell down a rear stairway obscured by thick smoke.
Here is a spreadsheet with some early-1940s day-by-day bookings and other data at the then-CHIEF Theatre: View link
(August 11, 1921) Theater managers and owners of Kenosha held an important meeting on Tuesday evening in the offices of Dayton Brothers in the Dale Building and organised the Kenosha Theater Managers' association. Representatives of every theater in Kenosha were present at this meeting and became members of the new organization the purpose of which is to secure closer co-operation between the theaters on matters which require joint action. (Note: The Burke Theatre was next door to the Dale Building.)
My essay on the some of the films shown in this cinema in 1941 has now been published and can be found at:
View link
Mike, thank you for that great and most-welcome essay on Kenosha’s long-forgotten CHIEF Theatre. I’ve posted a current photo of the CHIEF (nee BURKE/CAMEO) in the Wisconsin Theatres discussion group www.onelist.com/group/WisconsinTheatres .
THIEF LIKES PICTURES OF HOLLYWOOD STARS
(November 15, 1934)
Kenosha, Wis. – An enthusiastic movie fan, who is collecting pictures of his movie stars, may be interrupted by a jail sentence if police catch him. The manager of the Cameo theater reports that almost every morning after he puts up new pictures in the display cases in front of his theater someone takes some of the photos. He asked the police to help catch the thief.
(MOTION PICTURE, November 22, 1913) Kenosha, Wis.: Walter M. Burke and M. J. Isermann have invited bids for the purpose of building a theater, store and oilier building on Market square.
The theatre was the BURKE between 1914 and 1925 and was renamed the CAMEO after the 1925 fire, then closed again in 1928. In 1934 it reopened as the CAMEO, then after 1937 it seems to have periodically opened and closed as the CAMEO, CHIEF and KEN before finally closing in 1945.