State Theater
212 N. 3rd Street,
Bismarck,
ND
58501
212 N. 3rd Street,
Bismarck,
ND
58501
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The Paramount Theatre opened on October 4, 1929, just three weeks before the stock market crash that precipitated the Great Depression. It was later renamed State Theatre.
Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
The Paramount was located in the 200 block of 3rd Street.
The year given for this photo is 1929.
The address for the Paramount was:
212 N. 3rd St.
Bismarck, ND. 58501
Chuck, can you find any listings from the 1930s or later for either a State Theatre or a Capitol Theatre in Bismarck? Those two and the Bismarck are the only theaters in the town that are mentioned in Boxoffice during the 1930s and 1940s.
I’m wondering if the State might have been the Paramount renamed (the Capitol was an older theater on Main Avenue and had only 300 seats.) After being mentioned three times in Movie Age in 1929, the Paramount vanishes, and the only explanation I can think of for a house built for a major chain vanishing from the magazine without a trace is that the name was changed. Had it been destroyed in some disaster I’m sure the magazine would have mentioned it.
I also came across two references to an Eltinge Theatre in Bismarck. It was having Gennett talking picture equipment installed according to Movie Age of June 8, 1929. A second reference to the Eltinge appeared in Boxoffice of October 28, 1950. I find this gap puzzling. The Eltinge then vanishes too.
Another mystery is a single-line item in Boxoffice of September 24, 1949, datelined Bismarck, N.D., saying “The new Krieger Theatre has been opened here by Frederic and Albert Krieger.” Neither the theater nor the Kriegers ever get mentioned again.
By 1954, Boxoffice is making reference to the Bismarck and the Dakota as the town’s only indoor theaters, though a 1956 item said that the Capitol was being reopened following extensive remodeling. There’s never a hint of what became of the State or the mysterious Eltinge or Krieger theaters.
The State is not listed on CT but going throug Jim Rankins notes he has just a few things on the State, the one thing that does co-inside is that the Paramount and the State have the same address of 212 N. 3rd St. The seating is almost the same also with the State listed in his notes at 982.
Jim mentions the Eltinge Theatre opening in 1920’s and closing in 1951, he syas that this was another theatre located on Main St. but that is all that he says about the Eltinge. Not much to go on.
As for the Capitol it is now the Dakota Stage Playhouse listed on CT. It started out as the Capitol but Jim says it opened in 1907. He says it operated thru 1964 when it closed and then was reopened in 1969 as the Cinema and closed in the
Sorry i hit the wrong button, Contd. mid-1970’s Through its life it was operated by Bismarck Theatre, Fleck and finally MIDCO.
The only mention that Jim makes of a Krieger Theatre in Gackle, ND. it was owned by Marichal Krieger, a third generation Krieger. Nothing about a Krieger in Bismarck.
I don’t know if this helps or just confuses the matter more but that is what I have.
Thanks. Somehow I missed the Dakota Stage Playhouse page.
Whet the help of the name Gackle I found one more Boxoffice item mentioning the Krieger Theatre, in 1964 when Albert Krieger joined a regional association of theater operators. Boxoffice must have misplaced the theater in the earlier item.
Heh. Gackle.