Benson Theatre

6054 Maple Street,
Omaha, NE 68104

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Original Facade from 1948

Viewing: Photo | Street View

The Benson Theatre opened in the early-1930’s with seating listed at 489. The theatre closed around the early-1950’s.

Contributed by Chuck

Recent comments (view all 5 comments)

dalewhited
dalewhited on April 9, 2012 at 4:20 am

New info from Omaha World-Herald article Apr 04 2012. Address is 6054 Maple ST, not Military ST. The building still exists, and has been vacant 5 years. Plans are to refurbish it, and use for arts and education purposes. The 1940 and 2012 photographs in OWH reveal 2 buildings were used for the theater, which opened in 1923. TVs put it out of business by 1953, as was common all over the nation.

 Similiar to the North Star Theater at 2413 Ames, the entry areas were changed so much that there is a lot of confusion about where the theaters used to be.
                  An employee at City Hall threw away about 8 large file cabinets in 2006, containing new construction info cards on all the older houses and buildings in Omaha.  Priceless loss that created quite a stir in the news media.  There were many persons who would have gladly stored those cabinets in their protected areas of basements.
Sarah_Wengert
Sarah_Wengert on April 24, 2012 at 2:08 pm

The Theatre has been shuttered for quite some time, but Omaha’s Benson Theatre Project is working to secure funds to reopen it as both a venue space and also to house a non-profit focused on community revitalization and providing educational workshops for artists and entrepreneurs. Visit our Faceboook page here: http://www.facebook.com/RestoreTheBensonTheater

Sarah_Wengert
Sarah_Wengert on April 24, 2012 at 2:15 pm

Here’s a link to the Omaha World-Herald story on the efforts, which dalewhited mentions above: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120404/NEWS01/704049900#group-aims-to-restore-benson-theater

If you’d like to support the restoration, you can now donate to the project online. Go to omahafoundation.org/givenow and select Benson Theatre Project from the drop-down list to donate.

Many thanks to all Benson Theatre supporters!

TorstenAdair
TorstenAdair on July 10, 2012 at 7:34 am

http://www.bensonnebraska.com/2012/04/08/benson-theater-on-screen-ads/

Pre-sound (?) advertising slides for a local department store.

TorstenAdair
TorstenAdair on July 10, 2012 at 7:36 am

Fundraising site: http://bensontheatre.org/

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