Gayety Theatre
246-54 S. High Street,
Columbus,
OH
43215
246-54 S. High Street,
Columbus,
OH
43215
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Built in 1915-16 as the Knickerbocker Theatre, this long-time fixture of downtown Columbus originally featured both vaudeville acts and motion pictures.
The highlight of the theater was its facade, with three arched bays of multi-colored terra cotta, seperated by pillasters topped with realistic-looking lion’s heads.
In the 1940’s and 1950’s, the Knickerbocker Theatre became a burlesque house, and was renamed the Gayety Theatre.
The theatre was closed in 1955, and its auditorium razed in 1960 to make way for a parking lot.
Various businesses operated from the former lobby space and upstairs offices into the 1970’s.
Unfortunately, the remains of the Gayety Theatre was demolished in 1980, along with its still-elegant terra-cotta facade, as part of an urban renewal project.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
Further photos and information are available through a search at http://memory.loc.gov
The Gayety Theatre closed in 1955.
A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 298 style 160 was installed in the Knickerbocker Theater on 3/29/1920.
Here is a direct link to five photos at the Library of Congress.
1982 photo of the Gayety Theatre.
View link
The Gayety is listed in 1955 with 872 seats.
I think that the date that the theatre was demolished given in the header might be incorrect. There are photos from 1982 showing the front of the theatre building and the Library of Congress photos still show the front of the building still in existance. Maybe it was the auditorium that was demolished in 1980.
Looks like this site is now occupied by the City Center parking garage — the only successful part of the massive City Center shopping mall development, soon to be demolished.
Closed as the Knickerbocker, a second run downtown theatre, on 9/15/1946. Reopened as Gayety Burlesk on Friday, November 22, 1946, featuring Mitzie…“Pretty as a Picture and a Frame to Match” in Hello Columbus, also featureing Nadine, Paul West, Bartel & Scott, Zeb and Mandy and the California Sunkist Chorus.
Featured “Painless Prices~~Bring the Ladies, They’ll Scream!”