Chalk Beeson Theatre

115-119 Gunsmoke Street,
Dodge City, KS 67801

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Jake Bottero
Jake Bottero on February 10, 2023 at 7:09 am

The structure may still be there, but it is a hideous caricature of its former self.

herethisisyou
herethisisyou on October 26, 2022 at 1:48 pm

This was my great-grandfather’s theater. I have begun a list of all programming at the theater beginning in December of 1915. It’s definitely a work in progress but here’s a link:

https://herethisisyou.com/chalk-beeson-theater/

I also wrote a bit about the history of the building and that post can be found here:

https://herethisisyou.com/2022/07/11/chalk-beeson-theater-then-and-now/

The building has a new owner who reroofed and painted it and he also removed that horrible, rickety fire escape.

robboehm
robboehm on August 1, 2022 at 10:59 am

Uploaded an image from the May 15, 1924 Dodge City Journal in which an ad for the Beeson (and the Crown) appears.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on September 20, 2014 at 8:34 pm

The February 13, 1915, issue of The American Contractor had this item about the Chalk Beeson Theatre:

“Dodge City, Kans.—Theater: 2 sty. & has. 70x75. $30M. Archt. R. A. Curtis, Reserve Bank bldg., Kansas City, Mo. Owner Merritt Beeson, Dodge City. Plans finished; owner will take bids on sub-contracts.”
Merritt L. Beeson operated this theater himself. On the occasion of his visit to Kansas City in 1916, the September 9 issue of The Moving Picture World called his house “…one of the most beautiful and picturesque moving picture theaters in the West….”