Empress Theatre

The Majestic Theatre opened in downtown Alliance on April 11, 1911 by C.F, Robinson. He opened with the William E. Shay film, “A Manly Man”. Local movie pioneer Harry A. Dubuque moved to Alliance in May of 1912 and purchased the Majestic Theatre changing it to the Empress Theatre on May 21, 1912. The theatre had a single Motiograph projector playing short films. Dubuque then bought the Crystal Theatre / former Jollo Theatre to have two theatres in town.

He decided to make Alliance a single owner theatre town. He took on the competing Imperial Theatre closing the Crystal Theatre to move Alliance from a three movie theatre town to two. He also decided to close the Empress Theatre in January of 1916 to go all-in on making the Imperial Theatre the best house possible. He enlarged the Imperial Theatre to 800 seats taking all 270 seats and using them primarily in the balcony of the Imperial Theatre. The Empress Thetare was retrofitted for other retail purposes.

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