Varsity Theatre

2226 Broadway,
Gary, IN 46407

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on September 21, 2023 at 6:57 am

I hate to link to the awful web site Yumpu, but it’s the only place I can find this information. An item headlined “Bikos Co. Will Construct $125,000 Gary Theatre” on page 59 of the April 30, 1949 issue of Boxoffice is about this theater. The project’s architect, L. Harry Warriner, estimated that it would take from ten months to a year to complete, depending on the availability of materials, so it probably didn’t open until 1950 at the earliest. No theater is listed at this address in the 1951 FDY, so it might not have opened until after that year’s edition went to press, or it might just have been the usual FDY slackness at work.

I don’t have access to any FDY’s later than 1951, so I don’t know if it was listed in 1952, or what its name was, but a page that probably duplicates this one was just added to Cinema Treasures under the name Varsity Theatre. It has no description of the theater at all, but gives the address range of 2218-46 Broadway, so must be the same house.