Capitol Theatre
109 W. Second Street,
Grand Island,
NE
68801
109 W. Second Street,
Grand Island,
NE
68801
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Opened in 1927 and closed in 1985 then demolished the following year.
Can anyone supply any further information on this theatre?
Contributed by
Graeme McBain
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
“The Capitol Theatre was the brainchild of S.N. Wolbach, Grand Island banker and department store owner. Carl Laemmle, president of Universal Pictures in Hollywood, was part financier and brought in world-famous architect John Eberson of Chicago to design the theater.
The opening show at the Capitol Theatre was on March 24, 1927. It was built to accommodate live vaudeville shows as well as movies. The interior architecture was an artistic blend of Italian Renaissance, Spanish and Moroccan designs. The Capitol was razed in 1986 to make room for a parking lot.”
The address for the Capitol was:
109 W 2nd St.
Grand Island, NE 68801
“The Capitol was razed in 1986 to make room for a parking lot.” Even in NE this happens!! Maybe ‘lostmemory’ can supply CT with a photo(s) of this former theatre!
As an educated guess, the Capitol could conceivably have been similar in interior style to the Riviera (which is now the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center) in Omaha, as they both were designed in Eberson’s Moorish-hodgepodge style, and the opening dates for the two theaters are only two days apart (the Riviera opened on March 26, 1927)!
Actually, the only things the Capital had in common with the Omaha Riviera were they were both Eberson designs and atmospheric. The Capitol was very plain for Eberson. The procenium design was rather Moorish and the organ screens were quite similar to those Eberson used in the State Theatre, Kalamazoo, MI. Aside from that, the theatre had little architectural design at all. I photographed the theatre in 1977 when I saw “Saturday Night Fever” there. It was in pretty good shape aside from being stripped of it folage and wildlife. I also have a few original photos which show the trees, etc. which were pretty much all the decoration used in this theatre. This was Eberson on a very low budget. The theatre also had no lobby to speak of.
CORRECTION TO MY POST OF JUL 10, 2007.
The organ screens in the Capitol were very similar to those used by Eberson in the Detroit Annex Theatre, not those in the Kalamazoo theatre.
A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 1591 style F 3M was installed in the Capitol Theater on 3/11/1927. Status: sold.
1982 photo of the Capitol Theatre.
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