Fort Theatre
2205 Central Avenue,
Kearney,
NE
68847
2205 Central Avenue,
Kearney,
NE
68847
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The Fort Theatre in downtown Kearney, Nebraska opened September 21, 1914 as the Empress Theatre. The main floor and the balcony seated 654. Depending on the seats admission was 5 cents, 10 cents or 15 cents for loge seats.
The name was changed to the Fort Theatre sometime in 1941 when ownership changed hands and some alterations were made to the plans of architect Edward J. Sessinghaus. Seating was reduced to 450 with the addition of double-wide love seats at the ends of every other row. These seats allowed two people to sit together, plus they offset each row so that you were never looking into the back of someone’s head.
The Fort Theatre ceased operation in September of 1993. The building is now home to Fort Theatre Dentistry, Cosmetic Dentists.
Contributed by
TomScott
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
This website has some old photos and history of the Empress/Fort Theater.
Here is a photo of the former Fort Theater.
This is a more recent photo of the former Fort Theater building.
Here is a nice photo of the Fort Dentistry building with the marquee lit.
A Kilgen theater organ opus 3689 size 2/4 style U09 was installed in the Empress Theater in 1926.
Here is a photo, circa 1979:
http://tinyurl.com/2vkc4q
A 2009 photo is here.
From 2010 a photo of the Fort Theatre building and an additional view in Kearney.
A Photo I took back in Nov of 2007..
View link ..
RAC Photography
The Fort Theatre was spotlighted in this 1940 trade article: boxofficemagazine