The Senate Theatre was a silent African American cinema located at 1319 North Senate. The Senate was opened in December of 1910 by Charles Bernstein at the end of the nickelodeon era. Housed in an existing retail building, the Senate was designed for film exhibition with admission price just a nickel. James and Louis Hill, who had opened the Columbia Theatre on Indiana Avenue, took on the Senate in March of 1911.
The theater appears to have closed at the end of a ten-year lease in 1920. The building was located just west of the bustling Illinois Street commercial district that, unlike the declining Indiana Avenue business district, was still bustling. But the City of Indianapolis craftily drew up urban renewal plans in the late 1950s and early 1960s that would decimate the Illinois Street commercial district ultimately taking the former Senate Theatre building and all of its neighbors with it.
20 South Illinois is the correct address for this theater. And it likely had a chalkboard for its signage as it changes names more than any other local theater. It starts as the Family Theatre to Rialto Theatre (July 2, 1916) to Lincoln Square (Nov. 11, 1923) back to Family (1931) to Roxy (January 24, 1932) to Goulden’s Tower (Nov. 24, 1934) to 1956 demolition.
The name change of 1931 from Lincoln Square to Family was due to a Feb. 1931 Burlesque show gone wrong when three 15-year olds narc on the nature of the stage show. The theater is charged and heads back to the Family banner to correct the issue. Its change to the Roxy was due to new operator Louis B. Goulden Theatre Corporation which had the Capitol, Orpheum and Gayety. Its name change to the Roxy on January 24, 1932 was the Jean Harlow in “Hell’s Angels.”
Goulden revamped the venue in 1934 moving away from Vitaphone discs to electric sound on film and becoming Goulden’s Tower Theater on November 24, 1934. Closed in the 1940s and torn down in 1956/7.
The Old Trails Theatre launched on March 24, 1928. It lost the “s” along the way with a new sign. A February 21, 1967 fire destroyed the Art Theatre on 16th St. It moved here with a rename on.August 11th, 1967 grand opening as the Art Theatre playing porno chic era films.
It became the Movie Cafe on September 1, 1986 offering second-run and repertory fare at a discount price of $5 while offering a full kitchen menu. In early 1987 it’s just listed as Movie Theatre operating with discount films at $2.
It changed names in March to the Old Trail Theatre Two operated by Tudor Amusements and Richard L. Cosby. It declares bankruptcy in January of 1984 leading to a liquidation here and at the Plainfield Village Theatre. Final shows were “Like Father Like Son” and “Hello Again” on January 3, 1984. The name of the venue was the Old Trail Theatre that day which should be the entry’s corrected name.
As for the building, it then became an auction house that was decimated by a fire in 1988 that led to the building’s demolition.
“Top Gun” appears to be the final 70mm first run film in August of 1986 with Ron Keedy closing shop there and at the Emerson. It then has a brief run showing twin bills of X-rated films late in 1986 and into 1987 before closing. Heaston Theatres made the unfortunate business decision to reopen the Eastwood as a sub-run $2 discount movie house. It reopened to great fanfare March 6, 1987 with “The Golden Child.” It closed very quietly on September 24, 1987 with “Witches of Eastwick.” It reopened as City Lites, a live concert venue in March of 1993. In 1994, it was renamed the Second Avenue Night Club for six months until closing in July of 1994.
The January 15, 1916 grand opening ad with “Mice and Men” on the big screen is in photos. The theatre wired for sound to remain viable. But it closed at the expiry of its second 20-year leasing agreement on May 27, 1956 with “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” and “Vanishing American.” The theater was listed as “Closed for Repairs” although there was no evidence that it would ever be reopened that Fall for films.
Five months later, any hope of a relaunch was over when vandals destroyed the screen, cut the seats and caused a plumbing leak that made repairs too expensive to consider. The building was repurposed for other activities.
National Amusements announced in October of 2024 that it would close here at the expiry of its lease in early 2025 as the company continued winding down its operational footprint.
Lawrence L. Pruitt opened the New Legion Theatre on March 4, 1949 with “Belle Star’s Daughter” supported by the Three Stooges short “Three Fiddlers” and cartoon. The previous location of the Legion Theatre closed on February 28, 1949 with “Apartment for Peggy.” Jerry Martin closed thea theatre on November 12, 1962 with Susan Hayward in “Back Street” ending the venue’s run.
W.J. Delong and J.J. Evans opened the first Rex Theater on July 4, 1920 in the 19th Century-buiilt Knights of Pythias Hall. E.J. New took on the venue in January of 1921 to little success. The 313-seat theater wasn’t enough for W.L. Casey who took on the venture and moving the seats and projector to a Reardan, Washington Theater. But Casey wanted to have the Inland Empire’s best theater. He built and opened the town’s second Rex Theatre location opens with Will Walling in “The Village Blacksmith” on October 24, 1923. The theater went on to a great run.
The Wealthy Vaudette opened in the 1911 in the Giles Block building on Wealthy Street. According to the real estate listing, it was built for the purpose of being a theater. It had its own soda fountain serving as its concession stand putting it above the average theater in selling snacks to moviegoers. By 1912, it was called the Pastime Vaudette under new operators and it would shift to the Pastime Theater closing in early 1916 likely at the opt out point five years into its lease. The theater’s contents and soda fountain were sold off as it transitioned to an aviation factory.
As only $300 was spent in the transition from theatrical to aviation work, the pictures of the aviation company sort of look like a theater space. The Michigan Aircraft Company’s assembly location in 1917 was under the eye of designers Anthony Stadleman and Bert Kenyon. The concept of the flying boat was perfect with the local boat industry but Allan Lockhead had a similar Model F-1 Boat being produced in California. Lockhead’s Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company recruited Stadleman west-ward and the factory closed.
Its place was taken by a new Overland Automobile dealership in 1918 that appears also to have done virtually nothing to the interior of the former theater. This is germane as when the auto dealer closes, Oscar E. Varneau and wife Lillian - daughter of Joseph H. Poisson - reconvert the theater space to motion pictures. Verneau and Poission ran the Poisson Theatre (later Leonard Theater) and the Royal Theatre.
The Wealthy Street Theatre opened under that name on March 20, 1920 with Dorothy Phillips in “Paid in Advance.” Along the way, “Street” was dropped and it became the Wealthy Theater. The Varneau family steered the theater to the end of its 20-year lease. In 1931, he signed a new 20-year leasing agreement. He did the second leasing term well by closing the theater for.its true transition to sound reopening with a new Spanish patio style and all new sound system It reopened on February 7, 1931 with Charles Farrell in “The Princess and the Plumber.”
While the description above correctly mentions the 1934 renovation as its new look, the 1931 Spanish patio refresh by the Varneaus is pretty much what you see in the 2020’s Wealthy Theater. However, the theater did got a moderne marquis in 1934 and a new sound system again in 1936. In 1937, the B & J ( Butterfield and Johnson and then Butterfield Theatres) Circuit took on the venue. The Company had also taken on Varneau’s Royal Theater as well as the Our Theater and the Eastown.
B&J Theaters closed at the end of its third 20-year lease on June 6, 1971 with “Waterloo.” Wealthy Theater Co. took on the venue reopening on December 23, 1971 with Dustin Hoffman in “Straw Dogs.” The audiences were indifferent to the venue as it closed in 1973. Saved from demolition, the venue was back and operational as of the 2020s.
Operator Oscar Varneau - also of the Franklin Theater - turned his attention to the Wealthy Theater as he signed a new 20-year leasing agreement in 1931. He did it right closing the theater for.its true transition to sound reopening with a new Spanish patio style and all new sound system It reopens here on February 7, 1931 with Charles Farrell in “The Princess and the Plumber.”
Grover L. Willer ran Beecher’s Theatre and the circuit’s corporate office at this location. From 1917 to 1922 it was known as Beecher’s Division Theatre likely to alleviate confusion with the many Beecher theaters that existed at that time. In September of 1922, it is renamed as the Franklin Theater under new operators. It appears to have closed without converting to sound in 1929. It reopens with sound in January of 1930 and closes.
Herbert R. Boshoven takes on the Franklin operating with the Family, Madison, Liberty, Crown (Marne), Century (Coopersville). He rewires the Franklin with improved sound a an exterior and interior refresh on a 20-year lease. It reopens September 28, 1931 with “Annabelle’s Affairs” supported by “all kinds of short subjects. The Franklin continues until closure in 1951.
Boshoven had run the Franklin on a grind house policy with “low bargain prices” playing third-run double features on weekdays and triple features on weekends. The Franklin’s final show was February 12, 1951 with a double feature of Lew Ayres in “The Capture” and Martha Vickers in “Daughter of the West.”
Working with plans drawn by architect Roger Allen who also did the Isis to Center Theater’s streamline refresh concurrently, the Majestic gets its shocking streamline interior refresh shown here prior to reopening on August 5, 1938.
The Isis Theater Company was established in 1915 headed by George C. Nichols. It renovated an existing building using the plans of architect Lee DeCamp and a budget of $24,000 as the home of their theater which included steel beam reinforcement. The Isis Theatre opened here on January 26, 1916 with Edwin Stevens in “The Man Inside” supported by five vaudeville acts. Rose and Ivory were the colors of choice with green everywhere else.
Butterfield and Johnson Theatres (aka B&J Theaters and, latter Butterfield Theaters) took on the venue. It was wired for sound and then closed for a major refresh on June 1, 1938. Just the walls and a bit of the ceiling work remained in place as the venue received a streamline makeover and name change to the Center Theatre.
Working with plans drawn by architect Roger Allen who also did the Majestic streamline refresh concurrently, the interior accents moved to aluminum and stainless steel while getting fresh red and forest green accents. Terrazzo floor and deco concession stand awaited new customers. That date was August 17, 1938 and the films were “Kentucky Moonshine” with “Gold Mine in the Sky.”
The Center appears to have ceased operations at the end of a 20-year leasing agreement on February 2, 1958 with a double feature of “The Brain from Planet Arqus” and “Teenage Monster.” In June, a fire next door almost was the end of the venue but firefighters save the former Center. The Civic Theatre made the venue its home in 1959/1960; though it was booted out on June 2, 1962 due to an urban renewal project. That led to the demolition of the theater.
Gladys Johnson established the Southlawn Theatre Corporation in 1928. Likely using non-union projectionists, the Southlawn is attacked by stink bombs on the same day as targeting of the Creston, Stocking, Idlehour, Fulton, Biltmore, Alcazar, Royal, Rivoli, Liberty, Madison, Michigan, Madison, and Franklin theaters.
The Southlawn closed without converting to sound becoming home to a house of worship from 1929 and into 1931. But the venue reopened with sound on August 15, 1931 with “Trader Horn.” The Southlawn closed at the expiry of a 25-year lease on January 31, 1954 with “Tropic Zone” and “The Stand at Apache River.” It was converted for other purposes almost immediately thereafter.
The Stocking Theatre closed at the end of its second 20-year lease on December 2, 1956 with “Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy,” “Love Happy” and Walt Disney’s Musicland."
Blessed Sacrament Parish purchased the Roxy Theater building on April 1, 1946. The theater operated to the end of its lease closing on April 23, 1946 with “Irish Eyes are Smiling” and “Wild Geese Calling.”
It appears that the Royal Theater opened on May 16, 1914. The “Cool” Royal Theatre closed after its second 20-year lease on July 11, 1954 with “The Long Long Trailer” and “Dangerous Mission.”
It was listed as “closed for the summer” after the July 29, 1947 showings of “The Harvey Girls” and “Blondie Knows Best” supported by a clever cartoon. Blondie knows that the State did not reopen.
The Senate Theatre was a silent African American cinema located at 1319 North Senate. The Senate was opened in December of 1910 by Charles Bernstein at the end of the nickelodeon era. Housed in an existing retail building, the Senate was designed for film exhibition with admission price just a nickel. James and Louis Hill, who had opened the Columbia Theatre on Indiana Avenue, took on the Senate in March of 1911.
The theater appears to have closed at the end of a ten-year lease in 1920. The building was located just west of the bustling Illinois Street commercial district that, unlike the declining Indiana Avenue business district, was still bustling. But the City of Indianapolis craftily drew up urban renewal plans in the late 1950s and early 1960s that would decimate the Illinois Street commercial district ultimately taking the former Senate Theatre building and all of its neighbors with it.
Permanently closed on September 29, 2024. A Planet Fitness and a grocery store will take the Regal Fishkill’s spot.
Meloy Brothers opened the Park Theatre in 1938 on a 20-year lease. The theater closed in 1958 and was converted to a funeral parlor.
20 South Illinois is the correct address for this theater. And it likely had a chalkboard for its signage as it changes names more than any other local theater. It starts as the Family Theatre to Rialto Theatre (July 2, 1916) to Lincoln Square (Nov. 11, 1923) back to Family (1931) to Roxy (January 24, 1932) to Goulden’s Tower (Nov. 24, 1934) to 1956 demolition.
The name change of 1931 from Lincoln Square to Family was due to a Feb. 1931 Burlesque show gone wrong when three 15-year olds narc on the nature of the stage show. The theater is charged and heads back to the Family banner to correct the issue. Its change to the Roxy was due to new operator Louis B. Goulden Theatre Corporation which had the Capitol, Orpheum and Gayety. Its name change to the Roxy on January 24, 1932 was the Jean Harlow in “Hell’s Angels.”
Goulden revamped the venue in 1934 moving away from Vitaphone discs to electric sound on film and becoming Goulden’s Tower Theater on November 24, 1934. Closed in the 1940s and torn down in 1956/7.
Closed in 1956 and became a house of worship.
The Old Trails Theatre launched on March 24, 1928. It lost the “s” along the way with a new sign. A February 21, 1967 fire destroyed the Art Theatre on 16th St. It moved here with a rename on.August 11th, 1967 grand opening as the Art Theatre playing porno chic era films.
It became the Movie Cafe on September 1, 1986 offering second-run and repertory fare at a discount price of $5 while offering a full kitchen menu. In early 1987 it’s just listed as Movie Theatre operating with discount films at $2.
It changed names in March to the Old Trail Theatre Two operated by Tudor Amusements and Richard L. Cosby. It declares bankruptcy in January of 1984 leading to a liquidation here and at the Plainfield Village Theatre. Final shows were “Like Father Like Son” and “Hello Again” on January 3, 1984. The name of the venue was the Old Trail Theatre that day which should be the entry’s corrected name.
As for the building, it then became an auction house that was decimated by a fire in 1988 that led to the building’s demolition.
“Top Gun” appears to be the final 70mm first run film in August of 1986 with Ron Keedy closing shop there and at the Emerson. It then has a brief run showing twin bills of X-rated films late in 1986 and into 1987 before closing. Heaston Theatres made the unfortunate business decision to reopen the Eastwood as a sub-run $2 discount movie house. It reopened to great fanfare March 6, 1987 with “The Golden Child.” It closed very quietly on September 24, 1987 with “Witches of Eastwick.” It reopened as City Lites, a live concert venue in March of 1993. In 1994, it was renamed the Second Avenue Night Club for six months until closing in July of 1994.
The January 15, 1916 grand opening ad with “Mice and Men” on the big screen is in photos. The theatre wired for sound to remain viable. But it closed at the expiry of its second 20-year leasing agreement on May 27, 1956 with “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” and “Vanishing American.” The theater was listed as “Closed for Repairs” although there was no evidence that it would ever be reopened that Fall for films.
Five months later, any hope of a relaunch was over when vandals destroyed the screen, cut the seats and caused a plumbing leak that made repairs too expensive to consider. The building was repurposed for other activities.
National Amusements announced in October of 2024 that it would close here at the expiry of its lease in early 2025 as the company continued winding down its operational footprint.
Lawrence L. Pruitt opened the New Legion Theatre on March 4, 1949 with “Belle Star’s Daughter” supported by the Three Stooges short “Three Fiddlers” and cartoon. The previous location of the Legion Theatre closed on February 28, 1949 with “Apartment for Peggy.” Jerry Martin closed thea theatre on November 12, 1962 with Susan Hayward in “Back Street” ending the venue’s run.
W.J. Delong and J.J. Evans opened the first Rex Theater on July 4, 1920 in the 19th Century-buiilt Knights of Pythias Hall. E.J. New took on the venue in January of 1921 to little success. The 313-seat theater wasn’t enough for W.L. Casey who took on the venture and moving the seats and projector to a Reardan, Washington Theater. But Casey wanted to have the Inland Empire’s best theater. He built and opened the town’s second Rex Theatre location opens with Will Walling in “The Village Blacksmith” on October 24, 1923. The theater went on to a great run.
Grand reopening on October 3, 2024 with “Joker 2' following a sneak peak soft opening the previous night.
The building was acquired in the City of Grand Rapids' urban renewal project and demolished in April 1967.
The Wealthy Vaudette opened in the 1911 in the Giles Block building on Wealthy Street. According to the real estate listing, it was built for the purpose of being a theater. It had its own soda fountain serving as its concession stand putting it above the average theater in selling snacks to moviegoers. By 1912, it was called the Pastime Vaudette under new operators and it would shift to the Pastime Theater closing in early 1916 likely at the opt out point five years into its lease. The theater’s contents and soda fountain were sold off as it transitioned to an aviation factory.
As only $300 was spent in the transition from theatrical to aviation work, the pictures of the aviation company sort of look like a theater space. The Michigan Aircraft Company’s assembly location in 1917 was under the eye of designers Anthony Stadleman and Bert Kenyon. The concept of the flying boat was perfect with the local boat industry but Allan Lockhead had a similar Model F-1 Boat being produced in California. Lockhead’s Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company recruited Stadleman west-ward and the factory closed.
Its place was taken by a new Overland Automobile dealership in 1918 that appears also to have done virtually nothing to the interior of the former theater. This is germane as when the auto dealer closes, Oscar E. Varneau and wife Lillian - daughter of Joseph H. Poisson - reconvert the theater space to motion pictures. Verneau and Poission ran the Poisson Theatre (later Leonard Theater) and the Royal Theatre.
The Wealthy Street Theatre opened under that name on March 20, 1920 with Dorothy Phillips in “Paid in Advance.” Along the way, “Street” was dropped and it became the Wealthy Theater. The Varneau family steered the theater to the end of its 20-year lease. In 1931, he signed a new 20-year leasing agreement. He did the second leasing term well by closing the theater for.its true transition to sound reopening with a new Spanish patio style and all new sound system It reopened on February 7, 1931 with Charles Farrell in “The Princess and the Plumber.”
While the description above correctly mentions the 1934 renovation as its new look, the 1931 Spanish patio refresh by the Varneaus is pretty much what you see in the 2020’s Wealthy Theater. However, the theater did got a moderne marquis in 1934 and a new sound system again in 1936. In 1937, the B & J ( Butterfield and Johnson and then Butterfield Theatres) Circuit took on the venue. The Company had also taken on Varneau’s Royal Theater as well as the Our Theater and the Eastown.
B&J Theaters closed at the end of its third 20-year lease on June 6, 1971 with “Waterloo.” Wealthy Theater Co. took on the venue reopening on December 23, 1971 with Dustin Hoffman in “Straw Dogs.” The audiences were indifferent to the venue as it closed in 1973. Saved from demolition, the venue was back and operational as of the 2020s.
Operator Oscar Varneau - also of the Franklin Theater - turned his attention to the Wealthy Theater as he signed a new 20-year leasing agreement in 1931. He did it right closing the theater for.its true transition to sound reopening with a new Spanish patio style and all new sound system It reopens here on February 7, 1931 with Charles Farrell in “The Princess and the Plumber.”
Grover L. Willer ran Beecher’s Theatre and the circuit’s corporate office at this location. From 1917 to 1922 it was known as Beecher’s Division Theatre likely to alleviate confusion with the many Beecher theaters that existed at that time. In September of 1922, it is renamed as the Franklin Theater under new operators. It appears to have closed without converting to sound in 1929. It reopens with sound in January of 1930 and closes.
Herbert R. Boshoven takes on the Franklin operating with the Family, Madison, Liberty, Crown (Marne), Century (Coopersville). He rewires the Franklin with improved sound a an exterior and interior refresh on a 20-year lease. It reopens September 28, 1931 with “Annabelle’s Affairs” supported by “all kinds of short subjects. The Franklin continues until closure in 1951.
Boshoven had run the Franklin on a grind house policy with “low bargain prices” playing third-run double features on weekdays and triple features on weekends. The Franklin’s final show was February 12, 1951 with a double feature of Lew Ayres in “The Capture” and Martha Vickers in “Daughter of the West.”
Working with plans drawn by architect Roger Allen who also did the Isis to Center Theater’s streamline refresh concurrently, the Majestic gets its shocking streamline interior refresh shown here prior to reopening on August 5, 1938.
The Isis Theater Company was established in 1915 headed by George C. Nichols. It renovated an existing building using the plans of architect Lee DeCamp and a budget of $24,000 as the home of their theater which included steel beam reinforcement. The Isis Theatre opened here on January 26, 1916 with Edwin Stevens in “The Man Inside” supported by five vaudeville acts. Rose and Ivory were the colors of choice with green everywhere else.
Butterfield and Johnson Theatres (aka B&J Theaters and, latter Butterfield Theaters) took on the venue. It was wired for sound and then closed for a major refresh on June 1, 1938. Just the walls and a bit of the ceiling work remained in place as the venue received a streamline makeover and name change to the Center Theatre.
Working with plans drawn by architect Roger Allen who also did the Majestic streamline refresh concurrently, the interior accents moved to aluminum and stainless steel while getting fresh red and forest green accents. Terrazzo floor and deco concession stand awaited new customers. That date was August 17, 1938 and the films were “Kentucky Moonshine” with “Gold Mine in the Sky.”
The Center appears to have ceased operations at the end of a 20-year leasing agreement on February 2, 1958 with a double feature of “The Brain from Planet Arqus” and “Teenage Monster.” In June, a fire next door almost was the end of the venue but firefighters save the former Center. The Civic Theatre made the venue its home in 1959/1960; though it was booted out on June 2, 1962 due to an urban renewal project. That led to the demolition of the theater.
Gladys Johnson established the Southlawn Theatre Corporation in 1928. Likely using non-union projectionists, the Southlawn is attacked by stink bombs on the same day as targeting of the Creston, Stocking, Idlehour, Fulton, Biltmore, Alcazar, Royal, Rivoli, Liberty, Madison, Michigan, Madison, and Franklin theaters.
The Southlawn closed without converting to sound becoming home to a house of worship from 1929 and into 1931. But the venue reopened with sound on August 15, 1931 with “Trader Horn.” The Southlawn closed at the expiry of a 25-year lease on January 31, 1954 with “Tropic Zone” and “The Stand at Apache River.” It was converted for other purposes almost immediately thereafter.
Closed permanently following the September 28, 2024 programming
The Stocking Theatre closed at the end of its second 20-year lease on December 2, 1956 with “Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy,” “Love Happy” and Walt Disney’s Musicland."
Blessed Sacrament Parish purchased the Roxy Theater building on April 1, 1946. The theater operated to the end of its lease closing on April 23, 1946 with “Irish Eyes are Smiling” and “Wild Geese Calling.”
It appears that the Royal Theater opened on May 16, 1914. The “Cool” Royal Theatre closed after its second 20-year lease on July 11, 1954 with “The Long Long Trailer” and “Dangerous Mission.”
It was listed as “closed for the summer” after the July 29, 1947 showings of “The Harvey Girls” and “Blondie Knows Best” supported by a clever cartoon. Blondie knows that the State did not reopen.
Reopened as the Roosevelt Theatre on September 23, 1933 with The Mind Reader and As the Devil Commands.