Grand Theatre

Summer 1995: closed for the summer as Carmike takes it all.

Fridley Theatres Vs. Carmike Cinemas 25 Jun 1995, Sun The Grand Island Independent (Grand Island, Nebraska) Newspapers.com

Closed April 7th, 1985 by Commonwealth.

Grand theatre closing by Commonwealth 04 Apr 1985, Thu The Grand Island Daily Independent (Grand Island, Nebraska) Newspapers.com

My error - Lyda

Updated website link: http://grandmovietheatre.com/

Also take a look at this clip that was done by Nebraska Stories for NET. http://www.netnebraska.org/interactive-multimedia/culture/nebraska-stories-keeping-grand-grand-episode-505

The April 24, 1937, issue of The Film Daily said that Harry Schiller’s new Grand Theatre would open on May 5. The 800-seat house was the first new theater built in Nebraska in two years.

The Grand Theatre built in 1936 replaced an earlier house of the same name. Here’s the news from the September 30, 1936, issue of The Film Daily:

“Omaha, Neb. — Western Theater Supply Co., will let contracts for erection of a new Grand theater at Grand Island, Neb., and install equipment. Harry Schiller, Grand’s owner, closes his house Oct. 1. Razing of the 450-seat structure and another store building next door begins immediately to make room for the new 850-seat Grand, which will cost an estimated $85,000.”

From 2010 in Grand Island a close up of the Grand Theater Sign and a view of the Grand Theater.

Lost Memory, We’re glad you posted the recent photo of the Grand, while we were showing “Across the Universe”. Did you take the photo? Do you live nearby?

Sorry for the second post – No seating capacity listed but from their webpage photos, it looks like at least 800.

A Grand Island theater being built in December 1936 almost died before it was born. The theater isn’t identified, but the Grand is a good bet:

GRAND ISLAND FIRE CAUSES $40,000 LOSS
Nearly New Theater Building and Two Stores Set Ablaze
by Heat Pots

GRAND ISLAND – Fire which broke out in the partially completed theater building shortly before 6 o'clock Tuesday morning, did damage estimated in the neighborhood of $40,000 to the theater and to adjoining business houses. While the fire was confined to the theater, the O'Loughlin furniture company, located to the west side of the theater, suffered heavy smoke and some water damage. The Kaufman store, on the east side, escaped with little smoke damage.

Harry Schiller, manager of the theater, estimated the actual fire loss in the neighborhood of $20,000 and while officials of the O'Loughlin company declined to make an estimate of damage to their store and stock, it was believed it would run to a considerable figure. All loss, it was understood, was covered by insurance.

Fire started on the east side, midway in the theatre, from an overheated open “heat pot.” Several of the pots had been placed in the theater for the night to keep freshly poured cement from freezing. Mr. Schiller said a watchman was supposed to have been on duty just to watch these heat pots. By the time firemen arrived, the flames were spreading to scaffolding. Firemen laid 12 lines of hose and poured water into the building from all angles for nearly four hours before the flames could be extinguished.

The GRAND was playing Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest — a current new movie —– open 3 days a week (Sept 2006). Too bad I was in Grand Island only on a Tuesday. The theatre looks alive and well from the exterior. Wish I could have seen the inside.

They ought to try a Henry Fonda Series sometime during the busy summer season. Fonda was born in Grand Island, as everyone there knows; but many young folks there haven’t seen his movies.

I am one of the persons who tried to save the Indian Hills theater in Omaha. Although our efforts came to naught, I am gratified that Mr. Jim Fields made such a moving and transcendent film about the efforts of our group and of other preservationists like us. I urge everyone to view his movie. It is excellent.

Here is an article about the Indian Hills theater that I wrote:

Saving The Indian Hills

The bells of the troika jingled all around me as I rode with Yuri to Varikino. I was a young lad of 5 and had never before been to Russia. I was with my brother Ron at the Indian Hills Theater watching “Dr. Zhivago” on the 110-feet-wide screen that wrapped around nearly 150-degrees, making it feel as if I was, actually, in Russia riding behind the horses in the snow. Such was the magic of that now departed movie theater, the largest indoor movie screen until its lamented conversion into a parking lot in the Summer of 2001.
Anyone who lived in Omaha from the sixties through 2001 knows what I mean. I was fortunate enough to grow up in the subdivision called “Indian Hills” and my brothers and I were able to walk down the street to our favorite movie theater on earth. My brother Ron always described the Indian Hills as his “temple”.
To someone who has only viewed a movie on a postage-stamp-sized screenâ€"standard for today’s multiplexesâ€"the effect of watching a movie in Cinemascope on a screen that wrapped in a semicircle around you cannot be explained. The immense screen in the Indian Hills extended beyone one’s peripheral vision, thereby evoking the feeling of actually being there. When a young boy like myself grows up two blocks from such a movie theater, it tends to affect one forever. Since then, I have lived in Iowa, Phoenix, Cincinatti, Houston, Salt Lake City and St. Petersburg, Russia. In each of these places I have found myself longing for a movie-going experience such as I had as a child. These longings have gone unfulfilled. When I have attempted to explain this desire to friends around the world, they invariably mention the word “IMAX” with their eyebrows raised, expecting that to strike me like a revelation. When I consider the many flat, square screens on all the IMAX theaters I have encountered, it does not compare. To date, there has never been an IMAX theater made in either the size or configuration of the Indian Hills theater, which was designed in the format called Cinerama, which whithered on the vine because of technical challenges. However, Cinemascopeâ€"the successor to Cineramaâ€"is nearly as powerful. Seeing “Lawrence of Arabia” on “the big screen” (as all afficianados call the Indian Hill’s screen.), with Peter O’Toole’s brilliant blue eyes shining their radiance twenty-feet high, is a sight like no other. Seeing Luke Skywalker fly his X-wing fighter down on the Deathstar on “the big screen” was miraculous. Movie going has never been as pleasurable to me since “the big screen” was no more.
In the Summer of 2001, my brothers and I joined with many other locals to attempt to save the Indian Hills, after we realised it was in danger. We rallied and organized, meeting in a Village Inn just East of the theater on West Dodge road, for a month. In the end, as anyone in Omaha can confirm, we failed in our quest. Monied interests exercised the perogatives that go with ownership. Those arguments are long past and are not germane to this appreciation. Knowing in hindsight that the events of September 11th, 2001 would shortly unfold might seem to cast the efforts of the Indian Hills Preservation Society, our group, as being trivial. But in this world where nothing anymore seems sacred, we still find ourselves reaching out to proclaim the beauty of Botticelli’s “Venus”. Though millions died in the trenches of World War I, we embrace Hemingway’s novel of the period, “A Farewell to Arms”. Though we know they were built upon the backs of slave labor, we admire and treasure the Great Pyramid of Cheops. All through our shared history on this planet, we humans have endured the challenges and cherished the creations of our species. The greatness of that round red departed landmark on West Dodge Road is not diminished by its death. Those of us who were fortunate enough to sit in its purple velvet seats will forever be affected by the experience of seeing films on “the big screen.” To those who have not ever had the experience, we might as well try to convey the flavor of chocolate to the uninitiated, or the joy of lovemaking, or of the feeling of love. If you didn’t see it, I can’t make you see it.
There exists a documentary movie by Jim Fields about the efforts of the Indian Hills Preservation Society to save the theater. This movie, heartbreaking as seeing a loved one murdered, contains glimpses of the theater in its heyday. It also contains scenes that will plunge daggers into your heart.
Though it is only a memory, to this day I carry a love for the Indian Hills theater. Seeing Omar Sharif in “Dr Zhivago”, living in Russia, affected me for the rest of my life. I credit that movie, seen in its glory on “the big screen”, with inspiring me to learn Russian in college. The strength of of my feelings for “Dr. Zhivago” led me to live in St. Petersburg, Russia for all of 1997. As I walked around St. Petersburg in the cold Winter chill, I remembered the jingling bells of the troika and of the neighborhood where I grew up, next to the Indian Hills theater, the greatest movie theater ever made.
Saving The Indian Hills

The bells of the troika jingled all around me as I rode with Yuri to Varikino. I was a young lad of 5 and had never before been to Russia. I was with my brother Ron at the Indian Hills Theater watching “Dr. Zhivago” on the 110-feet-wide screen that wrapped around nearly 150-degrees, making it feel as if I was, actually, in Russia riding behind the horses in the snow. Such was the magic of that now departed movie theater, the largest indoor movie screen until its lamented conversion into a parking lot in the Summer of 2001.
Anyone who lived in Omaha from the sixties through 2001 knows what I mean. I was fortunate enough to grow up in the subdivision called “Indian Hills” and my brothers and I were able to walk down the street to our favorite movie theater on earth. My brother Ron always described the Indian Hills as his “temple”.
To someone who has only viewed a movie on a postage-stamp-sized screenâ€"standard for today’s multiplexesâ€"the effect of watching a movie in Cinemascope on a screen that wrapped in a semicircle around you cannot be explained. The immense screen in the Indian Hills extended beyone one’s peripheral vision, thereby evoking the feeling of actually being there. When a young boy like myself grows up two blocks from such a movie theater, it tends to affect one forever. Since then, I have lived in Iowa, Phoenix, Cincinatti, Houston, Salt Lake City and St. Petersburg, Russia. In each of these places I have found myself longing for a movie-going experience such as I had as a child. These longings have gone unfulfilled. When I have attempted to explain this desire to friends around the world, they invariably mention the word “IMAX” with their eyebrows raised, expecting that to strike me like a revelation. When I consider the many flat, square screens on all the IMAX theaters I have encountered, it does not compare. To date, there has never been an IMAX theater made in either the size or configuration of the Indian Hills theater, which was designed in the format called Cinerama, which whithered on the vine because of technical challenges. However, Cinemascopeâ€"the successor to Cineramaâ€"is nearly as powerful. Seeing “Lawrence of Arabia” on “the big screen” (as all afficianados call the Indian Hill’s screen.), with Peter O’Toole’s brilliant blue eyes shining their radiance twenty-feet high, is a sight like no other. Seeing Luke Skywalker fly his X-wing fighter down on the Deathstar on “the big screen” was miraculous. Movie going has never been as pleasurable to me since “the big screen” was no more.
In the Summer of 2001, my brothers and I joined with many other locals to attempt to save the Indian Hills, after we realised it was in danger. We rallied and organized, meeting in a Village Inn just East of the theater on West Dodge road, for a month. In the end, as anyone in Omaha can confirm, we failed in our quest. Monied interests exercised the perogatives that go with ownership. Those arguments are long past and are not germane to this appreciation. Knowing in hindsight that the events of September 11th, 2001 would shortly unfold might seem to cast the efforts of the Indian Hills Preservation Society, our group, as being trivial. But in this world where nothing anymore seems sacred, we still find ourselves reaching out to proclaim the beauty of Botticelli’s “Venus”. Though millions died in the trenches of World War I, we embrace Hemingway’s novel of the period, “A Farewell to Arms”. Though we know they were built upon the backs of slave labor, we admire and treasure the Great Pyramid of Cheops. All through our shared history on this planet, we humans have endured the challenges and cherished the creations of our species. The greatness of that round red departed landmark on West Dodge Road is not diminished by its death. Those of us who were fortunate enough to sit in its purple velvet seats will forever be affected by the experience of seeing films on “the big screen.” To those who have not ever had the experience, we might as well try to convey the flavor of chocolate to the uninitiated, or the joy of lovemaking, or of the feeling of love. If you didn’t see it, I can’t make you see it.
There exists a documentary movie by Jim Fields about the efforts of the Indian Hills Preservation Society to save the theater. This movie, heartbreaking as seeing a loved one murdered, contains glimpses of the theater in its heyday. It also contains scenes that will plunge daggers into your heart.
Though it is only a memory, to this day I carry a love for the Indian Hills theater. Seeing Omar Sharif in “Dr Zhivago”, living in Russia, affected me for the rest of my life. I credit that movie, seen in its glory on “the big screen”, with inspiring me to learn Russian in college. The strength of of my feelings for “Dr. Zhivago” led me to live in St. Petersburg, Russia for all of 1997. As I walked around St. Petersburg in the cold Winter chill, I remembered the jingling bells of the troika and of the neighborhood where I grew up, next to the Indian Hills theater, the greatest movie theater ever made.