Neenah Cinema
114 E. Wisconsin Avenue,
Neenah,
WI
54956
114 E. Wisconsin Avenue,
Neenah,
WI
54956
1 person
favorited this theater
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The Embassy Theater became the Neenah Theater in October 1911. It was closed in the 1990s and was razed in September 1998.
The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections has photos of the Neenah Theatre, but offers nothing resembling a working link, let alone a permalink, to any of them. Go to their web site and paste the following into the search box (with quotes included):
“Theaters—Wisconsin—Neenah”
Three of the five photos the search fetches will be of the Neenah Theatre. The caption of one photo showing the house under construction in 1902 says that the first performance at the house took place on December 26, 1902.
The Neenah Theatre was listed in the 1906-1907 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 908 seats and a stage 37x60 feet.
The photo of his tombstone at Find a Grave shows that the correct spelling of architect Lovell’s first name is Sidney.
I have just listed two seats from the Neenah Theatre on Craigslist.
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If you have any interest in preserving this icon of local history just contact me. My cell is 920 358-0044.
This was the theatre of my youth and had a lot of fun there.
John
Does anyone know if the Neenah theater had a balcony back in the 1920s and if there were any other places in town to watch movies?
Here is an October 27, 1963 ad from the Appleton Post-Crescent:
http://tinyurl.com/admnmo
I used to go to the Neenah all the time as a kid. Sad to see it go. I do remember the city sky line and paper maker images. I sure would LOVE to get a set of them. Though I dont live in the area, my mom does. Does that count?
No I moved away in the 90’s. I live in Colorado Springs CO. If you click on my name and you can get my e-mail address. I would like to copy any of the pictures you are willing to send. I will get them back to you. I don’t want to leave my address here.
Are you still in the area? The pictures are before the digital camera age, so you would need to copy the pictures themselves if you wanted them. We could meet up sometime if you’re in the area, or I can send you pictures if you’re not. I have pictures of the auditorium, lobby, office, projection booth, exterior, Most are from 1995ish, however I also have some older ones, probably from the 70’s and I think I have an older one with a big marquee possibly. I wish I would have saved some seats, quite honestly at the time, I never wanted to see them again, but now of couse I would like them. Same thing with the Viking theatre in Appleton, I did have 10 seats from there, but got tired of moving them around and eventually got rid of them. In fact 3 of them went down with the Neenah theatre, because I had them in my office there. Let me know if you’re interested in pictures.
Yea I know at one time it was really nice to look at. The last time I saw it, it was in real bad shape. The seats were rebuilt and are great to look at and not to bad to sit in. 6 of them came from the balcony 8 from the main floor and 2 love seats. I saved the 3 black JuJu Bee’s that were stuck to them, They are in a box for now. The sensurround amp and speakers were rebuilt and work great. I also have the original RCA amp from the theater but it dosn’t work and is just a display. The pictures would be great, let me know what you need.
I don’t have the picture anymore. There was a reason it was kept in a DARK auditorium…I do have the ushers stand. The papermaker carvings were taken out before demolition. I think they were headed to the paper hall of fame or something? Other than a nice piece of history, those seats were in pretty bad condition, love seats are cool though. I do have some pictures of the theatre, let me know if you’d like to copy them.
Lets try this. Here is the Neenah Theater minus the wonderful marquee.
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Yes I remember the picture in the back of the auditorium. It was a city scean. Do you have it? also where are the paper guy’s? Were they destroyed with the theater. If you have any pictures of the theater I would love to pay for any copies. My collection of that theater are 16 seats and 2 of them were the love seats, (those were cool.)2 of the Sensurround speakers and one of the amps that powered them. The speakers and seats are in my home theater.
I managed the Neenah Theatre from 1994 till it closed in 1997. This was a Marcus Theatre. For years it had been operated as a 2nd run theatre. In its final years, it was very popular. It wouldn’t be unusual to have 200-300 people each friday and saturday. Remember the lighted picture that hung in the back of the auditorium? I remember when the theatre played The Lion King for 6 weeks, it was incredibly busy. I remember selling $6000 worth of concessions thru that tiny vending stand in a single week. That movie sold out several times, over 600 seats and even filled the balcony. However when Marcus built the Hollywood Cinema in Appleton, the Valley Fair Cinema was turned into a 2nd run theatre and took away a lot of the Neenah Theatres business, and it was closed. The property was sold to Future Neenah Inc. which said it wanted to save it for use as a “civic auditorium”. In my opinion, they didn’t try very hard to save the theatre, they spend little more than a year trying to garner interest in their project. Then they abandoned their project in favor of tearing the theatre down and building a third office tower on the site. The theatre was in nice condition, and could have continued to operate successfully with the right people.
Here is a photo of the neenah theater, minus it’s wonderful marquee.
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And one with the marquee
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Here is a link with an early picture of Neenah Opera House (Theater).
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I’m not too great on Wisconsin geography, but the 3/7/71 edition of the Appleton Post Crescent advertised a number of theaters owned by the Marcus chain. Among them were the Neenah, Viking, Cinema 1 and Appleton. There was also this story concerning a theater in Clintonville:
Clintonville’s Only Theater Closes
Shopping Center Replaces It
“Closed for Redevelopment” is the sign posted in the window of the
ticket booth of the Times Theater this week. The last movie was shown Sunday night. Closing of the Times leaves Clintonville without a theater.
The Times Theater opened February 6, 1937, in a building rebuilt for
that purpose and owned by the late Dr. W.H. Finney. Later, after Dr. Finney’s death in 1943. the theater building was bought from his estate by his widow and her brother, the late Dr. E. W. Luebke.
During their ownership it was rented to Ben Marcus, Milwaukee,
who continued its operation.
In 1965, the building was sold to Norman Erickson, the present owner. He had it rented to Otto Settele, Seymour, an independent
operator, who also has the theater at Dodgeville. Settele said that 30,000 people a year attended the theater here. At one time Clintonville had two theaters, with the first one being the Grand, which was also owned by Dr. Finney, and which opened in the fall of 1914 in a building erected for that purpose. This theater was remodeled in 1929. After being closed for several years, the building
was purchased in 1962 by the late Warren Mitchell and housed Mitchell’s Trading Post. The business is still maintained today.
The Times Theater had to stop operation to make room for a new shopping center project.