Admiral I & II Theatre
142 S. 40th Street,
Omaha,
NE
68131
142 S. 40th Street,
Omaha,
NE
68131
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Opened on February 4th, 1942 with Joan Blondell and John Wayne in “Lady for a Night,” the Admiral was a $175,000 project from Walter Green and Ralph Blank. The atmospheric theater conjured up its nautically-themed name by giving one the impression that they were on a ship in the evening. Portholes were on the wall along with the ship’s hull above and blue waves below. It was a great transformation of the Julius Wessel & Co. sheet metal factory (also pictured in photos).
The Admiral was altered from a single ship to two schooners upon its twinning on November 16, 1976 becoming the Admiral 2 Theatre. Its last heyday was showing “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Dick Blank of the Skyview and the Crossroads 2 announced a temporary closure on April 10, 1983 following showings of “Sweet Sixteen” and “The Last House on the Left” for remodeling. That decommissioning turned out to be permanent and the Admiral structure decayed with a bad roof over the next decade. The Admiral 2 Theatre was demolished in late 1996 into early 1997.
Here’s a new 4-page 50th anniversary FIDDLER ON THE ROOF retrospective featuring a roadshow playdate chronology and historian Q&A. The Admiral’s year-long run is mentioned in the piece.
TorstenAdair: According to the movie ads published in the Omaha World-Herald, “Popeye” played the Admiral from December 12th, 1980 through February 4th, 1981 for a run of eight weeks.
If memory serves, during it’s later days in the early 1980s, it screened “Popeye” for some forty weeks. Can someone check the newspaper microfiche?
Crossroads Twin and Admiral Twin grand opening ad from November 16th, 1976 I enclosed the joint grand opening ad here in the photo section.
February 4th, 1942 grand opening ad has been posted here.
My fondest memory of this theater, other than all of the great horror and B-movies I saw there in the 70’s and early 80’s like “Dawn of the Dead”, was the bathroom. Remember those stairs?? When I was 11, having to go down there to pee was usually scarier than anything I came to see on the screen.
The February 27, 1943, issue of Boxoffice has photos of the Admiral Theatre. The house got its nautical Moderne design courtesy of Omaha architect Frank Latenser.
The really grand conceit of the Admiral was that the decor amounted to a ship turned inside out. The sidewall were white and hull-like to a height of about twelve feet, then a railing, then lifeboats hanging inward. The night sky was the background and house right near the proscenium there was a full moon with clouds constantly passing by.
This was a great place to divert one’s gaze when things got too scary on screen.
There was a “crying room house left at the rear.
Also the drinking fountain in the lobby was activated by an electric eyeâ€"both mysterious and high tech in the 50’s.
I saw “Monster Zero” and “War of the Gargantuas” there back in 1970.
actually the address was 142 So. 40th St.
Yes, 40th and Farnam is the correct location. Officially, the address was 142 Farnam St. The Admiral was on the northwest corner. It opened February 4, 1942 as a 1000-seat, single-screen movie house in what was then a wealthy “suburb” of Omaha. As suggested by the name of the theater, the theme of its decor was nautical. There were ocean-wave murals on the walls of the auditorium. Uniforms worn by staff were inspired by Navy uniforms. A champagne bottle was supposed to have been smashed to “launch” the new theater, but the plans were scratched for safety reasons when opening night crowds proved larger than anticipated. From the 1940s through the early 1970s, the theater did well, hosting second-run films at first, then first-runs and local premieres. Like many older single-screen theaters, it fell out of favor in the mid-1970s as the public chose to see movies at the newer multiplexes. As beardbear31 remembers, it was the home base for Omaha’s rowdy, toast-throwing “Rocky Horror Picture Show” fans from the late 1970s into the early 1980s. In 1979, the Admiral was remodeled into a twin-screen theater. In 1983, it closed again for remodeling but never reopened. Plans for the site fell through one by one. Meanwhile, the building’s condition deteriorated until it was no longer practical to save it for any purpose. Neighborhood merchants raised the money for its demolition, which finally happened in early 1997. An office building now occupies the site.
you are right Lost Memory, The Admiral was indeed on the northwest corner of So. 40th and Farnam. I used to see Rocky Horror there shortly before it closed.
The 1950 edition of Film Daily Yearbook has the address of the Admiral Theater listed at 40th and Farnham with a seating capacity of 950.