Kimmel Theatre
213 8th Street,
Cairo,
IL
62914
213 8th Street,
Cairo,
IL
62914
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Jun 03, 1921: BUYS THREE THEATERS.
Poplar Bluff Man Adds Cairo Playhouses to String.
POPLAR BLUFF, Me., June 2.-I. W. Rodgers of this city has secured control of practically the entire moving picture business in Cairo, Ill., adding three theaters to the string of theaters in Missouri that he now owns. The deal at the neighboring city was consummated with H. B. McFarland, owner of the Tokio Theater at Morehouse. It includes the outright purchase of the Gem Theater, Cairo’s largest moving picture and vaudeville house. Leases standing were secured on the Cairo Opera House, the largest and best legitimate stage house between Memphis and St. Louis, and the Kimmel Theater, the handsomest theater in Southern Illinois. The string of theaters that Mr. Rodgers owns controlling Interest in are the Criterion, at Poplar Bluff; the Cairo Opera House, the Gem Theater, Cairo; the Kimmel Theater, Cairo: the Fraternal, Poplar Bluff; the New Grand, Hope, Ark.; the Dixie and the Liberty, Caruthersville, Mo., and an interest from the co-partnership in Mr. McFarland’s theater in Morehouse, the Tokio. Rodgers is indeed a pioneer in the picture game. He is one of the first three men in the United States who introduced moving pictures 24 years ago.
The theatre has collasped as shown in google images
Google Earth shows the Kimmel repurposed as the Elks lodge as recently as 09/2022 - the theater’s pediment, although all the ornamentation was removed, retains its distinctive shape.