Dakota Theater

rivest266 on November 21, 2024 at 9:45 am

The Empire Theatre was renamed the Orpheum Theatre on March 24, 1919. It closed in March 1931 for rebuilding and was reopened by Publix Theatres on November 25, 1931. In 1970, it began showing adult movies but was eventually closed in April 1971 to make way for a parking lot. Grand opening ads posted.

Dakota theatre closing 29 Sep 1971, Wed Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, North Dakota) Newspapers.com

Chris1982 on July 5, 2014 at 11:08 pm

The last year this theatre was listed as the OIrpheum was in 1932. By 1933 it was listed as the Dakota Theatre.

Joe Vogel on May 28, 2012 at 3:48 pm

This web page with an extensive history of the Empire Theatre in Grand Forks also has information about the Dakota Theatre. The Dakota itself was originally called the Empire Theatre, but had been renamed the Grand Theatre sometime before 1918, in which year it was damaged by a fire. After the fire, the house was rebuilt and reopened as the Orpheum Theatre. The page doesn’t say when it became the Dakota Theatre, but Chuck’s earlier comments suggest that it was probably renamed in 1935.

The August 6, 1931, issue of The Film Daily had a brief item about the house: “Grand Forks, N. D. — Work has been started on rebuilding the Publix Orpheum.”

According to the official web site of the Heights Theatre in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, the bottom section of that restored theatre’s stage curtain is from the Orpheum in Grand Forks.