American Theatre

A few years ago when I toured the Bradley and the old Rialton, I found what remained of the Dixie. It was just a shell and the upper portion had been torn down. The concrete floor of what was the lobby was still there, but the auditorium, which must have had a wooden floor, was grown up in trees.

A house called the American Theatre was operating in Columbus at least as early as 1915, when it was mentioned in the July 17 issue of Motion Picture News.

Columbus also had a house called the Dixie Theatre located on the south side of 12th Street between Broadway and First Avenue. It can be seen in a ca.1911 view in Columbus, Georgia in Vintage Postcards, by Jr., Kenneth H. Thomas (Google Books preview.) The caption says that the 12th Street Dixie Theatre was in operation by 1908.

The earlier Dixie had to have been closed by 1915, though, when the September 4 issue of The Moving Picture World reported that the Bonita Theatre had moved to a new location on 12th Street, and would be the only movie house on that street.

It’s possible that there was a third Dixie Theatre in Columbus, as I’ve found a reference to a house of that name, apparently catering to African American audiences, in 1945.