Indiana Theatre
1017 15th Street,
Bedford,
IN
47421
1017 15th Street,
Bedford,
IN
47421
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The Stone City Opera House opened its doors on May 16, 1901 with a live presentation of “Human Hearts”, and reopened as the Indiana Theatre on September 1, 1924 with Milton Sills in “Single Wives” along with the short “It’s A Scream”, a vaudeville skit of “Flagler and Malia”, and musical performances by two orchestras following reconstruction.
The Indiana Theatre closed for the final time on October 27, 1963 with Paul Newman in “A New Kind Of Love” when the Von Ritz Theatre nearby received major remodeling and reopened as the Indiana Theatre a few days later.
An article by Sarah Clifford in the March 13, 2007, edition of the Bedford Times-Mail cites an article in the May 10, 1901, issue of the Bedford Weekly Mail which said:
The Stone City Opera House opened on May 16, 1901.The August 2, 1922, issue of Exhibitors Herald said that the Lawrence Theatrical Company had obtained a ten-year lease on the Stone City Opera House and planned to expend $60,000 to gut and rebuild the auditorium, with 850 seats on the ground floor and 65 in the balcony. Clifford’s Times Mail article says that the final cost of the project was $85,000, and the rebuilt Indiana Theatre opened on September 1, 1924.
This Indiana Theatre was located at 1017 15th St.
Indiana University Archives has a collection of materials from Bloomington, Indiana architect John L. Nichols which includes a letter from F. X. Johnson (Francis Xavier ‘Chip’ Johnson?) dated March 15, 1904. The letter head reads ‘New Stone City Opera House, Bedford, Indiana’. Johnson is responding to a letter of the 12th inquiring about the acoustics in the theater, which he terms ‘excellent’.
Boxoffice of August 12, 1950, said that the Indiana Theatre was undergoing a $250,000 remodeling project. The design was by Indianapolis architect Alden Meranda, who had done a major remodeling of the Crump Theatre at Columbus, Indiana, in 1941.
In its issue of December 2, 1963, Boxoffice reported that the Indiana Theatre name had been moved to the former Von Ritz Theatre. A November 16, 1964, Boxoffice item says that Bedford Theatres had razed the former Indiana Theatre at Bedford, and adds that the house had been built in 1900. It also says that the Indiana was located on 15th Street.
The page with the photo linked in Lost Memory’s second comment above says that the Indiana Theatre had been called the Stone City or Stone City Opera House prior to 1924. This Rootsweb post says that the Stone City Opera House opened on May 16, 1901.