Gayety Burlesk Theatre
246-54 S. High Street,
Columbus,
OH
43215
246-54 S. High Street,
Columbus,
OH
43215
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At the time it was the Knickerbocker it was operated by the Pastime Amusement Company, John W. Swan, President together with the Pastime and Hippodrome Theatres.
This opened as Empress on November 2nd, 1914 with Marcus Loew’s vaudeville. Grand opening ad posted.
Old photos at the Commons.
This house was built in 1914 and opened as the Empress Theatre. This PDF with data from the Library of Congress Historic American Buildings survey was prepared shortly before the front of the building was demolished in 1980. The document notes Horace L. Chapman as the owner of the building prior to 1919, but says that it was built in 1915-1916.
It also says that the architect is unknown, but the Internet provides evidence that the theater was designed by the firm of Dawson & Holbrook. Here is an item from the April 11, 1914, issue of The American Contractor:
Currently, Amazon has on sale a 1915 print ad from the O. W. Ketcham Terra Cotta Works, and the ad features a photo of this house, captioned "Empress Theatre Building, Columbus, O. Dawson & Holbrook, Architects.” Here is a link (though it is probably temporary.) Amazon doesn’t say what magazine the ad was published in, but it might turn up at the Internet Archive or Google Books eventually.Architects Dawson & Holbrook designed at least one other built theater in Columbus, the Vernon, and in 1914 they were selected to design a new theater to be built on the site of the Grand Opera House on State Street, though it appears that he opera house was merely renovated around that time, and I haven’t been able to discover if the plans for that project were done by Dawson & Holbrook.
Closed as the Knickerbocker, a second run downtown theatre, on 9/15/1946. Reopened as Gayety Burlesk on Friday, November 22, 1946, featuring Mitzie…“Pretty as a Picture and a Frame to Match” in Hello Columbus, also featureing Nadine, Paul West, Bartel & Scott, Zeb and Mandy and the California Sunkist Chorus.
Featured “Painless Prices~~Bring the Ladies, They’ll Scream!”
Looks like this site is now occupied by the City Center parking garage — the only successful part of the massive City Center shopping mall development, soon to be demolished.
Further photos and information are available through a search at http://memory.loc.gov