Tauy Theatre

120 S. Main Street,
Ottawa, KS 66067

Unfavorite No one has favorited this theater yet

Showing 3 comments

dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on October 18, 2018 at 6:02 pm

The Tauy Theatre opened January 22, 1941. It was named for John Tecumseh “Tauy” Jones, an early pioneer in the area who was an interpreter for the Pottawatomie Indians and became one of their leaders. The name was selected in a contest in which local people submitted potential names for the new theatre. A statute in Tauy’s name is on the city’s courthouse grounds.

The Tauy closed due to a fire on December 5, 1959 after the last film shown: “Odds Against Tomorrow.” Repairs scheduled didn’t occur. The location was retrofitted for a catalog store that launched there in 1962. The theatre was never known as the “Tony” or the “Tany.”

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on April 4, 2015 at 5:30 am

Tauy Theatre was to be the name of this house according to the item in the January 3, 1941, issue of The Film Daily:

“E. Van Hyning is building a new theater in Ottawa, Kan., and will name it the Tauy Theater. He operates other houses at Iola. Parsons and Independence, Kan.”
The Tauy Theatre can be seen in the penultimate picture on this web page featuring scenes of Ottawa during a flood in 1957.

gmf2831
gmf2831 on October 14, 2012 at 7:53 pm

I remember view the original release of Disny’s “Sleeping Beauty” in this theater in 1962(?). I was mesmerized by “Malificent (sp)”, voiced by Eleanor Audley. There was a balcony, but I am not sure I ever saw a movie from up there. I knew the theater as the “Tauy”, after “Tauy” Jones, who was a local celebrity of sorts in the early settlement of the town of Ottawa.