Crystal Theatre
518-522 College Avenue,
Racine,
WI
53405
518-522 College Avenue,
Racine,
WI
53405
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Turner Hall, People's Theater, College Avenue Orpheum Theatre
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Racine theatre showman William C. Tiede entered the world of stage and screen entertainment shortly after 1884, opening the old Turner Hall for travelling stage shows. He then went on the road with minstrel shows and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, working as an advance man, but returned to Racine and opened the Bijou Theater within the McClurg Building/Secor Block at 245 Main Street (later the Nelson Hotel) in about 1906.
Tiede eventually returned to the Turner Hall location and opened the People’s Theater, later renaming it the College Avenue Orpheum Theatre (there was some local name confusion with the nearby Orpheum Theatre at State Street/Main Street which was later renamed National Theatre, Allen Theatre and Mainstreet Theatre.)
Tiede introduced Cameraphone in about 1909 at his College Avenue Orpheum Theatre, an early sound-film process utilizing a backstage phonograph synchronized to some degree with the on-screen film images through signal dots and dashes. Tiede billed the shows as offering “beautiful and no longer dumb” attractions. On November 10, 1913 it was renamed Crystal Theatre. It had closed by 1926.
Contributed by
Lou Rugani
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Grand re-opening ad as the Crystal Theatre from November 10, 1913 in photos.
(Racine Journal News) Crystal Theatre Opens Tonight – Tonight will see the first performances of the De Vault Stock Company at the new Crystal theatre, formerly the College Avenue Orpheum. There will be two performances, one at seven and the other nine o'clock. “The Yankee Doodle Boy” will be the attraction until Thursday, when will be billed Clyde Fitch’s great success “The Girl and the Chauffeur.” This idea of a permanently located stock company is new to Kacine, but the promoters feel it is going to be an unqualified success.