Broadway Theatre
227 Broadway,
Logansport,
IN
46947
227 Broadway,
Logansport,
IN
46947
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I’ve now found a Broadway Theatre operating at Logansport as early as 1908, mentioned in the December 10 issue of The Billboard. Either there was an earlier house called the Broadway Theatre, or the name of the opera house was changed sooner than was thought. If it was the same theater, the name change must have been quite recent as Dowling Opera House is still listed in Julius Cahn’s ad for his affiliated theaters in the December 5 issue, and I haven’t found the Broadway mentioned before December.
The Crystal is also mentioned in 1908, playing vaudeville. The Ark Theatre is mentioned in the November 21 issue.
Early theater names I’ve found connected with Logansport include the Colonial, Nelson, Logan, Grand, Ark, Luna, and Crystal. The Nelson was a big theater, about the size of the Broadway, but newer, and was the town’s leading playhouse after the old opera house became the Broadway. The Ark was running vaudeville around 1911, and the Crystal was a movie house operating about the same time. They might be two of the four unknowns on the maps. The Ark was operating at least as late as 1924, when it was being run as a movie house by J. E. Dowling.
The fire that destroyed the Broadway took place in 1924, not 1926. It was reported in the February 23 issue of Exhibitors Herald, which featured a photo of the smoldering ruins.
I’ve found this theater listed as the Dolan Opera House as late as 1900. In 1902, it appears in trade publications as the Dowling Opera House, and it is advertised as Dowling’s Theatre in the 1905-1906 Cahn guide.
The Broadway Theatre was flooded in the flood of 1913.