Gilbert Theatre
616 Court Street,
Beatrice,
NE
68310
616 Court Street,
Beatrice,
NE
68310
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The Gilbert Theatre opened as a 1,200-seat playhouse on March 22, 1915 with the musical-comedy “The Legend of the Ring”. By 1916 it was showing photoplays.
The Gilbert Theatre was closed on December 10, 1927. The Ritz Theatre, on the other side of the street opened in 1929. The Beatrice Daily Sun reported in October of 1937 that a new modern building was nearing completion on the site of the old Gilbert Theatre.
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rpierce
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
Their is a Sherwin Williams Paint store at this address today. This is just down the street from the Holly Theatre.
The January 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about Hal Kelly, manager of the Gilbert Theatre. The usual policy of the house at that time was to present five acts of vaudeville and three reels of movies, Kelly said.
From Motion Picture World, August 7, 1915: “Ben Johnson, the new manager at the Gilbert Theatre at Beatrice, has purchased a new pipe organ. He has closed his Lyric theatre in Beatrice in order to devote all his time to the new acquisition.” If he was investing in an organ it suggests he had begun or was about to begin showing films.
March 21st, 1915 grand opening ad:
Gilbert theatre opening Sun, Mar 21, 1915 – 10 · Beatrice Daily Sun (Beatrice, Gage, Nebraska, United States of America) · Newspapers.com
The Rivoli Theatre was the heir apparent to the Gilbert. The grand opening of the Rivoli had to be postponed with that screening moved to the Gilbert. But thereafter, the Rivoli booked new features and the Gilbert was downgraded to carrying four-wall exploitation films and some live events with its last film screened as “Did Tunney Win the Fight?” on December 10, 1927. The Gilbert Theatre did not convert to sound. It was converted for other retail purposes by 1930.