Majestic Theatre
105 W. 2nd Street,
Kewanee,
IL
61443
105 W. 2nd Street,
Kewanee,
IL
61443
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The Majestic Theatre was opened in 1907. Never moving to sound, it was closed in 1935 and converted to retail. In 2022 it was in use as a sportswear shop.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The August 27, 1910, issue of The Billboard listed the Majestic Theatre in Kewanee as part of Thielen’s Illinois Vaudeville Circuit. The April 5, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Majestic was to be remodeled:
Mr. Taylor’s new theater opened a few weeks later as the Tabard. In 1913, Kewanee also had houses called the Grand Theatre (probably the former Grand Opera House,) the Dreamland, the Bijou, the Willard, and the Olympia (formerly the Princess) Theatre.This has not been demolished. It has a hideously ugly slipcover, but it’s still there.
The neighboring Hallin building, which has been really badly treated, but is more visible, was built in 1899. The theater was built in a matching style sometime after 1905, when there’s an old wooden three story building with a Chinese laundry on the lot.
The Majestic Theatre opened in 1907 by Ben Straight and Frank Davis. Its second operator with movies was Galesburg showman Willard J. West - his first of three movie houses in Kewanee in the Majestic, Grand, and Willard. West updated the venue in 1915 bringing in the first of two Bartola pipe organs to the building. That update also provided rose panels and Italian marble throughout.
In 1917, West provided the Majestic with its new Bartola pipe organ and it was played Bina Keaveny to great effect. The old Bartola pipe organ was moved to West’s Willard Theatre. Future Majestic organists were John Behan and Robert James Judie.
The Majestic’s final operator was Fred W. Shaver who gave it a final refresh in 1929. Shaver almost stubbornly presented silent films into early 1932 and the slogan “Good Old Organ Music All Appreciate.” And it was still the Bartola.
Having a silent movie house in 1932 made the town of Kewanee and the Majestic an outlier as most movie houses had either converted to audio or exited film exhibition. But 1932 was its last year of regular operation as it veered into very sporadic live events. Its last movies were shown silent in 1935. As it was reaching its 30-year leasing expiry, the venue was converted to retail for a Larkin’s store in early 1936.