Royal Theatre
107 South Side Square,
Macomb,
IL
61455
107 South Side Square,
Macomb,
IL
61455
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Additional Info
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: Theatorium, Gem Theatre, Tokyo Theatre, Tokio Thetare
Nearby Theaters
The Theatorium opened around 1909 on the Square in downtown Macomb. It was changed to the Gem Theatre by Joseph D. Blume in 1910. The “new” Gem Theatre was refurbished in 1916 and began block selling of tickets. With $1 in tickets, you got a free portrait from a local professional photographer.
Just a month later, the owners are gone and the theatre is taken over by new ownership changing the name to the Tokyo Theatre in April of 1916. C.F. Grubb changes the name to the Tokio Theatre which appears to have closed in 1922 and had its last mention in 1924 for one final shot of movie business which would also time out with the end of a 15-year lease.
In 1924 it became the Royal Theatre and operated until 1936.
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dallasmovietheaters
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
A history of Macomb, Il. indicates that this theatre continued to operate until around 1940 as the Royal Theatre.
“The Gem Theatre opened at 107 South Side Square in 1910; the theater later became the Tokyo Theatre in the early 1920s, and then operated as the Royal Theatre from about 1924 to 1940.”
The operator of the Illinois and Royal theaters purchased the Lamoine Theatre roughly two blocks from the Royal in 1936. They would use the Lamoine (later Lark) to replace the undersized Royal Theatre which they closed in 1936.
So do any remnants of this theatre still exist? In particular, is the auditorium still there?
It’s a used book store with a variety of businesses prior so there are no remnants of its theatrical past.
The Gem is apparently the only one of the four movie houses listed at Macomb in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory that is currently listed at Cinema Treasures. The other three were the Family, the Princess, and the Grand. Only the Gem was listed with an address, and the Grand was listed only as being on N. Lafayette Street. The Grand was still operating in 1923, when the September 8 issue of Moving Picture World said that it had undergone extensive improvements. Along with the Tokyo Theatre, it had just been taken over by the Illinois Theatre Company from the V. F. Grubb Amusement Enterprises.