Jollo Moving Picture Theatre

Fort Collins' Opera House Block was built in 1880 to the plans of architect Ansel Pierce. The building’s survival into the 21st Century - now known as the Central Block - was the multi-use concept of the block-wide structure. The opera House took on just a subsection of the second and third floor of the three-story building. A variety of businesses flanked the opera house as they do today.

The Opera House opened March 28, 1881 with the play, “Mazeppa”. Fort Collins citizens began to enjoy films and. vaudeville more than stage plays and opera by the early-20th Century. The Opera House sublet the space to The Jollo Electric Theatre Company. Jollo was a very early circuit of theatres in Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas and Iowa from 1907 to the 1910’s.

R.H. Mouser & Co. who had also run two Jollos in Nebraska in Alliance and Kearney. The theatre opened in June of 1908 with “clean, amusing (and) refined” moving pictures and illustrated songs. The Jollo business model appears to have been to identify existing venues like the fading opera house in downtown Fort Collins desperate to find a steady source of entertainment income.

The Jollo Moving Picture Theatre used Kinodrome projection and films in its presentations which were around 40 minutes in total length and cost five to ten cents admission. The Jollo in Fort Collins was a success early on but would be a rather quick casualty as “ground floor” theatres specifically designed for movie presentation doomed the Jollo. The entire opera house was redesigned “out” of the space in 1917 and retrofitted for a dance hall.

Today, the Opera House Block goes by the name of the Central Block and is part of the fabric of Fort Collins as it accommodates a variety of businesses and offices.

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