Elysian Grove Theatre

Joe Vogel on May 20, 2022 at 7:21 pm

Elysian Grove was one of the privately owned pleasure parks that thrived in modern cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen is a rare survivor of the type.) Elysian Grove began as Carrillo Gardens, founded in the late 19th century by Leopoldo Carrillo, and taken over by Emanuel Drachman around 1902 and renamed. Among the many attractions in the eight acre park were two theaters, one indoor and one outdoor, both of which were equipped to show movies as well as live entertainments. The first movie known to have been shown in Tucson, Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery, was presented at the outdoor theater in Elysian Grove in 1903. The indoor theater was built a few years later.

Arizona Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Arizona in 1912, and the legislature soon passed a law prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages. As a big part of Elysian Grove’s business had been in its saloons and beer gardens, custom fell off rapidly and the operation was closed by 1915. The theaters remained open until the end. Manny Drachman then assumed control of the Tucson Opera House and converted it to a movie theater, renaming it the State Theatre in 1917.

Oddly, only one theater is listed at Tucson in the 1914-1915 American Moving Picture Directory, that being the Clifton Theatre, at 32 W. Congress Street, but there must have been several by that time.