Bijou Theatre

1722-1726 Main Street,
Marinette, WI 54143

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Ascher Brothers Inc.

Functions: Office Space, Retail

Styles: Neo-Classical

Nearby Theaters

BIJOU Theatre Building; Marinette, Wisconsin. (T. Heggland photo)

Marinette’s Bijou Theatre was built in 1905 for businessman Frank Lauerman as a combination general store and vaudeville house which sat just over 380. Within a few years, Lauerman began showing movies, replacing vaudeville acts, but the tiny venue was no match for larger theaters being constructed in Marinette.

By 1920, there were no less than eight movie theaters in operation in the twin cities of Marinette and Menominee, Michigan, and the Bijou Theatre closed down in 1924. It was converted into offices and retail space, which it amazingly still serves as today.

Also, the well-preserved Neo-Classical style Bijou Building, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, is the only survivor of the handful of movie houses which put it out of business as theater.

Contributed by Bryan

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

teecee
teecee on March 2, 2005 at 5:49 am

History & phot at this link – click to expand photo:
View link

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on December 23, 2010 at 1:36 pm

A 1916 ad for the Chicago-based Ascher Brothers theater circuit listed the Bijou Theatre and the Marinette Opera House in Marinette among their operations. The ad boasted that Ascher Brothers' theaters were “The Aristocrats of Photoplay Palaces.”

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