Crystal Theatre

Portage’s first theatre, the Electric Theatre, was located at the Brodie building on DeWitt Street opened its doors as a five-cent theatre on June 18, 1907 with the films “Fun In The Garden” and “The Bad Son” plus two musical performances by Chicago-native William Mathieson doing “Bunker Hill” and “A Little Child Shall Led Them”. But after the performances and before the movies started, the Edison projectors that were installed by F.J. Forbes of the Portage Electric Light Company (and went under the circumstance of Meyers & O'Bournie circuit of Milwaukee who delivers the films) experienced a major error with its machine forcing a short delay/intermission to be presented. H.W. Griggs, foreman of the Milwaukee Road roundhouse and an acknowledged authority on stereopticons rushed inside and came to assistance of the management by request until the correction was solved.

On January 28, 1910, Ed Westburg of the Westburg & Tiede management chain has announced that the Electric Theatre will become the Crystal Theatre, which it did three days later. The Crystal Theatre pretty much closed and reopened a lot during the 1911 and 1912 seasons due to many ownership changes. The theater closed in 1917.

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