Bijou Theatre
615 2nd Street,
Ida Grove,
IA
51445
615 2nd Street,
Ida Grove,
IA
51445
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Opened by 1908, this theatre appears on the June 1909 Sanborn, in a two story brick building that was constructed sometime after 1899, and may have been intended as a theater from the beginning.
The building was typically deep and narrow, and was closed on July 12, 1913. By 1915 it had become Keith’s Laundry.
The building today appears to be fairly scruffy, and has been an automotive business for quite some time.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
This was most likely the Bijou. While I can’t find an exact opening date, it appears in the local weekly paper, The Ida County Pioneer, as early as 1908. Ads say It featured “Moving Pictures and Illustrated Songs” and “No Vibration to the Pictures”.
The July 16, 1913 issue of the Pioneer had a front page article announcing that construction of a new theatre in Ida Grove, a couple blocks down 2nd street from this theatre, will begin shortly, and that the name of the new venue would be “The Princess”. The last paragraph carried the header “Bijou Is Closed”, which read in part:
Lee Horn, who will manage the new house closed his old house, The Bijou, Saturday night in order that he may devote his whole time to the work of erecting and equipping this new playhouse.
So the closing date for the Bijou was July 12, 1913. The Princess opened on November 22 that year, in 1917 the name changed to the King, which has its own listing on Cinema Treasures.
I’m sure you’re right. I don’t know how this ended up with the wrong name, since the Princess is a completely different building.