Theater
142 S. Penn Avenue,
Oberlin,
KS
67749
142 S. Penn Avenue,
Oberlin,
KS
67749
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This small theater appears on the 1920 map. It was located in a one story brick storefront constructed before 1904, and which had been a hardware store in 1911.
It’s almost certain this theater was not open before 1914-15, as Oberlin does not appear in the AMPD. If this theater remained in operation until 1926, then it was the Legion Theater, with 200 seats, which made the transition to sound (offering Talk-a-Phone in 1930), but closed in 1931 or 1932.
The building remains today, but is one of several obscured behind a repellent 1970’s shingle front, compounded by a dismal corrugated awning from an urban ‘renewal’ project. It and a neighboring structure have been incorporated into a drug store.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
This house could have been the Wigwam Theatre. Its manager, Ross Riley, provided dozens of capsule movie reviews to Exhibitors Herald which appeared from early 1920 into late 1924. It was a rather primitive operation, Riley noting in one 1924 item that he had only one projection machine and would show slides while reels were being changed. An R. Ross Riley of Oberlin had a letter published in the July, 1918 issue of Photoplay, but it doesn’t mention a theater.
An October 24, 1925 Moving Picture World item said that the New Regent Theatre at Oberlin was scheduled to open the next week, but I’ve been unable to find anything more about it. I found one source saying that the Wigwam closed in 1928.