Star Theatre

The location of the former Star and American Theatre is well known to Elkhart movie goers. It is the address of the long-running State Theatre from 1940 to 1988. But the address housed the silent-era Star and American movie theaters in the 1910’s, as well.

The lineage began with the Globe Theatre, a nickelodeon that opened on December 14, 1907, at 401 South Main Street. Operated by Grant S. Boice, the 200-seat venue featured Edison’s Kinetoscope projection and debuted with Edwin S. Porter’s Edison film, “The Trainer’s Daughter; or, A Race for Love”.Bo ice also packed up the Globe’s Kinetoscope projector traveling to Bristol once a week to show films at the Mosier Opera House some nine miles away.

On July 2, 1908, Boice presented sound films using the Synchroscope billed as “moving pictures that talk” and “the greatest mechanical device of the age". It cost a dime to get sound and picture. The Synchroscope was a $350 projector and disc machine that played a handful of film titles with a record - fairly poorly. Sadly, the greatest mechanical device of its age was discontinued within months. Clearly, it was ahead of its time by nearly 20 years.

On June 14, 1909, George Forry took on the Globe Theatre renaming it as the Star Theatre with silent films and back to a nickel. The Star Theatre would move to 526-528 South Main Street likely to create a better sloped-floor viewing experience and a legitimate and safe® projection booth, the later of which was missing at 401 South Main Street. The new home of the Star Theatre was a three-story structure that once once housed the Odd Fellows fraternal hall. The Star Theater’s move appears to have been executed by second Star operators W.G. Wentz and Royal Theatre singer/co-owner Clifford E. Cole.

New Star operators C.G. Benfer and E.G. Stolley gave the venue a refresh in 1913 including a new front. Despite the cost of upgrades and one move, each Star Theatre operator maintained the nickel price point for all customers. This demonstrates the fierce competition for Elkartans' coins. The venture ultimately failed as the Star was outshone up against the more established Bucklen, Jefferson, Orpheum and Family theaters. The Star Theater closed in the Summer of 1916.

Wilbur S. Welch and Glenn O. Woolford purchased the venue. They relit it within a month renaming as the American Theatre on July 22, 1916. Welch and Woolford failed quickly within six months ending the building’s cinematic run though not the address’s run as a movie location.

In the 1920’s, the building was retrofitted for an A&P grocery store. In the 1930’s, it became a liquor store that almost burned down in February of 1939. Deemed unsalvageable, the former Star Theatre was demolished in March of 1940 to make way for the new-build State Theatre. It has its own Cinema Treasure entry.

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