Gem Theatre

The town of Pana’s third and final opera house was announced in 1895 and built to the plans of Bloomington architect George H. Miller. The venue opened with the live play, “Shenandoah” on October 4, 1895. The multipurpose structure also housed a retail millinery.

By the end of the first decade of the 20th Century, profitability proved elusive for small town, live opera houses. Pana, a town of 6,000 residents, found its Grand Opera House showing films regularly under new operator, W.J. Westfall, in 1909 after he installed a Powers film projector. A news note in 1918 said that “the” opera house was being converted to a theater which times out with the opening of the Gem Theatre on April 4, 1918 with “Peggy Leads the Way”.

Garnett DeWitt took on the Gem Theatre in January of 1920 as its final operator. Unfortunately for DeWitt, Charles J. Law opened the Eagle Theatre two months later which turned out to be quite popular. The Gem Theatre’s last advertised event was in December of 1920. As that times out with the expiry of a 25-year leasing period, that ended its cinematic run.

Law bought the building converting the opera house portion of the building to another retail location in November of 1922. (It was common for small town theater operators to buy out and convert old competing locations to anything other than a theater.) The building has since been razed.

Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.