Cozy Theatre

1635 W. Linden Avenue,
South Bend, IN 46628

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Additional Info

Functions: Church

Previous Names: Linden Theatre

Nearby Theaters

November 1936 Flyer- back

The Linden Theatre was opened prior to 1931. By 1941 it had been renamed Cozy Theatre. It was still operating in 1950. By 1966 it was occupied by the Holiness Church of God, who are still in the building in 2014.

Contributed by Ken Roe, Richard Bakos

Recent comments (view all 5 comments)

AndrewBarrett
AndrewBarrett on January 28, 2015 at 3:09 pm

Thanks for putting up the page for this theatre! I am so glad the building is still standing and hope I can visit it someday when I am traveling through Indiana.

According to “The Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Pipe Organ”, pg. 629, the “Linden Th.” in South Bend, Indiana, originally had a 2 manual, 4 rank Smith theatre pipe organ installed.

No further details, such as blower info, nameplate (Seeburg-Smith, Smith, Smith-Geneva, etc), or install date are given in the book, since they weren’t known at the time of publication.

Does anybody know where this organ (or its parts) is/are today? Could it still be installed in the building, but now in use as a church organ?

(Don’t laugh; the removal and resale of unwanted smaller theatre pipe organs to poorer or less discriminating churches, often with some changes, such as: 1. removal and sometimes trashing of the traps and some percussions, and/or 2. swapping of some of the louder theatrical pipe ranks for softer churchier ones, saved many theatre pipe organs from going to the dump in the days when they were completely unwanted and being trashed left and right).

Thanks for any info anyone can provide! This is all for the Smith theatre pipe organ webpage I’ll be putting up eventually (not ready yet). I’d also really like to see some interior photos of this building, if the church is so inclined to provide any (they may not want to).


Does anybody know about the “Castle Theatre”, or the “LaSalle Theatre” in South Bend? I would create pages for them but don’t know how to do that.

According to Mr. Junchen’s book (same page), the “Castle Theatre” had a Seeburg-Smith organ installed in 1920 and the LaSalle Theatre also had some type of Smith organ, further details and install date unknown.

I have no idea what happened to these two theatres and organs and would like to know more. Thanks!

bbetts
bbetts on January 11, 2016 at 10:46 am

Hello Andrew Barrett! My name is Beverly Betts, I attend church at Greater New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in South bend, Indiana 46628. We are in the old Linden Theatre building at 1635 West Linden Avenue, South Bend, Indiana 46628. We have lots of old pictures and current ones. We are trying to submit grants to renovate our historical building. We love it! I work 2 minutes away from the old LaSalle Theatre. It is being converted to a historical apartment building at the present moment. You are more than welcome to visit when traveling through Indiana. God bless!

fisherg46
fisherg46 on March 15, 2016 at 7:38 pm

My name is Greta Fisher, and I work in the Local History department of the St. Joseph County Public Library. We are actively digitizing material about local theaters. Ms. Betts, if you want to contact us, we would be happy to scan some of your photos to offer online. Our phone # is 574-282-4621.

rivest266
rivest266 on January 20, 2019 at 11:59 am

Very hard to find ads for this theatre as they did not place any ads in the Tribune.

JP
JP on October 20, 2020 at 4:37 pm

My Father was known as Cozy Joe Przestwor. He ran the projector at the Cozy from approximately 1941 until he joined the Army in early 1944. He lived at 313 N Johnson Street, a short distance away. His father (My grandfather) was a foreman at Studebaker. I still own and drive a 1955 Commander. I will try to add a photo of the Cozy.

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