Uptown Theater
4208 N. College Avenue,
Indianapolis,
IN
46208
4208 N. College Avenue,
Indianapolis,
IN
46208
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Robert Hudson, an exhibitor from Richmond, Ind., organized the Tivoli Theater Corporation to erect a neighborhood showplace on a site at College Avenue and Forty-second Street obtained under a twenty-year lease from the Clyde Realty Company. Tivoli received a building permit for 1221 College Avenue in January 1926. On March 25, 1926, Tivoli’s capital stock was acquired by the Circle Theater Company, whose officers were A.L. Block, Robert Lieber, Fred Gardner, and Leo Rappaport. Robush & Hunter completed the work and handled the decorations for what became the Uptown Theater.
May 29, 1926 grand opening ad in photo section.
I sat through about 6 hours of the original Batman serials in approx 1969-70. Me and my friend were the only two people in the theater when we were asked to leave so the projectionist could go home.
In my youth I spent many a Saturday afternoon at the Uptown Theater in the 1950’s. Two hours of cartoon, and a feature for a quarter. The theater had penny candy, 5 cent Cokes, ten cent popcorn with real butter and a prize drawing between the cartoons and the feature.
Life didn’t get much better than this.
I’m sorry to know that the Uptown lost its “life” to a parking lot! I lived near there in the early 1970s. At that time, it became a venue for underground and foreign films there. I saw, among other films, Andy Warhol’s “Trash” and “Heat” (worried the whole time that we were going to get busted, since they were rated X). Anyway, I saw probably half a dozen interesting flicks I wouldn’t see elsewhere in Indy before I moved away. Rest in peace, Uptown.
This is a 1929 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/mpqek
Here is an early view of the Uptown:
http://tinyurl.com/l7oda