Grand Twin Theatre

50sSNIPES on November 7, 2023 at 3:14 pm

I’m pretty sure that there are four Grand Theatres in total actually.

The 1st Grand: The first Grand Theatre opened its doors by F.H. Graaf with a capacity of 450 seats, a 12ft lobby, and a 22x125ft auditorium on July 25, 1912 with a presentation of “The Delmar Poster Girls”. That one was destroyed by a fire in 1914.

The 2nd Grand: The second Grand Theatre was relocated to its then-current site and opened its doors on September 20, 1916 with a presentation of “Martha”, also owned by Graaf, with a capacity of 1,000 seats. That one was destroyed by an electrical-related fire on January 8, 1917.

The 3rd Grand: Nearly eight months after the second Grand Theatre was destroyed, the theater was rebuilt on the same site, as it was third time’s the charm when the third Grand Theatre opened on September 19, 1917 featuring fireproof installations (as it was announced by Graaf himself), and had a same amount of seats as the second theater. Talkies were installed in February 1929, followed by remodeling in 1936, and by CinemaScope installations in July 1954. The Grand closed for a short time in February 1970 due to low attendance, but was reopened the following month by new management.

On June 6, 1973, an announcement came that a new theater was built nearby at a location that used to be “Doug’s Stereo Store” according to then-owner Bob Fridley of Fridley Theatres, although the downtown Grand Theatre was still running at the time operated by Al Miller (who also operated the Chief Drive-In at the time). Unfortunately the construction of the mini theater itself nearby did not happen at all.

In April 1977, the Grand Theatre downtown was twinned and was renamed “Grand Twin Theatre”. At the time, the theater was owned by the Community Service Corporation, a subsidiary of First Federal Savings and Loan Association. But on December 18, 1984, then-manager and owner Laddie Kozak announced that construction of a new Fridley triplex theater will be constructed on Central Avenue. This time, the construction did happen.

On July 16, 1985, the downtown Grand Twin Theatre (formerly the Grand Theatre from 1917 until 1977) ran its final showings, and closed its doors for the final time that same evening. This was due to the theater’s relocation from Sixth Street to the new building on Central Avenue. The Grand Theatres III (later the Grand 3 Theatres) would then open its doors three days later on July 19, 1985.

Joe Vogel on November 22, 2012 at 5:45 pm

The Grand Theatre in the 1916 article Tinseltoes linked to lasted barely four months. It opened on September 20, 1916, and was destroyed by a fire on January 8, 1917, according to a history of Emmet and Dickinson Counties published in 1917. The house was later rebuilt.

If the date of 1913 on the photo CharmaineZoe linked to is correct, there must have been four successive houses called the Grand Theatre in Estherville.