Victory Theatre

617 5th Street,
Sioux City, IA 51101

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Affiliated Theaters Inc. (Sioux City, IA), Orpheum Circuit

Previous Names: Lyric Theatre, Orpheum Theatre, Rialto Theatre

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Victory Theatre

Opened in 1907 as the Lyric Theatre. It was soon renamed Orpheum Theatre, the first of three Orpheum’s in Sioux City. By around 1919 when the second Orpheum Theatre had opened, it was re-named Rialto Theatre.

It was operated by Affiliated Theaters Inc. of Sioux City. IA in the mid-1940’s with seating for 856 and had been renamed Victory Theatre. Affiliated Theaters Inc. closed the Victory Theatre and the State Theatre at the same time in 1969.

Contributed by Chuck

Recent comments (view all 5 comments)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 12, 2012 at 8:26 pm

A photo montage of Sioux City Theatres unearthed by CSWalczak shows a house called the Rialto at bottom left which is a perfect match for the Victory Theatre building seen in the photo Chuck linked to. They have to be the same theater.

The montage comes from this page, which has extracts from a book published in 1923. It says that the Rialto opened in 1907 as the Lyric Theatre and soon after became the Orpheum. When Sioux City’s second Orpheum opened in 1919, the first Orpheum became the Rialto.

The Orpheum is mentioned multiple times in The Billboard in 1908, so it wasn’t the Lyric for very long. Chuck’s photo shows that the Rialto was renamed the Victory by 1940. I don’t know whether or not there were other names in between.

Trolleyguy
Trolleyguy on October 13, 2012 at 11:31 am

That picture referred to by Chuck is dated at least 1946, the release date of the film “Wake Up and Dream” listed on the marquee.

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on October 13, 2012 at 10:22 pm

According to the text near the bottom of this webpage, the Sioux City Community Theatre staged its productions at the Victory but this apparently ceased in 1965 or thereabouts. It is not clear if it was still operating at least part-time as a cinema when the community theater group was active there, but the reason that the community theatre group had to vacate may have been because the theater was already had been sold or slated for demolition prior to 1969.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 15, 2012 at 2:50 pm

This house was called the Victory Theatre at least as early as 1943, when it was mentioned in the December 25 issue of The Billboard.

dhaefstheatre
dhaefstheatre on January 31, 2013 at 2:09 pm

I am currently part of the Sioux City Community Theatre (SCCT). After It left ‘Victory’ it went to Acre Shores Ballroom and that is where it lies still to this day. Acre Shores Ballroom has another story. SCCT had many locations throughout it’s career. You can visit their website: www.scctheatre.org. Also on their facebook page is an old picture of Victory Theatre. (Sioux City Community Theatre).

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