Shelby Theatre
610 Main Street,
Shelbyville,
KY
40065
610 Main Street,
Shelbyville,
KY
40065
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Chakeres Theaters Inc., Theatrical Managers Inc.
Architects: Leslie V. Abbott
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: Bon-Ton Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The 1919-built Bon-Ton Theatre had 250 seats. It was remodeled in 1934 and was renamed Shelby Theatre with 600 seats. It was damaged by a fire in 1945. Repairs were carried out to the plans of architect Leslie V. Abbott and in 1950 it was listed with 1,000 seats.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
The correct address of the Shelby Theatre was 610 Main Street, according to an article in the July 10, 2013, issue of the Sentinel-News (page 13 of this PDF.) The article quotes local historian Nancy Hill:
The building is currently occupied by a clothing store called The Tipsy Gypsy.I’ve found references to the Shelby Theatre from 1937, so the name change definitely predated 1945. The photos of the Shelby’s facade look like late-deco, early-streamlined style, so the 1934 name change claimed by Nancy Hill, cited in my earlier comment, seems a likely time for that facade to have been built. It would have been decidedly old fashioned by 1947, when Boxoffice said the house had opened following a fire in 1945.
I’ve been unable to find the Boxoffice item about the rebuilding that was cited by kencmcintyre in the first comment on this house, but a January 12, 1946, item in Showmen’s Trade Review mentions the fire:
The claim of the house being a year old was surely an error, considering an item from the October 5 issue of The Film Daily, which said: “The Chakeres circuit has just completed remodeling of the Shelby Theater, Shelbyville, Ky., at a cost of 5,000….” The remodeling, along with the fact that Chakeres actually did have a new theater under construction in Shalbyville in the fall of 1945, probably contributed to the magazine’s confusion. The new Chakeres house was the Burley, a few doors up the block from the Shelby.