Richmond Civic Theatre

The Murray Theatre launched on October 11, 1909. with Eddie Adair and Edythe Henney as headliners on the vaudeville bill. “The latest motion pictures and illustrated song” rendered by a trio completed the debut program".

Built by Omar G. Murray, Richmond theatrical magnet who once owned and controlled all the legitimate houses in Richmond, IN, the Murray Theatre was managed by Omar Murray until 1918. In June, Murray leased his Murray Theatre and adjacent Murrette Theatre (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures) to the Merchants' and Bankers Trust Company of Chicago, predecessor to the Consolidated Realty and Theatres Corporation, for twenty years. With that move, Murray retired from show business. On November 5, 1922 Murray died while playing golf.

By November 1923 Consolidated Realty was in financial trouble, and in receivership. In April 1924 Fred Sims and George Dickson, court-appointed receivers for Consolidated, sold the Murray Theatre & Murrette Theatre leases to Mahlon E. Remley, a showman from South Bend, IN. for a sum in excess of $30,000. Remley took charge on May 1, 1924. His plans were to program best-in-Class motion pictures at the Murrette Theatre and stage presentations at the Murray Theatre. In August 18 1924 the Remley Realty Corporation was formers. Its officers were Mahlon Remley, Robert Weichman & Wilfred Jessup.

The Remley firm also encountered headwinds, with receivershiop granted in April 1929. On April 24, 1929 Harry Gilbert, court-appointed receiver for the Remley company, announced that Remley’s Murray Theatre and Murrette Theatre leases had been forfeited and were to be taken over by Clarence Jessup and Frank Holland, whose Jessup-Holland Amusement Company had leased the Washington Theatre from Remley in September 1928. Remley, who once operated four Richmond showoplaces, was no longer in the theatre business.

In June 1930 the leases on the Murray Theatre and Murrette Theatre held by Holland and Jessup were cancelled. Control of both theatres reverted to Mrs. O.G. Murray and the Murray estate. On October 17, 1930, the Murray Theatre was leased to local exhibitor Robert Hudson and Sherman Brown, with Hudson serving as manager on both the Murray Theatre & Hudson Theatre. Hudson remodeled the Murray Theatre, removed view-obstructing posts and added a Western Electric sound system. The Murray Theatre reopened as the Indiana Theatre on January 23, 1931 with Joe E. Brown & Bernice Claire in “Top Speed”.

On June 23, 1932, Hudson sold the Indiana Theatre to Publix-Fitzpatrick-McElroy. With the sale, Publix said the the Indiana Theatre would close for an indefinate period.

In January 1933 Publix-Fitzpatrick-McElvoy was placed into receivership, followed by bankruptsy. On February 1 1933, Referee in Bankruptcy Carle Wilde appointed Irving Lemaux to manage as Trustee in Bankruptcy the nineteen theatres in Indiana formerly operated by Publix-Fitzpatrick-McElroy. In March 1933 the federal bankruptcy court auctioned the leases for eleven theatre operated by the defunct chain. After bids were rejected, the Trustee ordered a private sale of ten theatres, including the Tivoli, Ritz, Indiana and Lawrence theatres in Richmond.

On April 1, 1933 the Referee announced that the Tivoli, Ritz and Indiana would go to a new set-up headed by Hudsom, the Richmond exhibitor, in cooperation with Theatrical Managers, Inc. In a two-step transaction the three theatres were sold to Theatrical Managers then re-sold to Hudson, now doing business as Hudson Theatres.

The Indiana Theatre closed as a movie house in 1952, after which it became home to the Richmond Civic Theatre. In May 1966 Richmond Civic Theatre Inc. purchased the playhouse from Mr & Mrs J. Robert Quigg for $420,000. Mrs Quigg was the daughter of O.G. Murray, the local theater man who erected the building in 1909.

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