Vogue Theatre
6259 N. College Avenue,
Indianapolis,
IN
46220
6259 N. College Avenue,
Indianapolis,
IN
46220
2 people favorited this theater
Showing 15 comments
So, since Dave Letterman grew up in Broad Ripple, is it safe to assume the Vogue was his boyhood theatre?
Newspaper photo from 1948 aded. Though it implies 1938. Courtesy of Steven Ross.
June 18, 1938 grand opening ad in photo section
I liked it.
Here is a sketch from June 2009:
http://tinyurl.com/nvgzl2
Here are two daytime photos from 1985:
http://tinyurl.com/l4vjhm
http://tinyurl.com/nfnkhg
Here is another 1985 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/nzoopw
Wow, Dr. Bop (& The Headliners) played there? They were a riot. Had their own bartender on stage with them. They’d bat pitchers of beer out over/on the audience with their guitars. Indoors at a theatre must have been a mess.
They performed on a rubber mat. Insured by Lloyds Of London I was told. They lived in Chicago for a while in the `80’s. Played many a street fair. They had rotating female back-up singers called the “Melendez Sisters.” A gal I went to grade school with turned up as one once. Her dad was a folk musician too as I recall. Thanks for the pics.
Let’s try that again:
http://tinyurl.com/rn3f7
This is a 1946 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/pnewd
Three photos:
http://www.agilitynut.com/05/10/voguet1.jpg
http://www.agilitynut.com/05/10/voguet2.jpg
http://www.agilitynut.com/05/10/voguet3.jpg
More history & current photo:
http://www.thevogue.ws/inside.html
Well, though I haven’t been to the Vogue in years (I moved from Indy in 1987), when I left it as a bar, it was better than it was when it was a theater. Growing up on the north side in the 60s and 70s, I saw many movies at the Vogue, the last being “Escape from the Planet of the Apes.” I remember it being run down even in the 60s and never had the grandeur of the Indiana, or the screen dynamics of the Eastwood.
It’s better off as a bar!
Of course it still stands, and retains an intact exterior which is better than many old theatres. Not every theatre can be reused as a movie palace, but if they can be reused and retain there look, that is a plus. Otherwise it will end up like the Uptown Theatre at 42nd and College which was demolished after it artially collapsed or the Ritz on Illinois which sits empty and is ready to collapse.
The Vogue is THE place to see how a nice theather was gutted out in favor of a crapy bar. What a shame!