Chalk Beeson Theatre
115-119 Gunsmoke Street,
Dodge City,
KS
67801
115-119 Gunsmoke Street,
Dodge City,
KS
67801
1 person
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Built as a memorial to Dodge City pioneer Chalkley Beeson by his sons, the Chalk Beeson Theatre opened on December 15, 1915. The boxy, rather plain building housed only the theater, with its entrance at the corner of Gunsmoke Street and First Avenue.
The house prospered with vaudeville and movies until competition from newer theaters, and then the depression, sent it into decline. The building was converted to commercial use in 1935.
Show windows have been installed on the ground floor of the Gunsmoke Street side of the building, but the upper part of the structure remains un-fenestrated, so it might serve only as storage space, or it might be vacant. The fly tower has been removed.
Contributed by
Joe Vogel
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The February 13, 1915, issue of The American Contractor had this item about the Chalk Beeson Theatre:
Merritt L. Beeson operated this theater himself. On the occasion of his visit to Kansas City in 1916, the September 9 issue of The Moving Picture World called his house “…one of the most beautiful and picturesque moving picture theaters in the West….”Uploaded an image from the May 15, 1924 Dodge City Journal in which an ad for the Beeson (and the Crown) appears.
This was my great-grandfather’s theater. I have begun a list of all programming at the theater beginning in December of 1915. It’s definitely a work in progress but here’s a link:
https://herethisisyou.com/chalk-beeson-theater/
I also wrote a bit about the history of the building and that post can be found here:
https://herethisisyou.com/2022/07/11/chalk-beeson-theater-then-and-now/
The building has a new owner who reroofed and painted it and he also removed that horrible, rickety fire escape.
The structure may still be there, but it is a hideous caricature of its former self.