Glen Theater
20 W. Ridge Road,
Gary,
IN
46408
20 W. Ridge Road,
Gary,
IN
46408
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 37 comments
V.U. Young, Y&W Management Corp. president, announced plans to build the Ridge in 1941. In 1968 Y&W did a complete $50,000 renovation of the Ridge and reopened it as the Glen. Vern Young, Y&W president in 1968 and V.U. Young’s grandson, presided over the grand opening alongside the Glen’s architect and Ray Howard, Y&W district manager. In the remodel the auditorium received 602 new blue seats laid out in a 7-14-7 configuration. The lower sidewalls were covered in matching blue fabric. Pleated gold drapery covered the upper sidewalls and screen. The lobby, restrooms and box office were also updated. The building’s front was redone with brick topped by tall, charcoal gray vertical siding. The marquee was trimmed in brushed aluminum and the vertical was redecorated. The Glen offered an 8 P.M. show each week night and two shows on weekends. Children had to be accompanied by an adult guardian. The Glen was very popular and might have survived longer had it not been for General Cinema. In 1972 and 1973 GC opened six screens nearby: two west on Ridge Road, two south on Broadway and two in Miller.
Primarily used for performances by a community theater group.
Here’s a brief item about the Ridge Theatre from The Film Daily of July 3, 1941:
An opening before the end of 1941 seems very likely.Status should be changed. Facebook page showing events this fall.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Glen-Theatre/108142455894371
Status should be closed. Website down. Person who answered phone said it was closed.
Unfortunately I don’t know anything about either building Joe. They appear to have been around for many, many years. There are very few theaters I have memories of in Gary….even past ones.
JRS: Do you know anything about the building at 2224 Broadway? It now houses a social club, but it looks very much like it might have been a theater at one time. Cinema Treasures has nothing listed for the address, and I can’t find anything about it on the Internet.
Also, this old building at 17th and Broadway looks like a former theater. The building still appears in Street View, taken in August, 2011, but the lot appears to be vacant in the satellite view, which is probably more recent, so I think it must have been demolished since the Street View was made.
Joe – you are absolutely right. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote that.
augie53: This theater was opened as the Ridge Theatre in very late 1941 or very early 1942. It was probably renamed the Glen Theatre after a 1968 remodeling. See my earlier comment here for citations.
JRS40: The theater around the corner on Broadway was the Roxy, not the Ridge. The Glen was called the Ridge when it opened. Your older brothers told you, and that’s how I found out that the Ridge and the Glen were the same theater.
It was never the Ridge. The Ridge was located on Broadway at Ridge Road.
Prior to the Glen, when did it open as the Ridge? I remember seeing many scary movies there:)
Saw “Trial of Billy Jack” there.
I have many lake county, indiana photos dating back to the early/mid 1900s (Gary/Hobart) on FB. My grandfathers furniture store occupied the building on broadway which was once the Roxy theater. (Andros Furniture) I’m still seeking a photo of the building in its prime as the ROXY from 1930 to 1950.
Feel free to contact me or check on pics on facebook : http://www.facebook.com/annmarieandros or
MyyaAngel: There is contact information on the Glen Theater’s official web site.
Does anyone know how I can get in contact with the owners of the theater?
Ken, I don’t remember the hot dog stand. I do remember the Minor Dunn however.
Oops. Pardon me. The Roxy had a balcony with stairs, not stars. (LOL)
The Roxy had a balcony.With stars. The Roxy had a fairly sizeable stage. The balcony became a second story storage area for furniture, for Andros furniture,after the Roxy’s closure.
I had an Aunt who lived on Washington Street.less than half a block from both theaters. So growing up, I spent a lot of time in that part of Glen Park in the latter 40’s and early 50’s.
Jrs40, I do remember Roma Pizza. Also on Ridge Road, with in walking distance of the Glen/Ridge, do recall the hot dog stand that eventually evolved into a full blown restaurant,and then a Minor Dunn?
The Roxy is still not listed at Cinema Treasures. The building at 3764 Broadway still exists, and is occupied by a women’s apparel shop called Best Fashions. From Google Street View it looks like the old marquee is still there, though covered up and stripped of its original signage. It also looks like the upper part of the facade has been altered— probably the decoration jase recalls was removed.
Though KenK remembers the Roxy as being larger than the Glen, in the satellite views the buildings look almost the same size. The Roxy building is higher, and jase said it had a balcony, but I don’t see any indication of upper-level exits. I’m wondering if the “balcony” was not actually a section of stadium-style seating (although I don’t see any front exits at the ends of the building either, which theaters with stadium sections typically had in those days.} But if there was a stadium section, that would account for KenK’s impression of the Glen being much smaller than the Roxy.
Thank goodness for the 2009 picture the earlier one made the place look like a dump and somewhere i wouldn’t want to watch a movie.
Excellent research by Joe Vogel. Always good to have one’s child hood memories confirmed by someone else.
Talking about memories ! Let’s talk about Y&W. They opened and ran a drive in theater at 6680 Broadway,in Merrillville , that was also a part of my growing up years in the 50’s and 60’s… called the Y&W drive-in theater. Right across the street from the kiddie golf course across the street.
The Y&W drive-in theater is a part of this fine forum. No need to talk about it further. Just check it out.
Boxoffice Magazine of July 5, 1941, announced that V.U. Young had bought two lots at 20-26 Ridge Road in Glen Park and planned to build a theater there. The January 10, 1942, issue of Boxoffice said that the Ridge Theatre had recently been opened by V.U. Young’s Gary Theatre Corporation. The new house seated 714 and had been built at a cost of $70,000.
A few years later V.U. Young was head of the Y&W (Young and Wolf) Management Corporation, which at the time of Young’s death in 1948 was operating 27 theaters in Indiana. Y&W was headed by Vern Young in 1968 when, according to the July 1 issue of Boxoffice, the circuit reopened the Glen Theatre after a $50,000 remodeling. I’ve been unable to find any mention of either the Ridge or the Glen in Boxoffice between 1950 and 1968.
The earliest mention of the Roxy I’ve been able to find is an item in the January 27, 1945, issue of Boxoffice which names the operator as Jim Bikos. The only other mention I’ve found is in the February 18, 1956, issue which says that the Roxy was being converted into a commercial building by the widow of the late Jim Bikos.
I’d say this information supports the claims by JRS40 and KenK that the Ridge and Glen were the same theater and the theater around the corner on Broadway was the Roxy. The Roxy is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures.
Ah yes the Beauty Spot. Let’s not forget Roma’s pizza just down the street on Ridge.
I see that I spelled the Roxy wrong twice in my previous post. It ends in a Y not IE. Sorry. The Ridge was the original name of the theater on Ridge Road, later renamed the Glen. The Ridge/Glen was much smaller than the Roxy, but was the one I preferred to go to for some unexplainable reason.
And of course, a stop at either theater was not complete without a stop at the Beauty Spot restaurant on the other side of Ridge Road for a cherry coke.