Dodge Theatre

The Dodge Theatre opened its doors on January 11, 1935 with a Mae Robson feature “A Lady For A Day”, along with a Columbia Rhapsody cartoon “Babes At Sea”. Mr. Frank Beels was the manager for the theatre, and on its opening day, a big basket of groceries were given away at the opening night.

On April 12, 1942, the Dodge Theatre was mostly reconstructed and remodeled. But the interior is nearly in completion and work had been halted long enough for the theatre making a formal opening with Robert Montgomery and Irene Dunne in “Unfinished Business” being its first out of 2 formal attractions for 4 days. Later on, right after their second attraction, Abbott and Costello in “Keep ‘Em Flying”, work was later resumed on the front lobby and theatre awning exactly 4 days later. James Sinkule of the nearby town of Crete, Nebraska, who is the brother of the operator is named the contractor in charge of construction of the building.

Exactly 2 days later, the theatre made its remodeling grand opening after completion on April 18, 1942 with Bruce Cabot and George Sanders in “Sundown” along with a few selected short subjects including a newsreel.

Fast-forward to 12 years later and the Dodge Theatre installed CinemaScope during the middle of 1954.

Approximately almost 3 years later, Dodge’s only theatre had its worst nightmare of all. On February 19, 1957, the theatre was destroyed by a fire. The fire occurred around 6:00-6:05 PM, and its last film to be played there was “The Bad Seed” starring Nancy Kelly which began playing in the theatre since 2 days prior to the fire. It was more commonly caused by the projector since the blaze consider most of their equipment in the higher balcony. Its nearby grocery store, Viach Grocery, was also involved as well. The Dodge Volunteer Fire Department was under the call for an hour and a half as they poured water into the structure from both ends through doors and windows until the blaze was under control. The entire building including its bricks were saved by the fire, but the equipment is either mostly damaged or partially enough destroyed.

Approximately a year, a month, and a day later on March 20, 1958, the Gerwick Construction Company had remodeled the entire building, but the theatre never came back to life.

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