Norside Theater

2600 State Street,
Alton, IL 62002

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The Norside Theater opened June 15, 1937 with Simone Simon in “Seventh Heaven” & Joe E. Brown in “When’s Your Birthday?”. It was the first movie house to open on, as the theater’s name suggests, the north side of Alton. Starting in 1954, the theater cut its operation down to only Friday through Monday. It closed February 13, 1956 with Betty Grable in “Three for the Show” & Rory Calhoun in “The Looters” and was demolished.

Later in 1956, an adjacent grocery store took over the site to use as a parking lot.

Contributed by Bryan

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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)

kencmcintyre on March 14, 2009 at 10:13 am

Here is a November 1949 ad from the Alton Evening Telegraph:
http://tinyurl.com/bqshox

kencmcintyre on June 8, 2009 at 10:06 pm

Here is a June 1950 ad from the same source:
http://tinyurl.com/n2jaln

dallasmovietheaters on July 27, 2015 at 4:45 pm

On June 15, 1937, the Norside Theatre launched with Mickey Mouse’s “Adventures of a Camera Man” and the double feature of “Seventh Heaven” and “When’s Your Birthday.” It was curtains for the Norside Theatre on February 13, 1956 closing with “Three for the Show” and “Looters.” And it was okay to loot as the theater would begin to be demolished just eight days later by Frank J. Rowden & Son. The theater was doing poorly and likely opted for a deal with its long-standing neighboring Tri-City Grocery Store for that business to have an adjacent off-street parking lot.

The former theater’s spot would indeed become the North Alton Parking Lot and serviced the Tri-City grocer. All references to the theater after February 13, 1956 other than “demolished” are in reference to the grocer.