Norside Theater

2600 State Street,
Alton, IL 62002

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Norside Theater

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

Recent comments (view all 6 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on March 14, 2009 at 5:13 pm

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

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 9, 2009 at 6:06 am

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

dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on July 28, 2015 at 12:45 am

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.

rivest266
rivest266 on March 10, 2016 at 10:50 am

July 14th, 1937 grand opening ad in photo section

Chris1982
Chris1982 on March 11, 2016 at 7:27 am

Tri City Grocers is long gone.

MitchWolf
MitchWolf on January 1, 2020 at 4:04 am

added a 1953 ad…. needs to put the grand opening ad as feature ad

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