Broadway Theatre
764 Broadway,
Gary,
IN
46402
764 Broadway,
Gary,
IN
46402
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The Broadway Theatre was the first movie theatre to operate in Gary, IN and it opened on June 8, 1907. It had closed by 1914 and today is occupied by a Masonic Lodge.
There was a second Broadway Theatre which opened in 1916 and has its own page on Cinema Treasures.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
“Lost Gary, Indiana” by Jerry Davich says that the Broadway was Gary’s first theater. Gary was founded by the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1906, and the town built up very rapidly when the steel mill opened, so the theater probably opened that year. By 1908, the Broadway was listed at Broadway near 8th Avenue in the city directory, one of three theaters listed.
On February 12, 1907, builder/developer Ingwald Moe bought land at 760 Broadway on which he erected the Broadway, an early nickelodeon and the first of two Gary theaters to bear that name. The property was sold to Pittman-Watson Company in 1913 for $45,000.
Gary had a second theater with the name Broadway. Located at 1678 Broadway, it opened in 1916 and was closed by 1939.
Currently a Mason Lodge.
The street number for the first Broadway Theatre might be 764, not 760. The 1908 Sanborn shows a 5-cent theatre at 764 Broadway, not 760. The 1911 Sanborn also shows a theater at 764, not 760.
In 1909 the first Broadway Theatre was being operated by the Gary Amusement Company.
Gary Amusement Company was operating the first Gary Theatre in 1909 at a five-cent price point. On October 30, 1909, the company opened the Derby Theatre, a ten-cent theater located twenty-five feet to the north. Both were storefront showplaces.
Local builder/developer Ingwald Moe, who constructed the first Broadway Theatre and would later erect the new Gary Theater building, incorporated the Gary Amusement Company. Directors were Moe, Gambetto Heydorn, and Charles Schaible.