Gem Theatre

Five theatres once served patrons in “The Harbor” – the Indiana Harbor section of East Chicago, IN. Each was a stone’s throw from its neighbor – one on Guthrie Street, the other four nearby on Michigan Avenue. In the same vicinity, the Auditorium Theatre served as both a theatre and general-purpose venue. All six buildings are depicted in the 1915 Sanborn Maps. None survive.

The 375-seat Gem Theatre stood at 3419 Michigan Avenue, a few doors southwest of Fir Street and on the same block as the Columbia Theatre. It featured movies and vaudeville.

In November 1915 Julius Nassau, A. Engel and Nick Doicha acquired all five Harbor movie theaters – the Columbia, Family, Pictureland, Gem and Liberty – with plans to close the Pictureland, Gem and Liberty; drop vaudeville from the three theatres that offered it; focus on the Columbia Theatre and Family Theatre; and raise prices from five cents to the 10-to-15 cent range.

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