K&R Theatre

The Nickeldome Theatre was one of a dozen Central Illinois locations using that name as an alternative to Nickelodeon as that name was often already in use as was the case in 1907 downtown Bloomington, Illinois. The venue was opened in 1907 by Jake Rosenberg as The Nickel Dome. It was less than a year after The Nickelodeon opened at 426 Main Street and it spawned what the local paper predicted would be a movie house at every corner of Bloomington.

After two years of ownership, second operator of the Nickeldome (now a single word and sometimes Nickledome) John G. Gesell doubled the size of the auditorium seating to 300 seats due to the patronage. During his thirty plus years of operating the venue, Gesell continued to innovate. In 1922, Gesell changed the name of the revamped playhouse to the Front Street Theatre.

Gesell revamped the Front Street Theatre in 1931 with a new RCA Photophore sound system - now able to show sound films. Veteran projectionist Karl Blakney said the one thing that wasn’t improved was the Front Street’s cramped booth that found employees walking on their knees and having to get the films up to the booth by pulling ropes.

Merlin Ewing bought the theatre from Gesell on October 14, 1938. Ewing changed its name to the K&R. Theatre named after son, Kyle, and wife, Rose, with Rose operating the venue beginning December 5, 1938 with a double feature of Anne Shirley in “Mother Carey’s Chickens” and Gene Autry in “Oh, Suzanna!” supported by a newsreel and a Disney cartoon.

The Gebhart Auto Store was a near neighbor on the corner and it would later purchase the K&R Theatre location with the Ewings creating the Ewing Theatre among others. The site of the K&R Theatre is now a parking lot.

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