Rex Theatre

The Rex Theatre was a long-running movie house, opening in the silent era and operating into the television age. Its impressive 49-year duration was aided by its prime location in downtown Battle Creek’s Nelson Eldred Block. The Eldred building stood at the bustling corner of East Main Street and Jefferson Avenue. Originally opened in 1876, the structure became the Bailey Building in 1923, five years before voters selected renaming Michigan Avenue over Main Street in 1928 and Capital Avenue SW taking over for Jefferson Avenue and four other names in 1930 effective May 1, 1931.

The Eldred-turned-Bailey Building is perhaps best known for its fraternal gathering hall on the third floor which began in the 19th Century. This space was occupied, among others, by the International Order of Odd Fellows. It held a reputation as a popular Prohibition-era venue by the time it was sold to John W. Bailey in March 1923.

The Rex Theatre was launched on November 23, 1911, by Lipp and Cross—the same management team operating the Queen Theatre just five doors away. The venue attempted a Colonial style interior bathed in a color scheme of ivory and red velvet. The tiny 240-seat house was decorated by Clifford J. Thayer, a convenient choice given that his retail store was next door. The Rex Theatre lived up to its moniker as “the little theater at the bank corners". A. Fern Wedel Putt served as a longtime piano accompanist during the venue’s silent era.

The Rex Theatre was damaged in a fire on June 18, 1913 that threatened the entire building. The theatre received a facade facelift in 1915. By 1919, Lipp & Cross had formed the Legitimate Theatre Circuit, which included the Dreamland, Rex, Regent, Post, Garden, and Strand. They would later sublease all of their theatres to the W.S. Butterfield Circuit in 1928. Butterfield likely didn’t want to convert the tiny Rex Theatre to sound and passed the lease back to Cross.

On December 9, 1928, the Rex Theatre purchased a Movie-Tone machine, allowing it to sync recorded music and sound effects using three turntables. It wasn’t a system allowing talkies, however, putting the theatre at a considerable disadvantage and just ahead of the Majestic Theatre which was the last totally silent house in Battle Creek. In August of 1929, Cross installed a Vitaphone disc player in the Rex Theatre booth to have sound films (the Majestic Theatre closed in late Fall of 1930 as a silent operation and unable pay its final six months of rent).

Following the repeal of Prohibition, the Bailey Building’s upper level became the swanky Sky Club, featuring a cocktail lounge, an elite Bohemian Room, and dance space. This likely increased foot traffic to the Rex Theatre. In 1938, fifteen years into the Bailey operation, the theatre underwent a major makeover intended to introduce a Streamline Moderne style look, though the result was perhaps more modest than intended. The signage, however, definitely matched the period.

The theatre showed resiliency closing for just one night, February 6, 1950 to commemorate Cross’s wife who passed and also briefly in converting to widescreen projection on May 29, 1955 to present CinemaScope titles beginning with “Strange Lady in Town". Glenn A. Cross finally closed the venue after showtimes on May 23, 1960. The final showtimes were Elizabeth Taylor in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and Frank Sinatra in “The Tender Trap". This ended Cross’ 53-year run as a Battle Creek film exhibitor, though technically he retained ownership of the closed Regent Theatre and Strand Theatre.

Cross was the only employee to last the entire 49 years of the Rex Theatre’s operation, though Mrs. Carla L. Skidmore served from 1919 to 1959, and Jess L. Sprague from 1928 to 1959. Fred Hamlin bought the Bailey Building in 1961, acquiring the empty theatre and its neighbor, the Fanny Farmer candy shop. The Rex Theatre was dismantled and its floor leveled in January 1962. City Finance Co. took over the space that August. The Bailey Building itself survived until January 1980, when it was demolished to make way for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation building.

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