Muncie people my age probably remember seeing movies at the Showplace 7 or Movies at Muncie Mall. Those my parents’ age remember the Rivoli and Strand. People as old as my great-grandparents might have gone to see moving pictures at the Theatorium! Recently, I stumbled across a postcard of that short-lived nickelodeon which stood at the northeast corner of Walnut and Seymour. It was Muncie’s first motion picture theater1.
The building that housed the Theatorium, 516 S. Walnut Street, was built by Martin Mock in the 1890s2. John and Lou Dunmeyer of the Keystone Amusement Company opened up shop there on August 20, 1906. The theater was home to “continuous performances consisting of moving pictures and illustrated songs3” in an age when rivals like the Wysor Grand and the Star were still home to tired old vaudeville performances.
Just after it opened, the Theatorium -which I gather was a common name for nickelodeons that charged five cents for admission4– was described by the Muncie Star as having “the handsomest front of any similar house in Indiana.” Furthermore, the Theatorium was “supplied twice a week with the latest in the life picture line5.” Just months after it opened, owners installed a new “Dissolving view stereopticon” designed to render “the finest illustrated song slides in the city6.” By 1907, the Theatorium was also home to an annex featuring “High Class Automatic Machine Attractions” viewable for a penny7.
Unfortunately, the operation was short-lived. In 1909, landlord Martin Mock sued the Dunmyers alleging that they’d failed to pay rent8. Constable Charles Brown took possession of the building on August 26, 1909, nearly three years to the day the Theatorium opened9. Surprisingly, the dispute did little to damage John Dunmeyer’s reputation in the theater business: after the Theatorium closed, he went on to manage the Crystal Theatre, now home to Vera Mae’s Bistro. In 1913, he took over the Majestic, which once stood just east of the Lofts at Roberts over what’s now a parking lot10.
The Theatorium’s brief run makes its history difficult to trace. I haven’t found a Sanborn fire insurance map showing 516 S. Walnut during its days as a theater! By 1911, though, the building housed Crane Company Plumbing Supplies11. Unfortunately, the old Theatorium was eventually demolished. Its former site is now part of Canan Commons, just west of the stage.
Still, I’m glad that old newspaper articles and postcards have preserved a little of the Theatorium’s fleeting history. Its legacy lives on, too, in the theaters we remember visiting in years past and in places like today’s AMC 12. Muncie’s moviegoing tradition continues.
Sources Cited1 Dunmyre to Manage Majestic Theatre (1913, December 16). The Muncie Press. p. 8.
2 Greene, D. (1956, September 18). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6.
3 Theatorium Has Opened (1906, August 21). The Muncie Star. p. 10.
4 Have You the Theatorium Habit? (1907, March 10). The Evansville Courier. p. 11.
5 Theatorium (1906, October 4). The Muncie Press. p. 3.
6 The Theatorium (1906, December 23). The Muncie Star. p. 3.
7 The Theatorium (1907, June 9). The Muncie Star. p. 4.
8 Dunmyres Are “Fired” By Court (1909, August 16). The Muncie Press. p. 1.
9 Officer of Law Closes Theatorium (1909, August 26). The Muncie Press. p. 5.
10 Dunmyre to Manage Majestic Theatre (1913, December 16). The Muncie Press. p. 8.
11 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana (1911). Sanborn Map Company, 1911. Web. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.
