Forgotten Movie Theaters Chippewa Falls - The Victor (also Rex and Rivoli)

History is the story of things as they were, but even more so the story of things as they change.  So I've been pondering how recent events are likely to change things.  And in this New Age where people are and may remain averse to attending crowded public places I wonder if movie theaters in their classic format will be entirely supplanted by streaming services.   Time for a retrospective, a look at the early history of movie theaters in my little community.  It's a story repeated in most other towns in America.

My research will be ongoing but the first movie theater in Chippewa Falls was probably The Victor.   It was built in 1906 as a 900 seat theater.  It's difficult to tell from old newspaper ads exactly when it added "moving pictures" to live performances, the two entertainment formats obviously overlapped.  It was a new place in this illustration from a 1907 map of the city:

The name Opera House suggests the transitional status of entertainment.  Indeed from the incomplete gleanings of newspaper ads I find evidence in the early years of the 20th century not only of films at the Victor but also vaudeville shows and boxing matches.  

The above image is a lithograph that was created from a photo.  It lacks enough detail to tell much about the building but helpfully there is a Sanborn fire insurance map from 1910 that shows things with their usual careful attention to flammability.  The curved, dotted line indicates the balcony.

"Sal." means that the businesses on either side of the theater were saloons.  The entertainment industry was not entirely respectable back then.  Also note a barber shop and a restaurant on the front of the building.  The office on the right hand side is known from a later source to the the offices of the theater, later of "Miner Properties" that owned this and other theaters.

Here is a 1918 ad for the Rex (new name for the Victor) that also lists two other theaters in town.  We'll visit them presently.  Incidentally, IMDB lists all of these films as "lost".

A trade publication also dated 1910 gives us a rare, detailed glimpse at the business:

Among the interesting tidbits here I note that the "prop. man" was named Victor Charland.  Coincidence?  It seems odd to name a place after an employee.  It is also interesting to see how many hats these early showmen wore.  Hansen was manager, business manager and press agent.  Waller was carpenter, bill poster and advertising agent.  

Also in the category of interesting "nuts and bolts" info, I found an article from September 1917 that recounted in detail the installation at the Rex of a "Seeburg Motion Picture Pipe Organ".  This sounds like a marvelous contraption for providing sound to the silent films of the era.  It was a "...combination of pipe organ, piano and orchestra..." that could provide continuous music all day in its autoplay mode, or could be played by an operator.  It was basically a very sophisticated player piano.  If that sort of thing interests you, HERE is more detail.

The theater business was unstable in its early years.  Trade publications are full of business closings, openings and ownership transfers.  The Victor became the Rex circa 1917 and the Rivoli in December of 1930.  By one account the theater was extensively remodeled at the time of the change to Rivoli.  This was to make it more of an exclusive "motion picture" house as opposed to the mixed live/film format it had obviously been employing.

I find a recurring theme when researching theaters.  In most eras there were two main ones in town, often owned by the same people.  One would show first run, the other second run features.  One tip off is ads that list two theaters in one ad block.  

Here is the Rivoli near the end of its life, in the era of tail fin cars.  Older citizens of our town recall going there and paying an admission of 17 cents.  

The Victor/Rex/Rivoli went out of business in the early 1960's and was subsequently demolished.  This is the site today with as close a match to the earlier perspective as I could manage.

Empty streets, as this was taken during the tightest phase of covid lockdown.  Everyone was probably at home watching Netflix.

Next up the Gem Theater.