For more than a century, the Majestic Theatre on North Vermillion Street has been the center of Streator’s entertainment life, or the place people hoped would come back to life. Here is the full story behind the marquee. For other landmarks, see our History of Streator.
Opening Night, 1907
On July 29, 1907, C. A. Day, president of the Majestic Theatre Company, opened a new house for family vaudeville to a crowd of about 1,000. The opening bill included a mandolinist, local singer Hazel Neely, comedy and song-and-dance acts and a quartet. The Streator Daily Free Press praised the modern comforts, including electric lights and fans, and noted the free ice water served to patrons. Newspaper accounts credit Frank Cox as the architect.
A Wedding in the Lions’ Cage
The Majestic’s most famous early stunt came within weeks of opening. On August 17, 1907, Ernest Payne and Katie Thomas were married onstage inside a lions’ den in front of a packed house. Before it became a full-time movie house, the Majestic hosted stars such as Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Ed Wynn, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker and Eva Tanguay.
The 1921 Rebuild
The theater closed on June 15, 1921, for an $80,000 rebuild that produced the famous facade with 2,100 light bulbs. On April 15, 1922, Day sold the Majestic to Roger Williams. The theater closed in 1927 and stayed dark until May 9, 1936, when it reopened under Publix management with the film Too Many Parents.
Competition and Closings
Streator once had several movie houses, including the Bijou, which opened in 1903, the Granada on South Monroe Street, the Lyric, the Plumb (the former Plumb Opera House) and later a drive-in. The Majestic closed in May 1955 and was later condemned. The Granada burned on April 28, 1963, and Cinema Treasures records that The Birds was on its screen at the time.
The Kerasotes Era
After an attempt to revive the theater by owner Robert Norris in the late 1960s, the Kerasotes chain reopened the Majestic in December 1968, around Christmas. When the Plumb Theatre was demolished in 1980, the Majestic became Streator’s last cinema. A second screen opened on October 10, 1980, and Kerasotes closed the theater on October 1, 1995.
Rescue Attempts
Tim Burke bought the building in 1997 and reopened it in November 1998. He had a family tie to the theater: as a high school student he had worked as a projectionist there for his grandfather. First-run movies returned in May 2007 under operator Kyle Mitchell. In 2014 Streator native Robert Endres, longtime head projectionist at Radio City Music Hall, helped the theater convert to digital projection, which debuted on June 20, 2014. Even so, the Majestic closed that August, and the building went to a foreclosure auction in August 2015.
Still a Downtown Icon
Whether the lights are on or off, the Majestic’s bulb-studded facade is one of Streator’s best-known images. It connects today’s downtown to the vaudeville crowds of 1907, the Depression-era moviegoers of 1936 and the generations who saw their first films there. Our page on the Plumb family legacy covers its longtime rival, the Plumb Theatre.
Related Streator History
- Streator History Overview
- The Plumb Family Legacy: Opera House, Hotel, Bank and Disney Music
- Streator Newspapers and Radio: From the Free Press to WSPL
- Streator Public Library: The Carnegie Library on Park Street
Sources
- Cinema Treasures – Majestic Theatre, Streator, IL (history, newspaper excerpts and comments). https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/5132
- Streator, Illinois – Wikipedia (Arts). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator,_Illinois
