Gopher Theatre
619 Hennepin Avenue,
Minneapolis,
MN
55403
619 Hennepin Avenue,
Minneapolis,
MN
55403
6 people
favorited this theater
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Fifty years ago today THE EXORCIST opened here. Gopher was among only two-dozen cinemas in twenty-one North American markets to play the film at release launch.
Posted a 1954 picture in photos.
Posted a 1951 picture in photos
Posted a 1944 nighttime picture of the Gopher with the Lyric, Pix and State up the street.
Some clarity provided here to previous postings. Porno X-rated films were played only for a little more than a year in the waning days of the Gopher Theatre. The last advertising in the Minneapolis papers was in mid-August 1979 and the theatre was demolished in September. The block became “City Center”, one of several retail-office complexes built in downtown Minneapolis which bombed.
F & R (Finkelstein and Ruben) did not have the theatre as late as 1949. F & R sold out to Paramount-Publix in 1928 after enjoying a partnership deal with Paramount. Noted Minneapolis theatre architects Liebenberg and Kaplan were hired to remodel this and several Paramount-owned theatres in Minnesota and the Dakotas in the 1930s to the ‘50s. They did the 1938 streamline-style remodeling whereupon the name was changed from Grand to Gopher.
Paramount (subsidiary name Minnesota Amusement Company) ran the Gopher until 1950 as a moveover house, first-run B pictures, or the occasional A picture when the other Paramount theatres were tied up. Paramount’s #1 and #2 houses in downtown Minneapolis were the State and Minnesota (name changed to Radio City in 1944). #3 was the Century and #4 the Lyric. (Paramount also had an interest in the RKO Orpheum in a pooling arrangement but that was dissolved in the early 1940s). Minnesota Amusement also ran the Aster Theatre which was on the same block as the Gopher, and ran first-run B double bills.
The Gopher and Aster were among a few theatres that Paramount was forced to dispose of in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area after the decree. In 1950, Ted Karatz took over the theatres with partner Ben Berger, who was the owner of the Minneapolis Lakers basketball team. Berger had several theatres and was a leader of the North Central wing of the Allied States Association, a theatre operators organization. Berger was instrumental in fighting against film distributors’ block booking, bidding and clearance practices. Berger initiated several lawsuits and testified on behalf of others. He also wrote an autobiography, “Thank You America.”
Berger’s operation of the Gopher immediately sent downtown Minneapolis into bidding wars and made first-run bookings even more competitive. In the 1950’s Berger had the best luck with MGM and Universal, playing several of their films as first-runs that decade.
Late-run double features continued at the Aster Theatre until 1965, when Berger changed the format to 60’s-style porn. The Aster remained a porn theatre until its closing in 1979.
“Jaws” did play 6 months at the Gopher, up through Christmas Eve. Then it was replaced by “The Hindenburg” (also Universal) which played two months.
(Another long run for the Gopher was “The Exorcist”, which played 6 months beginning Dec. 26, 1973. The first 2 months of the run were as a Twin Cities exclusive – the film did not even open in St. Paul until March 1, 1974).
Berger sold both theatres in June 1977 to Ferris Alexander, a porno kingpin. “The Deep” was already booked and the engagement went ahead (it played two months). In the fall of 1977 to early 1978, second run Hollywood features at a $1 or $2 admission were played, and a few higher-grade X-rated films included. In April 1978 the Gopher had a first run (but not exclusive) of “F.I.S.T.” Lower-grade X-rated films however became the sole fare from June 1978 to its closing in August 1979.
To add to the historical confusion, Alexander briefly ran a two-screen X-rated storefront theatre on the opposite side of Hennepin Avenue, called “Gopher 1 & 2” around 1979-1980. Strangely, for a short time in 1980 this twin played some late-run Hollywood pictures at $1 admission.
October 29th, 1938 grand opening ad as Gopher in the photo section.
Here is a proper photo of the Gopher. From 1938:
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10361908
The “Gopher” visible on the postcard on display at the time of this comment is not the theater, it’s a similarly and unrelated café. The theater is technically – but not practically – visible on the card. Both establishments were on the east side of Hennepin; the theater was between 6th and 7th Streets while the café was between 8th and 9th. This card is looking north from 10th.
As The Grand Theatre, the hall had a small Wurlitzer pipe organ installed in 1926. Wurlitzer’s opus 1374 was a style B special with 2 manuals and 5 ranks of pipes. The top of the console is visible in the photo link posted by Lost Memory.
All of the Sean Connery-era Bond films played at the Orpheum on their first run. The Gopher may have become a porn theater but it was the first run theater for Jaws in ‘75. As I recall, Jaws played their exclusively from June to late fall or early winter of 75.
Maybe they should call it the Grand Gopher.
Gopher what a name, nice looking movie house though.
Scratch that last comment…it was the Gopher in Wheaton I was referring to. (Sorry guys)
It looks as if they are back in business as a theatre. They have show times available @ 320-563-0315.
They are playing “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist” as of today.
I’ve never seen a marquee and verticle sign like that. Wow!
“Goldfinger” definitely played at the Gopher. It was there for several months. To the best of my knowledge, it didn’t play the State at any time unless for a later double-feature rerelease and that is unlikely.
I could swear that I saw Goldfinger at the State back in about ‘64.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad opened at the Orpheum, not the Gopher. I know, I was there. It may have moved to the Gopher, but it was one of the few theaters downtown I got to go to in the fifties.
I also recall To Sir with Love at the Gopher. We had a friend who was the asst. Manager and he let us in free. We should have gotten tired of To Sir, but Ms. Geeson was so cute, and Lula was fun to listen to.
Another correction. The theater was torn down for the City Center, not the IDS. The IDS sits between 7th and 8th on the East side of Nicollet. Lastly, the photo above shows the old Aster Theater at the far right.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad opened at the Orpheum, not the Gopher. I know, I was there. It may have moved to the Gopher, but it was one of the few theaters downtown I got to go to in the fifties.
I also recall To Sir with Love at the Gopher. We had a friend who was the asst. Manager and he let us in free. We should have gotten tired of To Sir, but Ms. Geeson was so cute, and Lula was fun to listen to.
Another correction. The theater was torn down for the City Center, not the IDS. The IDS sits between 7th and 8th on the East side of Nicollet. Lastly, the photo above shows the old Aster Theater at the far right.
Here is a 1953 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/kkocn
I posted some pictures here yesterday, as well as for the Orpheum and State in Minneapolis. They are now gone, for reasons unknown.
Some of this information is wrong. The Finkelstein and Ruben circuit (F & R) was completely taken over by Paramount by 1929; the local company was called Minnesota Amusement Company, an arm of Paramount Pictures. The Grand Theatre closed in 1935 and reopened as the Gopher in 1938 after being remodeled by architects Jack Liebenberg and Seeman Kaplan in the streamline moderne style so popular then. Minnesota Amusement used it as a moveover house and B’s during the 1940’s. As part of the Paramount Decree, it was one of many (but the only downtown theatre) theatres Paramount had to divest themselves of. It was sold in 1950 to various theatremen who passed it around like a hot potato until finally falling into the hands of Ben Berger, whom Paramount didn’t want to sell to. Berger ran it until June 1977, when it was sold to Ferris Alexander during the first run (wide) of “The Deep”. For a short time late runs at a dollar admission followed, eventually leading to Alexander’s specialty, pornography. That lasted until August 1979 when the theatre was closed and the block was demolished to make way for City Center in downtown Minneapolis, on Hennepin Avenue, between 6th and 7th Streets.
In the early 1950’s, Berger began to get good product for the theatre, usually playing MGM pictures. The Gopher had a number of major first run pictures over the years: Million Dollar Mermaid, Mogambo, Westward the Women, Back to God’s Country, Ma and Pa Kettle Back Home, Men of the Fighting Lady, Many Rivers to Cross, The Big Combo, Blackboard Jungle, Moonfleet, The Kentuckian, Francis in the Navy, Rock Around the Clock, Tribute to a Bad Man, Godzilla (Raymond Burr version), The Curse of Frankenstein, High School Confidential, Run Silent Run Deep, 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Shaggy Dog, Gidget, North by Northwest (13 weeks), The Beat Generation, The Story on Page One, The Bellboy, College Confidential, Wild in the Country, The Ladies Man, The Innocents, The Premature Burial, Kid Galahad (1962), Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, It Happened at the World’s Fair, Viva Las Vegas, Operation Crossbow, Donovan’s Reef, Mondo Cane, Goldfinger, Bikini Beach, Beach Blanket Bingo, Pajama Party, Fail Safe, Fate is the Hunter, Tickle Me, The Singing Nun, Seconds, Torn Curtain, Spinout, In Like Flint, For a Few Dollars More, Good Bad and the Ugly, Guess Who’s COming to Dinner, To Sir With Love (these two had long runs), Midnight Cowboy (five months), MASH (7 months), Summer of 42 (nearly 3 months), Dirty Harry (over 3 months), The Cowboys, The Exorcist (6 months), Jaws (6 months)
The Gopher was on Hennipen Avenue, next to Bridgman Ice Cream parlor (right side of picture posted). Up block, left side of posted picture) was adult theatre. Whole block demolished, replaced with IDS tower and Hennipen area restored by new modern stuff, now closed. Varsity was theatre in Dinky Town, with another U area Theatre (art, foreign, classics)down University.
Why hasn’t someone written about Terrace Theatre, one of the most modern theaters of the 50’s (with Lloyd Wright type archetecture, three story landed windows, t.v. lounge, fireplace, refreshment bar, large entry lounge seating areas, baby crying room (where first saw The Robe in Cinemascope and Stero sound, since no other seats available) which in 90’s was allowed to be in such disrepair through non-maintence of leaking roof, chopping up balcony into two cinemas, and selling original landscaped design to install Montgy Ward and Food superstore Chain) Or the Mann Theatre, with great large rocking chairs, or the Century (the first Cinerama Theatre) or the Cooper (a round Cinerama Theatre, with large seats and leg room.
Sound, great seats, large screens—gone for shopping mall theatres that showed first run movies on small screens, with only mono sound with Airplane Coach type of seating designed for Twiggi’s, nor real people) Now when one goes to MPLS, cannot tell which Theatres to go to in order to see movies as were intended to be projected or sound with people sized seats and legroom.
Oh so moderne…
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I went to the Gopher several times as a kid (that’s where I saw Jaws), and am pretty sure that it was on Hennepin Avenue, not in Dinkytown.