Center Theatre
431 W. Main Street,
Ionia,
MI
48846
431 W. Main Street,
Ionia,
MI
48846
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Paramount-Publix, W.S. Butterfield Theaters Inc.
Previous Names: Orpheum Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The 230-seat Orpheum Theatre was opened prior to 1914. It was closed around 1931. In the summer of 1941 it had been taken over by Butterfield Theatres chain and was remodeled and reopened as the Center Theatre. It was still open in 1950.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
It turns out that Center is an aka for the Orpheum. The July 18, 1941 issue of Film Daily had the story: “At Ionia, the 350-seat Orpheum, closed for eight years, is being remodeled and modernized and renamed the Center, to be a companion in Butterfield’s 1,000-seat Ionia, only other theater in town.”
The Orpheum was probably closed longer than eight years, though, as its last appearance in the FDY was 1931. The item’s claim of a seating capacity of 350 for the Orpheum is almost certainly an exaggeration. Its last listing in the FDY gave it only 230 seats. It was likely expanded when remodeled as the Center, but not to 350.
Ionia also had two other early theaters, with one called the Family Theatre and the other called the Rex Theatre. I cannot find as much detail about the two rather than both were operated by Frederick Jacobi, and the Family once suffered damage by a storm in September 1915.