1867
The Pence Opera House opens on Hennepin Avenue with a performance of Sheridan Knowles’s The Hunchback. Governor William Marshall and Senator Alexander Ramsey are both present.
1887
The Hennepin Avenue Theater opens with an Edwin Booth and Lawrence Barrett collab on Julius Caesar. The theater will frequently change its name over the years—going from the Hennepin Avenue Theater to Harris’ Theatre to the Lyceum to the Lyric.
1915
Lumber baron T. B. Walker demolishes his own elaborate mansion at 803 Hennepin—it had commanded the address for 40 years—in order to make way for the State Theatre/Walker Building complex.
1916
The Greek theater impresario Alexander Pantages opens up the 26th of what will eventually be a national circuit of 500 theaters. The Pantages is the first Minneapolis theater with air-conditioning. How cool.
1921
The new Hennepin Theater opens. Seating 2,579 people, the Hennepin is billed as the largest vaudeville house in the country. The Marx Brothers are its opening night act. It will serve as a major outlet for stars like Jack Benny, George Burns, and Fanny Brice.
1940
With vaudeville in a precipitous decline, the Hennepin, now renamed the Orpheum, becomes one of the city’s major cinema houses. Gone with the Wind sells out every screening for three weeks straight.
1941
The Esquire Theatre, formerly the Pix, commits over to an adult movie format. When Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch premieres, the police order the marquee to be changed to read “Dude Ranch.”
1975
The State Theatre, which was state-of-the-art when it opened—boasting a glass stage floor and the largest screen west of the Mississippi—falls on hard times and closes with The Who’s Tommy. The Jesus People Church buys the theater three years later and covers the murals and sculptures with drapes.
1978
The Skyway Theatre, the first new movie house built downtown in 40 years, known for audacious stunts—think an Animal House toga party—throws its biggest stunt yet, building a temporary ice skating rink for the world premiere of Ice Castles. The rink melts due to unseasonably warm December weather.
1988
After saving the Orpheum from the wrecking ball by taking it off Ted Mann’s hands for less than a million bucks back in ’79, David Zimmerman and his older, slightly more famous brother Bob (Dylan), finally sell it to the Minneapolis Community Development Agency.
1991
The city of Minneapolis helps to finance the redevelopment of LaSalle Plaza, including an $8.8 million renovation of the State Theatre. It reopens with the Minnesota Opera’s production of Carousel.
1997
When Disney decides to adapt The Lion King as a Broadway musical, it selects MacArthur genius Julie Taymor as director and picks the Orpheum for its opening run. The show sets Minnesota box office records before arriving in New York.
1999
The Shubert Theater is moved from Block E to Hennepin Avenue. At 5.8 million pounds, it sets a Guinness Book record for largest building ever moved on rubber dollies.
2017
After retiring as CEO of Hennepin Theatre Trust, Tom Hoch, already considered “the Mayor of Hennepin Ave” by some, runs for mayor of the rest of the city…and loses to current mayor Jacob Frey.
2019
Neil Young books a four-show run of all-acoustic performances, the first three at the Pantages, State, and Orpheum before crossing the river to Northrop. “Minneapolis has an abundance of classic theaters,” Young notes. “I really love old theaters.”
September 27, 2022
6:00 AM