Memories of Milwaukee’s Downtown Movie Houses

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From 1945-1955, 10 movie houses operated in Downtown Milwaukee. Each one admitted kids under 12 for 12-cents, and adults for 50-cents before 6 p.m. Those large, resplendent venues were architecturally unique, fun and far superior to latter day multi-screen boxes in shopping centers. Sadly, all but one has disappeared.

A single block of North Third Street from West Wells to Wisconsin Avenue was home to three, with seven others on Wisconsin Avenue between the Milwaukee River and North Sixth. After World War II, these theaters—White House, Princess, Miller, Telenews, Alhambra, Strand, Wisconsin, Palace, Warner and Riverside—featured Hollywood’s best and worst.

As Black North Side kids, my cousin Tommy Gee and I loved them all. Although Milwaukee neighborhoods were largely segregated, I don’t recall ever being segregated or feeling unwelcome by Downtown movie house management. But then, as a kid, it could have happened without me or my cousin understanding it.

Catch the Streetcar

On many Saturday and Sunday mornings, we’d catch the streetcar at the corner of Third and Vine and ride down Third to our streets of cinema dreams. Very often, we‘d visit two or three theaters the same day. Our first stop usually was the White House (739 N. Third St.) with its gleaming alabaster exterior. This three-story structure attracted passersby with flashy photos of second-run films festooned all over its huge, recessed, outside lobby.

This striking, yet homey venue—next door to the bawdy Empress live burlesque show theater—was touted as “The House That’s Different.” Before being torn down in 1955, its name became the Atlantic and then the Mid-City. In the decade before its demise, the White House changed films daily. This unique venue also featured the memorable “March of Time” newsreel shorts, each episode ending with a thunderous “Time marches on!”

Hours later, we would cross the street to the Princess (built in 1909) which came to be known as “Milwaukee’s Home of Action Pictures” specializing in “B” double features. An unlocked door to the right of the Princess box office main entrance—out of sight of the ticket-taker—allowed some kids to occasionally enter without paying. Before being razed in 1984, the theater sadly was given over to X-rated films. 

Classy Theater

My cousin and I sometimes crossed the street again to the Miller (717 N. Third St.), built in 1917, which offered “A” list fare. A strange aspect of watching movies at the Miller was the aroma from a Chinese restaurant next door. Remodeled in the early ‘50s to become the posh Towne, this classy theater boasted of the city’s first “push-back seats.” It was demolished in 1979. 

The Telenews around the corner (310 W. Wisconsin Ave.), erected in 1947, was the last Downtown movie house built. Designed in a modern mode, it specialized in news footage and documentaries and sponsored radio shows. In the early days of television, the Telenews had a large TV set mounted in the lobby for current news coverage and another in a downstairs lounge outside the rest rooms. It was not unusual for many people to gather around the downstairs TV as movies were being shown. Renamed the Esquire, this neat, friendly venue remained popular with a steady flow of second-run films before being razed in 1981.

To the west, the huge, stately Alhambra (334 W. Wisconsin Ave.), built in 1896, specialized in suspenseful film noir, Technicolor shoot-‘em-ups and second feature Warner Bros. offerings. Designed in lavish fashion, it contained private boxes, rich draperies and countless, mood-enhancing lights. Before sadly expiring in 1960, the Alhambra fell into a run of low-budget horror flicks. 

The Strand (510 W. Wisconsin Ave.) was touted as “the largest exclusive photoplay house west of New York” when built in 1914. Our favorite theater on the avenue, its mixed bag of films gave it a neighborhood house atmosphere before closing in 1978. One year, during a W. C. Fields film festival, the Strand achieved a public relations coup by offering free admission to kids under 12 with four freckles. Tommy and I were among the hundreds—Black and white—who showed up. A few doors west was the Wisconsin (530 W. Wisconsin Ave.), an enormous, double-balconied structure. Built in 1942, the Wisconsin had 3,275 seats, a huge columned lobby, chandeliers, ornate ceilings, gargoyles and marble statuary. Twinned in 1963 and renamed Cinema 1 and 2, the theater later lapsed into weekend-only operation before bowing to the wrecker’s ball in 1986.

Directly across the street (535 W. Wisconsin Ave.), the imposing Palace—built in 1915 as the Orpheum and demolished in 1974—showed Cinerama and 3-D films during the 1950s. Tommy and I often got in free via its only black usher, father of close friend, Joe Barnes.

Watching Muhammad Ali

Just east of North Third Street, the art-deco-style Warner (212 W. Wisconsin Ave.), later called the Grand, was built in 1931 as Warner Bros.’ Milwaukee flagship cinema. On Sundays during football season, the theater flashed Green Bay Packers’ scores on a lighted display left of the big movie screen. During the ‘60s, I attended several closed-circuit television championship boxing matches at the Warner, including the 1965 Muhammad Ali-Charles “Sonny” Liston rematch. Empty for many years, the Warner Grand was expensively rehabbed as the Bradley Symphony Center, the new home of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Further east, standing majestically on the west bank of the Milwaukee River, was, and still is, the Riverside. Built in 1929, this French baroque theater boasted bronze doors, marble halls, gold-leaf, grand chandeliers and plush wall draperies. In its heyday, the Riverside presented blockbuster first-run films. The Riverside also was known for many first-rate stage shows featuring 1940s and ‘50s names such as Abbott and Costello, Red Skelton and Jack Benny, as well as the popular, big swing bands of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.

Finally, not to be forgotten, was the legendary Davidson Theater (621 N. Third Street) between Wisconsin Avenue and West Michigan Street. Built in 1890 and razed in 1954, it showed movies in its early days but was better known for quality live stage fare. Big box office names appearing at the Davidson included civil rights activist-singer Paul Robeson as well as stage and screen stars such as Katherine Hepburn, Edward G. Robinson and Van Heflin.

My most personal memory of the Davidson was when Juanita Carter—my NAACP secretary mother who later narrowly escaped the bombing of its West Center Street office—took me to a matinee by Blackstone the Magician. And I still recall him dedicating his performance to magician Harry Houdini, who spent his childhood in Milwaukee.