The Victory Theater was not the first in Evansville, but it is approaching the centennial of its opening, which occurred on July 16, 1921, shortly after this photo was shot. A survivor of the urban renewal movement that ravaged downtown a few decades ago, the theater is now a landmark at Sixth and Main streets, along with the old Sonntag Hotel (now Signature School) in which the Victory occupied a corner. The city was proud of the theater when it opened, with its 2,500-seat auditorium and lavishly decorated interior, and in 1928 it offered Evansville’s first “talking movie.†Renamed Loew’s Victory in the 1920s, the theater continued to show movies until 1979. Now refurbished, the venue functions as a multi-purpose events center.
I was a usher there in 1965 and 1966. Saw a lot of great movies there.
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