Levi, Samuel, and Jacob Shubert burst on to the New York theater scene at the turn of the century. Over the next twenty years the Shubert Brothers grew into the biggest theater owning and producing business in the nation. After Samuel Shubert was killed in a train wreck, the remaining brothers paid their respects by lending his name to some of their finest new theaters. A couple of these, St. Paul’s Shubert Theater and the Samuel S. Shubert Theater in Minneapolis, opened on the same day in 1910. Designed by a guy named William Albert Swasey. The Minneapolis Shubert was a medium sized theater with a seating capacity of 1,533 seats. The front of the building was done up in Classical Revival with four pairs of glazed, terra cotta columns and three arched windows on the second floor. The opening show on the fun side of the river was The White Sister starring Viola Allen. Tickets could be had from $2.50 to 50 cents. Alexander G. Bainbridge, a former press agent for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show , became the Shubert’s manager the same year the theater opened. The house had been built as a venue for touring shows, but the tours were often seasonal, and left the theater empty during the summer months. Bainbridge was an ambitious man and at the ripe old age of 25, he put together a resident acting ensemble. The Bainbridge Players became a big hit and a year-round attraction. Film stars, Victory Jory, Gladys George, and Johnny Dilson all began their careers with Bainbridge at the Shubert.
The Shubert began playing films five years after it opened. Accompanied by a 40-piece pit orchestra the flickers gradually proved more popular that plays. At the dawn of the Jazz Age, the Shubert got a remodel. The orchestra pit was expanded, new lights were installed and the place was repainted. The theater hung on until Bainbridge disbanded his company, and ran for mayor of Minneapolis. He was elected for a two year term in 1933. The Shubert was renamed the Alvin in 1935. It was converted into a movie house and became a burlesque stage in the 1940’s. Ten years later the building was renamed the Academy and began showing movies again. The movie heater stayed is business until 1983. Then the old place sat empty for years and years. In 1996, preservationists added it to the National Register of Historic Places and the Minneapolis City Council accepted a proposal to move the theater down the block, next to Hennepin Center for the Arts. The theater, renamed to honor Katherine and Robert Goodale, reopened on Sept. 9, 2011. The Shubert Theater in St. Paul is now the Fitzgerald.
