Gem Theater was an early playhouse and one of Bismarck’s earliest movie theaters. It opened on March 3, 1908 at 414 Main Avenue inside what was then referred to as the “O’hara” building named for William O’hara.
Gem became Orpheum Theater in 1911 after Arthur J. Bauer, the theater’s manager, purchased it from M.J. Wells.
It became the Capitol Theater in or around 1937. The theater adopted the “Cinema” brand sometime in the 1940s or early 1950s, sometimes referred to as Capitol Cinema. The theater closed at the end of 1980 when the building was condemned alongside the adjacent Patterson Hotel.
It re-opened as Capitol Theater in April 1983 after being renovated into a 1930s-1940s-era movie theater. It was then owned by Jerry Brekke, who also owned Mandan’s Showboat and later opened today’s Grand. It closed again in January 1987, alongside the Showboat, only to be purchased by Midcontinent that May who re-opened them as Capitol Theater and the Academy. It exchanged ownership again by January 1988, re-opening one month later as Gem Theater – an homage to its original name – before closing a final time in September 1988.
Dakota Stage occupied the historic theater soon after, its debut show being “A Christmas Carol” that December, where it remains today.
The building was built by Edward Patterson in 1905 and today is known as the “E.G. Patterson Block,” located immediately west of the historic Patterson Hotel.
