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The Martha Ellen Auditorium, now the State Theatre, was built 1916 in Central City, the county seat of Merrick County in the state of Nebraska in the midwestern United States. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, as a well-preserved example of a Nebraska opera house. ==History== The early 1900s were a time of relative prosperity in Central City, Merrick County, and Nebraska more generally after the recession of the 1890s; this episode of prosperity culminated with World War I (1914–1918), which increased the demand and raised the prices for agricultural products. The early 1900s thus marked a period of considerable growth in Central City with a number of buildings built and businesses established. It was a time before radio or television, when silent movies were only beginning to become available in rural Nebraska. Entertainment was available to rural Nebraskans in the form of musical concerts, comic operas, performances by touring companies, and vaudeville performers, but only if there was a suitable venue.〔 It was in this context that the opera house was built in 1916 by Colonel William C. Shelton, who named it after his daughter.〔〔 When the ''Central City Nonpareil'' announced the opening of the theater, it declared:
The new venue furnished a variety of entertainments. A list of events from 1916 and 1917 includes films, among them D. W. Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'' and ''The Avenging Conscience'', operas, lectures, plays, and a heavyweight wrestling match. Both traveling and local performers occupied the stage: in December 1916, for example, the Martha Ellen presented the opera ''The Bohemian Girl'', staged by the Aborn Opera Company, and the play ''The Dream That Came True'', staged by the local junior class.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/merrick/MK02-008_Martha_Ellen_Aud.pdf )〕 Opera-house entertainment went into a decline beginning about the end of World War I. Increases in the cost of rail tickets cut into the profits of traveling companies; even the relatively inexpensive Lyceum Bureau offerings became too costly for small-town halls. The rise in automobile ownership made it possible for more and more people to travel to larger cities for their entertainment rather than making do with what the local venues had to offer.〔 Under these circumstances, the Martha Ellen Auditorium increasingly showed motion pictures, and nothing else, ending its career as a venue for performing arts.〔〔〔 At some point prior to 1988, the name of the establishment was changed to "State Theatre". A marquee bearing that name was added to the building's facade, obscuring the original "Martha Ellen Auditorium" sign.〔 The State Theatre was closed in 2013; the owners cited the cost of changing from film to digital projection equipment as the reason for the closing.〔The closing was announced August 23, 2013 at the (''Republican-Nonpareil'' Facebook page ). The owners' concerns about the cost of making the transition to digital projection were described in Bob Fischbach, ("Theater owners decide: Go digital or go dark", ) (''Omaha World-Herald'' ), 2012-10-21; retrieved 2013-10-18.〕 In 1988, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, under the name "Martha Ellen Auditorium".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Martha Ellen Auditorium」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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