View from the balcony.
The original Gem Theatre in Cairo, Illinois opened on October 10, 1910. Opening night’s main attraction was the Cora Youngblood Carson Sextette, a group of young women who sang and danced. Three photoplays, which was an early form of motion picture, were also shown. This incarnation of the Gem was destroyed by a fire in 1929, and a new theater was built in its shell at a cost of $200,000 (or $2.8 million when adjusted for inflation.) The Gem was destroyed by another fire that started in one of the dressing rooms on February 27, 1934. It was rebuilt as an art deco theater with 900 and reopened in 1936.
Construction of the original 685 seat theater was completed in just over four months.
In 1978, the Gem closed for good, and the lobby was turned into retail space, at one point becoming a video rental store called Gem Video. In 1995, the building was donated to the city, who planned on reopening as a movie theater and cultural arts center. They began work on the building in March of 1996, and were assisted by former Peace Corps volunteers as part of the Peace Corps 35 year anniversary. During this time the roof was replaced, the marquee was removed and restored, and the lobby was restored.
A tree is growing in the auditorium through a large hole in the wall.
On October 1, 1998, the restored lobby was shown to the public during Cairo’s October Days Festival. In 2000, the City of Cairo received a $436,000 Federal grant from the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration, and $231,900 of it was to go to the redevelopment of Gem Theatre. An additional $20,000 was given by the state of Illinois to renovate the theater’s stage and the city itself contributed $70,256. However, the restoration of the theater was put on hold in the mid-2000’s and it is unclear whether it will ever be restored.
The lobby was restored in the late 90s, but has fallen back into disrepair.
One of the original advertising slogans for the theater was “It’s Cool at the Gem.”
The projection room is empty.
After the Final Curtain 
I like that place.
My family all attended “To Sir with Love” at the GEM in Cairo in 1967. It brought back fond memories when I heard Sydney Poitier had died today who stared in the movie. LuLu sang the theme song that was really good. What a great memory. It was a nice theater at that time, I read it closed the next year.
I was just in town shooting a lot of photos and I made absolutely certain this was one of my stops. I did not attempt to enter at all. I really would have loved to but I do not ever trespass on my photo shoots. This town will be a ghost town in 10 yeas or so anyhow so as the old saying goes, “Can’t save them all” rings true here, especially for this old theater sadly enough.
actually, the town should come back in 10 years because of the port and because of the business coming in because of the port
I agree 100%. The coming port is the only thing within sight that can help it at all. The port won’t matter any for the population if the bigotry and other issues of the past in the town still exist.
I really hope it helps them. The town really needs help.