History:
The Normal Theater is a fully restored Art Deco movie theater in the heart of downtown Normal. Built in 1937, it was a state-of-the-art cinema built to show sound movies in the best comfortable environment. It originally opened on November 17, 1937 and has shown the latest in film entertainment for more than 50 years.
The Normal Theater closed in May 1990 after being divided into a two-screen theater a few years earlier. The Town of Normal purchased the theater with the idea of restoring it and to save it from the fate of other small town theaters that were no longer profitable.
As a result of the community restoration effort, audiences can look with fond memories upon -- or wonder anew at -- plush coral-colored seats; blue, maroon, salmon and silver-colored walls; high-modern style aisle lights; and a ceiling of layered, indirect, multi-colored neon. At the Normal Theater, movie-goers experience classic motion pictures shown the way they were intended originally.
