at the age of 25. The Shubert had been conceived as a venue for touring Broadway shows, but those tours stopped in the summer, leaving the theater empty, so, the Shuberts tasked Bainbridge with creating a resident acting ensemble. The Bainbridge Players became a popular year-round attraction. Several of its actors, such as Victory Jory, Gladys George, and Johnny Dilson, went on to successful film careers. In 1915, The Shubert began to play movies, accompanied by a 40-piece pit orchestra. In 1918 the flu epidemic closed all Minneapolis theaters. The Shubert remodeled; new lights were installed, the orchestra pit was expanded, and the theater was repainted. Throughout the 1920s the prevalence and popularity of films began to push out live theater. While the Shubert held on until 1933, it could not withstand the changing of the tides. Bainbridge disbanded his company, and became mayor of Minneapolis from 1933 to 1935. The Alvin The Shubert came back to life as “The Alvin” in 1935, named after its new owner William Alvin Steffes. Steffes added an Art Deco marquee and split the stage time between movies and touring Broadway shows until December 1940, when the theater went under for two months before reincarnating as a burlesque theater. Despite a fire on July 6, 1941, which necessitated a five-month-long renovation, The Alvin theater kept its doors open as a burlesque theater until 1953. Some of the best known strip-tease artists of the day including Tempest Storm, Candy Barr, and Gypsy Rose Lee performed there. A typical burlesque show offered not only titillation, but entertainment by jugglers, comedians, and variety acts. One of the most noteworthy of these performers was Dudley Riggs, a comedian juggler who went on to found Brave New Workshop, now housed only a few blocks from The Cowles Center. In November 1953, the Alvin underwent yet another change when the Reverend Russell H. Olson turned the building into the Minneapolis Evangelistic Auditorium. The church closed only three years later. The Academy The Shubert came back in 1957 when Ted Mann bought it, converted it into a movie theater, and renamed it The Academy. On July 12, 1957, The Academy hosted the Minneapolis premiere of Minnesota native Michael Todd's Around the World in Eighty Days. Todd, who used to be a candy vendor in the old Shubert Theater, attended the opening with his wife, Elizabeth Taylor. The Academy began to struggle