Bijou Theater

Bijou Theater

The first moving picture theater in Fargo, the Bijou, opened April 1906. It was also the first movie theater in North Dakota. It was located at 106 Broadway, just north of First Avenue. It was operated by J.F. and Walter E. Treat. They sold the theater to the American Amusement Company of Minneapolis in June 1915. That company planned to remodel and extend the theater to make it the largest moving picture theater (seating over 1000) west of Chicago.

The Bijou advertised in the 1907 Fargo Forum as providing "high class and refined vaudeville." It charged 10¢ admission in the afternoon for adults whose entertainment included "live motion pictures" using "The Cameragraph." The Bijou was the first theater in Fargo to combine vaudeville with moving pictures. The Bijou later became the Garrick Theater.

The picture to the right appeared in a 1909 advertisement that offered "automatic, dramatic, and vaudeville theater" at the Bijou for 10¢.