Whiting and Clark high school football fans used to gather at the Hoosier Theatre in Whiting for rallies with chants and school songs after the Battle of 119th Street games.

Bears from a touring vaudeville act once escaped from their cage in the historic century-old movie palace at 1335 119th St. in downtown Whiting after their handler forgot to lock it. Three bears wandered around LaPorte Street behind the theater until they were wrangled and brought back for the show.

Founded in 1924, the Hoosier Theatre marked its 100th anniversary last year. It outlasted many of the other Region's elegant, extravagant movie palaces of yesteryear like the Palace Theater in Gary, the Voge and Indiana in East Chicago and the Paramount, Parthenon and State in Hammond.

But the Hoosier Theatre has reached

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