Thompson’s Opera House, also known as the Gem Theater, is a small theater building in Pioche, Nevada. The Opera House is a wood frame building built in 1873, attached roughly to the adjoining brick Gem Theater, a 1937 masonry cinema. The theater was built in September 1873 and featured a performance of Pygmalion and Galatea for its opening night, with a cast of professional actors from San Francisco. The Opera House screened its first silent movie in 1915. In 1935 the Opera House was renamed the Gem Theater, but in 1937 a new Gem Theater was built next door expressly for movies.
The Opera House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It is one of three 19th century theaters remaining in Nevada.


How great to see the bright light shining on this Gem Emilio!
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I’m glad you told me you and your husband spent the night in Pioche, otherwise I might never have gone. For some reason I thought it was much further away.
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Absolute pleasure, thank you Emilio. Perhaps you might want to think about getting up there for Memorial Day which is supposed to be “yuge!”
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Oh, no. Everyone is going to start talking like Trump?They’re already beating people up at his rallies like he has “hinted” at doing himself! But why should he dirty his “little” hands when he has so many goons to do it for him?
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I was channeling my inner Bernie NY yuge! And if I start on Trump, Cruz . . . . . well, I might not know where to stop!
BTW, can’t remember if it’s MD or LD that’s the big day in Pioche but it’s one of them, maybe even both!
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I can look it up but I think I saw something that said MD! Thanks.
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I did a little research and it looks like the big celebration in Pioche is Labor day. But I also found this for Caliente: http://lincolncountynevada.com/playing/spring-events/caliente-memorial-day/
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very cool. I thought the same thing as Thom – it looks like a movie set.
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Phantom of the Opera, perhaps? Thanks!
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Great photo Emilio. Great use of light
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Thanks, Raewyn. I’m still usually a hit or miss photographer. Sometimes I get lucky. I really wasn’t aware of the lighting as much as the building itself when I took the shot.
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A Gem with fabulous historical information. Great BnW image of this old building!
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Thanks, Amy. Wish we could have seen inside but it was locked up tight and no one was around.
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Awesome image Emilio but somehow the newer architecture of the Gem theater looks out of place with the opera house. Great work.
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I agree. Within two years of the original owner dying, his sons had the brick addition built.
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Real gem of the “Gem”.
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Thanks, Lim Soo Peng!
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Fabulous! Looks like a film set in itself. I feel a western noir script bubbling up. Regards thom
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Write it, Thom. You can use this photo as the book jacket.
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