Former Palace Theater, Gary

The Palace Theater was built by Maximillian Dubois' construction company "Max and Sons" in years 1924-1925. The theater was featuring live stage shows, vaudeville acts, and motion pictures. From the time it opened, the theater was one of the grandest venues in the town, but when the US Steel plant in Gary went into decline, so did the rest of the town, including the historic theater. The theater slid into decline, and eventually shut down entirely in 1972.

The abandoned theater has since come to be a common symbol of urban decay, and is a frequent subject of photography and urban exploration. When the Miss USA pageant was held in Gary in 2002, Donald Trump renovated the front of the theater. Sheets of plywood covering the windows were painted to depict a false interior, and an external marquee was mounted, declaring "Jackson Five Tonite". Since then the facade mostly didn't change.