The Shubert became the Alvin in 1935 for no particular reason, other than it had a new owner who wished to make a break with the past. A new marquee was added, proving that the plague of modernization is not a modern phenomenon.

The Alvin lasted five years, then reopened as a bump & grind house. In 1953 it was sold to an evangelical outfit; this picture captures the moment when it was caught between the sacred and the secular.