A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
suffering hurricane damage, and razed in 1957. The former location is now a vacant lot. Before Gibson purchased the Dunbar Theatre, it was constructed in 1918 as the first Black-owned and con- structed theater in Philadelphia. Gibson was forced to sell the Dunbar to White owners, who renamed it the “Lincoln Theater,” where motion pictures and stage shows were featured. It was shuttered in 1955 and demol-
ished, making way for a city neighbor- hood health center in its space. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission placed historical markers at each previous theater site in 1991. The stock market crash and Great Depression left Gibson a step away from poverty in his final years. He died at his home at 610 North 30 th Street on June 17, 1937. Gibson is buried at Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.
Above: Dunbar Theatre Marker. Below: Standard Theatre marker.
Philadelphia Alumni, where he was commended for his business success and philanthropic donations to Black education. The February 1927 issue of the Kappa Alpha Psi Journal highlighted a Testimo- nial Banquet in honor of Gibson’s birth- day, February 4, 1927, at the Marion Tea Room and Café. The event was organized by Philadelphia (PA) Alumni Polemarch Marquess. The guests included a “Who’s Who” variety of pro- fessional and Philadelphia fraternal men such as physicians, bankers, dentists, pharmacists, clergymen, and morticians. Misfortune Befell the Theater Tycoon Gibson’s swift success was unexpect- edly curtailed nearly as abruptly as he found fame and fortune. He was forced to close his theater doors in 1928 due to the advent of talking motion pictures, home radio broadcasts, and vaudeville’s decline. This tragic circumstance was exacerbated by the stock market crash of 1929, followed by the Great Depres- sion, which irreparably harmed Gibson’s financial status. He lost both theaters and control of his real estate holdings. His theaters subsequently became movie houses. The Standard opened in 1888 and was closed in 1934, later reopened as a movie theater, closed again in 1954 after
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Martin D. Jenkins Hall, Morgan State University.
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