In May of 1936, the folks at the Majestic Theater were planning to remodel the building inside and out and thought it would be an excellent opportunity to also rename the theater. They sponsored a naming contest, limiting the letters in the name to five. The winner would receive $50. Over a thousand entries were received when it was realized that a name with five letters would be dwarfed on the novel 58-foot neon sign which was planned to crown the novel marquee. The contest was reopened, with the additional incentive that the first 25 entrants would win free admission to a movie during the theater’s opening week.
On June 7, 1936, the winning name was announced in the La Crosse Tribune: The Wisconsin Theater, submitted by John Casperson of the Casperson Bros. Dairy. The remodeled theater would reopen on Sept. 19, 1936, with the film “Anthony Adverse” starring Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland. It would operate for 16 years as The Wisconsin, before a fire in December 1952 destroyed the building.
