The Historic Elitch Theatre is located at the original Elitch Gardens site in northwest Denver, Colorado. Opened in 1890, it was centerpiece of the park that was the first zoo west of Chicago. The theatre was Denver's first professional theatre, serving as home to America's first and oldest summer-stock theatre company from 1893 until the 1960s. The first films in the western United States were shown there in 1896. Cecil B. DeMille would send yearly telegrams wishing the theatre another successful season, calling it "one of the cradles of American drama."