Long known as "Delaware's Broadway Experience," the DuPont Theatre is the embodiment of the entertainment phrase, "The show must go on!" It has survived dramatic and traumatic historical events, including the 1929 stock market crash, the Great Depression, two world wars, the rise of motion pictures and television, a name change from the Playhouse to the DuPont Theatre, and a terrorist attack on our country that resonated globally. Despite these events, it continues to thrive as the oldest continuously operating legitimate theater in the United States. Constructed in only 150 days and strategically located adjacent to the elegant Hotel du Pont and DuPont corporate headquarters, the DuPont Theatre is a mainstay in the cultural life of Wilmington. Promoted in the early 1900s as a "dress rehearsal" venue for the largest New York Broadway shows, the stage can accommodate everything from live animals to an automobile accident, making it possible to present nearly every Broadway production in the theater's Broadway series.
Joanna L. Arat, an agent of DuPont, gathered images from 100 seasons of entertainment to commemorate the DuPont Theatre's centennial celebration. The theater's historical archives were the primary resources used to illustrate the memorable story of the DuPont Theatre.