There’s a fly loft /behind/ the Vernon Theatre, but it’s across the alley and belongs to the Temple Theatre. The Vernon was strictly a movie house, installed in an older building. The guide for a walking tour of downtown Viroqua says the building was a garage before being converted into a theater by Ben Brown, who had operated the Temple Theatre from its opening until 1931, when the owners leased the house to Paramount-Publix.
The Palace was either rebuilt or moved to a new building in 1912. This item is from the July 20 issue of Motograpahy that year:
“‘The Palace’ is the name of a handsome new motion picture theater recently opened at Cedar Rapids by Mr. Ford. It has a brilliantly-lighted entrance and the interior is provided with the best indirect lighting system that can be had as well as the best ventilating system. The roof beams have a mission effect, the walls are handsomely decorated and the mural decorations are excellent. Special attention will be given to feature films.”
The partnership of architects F. Russell Stuckert and Maurice M. Sloan only lasted a bit over five years, from 1909 to 1915, but was quite productive. Much of their work was for the Horn & Hardart restaurant chain, both in Philadelphia and New York City. Sloan appears to have retired to Atlantic City when the firm was dissolved in 1915, but his partner continued to practice after changing the firm name to Stuckert & Co., remaining in Philadelphia until 1930 and removing the office to New York for the last five years of its operation.
Neither partner appears to have designed any theaters on their own, but as partners they designed not only the four currently attributed to them at Cinema Treasures, but perhaps three other neighborhood houses in Philadelphia. One was a 1913 project for Kahn and Greenburg, located on North Broad Street near W. Thompson Street. Bids were being taken in September, 1913, but I’ve been unable to find any later notices about the project, so can’t be sure it was carried out.
A 350-seat house called the Tivoli was built for Jacob Weinreich and Bros. in 1913, at 1131 Fairmont Avenue.
The third project was a house on E. Lehigh Avenue for the Felt brothers, original owners of the Locust. Contracts were let in December, 1913, but I’ve been unable to discover the name of the house. Some notices say it was on Lehigh near Richmond Street, but one says Lehigh near Salmon Street. Most of the area between Richmond and Salmon is now occupied by an elevated highway, so chances of this one’s survival are slim to none.
Jakorns (on May 20, 2004) apparently got the opening year of the Olympic wrong, as well as the address in their next comment. This item appeared in the June, 1912 issue of Motography: “‘The Olympic’ is the name of the new motion picture theater recently opened at South Third street and Twelfth avenue, Cedar Rapids.”
Moving Picture World of September 26, 1908 confirms construction of the Magic Theatre that year, but also reveals that, despite the large stage, it was also a movie house from the beginning: “Ft. Dodge, Ia. The Magic Theater, on South Eighth street, is practically complete and will open to the general public in a few days with the latest and best moving pictures.”
The Magic appears to have undergone remodeling or perhaps repairs in 1911. The July 21 issue of the Marshalltown, Iowa Evening Times-Republican reported that two masons working on the Magic Theatre in Fort Dodge had been injured when the 22-foot high scaffolding on which they were standing gave way. A number of concrete blocks also fell, but fortunately none struck anyone.
A puzzling claim appears in an article in the October 30, 1909 issue of Show World, which referred to Fort Dodge as Iowa’s largest “theaterless town.” Professional wrestler Frank Gotch of Humboldt Iowa was considering the construction of a playhouse at Fort Dodge as an investment. I’ve found no follow-up items to indicate if Mr. Gotch carried out his plans or not, but as the item was dated a year after the opening of the Magic, I wonder why it said that Fort Dodge had no theater? Could it be that the Magic’s stage was only added sometime after the house opened with movies in 1908?
Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970 by Roger B. Natte, part of the Arcadia Press “Images of America” series, says that the Princess Theatre was opened in 1910 as a vaudeville house, closed in 1934, and the building was converted into a bank in 1939 and razed in the 1970s.
The 1926 FDY lists the Princess with only 400 seats. I suspect that when the house was operating as a movie theater they simply closed the balcony, and set up the projection equipment in it. As late as 1924, the local Chamber of Commerce publication The Community Builder was noting that a stock company was presenting a new season of plays in the house.
There might have been more than one house in Fort Dodge called the Empire Theatre. This item is from Show World of December 5, 1908: “Fort Dodge, Iowa, Nov. 28. The Empire which closed last week will not re-open. The entire equipment was shipped to Des Moines today.”
The November, 1925 issue of a magazine called The Community Builder, published by the Fort Dodge Chamber of Commerce, said that on May 31 that year the Majestic had been purchased by the A. H. Blank Company of Des Moines. The same company bought Fort Dodge’s Rialto Theatre on October 15.
The March 21, 1908 issue of Moving Picture World made reference to “[m]anager Spencer, of the Delight Theater, Tenth street and Central Avenue, Fort Dodge, Ia….” The Delight in also mentioned in passing (it’s former operator had leased the Opera House in Carroll to operate as a movie theater) in the January 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. It is not one of the three theaters listed at Ft. Dodge in the 1912 Polk Iowa Gazetteer. Those were the 500-seat Magic Theatre, the 800-seat Princess Theatre, and the Masonic Hall, no capacity listed. Listings in this directory were not always complete, but if the Delight does not appear on the 1912 Sanborn either it’s probable that it was indeed closed by then.
The Magic Theatre was mentioned in the January 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. It’s manager, who boasted the alliterative name J. Jolly Jones, Jr., had installed a new motion picture machine and planned numerous other improvements to the house. Multiple mentions of the Magic appeared in December, 1909 issues of The New York Dramatic Mirror, one of which noted that Mr. Jones’s predecessor had sold his interest in the house and resigned his position after about a year, moving to St. Joseph, Missouri, to take over management of the Star theatre there.
The Magic was listed with 500 seats in the 1912 Polk Iowa Gazetteer, and is one of three houses listed. It was still listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no seating capacity was given. The latest mention of the Magic I’ve found is in the May 3, 1919 issue of The Billboard.
In 1923, Rialto manager James Nester had a capsule movie review published in the March 24 issue of Exhibitors Herald. Nester thought the one reel Universal release “Unfermented Bricks” with Neeley Edwards a “fair comedy” that could have been better, though he allowed that his theater’s patrons “seemed pleased” with the offering.
The July 16, 1949 issue of Boxoffice said that good progress was being made on the new,734-seat theater under construction at Rotan, and manager Lance M. Davis planned a fall opening. Davis was already operating the Majestic and Ritz theaters in Rotan in partnership with Robb & Rowley of Dallas.
The Majestic Theatre at Rotan was in operation by late 1913. It was on a list of theaters subscribing to the services of the American Motion Picture League that was published by the company in the December 20 issue of Moving Picture World that year.
The earliest mention of Ruthven I’ve found in the trades is from Moving Picture World of December 20, 1913. The local movie house had just changed hands but its name was not given. The next mention was in the October 9, 1915 issue of the same journal, which again noted the sale of the house, but it was called the Electric Theatre. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory missed Ruthven altogether.
The Electric Theatre still existed in 1926, when the FDY listed it with 240 seats. The listing was unchanged in 1929. The Electric is listed as a silent house in 1931, closed in 1932 and 1933, and Ruthven itself vanishes in 1934, though so do several other cities at the end of the “R” section, so that could have been a mistake by the FDY. The Legion Theater first appears in 1935, with 325 seats. If it was in the same building as the Electric its remodeling must have been extensive.
There are errors in our current description of this theater. It opened on May 18, 1914 with a play called “The Ghost Breaker.” This was the second Germania Opera House in Denison. The February 22, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World which announced the plans for the new Germania Opera House also noted that the old Opera house would be converted into a moving picture theater. The original Germania was located on North Main Street, but I haven’t been able to discover exactly where.
Henry E. Williams and his brother built the Opera House on the west side of Primghar’s Courthouse Square in 1890. After the house had been leased to a stock company for two years, Williams took over operation himself. In the 1914 Polk guide the theater was listed as the Williams Opera House. Henry Williams operated a number of businesses along the 100 block of Green Avenue, and some of the buildings he had built for them in the late 19th and early 20th century are still standing, but the Opera House is sadly not among them. Judging from views at Historic Aerials, it was demolished prior to 1984. The next previous view is from 1949, so that’s as far as it can be narrowed down for now.
In addition to the White, the Wonderland, the Royal, and the Elite (later Pix) the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory also lists a house called the New Grand. The White is mentioned in the newspaper at least as early as September, 1909, and in the October 15, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. The Wonderland is listed in the 1912 Polk guide, along with the Elite, but the 1914 Polk lists only the New Grand at Le Mars, which can’t be right. There must have been other theaters in operation that year. Le Mars is one of those frustrating little towns with only sparse information available.
A Coldwell-Banker real estate listing for this building posted in 2012 said that it was set up as a twin screen theater but that the interior improvements all belonged to the tenant. Seating capacities at that time were listed as 120 and 121 seats. The property was sold that year and the theater was apparently closed at that time.
The listing said that the building was built in 1950, but that can’t be right, as the Brockway was mentioned in the May 28, 1949 issue of Boxoffice. The item said that the Ed Rowden Theatre Service was doing the buying and booking for Tom Lucas' Brockway Theatre and Vern Shattuck’s Tahoe Theatre at Kings Beach. This is the only mention of either the Brockway or the Tahoe Theatre I’ve been able to find in the trades.
The Iowa Theatre’s web site should be updated to this new URL:
https://iatheater.com
The old link now fetches a Chinese language website which my browser reports as “Not Secure.”
The new web site unfortunately has a bollixed history of the place, containing such claims as “[i]n 1945 Lopevitz purchased both theatres and upgraded them to talking movies.” Apparently someone is very, very young, and unfamiliar with cinematic history
The January 16, 1937 issue of Film Daily had this item: “Omaha — Scott-Ballentyne Co. announces sale of sound projection and 500 seats to Bob Oliver and Mrs. Muriel Frandsen, who hope to open their new $25,000 house at Onawa, Ia., about Feb. 15….” The Iowa Theatre is first listed in the FDY in 1938, joining Mrs. Frandsen’s Onawa Theatre, which she had owned since 1926.
The Onowa Theatre was opened during the last week of November, 1900 as the IOOF Opera House. The Romanesque Revival style brick building was designed by local builder and contractor W. E. Hodgin. The 600-seat auditorium was the first theater in Onawa to have a proper raked floor, though its stage, despite ample width and depth, lacked a fly tower.
upper floor was occupied by the rooms of the Odd Fellows Lodge.
Disaster struck one month after opening, when a fire caused $6,500 dollars damage to the house on December 24, including the destruction of the theater’s costly chairs. Although repairs were completed and the house soon reopened, the lodge suffered financially from the expense, and actually lost control of the building from 1906 to 1908.
Movies came to Onawa in 1907, and the Opera House acquired a screen and projector to remain competitive with the Royal and Scenic Theaters. Still, live performances remained the principal draw at the Opera House until 1917, when a proper projection booth with two machines was finally installed. During this period the Opera House was operated in conjunction with a movie house called the Majestic Theatre.
After this, movies became the principal attraction at the house, though occasional live performances were presented until 1926 when a second fire destroyed the sate area and brought the era of live theater in Onawa to an end. A new owner, Miriam Frandsen, rebuilt the house as the Onawa Theater, which operated strictly as a movie house. It was the town’s only theater until 1937, when Mrs. Frandsen and her partners opened the new Iowa Theatre. Thereafter, the Onawa operated as the town’s “B” house until closing in 1953, at the dawn of the wide screen era. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The NRHP registration form for the building (PDF here) gives the construction date of 1900. It should be noted that multiple Wikipedia pages say the house was built in 1907. Given that the NRHP form cites multiple pre-1907 articles about the building from the local newspaper, Wikipedia and the web sites following its lead are certainly wrong.
The address of the Luna Theatre was 118 Main Street. The building has been thrown together with the adjacent one and, according to the June 28, 2015 Sioux City Journal, converted into an apartment house, but it is still recognizable by the shape of its roofline. The cornices are the only part of the Main Street façade that have not been covered up by ugly, gray siding, but the 2nd Street side still has the original (and very unusual) brick.
Falke’s is a nice looking building, but in satellite and Google street views I see no stage tower. I don’t see one in the 1938 view they have at Historic Aerials either. With such limited facilities, it’s not surprising that it didn’t rate a listing in the Cahn guides. I saw a photo of it from 2018 at Flickr, and the Google street view dates from 2012, and the building doesn’t appear to be in use in either of them. If it weren’t for the fact that the roof looks pretty good in the satellite view I’d fear it might not be around much longer.
The December 27, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World has the first mention of Remsen I can find in the trade journals, but it is about a house called the Lyric Theatre, which was moving to a new location. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists a theater on Main Street in Remsen, but it is called the Mystic. The very first mentions of the Grand Opera House I’ve found are in three issues of Universal Weekly in 1918. The Grand is listed in the FDYs for 1926, 1928, and 1929, but for some reason Remsen gets skipped in the 1927 edition.
In 1927, Remsen had a house called the Falke Theatre. The February 26 Moving Picture World ran this item: “Ray and John Beck and Ray Wentz have turned over the Falke Theatre at Remsen, Iowa, which they have been operating for almost a year, to Henry Falke, owner of the theatre.” Originally the Falke Opera House, it dated from 1915 and occupied a two-story brick building at 16 E. 2nd Street, which was still standing in 2018. It was never listed in the FDY as far as I’ve seen, and the 1927 MPW item is the only mention of it I’ve found in theater trade journals, but the fact that it was mentioned that one time suggests that it could have been used for movies at least briefly.
Remsen’s theaters got next to no attention from the movie theater trade journals (and none at all that I’ve found in the theatrical publications such as the Cahn guides) before the Vogue opened, and even the Vogue didn’t get much.
There’s a fly loft /behind/ the Vernon Theatre, but it’s across the alley and belongs to the Temple Theatre. The Vernon was strictly a movie house, installed in an older building. The guide for a walking tour of downtown Viroqua says the building was a garage before being converted into a theater by Ben Brown, who had operated the Temple Theatre from its opening until 1931, when the owners leased the house to Paramount-Publix.
The Palace was either rebuilt or moved to a new building in 1912. This item is from the July 20 issue of Motograpahy that year:
The partnership of architects F. Russell Stuckert and Maurice M. Sloan only lasted a bit over five years, from 1909 to 1915, but was quite productive. Much of their work was for the Horn & Hardart restaurant chain, both in Philadelphia and New York City. Sloan appears to have retired to Atlantic City when the firm was dissolved in 1915, but his partner continued to practice after changing the firm name to Stuckert & Co., remaining in Philadelphia until 1930 and removing the office to New York for the last five years of its operation.
Neither partner appears to have designed any theaters on their own, but as partners they designed not only the four currently attributed to them at Cinema Treasures, but perhaps three other neighborhood houses in Philadelphia. One was a 1913 project for Kahn and Greenburg, located on North Broad Street near W. Thompson Street. Bids were being taken in September, 1913, but I’ve been unable to find any later notices about the project, so can’t be sure it was carried out.
A 350-seat house called the Tivoli was built for Jacob Weinreich and Bros. in 1913, at 1131 Fairmont Avenue.
The third project was a house on E. Lehigh Avenue for the Felt brothers, original owners of the Locust. Contracts were let in December, 1913, but I’ve been unable to discover the name of the house. Some notices say it was on Lehigh near Richmond Street, but one says Lehigh near Salmon Street. Most of the area between Richmond and Salmon is now occupied by an elevated highway, so chances of this one’s survival are slim to none.
Jakorns (on May 20, 2004) apparently got the opening year of the Olympic wrong, as well as the address in their next comment. This item appeared in the June, 1912 issue of Motography: “‘The Olympic’ is the name of the new motion picture theater recently opened at South Third street and Twelfth avenue, Cedar Rapids.”
Moving Picture World of September 26, 1908 confirms construction of the Magic Theatre that year, but also reveals that, despite the large stage, it was also a movie house from the beginning: “Ft. Dodge, Ia. The Magic Theater, on South Eighth street, is practically complete and will open to the general public in a few days with the latest and best moving pictures.”
The Magic appears to have undergone remodeling or perhaps repairs in 1911. The July 21 issue of the Marshalltown, Iowa Evening Times-Republican reported that two masons working on the Magic Theatre in Fort Dodge had been injured when the 22-foot high scaffolding on which they were standing gave way. A number of concrete blocks also fell, but fortunately none struck anyone.
A puzzling claim appears in an article in the October 30, 1909 issue of Show World, which referred to Fort Dodge as Iowa’s largest “theaterless town.” Professional wrestler Frank Gotch of Humboldt Iowa was considering the construction of a playhouse at Fort Dodge as an investment. I’ve found no follow-up items to indicate if Mr. Gotch carried out his plans or not, but as the item was dated a year after the opening of the Magic, I wonder why it said that Fort Dodge had no theater? Could it be that the Magic’s stage was only added sometime after the house opened with movies in 1908?
Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970 by Roger B. Natte, part of the Arcadia Press “Images of America” series, says that the Princess Theatre was opened in 1910 as a vaudeville house, closed in 1934, and the building was converted into a bank in 1939 and razed in the 1970s.
The 1926 FDY lists the Princess with only 400 seats. I suspect that when the house was operating as a movie theater they simply closed the balcony, and set up the projection equipment in it. As late as 1924, the local Chamber of Commerce publication The Community Builder was noting that a stock company was presenting a new season of plays in the house.
There might have been more than one house in Fort Dodge called the Empire Theatre. This item is from Show World of December 5, 1908: “Fort Dodge, Iowa, Nov. 28. The Empire which closed last week will not re-open. The entire equipment was shipped to Des Moines today.”
The November, 1925 issue of a magazine called The Community Builder, published by the Fort Dodge Chamber of Commerce, said that on May 31 that year the Majestic had been purchased by the A. H. Blank Company of Des Moines. The same company bought Fort Dodge’s Rialto Theatre on October 15.
The March 21, 1908 issue of Moving Picture World made reference to “[m]anager Spencer, of the Delight Theater, Tenth street and Central Avenue, Fort Dodge, Ia….” The Delight in also mentioned in passing (it’s former operator had leased the Opera House in Carroll to operate as a movie theater) in the January 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. It is not one of the three theaters listed at Ft. Dodge in the 1912 Polk Iowa Gazetteer. Those were the 500-seat Magic Theatre, the 800-seat Princess Theatre, and the Masonic Hall, no capacity listed. Listings in this directory were not always complete, but if the Delight does not appear on the 1912 Sanborn either it’s probable that it was indeed closed by then.
The Magic Theatre was mentioned in the January 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. It’s manager, who boasted the alliterative name J. Jolly Jones, Jr., had installed a new motion picture machine and planned numerous other improvements to the house. Multiple mentions of the Magic appeared in December, 1909 issues of The New York Dramatic Mirror, one of which noted that Mr. Jones’s predecessor had sold his interest in the house and resigned his position after about a year, moving to St. Joseph, Missouri, to take over management of the Star theatre there.
The Magic was listed with 500 seats in the 1912 Polk Iowa Gazetteer, and is one of three houses listed. It was still listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no seating capacity was given. The latest mention of the Magic I’ve found is in the May 3, 1919 issue of The Billboard.
In 1923, Rialto manager James Nester had a capsule movie review published in the March 24 issue of Exhibitors Herald. Nester thought the one reel Universal release “Unfermented Bricks” with Neeley Edwards a “fair comedy” that could have been better, though he allowed that his theater’s patrons “seemed pleased” with the offering.
The July 16, 1949 issue of Boxoffice said that good progress was being made on the new,734-seat theater under construction at Rotan, and manager Lance M. Davis planned a fall opening. Davis was already operating the Majestic and Ritz theaters in Rotan in partnership with Robb & Rowley of Dallas.
The Majestic Theatre at Rotan was in operation by late 1913. It was on a list of theaters subscribing to the services of the American Motion Picture League that was published by the company in the December 20 issue of Moving Picture World that year.
The Lyric and the Opera House are the two theaters listed at Hartley in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The earliest mention of Ruthven I’ve found in the trades is from Moving Picture World of December 20, 1913. The local movie house had just changed hands but its name was not given. The next mention was in the October 9, 1915 issue of the same journal, which again noted the sale of the house, but it was called the Electric Theatre. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory missed Ruthven altogether.
The Electric Theatre still existed in 1926, when the FDY listed it with 240 seats. The listing was unchanged in 1929. The Electric is listed as a silent house in 1931, closed in 1932 and 1933, and Ruthven itself vanishes in 1934, though so do several other cities at the end of the “R” section, so that could have been a mistake by the FDY. The Legion Theater first appears in 1935, with 325 seats. If it was in the same building as the Electric its remodeling must have been extensive.
There are errors in our current description of this theater. It opened on May 18, 1914 with a play called “The Ghost Breaker.” This was the second Germania Opera House in Denison. The February 22, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World which announced the plans for the new Germania Opera House also noted that the old Opera house would be converted into a moving picture theater. The original Germania was located on North Main Street, but I haven’t been able to discover exactly where.
Henry E. Williams and his brother built the Opera House on the west side of Primghar’s Courthouse Square in 1890. After the house had been leased to a stock company for two years, Williams took over operation himself. In the 1914 Polk guide the theater was listed as the Williams Opera House. Henry Williams operated a number of businesses along the 100 block of Green Avenue, and some of the buildings he had built for them in the late 19th and early 20th century are still standing, but the Opera House is sadly not among them. Judging from views at Historic Aerials, it was demolished prior to 1984. The next previous view is from 1949, so that’s as far as it can be narrowed down for now.
In addition to the White, the Wonderland, the Royal, and the Elite (later Pix) the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory also lists a house called the New Grand. The White is mentioned in the newspaper at least as early as September, 1909, and in the October 15, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. The Wonderland is listed in the 1912 Polk guide, along with the Elite, but the 1914 Polk lists only the New Grand at Le Mars, which can’t be right. There must have been other theaters in operation that year. Le Mars is one of those frustrating little towns with only sparse information available.
A Coldwell-Banker real estate listing for this building posted in 2012 said that it was set up as a twin screen theater but that the interior improvements all belonged to the tenant. Seating capacities at that time were listed as 120 and 121 seats. The property was sold that year and the theater was apparently closed at that time.
The listing said that the building was built in 1950, but that can’t be right, as the Brockway was mentioned in the May 28, 1949 issue of Boxoffice. The item said that the Ed Rowden Theatre Service was doing the buying and booking for Tom Lucas' Brockway Theatre and Vern Shattuck’s Tahoe Theatre at Kings Beach. This is the only mention of either the Brockway or the Tahoe Theatre I’ve been able to find in the trades.
The Iowa Theatre’s web site should be updated to this new URL:
https://iatheater.com
The old link now fetches a Chinese language website which my browser reports as “Not Secure.”
The new web site unfortunately has a bollixed history of the place, containing such claims as “[i]n 1945 Lopevitz purchased both theatres and upgraded them to talking movies.” Apparently someone is very, very young, and unfamiliar with cinematic history
The January 16, 1937 issue of Film Daily had this item: “Omaha — Scott-Ballentyne Co. announces sale of sound projection and 500 seats to Bob Oliver and Mrs. Muriel Frandsen, who hope to open their new $25,000 house at Onawa, Ia., about Feb. 15….” The Iowa Theatre is first listed in the FDY in 1938, joining Mrs. Frandsen’s Onawa Theatre, which she had owned since 1926.
The Onowa Theatre was opened during the last week of November, 1900 as the IOOF Opera House. The Romanesque Revival style brick building was designed by local builder and contractor W. E. Hodgin. The 600-seat auditorium was the first theater in Onawa to have a proper raked floor, though its stage, despite ample width and depth, lacked a fly tower.
upper floor was occupied by the rooms of the Odd Fellows Lodge.
Disaster struck one month after opening, when a fire caused $6,500 dollars damage to the house on December 24, including the destruction of the theater’s costly chairs. Although repairs were completed and the house soon reopened, the lodge suffered financially from the expense, and actually lost control of the building from 1906 to 1908.
Movies came to Onawa in 1907, and the Opera House acquired a screen and projector to remain competitive with the Royal and Scenic Theaters. Still, live performances remained the principal draw at the Opera House until 1917, when a proper projection booth with two machines was finally installed. During this period the Opera House was operated in conjunction with a movie house called the Majestic Theatre.
After this, movies became the principal attraction at the house, though occasional live performances were presented until 1926 when a second fire destroyed the sate area and brought the era of live theater in Onawa to an end. A new owner, Miriam Frandsen, rebuilt the house as the Onawa Theater, which operated strictly as a movie house. It was the town’s only theater until 1937, when Mrs. Frandsen and her partners opened the new Iowa Theatre. Thereafter, the Onawa operated as the town’s “B” house until closing in 1953, at the dawn of the wide screen era. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The NRHP registration form for the building (PDF here) gives the construction date of 1900. It should be noted that multiple Wikipedia pages say the house was built in 1907. Given that the NRHP form cites multiple pre-1907 articles about the building from the local newspaper, Wikipedia and the web sites following its lead are certainly wrong.
The address of the Luna Theatre was 118 Main Street. The building has been thrown together with the adjacent one and, according to the June 28, 2015 Sioux City Journal, converted into an apartment house, but it is still recognizable by the shape of its roofline. The cornices are the only part of the Main Street façade that have not been covered up by ugly, gray siding, but the 2nd Street side still has the original (and very unusual) brick.
Falke’s is a nice looking building, but in satellite and Google street views I see no stage tower. I don’t see one in the 1938 view they have at Historic Aerials either. With such limited facilities, it’s not surprising that it didn’t rate a listing in the Cahn guides. I saw a photo of it from 2018 at Flickr, and the Google street view dates from 2012, and the building doesn’t appear to be in use in either of them. If it weren’t for the fact that the roof looks pretty good in the satellite view I’d fear it might not be around much longer.
The December 27, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World has the first mention of Remsen I can find in the trade journals, but it is about a house called the Lyric Theatre, which was moving to a new location. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists a theater on Main Street in Remsen, but it is called the Mystic. The very first mentions of the Grand Opera House I’ve found are in three issues of Universal Weekly in 1918. The Grand is listed in the FDYs for 1926, 1928, and 1929, but for some reason Remsen gets skipped in the 1927 edition.
In 1927, Remsen had a house called the Falke Theatre. The February 26 Moving Picture World ran this item: “Ray and John Beck and Ray Wentz have turned over the Falke Theatre at Remsen, Iowa, which they have been operating for almost a year, to Henry Falke, owner of the theatre.” Originally the Falke Opera House, it dated from 1915 and occupied a two-story brick building at 16 E. 2nd Street, which was still standing in 2018. It was never listed in the FDY as far as I’ve seen, and the 1927 MPW item is the only mention of it I’ve found in theater trade journals, but the fact that it was mentioned that one time suggests that it could have been used for movies at least briefly.
Remsen’s theaters got next to no attention from the movie theater trade journals (and none at all that I’ve found in the theatrical publications such as the Cahn guides) before the Vogue opened, and even the Vogue didn’t get much.