Theatre

3 S. Federal Avenue,
Mason City, IA 50401

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SethG
SethG on October 18, 2023 at 7:39 pm

The Idle Hour was almost certainly elsewhere. The Kresge building is at 17 N Federal.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 18, 2023 at 5:56 pm

Two possible names for this house are mentioned in this item from Motography’s issue of January 6, 1917: “Cal Branson has sold the Electric Theater at Mason City to Charles Carragher, owner of the Palm Theater. Possession will be taken immediately and, no doubt, one of the places will be closed during the winter months.”

But if this address was part of a Kresge store in 1953, then the theater was called the Idle Hour, briefly mentioned in this long article originally published by the Globe Gazette for Mason City’s centennial that year.

None of those three theater names appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.