Norka Theatre

The ananymically-named Norka Theatre was a replacement for its neighbor to the left, the former Majestic turned Empress Theatre in the Baker Block. It had an operational lifecycle from 1940 to 1975 and its neighbor from 1913 to 1940 or just over 60 years for the pair of movie houses. Movies were also shown sporadically by traveling exhibitors at The Akron Opera House beginning in 1907.

The new Streamline Moderne style theatre was announced in September of 1940 and would displace W.W. Burrill & Sons men’s and boys' clothing store. Peter Boe got $10 and a three-month pass for spelling Akron backwards leading to the Norka Theatre moniker. (In Akron, Ohio, a Norka Theatre had a 30 year head start.) The Empress Theatre closed on November 21, 1940 by Melvin V. and Ida Smith who had taken over the venue in 1936. The projector was moved over from the Empress Theatre to the New Norka Theatre which was launched by on November 23, 1940 with Gloria Jean in “A Little Bit of Heaven”.

The projection was upgraded on August 15, 1945 with Super Simplex projection, Four Star Sound, and a new 10' by 16' plastic screen presenting “Sunday Dinner for a Solider”. Ida Smith operated the venue after Melvin’s passing. She then sublet it to Daryl Port, Alfred Klemme and Clifford Shearon in 1955. The venue then celebrated its 15th Anniversary in style after Shearon refreshed the venue with widescreen projection to present CinemaScope titles. The first of those was on November 24, 1955 with James Stewart in “The Man from Laramie”.

The Norka Theatre outlasted the vast majority of sub-1,500 resident Iowa town’s movie houses. It closed on February 12, 1975 with Larry Mahan as “The Great American Cowboy”. Vivian and Don McPherson’s McPherson’s Variety Store, which had moved into the Empress space, expanded into the Norka Theatre converting it back to a retail operation and combing 233 and 239 Reed Street into a single building. The marquee was removed in May of 1975 and the expanded McPherson’s opened on December of 1975. It closed in 1983 but the building was still around in the 2020’s.

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