The reopening of the Colby Theatre was to take place on Wednesday, October 27, 1971 according to the October 25 issue of Boxoffice. The opening feature was to be “Big Jake” with John Wayne. Seating capacity was now 430. The house had opened thirty years earlier, in 1941. A notice that construction on the original project was underway had appeared in the January 4, 1941 issue of Motion Picture Herald.
The Lyric might not have appeared on the 1918 map, but an earlier Lyric Theatre operated in Colby. The April 29, 1916 Moving Picture World said that J. P. Phillips, manager of the Lyric Theatre at Colby, would soon open another house, also to be called the Lyric, at Selden, Kansas.
Interestingly, the name Phillips is still associated with the later Lyric in this item from the January 4, 1941 Motion Picture Herald: “DON PHILLIPS who operates the Lyric at Colby, Kan., is building a new house there.”
Don Phillips was mentioned in the July 17, 1948 issue of Boxoffice as operator of the Lyric and Colby theaters in Colby, Kansas. As late as 1972 he was still being mentioned in Boxoffice as the owner of the Colby Theatre.
An item datelined Colby in the March 4, 1950 issue of Boxoffice said that the 350-car drive-in being built for Don Phillips was slated to open on May 23. The project had been designed by architect Truman Schlupp of Kansas City. I haven’t been able to discover if the target date for completion was met.
Here is something from the Hutchinson News of September 20, 1949: “Lakin Theater Changes Hands
“Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Johnson have purchased the Lakin theater here from Fred Munson, builder. Included in the transaction is the building which houses the movie, Brehm’s store, and the apartment above the two business locations.
“Munson built the theater less than three years ago and leased the other location to Brehm while operating the movie house himself. Johnson has been engaged in aerial crop spraying operations in Kearny and surrounding counties the past two years. He plans to continue this business during the spring and summer seasons while also operating the theater.”
The Kearny County Museum has a bit more information in a June, 2023 post on their web site: “The Lakin Theatre building on the east side of South Main was completed in 1947 by Fred Munson. He finished the building next door at 108 S. Main in early 1948, leasing it to Howard Brehm who operated Brehm’s Department Store there. The last business to operate at this site was Jim Powers’ barber shop.”
Jerry Johnson and the Lakin Theatre were mentioned in the December 16, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. He attended an exhibitors convention in Kansas City in 1954, noted in the May 15 issue of Boxoffice. An obituary for Gerald Lee Johnson says that he “…ran the Lakin Theater for many years….”
Here is the only trade journal reference to the Electric I’ve been able to unearth so far, from the November 10, 1917 Moving Picture World: “Lakin, Kan.—Frank Weber has been making some improvements in the Electric theater.”
The NRHP registration form for the Great Bend Central Business District says that the Plaza Theatre building was built in 1916 for Louis Zutavern, a member of an influential local family. It doesn’t give the name under which the house originally operated, but says that by 1920 it was operating as the Weber Theatre. By 1930 it had become the Plaza.
The Plaza was one of the earliest theaters in the Commonwealth chain, and remained in operation as part of the chain at least as late as 1954. I haven’t found a closing date, but it was definitely closed, yet still remembered and perhaps still intact, in 1968, when the September 11 Great Bend Tribune made reference to “…Republican headquarters, formerly the Plaza Theater.”
Sanborn maps from 1913 and 1927 show the McFerren Opera House upstairs at 224-226 Main Street. The 1904-1905 Cahn guide lists it as the New McFerren Opera House with 1000 seats, while the 1884 Harry Miner guide lists a smaller McFerren’s with only 600 seats and a much smaller stage. I would presume that the original house was probably replaced early in the 20th century. By 1913 the Cahn guide is calling it simply McFerren Opera House, with no “New.”
A letter from Herbert Walsh, projectionist at the Lorraine Theatre, was published in the May 13, 1922 issue of Motion Picture News, in which Walsh said that the house had opened on March 6.
Descriptions of the Lorraine’s original configuration indicate that it had a section of stadium seating, with entrance to the auditorium from the lobby through a passage at the center to a broad cross aisle. The description reminded me of the theaters C. Howard Crain had been designing in Detroit in the late 1910s, made me wonder if he had been the architect of the Lorraine. So far I haven’t found any evidence that he was, but it’s an interesting possibility.
Hoopeston had an earlier Princess Theater, listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD along with houses called the Colonial and the Virginian. The latter was the only one with an address listed, that being 310 E. Main Street. The Virginian and McFerren’s Opera House are the only theaters appearing on the 1913 Sanborn map of Hoopeston. An August 14, 1915 item and a May 20, 1916 item in Moving Picture World mention the Princess and a house called the Lyric at Hoopeston.
Okay, here is information about the first Princess from the July 3, 1909 issue of The Billboard. An item says that the Princess Amusement Company of Chicago had taken control of the Virginian Theatre at Hoopeston and it would be operated as a first class vaudeville and motion picture house called the Princess. This doesn’t explain the double listing of the Princess and Virginian in the 1914-1915 AMPD, but maybe it does explain why only the one theater (other than McFerren’s) appears on the 1913 Sanborn. The Colonial and the Lyric remain complete mysteries.
This is from a list of historic businesses in Akron: “Swastika Theatre. Located in 1919, at 110 W. Rochester St., next to hardware. Theatre owned by Clarence Erb and Horace LaRue, who sold it in 1919 to Karl B. Gast, who moved it to the E side of Mishawaka St., middle of first block N of Rochester St., and renamed it Argonne Theatre. During the thirties, name was changed to Madrid Theatre. Closed in 1957. Furniture store opened same location in 1959.”
A thumbnail biography of Karl Gast published in 1923 described the Argonne Theatre as “…one of the most commodious moving picture theaters in the county, with a seating capacity for 315 people.” The Argonne was the only theater listed at Akron in the 1926 FDY.
Here is what became of the first Kai-Gee Theatre, according to the January 5, 1914 Rochester Sentinel: “John and Milton Felts have rented the room formerly occupied by the K. G. theater and will open an up-to-date pool and billiard hall. The front is now being torn out and carpenters expect to have the building ready in two weeks.”
This item is from a compendium of excerpts from newspaper articles about various Fulton County towns:
“In the corner room of the Odd Fellows Building, Fred Wilson operated a hardware store and the location later housed the Earle Theatre, one of Rochester’s earliest movie houses where you could see a ‘feature’ for a five-cent piece. The Earle Theatre brought Rochester its first mechanical talking pictures. Adjoining the theatre, Al Fristoe operated Rochester’s earliest ‘five and 10 cent’ store in what is now the north half of the Kroger market.
[Earle A. Miller, The News-Sentinel, Monday, July 14, 1958]”
The 1907 (April) and 1913 Sanborn maps identify the building on northwest corner of 9th and Main as the location of the IOOF lodge, so we do have have the right location for the theater. It is clear that the building did not burn down, so obviously the theater simply got burned out.
One of the unidentified theaters in Rochester might have been a house called the Star, which was the subject of several newspaper articles in the Rochester Sentinel. It’s first appearance was in an ad on March 23, 1910, and the last an item on June 7, 1912, but given this building’s history as a buggy repository, and the theater’s appearance on the 1907 Sanborn, this one is more likely the house mentioned in this item from the July 15, 1907 issue of the Sentinel: “John Fieser will move his stock of buggies back into the room occupied by the Theatorium.”
The Star Theatre, at Toledo and Wayne streets, is listed at Fremont in the 1914-1915 AMPD. The 1914 Sanborn map of Fremont shows “Moving Pictures” in the third storefront east of Wayne Street on the north side of Toledo Street. The building is still standing, with Masonic symbols on it and the name “North Eastern Lodge.” A Google Street View notation says “Permanently Closed.” The address is 105 Toledo Street.
A house called the Lyric was still in operation at Mineral Point in 1914, listed on High Street in the AMPD. It was the only theater listed for the town.
In 1912, L. C. Stevens was manager of the Crescent Theatre. His letter to the IMP film company, dated February 8, 1912, was printed in the March 2 issue of the company’s magazine, The Implet.
Although the Star Theatre was not one of the three houses listed at Ann Arbor in the 1914-1915 AMPD, it remained in operation following the riot in 1910. The Star’s manager, B. E. Reynolds, wrote a letter dated February 2, 1912, to The Implet, the magazine published by the IMP film company, and it was printed in the March 2nd issue.
A letter from J. H. Grady of the Lyric Theatre, Sumter, S. C., appeared in the February 24, 1912 issue of The Implet, the magazine published by the IMP (Independent Moving Pictures) films company. Mr. Grady was offering praise for the company’s films, especially one called “From the Bottom of the Sea” which he singled out as “…one of the best and most instructive films ever shown here.”
IMP had been founded in 1909 by Carl Laemmle as one of the independent production companies operating in defiance of the Motion Picture Patents Company, the trust controlled by the Edison interests, which since being formed in 1908 had attempted to establish a lasting monopoly over the movie industry. In 1912 Laemmle formed the Universal Film Company, into which IMP was folded, though the name remained in use for some time as a brand under Universal’s control.
Although the Colonial Theatre with its (mostly) Romanesque Revival style building did look like something that would have been built in the 19th century, it was in fact erected in 1900 as the Florence City Hall, with municipal offices in the front, the police station at the rear, and a public auditorium in between. The auditorium was leased to various operators, and from 1911 to 1919 it came under the control of J. M. O'Dowd. It was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD as the Auditorium, but often appeared in trade journals as the O'Dowd Theatre or O'Dowd’s Theatre.
In 1919, O'Dowd lost the lease on the auditorium to rivals Schnibben and Howard. The Schnibben family operated the house for decades and eventually took over the other theaters in Florence as well. By 1926 it was listed in the FDY as the Opera House, a name it still bore in 1929, but by 1933 it had been renamed the Colonial.
The 1933 newspaper article claiming that the second O'Dowd Theatre was built in 1913 was mistaken. No theaters are located on South Dargan Street on the 1918 Sanborn map of Florence, and the Auditorium on W. Evans Street is still clearly labeled O'Dowd Theatre. The Carolina Theatre does appear on the 1924 Sanborn, and under that name, though the house is listed in the 1926 FDY as the O'Dowd, while the former O'Dowd on Evans Street is listed as the Opera House.
Mr. J. M. O'Dowd held the lease on the auditorium in the Florence City Hall from 1911 to 1919, when it was lost in a competitive bid to a rival. It appears that Mr. O'Dowd built his new house on Dargan Street following that event, and a 2024 article about the theater in the local Post and Courier does say that the Carolina opened in 1919 as O'Dowd’s Theatre. O'Dowd ran the theater until 1933, when he sold it to the Schnibben family, the rivals who had outbid him for the lease on the auditorium in 1919.
The Imp Theatre was still in operation in 1921, as noted in this item from the November 5 issue of Moving Picture World: “C. Fred Garwood, formerly of Fredonia, Kan., has bought the Imp Theatre at Syracuse, Kan., from H. H. Beebe, opening his new house on October 11. The Imp seats 249.”
I haven’t found any more references to a new theater being opened by Mr. Beebe, but a newspaper article from earlier in 1921 indicates that he was then operating the Imp Theatre and ice cream parlor, which seems to me a strong indication that this house at 12 Main Street was indeed the Imp, as the Sanborn map indicates that it was a theater and confectionary.
In a letter published in The Implet (a house organ of the IMP moving picture company) and dated February, 1912, Mr. W. T. Frayback, manager of the Imp Theatre at Syracuse, Kansas, says that he had been using IMP movies since “last May” and was very pleased with them. It would appear that this house opened, or at least adopted the name Imp Theatre, in May, 1911.
The December 3, 1949 issue of Boxoffice had an article about the dismantling of the Rio Theatre. It said that the Rio had been closed since the opening of the new Charm Theatre, which had taken place in November, 1948.
The December 11, 1948 issue of Boxoffice noted the recent opening of the Charm Theatre in Payette, Idaho, but did not give the exact date. The 680-seat house had been designed by Fruitland, Idaho architect I. C. Whitley for owner William B. Blackaby. I haven’t found a closing date, but the obituary of a woman born in 1945 said that in her youth she had worked at the theater’s candy counter and in the ticket booth, so it had to have been open at least into the early 1960s.
The October 8, 1949 issue of Boxoffice reported that the Cimarron Theatre at Cimarron, Kansas, owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Blakeman, would close for a month for modernization. The $8,000 project would include new restrooms and improvements to the front of the house.
The Cimarron was back in Boxoffice on August 4, 1951, which said that the Blakemans had bought the house back from Mr. and Mrs. John Boehm, to whom they had sold it the previous August.
An F. D. Morris of the Iris Theatre, Cimarron, Kansas, authored three capsule movie reviews that were published in the March 3, 1928 issue of Movie Age. That’s pretty much all I’ve been able to find about Cimarron in the trade journals until the 1940s. I have found the Iris Theatre mentioned in the newspaper as early as September, 1920.
Oddly, Maggie Valentine’s history of movie theater architecture “The Show Starts On the Sidewalk” includes a small photo of Hopper’s Opera House in Cimarron, ca.1911, but doesn’t say anything about that house running movies.
The reopening of the Colby Theatre was to take place on Wednesday, October 27, 1971 according to the October 25 issue of Boxoffice. The opening feature was to be “Big Jake” with John Wayne. Seating capacity was now 430. The house had opened thirty years earlier, in 1941. A notice that construction on the original project was underway had appeared in the January 4, 1941 issue of Motion Picture Herald.
The Lyric might not have appeared on the 1918 map, but an earlier Lyric Theatre operated in Colby. The April 29, 1916 Moving Picture World said that J. P. Phillips, manager of the Lyric Theatre at Colby, would soon open another house, also to be called the Lyric, at Selden, Kansas.
Interestingly, the name Phillips is still associated with the later Lyric in this item from the January 4, 1941 Motion Picture Herald: “DON PHILLIPS who operates the Lyric at Colby, Kan., is building a new house there.”
Don Phillips was mentioned in the July 17, 1948 issue of Boxoffice as operator of the Lyric and Colby theaters in Colby, Kansas. As late as 1972 he was still being mentioned in Boxoffice as the owner of the Colby Theatre.
An item datelined Colby in the March 4, 1950 issue of Boxoffice said that the 350-car drive-in being built for Don Phillips was slated to open on May 23. The project had been designed by architect Truman Schlupp of Kansas City. I haven’t been able to discover if the target date for completion was met.
Here is something from the Hutchinson News of September 20, 1949: “Lakin Theater Changes Hands
“Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Johnson have purchased the Lakin theater here from Fred Munson, builder. Included in the transaction is the building which houses the movie, Brehm’s store, and the apartment above the two business locations.
“Munson built the theater less than three years ago and leased the other location to Brehm while operating the movie house himself. Johnson has been engaged in aerial crop spraying operations in Kearny and surrounding counties the past two years. He plans to continue this business during the spring and summer seasons while also operating the theater.”
The Kearny County Museum has a bit more information in a June, 2023 post on their web site: “The Lakin Theatre building on the east side of South Main was completed in 1947 by Fred Munson. He finished the building next door at 108 S. Main in early 1948, leasing it to Howard Brehm who operated Brehm’s Department Store there. The last business to operate at this site was Jim Powers’ barber shop.”
Jerry Johnson and the Lakin Theatre were mentioned in the December 16, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. He attended an exhibitors convention in Kansas City in 1954, noted in the May 15 issue of Boxoffice. An obituary for Gerald Lee Johnson says that he “…ran the Lakin Theater for many years….”
Here is the only trade journal reference to the Electric I’ve been able to unearth so far, from the November 10, 1917 Moving Picture World: “Lakin, Kan.—Frank Weber has been making some improvements in the Electric theater.”
The NRHP registration form for the Great Bend Central Business District says that the Plaza Theatre building was built in 1916 for Louis Zutavern, a member of an influential local family. It doesn’t give the name under which the house originally operated, but says that by 1920 it was operating as the Weber Theatre. By 1930 it had become the Plaza.
The Plaza was one of the earliest theaters in the Commonwealth chain, and remained in operation as part of the chain at least as late as 1954. I haven’t found a closing date, but it was definitely closed, yet still remembered and perhaps still intact, in 1968, when the September 11 Great Bend Tribune made reference to “…Republican headquarters, formerly the Plaza Theater.”
Sanborn maps from 1913 and 1927 show the McFerren Opera House upstairs at 224-226 Main Street. The 1904-1905 Cahn guide lists it as the New McFerren Opera House with 1000 seats, while the 1884 Harry Miner guide lists a smaller McFerren’s with only 600 seats and a much smaller stage. I would presume that the original house was probably replaced early in the 20th century. By 1913 the Cahn guide is calling it simply McFerren Opera House, with no “New.”
A letter from Herbert Walsh, projectionist at the Lorraine Theatre, was published in the May 13, 1922 issue of Motion Picture News, in which Walsh said that the house had opened on March 6.
Descriptions of the Lorraine’s original configuration indicate that it had a section of stadium seating, with entrance to the auditorium from the lobby through a passage at the center to a broad cross aisle. The description reminded me of the theaters C. Howard Crain had been designing in Detroit in the late 1910s, made me wonder if he had been the architect of the Lorraine. So far I haven’t found any evidence that he was, but it’s an interesting possibility.
Hoopeston had an earlier Princess Theater, listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD along with houses called the Colonial and the Virginian. The latter was the only one with an address listed, that being 310 E. Main Street. The Virginian and McFerren’s Opera House are the only theaters appearing on the 1913 Sanborn map of Hoopeston. An August 14, 1915 item and a May 20, 1916 item in Moving Picture World mention the Princess and a house called the Lyric at Hoopeston.
Okay, here is information about the first Princess from the July 3, 1909 issue of The Billboard. An item says that the Princess Amusement Company of Chicago had taken control of the Virginian Theatre at Hoopeston and it would be operated as a first class vaudeville and motion picture house called the Princess. This doesn’t explain the double listing of the Princess and Virginian in the 1914-1915 AMPD, but maybe it does explain why only the one theater (other than McFerren’s) appears on the 1913 Sanborn. The Colonial and the Lyric remain complete mysteries.
This is from a list of historic businesses in Akron: “Swastika Theatre. Located in 1919, at 110 W. Rochester St., next to hardware. Theatre owned by Clarence Erb and Horace LaRue, who sold it in 1919 to Karl B. Gast, who moved it to the E side of Mishawaka St., middle of first block N of Rochester St., and renamed it Argonne Theatre. During the thirties, name was changed to Madrid Theatre. Closed in 1957. Furniture store opened same location in 1959.”
A thumbnail biography of Karl Gast published in 1923 described the Argonne Theatre as “…one of the most commodious moving picture theaters in the county, with a seating capacity for 315 people.” The Argonne was the only theater listed at Akron in the 1926 FDY.
Here is what became of the first Kai-Gee Theatre, according to the January 5, 1914 Rochester Sentinel: “John and Milton Felts have rented the room formerly occupied by the K. G. theater and will open an up-to-date pool and billiard hall. The front is now being torn out and carpenters expect to have the building ready in two weeks.”
This item is from a compendium of excerpts from newspaper articles about various Fulton County towns:
The 1907 (April) and 1913 Sanborn maps identify the building on northwest corner of 9th and Main as the location of the IOOF lodge, so we do have have the right location for the theater. It is clear that the building did not burn down, so obviously the theater simply got burned out.One of the unidentified theaters in Rochester might have been a house called the Star, which was the subject of several newspaper articles in the Rochester Sentinel. It’s first appearance was in an ad on March 23, 1910, and the last an item on June 7, 1912, but given this building’s history as a buggy repository, and the theater’s appearance on the 1907 Sanborn, this one is more likely the house mentioned in this item from the July 15, 1907 issue of the Sentinel: “John Fieser will move his stock of buggies back into the room occupied by the Theatorium.”
The Star Theatre, at Toledo and Wayne streets, is listed at Fremont in the 1914-1915 AMPD. The 1914 Sanborn map of Fremont shows “Moving Pictures” in the third storefront east of Wayne Street on the north side of Toledo Street. The building is still standing, with Masonic symbols on it and the name “North Eastern Lodge.” A Google Street View notation says “Permanently Closed.” The address is 105 Toledo Street.
A house called the Lyric was still in operation at Mineral Point in 1914, listed on High Street in the AMPD. It was the only theater listed for the town.
In 1912, L. C. Stevens was manager of the Crescent Theatre. His letter to the IMP film company, dated February 8, 1912, was printed in the March 2 issue of the company’s magazine, The Implet.
Although the Star Theatre was not one of the three houses listed at Ann Arbor in the 1914-1915 AMPD, it remained in operation following the riot in 1910. The Star’s manager, B. E. Reynolds, wrote a letter dated February 2, 1912, to The Implet, the magazine published by the IMP film company, and it was printed in the March 2nd issue.
A letter from J. H. Grady of the Lyric Theatre, Sumter, S. C., appeared in the February 24, 1912 issue of The Implet, the magazine published by the IMP (Independent Moving Pictures) films company. Mr. Grady was offering praise for the company’s films, especially one called “From the Bottom of the Sea” which he singled out as “…one of the best and most instructive films ever shown here.”
IMP had been founded in 1909 by Carl Laemmle as one of the independent production companies operating in defiance of the Motion Picture Patents Company, the trust controlled by the Edison interests, which since being formed in 1908 had attempted to establish a lasting monopoly over the movie industry. In 1912 Laemmle formed the Universal Film Company, into which IMP was folded, though the name remained in use for some time as a brand under Universal’s control.
Although the Colonial Theatre with its (mostly) Romanesque Revival style building did look like something that would have been built in the 19th century, it was in fact erected in 1900 as the Florence City Hall, with municipal offices in the front, the police station at the rear, and a public auditorium in between. The auditorium was leased to various operators, and from 1911 to 1919 it came under the control of J. M. O'Dowd. It was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD as the Auditorium, but often appeared in trade journals as the O'Dowd Theatre or O'Dowd’s Theatre.
In 1919, O'Dowd lost the lease on the auditorium to rivals Schnibben and Howard. The Schnibben family operated the house for decades and eventually took over the other theaters in Florence as well. By 1926 it was listed in the FDY as the Opera House, a name it still bore in 1929, but by 1933 it had been renamed the Colonial.
The 1933 newspaper article claiming that the second O'Dowd Theatre was built in 1913 was mistaken. No theaters are located on South Dargan Street on the 1918 Sanborn map of Florence, and the Auditorium on W. Evans Street is still clearly labeled O'Dowd Theatre. The Carolina Theatre does appear on the 1924 Sanborn, and under that name, though the house is listed in the 1926 FDY as the O'Dowd, while the former O'Dowd on Evans Street is listed as the Opera House.
Mr. J. M. O'Dowd held the lease on the auditorium in the Florence City Hall from 1911 to 1919, when it was lost in a competitive bid to a rival. It appears that Mr. O'Dowd built his new house on Dargan Street following that event, and a 2024 article about the theater in the local Post and Courier does say that the Carolina opened in 1919 as O'Dowd’s Theatre. O'Dowd ran the theater until 1933, when he sold it to the Schnibben family, the rivals who had outbid him for the lease on the auditorium in 1919.
The Imp Theatre was still in operation in 1921, as noted in this item from the November 5 issue of Moving Picture World: “C. Fred Garwood, formerly of Fredonia, Kan., has bought the Imp Theatre at Syracuse, Kan., from H. H. Beebe, opening his new house on October 11. The Imp seats 249.”
I haven’t found any more references to a new theater being opened by Mr. Beebe, but a newspaper article from earlier in 1921 indicates that he was then operating the Imp Theatre and ice cream parlor, which seems to me a strong indication that this house at 12 Main Street was indeed the Imp, as the Sanborn map indicates that it was a theater and confectionary.
In a letter published in The Implet (a house organ of the IMP moving picture company) and dated February, 1912, Mr. W. T. Frayback, manager of the Imp Theatre at Syracuse, Kansas, says that he had been using IMP movies since “last May” and was very pleased with them. It would appear that this house opened, or at least adopted the name Imp Theatre, in May, 1911.
The December 3, 1949 issue of Boxoffice had an article about the dismantling of the Rio Theatre. It said that the Rio had been closed since the opening of the new Charm Theatre, which had taken place in November, 1948.
The December 11, 1948 issue of Boxoffice noted the recent opening of the Charm Theatre in Payette, Idaho, but did not give the exact date. The 680-seat house had been designed by Fruitland, Idaho architect I. C. Whitley for owner William B. Blackaby. I haven’t found a closing date, but the obituary of a woman born in 1945 said that in her youth she had worked at the theater’s candy counter and in the ticket booth, so it had to have been open at least into the early 1960s.
The October 8, 1949 issue of Boxoffice reported that the Cimarron Theatre at Cimarron, Kansas, owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Blakeman, would close for a month for modernization. The $8,000 project would include new restrooms and improvements to the front of the house.
The Cimarron was back in Boxoffice on August 4, 1951, which said that the Blakemans had bought the house back from Mr. and Mrs. John Boehm, to whom they had sold it the previous August.
An F. D. Morris of the Iris Theatre, Cimarron, Kansas, authored three capsule movie reviews that were published in the March 3, 1928 issue of Movie Age. That’s pretty much all I’ve been able to find about Cimarron in the trade journals until the 1940s. I have found the Iris Theatre mentioned in the newspaper as early as September, 1920.
Oddly, Maggie Valentine’s history of movie theater architecture “The Show Starts On the Sidewalk” includes a small photo of Hopper’s Opera House in Cimarron, ca.1911, but doesn’t say anything about that house running movies.