Idaho Theatre
130 Shoshone Street E,
Twin Falls,
ID
83301
130 Shoshone Street E,
Twin Falls,
ID
83301
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: ABC Theatres, Intermountain Theatres
Architects: Slack W. Winburn
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Nearby Theaters
The Idaho Theatre was opened June 23, 1916. In many ways it was just as nice as Intermountain Theatres other house in town, the Orpheum Theatre, however, Intermountain played the top pictures in the more ornate Orpheum Theatre, which had a balcony and 258 more seats. A photograph published in The Idaho Stateman in 1978 shows a vintage 1923 facade, which was remodeled, together with the interior of the theatre in 1941 to the plans of architect Slack Winburn, giving a more modern front and marquee so familiar to moviegoers in its later years. Intermountain always kept both theatres immaculately clean and maintained.
Intermountain Theatres was for many years a division of American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres. The late John Krier, its vice president and general manager, would go on to found the respected box office tracking firm, Exhibitor Relations.
Intermountain Theatres, which also operated theatres in Boise, should not be confused with Fox-Intermountain, which operated theatres in Pocatello, Idaho Falls, and Sun Valley.
The Idaho Theatre was demolished during the downtown’s urban renewal in the early-1970’s while the Orpheum Theatre is still open and showing movies. A bank and parking lot currently occupies the location.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Information on the organ:
View link
Ron,thanks for adding the Idaho Theatre to the Cinema Treasures list. I grew up in Twin Falls and have fond memories of both the Orpheum and the Idaho. I worked at both theaters while I was in high school. The Idaho did play — rarely — some A-list films, including “South Pacific” and “West Side Story,” mainly because it had a slightly larger screen than the Orpheum (but it was never equipped for stereo sound).
For several years, there was also an “art movie” guild in Twin Falls which would schedule brief runs of films that would normally not play in the area — foreign films that were pretty important during that time period.
There was also another downtown theater — the Roxy — which was independently owned. I think the space was eventually turned into a shoe store, which was highly appropriate because the Roxy was pretty much a “shoebox” size theater. It was just up the street from the Orpheum.
This was during the time when most of the theaters played movies from specific studios. The Orphaum & Idaho played MGM, Paramount, Warners, and Universal-International. The Roxy, for the most part, played Columbia, RKO, Republic and Disney films.
I presume the Orpheum isn’t quite as beautiful as it once was, but I am glad that it has not been razed.
— Ivan M. Lincoln
Here is a 1968 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y9qlsdj
Photos of the Idaho Theatre from 1968 (one or the other of these is probably kencmcintyre’s dead link):
One
Two
Also, an undated photo of the Rialto Theatre (possibly Lost Memory’s dead link,) which was across the street from the Idaho, at 131 Shoshone Street East. The Rialto was originally the second Orpheum in Twin Falls, probably renamed when the third Orpheum opened in 1921. Here is is a photo of it as the Orpheum.
It’s possible that that the house at 131 was called the Idaho for a while before being called the Rialto, but houses called the Idaho and the Rialto were both in operation by 1927, so the theater at 130 must have been built by that year at the latest, and the house at 131 must have been renamed Rialto by then. It seems unlikely that the house at 130 was ever called the Rialto, though, so that aka should probably be removed from this page.
Thanks for the newspaper clippings about the Idaho Theatre you just uploaded to the photo section, OCRon. I was interrupted while writing my previous comment, so it sat on my computer for several hours before I finished it and posted it. (Maybe I should have re-checked the page for updates before posting.)
But the clippings confirm my suspicion that the Idaho was never called the Rialto, and as we now know that the Idaho opened in 1916, the Rialto must never have been called the Idaho, either.
Closed with “This is My Alaska” on January 20, 1970. It was demolished in February of 1970.