Playhouse Theater
831 42nd Street,
Des Moines,
IA
50312
831 42nd Street,
Des Moines,
IA
50312
No one has favorited this theater yet
Related Websites
Playhouse Theater (Official)
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Tri-City Theaters
Functions: Live Theater
Styles: Spanish Colonial
Previous Names: Roosevelt Theater, Des Moines Community Playhouse
Phone Numbers:
Box Office:
515.277.6261
Nearby Theaters
The Roosevelt Theatre was opened December 23, 1934 with Pauline Lord in “Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch”. It closed as a movie theatre on July 9, 1952 with Donald O'Connor in “Francis Goes to West Point”. On January 11, 1953 it was taken over by the Des Moines Community Playhouse. The entrance and building are all in flat stone. It was also where I had my first job.
Contributed by
Swede Blue
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 4 comments)
1015 42nd Street is the wrong address for this theater. On Google Maps, this address shows up in the middle of a residential district with houses that must have been built in the 1920s at the latest.
The current occupant of the Roosevelt Theatre is the playhouse Lost Memory linked to above, at 831 42nd Street. That was the address given for the Roosevelt Theatre in a Boxoffice Magazine item of January 6, 1951, at the time the building was sold to the little theatre group that eventually moved into it. However, Google Maps fetches up a couple of hundred feet south of the building when you use that address.
The Roosevelt Shopping Center in the 1935 photo has been replaced by a modern strip mall. The theater’s entrance arch seen in the photo is also gone, but there is still matching stone on the facade of the theater itself, which is set back from the street behind a small parking area.
The June 21, 1952, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Roosevelt Theatre would be taken over by the Community Drama Association in July, and would reopen as their playhouse after some remodeling. The last operator of the Roosevelt as a movie house was Tri-States Theatres.
Google Street View (click “full screen” icon upper right of view to embiggen.)
December 23rd, 1934 grand opening ad in photo section.
Linkrot repair: Roosevelt Theatre photos from Boxoffice of August 5, 1950.
The Roosevelt Shopping Center opened theatre-less on September 9, 1933. An independent theater proposed the addition of a theater at the far end of the complex but zoning issues hampered the project. The delay in zoning allowed A.H. Blank and Tri-Cities Theatres to become a partner and operator of the proposed Roosevelt Theater project with Blank adding air conditioning and other elements including its steel frame tripling the project’s budget which ultimately paid out nicely. The Roosevelt Theater’s architecture matched the Spanish Colonial theme of its center upon opening on Christmas Day 1934 with “Mrs. Wiggs and the Cabbage Patch.”
The local Drama Association was ready to move from the Kendall Playhouse and purchased the building. They would move in once the December 1954 leases with Tri-Cities expired. Fortunately, the Roosevelt Theatre played Francis, the Talking Mule in “Francis Goes to West Point” on July 9, 1952. Francis got to the military academy and said, “The Roosevelt closed permanently after that showing. I didn’t think my film was that bad.” Co-star Donald O'Connor assured the animal thespian that it was, indeed, that bad.
Tri-Cities let Des Moines Community Drama take over the venue 18 months early and only after it removed the screen, projectors, and other movie related equipment from the building. The venue reopened for live plays January 11, 1953 as the Des Moines Community Playhouse. It continues as the Playhouse Theatre in contemporary times. Des Moines movie fans have yet to forgive Francis, however.