Mills Theater
Tama,
IA
52339
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Soleman's Opera House
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The 500-seat Soleman’s Opera House opened in the early-1880’s. By 1925 Frank Mills bought the house and renamed it eponymously. The theater was demolished in May 1969 after the building was sold to Phillips Petroleum.
Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
I think the Mills had once closed when a new theater, the Iuka, opened. Then, the Iuka burned and the Mills was reopened. The Mills was still operating in 1965, but I don’t know how much longer after that it was showing movies prior to being demolished.
Boxoffice of August 28, 1948 said that the Mills Theatre had served as Tama’s movie house since the destruction of the Iuka Theatre by a fire in December, 1944.
Multiple sources indicate that Soleman’s Opera House was opened in the early 1880s by Henry Soleman, the town’s first druggist. He managed the theater for over 25 years. The house was listed in earl 20th century Cahn guides as a 500-seat ground floor theater.
The Mills Theatre was operating as a movie house by 1925, when the September 12 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review noted that two theater operators from Osceola had recently “…purchased two movie houses at Tama, Iowa, the Ideal [sic] Hour and the Mills.”
The Idle Hour was the only theater listed at Tama in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.