Electric Theatre
South of bank,
Quapaw,
OK
74363
South of bank,
Quapaw,
OK
74363
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Following detail on the Electric Theatre comes courtesy of John Scherhrer;
‘I have just dug out my copy of the 1917 directory. There was an Electric Theater at Quapaw. I think that [theatre] burned in that big fire that wiped out all of those buildings South of the bank. I am just not quite old enough to remember for sure’.
Please let us hear from you if you know more about this Electric Theatre.
Contributed by
Jeff Chapman
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
This interting site has 1920s street views of Quapa;
http://schehrer2.homestead.com/Quapaw4.html
Cool name.Any photos?
Could the Electric Theatre have become the Palace?
A Palace Theatre at Quapaw was purchased by C.E. Barber in 1927, according to a line in a “Twenty Years Ago” feature in Boxoffice of February 15, 1947. Boxoffice of November 27, 1948, reported that an entire block of the business district of Quapaw had been destroyed by a fire that began in the Palace Theatre.
I’ve found Quapaw mentioned in Boxoffice only six times. Three mention the Palace, two others mention only C.E. Barber, and the May 10, 1947, issue mentions neither, but says that the Ryan Theatre at Quapaw was scheduled to open that day. The Ryan had previously operated as a 16mm house, but the item didn’t say what its name had been. The house had been converted into a 35mm theater by Alex Rowls, and it had 260 seats. That’s the sole mention of it in the magazine. Perhaps the Ryan was the Palace, and Mr. Rowls decided not to rename it after all? As far as I’ve been able to discover, Quapaw is never mentioned in Boxoffice after the 1948 item about the fire.
The Palace Theatre fire, which started there and destroyed what sounds like a full block of the business district, was written up in the Nov. 27, 1948 issue of Boxoffice.
I read the Oklahoma Historical Society’s page as saying that there was only one theater there. “In 1917 "new” town was incorporated as the town of Quapaw. Following the discovery of lead and zinc in surrounding areas, mining operators and thousands of miners moved to the region. Red Ike Bingham built the Palace Theater, a Masonic Hall, and the three-story Gateway Hotel."