Star Theatre

Stories in the Salt Lake Tribune date the Gayety Theatre, as the Star Theatre was formerly called, back to at least 1915, when George Done managed it. The name was changed to the Star Theatre in 1922, a year after the death of Done.

A photograph and story of the demolition of the Star Theatre appeared in the Provo Daily Herald on August 12, 1959. The Herald noted that Charles Huish, the “Daddy Warbucks” of Payson, purchased the theater around 1935. Huish was also the former publisher of the Eureka Reporter and at one time the president of the Intermountain Theaters Association. A 1933 article in the Tribune said that Mr. Huish was protesting a state sales tax and said that unless it was amended he would consider getting out of the business. Mr. Huish died in 1946 and the Tribune’s obituary said that his theaters were located in the towns of Richfield, Mt. Pleasant, Fairview, Helper, Price, Payson, Spanish Fork, Santaquin and Eureka.

The new Huish Theatre, down the block from the Star Theatre, opened in April of 1949 but for a while both theaters operated at the same time. The reason for the demolition was that the Payson Chamber of Commerce had purchased the theater and land to build a parking lot on the site, located in 2011 next door to Downhill Cyclery.

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