Crystal Theatre

Joe Vogel on December 29, 2012 at 8:17 pm

So far, the only early trade journal reference I’ve found to movie theaters in Towanda, Kansas, is this item from the January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World:

“Towanda, Kan. —Towanda is soon to have another picture show building. Joel Davis is planning a new brick theater building on Main street.”

As the Crystal was in a bank building, and Mr. Davis was planning what sounds like a dedicated theater building, his project probably wasn’t the Crystal, but as it also sound as though Towanda already had a t least one theater in operation, perhaps that one was the Crystal. The bank building does look as though it could date from before 1918, and Crystal was a very popular name for theaters in the 1910s.