Princess Theatre
Ossian,
IA
52161
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Map
Additional Info
Previous Names: Majestic Theatre, Picture Show
Nearby Theaters
No theaters found within 30 miles
Opened as the Majestic Theatre on April 17, 1913., it was renamed Princess Theatre on September 29, 1917 screening “Womanhood, the Glory of the Nation” starring Alice Joyce. It was briefly known as the Picture Show in 1929. It was closed on August 4, 1929 with Richard Dix in Redskin". Listed as not wired for sound in the Film Daily Yearbook’s of 1931 & 1932.
Contributed by
Anthony L. Vazquez-Hernandez
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
The November 3, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture World said: “OSSIAN, IA. — Majestic theater is being remodeled and will be reopened under the name of Princess.”
Ossian had an 350-seat Opera House, built in 1893 and still in use after having been renovated and converted into a Knights of Columbus facility in 1956. I don’t know if it ever served as a movie theater.
Ossian did get a new movie house called the Ossian Theatre in 1939 or 1940, noted in the January 6, 1940 issue of Boxoffice as “…the first new house in this town in 10 years.”
The Majestic Theatre was opened by Mr. Carson with motion pictures accompanied by a Deckert piano on April 17, 1913. The grand reopening of the Majestic turned Princess Theatre occurred on September 29, 1917 with “Womanhood" and new Powers film projectors.
L.E. Palmer closed the Princess Theatre permanently on August 4, 1929 with Richard Dix in “Red Skin.” He cited the lack of patronage for silent films as the reason and there was competition just about ten miles away where the Postville Theatre had talkies. The Princess Theatre heatre was dismantled in early January with the seating and equipment moved to a nearby town’s theater.
This has to have been the Opera House. There’s no other theater shown on the 1914 map.
The Opera House is now a Knights of Columbus lodge hall, and is listed on the NRHP. The nomination form has a brief history of the theater and doesn’t mention it ever having operated as a movie house.
Ossian isn’t listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, and doesn’t appear in the FDY until 1928, when a 190-seat house called the Picture Show appears. That’s quite a bit smaller than the Opera House. The Picture Show listing repeats in 1929, and then vanishes. I suspect that the first instance of the Majestic simply didn’t last long enough to be listed on the 1914 map. It might have operated in more than one storefront over the years, as many early theaters did.
The 1914 map is from February, so the first instance must have been very brief. The only vacant buildings on that map are two very small wooden shacks, so if it was elsewhere, it had already been replaced. The impression the 1917 article gives is that it was still known as the Majestic, and had only just closed for remodeling.