Iris Theatre
15 S. Main Street,
Sapulpa,
OK
74066
15 S. Main Street,
Sapulpa,
OK
74066
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Phil Isley Theaters
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: St. Denis Theatre
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Built on the site of the Lyric Theatre which was destroyed by fire in June 1915. Sapulpa Argus' publisher James Dennis Flynn built the new St. Denis Theatre on March 5, 1917. The 650-seat theatre changed hands often in the silent era. Within three years the theatre passed from Flynn to to Merlin Sanders to Ted Mason to Moulder & Son to Mrs. W.E. Arthur of Kansas City.
In 1923, O.W. Harris took on the venue and sold it to I.A. Bower in 1925 who changed the name of the venue to the Iris Theatre. It was run by Miss Gene Williams. A strange case of arson took place that did not destroy the theatre which was then taken over by Bill Terry who sold it to Phil Isley in 1926. Isley sold it within a year to W.H. and R.M. Wood on October 21, 1927. A 1927 remodel brought sound to the venue but the theatre ended up in the hands of the Bank of Commerce. The Bank sold it that same year to back to Terry.
The Iris Theatre closed and was replaced by a retail establishment called the Home Appliance Store. The building was razed and has been replaced by a parking lot.
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dallasmovietheaters
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
The Iris might have been partly built on the site of a smaller house called the Lyric Theatre, which opened at 17 S. Main Street by 1911 and burned down in June, 1915. The Lyric appears on the April 1911 Sanborn map of Sapulpa, and its burned out site is noted on the August, 1915 map. Unfortunately, no later Sanborn maps of the town are available online.
One of the many transfers of the St Denis was noted in the August 2, 1919 Moving Picture World: “J. H. (Speedy) Molder, proprietor of theatres in Northern Oklahoma, has leased his St. Denis Theatre at Sapulpa to Miss M. A. Arnold.”