Holiday Theatre

Like many downtowns, Omaha had many memorable movie theatres. The diminutive venue at 516 N. 16th Street at the corner of Cass Street was not one of them. Opened in the Nickelodeon era back in the first decade of the 20th Century, the Park Theatre competed with such venues as the Cameraphone Theatre and the Parlor Theatre. It operated in the former home of the Sixteenth Street Bank which had opened there in 1886 before it moved at the terminus of a 10-year lease. The Park Theatre wasn’t money becoming an early casualty in Omaha’s nickelodeon boom. According to reports, theatre was retrofitted as an old west shooting gallery in 1910.

The shooting gallery fad faded quickly and $4,300 was spent by the operators of the Cameraphone Theatre at 14th Street and Douglas Street to re-convert the property back to the Park Theatre in 1911. That retrofit had fixed seating and a sloped floor with pricing for movies still just a nickel. The ‘new’ Park Theatre launched September 8, 1911. Effie D. and Charles E. Williams took on the venue in 1915 operating the Park Theatre with just 250-seats as other, larger theatres were just blocks away in the heart of downtown Omaha. The Williams would operate the venue for the next 25 years and would also operate the nearby Victoria Theatre.

The Park Theatre scuffled in the late-1920' s becoming known briefly as the Cosmopolitan Theatre signing an agreement with Cosmopolitan Productions Studio - though still retaining silent film. The venue had the distinction of being Omaha’s only silent film theatre with all of the other major and neighborhood theatres making the conversion to sound by Fall of 1930. That was not the distinction a theatre owner wanted in the 1930’s, however.

The Williams signed a deal with Tiffany Studios to play that company’s sound films and likely received some payment and/or expertise to assist in equipping their venerable Park Theatre with sound. After a brief closure, the Park Theatre reopened on October 9, 1930 with Wheeler and Woolsey in “The Cuckoos". Effie Williams died in January of 1940 and the theatre found new operators. The theatre rebooted with an improved sound system as the Cass Theater on August 18, 1940 with Jack Benny in “Buck Benny Rides Again” and Glenn Ford in “Men Without Souls".

The Cass Theater under Lawrence and Millard Krasne of Council Bluffs was a third-tier double-feature sub-run house. It was later closed by the City of Omaha’s inspection unit as a fire hazard following showings of “The Webb” and “Arizona Trial” on February 17, 1948. And after some forty years of operation, one could have assumed that it was all over for the undersized, former Park Theatre turned Cass Theater. But new operator Jack Holiday took on the venue on May 7, 1949 briefly retaining the Cass moniker until the new marquee renaming it as the Holiday Theatre arrived.

The operation resumed under the Holiday banner on July 7, 1949 with James Cagney in “Each Dawn I Die” and Barbara Britton in “Mr. Reckless”. And though Jack Holiday had relaunched after making necessary repairs, a December 11, 1949 fire caused by substandard wiring of the popcorn machine caused major damage to the venue and some questioned the level of the repair work in the upgraded facility.

Holiday got a permit to restore and upgrade the theatre. The theatre reopened. And the operator was nice enough to let a couple sleep on mattresses in the aisle of the theatre after closing time as they were evicted from their apartment. That decision almost turned fatal as fire ended the operation on March 1, 1950. The final showtimes were Clark Cable in “Command Decision” and Lionel Barrymore in “Some of the Best” on February 28, 1950. Not long after the final showtime and the couple moving their mattresses in for a night’s sleep, fire broke out once again. Omaha firefighters used gas masks to rescue the couple.

A month later, fire at the adjoining California Hotel followed by a second and fatal fire at that same building in Christmas of 1950 solidified the Holiday’s permanent closure. The building became home to a Dixie Cream Donut franchise but was later demolished. If remembered at all, the former nickelodeon-era Park Theatre would be labeled as a survivor of more than 40 years existing on the periphery of downtown Omaha. And, under its. final operator, all known pictures of the Holiday Theatre appear to have smoke, flames, and/or associated damage as the result of its brief operational lifecycle.

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