Princess Theatre

1230 Washington Street,
Eldora, IA 50627

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on July 24, 2023 at 2:38 pm

Rats! I thought two of the theaters lately added were on Edgington Street, but I see that three were on Washington and the one added on Edgington was probably the Diamond. That means the Princess might have been in either this building or the one at 1217 Washington. So we still have no likely location for the Bijou, which an early reference in Moving Picture World (from January, 1911) indicates could have been Eldora’s first successful movie house.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on July 24, 2023 at 2:27 pm

The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists four movie houses at Eldora: The Diamond and the Bijou, both on Marion (now Edgington) Avenue, and a generically listed M. P. Theatre and a house called the Princess Theater, neither of which were listed with a location. I suspect that the generic M. P. Theatre was actually the Grand, which appears to have opened that year. It was on Marion Avenue, so the likely occupant of this building on Washington Street was the Princess.