Theatre
408 4th Street,
Rockwell City,
IA
50579
408 4th Street,
Rockwell City,
IA
50579
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This theatre appears on the 1915 Sanborn, in a simple brick veneered wooden storefront. The only earlier map, from 1909, shows this as furniture and undertaking.
This may have been the Magic Theatre, or that may have been the other theatre shown on this map. The building was long ago demolished, and must have been just to the north of the two-story building in the middle of the block.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
Here is an item from the January 1912 issue of Motography: “The Magic Moving Picture Theater at Rockwell City will be greatly improved.”
Rockwell City is mentioned again in the June, 1912 issue of the same journal: “The Electric Theater at Rockwell City has been purchased by F. G. Winston, who will make improvements.”
I’ve been unable to determine if Electric Theater was an aka for the Magic Theater or was a rival house. The Magic Theatre was the only house listed at Rockwell City in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but listings in the directory were sometimes incomplete, so the Electric might still have been in operation then.
Also, the Magic Theatre was the only house listed at Rockwell City in the 1912 Polk Iowa State directory, where it was listed with 200 seats.
Look at the other building to see what you think, but a capacity of 200 for this one makes more sense to me.
200 seats would be an awfully tight squeeze for the building on Main Street.
My thought as well. That was probably an informal storefront operation. 100 tops is what I’d guess.