Grand Theatre
308 S. Washington Street,
Remsen,
IA
51050
308 S. Washington Street,
Remsen,
IA
51050
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Grand Opera House
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This theatre was located in a large one-story wooden structure. The Grand Opera House was opened on October 30, 1911. 250-seat Grand Theatre was opened by 1926 and appears on the 1929 map. It seems to have been associated with a hall to the south.
The theatre remains in operation on the 1941 map, where it appears to have been clad in tin in the intervening years. The Grand Theatre was still open in 1943, but had closed by 1950.
It was demolished long ago, and the lot is currently the location of a supermarket.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The Grand Opera House opened its doors on October 30, 1911 with a special event led by the extinct Remsen Symphony Orchestra. It was renamed the Grand Theatre in 1933.
The December 27, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World has the first mention of Remsen I can find in the trade journals, but it is about a house called the Lyric Theatre, which was moving to a new location. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists a theater on Main Street in Remsen, but it is called the Mystic. The very first mentions of the Grand Opera House I’ve found are in three issues of Universal Weekly in 1918. The Grand is listed in the FDYs for 1926, 1928, and 1929, but for some reason Remsen gets skipped in the 1927 edition.
In 1927, Remsen had a house called the Falke Theatre. The February 26 Moving Picture World ran this item: “Ray and John Beck and Ray Wentz have turned over the Falke Theatre at Remsen, Iowa, which they have been operating for almost a year, to Henry Falke, owner of the theatre.” Originally the Falke Opera House, it dated from 1915 and occupied a two-story brick building at 16 E. 2nd Street, which was still standing in 2018. It was never listed in the FDY as far as I’ve seen, and the 1927 MPW item is the only mention of it I’ve found in theater trade journals, but the fact that it was mentioned that one time suggests that it could have been used for movies at least briefly.
Remsen’s theaters got next to no attention from the movie theater trade journals (and none at all that I’ve found in the theatrical publications such as the Cahn guides) before the Vogue opened, and even the Vogue didn’t get much.
Falke’s theater was on the second floor. The building housed his implement and auto sales operations. By 1929 it was a dance hall, which still had a stage, by 1941 it had become part of the dealership. For whatever stupid reason, I did not take a picture of it, even though I walked past it.
Falke’s is a nice looking building, but in satellite and Google street views I see no stage tower. I don’t see one in the 1938 view they have at Historic Aerials either. With such limited facilities, it’s not surprising that it didn’t rate a listing in the Cahn guides. I saw a photo of it from 2018 at Flickr, and the Google street view dates from 2012, and the building doesn’t appear to be in use in either of them. If it weren’t for the fact that the roof looks pretty good in the satellite view I’d fear it might not be around much longer.