Cantwell Theatre

The Snappy Theatre was created in an existing retail space on what was North Kansas Avenue and was the second movie theater in 1920’s Downtown Marceline. C.F. Rinear and O.B. Schnapp were in charge. The Snappy Theater opened on December 3, 1921 with William S. Hart’s “The Testing Block”. The venue had the advantage of being on the ground floor and was contracted to a block booking agreement with Paramount Studios.

A.B. Cantwell of the Cantwell Theatre in nearby Bucklin took on the venue on October 31, 1924. He changed its name to the Cantwell Theatre on November 14, 1924 beginning with Harry Carey in “The Night Hawk”. On April 9, 1929, he installed Vitaphone to play sound on disc titles beginning with “On Trial”. It’s very likely the results were substandard because Cantwell announced a new-build, $35,000 theatre as the former Kaiser-Koch Store and the Cantwell / Snappy Theatre were demolished.

Cantwell closed the existing theater in December of 1929 moving playdates to the Cater Theatre. He was the architect of the New Cantwell Theatre and secured the MGM film contract - an excellent choice - and would have a sound on film sound system which was a major upgrade. If you were wondering how he bankrolled all of this - he didn’t. The Dickinson Theatre Company was making arrangements with small town theatres in Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas that found it creating a major chain of talking picture venues.

In June of 1930, it was formally announced that Dickinson was taking on the project. Oddly, the three-story brick building remained the Cantwell Building with the theatre renamed at opening as the Dickinson Theatre. The Cater Theatre screenings were discontinued as the new Dickinson Theatre opened June 20, 1930. Its entry on Cinema Treasures is under the Chief Theatre.

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