Casey Theatre

The history of movie theaters in Casey, Iowa is pretty well documented as a 40-year period from September of 1912 to November 1, 1952. It had a brief period of competing theaters in the 1920’s in the town’s largest population burst. Based on the local newspaper and trade press, the Casey Opera House was established as its first entertainment venue - a live house. In September of 1912, R. C. Otis opened the town’s first Electric Theatre to show movies. J.T. Smith took it over about little over a year later in 1913.

In 1917, L.C. Plummer took over the Opera House turning it, effectively, into a full-time movie theater as small-town opera houses struggled to book and support live shows during and after World War I. The Opera House was renamed as the Garden Theatre.

Casey reached its high water mark with two population bursts in the 1910’s and early-1920’s placing it near 1,000 residents on the back of record high corn and wheat prices. The New Theatre was opened in 1921 by Fredrick Kellenberg giving the growing town competing theaters. But 1921 turned out to be the worst year for corn and wheat prices - a portent of bad things to come in terms of Casey’s growth. The Garden / Opera House was discontinued reducing the town to just the New Theater. (It is believed that the Garden Theatre signage was moved 13 miles away to the Guthrie Center theater which became the Garden Theatre.)

In 1927, prices on cash crops had stabilized and the Opera House was reopened by Herman Wahe and refreshed as the Amuse-U Theatre. The New Theatre closed at the end of its leasing agreement. The transition to sound was challenging for small town theaters and the Depression cratered the commodities market hurting the Casey economy. The theatre was listed as closed (although incorrectly as the Garden Theatre in the trade yearbooks). Mary Dalzell reopened the venue for sound as the Granada Theatre, the venue’s sound era name.

Dalzell sold out to to Harold Mowell of Stuart’s Princess Theatre in February of 1936. After a Streamline Moderne style refresh, he relaunched it as the Casey Theatre on March 6, 1936 with Will Rogers in “Steamboat Round the Bend”. The neighboring Casey Cafe helped make a night out fun. Sam Dalzell bought the theatre in 1938 returning it to the Dalzell family.

H.D. Furnice operated the venue during the War years reporting dutifully for the trade press what films were working and not working at the Casey Theatre. Of “Her First Romance,” Furnice wrote, “Did not do any business on this. Fell below average…had a school graduation and, of course, that did not help”. On “Boys From Syracuse”, Furnice penned, “Played this one on Cash Night and they all like it very much. Just the kind of show to make the people forget their troubles in these trying times”.

However, the Casey Theatre struggled at the outset of the television era and steady population descent with fewer employees needed due to improved farm mechanization. The town dropped to under 700 residents by 1952. The final days of the Casey Theatre were celebrated with a kids' Halloween free show and the final showing on November 1, 1952 with Marlene Dietrich in “Rancho Notorious”. Its farewell thank you message stated, “(Y)our numbers have been steadily decreasing until the time has some when we can no longer serve you”.

Patrons were directed to nearby communities. Adair was just 8 miles away with its Riata Theatre that closed less than three years later. Stuart, Iowa had a longer-lasting theatre just 12 miles away. Guthrie Center was 13 miles away and had the Garden Theatre and Panora, Iowa had a drive-in about 20 miles away. The Casey Cafe went out of business not long after. The population of Casey, Iowa dropped to under 400 by the 2020’s.

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