Kalona Theatre

The Kalona Opera House was likely the first place folks saw movies as it welcomed traveling moving picture shows in the early-20th Century. It had a Schiller cabinet grand piano from Schiller Piano of Oregon, Illinois for accompaniment. The Kalona Opera House appears to have opened in 1899 operating predominately with live fare into World War I. Like many small town opera houses with populations at around 650, the venue struggled during World I to find profitable touring shows willing to play a 300-seat house kind of near not a lot.

The venue was converted to full-time movies as the Kalona Theatre while also serving as home to the American Legion. The Kalona Theatre showed movies continuously until September of 1928. On January 20, 1921, it suffered a fire requiring a brief closure for repairs. The next fire was on January 22, 1922 causing another brief closure. The big news story, however, was in 1923 when the town took a vote on the showing of movies on Sunday. Every vote counted that day as the theater bested the clergy / Blue Law faction by a final count of 136 “for” and 132 “agin.”

Jack Schneider was in charge of the Kalona Theatre in its salad days and a regular contributor to the trade press with exhibitor information. Of Charley Chase films, Schneider said that Chase was “poison ivy” for the Kalona Theatre as the audience had tired of his performances. Of Gloria Swanson’s “Manhandled” he said, “No good here (as) some walked out on it”. Adding, “No for Sunday” exhibition indicating non-family matter or situations. But of “Empty Hands” with Jack Holt, he said that the film drew “farmer class” and its appeal was 90 percent positive with the patrons.

The American Legion began showing films on weekdays as business began to sag in the latter stages of the 1920’s. But the theatre closed altogether in September of 1928 not converting to sound. It remained in use as a live venue from late-1928 to 1933 with sporadic silent films.

In 1933, it was transformed to the Kalona Skating Rink ending theatrical operations. The American Legion moved to new digs in 1939 and the skating continued possibly into the 1960’s. Falling into disuse, the building deteriorated and was demolished. It was used for parking for a retail store.

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