Iao Theatre

The Iao is still used occaisionally for film, it is used for showing films for the Hawaii International Film Festival each year.

I was in Hawaii on R & R in July 1969 I went to the movie and saw The Aoril Fools could this be the theater?
rebegail

The 'Iao Theatre was patterned after the Princess Theatre in Honolulu. It opened in August of 1928. In the heading the theatre name should be preceeded by the ' apostrophe.

Chuck, check the Iao Theater link I just added.

Designed by Edward Walsh. Opened August 22, 1928. Address:

68 N Market St
Wailuku, HI 96793

wailuku_al thanks for the Link.
LM, I wonder how long or if this will ever be updated, there have been a lot of updates that are going un-noticed and not being completed. An awful lot of dupilcates being added as new theatres too. I thought we were supposed to do a search before adding a new theatre. Oh well, good for some and too bad for others.

Good question Chuck. There are two duplicate theaters on the Newest Theaters list that should have been removed. The Mac and the Rivera (Riviera) theaters should have been deleted by now. I'm still searching for my Royal theater which appears to be lost in space. There are days when the search engine doesn't seem to work right or work at all. On those days, people should hold off on their submissions until the search engine does work.

LM I totally agree, things that are being posted and new theatres that are being added (duplicates) I was chastised for in the past but it seems those things don't matter any longer. Seems like the site is going down hill more and more day by day. That is really a shame, as the value to people interested in the theatres are the ones that it hits the hardest. I have alomost totally lost interest in the site.

This is a photo of the Iao Theater and here is another.

Added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1995

Iao Theater (added 1995 - Building - #94001622)
68 N. Market St., Wailuku
Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Walsh, Edward
Architectural Style: Mission/Spanish Revival
Area of Significance: Architecture, Social History
Period of Significance: 1925-1949
Owner: Local Gov't
Historic Function: Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Theater
Current Function: Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function: Theater

Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/35zgd6

Here is a website.

At rental info, the website has 3 photos including auditorium facing stage.

This is another photo of the Iao Theater.

I'd like to correct the comment above that the `Iao was "patterned after the Princess Theatre in Honolulu." There is actually no similarity between the two apart from the fact that both were "stadium style" houses. I spent a great deal of time in the Princess in the '60s with the organ (which we removed just shortly before the theatre was demolished in 1969 and reinstalled in the Hawaii Theatre two blocks away) and also wrote a history of the Princess. The theatre that WAS patterned after the Princess is the PALACE in Hilo, which in fact was designed by the two surviving architects of the Princess, Davis and Fishbourne. It is nearly identical in plan and very similar in decor, only on a much smaller scale. (The Princess was the 2nd largest theatre in Hawaii at 1650 seats.) There were actually five theatres in Wailuku at one time, and many more on the rest of the island in the 20s and 30s. The `Iao is the only one left; it's great that it survived!

Aloha Iao Theatre fans,
The historic Iao will celebrate its' 80th anniversary this March, 2009. I will update you all on the events planned for the grand dame of Maui...
Stephanie Ohigashi
PS. Please tell David...thanks.

1985 photo of the 'Iao Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c11%2c3%2c-1&ProductID=25850

1986 photo of the 'Iao Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c11%2c3%2c-1&ProductID=25851