Palace Theater

Joe Vogel on January 10, 2010 at 6:47 am

Boxoffice of July 4, 1960, said that the Von Ritz Theatre had been built on the site of an earlier theater, which had opened in 1927, and which had been destroyed by fire about 1930.

The original owner of the Von Ritz was a Bloomington, Indiana, real estate man who had the colorful name November E. Vonderschmidtt. In 1960, Mrs. Vonderschmidtt sold the house to H.E. McCarrell’s Enterprises, long-time operators of the Indiana Theatre in Bedford.

Boxoffice of December 2, 1963, said that the Von Ritz had become the Indiana Theatre. The former Indiana Theatre on 15th Street had been closed (it was demolished the next year.)

Boxoffice of May, 1983, has a brief item about the fire that destroyed the Palace Theatre, saying that it was opened in the 1920s as the Von Ritz and was later called the Indiana. It also says that the house had been converted to a triplex not long before the fire.

In news of other Bedford theaters, a June 5, 1978, Boxoffice article about 68-year-old Louie Fiddler mentions that Mr. Fiddler’s father had worked as a projectionist at two early-day theaters in Bedford, the Crystal and the Colonial. No further information about them was given.

I’ve also found an October 9, 1937, Boxoffice item saying that the Lawrence Theatre in Bedford, Indiana, had been reopened.