Vista 3 Theatres
712 Lake Avenue,
Storm Lake,
IA
50588
712 Lake Avenue,
Storm Lake,
IA
50588
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The Vista Theatre was opened in 1940.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
The Vista opened in 1940 and was originally operated by Pioneer Theatres until Fridley took over. Fridley Theatres expanded the theatre to three screens in the late 80’s.
1982 photo of the Vista, what a difference in the two photos.
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I think World Theater may be an aka. The building material on the front of this photo looks similar to that in the 1982 photo.
http://tinyurl.com/crqv9m
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota Library lists two theater projects the firm worked on in Storm Lake. The first is listed as “Campus (Tracy Theatre) 1947-48” and the second as “Vista 1948”. The Vista must have been this house, but I’ve been unable to find any other references to theaters called either the Campus or the Tracy.
Storm Lake had a theater called the Empire operating from at least as early as 1916 and at least into the early 1930s, and I’ve found reference to houses called the Empress and the Princess operating in 1918. Storm Lake’s Opera House, which had been opened by 1889, was operating as a movie house when it burned down in 1916.
At least two movie theater projects were proposed for Storm Lake in 1913, but I’ve been unable to find names for them or confirm that either was built.
The Iowa Library Quarterly for January, February and March, 1914, says that the Tuesday Club, a women’s organization in Storm Lake, had raised funds for their local library by holding a candy and popcorn sale at the World, Princess, and Palace Theatres.