Forest Theatre
215 N. Clark Street,
Forest City,
IA
50436
215 N. Clark Street,
Forest City,
IA
50436
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The Forest Theatre opened in the early-1930’s with seating listed at 455. From the early-1940’s through the mid-1950’s it was operated by Central States Theatres. It was last independently operated and closed by 2012.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The theater was severely damaged in a 1950 fire, but obviously was rebuilt:
Most Recent Big Fire 1950 Theatre Blaze
The most spectacular fire in history struck Forest City Jan. 10, 1950. It raged out of control nearly two hours and left only three bare wall of the Forest Theatre standing. Loss to the building and its contents plus the damage to adjacent businesses reached the staggering total of $125,000. Only the heroic efforts of the Forest City Fire department prevented the fire from destroying an entire half block of business buildings. The fire was discovered in the front part of the second floor of the theatre building at 8:40 p.m. The hundred or more persons attending the first show left the theatre in an orderly fashion and no one was injured in the fire.
When the flames had threatened to spread to the Soda Bar building to the north and to Olson Furniture and Lyons to the south, a call for assistance was sent out to Lake Mills, Garner, Clear Lake and Mason City fire departments. The Lake Mills and Garner trucks were the first to report. Clear Lake’s truck froze up near Ventura and was forced to turn back.
This is an excerpt from an April 2006 obit for Garland ‘Jack’ Compston:
“After a brief time in Arlington, Washington, the family returned to the Midwest and in 1954, purchased the Forest Theater in Forest City, Iowa. In 1967 Jack designed and built the theaters in Decorah, Iowa. Jack operated the Forest Theater until retiring in 1974. He and Ann enjoyed traveling in their travel trailers and Winnebago motor home, spending time in Texas and Florida”.
This is the website for the Forest Theater. As Chuck mentioned, there are no photos or history page there. It does give the movie schedule.
Status should be “Closed.”