State Theatre
124 South Main Street,
Holstein,
IA
51445
124 South Main Street,
Holstein,
IA
51445
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The State Theatre dates back to at least 1935.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
George F. Saunders took over ownership of this theatre in 1987.
The August 28, 1948, issue of Boxoffice said that E.W. Kugel, owner of the State, was replacing the theater with a new quonset hut building that would seat 450 patrons. It was expected to open in September.
Later, when Kugel opened the Maple Theatre in Mapleton, Iowa, Boxoffice ran an item about him in their issue of January 21, 1951. It said that Kugel had bought the original State in 1934, and had opened the new State in 1948.
The State is not specifically named in an ad which appeared in Boxoffice’s clearing house section on September 29, 1969, but the location of the theater for sale was Hosltein, Iowa. The 375-seat house, offered for $35,000, was described as a long-established business, on the market for the first time.
These are the seat counts given for the State Theater in various years:
1935-300 seats
1940-300 seats
1945-309 seats
1951-300 seats
1955-300 seats
If the State Theater was replaced with a 450 seat theater, none of the Film Daily books show any increase in seating. Maybe E.W. Kugel changed his mind and continued to operate the older State Theater.
Google Maps satellite view is no help. It doesn’t get close enough to pick out individual buildings. Can’t find any pictures with Google image search, either.
But wait! Flickr to the rescue! It’s a quonset hut! (Thanks, Leah.)
That certainly does look like a quonset hut. I still don’t understand why a higher seat count isn’t given for the newer theater. Maybe the “tin can” theater only had 300 seats like the old State Theater had. One more question. Is the newer State Theater in the same location as the old State Theater, or did they have different addresses?
1985 photo of the State Theatre.
View link
Boxoffice didn’t give any addresses, and wasn’t clear on whether or not the orignial State was demolished to make way for the new one. The original State’s building might or might not still exist.
Here’s a wide view of the theatre from August 2010:
http://www.agilitynut.com/10/9/quonstate.jpg
After looking at Agility’s photo I did a search for this theatr. The theatre is open, it didn’t say when it reopened but that it was open. The Phone number listed is 712.368.4542 and when I called, the theatre is showing current movies, “Yogie Bear”.
No showtimes or any official website or facebook page. Is this closed or the owners does zero marketing for this cinema.