Empress Theater

Danbury, IA 51019

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on March 31, 2020 at 5:43 pm

This rather muddled paragraph from a history of Danbury I found online might be about the Empress Theatre, but it’s hard to say for sure:

“Opera House Movies: Mr. C.E. Johnson had movies in the Opera House, but he wanted out by 1932. He sold the movie equipment to Phillip Papich of Madrid, IA. Mr. Papich made a few minor changes and operated the business strictly on movies. He found he was losing money, so he sold out to Irving Keller. Irving, too, lost money. These two men were still showing silent movies. Keller closed the doors. The Opera board met in January 1931. Through the efforts of M.J. Nathan, a new manager, the Opera House was remodeled into a modern movie house with a slightly inclined floor, a new entrance, new lighting, and the installation of Western Electric Talking Picture equipment. Talking pictures were invented in 1928. The new theatre was called the Danbury Theatre. Mr. Nathan then ran the theater a number of years with good financial returns. They sold the theatre to Carl Ortner, but the Depression years were approaching, and the people were beginning to feel hard up, so in a short time Carl sold the movie house again. It had folded by 1944 and was not able to be used for much other than a theatre with the slanting floors.”