Princess Theatre

702 S. River Park Drive,
Guttenberg, IA 52052

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Additional Info

Functions: Housing

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The Princess Theatre was opened prior to 1926 when it was listed with 186-seats. The 1950 Film Daily Year Book listed Guttenberg’s Princess Theatre with 225-seats.

The August. 14, 1954 issue of Boxoffice reported that Kermit Dubbels bought the Princess Theatre from Charles Harris and would continue to operate it. It was still open in 1957.

Contributed by Michael Kilgore

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

SethG
SethG on August 28, 2023 at 1:20 am

This may have been the theater at 702 S River Park Dr. It’s the only theater shown on the 1914 map, and it’s in the ground floor of a very old (1850s?) three-story stone commercial building, which seems to now be apartments, if the blurry mess on streetview is to be believed. It’s a very strange location, way off to one edge of downtown. The 1902 Sanborn shows it as the Wiest & Class general store.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on August 31, 2023 at 1:38 pm

The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two theaters at Guttenberg: the Lyric, at 1st and Herder Street, and the Elite, no address provided. Polk’s 1912 Iowa directory lists only one theater at Guttenberg, that being called the Delight.

In 1926, proprietors of the Princess, Hunstad and Becker, were providing capsule movie reviews for Exhibitors Herald.

The 1960 FDY lists the Princess in Guttenberg as one of the 24 houses operated by the Iowa United Theatres chain.

SethG
SethG on August 31, 2023 at 1:49 pm

The 1914 theater must have then been the Elite. Whether it became the Princess, I can’t say. There are two later maps, but they are not online, except perhaps on Iowa State’s website, which you need a login for.

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