Jesse L. Cooper opened the Okla Theatre during the final week of June 1937 featuring installations of RCA High-Fidelity sound. But after just one single week of operation, the newly-established projection booth was partially destroyed by a fire which severely damaged the projection booth. The theater reopened a couple weeks later.
Construction of the 66x145ft building started with a ground-break on April 5, 1947. They are originally planned to construct it earlier but was postponed due to the death of Leo Dwyer.
The Celina Theatre opened its doors with a capacity of 1,000 seats on January 28, 1949 with Walter Pidgeon in “Julia Misbehaves” with no extra short subjects.
It was twinned on December 23, 1982 featuring Dolby Stereo in both screens, and was renamed “Celina Cinemas 1 & 2”. Three more screens were added on November 23, 1988 and became a 5-screen theater known as the “Celina Cinema 5”.
This started life as a triplex known as the “The Movies 1-2-3” and opened on February 18, 1983 featuring Dolby Stereo. Both the Sipp Theater (then-known as the Sipp Cinema) and the Movies 1-2-3 were the remaining movie theaters in Paintsville following the closure of the Sky-Vue Drive-In in February 1984.
The 1-2-3 was renamed “Movies At Mayo Plaza” in 1989. Two more screens were later added around a decade later but was unknown when.
Corrections: The State Theatre opened “mostly” pictureless as it was primarily a special events house at the start. However, in portions of its first 12 months of operation, they did show a minimum amount of movies throughout much of 1936 and portions of 1937, but unfortunately it was never advertised on newspapers at all.
Shortly after the Call Opera House was destroyed in a massive fire, that’s when the State Theatre began showing first-run hits that originally came through the Call Opera House, before Norman Rice changed the State Theatre’s name to the Call Theatre.
It originally opened with 800 seats but was downgraded throughout time to 700.
NOTE: This was the second theater to be named the Call Theatre, so the page should name it “Call Theatre (II)”.
After waiting for months and months after the city has been wanting an opera house for a while, the opera house was officially planned during the week of April 13, 1892. The original construction of the 48x124ft building was erected several days later facing the north on Thorington Street just north of the original First National Bank.
Original information about its planning featured offices on the first and second floors which were 30ft deep. The remaining 94ft will be the hall and auditorium which would occupy both stories with an arched ceiling measuring 24ft high, which gives a room of 90x47x24 in the clear with a gallery supported by iron pillars and otherwise fitted in first class opera house style. The Call name was named after Mr. Ambrose A. Call, who was the first owner of the theater as well as the one who erected the building with an estimate $25,000 in construction.
The Call Opera House then officially opened its doors to the public on February 9, 1893 with a live presentation of “Gloriana” along with musical performances by the Iowa State Band and opening announcements delivered by Lafe Young, a prominent politician at the time. Call formed his own Algona Opera House Company, with Harvey Ingham as president, T.F. Cook as the vice-president, S.S. Sessions as the secretary, and Charles C. St. Clair as the treasurer.
Norman C. Rice began taking over the theater in September 1916, which at the same time on September 23 would began screening silent movies. The Call Theatre would then install sound in 1929. Rice would later become the member of the Tri-State Theaters chain.
On September 1, 1936, the Call Opera House officially became local headlines following a box office sneak involving $70 being robbed led by former Algona boys Kenneth and Dick Neitzel, age 15 and 12, who lived in Fort Dodge at the time of the incident.
The end of its operation marks a devastating disaster as one of the most spectacular fires in the history of the city when the afternoon hours of April 28, 1937 rolled along. The fire was discovered at 2:15 PM CT in the afternoon that day and brought a $60,000-$75,000 loss. After the fire department arrived, they attempted to fight the fires inside but because of the smoke being too dense, they have no choice but to poor water out of their buckets and use their hoses to spray the exterior. The entire downtown was blanked with black smoke in the air and the entirety was watched by many.
Rice promised that a new theater will be built shortly after the fire demolished the former house which will have the same amount of seats as the old house, but that was immediately turned down. Instead, they moved in to the State Theatre which opened the previous year and changed its name to the New Call Theatre (which will have its own page on Cinema Treasures soon).
NOTE: I accidentally added a duplicate page on accident, I hope they can fix it soon.
Paramount-Publix opened the Valley Theatre on December 25, 1930 with Harold Lloyd in “Feet First” (unknown if extras added). The theater closed in 1952.
The theater features original installations of Simplex projectors, a Translite screen, and RCA sound. It originally accommodate 100 cars but it appears that it may’ve expanded to 175.
It was still open in the 1980s, but its closing date remains unknown. A 1995 aerial view shows the theater still standing but its traces were faded, while a 1993 topo still shows that the property is still a drive-in theater.
You’re right. The Sunrise Cinema in May 2001 fell into a $1 discount house before eventually closing for the final time on August 26, 2001. It was last operated by Bluegrass Theaters of Lexington, Kentucky.
The Madison Drive-In opened its gates on September 9, 1955 with Richard Widmark in “Red Skies Of Montana” (unknown if any short subjects were added), with a total capacity of 120 cars. It was once operated by Alfred Stevens during its later heyday.
The theater closed for the final time in the late-1980s.
The Orpheum opened in September 1916 and briefly closed on August 6, 1928 due to major remodeling which featured installations of a mix of mostly Spanish and some Italian and Moorish architectures. The theater reopened as the Granada on October 10, 1928.
Correction: This was the Second Premiere of the movie after the Fox Theater in Westwood Village, Los Angeles.
Jesse L. Cooper opened the Okla Theatre during the final week of June 1937 featuring installations of RCA High-Fidelity sound. But after just one single week of operation, the newly-established projection booth was partially destroyed by a fire which severely damaged the projection booth. The theater reopened a couple weeks later.
The Okla Theatre closed in the mid-to-late 1950s.
Construction of the 66x145ft building started with a ground-break on April 5, 1947. They are originally planned to construct it earlier but was postponed due to the death of Leo Dwyer.
The Celina Theatre opened its doors with a capacity of 1,000 seats on January 28, 1949 with Walter Pidgeon in “Julia Misbehaves” with no extra short subjects.
It was twinned on December 23, 1982 featuring Dolby Stereo in both screens, and was renamed “Celina Cinemas 1 & 2”. Three more screens were added on November 23, 1988 and became a 5-screen theater known as the “Celina Cinema 5”.
This started life as a triplex known as the “The Movies 1-2-3” and opened on February 18, 1983 featuring Dolby Stereo. Both the Sipp Theater (then-known as the Sipp Cinema) and the Movies 1-2-3 were the remaining movie theaters in Paintsville following the closure of the Sky-Vue Drive-In in February 1984.
The 1-2-3 was renamed “Movies At Mayo Plaza” in 1989. Two more screens were later added around a decade later but was unknown when.
Closed in late-January 1988.
Closed on February 1, 1987 with “Jagged Edge”.
Corrections: The State Theatre opened “mostly” pictureless as it was primarily a special events house at the start. However, in portions of its first 12 months of operation, they did show a minimum amount of movies throughout much of 1936 and portions of 1937, but unfortunately it was never advertised on newspapers at all.
Shortly after the Call Opera House was destroyed in a massive fire, that’s when the State Theatre began showing first-run hits that originally came through the Call Opera House, before Norman Rice changed the State Theatre’s name to the Call Theatre.
It originally opened with 800 seats but was downgraded throughout time to 700.
Opened in August 2005.
After waiting for months and months after the city has been wanting an opera house for a while, the opera house was officially planned during the week of April 13, 1892. The original construction of the 48x124ft building was erected several days later facing the north on Thorington Street just north of the original First National Bank.
Original information about its planning featured offices on the first and second floors which were 30ft deep. The remaining 94ft will be the hall and auditorium which would occupy both stories with an arched ceiling measuring 24ft high, which gives a room of 90x47x24 in the clear with a gallery supported by iron pillars and otherwise fitted in first class opera house style. The Call name was named after Mr. Ambrose A. Call, who was the first owner of the theater as well as the one who erected the building with an estimate $25,000 in construction.
The Call Opera House then officially opened its doors to the public on February 9, 1893 with a live presentation of “Gloriana” along with musical performances by the Iowa State Band and opening announcements delivered by Lafe Young, a prominent politician at the time. Call formed his own Algona Opera House Company, with Harvey Ingham as president, T.F. Cook as the vice-president, S.S. Sessions as the secretary, and Charles C. St. Clair as the treasurer.
Norman C. Rice began taking over the theater in September 1916, which at the same time on September 23 would began screening silent movies. The Call Theatre would then install sound in 1929. Rice would later become the member of the Tri-State Theaters chain.
On September 1, 1936, the Call Opera House officially became local headlines following a box office sneak involving $70 being robbed led by former Algona boys Kenneth and Dick Neitzel, age 15 and 12, who lived in Fort Dodge at the time of the incident.
The end of its operation marks a devastating disaster as one of the most spectacular fires in the history of the city when the afternoon hours of April 28, 1937 rolled along. The fire was discovered at 2:15 PM CT in the afternoon that day and brought a $60,000-$75,000 loss. After the fire department arrived, they attempted to fight the fires inside but because of the smoke being too dense, they have no choice but to poor water out of their buckets and use their hoses to spray the exterior. The entire downtown was blanked with black smoke in the air and the entirety was watched by many.
Rice promised that a new theater will be built shortly after the fire demolished the former house which will have the same amount of seats as the old house, but that was immediately turned down. Instead, they moved in to the State Theatre which opened the previous year and changed its name to the New Call Theatre (which will have its own page on Cinema Treasures soon).
Its current marquee was installed in June 1949.
Paramount-Publix opened the Valley Theatre on December 25, 1930 with Harold Lloyd in “Feet First” (unknown if extras added). The theater closed in 1952.
The Palm was renamed the Rialto on August 31, 1924.
It was actually first operated by Cineplex Odeon before being taken over by Loews Cineplex.
Opened in October 2006.
The theater features original installations of Simplex projectors, a Translite screen, and RCA sound. It originally accommodate 100 cars but it appears that it may’ve expanded to 175.
It was still open in the 1980s, but its closing date remains unknown. A 1995 aerial view shows the theater still standing but its traces were faded, while a 1993 topo still shows that the property is still a drive-in theater.
The Lyric Theatre opened its doors on January 1, 1917 with “The Girl He Couldn’t Buy”, and was renamed the Strand Theatre in October 1925.
During its final years of operation, the theater had several ups-and-downs until the Strand closed for the final time in 1970.
You’re right. The Sunrise Cinema in May 2001 fell into a $1 discount house before eventually closing for the final time on August 26, 2001. It was last operated by Bluegrass Theaters of Lexington, Kentucky.
Closed in September 1916 when the theater moved next door.
The Main Line Drive-In closed in September 1975 after a months-long run of “Jaws”.
The Madison Drive-In opened its gates on September 9, 1955 with Richard Widmark in “Red Skies Of Montana” (unknown if any short subjects were added), with a total capacity of 120 cars. It was once operated by Alfred Stevens during its later heyday.
The theater closed for the final time in the late-1980s.
The Orpheum opened in September 1916 and briefly closed on August 6, 1928 due to major remodeling which featured installations of a mix of mostly Spanish and some Italian and Moorish architectures. The theater reopened as the Granada on October 10, 1928.
Opened on February 6, 1981 and closed in September 2007.
In June 1986, the Warner West became the first movie theater in England with THX-certified sound.
Its also the first THX-certified theater in Georgia.
Opened on December 22, 1978, closed on November 5, 2000.