Yes, that is correct about the Dream being in “Paper Moon”. But it is another building dressed up as the old Dream Theater. “Paper Moon” was filmed almost entirely in Kansas, mostly around Russell, Hays, Gorham, and Wilson KS, and many of the smaller towns in the area still had older 1930’s looking buildings still standing.
As stated above, the old Dream Theater was gutted by fire in 1947. It was in November of that year and a very massive ice storm was beginning to settle upon the city of Russell. The fire department was called to check out smoke coming from the ceiling of the theater at around 6:45 pm. A blower motor had overheated and had started to smolder some of the insulation in the theater. In those days, E.B. Danielson and sons had insulated the buildings with old wadded up newspaper, cheap but yet adequate. The firemen quickly extingushed the problem and were beginning to wrap up the problem, when several of them went to the roof to cut a hole to vent out the smoke. Only problem was that some of the smoldering material was not all gone and with the added extra draft, soon became the biggest fire in Russell KS history, at that time. The theater could not be saved, as the fire raced through the building. Due to the falling temperatures, the water hoses were freezing, and making one big mess out front, making it more impossible to extingush the fire.
Luckily there was no fatalities, or other buildings involved in the fire. Oh by the way, the movie that night, “Smoke Eaters” a story about firemen.
This is one of the many stories told to me by the late Dale Danielson, former owner of the Dream Theater.
Yes, that is correct about the Dream being in “Paper Moon”. But it is another building dressed up as the old Dream Theater. “Paper Moon” was filmed almost entirely in Kansas, mostly around Russell, Hays, Gorham, and Wilson KS, and many of the smaller towns in the area still had older 1930’s looking buildings still standing.
As stated above, the old Dream Theater was gutted by fire in 1947. It was in November of that year and a very massive ice storm was beginning to settle upon the city of Russell. The fire department was called to check out smoke coming from the ceiling of the theater at around 6:45 pm. A blower motor had overheated and had started to smolder some of the insulation in the theater. In those days, E.B. Danielson and sons had insulated the buildings with old wadded up newspaper, cheap but yet adequate. The firemen quickly extingushed the problem and were beginning to wrap up the problem, when several of them went to the roof to cut a hole to vent out the smoke. Only problem was that some of the smoldering material was not all gone and with the added extra draft, soon became the biggest fire in Russell KS history, at that time. The theater could not be saved, as the fire raced through the building. Due to the falling temperatures, the water hoses were freezing, and making one big mess out front, making it more impossible to extingush the fire.
Luckily there was no fatalities, or other buildings involved in the fire. Oh by the way, the movie that night, “Smoke Eaters” a story about firemen.
This is one of the many stories told to me by the late Dale Danielson, former owner of the Dream Theater.