Capitol II Theatre

Joe Vogel on May 25, 2026 at 2:02 am

The theater mentioned at the end of this item from the March 12, 1927 issue of Moving Picture World could have been the Capitol, though it doesn’t use that name: “A. G. Stolte with the Blank circuit is in Chicago for a few weeks making a close inspection of the Balaban and Katz system, which he will introduce in the management of the new Riveria theatre to be opened at Omaha, Neb., under his direction. He recently opened the new Englert theatre at Iowa City and new Newton theatre at Newton, Iowa.”

The 1926 and 1927 FDYs list only two theaters in Newton, the Newtonia, with no details, and the 585-seat Rialto. The 1928 edition lists a rather surprising five: the previous two, plus the Capitol, the Strand, and the Rex. As Newtonia is supposed to have been an aka for the Strand, its appearance that year was probably an error, though the same five houses are listed in 1929.

Cakeight on July 4, 2015 at 6:17 pm

A couple of photos I took in June can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/19208644530

and here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/19208649498

pableeker on June 15, 2014 at 9:10 am

The Capitol Theatre is now operated by Dawn and Paul Bleeker (DMB Dream Ventures). They were able to convert the theater to digital projection in January 2014. They also have a theater mascot, their pet pig named Joy.