Vinton Palace Theatre

210 W. 4th Street,
Vinton, IA 52349

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SethG
SethG on December 10, 2024 at 9:16 pm

This was part of the Kerr Theatres circuit for at least a few years around 1960.

50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on May 21, 2024 at 3:04 pm

The Palace Theatre actually was still open in 1972 and 1973. According to what I searched from the archives of the Cedar Valley Daily Times, showtimes continued at the Palace into the next couple of years as a first-run theater. However for a very short time in early 1974, the theater went under the name “Palace Enterprises Theatre” for a very short time and began screening a mix of second/third-run family-oriented films.

It appears that it did not have that much of a success, and the Palace Theatre closed in 1974. Then it was used for retail purposes into the next two decades.

Act One took at least almost three years for the Palace Theatre to renovate. After all the hard work, the Palace Theatre reopened back as a first-run movie house on November 14, 1999 with “Runaway Bride”.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on March 11, 2009 at 6:59 pm

This is an item dated 12/10/59 from the Waterloo Daily Courier:

VINTON â€" Announcement was made Tuesday by Ernest D. Kammerer, manager of the Vinton Palace theater since 1946, that the theater will be closed after Tuesday night’s show, “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Lack of patronage was given by Kammerer as the reason for closing the theater.

Closing of the movie house marks the first time Vinton has been without a motion picture house in more than 50 years. The Palace Theater is the property of Earl W. Kerr of Pine, Colo. He bought the theater in 1943 from the late H. S. Waldorf. The large brick building on West 4th St. occupied by the theater is the property of Berl G. Alcorn of Vinton. No announcement has been made as to what will be done with the building.