Harlan Theatre

It looks like the Harlan Theatre is open again, and with four screens. There’s a page listing its current movies on the Harlan Municipal Utilities web site. I wonder if the municipal utility company operates the theater? Socialism comes to small-town Iowa!

The August 28, 1948, issue of Boxoffice Magazine mentioned the Harlan Theatre in their “From the Boxoffice Files: Twenty Years Ago” feature. In 1928, the house had recently been opened by Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Brown. A Boxoffice item about the Browns published in the October 7, 1946, issue said that the Browns had been in the exhibition business in Harlan for 20 years then, so they must have had another theater there before they opened the Harlan.

The Browns also ran the Cozy, at least during the 1940s and early 1950s. The Cozy was open only intermittently, though. There were items about it reopening at various times, and one 1947 item saying it was being closed for July and August. No air conditioning, I guess. The Browns were mentioned as operators of both theaters as late as 1951. The last mention of Ray Brown I’ve found is in 1957, when he vacationed in Florida while his son-in-law, Jamie Booth, ran the theater.

By 1961, the Harlan Theatre was being operated by Mr. and Mrs. S.J. Backer.

Just to clarify a few facts. This theatre is currently open and has never been closed. The municipal utility company does not operate the theatre, but graciously advertise the movies on their website. I am the current owner of the theatre and have been since mid 2005.

S.J. Backer was my grandfather. He operated the theatre until 1970, when my uncle took it over for a couple of years. Our family (my mother is the Backer’s daughter) lived in South Dakota and ended up in Harlan because my grandfather told us that the Harlan Drive-In Theatre was for sale. Our family ran the drive-in from 1967 until the late 80’s. My father bought the Harlan Theatre from my uncle in the early 70’s and ran the theatre until mid 2005, when I purchsed it from him.

In the 90’s, my father purchased the adjacent buildings next to the theatre and added two additional screens. In 2002, after the large theatre was downsized from 500 seats to 252, and the back space rented out to a clothing store and a liquor store, it was finally remodeled into our mini theatre, hence the current four screens.

This theatre has never, ever been closed, and I don’t know why people think it is or ever was. It is alive and well and currently showing up-to-date movies!

First line should read Backer, not Hacker.

This theater was recently referred to in an episode of “House Hunters International” on the HGTV channel. The young lady who was a local resident called it the “dollar theater.”

Photo and description added via Adrian Brisee.

May 19, 1974. Harlan, Iowa – “I’m setting my standards at the box office”, says Al Woodraska, owner of the Harlan Theater, the only movie house in town. “That’s what pays the bills.”

To help pay the bills, Woodraska is showing X-rated movies once a month. “Midnight Plowboy” did a good business in April. “Teenage Bride” is the next X-rated attraction.

Harlan is a farm town and county seat, community of white houses and front porches pocketed in the gentle hills of western Iowa. The telephone book lists 20 taverns, 28 churches, and 43 farm equipment and feed dealers Last year X-rated movies drew pickets from the local Baptist Church and city counsel condemnation in this town of 4,049. This year there hasn’t been a ripple. “Last Tango in Paris” critically acclaimed and X-rated set a box office record of $379.90 in four days – at the Harlan Theater in March. Harlan and its theater are far from unique. With increasing frequency, X-rated films are flashing flesh across the screens in small town America.