Pioneer Theatre
905 Okoboji Avenue,
Milford,
IA
51351
905 Okoboji Avenue,
Milford,
IA
51351
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The Strand Theatre was opened in 1922 with Rudolph Valentino in “Blood and Sand”. It went over to screening adult porn movies in the 1970’s and was renamed pioneer Theatre. Two story front with marbelized brick on the upper level. The auditorium walls are lined with sound obsorbing curtains. Nice quaint theatre. Independent showing second run features.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
This looks likes it had closed, website was checked today, but the showtimes page or coming attractions page is empty.
This theatre is still open according to their faccebook page.
The Strand Theatre opened in 1922 with “Blood and Sand”. The 300-seat theatre added sound April 11, 1929 with Vitaphone showing “The Barker.” One of the biggest hits for the Strand was “The Sound of Music.” And the most controversial moment occurred toward the end of the porno chic era with a twin bill of X-rated films in 1975 that drew protests from the Unification Church.
In January of 1980, three new owners tripled down on the protest renaming the Strand the Pioneer Theatre which became Iowa’s only XXX cinema. The Pioneer switched to mainstream fare and struggled in the digital era closing a couple of times. It reopened in August of 2016 having secured new digital projection to play contemporary second-run Hollywood content.
Status: Open
@Dallasmovietheaters, nice write-up, and extremely timely. Where did you get this information, and may we put some of these details/images on the web site?
The theater currently has about 180 seats, but this will change as we continue to re-vamp the upstairs/balcony seating section.
Website is: https://www.milfordpioneertheatre.com/ Sometime after 2015 the marquee was removed, as well as the nice vitrolite ticket windows. Looks really depressing now.
I wonder if this theater didn’t close for an extended period. Both the 1932 and 1949 maps show this space as a store.