Holiday Theatre
8 N. Main Street,
Moab,
UT
84532
8 N. Main Street,
Moab,
UT
84532
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Boxoffice, May 28, 1955: “Mike Hunter of Los Angeles … says he made enough off uranium in Moab to purchase the Ides Theatre in that southern Utah city from W. T. Wheeler. Mrs. R. C. Clark had it for many years before selling the showhouse to Wheeler.”
The Ides Theater Opened Its Doors During Christmas Week 1912 By The Ownerships Of R.J. Clark, J.L And His Brother Max Taylor. Shortly Right After The Theater Opened, A Gasoline Engine Which Furnished Power For The Light Plant Of The Ides Theater Had Broken Down. It Was Quickly Later Fixed.
Sound Was Installed On July 25, 1929, With “The Thunderbolt” With No Extras As Its First Sound Attraction Later That August 3rd (Originally Scheduled For “The Flying Fool” On August 1st, But Was Scrapped Due To The Erectors Not Making It On Time).
Later On, The Ides Was Once Managed By John T. Leaming, Who Also Managed The Moab Drug Company In The City. He Died Unexpectedly From A Heart Attack On January 23, 1937 At The Age Of 44. Formerly Enough, He Has Been Formerly Ill.
The Ides Theatre Became The Holiday Theatre On February 23, 1956 But Reopened Later That March. Shortly After The Theater Opened, The Operator Of The Holiday Theatre, 32-Year-Old Harold David Coulter, Died In A Small Plane Crash East Of Highway 160 Near The Grand County Airport On June 23, 1956. His Plane Traveled 57 Feet In The Air At An Altitude Of 150 Feet, And Then Burst Into Flames, Which Leaped 25 Feet Into The Air.
The Holiday Closed For The Final Time On March 3, 1973 With A One-Day Showing Of “The Legend Of Kootan” Before Being Purchased By Robert Dalton Later That June 21, Manager Of The First Security Bank Of Moab, And Was Razed.
This Moab Times article about one man’s recollections of this cinema says this theater was originally the Ides and was renamed Hollywood in the 1960’s by new owners after it was sold by the Clark family:
http://moabtimes.com/bookmark/68257-The-Way-Sam-Remembers-It
Page 79 of the book “Moab and Grand County (Images of America)” by Travis Schenck and Museum of Moab shows a photo of the Ides with some text about its history, saying “The Ides Theater on Main Street brought cinema to Moab” when it opened in the mid-30’s, was named after the Ides of March as it opened on a windy rainy day, used phonograph recordings of actors’ voices during the talkie era, and that the Clark family that originally owned it sold it during the uranium boom.
I discovered the book in August of 2017 during my “Moab – Red Rocks Trip” and just viewed the page using the Look Inside function on the book’s Amazon listing and typing in the search term “Ides”.
I asked the woman at the front desk of the Museum of Moab who described the theater’s former location as being the parking lot shown in the Street View image above, which is next to a Wells Fargo as mentioned in the article of the man‘s recollections.
The building next to the Ides in the photo looks like it may have been an ice cream parlor and the building next to today’s parking lot which is now a t-shirt shop still had a defunct lunch counter inside when I was there.
An archive of articles spanning decades of the Ides Theatre’s life in this and its previous location at Woodmen Hall:
http://utahtheaters.info/Theater/News/319/Ides-Theatre