Tomahawk Theatre
127 N. Buxton Street,
Indianola,
IA
50125
127 N. Buxton Street,
Indianola,
IA
50125
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The original Empress Theatre was built in the 1910’s. It was demolished and a new Empress Theatre was built in 1936. It was closed in 1988 as the Tomahawk Theatre. It was located in the main business district on N. Buxton Street at W. Salem Street.
The building is now occupied by the Stitching Place a sewing shop.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Streetview needs to be fixed. There was an older Empress here, built in the teens. It was demolished and the current structure built in 1936. It closed in 1988.
The actual opening date is November 6, 1936 with Pat O'Brien in “China Clipper” along with the Buster Keaton short in “The Chemist” and the Popeye cartoon “What! No Spinach?”. It was first managed by Will H. Eddy.
Some information about the theater as of 1936 features a black and agate art glass box office, cream-colored walls inside the lobby, gold-colored walls inside the auditorium, and scarlet inside the stage. There are also original installations of 15 amber, blue, green, and red light fixtures creating 15 different combinations, as well as a 2600-pound fan for air-conditioning proposes.
On June 16, 1974, the Empress Theatre closed with “Where The Lilies Bloom” for a few months. The theater reopened as the Tomahawk Theatre on October 3, 1974 with “Conrack”.
In November 1988, it was announced by Fridley Theatres that the Tomahawk Theatre would close the following year due to the construction of a triplex cinema being built east of the city located on the site of a former Ford dealership. Unfortunately, it was unclear if that triplex theater actually opened or not due to lost information, as Indianola and Fridley Theatres would later open the Paramount 7 Theatres on August 31, 1990.