Mills Theatre
400 State Street,
Tama,
IA
52339
400 State Street,
Tama,
IA
52339
No one has favorited this theater yet
Additional Info
Previous Names: Soleman's Opera House, Mills Opera House
Nearby Theaters
The 500-seat Soleman’s Opera House opened in the early-1880’s. On January 1, 1920 Frank Mills bought the house and renamed it eponymously. It was screening movies full time from 1922 and it was renamed Mills Theatre in 1923. It was closed on March 1, 1969. The theatre was demolished in May 1969 after the building was sold to Phillips Petroleum.
Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
I think the Mills had once closed when a new theater, the Iuka, opened. Then, the Iuka burned and the Mills was reopened. The Mills was still operating in 1965, but I don’t know how much longer after that it was showing movies prior to being demolished.
Boxoffice of August 28, 1948 said that the Mills Theatre had served as Tama’s movie house since the destruction of the Iuka Theatre by a fire in December, 1944.
Multiple sources indicate that Soleman’s Opera House was opened in the early 1880s by Henry Soleman, the town’s first druggist. He managed the theater for over 25 years. The house was listed in earl 20th century Cahn guides as a 500-seat ground floor theater.
The Mills Theatre was operating as a movie house by 1925, when the September 12 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review noted that two theater operators from Osceola had recently “…purchased two movie houses at Tama, Iowa, the Ideal [sic] Hour and the Mills.”
The Idle Hour was the only theater listed at Tama in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The October 1883 Sanborn notes that this is ‘Being Built’. It was a very basic wooden building. It’s amazing that the two brick theaters burned, while this antique firetrap survived until the ‘60s.
Oddly, the gas station to the south of where this was located appears to have been a Phillips. The seedy vacant building on this lot looks like a dry cleaners or something. Address was 400 State St.
Druggist and livery barn operator Henry Soleman opened Soleman’s Opera House in what was Tama City, Iowa on December 6, 1883 with the Mattie Vickers Combination performing, “Jacquine - or Paste and Diamonds.” The opera house sitelines weren’t ideal with its flat floor and temporary chairs. But it allowed for dances and other events to take place there. On January 1, 1920, Frank W. Mills took it on as the Mills Opera House.
Like most small towns, opera houses struggled during World War I converting to movie theatre hybrids or closing. Ben Potter took over the Mills Opera House in 1921 and showed movies, primarily. In 1922, that became permanent when the temporary seating of some 39 years was removed and a slanted floor installed with permanent seating under the Mills Theatre moniker in 1923. The venue installed sound to remain commercially viable.
Projectionist / operator of the silent-era Idle Hour in town that burned down in 1931, Lester Pospichal, took over the venue when it had periods of closure during the 1930s / Depression. It was part of Tama Theatres Circuit that included the Bella Plaine King and Rivoli theatres and the Toledo Wieting Theatre. Pospichal closed the Mills in 1958. The City Council met and discussed the possibility of razing the venue.
Tama reopened in March of 1959 and, reportedly, stayed open on the back of unadvertised midnight films that raised concerns in 1960. And in 1960, there were more talks of perhaps closing and razing the theatre. By 1969, the Mills was operated by W. W. Mansfield just three days a week closing on March 1, 1969. It was razed not long after for a proposed Philips 66 gas station. The opera house’s spot at 402 W. State Street is a vacant lot.