Owego Theatre
103 State Street,
Mancelona,
MI
49659
103 State Street,
Mancelona,
MI
49659
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Comparing the vintage photo of the Owego Theatre with modern Google street view, it is clear that it was between the building now occupied by Honey Hollow Treasures, at 101 W. State Street, and the building now occupied by the Hole In the Wall Café, at 105 W. State. Street view doesn’t reveal the name of the business now at 103 W. State, and it’s impossible to say if it is the same building in the vintage photo or newer construction (though I suspect it is newer), but 103 W. was undoubtedly the address of the Owego.
The BP gas station and mini-mart on the site of the Lona Theatre in the photo lately uploaded by Sarah B is at 129 W. State, though that might not have been the exact address of the theater itself. We don’t yet have a page for the Lona. The Lona Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland now has a comment saying that in 1976 the Lona was still in operation, but going by the name Family Theatre. The Lona was in operation by 1957, and may have been a replacement for the Owego Theatre. It’s difficult to imagine tiny Mancelona supporting two theaters at once at that late date.
Ken, one comment on the Water Winter Wonderland page for the Lona Theatre does say that in its last years the Lona operated as the Family Theatre. Some of the commenters remember the Lona, but none mention the Owego. Some also note that the building in the photo on the page was not the Lona Theatre. I am wondering if the Owego could have been in that building?
Whoever uploaded the photo to Water Winter Wonderland might have been told that the building had once housed a theater, and the uploader could have assumed that it was the Lona, being unaware of the town’s earlier movie house. If the Owego closed about the time the Lona opened, then there would be very few people around who would still remember it, and probably very few of them would have Internet.
Could the Owego Theatre have been the same house that is listed at Water Winter Wonderand as the Lona Theatre? It’s the only theater the site has listed for Mancelona. Various comments say that the Lona Theatre burned down in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
Irene Wildfong operated the Lona Theatre in the 1960s and early 1970s, according to her obituary. If the Owego was still listed in FDY in 1957, it seems likely that it became the Lona. An entirely new theater being opened in so small a town after 1957 would not be impossible, but it would be extremely unlikely.