Princess Theatre

Joe Vogel on October 24, 2024 at 11:22 pm

The March 8, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World reported that: “Mr. and Mrs. Ben Peters have leased their houses in Bunceton and Tipton. Mo., to O. L. Dowell, who has houses in Versailles and Eldon, Mo.” On March 22, the same journal noted that “W. C. Sears of Booneville. Mo., has purchased the theatres of Mrs. Brent Peters in Tipton and Bunceton, Mo.” The Tipton and Bunceton houses were both called the Princess.

Although no theaters are listed at Bunceton in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, the “triumphal arch” style front of the Princess is characteristic of theater design in the late 1900s-early 1910s, and was probably ordered from one of the companies that made precast theater fronts during that period. I’d be very surprised if the Princess was built as late as the 1920s. I’d hazard a guess that it dated from before the U.S. entered WWI, at which time the foundries casting metal building fronts shifted to the production of war materiel.

Despite having been closed for much of the 1930s, it did open for at least one period during the middle of that decade, as noted in this item from the October 5, 1936 Motion Picture Daily: “Kansas City, Oct. 4.—J. J. Kametz has purchased the Princess at Bunceton, Mo., from C. A. Woolridge, who opened the theatre about six months ago. Kametz planned to open a house at Burlingame, Kan., several weeks ago, but the deal failed.”