Empress Theatre
Rockwell City,
IA
50579
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The Empress Theatre was opened around early-1916. It had 320 seats. It was still open in the 1960’s but had closed by 1971.
Contributed by
Anthony L. Vazquez-Hernandez
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
It’s hard to say from the very sparse listing, but this might be the same theater that appears on the 1915 map at 408 5th St. It was located in a small one-story brick storefront (the 1909 map shows furniture & undertaking there). It has since been demolished. The location must have been just to the north of the two story building in the middle of the block.
I’ve added a map view of this theater, and added a listing for another. It’s possible the other one was the Empress, but it’s a pretty small building. The capacity works better for the 5th St address.
I’ve removed the picture, and put it under a new listing. I suspect the Empress was either in the Opera House that was at 417-421 4th St, or in some newer building. Still existing choices that postdate the 1915 map are the Masonic lodge at 501 Court, a large commercial building at 413-417 Court, or perhaps the two story building at 412 5th (which seems to have had the ground floor extensively reworked).
Judging from this item in the March 4, 1916 Motion Picture News, the Empress was probably not the former Opera House: “G. L. Meholin has opened the Empress, Rockwell City, a brand new house built in an unusual manner. It has no lobby, the entrance being a mere vestibule. It is a modern little house, with fine projection and interior finishing.”
The first announcement about Mr. Meholin’s plans I’ve found is from the October 16, 1915 Moving Picture World, which said: “ROCKWELL CITY, IA.-G. L. Meholin is having plans prepared for a one-story moving picture theater, 22 by 110 feet, to cost $5,000.” An October 30 item in the same journal upped the projected cost of Mr. Meholin’s theater to $10,000.
Given that delays in publication were common in trade journals of the era, the project might have gotten underway prior to October, 1915 and the Empress might have opened earlier than March, 1916, and perhaps even by late 1915.
There is a later Sanborn of the town, but the LoC doesn’t have it scanned. You have been able to access the Iowa State collection before (never works for me), perhaps you can answer this.
I haven’t been able to find any Sanborns of Rockwell City on the Iowa State web site other than the one from 1915. I did, however, come across this item from Motion Picture Herald, April 12, 1952: “R. M. Bernau and R. L. Fridley, both of Lake City, have purchased the Empress theatre at Rockwell City from R. M. Phillips and Oky Goodman. Bernau and Fridley, who also own the Iowa in Lake City and the King at Ida Grove, say the Empress will be closed sometime during the summer for a complete overhauling.”
The Empress was mentioned in the trade journals a few times in the 1950s, and there was still an indoor theater in Rockwell City, probably the Empress, in 1963, when the July 15 issue of Boxoffice said that “…Mr. and Mrs. Dwight Hanson, who have the conventional theatre and drive-in at Rockwell City, Iowa, visited in Des Moines last week…” I’m not sure when the Empress closed, but by 1971, on the occasions of Mr. Hanson’s visits to film row, Boxoffice identified him only as the operator of the Golden Buckle Drive-In.