Lake Theatre

Joe Vogel on July 22, 2017 at 12:57 pm

A movie house was operating in Rib Lake at least as early as 1914, but the town’s listing in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory used only the generic name M.P. Theatre.

The Armory, managed by Ed Johnson, is listed as a motion picture theater in the 1924-1925 edition of Polk’s Wisconsin State Gazetteer and Business Directory.

The “Theatre Changes” section of the March 9, 1937, issue of Film Daily included this name change: “RIB LAKE — Gem (formerly Armory).” However, there are also earlier references to the house as the Gem Theatre. There is also and ad from 1931 calling the house the Rib Lake Theatre. It was also known as Johnson’s Opera House.

A February 9, 1946, newspaper article seen here said that the Lake Theatre had been destroyed by fire the previous Saturday afternoon. New owners had taken over operation the previous year, and the name had been changed to Lake Theatre. The article says the building had been erected about 35 years earlier to house farm machinery, but had been remodeled to house a theater and hardware store, so it could have been the theater listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD. It had also served as an armory during WWI.

Though the theater had been destroyed by the 1946 fire the building survived. This is what it looked like in 1973, when it was serving as an automobile garage. A new theater was built at another location later in 1946. Over the years the new house went by the names New Lake Theatre, Lake Theatre, and Laker Theatre.

Joe Vogel on July 22, 2017 at 11:18 pm

Let’s see if this link works.

If not, try loading this PDF, then search it for theatre (use that spelling) and then click on result #9 (of 11) which should be a link reading: “16926 P. 9-1973 former North Side Garage, prior site of Johnson’s Opera House & Lake Theatre.jpg”