Blende Theatre

The Blende Theatre was Benton’s only movie house. It was opened by Claude M. “Cookie” / “Pop” Vail, the town’s newspaper editor and the person responsible for showing one reel movies at the old Benton Opera House. Vail built the theatre in 1916 to show motion pictures and to house his Benton Advocate newspaper along with space housing a dry cleaner.

The Blende Theatre opened September 5, 1916 with William S. Hart’s “The Disciple” supported by the Mack Sennett comedy, “Saved by Wireless”. Leona E. McCarty served as the primary piano player there for the theatre’s entire silent period.

The theatre’s unusual name was derived from the town’s 19th Century Ida Blende Mine that produced vast quantities of Sphalerite, a zinc sulphide which miners called “Blackjack,” a zinc blende. The Blende Theatre out-survived the opera house which suffered a major fire in 1924.

The Blende Theatre, however, struggled during the Depression closing briefly several times due to economic conditions. Vail and the Blende proved resilient converting to sound to stay relevant. The Blende Theatre also became home to the town’s VFW Hall while continuing as its movie house.

For five years beginning in 1950, the Blende Theatre was run as a non-profit movie house by the VFW. Its attractor used dark green paint to spell out Blende Veteran’s Theatre. The 1951 showing of “Because of Eve” led to controversy when local clergy called the film, “filth”. As the decade continued, television took its toll on the the Blende’s business.

Clayton Ewing took on the venue likely at the end of a second 20-year leasing cycle to operate the theatre beginning in December of 1955 as a live venue ending the town’s movie run. But the theatre faded and reportedly became a skating rink while the VFW found a new home elsewhere on Main Street. Local film fans had options including driving to Dubuque, Iowa less than 20 miles away just over the Mississippi River for movies.

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