Marengo Theatre
1131 Court Avenue,
Marengo,
IA
52301
1131 Court Avenue,
Marengo,
IA
52301
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Orient Theatre, Strand Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Orient Theatre was located in downtown Marengo and was a conversion of a grocery store that was built in the 1890’s. The Orient Theatre was opened in 1912. It was renamed Strand Theatre later in in the 1910’s. The Strand Theatre was remodeled on July 8, 1937. Sometime in the 1950’s, the theatre changed its name to the Marengo Theatre.
In 1963, the theatre closed for a while after the death of its owner, reopening later that December. Unfortunately, sometime in the mid-1970’s (or if not early-1970’s), the theatre closed for the final time and the building was placed on sale.
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50sSNIPES
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Address should be 1131 Court Ave, and this was demolished long ago. There’s a really crappy Family Dollar building there now.
The building was a typical turn of the century 2 story brick structure. It was constructed between 1892 and 1898, and was a grocery store through 1911. It was definitely open by 1922. The 1914-15 AMPD lists an Oriental, which might have been this theater. There was an opera house to the south (the Stover), which was still in business in 1922, and may have shown films.
It appears to have been a ground floor house in 1922, but is the sole occupant shown in 1933.
I have come across information leading me to believe that the Marengo Theatre originally opened in 1912 as the Orient Theatre, and that the grocery business that had previously occupied the building was long operated by the Leib family, one of whom moved it to a new location in 1911. This information comes from a biographical sketch of Mrs. E.N.(Rebecca) Leib on on this web page. It specifically says that the Leib’s grocery store was in the Eddy Building, and I have found the Eddy building mentioned in a theater industry trade journal item about the Orient Theatre.
An Orient Theater is mentioned in the January 2, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World: “L. E. ALEXANDER of Calmar has purchased the Orient theater at Marengo from C. W. Eddy and has assumed possession.
The January, 1912 issue of Motography told of the beginning of this house: “A moving picture theater will be opened at Marengo by Jos. Reynolds.” The story continued in the February issue: “Messrs. J. H. Reynolds, George Bishop and A. W. Skersick will open a moving-picture theater in the Eddy building at Marengo.” A July 20 item in the same journal indicates that one of the partners then came into full possession of the house: “The Orient Theater at Marengo has been purchased by A. W. Skersick.”
Trade journals from 1913 and 1914 mention a W. G. Eddy of Marengo who was secretary of the Iowa Motion Picture Exhibitors' League, and the July 4, 1914 issue of The Billboard even devoted a large part of a page to a letter he wrote to them regarding the evils of censorship. It appears that the Eddy family were the landlords for the theater, then one of them took over its operation for a couple of years, becoming deeply involved in the theater industry, for a while at least.