Gerald Theatre (II)
Gerald,
MO
63037
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You’re right. I recently did see later advertisements of the Gerald. After its July 30, 1957 showing of “The Giant” has a note written by the manager saying that the theater “will be closed until further notice”. It did had a full-year closure though, but it wasn’t until during the first week of October 1958 when Mr. Cleo Brame of Van Buren, Missouri, told his plans to resume the showing of films at the Gerald Theater only six nights a week (except Tuesdays). The business men there said that they would be glad to see the show open again and a number of them pledged to chip in $2 a month for $10 attended prizes to be awarded at the show each Saturday evening providing the scheme could be made to comply with the state’s lottery laws.
The Gerald Theater reopened its doors on October 17, 1958 with “The Kettles On Old McDonald’s Farm” and “Joe Dakota” (unknown if any short subjects added). Unfortunately this did not last long at all. The Gerald Theater closed again on August 31, 1959 with “A Certain Smile” due to theater manager Roy Wheeler said that he had too much things to do. He also didn’t have much time to operate his cafe as well. This was all due to his wife’s surgery the previous week at the Lutheran Hospital in St. Louis and won’t be able to help both the theater and the cafe at the time. I cannot find any listings of any showtimes later on.
The Gerald was apparently not closed long in 1957. An ad in the May 1, 1959 issue of The Gerald Journal said the house was soon to celebrate its second anniversary.
An article posted on the web site of the Gasconade County Republican on February 4, 2021 said that “[t]he Gerald Community Theatre group has been working to raise funds to purchase the old theater at 353 S. Main Street built in 1932.” I don’t know if this location is the first Gerald Theatre or the second, and I’ve been unable to find the theatre group’s Facebook page, so the project might have been abandoned.
The article says the theater was in a brick building 30x80 feet. A Zillow page for the address has photos of a more modern, metal building, housing a workshop of some kind, attached to the rear of an older building. The page says the property is off the market. Neither Google nor Bing Maps has a street view of the location, but satellite views show the two distinct buildings at the address, and the one in front (the older one) does appear to be about 30x80.
The October 16, 1946 issue of Film Daily had this brief item:
“Meier Completing the Cinema
“Gerald, Mo.— The Cinema, a 300-seater, is being completed here by Adolph P. Meier.”