Park Theatre

Joe Vogel on July 20, 2024 at 8:15 pm

The January 14, 1937 issue of Film Daily had this item: “Clear Lake, Ia.—C. E. Carragher is remodeling and re-equipping his Park Theater.” Charles Carragher (sometimes misspelled as Caragher) was listed in Polk directories as early as 1918 as manager of the Electric Theatre in Clear Lake.

A December 25, 1915 Moving Picture World item datelined Clear Lake said that “C. E. Carragher, of Rudd, Iowa, who recently took over the Palm theater, is planning to make a number of improvements.”

An item in the local paper in November, 1916, said that D.C. Branson had sold the Electric Theatre to C. Carragher.

An item datelined Clear Lake in the April 9, 1927 issue of The Billboard says that “[t]he Park Theatre [is] to undergo alterations and improvements, C. E. Carragher is owner and manager.”

The 250-seat Park is the only theater listed at Clear Lake in the 1926 FDY, but then it vanishes in the next three editions, with 1927 and 1928 listing a 250-seat Electric Theatre and a house called the Garden with no capacity given, and the 1929 edition lists a 250-seat Uptown Theatre and the Palm Theatre, with no capacity given. In 1930, the Park is back, the only house in town, and listed as wired for sound. The Uptown rejoins the Park in 1931, but is listed as silent. After that, it’s only the Park through 1936.

Clear Lake is not listed in 1937 or 1938, and I have no 1939 edition, but in 1940 the 500-seat Lake is listed along with the 250-seat Park, which was closed. A local newspaper item in 1945 announced the grand opening of the Park Theatre, but I haven’t checked FDYs to see if it was listed as closed between 1940 and then.