Opera House
520 Whittier Street,
Whiting,
IA
51063
520 Whittier Street,
Whiting,
IA
51063
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The Opera House was located in the upper story of the Cassady and Whiting Block, a fine two story brick building constructed in 1904 to replace an earlier store opened in 1880 by E.M. Cassady and W.C. Whiting. The ground floor contained a store on the left, and a bank on the right.
The entry to the Opera House was located on the side, facing Blair Street. It’s unclear when the first movies were shown, but this theatre is listed in guides from at least 1926 through 1934. There is a Whiting Theatre listed from 1935 through 1957, which may have been the same, although the capacity is slightly larger.
The building today is in good shape, with the ground floor used as a bank. The upper story appears to be disused. Sadly, a picture from August 2024 shows the cornice stripped from the building. Hopefully it will be replaced.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
Thanks to Ken Roe for some dates on this one!
An issue of Moving Picture World from between March and April, 1926 (I can’t be more specific right now because Internet Archive has been unavailable for much of the last couple of weeks, so all I’ve seen is a snippet from Google search results) has this line: “…Whiting, Opera House (250 seats), Whiting, Iowa, PARISIAN NIGHTS.” I suspect this line is from a capsule review of the 1925 Boris Karloff movie of that name.
The only theater listed at Whiting in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory is a house called the Cube Theatre, which I’ve been unable to find mentioned anywhere else on the Internet. No details are given for it.
I’m having the same problem with the Cahn Guide, although this town is so tiny it almost certainly wouldn’t be listed anyway.