Entertainment : Reminiscing 25 Years at the Palace

Volunteers and patrons help raise funds for digital cinema in 2010 by sporting their 3D glasses. Volunteers Rhonda and Mike Barron, Alan Woodhouse, and Judy Renken

Palace supporters Don and Peggy Weidemen

By Marcy Horst

We've had a whirlwind holiday at the Palace Theatre! Phew. I've got popcorn coming out my ears! So many of you came to the movies to end 2024 and begin 2025 - which is the absolute best way to support your local cinema!

I know for a fact that while some may have felt an unadulterated loathing for the musical extravaganza and only attended "Wicked" to please a significant other, many of you journeyed to Oz for the second or third time, and a few of you attended "Wicked" twice at our theatre this past weekend. Because the Oz saga has been so pop-u-la-ar, we will be bringing Elphaba and Glinda back on Friday to play in our regular schedule, Friday and Saturday at 2 pm and 7 pm and Sunday at 7 pm.

Speaking of supporting the Palace, I'm pleased to report that we are much closer to our fundraising goal to Light Up the Palace. Special thanks to all of you who mailed checks, donated online, or dropped off contributions at the box office or concessions tip jar. Your support, coupled with a generous grant donation from the Benton County Community Foundation, brings our total received to almost $19,000 of our $25,000 goal. In just two months!

It's not too late to join the campaign and help us reach our final goal. Donations may be made online at www.vintonpalace.org, or checks written to ACT I/Palace Theatre, 210 W 4th St, Vinton.

When I wasn't selling tickets or concessions, popping popcorn, or assembling treat trays, I spent many hours chatting with patrons throughout the past several weeks. It's been great fun to reminisce about the early Palace days, before and after the 1999 re-opening. In 25 years, our business has changed so much!

Gerald and I recently had a concession stand conversation with volunteers Greg and Diane Walston and some younger staff and volunteers about the original theatre which began as a vaudeville stage, then silent film, talkies, black and white pictures, and finally a full-color cinema. The Palace seated 500 in the early 1900s, and often sold out! Patrons purchased tickets at a window outside, for just pennies, nickels, and dimes, in the early days. The lobby and concession stand were a mere fraction of its current size. The theatre had no balcony - the projection booth was located above the lobby, and due to no temperature control, the one window was often wide open with a projectionist leaning out to catch the breeze.

So many Vinton friends I've chatted with can recall their very first movie at the Palace in the 1950s and 60s, including the cartoons shown before the show, and an intermission with themed music. Local historian and Palace volunteer Rich Farmer is a font of information and has a new story every time we meet.

Throughout the early aughts of the 21st Century, the Palace regularly sold out with lines down the street stretching all the way to the bank. The managers added late shows to accommodate the overflow. The Board of Trustees and managers were flabbergasted and beyond pleased at the continued success of the reopened theatre. Throughout the years, the movie business has ebbed and flowed, but Vinton and Benton County remain steadfast in their support of the Palace Theatre.

Gerald likes to remind me of four statements I made, once upon a time - I'll never use a home computer, I don't need the internet on my computer, I don't need a cell phone, and finally, I won't use the internet on my cell phone. Hahahaha I mention my fanciful declarations because to examine our current business is to realize that the film industry has been forever altered due to technological advances and social media.

DIGITAL CINEMA

By the year 2009, we were still selling out shows at the Palace, but not regularly. Attendance was down. I had a cell phone by then, and many high school students had cell phones. Most households had home computers and internet, and social media was trending, for better or worse. Posting about your weekend activities became a thing, which created a competitiveness and impatience to be the first to see a movie like we hadn't previously experienced. Waiting 4-6 weeks for the show to hit the Palace was no longer cool, and we started to lose many of our regulars to "big city" (Cedar Rapids and Waterloo) multiplexes.

Digital cinema loomed, and Gerald began his research, with the goal of creating new excitement at the movies and boosting attendance. He quickly found an ally in Sonic Equipment Company in Iola, Kansas. Sonic led the way for small town digital cinema transitions, and the Palace Theatre became one of their very first clients. Indeed, the Palace became one of the first digital cinemas in the state of Iowa! We proudly maintained our $2 ticket price, thanks to generous community donations to fund the project, and boasted the Only $3 3D in the World!

If you check out Sonic Equipment's home page at sonicequipment.com, you will see the Vinton Palace Theatre, including myself and Allan Merchant, still featured prominently in a video promoting small town digital cinema transformations.

In my 18 ½ years as manager at the Palace, I've spearheaded many fundraisers for a variety of unsexy projects, like the roof, HVAC, and sound equipment. Raising money for the digital equipment, however, was new and exciting! The whole community got involved - civic groups, business, Vinton-Shellsburg schools, Vinton Parks and Rec, volunteers, and so many patrons. We took photos of our biggest donors wearing 3D glasses and created a fun video to show before the movies, inspiring even more folks to get involved.

Abby Cronk and I are having a blast with this 25th Anniversary project, as well. If you haven't been to the movies lately, you must come! The price is still right, the popcorn is always hot and buttery, and the video Abby created for the Light Up the Palace project which plays before the film is a must-see.

THE STRAIGHT STORY

Since October, we've been showing a selection of flashback movies from our first year, 1999-2000, on one Wednesday night a month. Our next one is this week, January 8 at 7 pm. "The Straight Story" premiered in October of 1999 and it played the Palace in January of 2000. This movie was a compelling curiosity for our audiences because it featured a riding lawnmower and was set in Iowa.

Synopsis: A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) learns one day that his distant brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

Abby and I have been struck by how many great movies came out during the Palace Theatre's opening season. We both attended almost every film, Abby as a middle schooler, and me a late-thirty-something. We can't wait to see you at the movies again!

Meet me on this page next week, dear reader, for more on digital cinema and the current film industry.