Wyoming’s Last Drive-In Theater, Powell’s American Dream, Open For 78th Season

 

Wyoming’s Last Drive-In Theater, Powell’s American Dream, Open For 78th Season

Blog Mirror: Historic Casper Theaters For Sale With Legal Stipulation They Can't Be Theaters Again

 From the Cowboy State Daily:

Historic Casper Theaters For Sale With Legal Stipulation They Can't Be Theaters Again

As the owners they can, of course, do whatever they wish, including putting stipulations in the sale.  It's sad, however.

Assuming that anyone buys them with that stipulation present.

Center Street and 2nd, Casper Wyoming, at night.

Casper's Iris to become a civic auditorium.

 

The Iris, a recently closed Casper downtown movie theater.

The association that's been backing a civil auditorium announced yesterday that it had purchased the Iris, a recently closed downtown movie theater for that purpose.

The association earlier took a couple of runs at trying to raise sufficient funds for a purpose built auditorium in Casper, but it was never successful.  When the Irish closed there was mention of the theater, which is not really all that old, being converted to that purpose, and now it apparently will be.

Radio City Music Hall, New York City.

America Theatre

This is the America Theatre, a very old movie theater on Center Street. The theater has been in operation for decades, although it's had its ups and downs. Some twenty or so years ago, it was bought by local entrepreneurs who revamped it, together with the Rialto Theater up the street, bringing it back into the full swing of things. The theater has a very wide screen, and is a very popular theater today.

While the Rialto has been restored to its 1930s appearance, the America, which is nearly as old, retains the look it has had much since the 1970s.

 America Theatre at night.

 Classic car (1954 Chevrolet Bel Aire)  near a classic theater.

The Strand Theatre, Rawlins Wyoming

This is the Strand Theatre Building in Rawlins, Wyoming.  The theater was built in 1919, at a time when movies were becoming increasingly popular.  I don't know what the current use of the building is, and whether or not it is still used as a theater.

Some may wonder why the Strand had its name painted on the back of its building.  The theater is located only one block from the Union Pacific railroad, and at that height, rail passengers would have been likely to notice the sign.  Rawlins was a major stop on the Union Pacific at that time, and its likely that quite a few travelers saw the sign and were tempted to take in a movie if they were staying overnight in Rawlins, which had at least one fairly good sized hotel in the downtown district.