At the Movies in Old Chippewa

Last week I gave a program for our local Community Education folks.  The topic was "Historic Movie Theaters of Chippewa Falls".  

Because I'm easily bored doing things the normal way I asked if we could have the program in the current, modern movie theater....complete with concessions, popcorn and a couple of 1915 silent movies featuring a local lad made good.

No problem.....they pretty much let me do anything that I think is entertaining.  To myself mostly but we did have a full house.  The theater folks had to make extra pizzas.

I freely admit when my expertise is dubious.  Heck I didn't even want to research this subject but sometimes you stumble across things while doing other research.  And when you do, well its your obligation to do something with it.  I liken it to being out on a walk, encountering a cute but mangy stray dog.  You stop to scratch its ears and it will follow you home and become your responsibility.

And sure enough, others knew things.  When I mentioned that there was one historic theater where I had been unable to locate a single photo.....a white haired chap with a big envelope came forward and showed me this:

Darn it all, this ties in neatly with small scraps of info I'd run across earlier.  And leads off into a whole bunch of other material.  Another cute, mangy dog follows me home.  I'll be doing an extensive update on this establishment and its interesting neighborhood in the future.