Movie Theater History in Bloomington, Indiana 1998

A Guide to the Collection of Oral History Interviews at Indiana University Bloomington

Finding aid prepared by the staff of the Center for the Study of History and Memory with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access, 2000-2002

Creator: Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory
Title: Movie Theater History in Bloomington, Indiana
Collection No.: ohrc080
Dates: 1998
Quantity:

Quantity: 9 Interviews

(Audio files, transcripts, and collateral materials )
Abstract: This project contains information about the movie theater industry in Bloomington, Indiana in the 1930s to present. Interviewees discuss their remembraences of movie theaters: the movies they saw, the people they worked with, the fires that periodically destroyed the theaters, and their interior decoration. Interviewees also talk about the theater business today and how it has changed over the years.
Location: Interviews are housed in Franklin Hall, Room 0030A. Contact ohrc@indiana.edu for more information. Copies of interview transcripts are also held by the IU Libraries University Archives. For other locations housing the interviews from this project, please contact the Center for Documentary Research and Practice office.
Language: Materials are in English
Repository: Center for Documentary Research and Practice
Franklin Hall 0030B
601 E. Kirkwood Avenue
Bloomington, Indiana 47405
Business Number: 812-855-2856
ohrc@indiana.edu
URL: https://cdrp.mediaschool.indiana.edu/

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains nine interviews conducted over one year. The interviews range from twenty to seventy-five minutes. All interviews consist of audio tapes and typed transcripts.

Restrictions

Usage Restrictions:

The archive of the Center for Documentary Research and Practice at Indiana University is open to the use of researchers. Copies of transcript pages are available only when such copies are permitted by the deed of gift. Scholars must honor any restrictions the interviewee placed on the use of the interview. Since some of our earlier (pre-computer) transcripts do not exist in final form, any editing marks in a transcript (deletions, additions, corrections) are to be quoted as marked. Audio files may not be copied for patrons unless the deed of gift permits it, and a transcript is unavailable for that interview. The same rules of use that apply to a transcript apply to the audio interview. Interviews may not be reproduced in full for any public use, but excerpted quotes may be used as long as researchers fully cite the data in their research, including accession number, interview date, interviewee's and interviewer's name, and page(s).

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[interviewee first name last name] interview, by [interviewer first name last name], [interview date(s)], [call number], [project name], Center for Documentary Research and Practice, Indiana University, Bloomington, [page number(s) or tape number and side if no transcript; if digital audio and no transcript, cite time when quote occurs].

Acquisition Information

Oral history interviews conducted by the Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory from 1968 to the present, with particular focus on the history of twentieth-century America and the Midwest.

Collection Inventory

Bidwell, Ronald , December 8, 1997

No(s): 98-010

Physical Description: 34 pages; 1 tape, 1 7/8 ips, 58 minutes; no index

Scope and Content Note: Ronald Bidwell speaks of his memories of the Indiana Theater in Bloomington, Indiana. He talks about the way the theater was decorated after a fire gutted the building in the 1930s. He speaks of the films he remembered seeing there. He speaks of his father, Walter Bidwell, who was the organist, and of Roy Hays, the projectionist. He talks about the decline of the Indiana and Von Lee Theaters after Kerasotes Theaters bought them.

Indexed Terms:

  • Occupations:
    • movie projectionist
    • theater usher
  • Subjects:
    • film distribution
    • film promotion
    • Gone with the Wind
  • Corporate Bodies:
    • Indiana Theater
    • Kerasotes Theaters
    • Von Lee Theater
  • Family Names:
    • Vonderschmidt
  • People:
    • Bidwell, Walter
    • Hays, Roy

Access Status: Open

Cook, Robert A. , May 22, 1998

No(s): 98-002

Physical Description: 20 pages; 1 tape, 1 7/8 ips, 30 minutes; no index

Scope and Content Note: Robert A. Cook discusses his days as an usher at the Indiana Theater in Bloomington, Indiana in the 1930s. He talks about building advertisements for the movie runs, and helping to design movie advertisements for the local papers. He speaks of the owners, Harry and Nova Vonderschmidt, and the manager, Art Clark. He also talks about some of the silent films shown and the organ player, Walter Bidwell.

Indexed Terms:

  • Occupations:
    • theater usher
  • Subjects:
    • early films
    • Great Depression
    • lobby advertisement construction
    • newspaper advertisements
    • segregation
    • silent movies
  • Family Names:
    • Vonderschmidt
  • People:
    • Bidwell, Walter
    • Clark, Art
    • Vonderschmidt, Harry
    • Vonderschmidt, Nova

Access Status: Open

Crouch, Joseph , May 28, 1998

No(s): 98-005

Physical Description: 13 pages; 1 tape, 1 7/8 ips, 35 minutes; no index

Scope and Content Note: Joseph Crouch, speaks of his years as an usher and owner of the Indiana Theater in Bloomington, Indiana. He speaks of his duties as usher, the methods of film promotion and distribution, arson, and labor union disputes. He talks about the Vonderschmidt family, whose daughter he married. Finally, he discusses the difficulty of running the theater in recent years, and his decision to sell the theater to Kerasotes Theaters.

Indexed Terms:

  • Occupations:
    • theater owner
    • theater usher
  • Subjects:
    • arson
    • film distribution
    • Great Depression
    • theater promotions
    • union disputes
  • Corporate Bodies:
    • Kerasotes Theaters
  • Family Names:
    • Vonderschmidt
  • People:
    • Clark, Art
    • Vonderschmidt, Harry

Access Status: Open

Hays, Roy; Gines, Loretta Jean , March 18, 1998

No(s): 98-009

Physical Description: 15 pages; 1 tape, 1 7/8 ips, 40 minutes; no index

Scope and Content Note: Roy Hays and his daughter Loretta Jean Hays talk about the Indiana Theater in Bloomington, Indiana as they remember it. Mr. Hays discusses his time as the projectionist, and the union disturbances in the theater that led him to join the union. He speaks of the movies he remembers seeing, and some of the people he worked with.

Indexed Terms:

  • Occupations:
    • movie projectionist
  • Subjects:
    • Birth of a Nation
    • film promotion
    • union disputes
  • Family Names:
    • Vonderschmidt
  • People:
    • Palmer, Harold

Access Status: Open

Huntington, George , May 27, 1998

No(s): 98-003

Physical Description: 23 pages; 2 tapes, 1 7/8 ips, 70 minutes; index

Scope and Content Note: George Huntington reminisces about the Indiana Theater in Bloomington, Indiana. He remembers Gone with the Wind was one of the biggest films ever shown there. He discusses the methods theaters used to advertise their films. He speaks of the various fires in Bloomington theaters, especially the fire that destroyed the Harris Grand Opera House, which he was caught in as a child. He talks about race relations in Bloomington, the segregation of theaters, and later a sit-in at Woolworth's. He speaks of being dismissed from school early one day to go to the theater and watch Birth of a Nation , which he feels was a recruitment film for the Ku Klux Klan, which was very active in Indiana at the time.

Indexed Terms:

  • Occupations:
    • police officer
  • Subjects:
    • Birth of a Nation
    • Gone with the Wind
    • Harris Grand Theater fire
    • promotional advertising
    • Public Enemy Number One
    • race riots
    • segregation
    • student riots
    • theater interior decorations
    • Woolworth's sit-in
  • Corporate Bodies:
    • Harris Grand Opera House
    • Indiana University Kinsey Institute
    • Ku Klux Klan (1915- )
    • Princess Theater
    • Roxy Theater
  • Family Names:
    • Vonderschmidt
  • People:
    • Vonderschmidt, Harry

Access Status: Open

Leffler, Robert , May 21, 1998

No(s): 98-001

Physical Description: 23 pages; 2 tapes, 1 7/8 ips, 70 minutes; index

Scope and Content Note: Robert Leffler discusses the history of theaters in Bloomington, Indiana, focusing on the Princess Theater and the Harris Grand Theater. He talks about the 19th century, and the popularity of stage productions, especially Uncle Tom's Cabin . He speaks of early film, vaudeville, and nickelodeons that appeared in Bloomington. He talks about fires, riots, and other damage the theaters suffered over the years. Finally he discusses the changes in the theater business, and the advent of "piggyback theaters."

Indexed Terms:

  • Places:
    • Bloomington, Indiana
  • Subjects:
    • aerodome theaters
    • Daniel Boone on the Trail
    • Harris Grand Theater riots
    • local history
    • nickelodeons
    • opera houses
    • piggyback theaters
    • theater management
    • Uncle Tom's Cabin
    • vaudeville
    • Vitaphone
  • Corporate Bodies:
    • Armorial Theater
    • Electric Palace Tent
    • Harris Grand Opera House
    • Marsh Hall
    • Monon Railroad
    • Mullikin Hall
    • Paramount Publix
    • Princess Theater
    • Roxy Theater
  • People:
    • Harris, Joel Chandler
    • Leffler, James P.

Access Status: Open

Simmons, Richard Paul , May 27, 1998

No(s): 98-004

Physical Description: Not transcribed; 1 tape, 1 7/8 ips, 25 minutes; no index

Scope and Content Note: Richard Paul Simmons discusses attending the Indiana Theater in Bloomington, Indiana during the 1930s and 1940s.

Indexed Terms:

  • Subjects:
    • local history

Access Status: Open

Talbot, Robert , February 18, 1998

No(s): 98-008

Physical Description: 23 pages; 1 tape, 1 7/8 ips, 45 minutes; no index

Scope and Content Note: Robert Talbot speaks of his memories of the Indiana Theater in Bloomington, Indiana. He describes the office area above the theater where he had a photography studio for a short time. He also describes the interior of the Indiana Theater as he remembers it. He discusses the Sweet Shop, run by the Niccus family, and shares some memories about Art Clark, the theater manager, and Roy Hays, the projectionist.

Indexed Terms:

  • Subjects:
    • theater concessions
  • Corporate Bodies:
    • Indiana Theater
    • Talbot Studio (Bloomington, Ind.)
    • Sweet Shop
  • Family Names:
    • Niccus
    • Vonderschmidt
  • People:
    • Clark, Art
    • Hays, Roy

Access Status: Open

Talbot, Susan , March 6, 1998

No(s): 98-006

Physical Description: 34 pages; 1 tape, 1 7/8 ips, 45 minutes; no index

Scope and Content Note: Susan Talbot recounts her childhood in connection to the Indiana Theater in Bloomington, Indiana, where her father Roy Hays was the projectionist. She speaks of the movies she saw in the theater, visiting her father in the projection booth, and movie concessions. She also describes the interior of the theater.

Indexed Terms:

  • Subjects:
    • local history
    • theater concessions
  • Corporate Bodies:
    • Circle Drive-In
    • Indiana Theater
    • Sweet Shop
    • Von Lee Theater
  • Family Names:
    • Niccus
    • Vonderschmidt
  • People:
    • Clark, Art
    • Hays, Roy

Access Status: Open