Theater opened in 1913
ELMWOOD – The oft-heard suggestion to “get ahead of the narrative” makes me smile when it is applied to the realities of a small town. As in, is that really possible? 
So if you recently heard that Elmwood’s Palace Theatre is for sale, you heard correct. If you heard Elmwood’s venerable theater is closing, you heard wrong.
The narrative is this. Ten years ago, a group of investors banded together to purchase The Palace after it had been closed for a few months. The idea then and now was to keep the theater open for as long as possible, building on the legacy left by past owners Ed and Vivian Hahn and Vern Reynolds.
Thankfully, another generation can say they experienced the big screen in a historic theater that survived a tornado and dates back to its opening as a vaudeville venue in 1913.
Along the way, our group of investors (in full disclosure, I own two shares) has worked to improve the old brick barn. The bathrooms and concession stand were remodeled. Wiring has been updated. The marquee functions better than ever with LED lights. Mice make fewer visits. Part of the HVAC system is new. The basement has been cleaned. The list goes on.
But making a go as a movie theater is getting harder and harder, particularly for a small-town group with just one screen. We have no economies of scale with our lone theater and incur extra costs because of our unique corporate structure.
The nation’s change in movie-watching habits since Covid is also a huge factor. More and more, people stay home and watch on the small screen, instead of enjoying delicious popcorn and experiencing the big screen. My kids are even content to view movies on their phones. While that makes no sense to me, it’s a hard trend to fight.
The Hollywood mafia hasn’t helped either. There are fewer and fewer compelling movies to choose from each week.
Faced with those realities, shareholders gathered for our annual meeting last Saturday to make a hard decision. Understand, none of the investors have made money on their shares. To the contrary, actually. In 2024, some even contributed extra money to a capital drive to ease us through a tight financial spot. Others have donated their labor and their time.
Deciding what to do next was not easy, but the vote Saturday was 471-168 in favor of selling. There was no applause after the ballots were tallied. Just a sad reality.
The theater’s board of directors has tried various special promotions over the past decade with mostly limited success.
Last year’s special showing of the locally filmed indie movie “Wardcliffe” ranks among my personal highlights, as do showings of “The Revenant” and “Jaws” – among the many memorable movies that need the big screen for full effect.
Mostly, though, it has been very gratifying to see cars lining Main Street after normal business hours and people walking out of The Palace laughing, talking and smiling. The downtown is more alive thanks in part to the theater.
That’s why the last thing investors want is to see another business go dark in Elmwood. As is true for all small towns, businesses here struggle to stay afloat. Closings in recent years include the pharmacy, dentist office, grocery store, chiropractor and a once-popular restaurant.
Bright spots are fewer, though a new coffee shop and arts center and some new restaurants have emerged to keep hope alive. Still, there’s a net loss that worries civic-minded folks.
Our hope is to find a buyer to keep the theater going for another decade. Maybe someone with a chain of theaters can cut enough costs to make showing movies work. Maybe Hollywood will start making better movies. Perhaps there’s a motivated movie buff who has always wanted to own a theater. Or maybe someone has a different idea for how best to use the theater’s large space and numerous seats.
In any case, investors have pledged to keep the doors open as long as we can. We may tweak our hours and prices in the weeks and months ahead, but the plan is to continue showing as many first-run movies as possible. Your continued support will help extend that timeline, just as it has for the past decade.
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Parting shot: We recently had to run an analysis of the top states (and countries) in terms of visits to our website, illinoisweeklies.com. Predictably, Illinois was No. 1, Texas was No. 2 (slight surprise) … and No. 4 was Gansu, a province in north-central China. That did surprise me, until research revealed that while Gansu is one of China’s poorest provinces, it is also home to one of eight national computing hubs. Though I’m sure our visits are probably only from bots, we’d still like to offer a formal hello to all our Gansu readers!
Contact Jeff Lampe at (309) 231-6040 or jeff@wklypost.com.
