More than 90 years later, an explosive drama involving two area theaters still has no ending.
The Clark Theatre in Louisiana Missouri was dynamited at 2:20 a.m. on May 28th, 1931. The next night, a Chicago grenade was found outside the KP Opera House in Pittsfield Illinois.
The Louisiana family that owned both movie palaces blamed gangsters who were working for theater rivals. However, the culprits were not caught and the incidents remain a mystery.
The Clark was extensively damaged, but the explosive at the Opera House did not detonate.
The Louisiana theatre was rebuilt and screened movies for another 50 years before it was destroyed by fire in 1987. Films were shown at the Opera House until 1950, when the now-shuttered Zoe Theatre opened.
By the way, the film at both locations on those fateful dates was “The Front Page” which depicts a newspaper reporter’s quest to interview a criminal.
CUTLINES:
Movie goers line up outside the Clark Theatre on the southeast corner of Fourth and Georgia in Louisiana on opening night, May 22, 1931. (Photo from the book “Louisiana” by Betty Jane Allen and Martha Sue Smith and courtesy of John Wood).
Damage to the Clark Theatre was extensive after a bomb went off at 2:20 a.m. May 28, 1931. (Photo from the book “Louisiana” by Betty Jane Allen and Martha Sue Smith and courtesy of the Louisiana Press-Journal).