Watseka, Illinois, sits as the county seat of Iroquois County on the Indiana border. The town claims to be a "progressive rural community that places strong emphasis on preserving family values" and claims to foster community pride. The city also claims a high priority for "community development and revitalization of downtown and other retail areas". (City of Watseka homepage)

The Watseka Theatre was built in 1931, a product of the Art Deco movement in cinema design.

By the mid-1990s, the state of affairs at the Watseka was a sorry one indeed. As reported by Cinematour researcher Bob Meza, "It is horrible that the once beautiful Watseka is sitting there rotting away. Last time I was in there was when Twister was showing. At that time, you could only sit in the center section because plaster was falling from the ceiling on the sides, so the sides were roped off. The heater in the building was a steam boiler that had broke, so they just punched a hole in the wall and hung one of those big gas heaters you find in high school gyms. What a shame." The Watseka finally closed in 1999. The last movie to play was The Mask of Zorro.

Competition for the Watseka came from the Princess Theatre, just three blocks away, which remains in operation today.

The Princess has been successful enough for the owner to add another screen. Another screen, not by chopping up the Princess or adding on to the building, but by converting an industrial building a number of blocks away. So what's wrong with that, you ask?

Again, from Mr. Meza: "This is no joke. The owner of the Princess Theatre ... built a second screen out of an industrial building. The screen is the wall of the theatre, and a speaker sits on the floor in front of the screen. The room is air conditioned by a household window air conditioner."

In a day and age of restoring historic buildings with funds raised from grants and public and private donations, I am appalled that the owner of the Princess has taken the cheap way out. One would think that the responsible thing for a successful business owner to do would be to put something back into the community which gives him that success, to assist and work closely with the local administration whose public mission statement clearly indicates a desire to rebuild and rejuvenate its downtown.

But that's not what really bothers this writer. What bothers me is that this, um, "new place to see a movie" is patronized by the very same community that this owner has shunned. They continue to put up with the disrespect and the concept that all it takes is an image on a wall and some vague resemblance of a soundtrack. The owner seems to be programming family fare at this new location with the notion that the clientele either won't notice the environment or won't care.

You know, I think I would actually be afraid of seeing their booth. Whatever they have has got to be the worst crap ever made. I'll bet if they are running on a platter they don't even use threading leaders. They probably just thread up on the first reel of the movie. Masking tape splices perhaps? Oh what I am even thinking about, no way a quality theater like that would spring for a platter and no possible way they would have two projectors. They probably run reels with lots of intermissions. Of course they do have cupholder armrests, so clearly that is what is bringing in the masses pictured above.

Someone daring get us some more pictures of this place!

That is by far the most poor excuse for a theater I have ever seen. Do they allow this person to have first-run product at this place?? Should someone alert the movie studios to take a tour of this place before they allow their next-big-hit to play there? My God!! The owner should nix those shiny poster cases and just staple several of the same one-sheet in a row on the plywood.... for "atmosphere"!

If the outdoor and indoor pictures were taken at the same time, that sure is a large crowd for "Powerpuff Girls!" The picture of the original "Princess Theatre" isn't too impressive either. Is that supposed to be a marquee??

It is indeed a shame that our movie palaces, or places like the Northpark who actually CARE about presentation and their customers are being bulldozed while crap like this is allowed to remain operational and take (yes, TAKE) money from people. I would watch a letterboxed scope movie on a 13" mono TV before I went to see a movie there, cupholders or not.

"Princess" my ass! (unless you're talking about the Princess in Shrek... )

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Steve

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I just LOVE the sign.
I mean, I really, really LERV it.
No, no... I LUFF it.

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