Mullen Theatre
Macke's Theatre
In 1930, the movie business was leased to Clara Stoner. Senk sold the equipment to Gibson and Jeffords in 1938. The Macke families took over about 1944 and it was just called the Theatre. In 1947, J.E. “Butch” Macke bought the building that now houses B.D. Enterprises from Walter and Florence Barneby. The Barneby's built this building to install a telephone switchboard. The building was 60 foot long and Macke purchased 36 feet more of ground from Carl Humphrey to make the building overall 96 feet long. The projector was 82 foot from the 16'x20' screen. Joan Rogers, a member of the Macke family, remembers the seating slanted down with the screen at the top of the stage. There was also a ticket booth which Cecil Macke and Betty Macke ran. Joan sometimes took tickets to help out. If you walk in this building today, you can tell how the theater was set up.
Mackes managed the theater for 15 years until Luther Phipps purchased it. For two years, Mr. and Mrs. Cliff Stahely managed the show business. Mr. Phipps then sold the theatre business back to the Mackes.
The Mackes booked only the top quality films to show in Mullen. Newsreels were now available and the Mackes advertised that the news was as good as you might see in Omaha or any other city. Don Sullivan remembers that showings were Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons and evenings. Joan Rogers remembers that on Sunday afternoons there was a matinee. Admission was 25 cents and the show consisted of a cartoon, a news reel, and then the movie. She also remembers that popcorn was 10 cents and pop 5 cents.
In October 1967, a notice ran in the local paper that the Theatre would be closing due to too many empty seats. This happened because of the increase in school and community activities. The theatre attendance was so small that the price of films could not be met with the door admittance fee. Mullen has not had a theatre business since.