Former theater

A few days ago, Jill read an article in the local newspaper about a movie theater that had the floor collapse in the 1920s during a silent movie. No one was hurt badly. They all thought it was part of the show, which was about a submarine.

When looking up if the theater is still standing (it's not), I found out that there used to be three theaters on one street on the east side of town. The one building still standing was the Lloyd’s Theater, which opened in 1917. The first floor was the theater, and the second floor was a bowling alley. I wonder how that worked.

The theater apparently closed in the 1940s, and that floor was used as an office, a pool hall and eventually another floor of bowling.

The sign on the right is for duckpin bowling, which uses smaller pins and balls and has different rules than standard bowling. It was invented around 1890 in New England and has dwindled in popularity. One source I found said there is only one duckpin alley west of the Mississippi River. A 2016 New York Times article says, "Today there are 41 congress-certified duckpin bowling alleys, down from nearly 450 in 1963."