Movies, music brought people to Main Street
| By DENNIS NARTKER KENDALLVILLE — To get away from the hard times of the Great Depression, Kendallville’s citizens jammed Main Street’s three movie theaters in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1933 the Strand Theatre featured Marlene Dietrich in “Blonde Venus.” Admission was 10 cents for children, 25 cents for balcony seats and 30 cents for the main floor. Ed and Marjorie Misselhorn recall how busy Kendallville’s Main Street was 40 to 50 years ago. “Oh the people,” said Marjorie. “Saturday was the busiest shopping day and the time when people paid their bills. But you know, so many people came downtown just to park, talk and watch other people. Why they would come early, park their cars, walk home to eat lunch and come back so they didn’t lose their parking spot.” The weekly band concerts in the band shell on Thursday nights attracted huge crowds. Seats were provided and people stopped at the nearby popcorn stand for a snack before the concert. Edythe (Franze) Nartker attended the concerts as a young girl in the 1920s with her sisters and girlfriends. “We’d go over to the popcorn stand nearby and get some free hard-tack before going to the concert,” she said. Hard-tack was cooked popcorn kernels that didn’t pop. Seventy-eight-year-old Irene Schenher’s grandfather Casper Vetter played a tuba horn in the community band. “I have a book of music they played in the 1920s,” he said. “The weekly concerts were popular. A lot of people went.” An article in The News-Sun in 1926 described a community band concert: “With ideal weather for the weekly event, the crowd arrived early and one hour before the concert started all the parking spaces were taken. The seating space was more than half filled. “At 8 o’clock when the concert started, the pavilion lot was crowded. “The delightful numbers by the band were interspersed by features which included a harmonica solo by Herbert Dickinson; vocal solo by Miss Pauline Kline; whistling solos by LeVon Henney and the song and dancing specialty by Angelo, the black boy of the Sally Lou Steppers.” Jean (Stiver) Cochard of Kendallville remembers how many people sat in their cars, lined up on William Street to the railway tracks and along Orchard Street, to hear the music. “When a number was finished, all would honk their horns in appreciation,” she said. “A few of those talented band members I can recall are Harold Edwards, Fred Johnson and Chet Throp. Later they added a young trumpeter named Eddie Smith.”
BANDSTAND — Weekly band concerts were popular community gatherings in Kendallville in the 1930s. The city band performed in the band shell, shown here, at the corner of William and Orchard streets. |
 COUNTY FAIR TIME — A group of musicians march down Kendallville’s Main Street business district at the turn of the century as part of the county fair celebration. The view is from the Main and William streets intersection looking northwest. (Photo contributed by Russell Frehse) |
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 POPCORN CORNER — These popcorn stands were located across the street from each other.The one pictured at left sat at the northwest corner of |
 William and Main streets and the other stand was at the southeast corner of William and Main Streets. (Photos contributed by James Jarrett) |
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