About

The Forest Theatre first opened as the “New Opera House” in 1914, but changed its name to the Forest Theatre later in World War I. Throughout much of the theater’s earlier history, it was operated by the M.A. Brown family who moved to Riceville in 1923, but it wasn’t until 1947, when Mr. Brown left the theater business and Willson Gaffney, the son-in-law, became the manager of the theater.

Central States Theatres took over the Forest Theatre on July 1, 1938.

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After the August 8, 1950, reopening of the theater from the January 10, 1950, fire, Franklin Brown became the manager, who was the son of the former operator Mr. Brown who died in December 1948. This didn’t last long, and in February 1951, it was taken over by Henry C. Nelson who operated it until July 1954, when Jack Compston took over operations of the theater who later installed CinemaScope a month later.

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The January 10, 1950, fire occurred during a showing of Donald O'Connor in “Yes Sir That’s My Baby” with no extra short subjects, when the fire started in a furniture storage room of the theater which was located at the roof, estimating $125,000 in damage. With the flames being reported at 8:40 PM CST, there were over a hundred people attending the movie and all of them escaped without injury.

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Within 30 minutes after the alarm sounded, the flames broke through the roof of the theater, and as the flames threatened to spread to the Soda Bar building to the north and the Olson Furniture store and Lynns Department Store to the south, a call for additional units from surrounding departments were sent out to the cities of Lake Mills, Garner, Clear Lake, and Mason City Fire Departments. Forest City used all of their three engines including their 1925 Watrous truck unit were on-scene at first before additional units. For the other departments, units from Lake Mills and Garner arrived first while Clear Lake’s engine was frozen up near Ventura which were forced to turn back and return to the station. The Mason City engine which had been sent to standby in Clear Lake made the run to the scene. By the time the other departments arrived on-scene, the fire raged and went under control. They do have time to remove all the equipment inside the theater including the popcorn machine and other concessions in the lobby. The movie’s title plus the “Two Jackpots” contest advertisement on the marquee was still attached as the flames grew. Shortly after 10:00 PM CST, the rear wall started to collapse, adding a new hazard for units to combat. Before the fire was completely under control, more walls fallen. An hour and 15 minutes later comes the additional units to return. The entire fire department in Forest City remained on-scene until 4:00 AM the next morning, pouring water on the fire. Water was still being played on the burning ruins of the theater as Hansen said that his men at the FCFD used a 1,000ft of 2-½ inch hose, a 900ft of 1-½ inch hose, and a 300ft of 1-inch hose in the fire and more than 100,000 gallons were poured in during the blaze.

The fire apparently had smoldered in the storage area for sometime before being discovered because as soon as the door into the store room was broken in, flames rapidly spread throughout the second floor. Fire officials who had entered the theater were forced by the flames to retreat from the building.

The Forest reopened on August 8, 1950, with “My Friend Irma Goes West” with no extras.

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Jack and Gary Compston were the Forest Theatre’s long-time managers. Jack Compston operated it from July 1954, until January 1974, when his son Gary took over as the manager of the theater. Prior to his theater business, Jack operated a bowling alley in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. At the time of his theater business, he was a resident of Decorah. During Gary’s early theater days comes The Forest Theatre’s longest running movie, “The Sting”, ran there for three weeks in 1974. Throughout Gary’s theater business, automated projection in 1979, and Dolby Stereo in 1982, were installed in the theater.

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In 2011, digital theatre rendered it too costly to keep the theatre open without the proper updates. The doors to the theatre closed.

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A group of volunteers organized a fundraiser to buy a digital projector for the theatre. The non-profit group, Forest City Entertainment Inc. was formed. The donations raised purchased the theatre building and a new state-of-the-art digital projector. The theatre reopened in November 2013 and has been serving the community ever since. 

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