Early Years At The Met:
Originally built by Eugene Ellsworth and designed by architects Omyer and Thori out of Minneapolis to be in the style of the Italian Renaissance. Eugene Elssworth spent about $50,000 to construct his own version of the New York Met complete with hand picked materials from all over the U.S. After a little more than a year of construction The Metropolitan Opera House opened its doors for the first time on December 27th 1899 showing the play “The Carpetbagger” starring comedian Tim Murphy. The cheapest tickets were $2.50 and the more expensive tickets costing upwards of $7.00 at the time. There was still a packed auditorium of more than 800 people on opening day. Over the years many notable people performed at The Met some of which include John Phillip Susa who first performed here in 1900 and again in 1905, Otis Skinner, and Walker Whiteside. While starting as a one room opera house The Met followed technology as it moved towards film by showing its first silent film “Birth of a Nation” in 1916. Then in 1930 The Met started showing “talkies” or movies with traditional audio. It wasn’t until 1939 that the first technicolor film was shown, which was “Shirley Temple The Little Princess”. After the death of Mr.Ellsworth in 1907 his family continued to operate the theater until the late 1930’s. It was the new owners that did the first major remodel in 1944. It is in the remodel that the stained glass archway was put up and a more traditional concessions stand was first added. The building went relatively unchanged for the next two years until the first of two marquee’s as pictured below was put up. From there The Met had no less than three owners up to the 90’s. One of them a Mr. E.M. Gabett put the building on both the state and federal national historic registries.
The Major Remodel and early 2000's:
In January 1993 Robert Fridley purchased The Met and started plans to remodel the theater just one month later. Mr Fridley originally wanted to open up a triplex in the old Hy-Vee building to add to his already 25 theaters that he owned, however he deemed it too expensive. He was approached by a local realtor and was offered The Met. Mr Fidley had plans to split the theater into two from the beginning. He originally planned for the remodel to take only three months. During the construction they found structural issues in the roof of the building which caused the remodel to take ten months. These setbacks caused them to go over half a million over budget. Despite the setbacks The Met reopened with a “hollywood style gala” on November 23rd with the movies “Cool Runnings” and “The Three Musketeers” playing the following day. Fridley owned the theater for nine years before passing ownership off to his son in law. In 2004 the theater was sold to Big Time Cinema who operated the theater for a little over a year before it was sold to a local owner.
Modern Day:
In 2013 Patrick Whitesell and his father John Whitesell bought the theater from the bank. Upon purchasing the theater the Whitesell's remodeled the second floor by adding in two offices, a reception room, and new digital projectors. To coincide with the grand reopening of The Met on September 13th, Hollywood star Hugh Jackman brought the red carpet premiere of “Prisoners” Mr. Jackman’s latest movie to Iowa Falls. According to Partrick “it was Hugh’s idea to host the premiere at the soon to be opened theatre”. He came up with the idea while at the London premiere of his hit summer movie “The Wolverine” which also showed for the grand opening. With tickets starting at $100 locals lined up the day before for their chance to see the new movie with its main star. The tickets sold out within 30 minutes of selling them. Tickets for The Wolverine were raffled off for $25 each with all providers going to Iowa Falls’ Ellsworth Municipal Hospital. Hugh Jackman is quoted in The Hollywood Reporter saying “When Patrick told me about what he was doing with his dad for the theater in his hometown, I immediately wanted to be involved, It’s not your typical place for a premiere, but the story behind the theater was just so compelling, I had to be there.” The Hollywood star and his family were spotted around town the whole weekend. He was seen going into local businesses, at local parks, and even Calkins Nature Center. While in town they stayed at another historical place, at the time River Bend Bed and Breakfast. The Met also opened The Met Museum for the 125th anniversary of the building in December of 2024. The museum is located on the second floor in the formal reception room and thanks to many generous donors and the Iowa Falls Historical Society the museum has a well documented history of the building and the events that it’s
hosted.
