Dick Blaschke and the great Middleton Theater Contest

by Claudia Miska

I sat down earlier this month with Dick Blaschke, a long time Middleton resident, to listen to some of his stories about growing up in Middleton.

We talked about the Middleton Theater at 2111 Parmenter Street. The theater was owned by the M.E. Theater Management Company with headquarters in Milwaukee. The theater was a quonset type building that featured 99 cent movies and opened in November, 1946.

Dick told me a story about how Mr. Kromrey was the scoutmaster of his boy scout troop. Mr. Kromrey made a deal with the theater that the scouts were to sell tickets for some event and the prize to the highest seller would be to be the first person in the theater to see the 1939 movie Union Pacific directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The movie was about how someone tried to sabotage the building of the transcontinental railroad.

Dick was enterprising at a young age. He figured out that if he took the tickets with him as he delivered the papers on his paper route, he could sell his tickets quickly. Dick sold the most tickets and got his pick of the seat in the theater. He also remembered he got a kit to assemble a pair of moccasins from scoutmaster Kromrey.

On the day the theater was razed, the marquee announced “The Last Show: Foss Building Rides Again”. Greg Foss, of Foss Builders was the contractor for a senior living housing project that was built in the location. Greg named the building “The Patrician” after his wife.

The last owner of the theater, Madison 20th Century Theaters gave some of the seats to the American Players Theater. The building itself was donated to New Life Baptist Church. It was taken down piece by piece and moved.

by George Zens