Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
August 21, 2008

Mount Ayr, Ia. - Paul RAMSEY was only a kid when he saw his first Shirley TEMPLE movies in the old Princess Theater.

That was before he moved out to California, met the actress in person and built a small fortune as a real estate developer in Hollywood.

But memories pulled him back. When the 85-year-old old Iowa native returned to his home state a few years ago, the theater was an empty shell. Its last movie had long since flickered out, and its years as a plumbing supply store and a bar had taken a toll.

So, RAMSEY bought it - and gave it away.

"I only paid $35,000 for this old thing," he said with a nod toward the two-story building, which he donated to the Princess Theater Troupe in 2003. "I can't believe what they've done with it. I never dreamed they'd take the ball and run with it like this."

But run they did. A small army of volunteers raised more than $350,000 and pitched in to spiff up the building inside and out.

They've hustled for five years, and tonight when the red curtain rises for the locally written musical "Farmer Song," the Princess will join a growing number of renovated old theaters that are revitalizing towns across the state.

Leaders in Elkader re-opened the local opera house on the building's 100th anniversary in 2003, a Grinnell College alumnus renovated the town's Strand Theater in 2004, and Dubuque spiffed up its historic Grand Opera House in 2006.

Like its counterparts in other towns, the Princess has a history of both adoration and neglect. The building was constructed in 1887 for the W.A. SIMPSON Department Store before being converted to a theater in 1914.

People gathered here for vaudeville shows, silent movies and "talkies" for the next seven decades, until declining attendance forced it to close in 1985. The building housed a plumbing supply store, a bar and, for awhile, not much but dust.

So, by the time RAMSEY's architect son drafted plans for the exterior renovation, the building on the southeast corner of the square needed some major help. The outside was crumbling, and the roof was riddled with holes.

"Initially, it was too overwhelming to grasp," said project manager Ron LANDPHAIR, who taught industrial technology at the high school for more than 30 years. "If you don't have good walls and a good roof, you don't have much of a building."

But LANDPHAIR recruited a crew, including several classes from the school, and set to work. They spread a fresh layer of stucco on the outside walls, patched up the roof and added a marquee above the front door. Inside they built a concession stand and new bathrooms, painted the lobby a deep red and covered the ceiling with old-fashioned tin tiles.

New carpet runs down the center aisle between 117 comfy new seats, which the local football team helped unpack. A chandelier hangs above the lobby, and custom-built sconces line the walls.

"We really wanted a place for people to hang out. That's why we kind of went overboard on the trim and furnishings," Princess board member Michell RICKER said.

Funding from Vision Iowa helped leaders match a grant from the Dekko Foundation, but for the last few years, fundraisers were as common as cattle in this southern Iowa town of 1,800.

"We've raffled off everything you can imagine," board member Jane LAWHEAD said. "There's no one in town who hasn't helped."

Volunteers sold T-shirts and pies and Princess tiaras. They sold nuts in the fall, garbage bags in the spring and glow sticks during Ayr Days in September. They presented dinner theater and hosted parties for Red Hat Ladies from around the state. They even bought a flock of fake pink flamingos and coaxed donors to pay $20 to have the birds migrate to someone else's front yard.

"We started out with 20 birds, but after awhile, a new one started disappearing every night," RICKER said. "I think my husband did it because I was so darned tired of moving them around all the time."

First Row, Left to Right: Lucas SMITH, Caine POORE. Second Row: Mary Ellen DEVEREUX TAYLOR, Jane LAWHEAD, Teresa SULLINS. Third Row: Pam POORE, Ron LANDPHAIR. Fourth Row: Michell RICKER, Paul RAMSEY, Martha LANDPHAIR. Back Row: Bill HYNEK, Joe HYNEK, Amanda HYNEK, Angie HYNEK.

Donors bought honorary seats for $250 and personalized bricks in the sidewalk out front. A few pay tribute to high school alumni classes, others honor Lefty's Club Tavern Chili Cook-Off and two more hint at popcorn-scented romance from the theater's heyday.

The first reads: "Teenage love / Wanda JONES / Bob BENNETT." And the second, a few spaces away: " Love lives on / Bob and Wanda BENNETT."

Nearly everyone has a similar story.

RICKER's grandparents met for their first date here, and her mom came to a show every Saturday. Her future husband once got kicked out for licking Slo Pokes and ambush-slapping them on the cheeks of the unsuspecting.

Bill HYNEK remembers seeing "Chariots of Fire" at the Princess in the early 1980s.

"It was hotter than blazes in here, and the sound was crackly and distorted. You know how things get when they get old," he said.

In the years that followed, more people around town bought VCRs. Casey's General Store started renting out videos, and attendance at the theater dwindled.

"We just weren't having any crowds," said the theater's former owner, Charlene GREENE, who recorded ticket sales for six adults and 14 kids for a screening of "Fast Forward" one Saturday night in the summer of 1985. The movie about a group of small-town dancers who move to New York was the theater's last show.

"We could have taken a $100 bill and thrown it out the door, and we would have lost less money," GREENE said. "We went on vacation and never opened it back up."

Since then, locals who wanted to see a movie have had to drive 25 miles to Lamoni, 30 to Creston or 80 to Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines.

No one is certain if the Princess will fare better than it has in the past, but live plays and concerts will supplement the regular schedule of weekly movies. LANDPHAIR designed an 18-by-10-foot movie screen that swings like a gate from the side of the stage and rolls right back for storage. The transition takes about five minutes.

Leaders hope to host celebrities with Mount Ayr roots for events. Astronaut Peggy WHITSON graduated from high school here, Olympic decathlete Bruce JENNER taught here as part of his studies at nearby Graceland University, and Oscar-winner Hillary SWANK has family throughout Ringgold County.

SWANK already responded to one invitation and explained her schedule is full for the next 18 months.

"We'll call her in 18 months - or maybe 17, just in case," RICKER said. "We're going to ask them every year until they come. They'll probably agree just to get us off their back."

Whether or not the bigwigs ever visit, locals can hardly for tonight's big event. People have stopped by to peek in the windows and many have asked LANDPHAIR to show them around.

"Sometimes all I get done is be a tour guide," he said, adding that the things really shaped up with the new seats and carpet. "That's when people really started saying, 'Hey, this is going to be all right.' "

Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
August 21, 2008

The HYNEK family's musical about a love story in the midst of the 1980s Farm Crisis has been performed at Iowa State University in Ames, the State Fair in Des Moines and an international theater festival in New York City. But when the Ellston-based family of farmer-musicians present the show this weekend in nearby Mount Ayr, they might face their toughest crowd yet.

Many in the audience will remember the economic troubles firsthand, and they'll know whether small details ring true — if Bill HYNEK, for example, pretends to steer a tractor in a convincing way or if the bales onstage are really straw when the cast sings about hay.

"That won't work. They'll know it's not hay," said Bill HYNEK's wife, Angie, who wrote the script with their 28-year-old son, Joe.

Joe HYNEK wrote the first drafts of the musical several years ago and asked the rest of the family to work out some of the kinks. The group, which performs under the name Pumptown, often recorded themselves during road trips.

"It was a great way to get through Nebraska," said Amanda HYNEK, 22.

It was also a good way to test out new boyfriends, her father said. None passed.

The family eventually stitched the songs and stories together into a show and first presented it in 2006. Tonight is the first chance for neighbors to see it back home at the Princess Theater.

"It's kind of ironic," Angie HYNEK said. "The story came from the 1980s when the theater closed. It took us 25 years to write because it was so painful. ... We didn't know if anybody would want to come and hear a rehash of the Farm Crisis, but old guys have come up to us after the show — sometimes with tears in their eyes — and they say, ‘Wow, you really got it. You really understand what it was like.'"

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. tonight through Saturday, plus 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
WHERE: Princess Theater, 101 W. Monroe St., Mount Ayr.
TICKETS: $10 for adults, $5 for kids; farmersong.com, (641) 464-2146.

NOTE: Tickets for the Princess' grand opening were sold out.

Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
August 24, 2008

A rose to Iowa native Paul RAMSEY, who bought the Princess Theater in Mount Ayr for $35,000 and sold it to a local group for $1, and to the army of volunteers who raffled, baked and sold their way to raising more than $350,000 to renovate it. May another generation of young Iowans remember stealing kisses in a back row.

Princess 2011 Gala