MALEK Theatre

August 1936

As a junior in high school, Dorothy Rowden (Malek), started working at the newly built movie theatre, The Uptown, in Gladbrook, IA. The theatre contained 176 seats and was happily welcomed by the residents of Gladbrook. The walls were painted in rainbow effects, with custom-designed, multicolored lighting to blend with the walls. The seats were upholstered in green and the lobby held an electric popcorn machine and a fish pond. Dorothy started at $4.00 per week and soon after that, got a social security number. She loved her job so much that she would have worked for nothing.