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MUB Movies
UNH Memorial Union Building
Main Street
Durham
862-2290

Music Hall
28 Chestnut St
Portsmouth
Film telephone: 436-9900
Box office: 436-2400

Regal Portsmouth 5
581 Lafayette Rd
Portsmouth
436-3456

Regal Newington 12
45 Gosling Road
Newington
800 326-3264

Spinelli Cinemas
20 Third St
Dover
749-4123

Newburyport Screening Room
82 State St
Newburyport, MA
(978) 462-3456

Stage Two Cinema Pub
109 Main St
Amesbury, MA
(978) 388-6555

Hoyts Cinema
1279 S Willow St
Manchester
641-3456

A Visit to the Ioka Theater (written in 2006 before the Ioka Theater ceased showing movies)

The Ioka Theater in Exeter, nearly a century old, is one of the nation's first movie houses established outside a major city and is perhaps the oldest original vaudeville venue still run as a theater.

Behind the large main screen, in fact, is a full vaudeville-style stage, flanked by tiny dressing rooms. The lights at the foot of the stairs, stage right, were said to flicker when someone occupied the one dressing room above the stage.

The Ioka Theater is housed in the Mayer Building, labelled with one of America's most important show business surnames.

Louis B. Mayer, the de facto king of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios and much of Hollywood during its heyday, had his start in Haverhill, Massachusetts, about 25 miles south of Exeter. Mayer owned six vaudeville houses there and cashed in on the movie craze as films began to emerge from the fledgling Hollywood.

Edward Mayer, nephew of Louis and a county court judge living in Exeter, visited his prosperous uncle in 1911 to see firsthand what all the movie excitement was about. After witnessing crowds lined up for blocks to take in a movie, Edward went home with a plan to duplicate his uncle's business success. It took Edward another three years to acquire the money and land necessary to build Exeter's first movie theater. Construction of the Mayer Building at 55 Water Street was complete in time to open on November 11, 1915 for a screening of the D.W. Griffith epic, "Birth Of A Nation". A local contest, won by a local 11-year-old girl who served as a theater ticket-taker, produced the name Ioka, a Squamscott Indian word reputedly meaning "playground."

Throughout the golden era of Hollywood movies and up to today, the Ioka hosted virtually all of the great American movies. First, silent films with live musical accompaniment, vaudeville shows, burlesque and theatrical plays all found willing Exeter audiences. In 1929, talkies premiered at the Ioka with "The Cocoanuts" starring The Marx Brothers. During the Depression patrons found extra incentive to see a show when give-aways included cash lotteries and free dish nights that carried over from week to week.

During the war years color films emerged to lure patrons and the Ioka was a rallying point for the war effort, hosting scrap drives and other community events. Through the '50s many Exeter children spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and exciting mystery serials like Charlie Chan and Superman.

As was the case for most independent movie houses, times toughened throughout the 60s as competition from television and new lifestyle tastes prevailed. The Ioka survived largely with the care and stewardship of owner Fred Schacke and local manager James Blanco who invested countless hours and most of the theater's profits in renovation and preservation of the building begining in the 1970s. Blanco later acquired the property and ran it for two decades while making continual improvements and restorations. the Ioka's present owners took charge in 2004 and the theater continues screening first-run films and offering varied live entertainment shows as always. A dowsnstairs art deco lounge and screening room complements the largely unchanged main theater. Modern utility and screening systems have also improved the comfort and viewing experience offered the Iokas' customers.

The Ioka is today a working movie museum and regional treasure, an Exeter icon one can enjoy just as it has been for generations.