Ushering in the Golden Age of Cinema

DURING THE GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMA, a small but essential working crew existed in many of the small movie theaters throughout the country. The majority of those theaters were owned and managed by local entrepreneurs.

This was true of the Mikadow Theater in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Francis Kadow owned the building at the time I began ushering in 1955. Francis also took pride in his radio station, which was headquartered on the building’s second floor. Nearly everybody in Manitowoc knew WOMT; few knew that the letters of the acronym for the radio station represented the “World’s Only Mikadow Theater.”

The fact that the owner’s name was Kadow likely explains why the movie house was named Mikadow rather than just Mikado. His grandfather, Milwaukee architect Stanley F. Kadow, designed the building, and his father,