A Palace for Kennett
Embedded Files
Will Sardinsky
Team Eisert
Story Summary
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Jill Mobley was sick of seeing the Palace Theater’s boarded up windows in Kennet, Mo. After two-and-a half years of driving past the vacant building, she and her then business partner, Glenda Jain, decided it was time to act.
It took Jill and Glenda four years to reopen. Despite having no experience working in a theater, and not being passionate about movies, the women taught themselves how to do everything: screening films, maintaining a historic building and attracting community members to their venue.
Since Glenda passed away in 2022, running the theater hasn’t been the same for Jill. “It feels less fun and more like a chore sometimes,” she said.
Still, she meticulously takes on every task because she believes in the importance of supporting her community.
“It is important to have a small theater in a small town,” Jill said.“Sometimes, you have to suck it up and keep going because the show must go on.”
Jill Mobley, who owns the Palace Theater in Kennett, Mo., updates the theater's marquee. As some of the letters have broken, Jill and her son created resin molds to cast their own letters.
Jill takes concession orders. While running the theater can be difficult at times she said she believes in the importance of serving her community.
An old piece of film rests on a chandelier made of project reels at the Palace Theater. Jill rescued the projector reels from another theater that had closed and converted them into hanging light fixtures.
Jill waits for a hard drive to connect to her projector system. The hard drive contained the film “Wild Robot,” which was scheduled to screen the following Friday.
Jill checks cables below her projector. Days before, Jill had replaced an ethernet cable that wasn’t working so that movies could continue to be delivered via internet and a passkey.
Jill puts together her trailers and automates her upcoming film. When Jill began running the Palace Theater, she said she knew nothing about how to screen a film but taught herself.
Jill looks through old invoices while she meets with a new prospective concessions supplier.
Filmgoers watch “The Forge” on Thursday, Sept. 26. It was the last night the Palace Theater screened the film.
Jill sits in the Palace Theater's audience seats while looking at her phone. She said the theater opened in the early 1900s as a performance hall.
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