A. G. Ward and Harold Rulon^[1] opened the New Uintah Theatre on 29 April 1912.  Attendance was “highly gratifying.”  The Vernal Express reported that, “Every seat and all standing room was taken for the first program and numbers of people had to wait till the change of program to get in.”  With Miss Leona at the piano and Leslie White as soloist, the service was said to be “equal to houses in larger cities.”^[2]

The New Uintah was located in the Elk Building, which had been remodeled “along the latest moving picture house lines, with sloping floor, soloists platform, etc.”  The ticket office was outside, under a “blaze of rows of electric lights, a real novelty in Vernal.”^[2]  Patrons of nearby towns appreciated having hitching posts on the premises.^[3]

In August 1912, Harold Ruland, who had been serving as manager of the New Uintah Theatre, accepted the management of the Orpheus Theatre instead.^[4]   About the same time, J. Q. Logan, sole proprietor of the New Uintah, offered the showhouse “for sale at once.”^[5]  A week later Mr. Logan announced the theater would continue with “a new and highly approved line of pictures,” and he promised to “give to the patrons at all times, an entertainment well worth more than the price of the ticket.”^[6]

The New Uintah Theatre closed sometime before 1932. The E. W. Davis furniture store occupied the building before it became a piano store called the Henderson-Barlett Music Company.^[7]

1. “David Manwaring is Stricken”, Vernal Express, 26 April 1912, page 1
2. “New Uintah Theatre”, Vernal Express, 3 May 1912, page 3
3. “A Human Beehive”, Vernal Express, 7 June 1912, page 1
4. “Briefs”, Vernal Express, 9 August 1912, page 4
5. [Text Ad], Vernal Express, 2 August 1912, page 3
6. “New Uintah Theatre”, Vernal Express, 9 August 1912, page 1
7. “Twenty Years Ago”, 17 November 1932, page 1