Showstopper: Things get complicated

Continued from previous week
With Hitler’s invasion of Poland, the United States would be propelled into World War II. As men marched off to war, those left behind looked for distraction in their lives.
With commodity restrictions, there wasn’t much else to do, so Americans packed into the theaters, and business boomed for the movie industry. Even at the theater, war was never far from the minds of those home safe on American soil. In the early years of the war, approximately one in four feature films involved the subject of war.
Many of these war-time films were government produced in the hopes of providing support for the war effort, while others were private films produced by federal agencies or created by Hollywood companies.
As the nation entered war, J.P. Adler would expand his business interests into the hotel industry, becoming the proprietor of both the Badger Hotel and Theater and the Merrill Hotel — all located in Merrill.

While Adler entered Merrill, he exited the city of Monroe, as the Chalet Theater was acquired by the Goetz family, who owned the other two Monroe theaters. The trio of movie houses were then leased to a Beloit-area syndicate, Wisconsin Theaters Enterprise; however, the Goetz family would retain ownership.
As J.P. expanded, Anne completed her education at Milwaukee-Downer and transferred to the UW-Madison to further her education.
One year later, Bette followed Anne to the University of Wisconsin to complete her bachelors degree.
Anne later completed her education at the University of North Carolina.
With the help of an encouraging professor, Anne became one of just two women in the economics program, where she would earn her master of arts upon completion.
It was during this time that Anne watched her one and only true love head off to fight for his country. When the young man did not return from the widespread and deadly war, Anne entered into a devastation in which she would never recover. She would never love another.
As the war ended with the surrender of Germany and Japan, both Adler girls were entering their chosen careers.
Bette took a position as a chemist with the Kimberly Clark Corporation in Neenah, while Anne took a position with the University of Toledo in Ohio, where she taught economic theory and established a course in personal finance.
Many of Anne’s students at the university were young G.I.s returning from the war.
As the young service men returned to the loves they had left behind, they settled down, having families. They bought homes and cars, moved out of urban areas and stayed home at night listening to radio programs.
Box office sales fell.
The introduction of television further hampered the movie industry as it slowly made its way into American households.
Production companies responded with Technicolor — a three-strip color technology — and attached sound to the film.
Movies like “Gone with the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz” hit the big screen and drew visitors back to the theater.
To be continued