Vernon Reaver

Horace Vernon Reaver (born 1889 in Algona, Iowa; died July 1953 in Des Moines, Iowa) was the first manager of the Ritz Theater, and later manager of the Alabama Theatre.

Reaver was the son of John Oreson and Bertha Reaver of Iowa. As a teenager he was reporting on theater happenings in Des Moines for Variety. He worked for a while in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then returned to Iowa as treasurer of Des Moines' Princess Theater. He left that job in 1910 to become auditor for the Yankee Robinson Circus. He later became a partner in Reaver & Kelly's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" company, which toured Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas in two rail cars in the summer of 1920.

After that, Reaver worked for the Palmer Bros Wild Animal Circus, and then for Robert Ringling and the Ringling-Barnum show until taking the job as manager of the new Ritz Theater in 1926. By 1931 he had been hired by the rival Alabama. He also managed theaters in Red Bank, New Jersey and in New York.

Reaver retired to Des Moines and fell ill a few years before he died in 1953.

References

• "Vernon Reaver Dies in Iowa" (August 1, 1953) Billboard