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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

New owners at Comet Theater in Cook

David Colburn
Posted 5/3/23

COOK- It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another in the storied history of the Comet Theater in Cook, as owner Carol Carlson announced this week that she has sold the business to …

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New owners at Comet Theater in Cook

Posted

COOK- It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another in the storied history of the Comet Theater in Cook, as owner Carol Carlson announced this week that she has sold the business to Stephanie and Ryan Horner.
Carlson made the official announcement on social media.
“Being the steward of the Comet for 23 years has been both an honor and a labor of love,” she wrote. “I have loved the Comet as my home, as my business and as a member of the community. I have given it my heart and soul but it’s time to pass the torch. The business needs a team, new energy and ideas who can breathe new life into it.”
The Comet opened in 1939, the same year “The Wizard of Oz” was released, and Carlson and her husband, John Metsa, bought the theater in 2000.
The diversification of the business with the addition of a coffee shop and clothing boutique allowed the Comet to survive and thrive at a time when movies were becoming harder to get and finance, Carlson said. And when Carlson and her husband lived upstairs, the Comet served as a performance venue for concerts, although those were discontinued after they rented out the living quarters to others.
Carlson managed the expensive industry shift from film to digital movies and projection by starting a Kickstarter campaign, “Save the Comet Theater,” that raised $81,866 from 381 backers to buy the necessary equipment.
“I realized how much she meant to people when we did that Kickstarter,” Carlson told the Timberjay on Tuesday. “People really didn’t want this to go down, and I was like, well, it’s never going to go down on my watch. You just give it what you can, and that’s what we’ve been doing for the last 23 years, and people appreciate it. It’s kind of a magical spot.”
Carlson has been gratified by the response from the community to her announcement, both through the dozens of comments responding to her post and the people who have stopped by the Comet to wish her well.
“Frankly, it’s wonderful, but a little overwhelming,” she said. “The people who stop in here have really become family, and it’s a treasure. It means a lot to the community. I want to say thank you for your support. It’s meant a great deal to me, it really has. The town, too. In these small towns you just don’t have the amenities some places have, so it’s been just really beautiful keeping this together and having a place where people can come. I appreciate people coming in and supporting us.”
New owners
Stephanie and Ryan Horner are familiar faces to anyone who has visited the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary in recent years. Formerly executive director, Stephanie was named president of the American Bear Association, the nonprofit that operates the sanctuary, last year. Ryan has and continues to serve as the sanctuary’s chief operations manager.
But some folks may actually know them through the Comet.
“Steph and Ryan have been kind of part of the community with the bears for the last seven years,” Carlson said. “They have actually rented from us in the past and have worked with us. Last year, both of them worked with us here at the Comet a little bit. So, we’ve just gotten to be close friends.”
So how did the friendship turn into a business deal? From the challenge of finding an affordable place to live in the area and a lot of suggestions.
“Honestly, I think the biggest reason is that we’ve been looking for a home forever,” Steph Horner said. “This was the only thing that started to make sense. Carol’s stepson has been suggesting we buy the Comet for probably five years now, and we used to just laugh him off. But now being the president of the bear sanctuary, I felt like I had a little bit more freedom to do some stuff, and that kind of played a factor into us believing that maybe we can do it all. This was the first year that I actually worked here for Carol, too, for a short period before I went back to the bears and I loved it.”
So, the upstairs of the Comet will once again be occupied by its owners, but the Horners aren’t leaving Vince Shute. They’ll continue there full-time, Ryan through the fall and Steph year-round. So, for running the Comet, they’ve called in someone to help, Shelly Hlavinka, Steph’s mother.
“We’ve hired my mother and asked her to move up here from the Twin Cities,” Horner said. “She’s going to run the theater during the summer into the fall, and then in the fall and winter Ryan and I will take over and she’ll have a little bit of vacation time. She’s very excited. She’s had quite a lot of experience working in boutiques and coffee shops. Never a theater, but yeah, she’s excited.”
And the Horners have their own experience to bring to the table, too. Both were managers for Target a number of years ago and have worked with the gift shops at the bear sanctuary. And they’ve gotten a ton of advice from a very reliable source.
“Carol has done an excellent job of preparing us,” Horner said. “She’s been so helpful every step of the way. She really has set us up to succeed, which we’re grateful for.”
And with a couple so closely tied to Vince Shute, expect to see some tie-ins with the Comet coming up.
“We are doing a bit of a partnership with the sanctuary,” Horner said. “We are going to sell tickets out of here for the sanctuary, and we will do occasional discounts on those tickets. We’re going to sell a bit of merchandise where the proceeds go directly to feeding the bears. And we are definitely going to do year-round events where I will put them on and be the face of the sanctuary. But they won’t just be sanctuary related. We have lots of different ideas for stuff, but nothing concrete yet.”
But there’s another idea that’s definitely in the works. The Comet is going to add ice cream to its menu.
“Hopefully Memorial Day weekend is the goal for ice cream,” Horner said.
And as for the main draw for any theater, the movies?
“I’ve got a gal that Carol hired and I think she’s worked for Carol the last couple of years and had done the movies,” Horner said. “She’ll be back from college on May 15, so maybe a week after that we’ll start movies.”
With the business having officially changed hands, Horner said that they’re doing a soft opening for two weeks, with the hours being 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“But then come the week before Memorial Day weekend we’re going to be open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” she said.