Local Theater and its Owner Prove Some Things Just Get Better With Age

Hundreds of people flocked to Excelsior’s Old Log Theater this weekend to see Cinderella. But the rags-to-riches princess isn’t the real treasure at the theater.

It’s Don Stolz.

Stolz bought the Old Log Theater in 1946 and has devoted his life and career to the theater, which claims the title of oldest continuously running theater in the U.S. 

At 94 years young, Stolz still works full time—from directing auditions to addressing the audience before shows. He admits to slowing down somewhat, but says the theater has been his life.

Stolz was raised in Oklahoma, the son of a minister. He was a Boy Scout and earned the Eagle Scout badge in 1933. 

After graduating from college and working in the radio business, Stolz was hired as an actor and director at the Old Log Theater in 1941. World War II would take Stolz away from Minnesota to serve in the Navy for four years, but after the war he returned to Minnesota and bought the theater.

He directed and trained many actors during his tenure, including Loni Anderson and Nick Nolte. Stolz was not surprised at Nolte’s success in Hollywood. 

“He was a good actor and a hard worker,” Stolz says.

Run for Your Wife is the theater’s all-time best-selling show.  

“It was the first show we ran for an entire year,” recalls Stolz, who considers it one of his favorite comedies.

Among Stolz’s other favorite productions are The Glass Menagerie (featured in Old Log’s 1948 season) and Mahalia (debuted in the 1994 season). 

Despite the theater’s longevity, there were tough times when money was tight. 

“We have never accepted a dollar for anything other than the purchase of a ticket or a meal,” Stolz says proudly. "We’re not subsidized, and that’s unique.”

Stolz says the Old Log Theater is enjoying its best attendance month in years, and the current production of Cinderella is the theater’s best-selling children’s show to date.

“Cinderella is entertaining for children and adults,” says Gina Ward, who attended the Sunday performance with her husband and two children. “The cast did a wonderful job of involving the audience.”

Stolz dismisses rumors that Old Log may be sold soon to make way for new developments.

“I get offers every week,” he says. “I don’t have any immediate plans to sell. I want to see the theater continue. But someday they’ll be rid of me and have to decide what to do.”

Stolz and his late wife, Joan, raised five sons in the Excelsior community. 

In 1953, the Stolzes bought a cottage on Lake Minnetonka, just blocks from the theater. During the summers that followed, the cottage became the scene of the family’s happiest times, as well as the saddest. 

In 1955, their two-year-old daughter drowned in the lake. Stolz credits friends and faith for helping his family cope with the tragic loss.

The Stolz boys were raised in the theater, attending rehearsals with their parents and even getting a stage role as young as age two. All have at one time or another participated in Old Log productions. 

“It was just like any other chore, like taking out the garbage,” says Stolz. “You were expected to do it.”  

Son Tom remains active in Old Log shows and currently plays an outrageous stepsister in Cinderella.

The oldest Stolz son, Peter, moved to California where he found success in pyrotechnics and special effects. Peter has worked on some of the Indiana Jones films, and his team was nominated for an Academy Award for their work in Top Gun.

Having spent nearly 70 years of his life in Excelsior, Don Stolz notes that local customs have changed. 

“It used to be that regardless of who died, all businesses were closed during a funeral,” he recalls. “And if your alarm clock didn’t work, you could call the phone operator and ask for a wake-up call.” 

Despite the changes, he says, “Excelsior is still a wonderful, wonderful town.”

When he’s not at the theater, you might find Stolz at Tony’s Barber Shop on Excelsior’s Water Street, where he likes to chat with Ed the barber while getting a cut. 

“It’s like stepping back in time 50 years,” Stolz says of the barber shop. “Four generations of Stolzes get their hair cut at Tony’s.” 

Stolz chronicles other aspects of his long life in Excelsior and in theater in his book, The Old Log Theater & Me, which was released last year.

The book describes many Christmases past like the Christmas of 1939, when Stolz hitchhiked home from Chicago to Oklahoma (he ended up with pneumonia). One Christmas eve in the 1950s he finally found a store that had one popular toy gun left, the only present his young son asked for that year.

This Christmas, the Stolz family—which now includes 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren—will gather at the theater to ring in the holiday.   

“Here at the theater, the great-grandkids can run around, have fun and not get into anything,” says Stolz.

Despite his interesting life, when asked to name his biggest achievement, Stolz replies, “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.”

Any advice for aspiring actors?  “Don’t do it!” he jests. 

“Acting is a wonderful profession and a terrible profession,” Stolz explains.  “It’s filled with disappointments, but if you work hard and are patient, you’ll find enough work that is satisfying.”