Summerside’s Capitol Theatre had a very long life. A CBC news item from October 9, 2000 said that longtime theater owner Emery Perry would close the house on Thanksgiving weekend (the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday was on Monday, October 9 that year, so that must have been the last day of operation.) The item said that the theater had been open for nearly a century. One source says it opened around 1911 as the Happyland Theatre, and was renamed Capitol Theatre in 1922. It was located on Water Street, but I’ve been unable to pin down an address.
When the City of Summerside purchased the Regent Theatre building and three adjacent structures for a planned redevelopment project in 2020, the CBC posted this article on its web site.
It says the the Regent is believed to have been closed for the first time in the 1950s, after which the building was occupied by a series of other businesses, but in 1973 it was bought by the owner of the Capitol Theatre, renovated and reopened as a cinema which operated until about 1980. After that it housed a restaurant and night club also called the Regent, then a bar, but by the time the city bought it it had been vacant for some time.
The historic address of the Regent was 12 Summer Street, which was on the west side of that thoroughfare just a few doors north of Water Street. The site is now under the footprint of a large multi-use project that was under construction in the most recent satellite view at Google maps, though the theater can currently still be seen in the street view, which has not been updated since 2018.
A brief history of Hill City (PDF here), after retelling the story of a rivalry that developed between the northern and southern sections of town, says that reconciliation began when “Mr. and Mrs. John Welty constructed The Midway, a theater/stage presentation venue atop the topographical dividing line in 1920….” The Welty’s remained in the theater business at Hill City for decades, and opened the Riverside Drive-In there in 1953.
The Auditorium is listed in the 1908-1909 Cahn guide with 950 seats; 400 in the orchestra, 250 in the balcony, and 300 in the gallery. The gallery was lost in the late 1940s remodeling, when the upper portion of the building was entirely removed. The Auditorium was also one of three houses listed at Norton in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
I the FDY editions from 1926 through 1930, the only theater listed at Norton was the Cozy, but in 1931 that house was joined by the 582-seat Norton Theatre, which must have been this house, finally returned to use as a cinema.
This item from Moving Picture World of December 17, 1929 might provide the reason why the theater was renamed Capitol around that time: “The Patricia Theatre, Leamington, Ontario, established for quite a few years, has been secured by the Allens on a lease basis. Fred Broadley had charge of the Patricia for a considerable time.”
This item from the October 5, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily might reveal the origin of the Alpine: “The Liberty Amusement Co., Wellsville, has resumed work on the construction of a house at Salineville which was started last spring. It will have 400 seats.”
Earlier, movies had been among the entertainments presented by Glaubner’s Opera House, an 1888 venue that burned to the ground on June 28, 1931. It had been the town’s only theater, and Mr. Glaubner did not return to exhibition. His death notice in a 1940 issue of Boxoffice said he had operated the house for 25 years before his retirement in 1931, so 1916? The 1914-1915 AMPD lists only a house called the Theatorium at Salineville, which might have been only a storefront nickelodeon.
An August 1, 1958 item also in Motion Picture Daily mentioned the Valley Theatre at Salinevile, which may have been a later aka for the Alpine.
Aside from the Auditorium, the only theater names I’ve found associated with Beaver City prior to the Oriental are Axstern, Lyric, and Liberty. The first was the name coined for a house opened in the Armory building by partners named Axtell and Stearn, noted in the February 12, 1916 Moving Picture World. The May 26, 1917 issue of Motography said that W. H. Williams had bought the Lyric Theatre at Beaver City, and the October 27, 1921 issue of the local newspaper said that “Harold Lloyd comedies are the feature this week at the Liberty Theatre in Beaver City.”
It was almost certainly a 1935 opening for the Oriental. A 1940 “Who’s Who” biography for John Jacob Metzger says that he owned a half interest in the Palace Theatre at Syracuse, Nebraska, from 1922 to 1936, and that he was owner and operator of the Oriental Theatre in Beaver City from 1935. Metzger still operated the Oriental at least as late as 1942, when they were mentioned in the February 4 issue of Variety. I’ve found references to the Theobald family in Beaver City, but none in connection to theater operation. Perhaps they were the landlords.
The 1937 rebuilding of the Nueva Theatre and a change of ownership is noted in this item from Boxoffice of April 10 that year:
“LOWE BUYS BRILES’S NUEVA AT STAFFORD
“Kansas City—The Nueva, E. A. Briles’s theatre at Stafford, Kas., has been acquired by F. L. Lowe, who operates houses also in Hays, Lyons, Lucas and Sterling, Kas. The Stafford acquisition gives ‘Doc’ five.
“Briles publishes the Stafford newspaper and represents his community in the Kansas house of representatives.
“Fire almost completely destroyed the Nueva last month. It is being rebuilt and is expected to open around May 1.”
So far I haven’t found the origin of the Nueva. The 1926 and 1929 FDYs list only a 320-seat Mystic Theatre at Stafford. Given that the word nueva is Spanish for new, the Nueva might have been a replacement for the Mystic, or a rebuild of it. If the latter was the case, then the Ritz is a very old theater indeed, as the Mystic was one of the three movie houses listed at Stafford in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
The Garden was an A. H. Blank property from the beginning, as noted in this item from Motography of March 6, 1915: “A. H. Blank is going to erect a $50,000 moving picture theater seating 1,000 in Davenport. Sam Greenebaum is associated with him. The theater will be located on Third street between Brady and Main and will be known as the Garden.”
The beginning of the end for the Varieties Theatre was noted in the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography which told of what was probably the final leasing of the house: “INDIANA: Another moving picture enterprise has been launched in Terre Haute, where John H Jensen, Tom Moore and Isaac Ades closed a two years lease on the Varieties theater building, to be devoted to moving pictures. While the lease was taken by them as individuals, it is their intention to incorporate a company to take it over, with the men named as the stockholders. Possession was given them on February 15. It is expected to open the place under the new management on March 1, the intervening time to be taken up in renovation of the theater, repainting it, etc. The theater has a seating capacity of 1,000. John H. Jensen is to have personal charge of the new enterprise.”
Though they misspelled the house’s name, the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography revealed that “[t]he Fisher theater in Danville has changed its policy and now being operated as a motion picture theater. Nate Erber Fort Wayne Indiana is in charge.” The Fischer had not been among the five movie houses listed at Danville in the 1914-1915 ANPD.
Nickerson’s longest-running movie theater appears to have been one called the Gem, but an early (probably mid-1910s) real photo postcard on sale at eBay shows it in a single-story building across the street from 6 N. Nickerson. The earliest mention of the Gem I’ve found in trade journals is from 1918, and it is mentioned again in 1923 and is listed in FDYs from 1926 and 1929. It might have started out at 6 N. Nickerson and later moved, or vice-versa, and might have been listed under a different name in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
A history of Reno County published in 1917 has a biographical sketch of a William A. Loe who was at the time of publication the manager of the Home Theatre. It says that in 1892 he leased the Hutchinson Opera House, and operated it until “…1904, in which year he became manager of the new Home theater, at the corner of B avenue and Main street and has ever since been in charge of the same.”
The year given for Mr. Loe’s acquisition of the house must have been wrong, as the 1902-1903 Cahn guide already lists him as manager of the 900-seat Shaw Theatre. The 1903-1904 Cahn guide lists the house as the Home Theatre. Mr. Loe was still manager of the Home in 1921, when the Cahn-Hill guide listing for the house carried the notation “Plays legitimate attractions only.”
This is from the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography: “The Ruby theater, which has been operated at 427 South Main street, Hutchinson, for the negroes, is closed. Mr. Thomas, the owner of the fixtures, is to reopen the show within a few weeks.” The fact that the Ruby was a segregated house for African-Americans undoubtedly accounts for its out-of-the-way location.
In case the information proves useful, the fire that destroyed the old Kingman Opera House took place on May 11, 1910.
A bit more recently, The March 22, 1971 issue of Boxoffice said that the former Meade Theatre, which had been closed for a month, had reopened as the Towne Cinema on February 19 following some renovations. A more extensive redecoration was planned. S. F. Meade had closed the house for economic reason after almost fifty years of continuous operation.
He reopened the house in partnership with Jack Luthi. The theater would be open six nights a week (dark Wednesday), with a matinee and a special midnight show on Saturday. If the enterprise was a success, then the partners planned to reopen the Meade Drive-In as well in the spring, at which time the Towne would be reduced for the season to weekend only operation. So far I haven’t found any follow-up articles, so I don’t know if these plans came to fruition, or how long the house operated as the Towne Cinema.
The January 11, 1930 issue of Motion Picture News had this item mentioning the Regent: “Competition Causes Change
“Wellington, Kan. — Opening of the Regent has resulted in a switch to Friday and Saturday shows only at the Majestic. Both are Fox houses.”
However, the 1922 Sanborn map of Wellington shows a 700-seat theater at the Regent’s site, but it must have operated under a different name. The 1926 FDY lists only the 400-seat Ashland and the 500-seat Majestic at Wellington, and no theater of 700 seats.
The Sanborn maps of 1912 and 1922 show two movie theaters on Main Street, a 425-seat house at 106 S., and a 360-seat house across the street at 105. The house at 106, per various sources, opened by 1909 as the Pioneer Theatre and was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, but had been renamed the Isis Theatre by 1916. I’ve found no name for the house at 105.
The NRHP registration form for the Wellington Downtown Historic District says the Isis was converted to retail in 1923 and the information about the building at 105 is ambiguous and does not mention a theater, so I’m unable to determine the locations of the Ashland and the Majestic. At this time all I can be sure of is that the theater at 114 W. Lincoln was in existence by October, 1922, and had become the Regent by the start of 1930.
I haven’t gotten email notifications from Cinema Treasures for a couple of years now. I thought it was just an issue with my email service, but I guess not. I will usually check my recent comments for responses for a week or two after I make them. After that there are just too many to keep track of, but I will check the site’s “recent comments” page and click on theater names that seem familiar. Sometimes it pays off, but not often.
The latest ad I’ve found for Owens Midtown Theatre is from October, 1974. A search of the newspaper archive yields no results from 1975, but an April 17, 1976 Charleston Daily Mail item mentions a new Baptist church installing “…seats that came from the former Owens Midtown theater in Charleston.”
The Silent Era has a brief history of the Plaza/Capitol Theatre. The Plaza era ended in 1919 when the house was bought by United Theatre Enterprise, which would control the house for the next forty years. On acquiring it, United closed the Plaza for extensive remodeling, reopening as the Capitol Theatre on December 26, 1921.
On November 15, 1923 the Capitol was ravaged by a major fire, leading to the collapse of the auditorium roof. The rebuild took about a year, and the Capitol reopened in November, 1924. The rebuilt and expanded house had a Wurlitzer organ, but no information about it is available. The Aaron family’s Sharon Lee Corporation acquired the Capitol in 1959, making it one of ten theaters they operated in the city. They closed the house as a movie theater in 1981.
The Pastime was remodeled again around the beginning of 1951. An item in the June 2 issue of Boxoffice that year uses the word “rebuilt” to describe the project, and says the house had reopened in February.
As it turns out, the Phoenix was in not one but, sequentially, both of the small theaters on the 1911 Sanborn (one was also the first location of the Elite Theatre.) It now seems much less likely that Phoenix was ever an aka for the Cozy. We can trace the Cozy name back to at least as early as 1916, as it was advertised in the March 23 issue of the Pratt Daily Tribune that year.
This was the second location of Pratt’s Elite Theatre, owned by C. F. Bays. The first was at 216 S. Main Street, where it began operating in the former location of the Phoenix Theatre sometime in 1911. I haven’t been able to pin down exactly when it moved to this location at 117-119 S. Main Street, but it was surely by 1914, when the Elite was listed in Gus Hill’s guide with 700 seats, a capacity much too large for the converted storefront at 216 Main.
Here is an article about the Colney Theatre, then under construction, from the February 28, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Herald:
“Olney, in Philadelphia, will have the distinction of one of the largest one floor theatres in the world when the handsome new Colney, at Fifth street and Olney avenue, is completed. The house is in every respect ‘the last word’ in construction and in artistic decoration and the Stanley Company of America dedicating the building to one of the city’s most progressive communities. Workmen put forth every effort to complete the operation so that the house was ready for opening on
Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12.
“A theatre of the quality of the Colney has long been desired at Olney. That section of the city is growing most rapidly and it is a residence neighborhood with thousands of separate new homes. Last April actual building operation began. A site 112 feet on Fifth street, extending 220 feet to Lawrence street in the rear, at Olney avenue, was obtained.
Building went on apace. Hodgens and Hill, architects, gave skillful treatment to the problem of providing a one floor theatre with a
seating capacity of 2500 and it is believed that the result of the planning will be to set a new standard for motion picture houses of the best class. Over the auditorium extends a dome, 50 feet in diameter.
The Italian Renaissance style was adopted and the color scheme chosen was blue, gray and gold. The exterior is in white tapestry brick and terra cotta.
“Apart from its general air of dignity and quality the Colney has distinctions in details of construction. For instance, ventilation and heating systems are independently operated. Heating is by warm air. The cooling apparatus consists of four of the largest typhon fans in the city. Each is ten feet in diameter. These systems are separately placed in ornamental bays on each side of the auditorium.
“The theatre is equipped with a fine stage so that the house may be used for any sort of theatrical entertainment. At each side of the proscenium arch is the organ chamber with grill work in handsome design. The stage has two machines for operation of curtains, border lights and foot lights and all are controlled directly from the motion picture booth.
“The operator’s booth, it is claimed, is the largest in Philadelphia, being 11 by 26 feet in ground dimension. There will be three projecting machines and two spotlights in the booth. Special care was taken with the illumination system. Indirect lighting has been provided although the lobby will be supplied with a handsome crystal chandelier.
“At either side of the entrance are two stores and the second floor front has office space and also hall room that may be utilized for dancing or for other public purposes. The operator’s booth is on the
mezzanine floor where the manager’s office is placed. Rooms for men and women are at the rear of the first floor. Handsome and comfortable chairs will be provided and in every detail there will be paid to comfort, convenience and beauty.
“The Colney will be an important addition to the Stanley theatres in Philadelphia. ‘It is eagerly awaited,’ said Jules E. Mastbaum, President of the Stanley Company, in speaking of the house. ‘The same high standard that prevails at all our houses will be maintained and the best of pictures will always be shown.’”
The building at 216 S. Main Street was the second location of Pratt’s Phoenix Theater and the first location of the Elite Theatre. I’m hoping that this big ugly url will work (I’m unfamiliar with the web site’s format.) It has a photo of the first Elite Theatre and a few lines of text about it, from a book about Pratt published in 1911. Another page in the same book pictures the third Phoenix Theatre and provides a bit more information about the Elite’s early history.
Messers C. I. Rice and C. F. Bays opened Pratt’s first Phoenix Theatre in the Williamson Block (the location of which I’ve as yet been unable to identify) and later moved it to this building at 216 S. Main Street. They also opened an Airdome theater in 1910. When they dissolved their partnership, apparently in early 1911, Mr. Rice acquired the building next door at 214 S. Main and converted it into the new location of the Phoenix Theatre, while Mr. Bays retained this house, renaming it the Elite Theatre. At some point the Elite was removed to a larger building at 117-119 S. Main Street.
Summerside’s Capitol Theatre had a very long life. A CBC news item from October 9, 2000 said that longtime theater owner Emery Perry would close the house on Thanksgiving weekend (the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday was on Monday, October 9 that year, so that must have been the last day of operation.) The item said that the theater had been open for nearly a century. One source says it opened around 1911 as the Happyland Theatre, and was renamed Capitol Theatre in 1922. It was located on Water Street, but I’ve been unable to pin down an address.
When the City of Summerside purchased the Regent Theatre building and three adjacent structures for a planned redevelopment project in 2020, the CBC posted this article on its web site.
It says the the Regent is believed to have been closed for the first time in the 1950s, after which the building was occupied by a series of other businesses, but in 1973 it was bought by the owner of the Capitol Theatre, renovated and reopened as a cinema which operated until about 1980. After that it housed a restaurant and night club also called the Regent, then a bar, but by the time the city bought it it had been vacant for some time.
The historic address of the Regent was 12 Summer Street, which was on the west side of that thoroughfare just a few doors north of Water Street. The site is now under the footprint of a large multi-use project that was under construction in the most recent satellite view at Google maps, though the theater can currently still be seen in the street view, which has not been updated since 2018.
A brief history of Hill City (PDF here), after retelling the story of a rivalry that developed between the northern and southern sections of town, says that reconciliation began when “Mr. and Mrs. John Welty constructed The Midway, a theater/stage presentation venue atop the topographical dividing line in 1920….” The Welty’s remained in the theater business at Hill City for decades, and opened the Riverside Drive-In there in 1953.
The Auditorium is listed in the 1908-1909 Cahn guide with 950 seats; 400 in the orchestra, 250 in the balcony, and 300 in the gallery. The gallery was lost in the late 1940s remodeling, when the upper portion of the building was entirely removed. The Auditorium was also one of three houses listed at Norton in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
I the FDY editions from 1926 through 1930, the only theater listed at Norton was the Cozy, but in 1931 that house was joined by the 582-seat Norton Theatre, which must have been this house, finally returned to use as a cinema.
This item from Moving Picture World of December 17, 1929 might provide the reason why the theater was renamed Capitol around that time: “The Patricia Theatre, Leamington, Ontario, established for quite a few years, has been secured by the Allens on a lease basis. Fred Broadley had charge of the Patricia for a considerable time.”
This item from the October 5, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily might reveal the origin of the Alpine: “The Liberty Amusement Co., Wellsville, has resumed work on the construction of a house at Salineville which was started last spring. It will have 400 seats.”
Earlier, movies had been among the entertainments presented by Glaubner’s Opera House, an 1888 venue that burned to the ground on June 28, 1931. It had been the town’s only theater, and Mr. Glaubner did not return to exhibition. His death notice in a 1940 issue of Boxoffice said he had operated the house for 25 years before his retirement in 1931, so 1916? The 1914-1915 AMPD lists only a house called the Theatorium at Salineville, which might have been only a storefront nickelodeon.
An August 1, 1958 item also in Motion Picture Daily mentioned the Valley Theatre at Salinevile, which may have been a later aka for the Alpine.
Aside from the Auditorium, the only theater names I’ve found associated with Beaver City prior to the Oriental are Axstern, Lyric, and Liberty. The first was the name coined for a house opened in the Armory building by partners named Axtell and Stearn, noted in the February 12, 1916 Moving Picture World. The May 26, 1917 issue of Motography said that W. H. Williams had bought the Lyric Theatre at Beaver City, and the October 27, 1921 issue of the local newspaper said that “Harold Lloyd comedies are the feature this week at the Liberty Theatre in Beaver City.”
It was almost certainly a 1935 opening for the Oriental. A 1940 “Who’s Who” biography for John Jacob Metzger says that he owned a half interest in the Palace Theatre at Syracuse, Nebraska, from 1922 to 1936, and that he was owner and operator of the Oriental Theatre in Beaver City from 1935. Metzger still operated the Oriental at least as late as 1942, when they were mentioned in the February 4 issue of Variety. I’ve found references to the Theobald family in Beaver City, but none in connection to theater operation. Perhaps they were the landlords.
The 1937 rebuilding of the Nueva Theatre and a change of ownership is noted in this item from Boxoffice of April 10 that year:
“LOWE BUYS BRILES’S NUEVA AT STAFFORD
“Kansas City—The Nueva, E. A. Briles’s theatre at Stafford, Kas., has been acquired by F. L. Lowe, who operates houses also in Hays, Lyons, Lucas and Sterling, Kas. The Stafford acquisition gives ‘Doc’ five.
“Briles publishes the Stafford newspaper and represents his community in the Kansas house of representatives.
“Fire almost completely destroyed the Nueva last month. It is being rebuilt and is expected to open around May 1.”
So far I haven’t found the origin of the Nueva. The 1926 and 1929 FDYs list only a 320-seat Mystic Theatre at Stafford. Given that the word nueva is Spanish for new, the Nueva might have been a replacement for the Mystic, or a rebuild of it. If the latter was the case, then the Ritz is a very old theater indeed, as the Mystic was one of the three movie houses listed at Stafford in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
The Garden was an A. H. Blank property from the beginning, as noted in this item from Motography of March 6, 1915: “A. H. Blank is going to erect a $50,000 moving picture theater seating 1,000 in Davenport. Sam Greenebaum is associated with him. The theater will be located on Third street between Brady and Main and will be known as the Garden.”
The beginning of the end for the Varieties Theatre was noted in the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography which told of what was probably the final leasing of the house: “INDIANA: Another moving picture enterprise has been launched in Terre Haute, where John H Jensen, Tom Moore and Isaac Ades closed a two years lease on the Varieties theater building, to be devoted to moving pictures. While the lease was taken by them as individuals, it is their intention to incorporate a company to take it over, with the men named as the stockholders. Possession was given them on February 15. It is expected to open the place under the new management on March 1, the intervening time to be taken up in renovation of the theater, repainting it, etc. The theater has a seating capacity of 1,000. John H. Jensen is to have personal charge of the new enterprise.”
Though they misspelled the house’s name, the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography revealed that “[t]he Fisher theater in Danville has changed its policy and now being operated as a motion picture theater. Nate Erber Fort Wayne Indiana is in charge.” The Fischer had not been among the five movie houses listed at Danville in the 1914-1915 ANPD.
Nickerson’s longest-running movie theater appears to have been one called the Gem, but an early (probably mid-1910s) real photo postcard on sale at eBay shows it in a single-story building across the street from 6 N. Nickerson. The earliest mention of the Gem I’ve found in trade journals is from 1918, and it is mentioned again in 1923 and is listed in FDYs from 1926 and 1929. It might have started out at 6 N. Nickerson and later moved, or vice-versa, and might have been listed under a different name in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
A history of Reno County published in 1917 has a biographical sketch of a William A. Loe who was at the time of publication the manager of the Home Theatre. It says that in 1892 he leased the Hutchinson Opera House, and operated it until “…1904, in which year he became manager of the new Home theater, at the corner of B avenue and Main street and has ever since been in charge of the same.”
The year given for Mr. Loe’s acquisition of the house must have been wrong, as the 1902-1903 Cahn guide already lists him as manager of the 900-seat Shaw Theatre. The 1903-1904 Cahn guide lists the house as the Home Theatre. Mr. Loe was still manager of the Home in 1921, when the Cahn-Hill guide listing for the house carried the notation “Plays legitimate attractions only.”
This is from the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography: “The Ruby theater, which has been operated at 427 South Main street, Hutchinson, for the negroes, is closed. Mr. Thomas, the owner of the fixtures, is to reopen the show within a few weeks.” The fact that the Ruby was a segregated house for African-Americans undoubtedly accounts for its out-of-the-way location.
In case the information proves useful, the fire that destroyed the old Kingman Opera House took place on May 11, 1910.
A bit more recently, The March 22, 1971 issue of Boxoffice said that the former Meade Theatre, which had been closed for a month, had reopened as the Towne Cinema on February 19 following some renovations. A more extensive redecoration was planned. S. F. Meade had closed the house for economic reason after almost fifty years of continuous operation.
He reopened the house in partnership with Jack Luthi. The theater would be open six nights a week (dark Wednesday), with a matinee and a special midnight show on Saturday. If the enterprise was a success, then the partners planned to reopen the Meade Drive-In as well in the spring, at which time the Towne would be reduced for the season to weekend only operation. So far I haven’t found any follow-up articles, so I don’t know if these plans came to fruition, or how long the house operated as the Towne Cinema.
The January 11, 1930 issue of Motion Picture News had this item mentioning the Regent: “Competition Causes Change
“Wellington, Kan. — Opening of the Regent has resulted in a switch to Friday and Saturday shows only at the Majestic. Both are Fox houses.”
However, the 1922 Sanborn map of Wellington shows a 700-seat theater at the Regent’s site, but it must have operated under a different name. The 1926 FDY lists only the 400-seat Ashland and the 500-seat Majestic at Wellington, and no theater of 700 seats.
The Sanborn maps of 1912 and 1922 show two movie theaters on Main Street, a 425-seat house at 106 S., and a 360-seat house across the street at 105. The house at 106, per various sources, opened by 1909 as the Pioneer Theatre and was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, but had been renamed the Isis Theatre by 1916. I’ve found no name for the house at 105.
The NRHP registration form for the Wellington Downtown Historic District says the Isis was converted to retail in 1923 and the information about the building at 105 is ambiguous and does not mention a theater, so I’m unable to determine the locations of the Ashland and the Majestic. At this time all I can be sure of is that the theater at 114 W. Lincoln was in existence by October, 1922, and had become the Regent by the start of 1930.
I haven’t gotten email notifications from Cinema Treasures for a couple of years now. I thought it was just an issue with my email service, but I guess not. I will usually check my recent comments for responses for a week or two after I make them. After that there are just too many to keep track of, but I will check the site’s “recent comments” page and click on theater names that seem familiar. Sometimes it pays off, but not often.
The latest ad I’ve found for Owens Midtown Theatre is from October, 1974. A search of the newspaper archive yields no results from 1975, but an April 17, 1976 Charleston Daily Mail item mentions a new Baptist church installing “…seats that came from the former Owens Midtown theater in Charleston.”
The Silent Era has a brief history of the Plaza/Capitol Theatre. The Plaza era ended in 1919 when the house was bought by United Theatre Enterprise, which would control the house for the next forty years. On acquiring it, United closed the Plaza for extensive remodeling, reopening as the Capitol Theatre on December 26, 1921.
On November 15, 1923 the Capitol was ravaged by a major fire, leading to the collapse of the auditorium roof. The rebuild took about a year, and the Capitol reopened in November, 1924. The rebuilt and expanded house had a Wurlitzer organ, but no information about it is available. The Aaron family’s Sharon Lee Corporation acquired the Capitol in 1959, making it one of ten theaters they operated in the city. They closed the house as a movie theater in 1981.
The Pastime was remodeled again around the beginning of 1951. An item in the June 2 issue of Boxoffice that year uses the word “rebuilt” to describe the project, and says the house had reopened in February.
As it turns out, the Phoenix was in not one but, sequentially, both of the small theaters on the 1911 Sanborn (one was also the first location of the Elite Theatre.) It now seems much less likely that Phoenix was ever an aka for the Cozy. We can trace the Cozy name back to at least as early as 1916, as it was advertised in the March 23 issue of the Pratt Daily Tribune that year.
This was the second location of Pratt’s Elite Theatre, owned by C. F. Bays. The first was at 216 S. Main Street, where it began operating in the former location of the Phoenix Theatre sometime in 1911. I haven’t been able to pin down exactly when it moved to this location at 117-119 S. Main Street, but it was surely by 1914, when the Elite was listed in Gus Hill’s guide with 700 seats, a capacity much too large for the converted storefront at 216 Main.
Here is an article about the Colney Theatre, then under construction, from the February 28, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Herald:
“Olney, in Philadelphia, will have the distinction of one of the largest one floor theatres in the world when the handsome new Colney, at Fifth street and Olney avenue, is completed. The house is in every respect ‘the last word’ in construction and in artistic decoration and the Stanley Company of America dedicating the building to one of the city’s most progressive communities. Workmen put forth every effort to complete the operation so that the house was ready for opening on Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12.
“A theatre of the quality of the Colney has long been desired at Olney. That section of the city is growing most rapidly and it is a residence neighborhood with thousands of separate new homes. Last April actual building operation began. A site 112 feet on Fifth street, extending 220 feet to Lawrence street in the rear, at Olney avenue, was obtained.
Building went on apace. Hodgens and Hill, architects, gave skillful treatment to the problem of providing a one floor theatre with a seating capacity of 2500 and it is believed that the result of the planning will be to set a new standard for motion picture houses of the best class. Over the auditorium extends a dome, 50 feet in diameter. The Italian Renaissance style was adopted and the color scheme chosen was blue, gray and gold. The exterior is in white tapestry brick and terra cotta.
“Apart from its general air of dignity and quality the Colney has distinctions in details of construction. For instance, ventilation and heating systems are independently operated. Heating is by warm air. The cooling apparatus consists of four of the largest typhon fans in the city. Each is ten feet in diameter. These systems are separately placed in ornamental bays on each side of the auditorium.
“The theatre is equipped with a fine stage so that the house may be used for any sort of theatrical entertainment. At each side of the proscenium arch is the organ chamber with grill work in handsome design. The stage has two machines for operation of curtains, border lights and foot lights and all are controlled directly from the motion picture booth.
“The operator’s booth, it is claimed, is the largest in Philadelphia, being 11 by 26 feet in ground dimension. There will be three projecting machines and two spotlights in the booth. Special care was taken with the illumination system. Indirect lighting has been provided although the lobby will be supplied with a handsome crystal chandelier.
“At either side of the entrance are two stores and the second floor front has office space and also hall room that may be utilized for dancing or for other public purposes. The operator’s booth is on the mezzanine floor where the manager’s office is placed. Rooms for men and women are at the rear of the first floor. Handsome and comfortable chairs will be provided and in every detail there will be paid to comfort, convenience and beauty.
“The Colney will be an important addition to the Stanley theatres in Philadelphia. ‘It is eagerly awaited,’ said Jules E. Mastbaum, President of the Stanley Company, in speaking of the house. ‘The same high standard that prevails at all our houses will be maintained and the best of pictures will always be shown.’”
The building at 216 S. Main Street was the second location of Pratt’s Phoenix Theater and the first location of the Elite Theatre. I’m hoping that this big ugly url will work (I’m unfamiliar with the web site’s format.) It has a photo of the first Elite Theatre and a few lines of text about it, from a book about Pratt published in 1911. Another page in the same book pictures the third Phoenix Theatre and provides a bit more information about the Elite’s early history.
Messers C. I. Rice and C. F. Bays opened Pratt’s first Phoenix Theatre in the Williamson Block (the location of which I’ve as yet been unable to identify) and later moved it to this building at 216 S. Main Street. They also opened an Airdome theater in 1910. When they dissolved their partnership, apparently in early 1911, Mr. Rice acquired the building next door at 214 S. Main and converted it into the new location of the Phoenix Theatre, while Mr. Bays retained this house, renaming it the Elite Theatre. At some point the Elite was removed to a larger building at 117-119 S. Main Street.