The Rex listed with 450 seats starting with the 1935 FDY must have been the one at 119 S. C Street. The 1938 FDY lists a 650-seat New Rex Theatre, and that must have been the house at 232 E. Yosemite which was opened in 1937. Oddly, both the Rex and the New Rex continued to be listed in the FDYs well into the 1940s, but with the Rex always listed as closed.
This undated photo (though “Young Tom Edison” was released in March, 1940) shows the Madera Theatre at the left, and the marquee of the Rex can be made out on the right side of the street near the beginning of the next block, just past the hotel on the corner of C Street. The sites of both the hotel and the Rex Theatre are now occupied by a branch of Chase Bank.
This undated photo from the California State Library collection shows Center Street in Taft, Looking west across 5th Street. The C & C Theatre is on the corner, and it appears to be the same building that was later the Sunshine Theatre. On the right can be seen a collection of movie posters on display in front of the Sparber Building. This was 428 Center Street, the Star/Optic Theatre.
The article about the opening of the Forum Theatre that appeared in the August, 1924, issue of Architect and Engineer had this interesting information:
“Eighteen hundred people can be accommodated in the theater, while the roof garden, which has complete cafe service, has a capacity of 200 persons.”
Looking Google’s the aerial view of the building today I see no evidence of this roof garden. The building just has an ordinary roof, with no flat areas. Does anyone know what became of the vanished rooftop cafe?
Okay, the Boxoffice article uploaded by moviejs1944 says that the Mini Theatre was actually inside the mall, not in the outbuilding that now houses Sam’s Sorrento Pizza.
The article also credits the design of the Mini Theatre to “Lou Wilse” but this is clearly an error. The architect was undoubtedly Louis Wiltse, who designed or remodeled more than a dozen theaters in Michigan.
In 1921 the Pageant was remodeled for Charles Skouras, the project being noted in the December 18, 1920, issue of The American Contractor. Plans for the $35,000 project were drawn by Kansas City architect H. Alexander Drake.
The September 23, 1950, issue of Boxoffice said that the Zoe Theatre had been opened by the Armentrout Circuit. Some of the houses in the circuit were called the Clark Theatre, after founder Clark Armentrout. This house was named for Clark’s granddaughter Zoe, daughter of Russell Armentrout.
The Rolla Preservation Alliance informs me that the Rollamo Theatre was at 210 W. 8th Street. The drastically altered building is still standing, and now houses a bank.
The principals of Johnson & Maack were Eugene S. Johnson and Albert C. Maack. The firm was founded in 1929 and became Johnson & Maack & Saunders in 1937.
This house probably opened in 1931. That year the May 24 issue of The Film Daily ran this notice:
“Frankfort, Ind. — A theater is to be erected here by Valos and Gregory at an estimated cost of $100,000.”
I haven’t been able to find any opening notices, but Valos and Gregory’s “Roxey” Theatre at Frankfort was mentioned in the June 18, 1934 issue of the Logansport Pharos-Tribune. Their newly-incorporated company, the Cass Theatre Corporation, had just taken over the Paramount and Luna Theatres in Logansport.
This item is from the March 15, 1931, issue of The Film Daily:
“Rolla, Mo. — Construction bids have been received for the erection of the Rollamo here at an estimated cost of $75,000. Johnson & Mack of St. Louis are the architects.”
The July 30, 1931, issue of the Rolla Herald said that work on the theater was being rushed to have it open by August 5, but the August 6 issue of the paper carried no theater news or advertisements. Advertisements had appeared by August 16, however.
Anitem in the April 17, 1931, issue of the Angola Herald said that Mrs. Gladys Brokaw had leased the former Browkaw Theatre on the north side of the square to a Mr. Ellis, who was in the process of building a new theater on Maumee Street next door tot he Hendry Hotel (the Hendry, which burned in 1968, was at the southwest corner of Maumee and Elizabeth Street, one block west of the square.) Ellis intended to use the theater on the square as an overflow house.
Another brief item in the Herald on July 3 said that the former Brokaw Theatre would reopen as the Strand Theatre. The New Brokaw Theatre was still under construction, as was Mr. Eliss’s new house, for which the name Angola Theatre had been chosen. As it turned out, the Angola Theatre never opened. The uncompleted theater building was foreclosed in 1932.
Joe Brokaw was not without a theater during the period between the closing of the old Brokaw Theatre and the opening of the new one, though. Numerous items in the Herald during the period indicate that the Angola Opera House was presenting talking pictures, and that Joe Brokaw was the manager. In fact Brokaw had been operating the Opera House at least as early as 1926, and a DeForest Phonofilm sound system had been installed in October, 1929. The first sound movie presented in Angola was the Marx Brothers first feature film, “The Cocoanuts”.
Joe Brokaw had been in the theater business at Angola at least as early as 1909, when the Steuben Republican was touting the “New Brokaw Theatre” in its issue of December 9. The May 26, 1914, issue of the Herald mentioned “Brokaw’s new theatre”— presumably the house that eventually became the Strand.
Architect Frederick George Clausen retired in 1914, and it is likely that the 1915 Garden Theatre was designed by his son, Rudolph J. Clausen, who, on his father’s retirement, formed the firm of Clausen & Kruse with Walter O. Kruse.
Architect Frederick George Clausen retired in 1914, whereupon his son Rudolph J. Clausen formed the firm of Clausen & Kruse with Walter O. Kruse, so the 1916 remodeling of the Family Theatre should be attributed to Rudolph.
However, as the elder Clausen was Davenport’s leading architect, it’s quite possible that he was the original architect of the house.
No date is given, but the records of the American Terra Cotta Company list the Douglas Theatre, 22nd and Sawyer, Chicago, among the projects using the company’s products. The architect was Ralph C. Harris.
The October 23, 1915, issue of The American Contractor said that a two-story building, 75x162 feet, to house a theater, stores, and offices was under construction at 5746-5752 S. Prairie Avenue. It was one of several projects underway by developers Kusel & Harris. Ralph C. Harris was the architect.
I believe this was an African American house. A biography of black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux lists one of his movies, “The Homesteader” appearing at Dooley’s Atlas Theatre in Chicago, on 7-8 March 1919.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate a D. A. Dooley Dixie Theatre at 4711 S. State Street. The theater was fairly wide, so probably covered three narrow lots, 4711-4715. The project was designed by Newhouse & Bernham.
Looking at the satellite view I’m thinking it’s likely that only the front portion of this theater survives, and the auditorium has been demolished. The building as it is now is not large enough to have accommodated a theater of almost 700 seats.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company contain a number of projects combining theaters and stores and designed for a partnership called Kusel & Harris. So far all of them I’ve come across list the architect of the projects only as Harris.
I don’t know if it was the same Harris who was having the projects built or not (quite a few architects did go into the theater development business), but the architect in question was most likely Ralph C Harris, who is known to have designed a number of Chicago theaters in the 1910s.
One of the projects was for a store at Milwaukee Avenue and Wolfram Street, which was the location of the Round Up. This theater was thus probably of Ralph C. Harris’s design.
Records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Cosmopolitan Theatre was designed for Ascher Brothers by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham.) An item in the August 24, 1918, issue of The Economist said that Henry L. Newhouse was preparing plans for an addition to the Cosmopolitan Theatre.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Beach Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham. I believe that Bernham has sometimes been conflated with Daniel Burnham, a much better known Chicago architect of the period.)
DeniseGaskellSnuffin was right about the theater being between Vermont and Normandie, not on the corner of Vermont, though not midway between— it was much closer to Vermont. The Film Daily notice uploaded by Ron Pierce gives the location as Gardena and Berendo, which is two blocks west of Vermont.
I also now believe that Denise was correct in her first comment, when she said that the theater building became the location of the Gardena Department Store after closing. The LA. County Assessor’s office says that the department store building was built in 1938, which is when the theater was built. It is the second building west of Berendo Avenue. Denise’s friend who told her that the department store was a few businesses west of the theater might have been right at one time. I suspect that the department store relocated when the theater space became available.
If you take Google’s street view down the alley behind the building you can see to the left of the single rear door that the plaster is separating, in line with the top of the doorway, indicating that there could formerly have been a double exit door at that location. There is also an area at the other end of the rear which looks to have been bricked up, though it is difficult to make out due to layers of paint. That would have been the location of the second pair of rear exit doors. And again, the plaster appears to be separating in a line that would indicate the top of a doorway that has been bricked up.
As for the L.A. Times report from 1945 giving the address of the theater as 1002 Gardena Boulevard, I suspect that it was either a mistake, or the lots along Gardena Boulevard have since been renumered. The address of the department store is 1106 W. Gardena Boulevard. In any case, the building on the northeast corner of Gardena and Vermont is not even in the City of Gardena. That side of Vermont Avenue is in the City of Los Angeles.
So my conclusion is that the Gardena Theatre was in the building now occupied by the Gardena Department Store, 1106 W. Gardena Boulevard, just west of Berendo Avenue. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The address I found for the Colonial Theatre depicted in the photo above was 803 Superior Avenue. There’s a photo on page 100 of Rockefeller’s Cleveland, by Sharon E. Gregor (Google Books preview.) The caption says it was built in 1902 and opened in 1903 as a vaudeville house that later turned to legitimate theater.
The caption also says the Colonial was designed by the Detroit architectural firm of Mason, Reed, Hill & Painter, although the records of the American Terra Cotta and Ceramic Company just say Mason, Reed & Hill. Both apparently got the name wrong, as a history of Detroit architects says that the firm was Mason, Reed-Hill, & Painter, with George D. Mason, William Reed-Hill, and Walter S. Painter as principals.
Although have found the Colonial mentioned once in The Moving Picture World (the issue of January 3, 1914, when it was running the prestige picture “Traffic in Souls”) it spent most of its history as either a vaudeville or legitimate house. This history of the Colonial doesn’t mention movies at all, but says that the house mounted its last production in 1930, and was demolished in 1932.
I can’t find the May 9 Boxoffice with the State on the cover, and that link in my previous comment is dead, but this link (while it lasts) will bring up the first page of a three-page article about the house from the July 4, 1960, issue.
The Rex listed with 450 seats starting with the 1935 FDY must have been the one at 119 S. C Street. The 1938 FDY lists a 650-seat New Rex Theatre, and that must have been the house at 232 E. Yosemite which was opened in 1937. Oddly, both the Rex and the New Rex continued to be listed in the FDYs well into the 1940s, but with the Rex always listed as closed.
This undated photo (though “Young Tom Edison” was released in March, 1940) shows the Madera Theatre at the left, and the marquee of the Rex can be made out on the right side of the street near the beginning of the next block, just past the hotel on the corner of C Street. The sites of both the hotel and the Rex Theatre are now occupied by a branch of Chase Bank.
This undated photo from the California State Library collection shows Center Street in Taft, Looking west across 5th Street. The C & C Theatre is on the corner, and it appears to be the same building that was later the Sunshine Theatre. On the right can be seen a collection of movie posters on display in front of the Sparber Building. This was 428 Center Street, the Star/Optic Theatre.
The article about the opening of the Forum Theatre that appeared in the August, 1924, issue of Architect and Engineer had this interesting information:
Looking Google’s the aerial view of the building today I see no evidence of this roof garden. The building just has an ordinary roof, with no flat areas. Does anyone know what became of the vanished rooftop cafe?Okay, the Boxoffice article uploaded by moviejs1944 says that the Mini Theatre was actually inside the mall, not in the outbuilding that now houses Sam’s Sorrento Pizza.
The article also credits the design of the Mini Theatre to “Lou Wilse” but this is clearly an error. The architect was undoubtedly Louis Wiltse, who designed or remodeled more than a dozen theaters in Michigan.
It looks like the Mini Theatre building is now the location of Sam’s Sorrento Pizza. Sam’s is at the theater’s address, at least.
Here is a photo of 18th Street with the Boone Theatre at the left and the Gem Theatre in the next block.
The New Rialto was designed by architect H. Alexander Drake.
In 1921 the Pageant was remodeled for Charles Skouras, the project being noted in the December 18, 1920, issue of The American Contractor. Plans for the $35,000 project were drawn by Kansas City architect H. Alexander Drake.
The September 23, 1950, issue of Boxoffice said that the Zoe Theatre had been opened by the Armentrout Circuit. Some of the houses in the circuit were called the Clark Theatre, after founder Clark Armentrout. This house was named for Clark’s granddaughter Zoe, daughter of Russell Armentrout.
The Rolla Preservation Alliance informs me that the Rollamo Theatre was at 210 W. 8th Street. The drastically altered building is still standing, and now houses a bank.
The principals of Johnson & Maack were Eugene S. Johnson and Albert C. Maack. The firm was founded in 1929 and became Johnson & Maack & Saunders in 1937.
This house probably opened in 1931. That year the May 24 issue of The Film Daily ran this notice:
I haven’t been able to find any opening notices, but Valos and Gregory’s “Roxey” Theatre at Frankfort was mentioned in the June 18, 1934 issue of the Logansport Pharos-Tribune. Their newly-incorporated company, the Cass Theatre Corporation, had just taken over the Paramount and Luna Theatres in Logansport.This item is from the March 15, 1931, issue of The Film Daily:
The July 30, 1931, issue of the Rolla Herald said that work on the theater was being rushed to have it open by August 5, but the August 6 issue of the paper carried no theater news or advertisements. Advertisements had appeared by August 16, however.Anitem in the April 17, 1931, issue of the Angola Herald said that Mrs. Gladys Brokaw had leased the former Browkaw Theatre on the north side of the square to a Mr. Ellis, who was in the process of building a new theater on Maumee Street next door tot he Hendry Hotel (the Hendry, which burned in 1968, was at the southwest corner of Maumee and Elizabeth Street, one block west of the square.) Ellis intended to use the theater on the square as an overflow house.
Another brief item in the Herald on July 3 said that the former Brokaw Theatre would reopen as the Strand Theatre. The New Brokaw Theatre was still under construction, as was Mr. Eliss’s new house, for which the name Angola Theatre had been chosen. As it turned out, the Angola Theatre never opened. The uncompleted theater building was foreclosed in 1932.
Joe Brokaw was not without a theater during the period between the closing of the old Brokaw Theatre and the opening of the new one, though. Numerous items in the Herald during the period indicate that the Angola Opera House was presenting talking pictures, and that Joe Brokaw was the manager. In fact Brokaw had been operating the Opera House at least as early as 1926, and a DeForest Phonofilm sound system had been installed in October, 1929. The first sound movie presented in Angola was the Marx Brothers first feature film, “The Cocoanuts”.
Joe Brokaw had been in the theater business at Angola at least as early as 1909, when the Steuben Republican was touting the “New Brokaw Theatre” in its issue of December 9. The May 26, 1914, issue of the Herald mentioned “Brokaw’s new theatre”— presumably the house that eventually became the Strand.
Architect Frederick George Clausen retired in 1914, and it is likely that the 1915 Garden Theatre was designed by his son, Rudolph J. Clausen, who, on his father’s retirement, formed the firm of Clausen & Kruse with Walter O. Kruse.
Architect Frederick George Clausen retired in 1914, whereupon his son Rudolph J. Clausen formed the firm of Clausen & Kruse with Walter O. Kruse, so the 1916 remodeling of the Family Theatre should be attributed to Rudolph.
However, as the elder Clausen was Davenport’s leading architect, it’s quite possible that he was the original architect of the house.
No date is given, but the records of the American Terra Cotta Company list the Douglas Theatre, 22nd and Sawyer, Chicago, among the projects using the company’s products. The architect was Ralph C. Harris.
The October 23, 1915, issue of The American Contractor said that a two-story building, 75x162 feet, to house a theater, stores, and offices was under construction at 5746-5752 S. Prairie Avenue. It was one of several projects underway by developers Kusel & Harris. Ralph C. Harris was the architect.
I believe this was an African American house. A biography of black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux lists one of his movies, “The Homesteader” appearing at Dooley’s Atlas Theatre in Chicago, on 7-8 March 1919.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate a D. A. Dooley Dixie Theatre at 4711 S. State Street. The theater was fairly wide, so probably covered three narrow lots, 4711-4715. The project was designed by Newhouse & Bernham.
Looking at the satellite view I’m thinking it’s likely that only the front portion of this theater survives, and the auditorium has been demolished. The building as it is now is not large enough to have accommodated a theater of almost 700 seats.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company contain a number of projects combining theaters and stores and designed for a partnership called Kusel & Harris. So far all of them I’ve come across list the architect of the projects only as Harris.
I don’t know if it was the same Harris who was having the projects built or not (quite a few architects did go into the theater development business), but the architect in question was most likely Ralph C Harris, who is known to have designed a number of Chicago theaters in the 1910s.
One of the projects was for a store at Milwaukee Avenue and Wolfram Street, which was the location of the Round Up. This theater was thus probably of Ralph C. Harris’s design.
Records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Cosmopolitan Theatre was designed for Ascher Brothers by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham.) An item in the August 24, 1918, issue of The Economist said that Henry L. Newhouse was preparing plans for an addition to the Cosmopolitan Theatre.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Beach Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham. I believe that Bernham has sometimes been conflated with Daniel Burnham, a much better known Chicago architect of the period.)
DeniseGaskellSnuffin was right about the theater being between Vermont and Normandie, not on the corner of Vermont, though not midway between— it was much closer to Vermont. The Film Daily notice uploaded by Ron Pierce gives the location as Gardena and Berendo, which is two blocks west of Vermont.
I also now believe that Denise was correct in her first comment, when she said that the theater building became the location of the Gardena Department Store after closing. The LA. County Assessor’s office says that the department store building was built in 1938, which is when the theater was built. It is the second building west of Berendo Avenue. Denise’s friend who told her that the department store was a few businesses west of the theater might have been right at one time. I suspect that the department store relocated when the theater space became available.
If you take Google’s street view down the alley behind the building you can see to the left of the single rear door that the plaster is separating, in line with the top of the doorway, indicating that there could formerly have been a double exit door at that location. There is also an area at the other end of the rear which looks to have been bricked up, though it is difficult to make out due to layers of paint. That would have been the location of the second pair of rear exit doors. And again, the plaster appears to be separating in a line that would indicate the top of a doorway that has been bricked up.
As for the L.A. Times report from 1945 giving the address of the theater as 1002 Gardena Boulevard, I suspect that it was either a mistake, or the lots along Gardena Boulevard have since been renumered. The address of the department store is 1106 W. Gardena Boulevard. In any case, the building on the northeast corner of Gardena and Vermont is not even in the City of Gardena. That side of Vermont Avenue is in the City of Los Angeles.
So my conclusion is that the Gardena Theatre was in the building now occupied by the Gardena Department Store, 1106 W. Gardena Boulevard, just west of Berendo Avenue. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The address I found for the Colonial Theatre depicted in the photo above was 803 Superior Avenue. There’s a photo on page 100 of Rockefeller’s Cleveland, by Sharon E. Gregor (Google Books preview.) The caption says it was built in 1902 and opened in 1903 as a vaudeville house that later turned to legitimate theater.
The caption also says the Colonial was designed by the Detroit architectural firm of Mason, Reed, Hill & Painter, although the records of the American Terra Cotta and Ceramic Company just say Mason, Reed & Hill. Both apparently got the name wrong, as a history of Detroit architects says that the firm was Mason, Reed-Hill, & Painter, with George D. Mason, William Reed-Hill, and Walter S. Painter as principals.
Although have found the Colonial mentioned once in The Moving Picture World (the issue of January 3, 1914, when it was running the prestige picture “Traffic in Souls”) it spent most of its history as either a vaudeville or legitimate house. This history of the Colonial doesn’t mention movies at all, but says that the house mounted its last production in 1930, and was demolished in 1932.
Becoming a drive-in projectionist at 18 must have been a dream job.
I can’t find the May 9 Boxoffice with the State on the cover, and that link in my previous comment is dead, but this link (while it lasts) will bring up the first page of a three-page article about the house from the July 4, 1960, issue.