The actual opening date is March 1, 1911, but its first performances didn’t start until three days later on March 4, 1911.
The Imperial Theatre was first founded by a whole team of 10 Japanese residents, which were Hirobumi Ito, Taro Masuda, Keinosuke Nishino, Eiichi Shibusawa, Heigoro Shoda, Sutejiro Fukuzawa, Momosuke Fukuzawa, Onsuke Hibi, Tsunenori Tanaka, and Takemasa Tezuka. It was first built as a Renaissance-style theater designed by Tamsuke Yokogawa.
Shochiku took over the Imperial in 1930 and became the SY chain’s flagship movie theater. However, it wasn’t until 1939 when Toho merged with the theater’s management company, and Toho took over and restored the theater into its original form as a theatrical entertainment venue in 1940. The basement dining hall downstairs opened during World War II (possibly around January 1944) as a rice porridge restaurant.
On January 5, 1955, the Imperial Theatre became the first ever movie theater in Japan featuring Cinerama installations. Tokyo had two of them in total, with the other being the Theatre Tokyo. Cinerama in the Imperial lasted until December 16, 1962, leaving the Theatre Tokyo the only Cinerama theater operating. It reopened as a 70mm house six days later on December 22, 1962 and continued to screen first-run films with 70mm projection until its final closure as a movie theater on January 31, 1964 after its final showing of “Lawrence Of Arabia”. It last had 1,826 seats, with 1,138 seats on the first floor and 688 seats on the balcony.
The original Imperial Theatre was demolished and a newer Imperial Theatre, a live theater, was built on the site. The building, an integrated complex with the Kokusai Building, was designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi. It was completed on September 29, 1966, and reopened that October. Part of the building has been used as the headquarters of the oil giant Idemitsu Kosan since its completion, and the top floor is now the Idemitsu Museum of Arts Tokyo, which displays the antique art collection of Idemitsu Sazo (Idemitsu Kosan moved to Otemachi in 2021). The revolving stage has four large and small elevations inside, is 16.4 meters in diameter and 22 meters high, and runs from the first floor above ground to the 6th floor underground.
The newer Imperial featured a mix of stage shows and special events, including the Japan Record Awards presentations from 1969 to 1984 and the year-end Jumbo Lottery held on some New Year’s Eves, once in 1977, and again from 1997 until 1999, and again from 2001 until 2005. Those shows were previously held at the Nippon Theater, the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, the Shinjuku Koma Theater, the Tokyo Welfare Pension Hall, the Melpark Tokyo, and finally the Akasaka ACT Theater. Ever since 2017, it was always held at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.
On September 27, 2022, Toho announced that they’ll work with Idemitsu Arts Center and Mitsubishi Estate to rebuild the whole theater. After closure on February 28, 2025, Toho immediately signed a lease agreement with Meijiza for multi-year, multi-month performances from March 2025. This updated theater is scheduled to be completed in 2030. The building itself will have 29 floors above ground and 4 below, with the theater located on the lower floors, from the 4th floor above ground to the 2nd floor below. The design itself was done by architect and Hosei University professor Tetsuo Kobori, and based on the concept of “THE VEIL,” it aims to create a comfortable space that embodies “Japanese-ness that looks to the future” by taking advantage of the natural environment around Hibiya, such as by incorporating natural light. The difference from the second-generation theater is that the theater layout will be rotated 90 degrees from the previous one, with the audience seats located directly in front of the entrance, and a flow plan will be made to reduce congestion at the start and end of performances. The number of seats will be almost the same as before, 1,900 seats, but with more space. The stage space will be the same size as before, but a technical gallery will be provided above the stage wings, and world-class cutting-edge stage technology will be introduced. Other plans include expanding the lobby and foyer space, improving the cafe and bar, expanding utility facilities such as restrooms, adding a cafe that the public can use, making the facility barrier-free, and building a new underground theater lobby directly connected to the subway concourse.
The entire building, excluding the theater, will be designed in accordance with the Otemachi, Marunouchi, and Yurakucho District Urban Development Guidelines 2023, preserving the historic 31m (100 shaku) eaves line, and the upper floors, which will house high-grade offices, will be set back to ensure continuity with the existing eaves line of the lower floors, and a terrace open to the public overlooking the Imperial Palace will be built on the roof of the lower floors. The Idemitsu Museum of Arts will be redeveloped in the upper part of the lower floors to enhance its function as a museum, and a commercial zone will be created, forming an underground station town space linked to the subway Yurakucho Station and Hibiya Station, and an east-west underground passage connecting to JR Yurakucho Station will also be built.
The State Theatre was advertising Gregory Peck’s “Cape Fear” and Audie Murphy’s “Six Black Horses” at the time of its filming, meaning that the scene itself was definitely filmed between May 15 and 22, 1962.
I think this opened on August 18, 1971 with “Summer Of 42” in Screen 1 and “Ryan’s Daughter” in Screen 2, but unfortunately I cannot find its grand opening ad at all.
It was closed on September 7, 1989 with “When Harry Met Sally” in Screen 1 and “Millennium” in Screen 2.
Does anybody know any information about the Danny Theatre, also in Durant? Because it was the last operating movie theater in the town. All I know is that the Danny Theatre closed on December 17, 1986 with “Soul Man” after some 40+ year run and it went on sale the following month. M.E. Ginn was its original operator who may’ve operated the Danny throughout its life.
This started life as the Plaza Twin Cinema, opening in 1976 at the Grant Avenue Plaza. The plaza’s Kmart opened on September 16 of that year, but the twin cinema’s opening date is still unknown at this time. It was later renamed the Auburn Twin Cinema by the late-1970s.
Cinemim last operated the original twin-screener, who also operated the nearby Finger Lakes Drive-In at the time, and the original twin-screener closed for the final time on December 2, 1996 with “Jingle All The Way” in Screen 1 and “Ransom” in Screen 2 due to the theater management losing money and the declining loss of other businesses across the plaza, including its Kmart in February 1995. Towards the end of its operation, the twin-screen theater was the only one operating in the plaza. The theater sat abandoned throughout the remainder of December 1996 and into most of 1997.
On October 4, 1997, an eight-screen multiplex opened at the same site as the twin-screener called the Auburn Movieplex 8, and two more screens were added in 2001 bringing a total to 10 screens, and was named the Auburn Movieplex 10.
Update: I’ve found out that Skippy, the comic strip character, had ONLY one cartoon released in July 1937 by United Artists called “The Dog Catcher”, which meant to be the exact title of the cartoon on its opening day. Unfortunately that cartoon is lost through time.
This was partially built on the site of a former Walmart’s garden center. The original Walmart opened on the site of a former Woolco on July 1, 1983 and closed in 1991 when it was relocated.
The original Naval Base Theatre opened its doors on June 29, 1918 with a total capacity of 700 seats in the rear of its administrative building. The auditorium itself featured white walls and quaintly-shaped innumerable windows. There is also an orchestra pit below the stage, and at the rear of the stage featured dressing rooms and other equipment. The films were originally used are for secured purposes through the community motion picture bureau of the War Work Council of the YMCA.
Unfortunately its unknown if that information belongs to that base theater or another theater at the base. If its for that theater then the theater probably operated for many many decades. There is also a possible earlier Naval Base Theatre that only lasted for several months in 1917 and 1918, but that also remains unconfirmed.
Closed on October 4, 1970 with Clint Eastwood in “Paint Your Wagon” along with an unnamed cartoon.
The actual opening date is March 1, 1911, but its first performances didn’t start until three days later on March 4, 1911.
The Imperial Theatre was first founded by a whole team of 10 Japanese residents, which were Hirobumi Ito, Taro Masuda, Keinosuke Nishino, Eiichi Shibusawa, Heigoro Shoda, Sutejiro Fukuzawa, Momosuke Fukuzawa, Onsuke Hibi, Tsunenori Tanaka, and Takemasa Tezuka. It was first built as a Renaissance-style theater designed by Tamsuke Yokogawa.
Shochiku took over the Imperial in 1930 and became the SY chain’s flagship movie theater. However, it wasn’t until 1939 when Toho merged with the theater’s management company, and Toho took over and restored the theater into its original form as a theatrical entertainment venue in 1940. The basement dining hall downstairs opened during World War II (possibly around January 1944) as a rice porridge restaurant.
On January 5, 1955, the Imperial Theatre became the first ever movie theater in Japan featuring Cinerama installations. Tokyo had two of them in total, with the other being the Theatre Tokyo. Cinerama in the Imperial lasted until December 16, 1962, leaving the Theatre Tokyo the only Cinerama theater operating. It reopened as a 70mm house six days later on December 22, 1962 and continued to screen first-run films with 70mm projection until its final closure as a movie theater on January 31, 1964 after its final showing of “Lawrence Of Arabia”. It last had 1,826 seats, with 1,138 seats on the first floor and 688 seats on the balcony.
The original Imperial Theatre was demolished and a newer Imperial Theatre, a live theater, was built on the site. The building, an integrated complex with the Kokusai Building, was designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi. It was completed on September 29, 1966, and reopened that October. Part of the building has been used as the headquarters of the oil giant Idemitsu Kosan since its completion, and the top floor is now the Idemitsu Museum of Arts Tokyo, which displays the antique art collection of Idemitsu Sazo (Idemitsu Kosan moved to Otemachi in 2021). The revolving stage has four large and small elevations inside, is 16.4 meters in diameter and 22 meters high, and runs from the first floor above ground to the 6th floor underground.
The newer Imperial featured a mix of stage shows and special events, including the Japan Record Awards presentations from 1969 to 1984 and the year-end Jumbo Lottery held on some New Year’s Eves, once in 1977, and again from 1997 until 1999, and again from 2001 until 2005. Those shows were previously held at the Nippon Theater, the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, the Shinjuku Koma Theater, the Tokyo Welfare Pension Hall, the Melpark Tokyo, and finally the Akasaka ACT Theater. Ever since 2017, it was always held at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.
On September 27, 2022, Toho announced that they’ll work with Idemitsu Arts Center and Mitsubishi Estate to rebuild the whole theater. After closure on February 28, 2025, Toho immediately signed a lease agreement with Meijiza for multi-year, multi-month performances from March 2025. This updated theater is scheduled to be completed in 2030. The building itself will have 29 floors above ground and 4 below, with the theater located on the lower floors, from the 4th floor above ground to the 2nd floor below. The design itself was done by architect and Hosei University professor Tetsuo Kobori, and based on the concept of “THE VEIL,” it aims to create a comfortable space that embodies “Japanese-ness that looks to the future” by taking advantage of the natural environment around Hibiya, such as by incorporating natural light. The difference from the second-generation theater is that the theater layout will be rotated 90 degrees from the previous one, with the audience seats located directly in front of the entrance, and a flow plan will be made to reduce congestion at the start and end of performances. The number of seats will be almost the same as before, 1,900 seats, but with more space. The stage space will be the same size as before, but a technical gallery will be provided above the stage wings, and world-class cutting-edge stage technology will be introduced. Other plans include expanding the lobby and foyer space, improving the cafe and bar, expanding utility facilities such as restrooms, adding a cafe that the public can use, making the facility barrier-free, and building a new underground theater lobby directly connected to the subway concourse.
The entire building, excluding the theater, will be designed in accordance with the Otemachi, Marunouchi, and Yurakucho District Urban Development Guidelines 2023, preserving the historic 31m (100 shaku) eaves line, and the upper floors, which will house high-grade offices, will be set back to ensure continuity with the existing eaves line of the lower floors, and a terrace open to the public overlooking the Imperial Palace will be built on the roof of the lower floors. The Idemitsu Museum of Arts will be redeveloped in the upper part of the lower floors to enhance its function as a museum, and a commercial zone will be created, forming an underground station town space linked to the subway Yurakucho Station and Hibiya Station, and an east-west underground passage connecting to JR Yurakucho Station will also be built.
This opened as the Richland Opera House in January 1898, and was renamed the Richland Theatre by 1930. It was closed in 1970.
Opened on January 26, 1941 with Ann Sheridan in “Honeymoon For Three” (unknown if extras added).
Opened on August 10, 1962.
The State Theatre was advertising Gregory Peck’s “Cape Fear” and Audie Murphy’s “Six Black Horses” at the time of its filming, meaning that the scene itself was definitely filmed between May 15 and 22, 1962.
I think this opened on August 18, 1971 with “Summer Of 42” in Screen 1 and “Ryan’s Daughter” in Screen 2, but unfortunately I cannot find its grand opening ad at all.
It was closed on September 7, 1989 with “When Harry Met Sally” in Screen 1 and “Millennium” in Screen 2.
Closed on April 16, 1981 with an unnamed adult film in Screen 1 and “The Dogs Of War” in Screen 2.
Closed by GCC on April 30, 1994 with “Ace Ventura” in Screen 1 and “Grumpy Old Men” and “Tombstone” in Screen 2.
Opened with Jane Powell in “Hit The Deck” and “Victor Mature in “Chief Crazy Horse” along with an unnamed cartoon and a newsreel.
The Pearl Road Drive-In closed on October 18, 1986 with “Hardbodies Part 2” and “My Chauffeur”.
Does anybody know any information about the Danny Theatre, also in Durant? Because it was the last operating movie theater in the town. All I know is that the Danny Theatre closed on December 17, 1986 with “Soul Man” after some 40+ year run and it went on sale the following month. M.E. Ginn was its original operator who may’ve operated the Danny throughout its life.
This was the replacement of the Strand Theatre, which closed five days prior to the opening of the Gateway.
Closed on November 10, 2002 with “The Santa Clause 2” and “Jackass”.
Closed on April 16, 1995 with “Losing Isaiah” and “Candyman II - Farewell To The Flesh”.
Closed on September 9, 1984, and demolished on December 10, 1984.
This started life as the Plaza Twin Cinema, opening in 1976 at the Grant Avenue Plaza. The plaza’s Kmart opened on September 16 of that year, but the twin cinema’s opening date is still unknown at this time. It was later renamed the Auburn Twin Cinema by the late-1970s.
Cinemim last operated the original twin-screener, who also operated the nearby Finger Lakes Drive-In at the time, and the original twin-screener closed for the final time on December 2, 1996 with “Jingle All The Way” in Screen 1 and “Ransom” in Screen 2 due to the theater management losing money and the declining loss of other businesses across the plaza, including its Kmart in February 1995. Towards the end of its operation, the twin-screen theater was the only one operating in the plaza. The theater sat abandoned throughout the remainder of December 1996 and into most of 1997.
On October 4, 1997, an eight-screen multiplex opened at the same site as the twin-screener called the Auburn Movieplex 8, and two more screens were added in 2001 bringing a total to 10 screens, and was named the Auburn Movieplex 10.
Opened as the “Finger Lakes Mall 4” in 1979. Its first operator remains unknown.
Update: I’ve found out that Skippy, the comic strip character, had ONLY one cartoon released in July 1937 by United Artists called “The Dog Catcher”, which meant to be the exact title of the cartoon on its opening day. Unfortunately that cartoon is lost through time.
This was partially built on the site of a former Walmart’s garden center. The original Walmart opened on the site of a former Woolco on July 1, 1983 and closed in 1991 when it was relocated.
Opened as early as 1946.
Opened on October 10, 2003 with 11 screens and 2,011 seats.
Opened in July 2000 with 7 screens and 977 seats.
The original Naval Base Theatre opened its doors on June 29, 1918 with a total capacity of 700 seats in the rear of its administrative building. The auditorium itself featured white walls and quaintly-shaped innumerable windows. There is also an orchestra pit below the stage, and at the rear of the stage featured dressing rooms and other equipment. The films were originally used are for secured purposes through the community motion picture bureau of the War Work Council of the YMCA.
Unfortunately its unknown if that information belongs to that base theater or another theater at the base. If its for that theater then the theater probably operated for many many decades. There is also a possible earlier Naval Base Theatre that only lasted for several months in 1917 and 1918, but that also remains unconfirmed.
Opened on October 8, 1947 with Dennis O'Keefe in “Dishonored Lady” (unknown if extras added).
Opened on February 19, 1945 with Wallace Beery in “Barbary Coast Gent” (unknown if extras added).