Chris- When you say “they” do you mean the Film Daily Yearbooks? (I don’t have any, except for a small section of the 1927 edition). I went back and looked at the 1941 Ritz photo again- it looks like a purpose-built structure, and not a town hall. But there were many small-town cinema operations located in Town Hall auditoriums, that’s for sure!
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Orpheum; it’s Card # 519. Address is “Main Street”. There is an exterior photo dated April 18, 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it opened about 1920, shows MGM films, and had 500 seats. 1940 population was 1,300.
I have seen “Dreamland” as an alternate name for this theater, but have found nothing more to that effect. Dreamland was a popular name for small cinemas in the early days of “Motography” (motion photography) shows.
I suspect that Walter Young was one of those energetic boys who develop an interest in some subject and become almost as knowledgeable about it as an adult. He decided he was going to convert Pythian Hall into a movie theater and that’s all there was to it!
Chris1982- I found nothing stating that the Ritz was in a town hall, although many rural movie theaters were. CinemaData has a list of New Hampshire movie theaters named Town Hall, but Gorham is not on the list. CinemaTour has an a.k.a. name of Gorham Theatre for the Ritz. But no Town Hall info. When I googled the Ritz in Gorham, I got almost nothing!
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Ritz; it’s Card # 486. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says that the Ritz opened about 1938, shows MGM movies, and had 344 seats. The 1940 population was 2,800.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Strand – it’s Card # 485. Address is “Main Street”. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that the Strand opened about 1925, shows MGM films and had 300 seats. The 1940 population was 3,000.
The operation of the theater was taken over in the late-1920s by a local man, C.L. Beede. For many years it was opened 3 nights per week in the summer, 2 nights per week the remainder of the year. There were no matinee showings.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Town Hall Theatre; it’s Card # 474. Address is “Main St.” There is an exterior photo dated April 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that it opened about 1910, shows MGM films, and has 270 seats. The 1940 population was 1,300.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Liberty; it’s Card # 471. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that the Liberty is less than 15 years old, was showing MGM films, and had 300 seats (rounded up). A competing theater was the Plymouth Th. in Plymouth. The 1940 population was 1,400.
Somewhere I read that it was in the town hall building, but in the photo it sure does not look like a typical town hall. It was a like a huge wood-frame barn, which also contained a dance hall. The CinemaData listing says it was sometimes known as Pineland Hall and Pineland Mountainview Theatre. (The Boston & Maine Railroad had a rail station called Mountainview nearby).
According to the CinemaData project listing, Broadway Theatre was the original name, then Plaza Theatre. It was constructed from a portion of the old Pillsbury Shoe Company complex. It hosted live touring shows at first, as well as movies. There was a dance hall upstairs, and bowling alleys in the basement. X-rated films were a huge success here, with lines out front at the ticket window.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Star; it’s Card # 504. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo taken April 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that the Star opened about 1925, shows MGM movies, and had 434 seats on the main floor and 96 in the balcony, total 530. The 1940 population was 2,600.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Pineland; it’s Card # 503. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that it opened about 1930, shows MGM films, and had 622 seats, The 1940 population of Center Ossipee was 1,400.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Key; it’s Card # 502. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated March 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it opened in 1938, shows MGM films, and had 270 seats. (But another source says it had 375 seats.) The 1940 population was 2,100.
In a Feb. 1903 issue of the New York Clipper, a theatrical trade paper, there is an ad for the Old Howard, listing their show for the week of Feb. 23, 1903. The ad lists the name of their New York representative, and has two slogans: “American’s Oldest Variety and Burlesque Theatre” and “Always Something Doing 1PM to 11PM”. (By 1950 that slogan had change to “…9AM to 11PM” because they started their day with movies at 9AM. The show consisted of 13 vaudeville acts, each act featuring from one to 4 performers, plus “The Three Teasers” Burlesque with a cast of 36. Add in the musicians, stage manager and stage hands and you have to wonder where they had room for all these people backstage (it was not a big theater). Dressing rooms were on the ground floor under the stage. They could have extended this area forward for more room, but there was a business on the ground floor: a brewery/bottling works originally, and restaurants later. (There was no business on the ground floor in the 1950s). The program does not mention movies, but they started showing films right from the start when they first became available in the late-1890s. The NY Clipper is among the show-business trade papers on line in the Media History Digital Library; (free access).
Rewards1 – I have never seen any photos of the Astor interior as far as I can recall. I did see a nice pen and ink black and white drawing that was made when the theater was fairly new. The artist was on stage at the stage-left side and was looking out at the left side of the auditorium. He drew the tiers of boxes and the left side of the two balconies. The theater was very ornate and was something like the Colonial Theatre on Boylston Street, if you have ever been inside it.
The proscenium arch was removed either in the 1937 renovations or in the 1947 work. When it reopened in 1947 it was what they called a “draped house”. There were huge long dark drapes from the ceiling down to within a foot of the floor, starting on each side of the screen and going round to the edge of the balcony. Very dull and uninteresting.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the State; it’s Card # 500. Address is Elm St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says the State is less than 15 years old, and is showing MGM films. There were 1,591 orchestra seats and 539 in the balcony, total 2,130. It was the largest theater in Manchester and had a nice big marquee. Demolished 1978.
I went back and looked at MGM Card # 499 again. Although they left out “Drive-In” in the theater name, it’s obvious from the photo that it’s this drive-in theater.
When the M-G-M agent came to Manchester in the spring of 1941 to survey the movie theaters, he listed the Rex as a competing theater to the others, but, for some reason, he never filled out a report for it. Two other Manchester theaters which he left out of the survey were the Globe and the Modern.
The name was changed from Tremont Theatre to Astor Theatre in November, 1947 at the conclusion of heavy renovations. There were prior heavy renovations in 1937. Yes, there were several floors of dressing rooms at stage-left (west side of the former stage) – they were still there during demolition.
The 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide has the Manchester Opera House listed under Manchester. E.W. Harrington was Mgr; there were 1,765 seats. It was on the ground floor and had both gas and electric lighting. Ticket prices 15 cents to 50 cents. The prosceniium opening was 35 feet wide X 36 feet high, and the stage was 36 feet deep. There were 8 in the house orchestra. Hotels for show folk were the Manchester House, New City, Vening’s and Oxford. Railroad was the Boston & Maine. The 1897 population was 60,000.
Chris- When you say “they” do you mean the Film Daily Yearbooks? (I don’t have any, except for a small section of the 1927 edition). I went back and looked at the 1941 Ritz photo again- it looks like a purpose-built structure, and not a town hall. But there were many small-town cinema operations located in Town Hall auditoriums, that’s for sure!
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Orpheum; it’s Card # 519. Address is “Main Street”. There is an exterior photo dated April 18, 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it opened about 1920, shows MGM films, and had 500 seats. 1940 population was 1,300.
I have seen “Dreamland” as an alternate name for this theater, but have found nothing more to that effect. Dreamland was a popular name for small cinemas in the early days of “Motography” (motion photography) shows.
The projectors from this cinema have been preserved and are to go into a museum exhibit.
I suspect that Walter Young was one of those energetic boys who develop an interest in some subject and become almost as knowledgeable about it as an adult. He decided he was going to convert Pythian Hall into a movie theater and that’s all there was to it!
Chris1982- I found nothing stating that the Ritz was in a town hall, although many rural movie theaters were. CinemaData has a list of New Hampshire movie theaters named Town Hall, but Gorham is not on the list. CinemaTour has an a.k.a. name of Gorham Theatre for the Ritz. But no Town Hall info. When I googled the Ritz in Gorham, I got almost nothing!
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Ritz; it’s Card # 486. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says that the Ritz opened about 1938, shows MGM movies, and had 344 seats. The 1940 population was 2,800.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Strand – it’s Card # 485. Address is “Main Street”. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that the Strand opened about 1925, shows MGM films and had 300 seats. The 1940 population was 3,000.
The operation of the theater was taken over in the late-1920s by a local man, C.L. Beede. For many years it was opened 3 nights per week in the summer, 2 nights per week the remainder of the year. There were no matinee showings.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Town Hall Theatre; it’s Card # 474. Address is “Main St.” There is an exterior photo dated April 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that it opened about 1910, shows MGM films, and has 270 seats. The 1940 population was 1,300.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Liberty; it’s Card # 471. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that the Liberty is less than 15 years old, was showing MGM films, and had 300 seats (rounded up). A competing theater was the Plymouth Th. in Plymouth. The 1940 population was 1,400.
Somewhere I read that it was in the town hall building, but in the photo it sure does not look like a typical town hall. It was a like a huge wood-frame barn, which also contained a dance hall. The CinemaData listing says it was sometimes known as Pineland Hall and Pineland Mountainview Theatre. (The Boston & Maine Railroad had a rail station called Mountainview nearby).
The Key was apparently an “upstairs house” – the auditorium was one flight up from the street.
According to the CinemaData project listing, Broadway Theatre was the original name, then Plaza Theatre. It was constructed from a portion of the old Pillsbury Shoe Company complex. It hosted live touring shows at first, as well as movies. There was a dance hall upstairs, and bowling alleys in the basement. X-rated films were a huge success here, with lines out front at the ticket window.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Star; it’s Card # 504. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo taken April 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that the Star opened about 1925, shows MGM movies, and had 434 seats on the main floor and 96 in the balcony, total 530. The 1940 population was 2,600.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Pineland; it’s Card # 503. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says that it opened about 1930, shows MGM films, and had 622 seats, The 1940 population of Center Ossipee was 1,400.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Key; it’s Card # 502. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated March 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it opened in 1938, shows MGM films, and had 270 seats. (But another source says it had 375 seats.) The 1940 population was 2,100.
In a Feb. 1903 issue of the New York Clipper, a theatrical trade paper, there is an ad for the Old Howard, listing their show for the week of Feb. 23, 1903. The ad lists the name of their New York representative, and has two slogans: “American’s Oldest Variety and Burlesque Theatre” and “Always Something Doing 1PM to 11PM”. (By 1950 that slogan had change to “…9AM to 11PM” because they started their day with movies at 9AM. The show consisted of 13 vaudeville acts, each act featuring from one to 4 performers, plus “The Three Teasers” Burlesque with a cast of 36. Add in the musicians, stage manager and stage hands and you have to wonder where they had room for all these people backstage (it was not a big theater). Dressing rooms were on the ground floor under the stage. They could have extended this area forward for more room, but there was a business on the ground floor: a brewery/bottling works originally, and restaurants later. (There was no business on the ground floor in the 1950s). The program does not mention movies, but they started showing films right from the start when they first became available in the late-1890s. The NY Clipper is among the show-business trade papers on line in the Media History Digital Library; (free access).
Rewards1 – I have never seen any photos of the Astor interior as far as I can recall. I did see a nice pen and ink black and white drawing that was made when the theater was fairly new. The artist was on stage at the stage-left side and was looking out at the left side of the auditorium. He drew the tiers of boxes and the left side of the two balconies. The theater was very ornate and was something like the Colonial Theatre on Boylston Street, if you have ever been inside it. The proscenium arch was removed either in the 1937 renovations or in the 1947 work. When it reopened in 1947 it was what they called a “draped house”. There were huge long dark drapes from the ceiling down to within a foot of the floor, starting on each side of the screen and going round to the edge of the balcony. Very dull and uninteresting.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the State; it’s Card # 500. Address is Elm St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says the State is less than 15 years old, and is showing MGM films. There were 1,591 orchestra seats and 539 in the balcony, total 2,130. It was the largest theater in Manchester and had a nice big marquee. Demolished 1978.
I went back and looked at MGM Card # 499 again. Although they left out “Drive-In” in the theater name, it’s obvious from the photo that it’s this drive-in theater.
When the M-G-M agent came to Manchester in the spring of 1941 to survey the movie theaters, he listed the Rex as a competing theater to the others, but, for some reason, he never filled out a report for it. Two other Manchester theaters which he left out of the survey were the Globe and the Modern.
The name was changed from Tremont Theatre to Astor Theatre in November, 1947 at the conclusion of heavy renovations. There were prior heavy renovations in 1937. Yes, there were several floors of dressing rooms at stage-left (west side of the former stage) – they were still there during demolition.
Correction: the New Bijou had about 1,000 seats total when it opened in 1910: 700 on the main floor and 300 in the balcony.
The 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide has the Manchester Opera House listed under Manchester. E.W. Harrington was Mgr; there were 1,765 seats. It was on the ground floor and had both gas and electric lighting. Ticket prices 15 cents to 50 cents. The prosceniium opening was 35 feet wide X 36 feet high, and the stage was 36 feet deep. There were 8 in the house orchestra. Hotels for show folk were the Manchester House, New City, Vening’s and Oxford. Railroad was the Boston & Maine. The 1897 population was 60,000.