Here is part of an article dated 5/31/50 from the North Adams Transcript:
The lights went out today in the Richmond theater. That motion picture house, owned and operated for the past 12 years by the Western Massachusetts Theaters corporation, will close its doors tonight and will be idle indefinitely. Francis J. Faille, chief local representative for the Western Massachusetts Theaters corporation and manager of the Paramount theater which it also operates here, said today that the theater was being closed “simply for lack of business.”
Mr. Faille said his concern hoped that a pick-up in the fall might warrant a re-opening of the house as it did once before, in 1943, when the Richmond closed during the summer season. But the future operation of the house will depend on conditions which cannot now be forecast, Mr. Faille indicated.
The Richmond Theater, built just before the turn of the century along with the Richmond hotel to which it is attached, has had a long history as a legitimate theater, a vaudeville and finally a motion picture house. Then under lease to the E.M. Loew, Inc. interests which now operate the Mohawk theater here, it was purchased in 1938 by the Western Massachusetts Theaters corporation, headed by Samuel Goldstein of Springfield, and was taken over by that corporation on July 31, 1938. For the past several years it has operated as what the industry calls a “Family theater,” showing second-run features, while the Paramount has operated on a first-run policy. And for some months past it has been on a four-day week basis, operating Thursdays through Sundays only.
In January 1967, the Long Beach Independent reported that a teen theater troupe would use the Brayton for performances:
The Magnolia Theater has completed ts subscription series and does not plan to resume activities until fall; The New Theater, a Teen Post operation of the Office of Economic Opportunities, has opened in the old Brayton Theater on Atlantic.
Here is part of an August 1971 article from the Fresno Bee:
The Wilson Theater, which closed last weekâ€"after the final showing of a movie called “The Last Run"â€"is expected to have its doors reopened in a few months, but not without some major changes. Beset with similar problems to those plaguing the Wilson, two other major movie houses shut their doors early last year.
Wilson manager Robert Smith said a change in movie format and audience appeal is planned in hopes it will recharge sagging theater attendance. Plagued by legal and financial problems, the other major downtown theaters, Warnor’s and Hardy’s, both owned by Trans-Beacon, closed their doors simultaneously in January 1970. The non-renewal of the theater exhibitor’s lease at the Wilson, held by National-General, Inc., caused the closing of the theater but Smith said the building’s owner plans to contract with other theater exhibitors and to schedule the reopening of the theater in the “near future.”
Commenting on the closing, Smith said, “National-General operates other theaters in the area (the Crest and Tower theaters) and they felt they should concentrate their efforts at these two theaters, rather than spread it out any further. "We (the Wilson) haven’t had good attendance with the type of shows they are turning to, which are primarily R and X rated. We feel we could have more success with family type shows.”
Here is a November 1974 article from the Hamilton (OH) Journal-News:
CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) â€" The City Planning Commission on Friday held a public hearing concerning the fate of the Albee movie theater, a landmark in downtown Cincinnati. Several groups asked that the movie house, which has been slated to be torn down along with several other buildings during renovation of the center city, be classified as a listed property by the commission. Such a classification would delay any permits to demolish the old theater for six months while it was under review.
The planning commission said it would announce next Friday whether to endorse the proposal to city council. “The Albee reflects a facet of our culture,” said Tracy Cropp, one of those speaking to save the theater. “It is important for its craftsmanship, its design and because it was a focal point for the community.”
Here is a February 1969 article from the Columbus Evening Dispatch:
A group of Central Ohioans interested in saving the Loew’s Ohio Theater, 43 E. State St, from destruction have organized the Committee for a Columbus Cultural Arts Center. More than 100 theater fans met Saturday to tour the theater and decided to form an organization to raise funds to lease or purchase the building. The building is in the process of being sold to 55 E. State St. Corp.
Corporation officials say the theater will be razed. State officials have been looking at the location, across the street from the Statehouse, for a state office building.
Committee spokesman Mrs. Howard A. Bloom said that her group will ask the public to write the mayor, the Columbus City Council and Governor Rhodes for a 90 day stay in destruction of the theater. No destruction date has been made public, and the sale of the building has not been completed. The committee has proposed that the theater be used as a performing arts center.
Mrs. Bloom said that architects told the group the theater is structurally sound and “there would be little difficulty” in using the present theater as a base and building an office building on top of it. An entrance to the office section would be on the ground level.
Here is an article from the Valley Independent in March 1984, confirming the opost above. Status should be changed to closed/demolished and the introduction updated.
Plans to replace a bridge in Bentleyville sometime in September have been revealed by the Pigeon Creek Sanitary Authority. The bridge, located near Orsath’s Supermarket on Main Street, will be raised slightly to provide adequate water clearance.
A temporary roadway will be constructed around the bridge to accommodate traffic but before this is done, the Roosevelt Theater will be razed. The theater has been vacant for about twenty years.
Here is an article from the Titusville Herald dated 4/7/95:
For trivia fans, the death this week of actress Priscilla Lane has a local connection. Lane, 76, was the last surviving star of the movie “Dust Be My Destiny,” the picture which opened the Penn
Theater in Titusville. Other stars of the movie, set in Depression-era America, were John Garfield, Alan Hale Sr. (his son played the “Skipper” on “Gilligan’s Island”) and Frank McHugh.
When the Penn Theater was razed to make room for the Burger King Restaurant, the franchise owners, movie buffs all, wanted to locate Miss Lane and bring her to Titusville for the opening. Through the movie buffs at The Herald, Miss Lane was found at her home in Massachusetts.
When contacted, she was gracious, but indicated that presiding at Burger King openings was not her thing. Asked about “Dust Be My Destiny,” her comment was, “Yes, that was some picture.” The Burger King people sent Miss Lane a commemorative bottle of wine and some red roses.
A December 1955 article in the Abilene Reporter-News stated that the Texas Theater in Haskell, damaged after a fire, was to be razed to make way for a new post office.
This is an upscale shopping center with a Whole Foods and lots of high-end retail. I took some more photos which I will add later. Lunch at the Tommy Bahamas restaurant in the mall was $60!
Go to the Tribune site, and there is a theater gallery. I tried to post the original link, but then you end up with the same photo every time. http://tinyurl.com/c9b336
My information was taken from some local papers on newspaperarchives.com. There were two or three stories around the date of the fire, with the same information reported in each one.
Here is part of an article dated 5/31/50 from the North Adams Transcript:
The lights went out today in the Richmond theater. That motion picture house, owned and operated for the past 12 years by the Western Massachusetts Theaters corporation, will close its doors tonight and will be idle indefinitely. Francis J. Faille, chief local representative for the Western Massachusetts Theaters corporation and manager of the Paramount theater which it also operates here, said today that the theater was being closed “simply for lack of business.”
Mr. Faille said his concern hoped that a pick-up in the fall might warrant a re-opening of the house as it did once before, in 1943, when the Richmond closed during the summer season. But the future operation of the house will depend on conditions which cannot now be forecast, Mr. Faille indicated.
The Richmond Theater, built just before the turn of the century along with the Richmond hotel to which it is attached, has had a long history as a legitimate theater, a vaudeville and finally a motion picture house. Then under lease to the E.M. Loew, Inc. interests which now operate the Mohawk theater here, it was purchased in 1938 by the Western Massachusetts Theaters corporation, headed by Samuel Goldstein of Springfield, and was taken over by that corporation on July 31, 1938. For the past several years it has operated as what the industry calls a “Family theater,” showing second-run features, while the Paramount has operated on a first-run policy. And for some months past it has been on a four-day week basis, operating Thursdays through Sundays only.
In January 1967, the Long Beach Independent reported that a teen theater troupe would use the Brayton for performances:
The Magnolia Theater has completed ts subscription series and does not plan to resume activities until fall; The New Theater, a Teen Post operation of the Office of Economic Opportunities, has opened in the old Brayton Theater on Atlantic.
Here is part of an August 1971 article from the Fresno Bee:
The Wilson Theater, which closed last weekâ€"after the final showing of a movie called “The Last Run"â€"is expected to have its doors reopened in a few months, but not without some major changes. Beset with similar problems to those plaguing the Wilson, two other major movie houses shut their doors early last year.
Wilson manager Robert Smith said a change in movie format and audience appeal is planned in hopes it will recharge sagging theater attendance. Plagued by legal and financial problems, the other major downtown theaters, Warnor’s and Hardy’s, both owned by Trans-Beacon, closed their doors simultaneously in January 1970. The non-renewal of the theater exhibitor’s lease at the Wilson, held by National-General, Inc., caused the closing of the theater but Smith said the building’s owner plans to contract with other theater exhibitors and to schedule the reopening of the theater in the “near future.”
Commenting on the closing, Smith said, “National-General operates other theaters in the area (the Crest and Tower theaters) and they felt they should concentrate their efforts at these two theaters, rather than spread it out any further. "We (the Wilson) haven’t had good attendance with the type of shows they are turning to, which are primarily R and X rated. We feel we could have more success with family type shows.”
That’s all there is.
Here is a November 1974 article from the Hamilton (OH) Journal-News:
CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) â€" The City Planning Commission on Friday held a public hearing concerning the fate of the Albee movie theater, a landmark in downtown Cincinnati. Several groups asked that the movie house, which has been slated to be torn down along with several other buildings during renovation of the center city, be classified as a listed property by the commission. Such a classification would delay any permits to demolish the old theater for six months while it was under review.
The planning commission said it would announce next Friday whether to endorse the proposal to city council. “The Albee reflects a facet of our culture,” said Tracy Cropp, one of those speaking to save the theater. “It is important for its craftsmanship, its design and because it was a focal point for the community.”
Here is a February 1969 article from the Columbus Evening Dispatch:
A group of Central Ohioans interested in saving the Loew’s Ohio Theater, 43 E. State St, from destruction have organized the Committee for a Columbus Cultural Arts Center. More than 100 theater fans met Saturday to tour the theater and decided to form an organization to raise funds to lease or purchase the building. The building is in the process of being sold to 55 E. State St. Corp.
Corporation officials say the theater will be razed. State officials have been looking at the location, across the street from the Statehouse, for a state office building.
Committee spokesman Mrs. Howard A. Bloom said that her group will ask the public to write the mayor, the Columbus City Council and Governor Rhodes for a 90 day stay in destruction of the theater. No destruction date has been made public, and the sale of the building has not been completed. The committee has proposed that the theater be used as a performing arts center.
Mrs. Bloom said that architects told the group the theater is structurally sound and “there would be little difficulty” in using the present theater as a base and building an office building on top of it. An entrance to the office section would be on the ground level.
Here is an article from the Valley Independent in March 1984, confirming the opost above. Status should be changed to closed/demolished and the introduction updated.
Plans to replace a bridge in Bentleyville sometime in September have been revealed by the Pigeon Creek Sanitary Authority. The bridge, located near Orsath’s Supermarket on Main Street, will be raised slightly to provide adequate water clearance.
A temporary roadway will be constructed around the bridge to accommodate traffic but before this is done, the Roosevelt Theater will be razed. The theater has been vacant for about twenty years.
Here is an article from the Titusville Herald dated 4/7/95:
For trivia fans, the death this week of actress Priscilla Lane has a local connection. Lane, 76, was the last surviving star of the movie “Dust Be My Destiny,” the picture which opened the Penn
Theater in Titusville. Other stars of the movie, set in Depression-era America, were John Garfield, Alan Hale Sr. (his son played the “Skipper” on “Gilligan’s Island”) and Frank McHugh.
When the Penn Theater was razed to make room for the Burger King Restaurant, the franchise owners, movie buffs all, wanted to locate Miss Lane and bring her to Titusville for the opening. Through the movie buffs at The Herald, Miss Lane was found at her home in Massachusetts.
When contacted, she was gracious, but indicated that presiding at Burger King openings was not her thing. Asked about “Dust Be My Destiny,” her comment was, “Yes, that was some picture.” The Burger King people sent Miss Lane a commemorative bottle of wine and some red roses.
A weepy alcoholic biopic and a Western seem a little at odds.
That was a double feature in 1955? Those two films would be unlikely to attract the same audience.
Here is a 2/4/09 article from the Free Press:
http://tinyurl.com/ahpuaw
Here is a November 2007 article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
http://www.lvrj.com/business/11182081.html
Here are some recent photos:
http://tinyurl.com/am742f
http://tinyurl.com/cecvz5
http://tinyurl.com/dmeu94
He’s talking about the Kubrick film 2001.
Nine people were arrested yesterday for arson after they attempted to set fire to the theater.
A December 1955 article in the Abilene Reporter-News stated that the Texas Theater in Haskell, damaged after a fire, was to be razed to make way for a new post office.
This is an upscale shopping center with a Whole Foods and lots of high-end retail. I took some more photos which I will add later. Lunch at the Tommy Bahamas restaurant in the mall was $60!
The Medallion was demolished in June 2005.
Here is an album cover that features the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/dm2r48
Here is article posted today about renovation efforts:
http://tinyurl.com/aqyd2o
Here is November 2003 article that discusses renovation of the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/ahf5ch
If you’re interested in other Chicago photos besides just the theaters the Tribune has a pretty extensive collection here:
http://tinyurl.com/agmnmf
Go to the Tribune site, and there is a theater gallery. I tried to post the original link, but then you end up with the same photo every time.
http://tinyurl.com/c9b336
My information was taken from some local papers on newspaperarchives.com. There were two or three stories around the date of the fire, with the same information reported in each one.
Here is a 1973 photo from the archives of the Chicago Tribune:
http://tinyurl.com/dkxtth