Fixer3 must be right, which means we have the wrong address for this theater. The building at 207-13, housing the Labadee Manoir restaurant and bar catering business, is not configured like a theater. At the back, seen from 208th Street, it has a low ceiling on the ground floor and apartments above, and that looks original to the building, not a retrofit of an old theater. The building is a bit too small for an 825 seat theater, in any case.
The current Merrick Charter School has to be where the Bellaire was. The school uses a 207th Street address, and its main entrance is there, but a secondary entrance on Jamaica Avenue has the address 207-01 over the door.
A real estate web site says the building was built in 1961, but the structure looks older than that to me, so I would guess that’s the year when it was gutted and rebuilt into a bowling alley.
Also, I don’t think Google Maps will find the correct location while we use the name Bellaire in the address. It fetches Bellaire Place, at some distance south of the theater’s location. The real estate web site says the area is now called Queens Village, and at Google Maps, using the address 207-01 Jamaica Ave., Queens Village, NY 11428 does put the pin icon at exactly the right spot.
rivest266’s 1949 grand opening ad shows that this house opened as the Sate Theatre, so it never had the aka Mesa Theatre. That name belonged only to its demolished predecessor.
Also, we have the wrong address for the building. As it was on the same site as the Mesa Theatre, plus the adjacent lot, it had to have been in the 200 block. The current ground floor restaurant in the building, JC’s New York Pizza Dept., uses the address 215 Central Ave. NW.
350 was the seating capacity of the demolished Mesa Theatre. The State had a larger footprint and must have had at least twice that capacity, and probably even more. This was a downtown, first-run house in New Mexico’s largest city, after all.
Albuquerque Theatres Inc., operator of the State, was 50% owned by Karl Holblitzelle’s Texas Consolidated Theatres which was in turn 50% owned by Paramount Publix Corporation.
In this article from VermilionToday.com, dated May 27, 2011, Charles Sonnier, who was planning an adaptive reuse of the Bob Theatre, says that the house “…was built in 1939 by a Mr. Robinson.” He adds “I think the theatre was shut down around 1961.”
As Sonnier grew up in Abbeville and attended the theater, I think we can accept his usage of Bob Theatre as the actual name of the house in its later years.
In 1950, the Rex Theatre was renamed the Bob Theatre. This is the story from the “New Orleans” column of the April 1, 1950, issue of Boxoffice:
“F. R. DeGrauw [sic], president of F&R Realty, Abbeville, has leased the Rex Theatre, Abbeville, La., and will operate it under the new name Bob. New sound equipment is being installed and the theatre is undergoing remodeling. Opening date for the 800-seat house has been set tentatively for April 8.”
I’ve found a couple of references to the Bob Theatre on the Internet, but no details about it. A Wikimapia entry has the coordinates rather than the address, but put into Google Maps the coordinates do come out to the address 108 S. Washington Street.
One Internet reference calls the house Bob’s Theatre rather than the Bob Theatre. It’s quite possible that it’s correct. The deGraauw family owned Frank’s Theatre, which appears to have been renamed (from the Dixie) for F. R. deGraauw’s elder son, Frank, so it seems logical that the Rex would have been renamed for the younger son, Bob. Robert deGraauw died quite recently, and his obituary at VermilionToday.com mentions the family’s involvement in the theater business at Abbeville from at least 1927. They also owned the Lafitte Drive-In.
The 800 seat capacity noted in the Boxoffice item seems plausible. This is a good-sized building, as can be seen from Randy Carlisle’s photos, linked in the previous comment.
Someone got a license to operate the house later. The obituary of William A. Rennie in the August 15, 1953, issue of The Billboard says that “[f]or the past several years, he has operated the Amo Theatre, Detroit….”
David A. Somerville, commenting on the Amo Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland says “…it don’t close until around 1955….”
The Amo was also mentioned in an earlier Billboard obituary, that of Solomon P. Flayer, published on June 17, 1944, which said that the late Mr. Flayer “…was the uncle of David E. Flayer, owner of the Amo Theatre, Detroit.”
Odds might be good that some early advertising for the house will eventually turn up, as the August 7, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World quotes Mr. J. Calines, then owner of the Amo, as saying “I certainly believe that much of my success is due to constant advertising.”
I remember that wide-screen version of Gone With the Wind, though I didn’t see it at the Egyptian. It turned up later at the El Rey Theatre in Alhambra, where I believe they used to to inaugurate their CinemaScope installation. It was the first time I saw that movie and the first time I saw CinemaScope, and as the original framing had been butchered to fit the wide screen it was not a good introduction to either. I would hope that every print of that abomination has been destroyed.
It appears possible that the Capitol Theatre that opened in November, 1946 was a new building. A brief item in The Meridian Tribune of February 8, 1946, said: “Hall again planning new theatre building, having repurchased lot adjoining cafe on north side of square.” The Capitol building is located on the north side of the square. February to November is plenty of time to get a theater built, so we can’t rule out a replacement for the 1934 house unless we find that it was at the same address as the 1946 Capitol.
Another thing I came across is an article in the September 6, 1946 Tribune announcing that the Circle Theatre at the circle in West Meridian would open on September 11. The $45,000 house had been built by D.C. Caraway, former owner/operator of a theater at Clifton. There is no town called West Meridian, and I can’t find anything that looks like a circle on the map. A later issue of the paper had a congratulatory ad on the opening of the Circle, so it did operate at least for a time, though I can’t find any other mentions of it on the Internet.
The Capitol Theatre was opened on November 14, 1934, by independent exhibitors Charles M. Gandy and Harvey R. Harwell. The November 16 issue of The Meridian Tribune said that the opening had been a great success, attracting a full house.
The Capitol must have undergone renovations in 1946, when the October 11 issue of The Meridian Tribune carried a number of ads congratulating Curtis & Hall on their New Capitol Theatre, which was set to open the following day. As different owners were named in this item, it’s likely that the house had recently changed hands.
The August 29, 1947, issue of The Press-Gazette from Hillsboro, Ohio, carried a full page ad announcing the grand opening of the Roselawn Auto Theatre the following night. The house was operated by Associated Theatres, of Lynchburg, Ohio.
The New Vondee Theatre in the vintage photo uploaded by Eastwood was definitely at 109 E. Second Street. The adjacent buildings are still standing (though the theater building has been demolished) and are recognizable (especially the one to the left) in Google street views. My guess would be that the Vondee that opened in 1936 was the one on Second Street, and the Chestnut Street address is for an earlier theater of that name.
There is no Main Street in Jonesville today. The theater was most likely located on the thoroughfare that is now called Chicago Street, along one block of which most of the town’s old commercial buildings are situated. As the fire report said that the blaze threatened an entire business block, I think the theater must have been on E. Chicago Street between Maumee Street and Water Street. That’s the only block in town that shows signs of having been pretty solidly built up with commercial buildings at that time.
The fire that destroyed the Jonesville Theatre took place in the early morning hours of March 11, 1932, according to the report in that days edition of The Battle Creek Enquirer and The Evening News:
“JONESVILLE THEATER DESTROYED BY BLAZE
“Damage Amounts to $60,000 As Flames Threaten Entire Business Block.
“(Special to the Enquirer-News)
“Jonesville, March 11.——An entire block of business structures was threatened early this morning when the Jonesvllle theater was destroyed by fire at an estimated loss of $60,000.
“Fire was first noticed at 1 o'clock this morning after it had gained considerable headway. Fire trucks from Hillsdale, 18 miles west, and from Richman and Allen, nearby towns, were called into action. Firemen got the blaze under control at 7 o'clock this morning and succeeded in confining the loss for the most part to the theater structure. The building was owned by Alf Lane of Jonesville. Insurance amounted to only $4,000, he said.”
The Majestic was on West Second Street, not East Second. Seymour converted to the Philadelphia numbering system at some point, and the Majestic’s modern address would be approximately 216 W. Second. A few landmarks recognizable from the vintage photos on the photo page can still be seen on that block in Google’s street view. The Majestic was just west of the still-standing Masonic Temple. The site is now occupied by a modern building and its parking lot.
This building is the Masonic Temple, still standing at about 212 WEST Second Street. The Opera House was partly on the site of the white building to the temple’s left. Addresses in Seymour have been changed, and the site of the Opera House would probably be approximately at the modern address 216 W. Second.
A house called the New Vondee Theatre had reopened under new management on May 31 following renovations, according to the July 8, 1974, issue of Boxoffice. However, the item gave the New Vondee’s address as 109 E. Second Street, Seymour. If that address is correct, and it needed renovation in 1974, then the theater must have moved from its Chestnut Street location some years previously, but I haven’t been able to discover when.
The correct modern address for the Alhambra Theatre building is 219 E. Main Street. It is currently occupied by Sallee’s Family Taekwondo, a martial arts studio. It is not the building currently displayed in the photo or street view for this page.
Here is a vintage photo of the Alhambra, probably from around 1920. Click on the link at the end of the caption to see a photo of the Alhambra after it had been updated with a very spiffy streamline modern front, probably in the 1940s.
The September 16, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the front of the new Alhambra Theatre in Campbellsville was nearly completed, and the house was expected to open soon. The August 26 issue of the same publication had noted that two theaters were then under construction in Campbellsville, the other being a ground-floor house for the Star Theatre, which had previously operated in an upstairs location.
The March 6, 1948, issue of Boxoffice said that Morris Smith and Clark Bennett’s new Valley Theatre in Taylorsville, Kentucky, which was virtually completed, had been partially flooded by recent high waters, but the damage being slight the event was not expected to interfere with the contemplated opening date of the house.
An Architectural Inventory Form prepared for the Colorado Cultural Resource Survey in 1981 (PDF here) says that the Salida Opera House was dedicated on January 1, 1889.
The Mayfield Theatre is listed at 165 Lincoln Street (the former name of California Avenue) in a 1925 directory for Palo Alto and vicinity.
The 1951 remodeling of the Mayfield Theatre was probably occasioned by a fire in 1950. This photo from the Palo Alto Historical Association depicts ruined seats piled in front of the theater, and is dated April 7, 1950.
The Stanford Daily of April 28, 1960, said that the Cardinal Theatre, after a brief closure for renovation in May, would reopen on May 18 as the Fine Arts Theatre. It would be under the same management as the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, also an art house.
The March 11, 1922, issue of the Daily Reporter has advertisements for the Beldorf, Best, and Quality Theatres, so the Best and Quality had to have been different houses at that time.
The November 27, 1911, issue of The Evening Star gives the address of the Snark Theatre as 107 North Pennsylvania, and the July 28, 1921, issue of the Independence Daily Reporter, cited in my previous comment, is explicit that the Snark Theatre was to be renamed the Best Theatre.
The NRHP registration form for the Independence Downtown Historic District (dated 1990: PDF here) says this about the building at 107 N.Pennsylvania:
“107 North Penn., was a dry goods and shoe
store in 1890, a jewelry store (1902), and a drug store (1905). From 1910 until 1939, the property was a
motion picture theater; it was known as the Best Theater from 1922 until 1939. The current owner is
Karen Rankin who runs a clothing retail business out of the first floor.”
Ms. Rankin’s clothing store has since been replaced by Reflections Salon & Spa, but the original building, which dates from 1890, is still standing.
The NRHP form also mentions the Airdome, at 314-316 N. Pennsylvania from 1910 to 1920; an upstairs theater at 109 S. Pennsylvania known variously as the Lyric (1908), Star (1911), and Empress(1912); the Joy, operating at 11 E.Man Street in 1911; a theater with no name or date given but which operated at 117 W. Main; the Vaudette Theatre at 114 W. Main in 1908; and, of course, the Booth Theatre. The form doesn’t mention the original Best/Quality, which probably means that its building has been demolished.
What seems most likely is that the operators of the Best Theatre took over the Snark and renamed it the Best when their five year lease on their original location ran out in 1921, and then the owners of the original Best building leased it to new operators who reopened it as the Quality later that year.
An article in the July 28, 1921, issue of the Independence Daily Reporter provides some clarification of the history of the theater at 107 N. Pennsylvania Avenue. It said that the Snark Theatre, after some remodeling, would become the Best Theatre. The Snark had opened in 1909, and one of its original owner/operators, was Martin Johnson, a friend of writer Jack London, with whom he had sailed.
Johnson named the theater for London’s boat, soon to become famous with the publication in 1911 of his book The Cruise of the Snark. Johnson did not remain long in Independence, but within two years had returned to his career as an adventurer and documentary filmmaker.
The October 22, 1909, issue of the Independence Evening Star said that the new Snark Theatre would soon open in Charles Kerr’s commercial building, which had been extended to 110 feet. The seating area of the new theater, accommodating 400, would be 85 feet long.
The name Quality Theatre first appears in the Daily Reporter in late 1921. What I haven’t been able to determine is if it was the Snark/Best at 107 Pennsylvania that became the Quality, or if the Quality was the original Best Theatre, which had opened in 1916, reopened under a new name. I haven’t been able to find the address of the original Best Theatre.
Interestingly, the December 27, 1910, issue of the Daily Reporter has advertisements for five theaters: The Beldorf, the Snark, the Cozy, the Star, and the Joy.
The Yearbook was not always kept up to date. It’s quite possible the building was demolished in 1940.
If the building the Best was in had earlier housed the Snark Theatre, then there was a later Snark as well. The December 24, 1917, issue of the Independence Daily Reporter advertises both the Best and the Snark.
The Best’s ad uses the tagline “Home of the Photo Pipe Organ,” which suggests that the house had one of the semi-automated players that could be operated by someone without musical training, such as the American Fotoplayer, the Reproduco, or the Bartola.
Fixer3 must be right, which means we have the wrong address for this theater. The building at 207-13, housing the Labadee Manoir restaurant and bar catering business, is not configured like a theater. At the back, seen from 208th Street, it has a low ceiling on the ground floor and apartments above, and that looks original to the building, not a retrofit of an old theater. The building is a bit too small for an 825 seat theater, in any case.
The current Merrick Charter School has to be where the Bellaire was. The school uses a 207th Street address, and its main entrance is there, but a secondary entrance on Jamaica Avenue has the address 207-01 over the door.
A real estate web site says the building was built in 1961, but the structure looks older than that to me, so I would guess that’s the year when it was gutted and rebuilt into a bowling alley.
Also, I don’t think Google Maps will find the correct location while we use the name Bellaire in the address. It fetches Bellaire Place, at some distance south of the theater’s location. The real estate web site says the area is now called Queens Village, and at Google Maps, using the address 207-01 Jamaica Ave., Queens Village, NY 11428 does put the pin icon at exactly the right spot.
rivest266’s 1949 grand opening ad shows that this house opened as the Sate Theatre, so it never had the aka Mesa Theatre. That name belonged only to its demolished predecessor.
Also, we have the wrong address for the building. As it was on the same site as the Mesa Theatre, plus the adjacent lot, it had to have been in the 200 block. The current ground floor restaurant in the building, JC’s New York Pizza Dept., uses the address 215 Central Ave. NW.
350 was the seating capacity of the demolished Mesa Theatre. The State had a larger footprint and must have had at least twice that capacity, and probably even more. This was a downtown, first-run house in New Mexico’s largest city, after all.
Albuquerque Theatres Inc., operator of the State, was 50% owned by Karl Holblitzelle’s Texas Consolidated Theatres which was in turn 50% owned by Paramount Publix Corporation.
In this article from VermilionToday.com, dated May 27, 2011, Charles Sonnier, who was planning an adaptive reuse of the Bob Theatre, says that the house “…was built in 1939 by a Mr. Robinson.” He adds “I think the theatre was shut down around 1961.”
As Sonnier grew up in Abbeville and attended the theater, I think we can accept his usage of Bob Theatre as the actual name of the house in its later years.
In 1950, the Rex Theatre was renamed the Bob Theatre. This is the story from the “New Orleans” column of the April 1, 1950, issue of Boxoffice:
I’ve found a couple of references to the Bob Theatre on the Internet, but no details about it. A Wikimapia entry has the coordinates rather than the address, but put into Google Maps the coordinates do come out to the address 108 S. Washington Street.One Internet reference calls the house Bob’s Theatre rather than the Bob Theatre. It’s quite possible that it’s correct. The deGraauw family owned Frank’s Theatre, which appears to have been renamed (from the Dixie) for F. R. deGraauw’s elder son, Frank, so it seems logical that the Rex would have been renamed for the younger son, Bob. Robert deGraauw died quite recently, and his obituary at VermilionToday.com mentions the family’s involvement in the theater business at Abbeville from at least 1927. They also owned the Lafitte Drive-In.
The 800 seat capacity noted in the Boxoffice item seems plausible. This is a good-sized building, as can be seen from Randy Carlisle’s photos, linked in the previous comment.
Someone got a license to operate the house later. The obituary of William A. Rennie in the August 15, 1953, issue of The Billboard says that “[f]or the past several years, he has operated the Amo Theatre, Detroit….”
David A. Somerville, commenting on the Amo Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland says “…it don’t close until around 1955….”
The Amo was also mentioned in an earlier Billboard obituary, that of Solomon P. Flayer, published on June 17, 1944, which said that the late Mr. Flayer “…was the uncle of David E. Flayer, owner of the Amo Theatre, Detroit.”
Odds might be good that some early advertising for the house will eventually turn up, as the August 7, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World quotes Mr. J. Calines, then owner of the Amo, as saying “I certainly believe that much of my success is due to constant advertising.”
I remember that wide-screen version of Gone With the Wind, though I didn’t see it at the Egyptian. It turned up later at the El Rey Theatre in Alhambra, where I believe they used to to inaugurate their CinemaScope installation. It was the first time I saw that movie and the first time I saw CinemaScope, and as the original framing had been butchered to fit the wide screen it was not a good introduction to either. I would hope that every print of that abomination has been destroyed.
It appears possible that the Capitol Theatre that opened in November, 1946 was a new building. A brief item in The Meridian Tribune of February 8, 1946, said: “Hall again planning new theatre building, having repurchased lot adjoining cafe on north side of square.” The Capitol building is located on the north side of the square. February to November is plenty of time to get a theater built, so we can’t rule out a replacement for the 1934 house unless we find that it was at the same address as the 1946 Capitol.
Another thing I came across is an article in the September 6, 1946 Tribune announcing that the Circle Theatre at the circle in West Meridian would open on September 11. The $45,000 house had been built by D.C. Caraway, former owner/operator of a theater at Clifton. There is no town called West Meridian, and I can’t find anything that looks like a circle on the map. A later issue of the paper had a congratulatory ad on the opening of the Circle, so it did operate at least for a time, though I can’t find any other mentions of it on the Internet.
The Capitol Theatre was opened on November 14, 1934, by independent exhibitors Charles M. Gandy and Harvey R. Harwell. The November 16 issue of The Meridian Tribune said that the opening had been a great success, attracting a full house.
The Capitol must have undergone renovations in 1946, when the October 11 issue of The Meridian Tribune carried a number of ads congratulating Curtis & Hall on their New Capitol Theatre, which was set to open the following day. As different owners were named in this item, it’s likely that the house had recently changed hands.
The August 29, 1947, issue of The Press-Gazette from Hillsboro, Ohio, carried a full page ad announcing the grand opening of the Roselawn Auto Theatre the following night. The house was operated by Associated Theatres, of Lynchburg, Ohio.
The New Vondee Theatre in the vintage photo uploaded by Eastwood was definitely at 109 E. Second Street. The adjacent buildings are still standing (though the theater building has been demolished) and are recognizable (especially the one to the left) in Google street views. My guess would be that the Vondee that opened in 1936 was the one on Second Street, and the Chestnut Street address is for an earlier theater of that name.
There is no Main Street in Jonesville today. The theater was most likely located on the thoroughfare that is now called Chicago Street, along one block of which most of the town’s old commercial buildings are situated. As the fire report said that the blaze threatened an entire business block, I think the theater must have been on E. Chicago Street between Maumee Street and Water Street. That’s the only block in town that shows signs of having been pretty solidly built up with commercial buildings at that time.
The fire that destroyed the Jonesville Theatre took place in the early morning hours of March 11, 1932, according to the report in that days edition of The Battle Creek Enquirer and The Evening News:
The Majestic was on West Second Street, not East Second. Seymour converted to the Philadelphia numbering system at some point, and the Majestic’s modern address would be approximately 216 W. Second. A few landmarks recognizable from the vintage photos on the photo page can still be seen on that block in Google’s street view. The Majestic was just west of the still-standing Masonic Temple. The site is now occupied by a modern building and its parking lot.
This building is the Masonic Temple, still standing at about 212 WEST Second Street. The Opera House was partly on the site of the white building to the temple’s left. Addresses in Seymour have been changed, and the site of the Opera House would probably be approximately at the modern address 216 W. Second.
A house called the New Vondee Theatre had reopened under new management on May 31 following renovations, according to the July 8, 1974, issue of Boxoffice. However, the item gave the New Vondee’s address as 109 E. Second Street, Seymour. If that address is correct, and it needed renovation in 1974, then the theater must have moved from its Chestnut Street location some years previously, but I haven’t been able to discover when.
The correct modern address for the Alhambra Theatre building is 219 E. Main Street. It is currently occupied by Sallee’s Family Taekwondo, a martial arts studio. It is not the building currently displayed in the photo or street view for this page.
Here is a vintage photo of the Alhambra, probably from around 1920. Click on the link at the end of the caption to see a photo of the Alhambra after it had been updated with a very spiffy streamline modern front, probably in the 1940s.
The September 16, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the front of the new Alhambra Theatre in Campbellsville was nearly completed, and the house was expected to open soon. The August 26 issue of the same publication had noted that two theaters were then under construction in Campbellsville, the other being a ground-floor house for the Star Theatre, which had previously operated in an upstairs location.
The March 6, 1948, issue of Boxoffice said that Morris Smith and Clark Bennett’s new Valley Theatre in Taylorsville, Kentucky, which was virtually completed, had been partially flooded by recent high waters, but the damage being slight the event was not expected to interfere with the contemplated opening date of the house.
MCHarper: In this comment from 2005, Cinema Treasures contributor Broan cites two 1928 Tribune items naming Louis I. Simon as the architect.
An Architectural Inventory Form prepared for the Colorado Cultural Resource Survey in 1981 (PDF here) says that the Salida Opera House was dedicated on January 1, 1889.
The Mayfield Theatre is listed at 165 Lincoln Street (the former name of California Avenue) in a 1925 directory for Palo Alto and vicinity.
The 1951 remodeling of the Mayfield Theatre was probably occasioned by a fire in 1950. This photo from the Palo Alto Historical Association depicts ruined seats piled in front of the theater, and is dated April 7, 1950.
The Stanford Daily of April 28, 1960, said that the Cardinal Theatre, after a brief closure for renovation in May, would reopen on May 18 as the Fine Arts Theatre. It would be under the same management as the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, also an art house.
The March 11, 1922, issue of the Daily Reporter has advertisements for the Beldorf, Best, and Quality Theatres, so the Best and Quality had to have been different houses at that time.
The November 27, 1911, issue of The Evening Star gives the address of the Snark Theatre as 107 North Pennsylvania, and the July 28, 1921, issue of the Independence Daily Reporter, cited in my previous comment, is explicit that the Snark Theatre was to be renamed the Best Theatre.
The NRHP registration form for the Independence Downtown Historic District (dated 1990: PDF here) says this about the building at 107 N.Pennsylvania:
Ms. Rankin’s clothing store has since been replaced by Reflections Salon & Spa, but the original building, which dates from 1890, is still standing.The NRHP form also mentions the Airdome, at 314-316 N. Pennsylvania from 1910 to 1920; an upstairs theater at 109 S. Pennsylvania known variously as the Lyric (1908), Star (1911), and Empress(1912); the Joy, operating at 11 E.Man Street in 1911; a theater with no name or date given but which operated at 117 W. Main; the Vaudette Theatre at 114 W. Main in 1908; and, of course, the Booth Theatre. The form doesn’t mention the original Best/Quality, which probably means that its building has been demolished.
What seems most likely is that the operators of the Best Theatre took over the Snark and renamed it the Best when their five year lease on their original location ran out in 1921, and then the owners of the original Best building leased it to new operators who reopened it as the Quality later that year.
An article in the July 28, 1921, issue of the Independence Daily Reporter provides some clarification of the history of the theater at 107 N. Pennsylvania Avenue. It said that the Snark Theatre, after some remodeling, would become the Best Theatre. The Snark had opened in 1909, and one of its original owner/operators, was Martin Johnson, a friend of writer Jack London, with whom he had sailed.
Johnson named the theater for London’s boat, soon to become famous with the publication in 1911 of his book The Cruise of the Snark. Johnson did not remain long in Independence, but within two years had returned to his career as an adventurer and documentary filmmaker.
The October 22, 1909, issue of the Independence Evening Star said that the new Snark Theatre would soon open in Charles Kerr’s commercial building, which had been extended to 110 feet. The seating area of the new theater, accommodating 400, would be 85 feet long.
The name Quality Theatre first appears in the Daily Reporter in late 1921. What I haven’t been able to determine is if it was the Snark/Best at 107 Pennsylvania that became the Quality, or if the Quality was the original Best Theatre, which had opened in 1916, reopened under a new name. I haven’t been able to find the address of the original Best Theatre.
Interestingly, the December 27, 1910, issue of the Daily Reporter has advertisements for five theaters: The Beldorf, the Snark, the Cozy, the Star, and the Joy.
Also interesting, there is a Snark Theatre today in The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum at Chanute, Kansas.
The Yearbook was not always kept up to date. It’s quite possible the building was demolished in 1940.
If the building the Best was in had earlier housed the Snark Theatre, then there was a later Snark as well. The December 24, 1917, issue of the Independence Daily Reporter advertises both the Best and the Snark.
The Best’s ad uses the tagline “Home of the Photo Pipe Organ,” which suggests that the house had one of the semi-automated players that could be operated by someone without musical training, such as the American Fotoplayer, the Reproduco, or the Bartola.