In satellite view the building looks to be at least 60 x 120, and the loan company office is only one of five storefronts, so if the auditorium was parallel to the highway and the operation occupied three or more storefronts, it would have been a decent size for a single screen small town theater. And of course the theater being here would not preclude it from having operated in the church building as well at another time. I came across a LinkedIn profile for someone who worked at the Montgomery Cinema during the mid-nineties, so it was operating upwards of thirty years ago.
The January 20, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World said that the newly formed Auslet-Woodward Theatre Corporation of Booneville, Mississippi had taken control of the Lyric Theatre at Louisville.
Various trade journals reported in 1958 that the Keys Theatre had been destroyed by a fire. The house, which had been operating only on weekends for some time, would not be rebuilt, according to owner Mrs. Catherine Keys.
The building on the site now might be in part the remains of the theater building. The walls are made of large bricks characteristic of much postwar construction, but have been painted so it is impossible to guess their approximate age just from Google street views.
A Google AI response to a query I made says that the Keys Theatre was the house previously known as the Liberty Theatre and then the Missouri Theatre, but I have no other sources to confirm that claim. Given the frequency with which I have found errors in AI responses, I’ll need confirmation from a real world source before I’ll accept it.
This item from the Saturday, January 6, 1917 issue of The American Contractor is probably the beginning of this theater. “Moving Picture Theater: 1 sty. 50 x110. Clarkton, Mo. Archt. Lindsay Archt. Co., 261 McCoy, Tanner bldg., Sikeston. Owner L. B. Mobley, Clarkton, taking bids. Brk. & stucco.” Liberty may have been the most popular name for new movie houses in the war year of 1917, and the June 30 issue of Music Trade Review that year said that construction had begun on a new movie theater in Clarkton. This must have been it.
The architectural firm was headed by Alvin Francis Lindsay, one of the region’s most prominent architects during the first half of the 20th century.
Internet says the Montgomery Cinema was at 904 S. Sturgeon Street. An unofficial Facebook page lists it as a Movie and Music Store. The address is in a run-down strip mall, and is now home to an outfit called World Finance Loan & Tax Service. A 2-star Google review posted 14 years ago says that Montgomery Cinema was then no longer in business. We should consider the possibility that this was only a video store, not an actual theater, though it could have been both.
Other Internet sources (including CinemaTour) give the address as 300 N. Sturgeon, but that is an enormous old Victorian building, once occupied by the Methodist Episcopal church, and most recently Oliver’s on Sturgeon, a now-closed branch of a restaurant and catering outfit from Warrenton, Missouri. I suppose a cinema might have operated in the former sanctuary at some point, but I’ve found no compelling evidence that it ever did.
An “air dome” showing movies was mentioned in the September 24, 1909 issue of The Montgomery City Tribune. The house was apparently closing for the season. The item said that “[t]onight Friday will probably be the last appearance of the moving pictures at the air dome. An unusually strong and attractive program will be presented. Don’t fail to attend.”
I’d say the evidence that the Opera House and the Ritz were different theaters is good enough that we should have different pages for them. An early mention of movies in the Opera House appeared in the August 7, 1908 Montgomery Tribune which said a group of local businessmen had leased the Ferguson Opera House and would put in a moving picture show with changes of program three times a week. It would be a five and ten cent house.
As for the Ritz, this Facebook page has a photo of it dated 1981, and the caption says it was on the east corner of 2nd and Allen Street, so definitely not the Opera House. The site is now a parking lot.
The 1912 Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory lists the New Bell Theatre at 3259 Mission. The erroneous address 298 Mission apparently originated with the trade publication that published the photo above, according to Bill Counter’s page for the New Bell Theatre at the San Francisco Theatres blog.
Bill’s page also displays a 1914 Sanborn map showing the theater at 3261 Mission. The building apparently occupied both lots, and was double listed in some directories as the New Bell at 3259 and the New Theatre at 3261. It was first listed in 1911 as the Electric theatre at 3261. The New Bell was last listed in 1916, and neither address is listed as a movie theater in the 1917 or 1920 directories, but the Electric reappears at 3261 in the 1924 Directory.
The old Bell theatre that this house replaced was across the street and a block up at 3366 Mission. It was in operation by 1909 and last listed in the 1911 directory.
The September 18, 1926 issue of The Billboard said that the Hershey Park Theatre had closed its vaudeville season on September 13, and would resume operation on Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) which in 1927 would have been Monday, May 30. At this time the house was still open air, and the item noted that the 1926 season had been successful despite much rain. The indoor Hershey Park Theatre was built in the 1930s and demolished in 1966.
The November 27, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World had an item about this house: “VINTON, IA. - The Palace is the name of a new moving picture theater opened here by M. Ford of Cedar Rapids.”
Attempting to find anything about architect W. F. Brown I have concluded that the 1917 MPW item about the house got his middle initial wrong. One of the best known 20th century architects of Cedar Rapids was William Jay Brown, and it must have been he who designed the Vinton Palace. He designed at least four other movie houses in Iowa.
The November 27, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World ran this item: “ADEL, IA. - The opera house here is now being conducted by Carl Hodsen, as a first-class moving picture theater.”
Here is news about the Olympic Theatre from the September 23, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World: “Weirton’s Olympic Reopened. Weirton, W. Va. -The Olympic theater, Weirton, W. V., which was damaged by fire on July 13 to the extent of $1,500, has been reopened after undergoing extensive repairs. The house presents an even more pleasing appearance than before the fire, as much new and attractive equipment has been installed. High-class feature pictures are shown afternoon and evening. C. H. Miller is owner and manager of the Olympic.”
A notice of the opening of Arthur A. Weiland’s eponymous house at Oakland appeared in the January 17, 1936 issue of The Film Daily. The item noted that Weiland also owned a house named for himself at Wilkinson, Pennsylvania.
The January 17, 1936 Film Daily said that Weirton exhibitor N. G. Anas, of Weir-Cove Enterprises, Inc., had acquired the Strand Theatre in Holiday’s Cove and the house was undergoing extensive remodeling in preparation for reopening. A Strand Theatre was listed at Holiday’s Cove in the 1927 FDY. The 1929 edition listed it with 250 seats, so it either moved or was expanded at some point, perhaps in this project for Mr. Anas.
The 1914 Sanborn map of Ely shows only a hospital building at the corner of Camp Street and 2nd Avenue, and it’s the wrong size and shape to have been an auditorium. No building on the map is labeled Opera House, but Google’s AI overview of the Temperance Building, which an August 9, 2024 article in The Ely Echo said became the Opera House, says that it was called the Finnish Opera House for a while. The Sanborn map doesn’t show a Finnish Opera House, but it does show a Finlander’s Hall, at what was then 21 E. Camp Street, corner of 1st Avenue. I think that must be the place, as the building is the right size and shape to fit the description of the Opera House.
The modern address of the now-expanded building is 43 E. Camp Street, and it was long occupied by the Ely Bowling Center, Lounge and Arcade (the original builders of the Temperance Building would surely be scandalized at that Lounge) but the Internet reports that the place has been permanently closed (probably due to the coronavirus pandemic.)
The October, 1914 Sanborn map of Ely shows “Motion Pictures” in a building at 15 E. Chapman Street. That had to have been the Elco, as the map shows no other movie theaters. The building has been demolished.
The January 1, 1949 issue of Boxoffice had an item about the renovations underway at the Lyric Theatre in Fitchburg, which was slated to reopen February 22 as the Saxon Theatre. The project involved complete redecoration and refurbishment, with new equipment, new seats, draperies and carpeting, plus new lounges and restrooms.
Warner’s Embassy Theatre in New Britain had recently had a new box office installed and the lobby had been redecorated, according to Boxoffice of January 1, 1949.
In early February, 1952, the Park Theatre suffered a major fire which began with an explosion so powerful that it threw the popcorn machine into the street. The March 1 Boxofficeitem about the event said that the house had been built in 1937 by H. B. and Lowell Smoots, who operated the house until 1944. At the time of the fire the Park was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Alexander. The Alexanders were still operating the rebuilt house in 1957, when they provided capsule movie reviews to Boxoffice as late as the August 31 issue that year.
I’m not sure that this building has been demolished. Google’s street view from the Main Street side shows a long building with a barrel vaulted roof characteristic of many auditoriums erected in the 1930s through 1950s. The entrance end of the building is covered with shingles and fake mansards, but I think that’s just an alteration, probably from the tacky 1970s, of the original building. Google street view
According to this Facebook post the Gay Theatre was in part of the building now occupied by Buck’s Jellico Hardware, 152 N. Main Street. There was recently a small museum featuring local history in the part of the building the theater was in, but it might be closed.
Jellico had an earlier theater, the Palace, listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD and in the 1929 FDY. The building is still standing at 286 N. Main, but is currently vacant. A later theater called the Capitol operated in the 1950s. It was in the 300 block of Main Street, across from the Post Office. I haven’t found out much about it, but it became a skating rink for a while. It has been demolished.
Oddly, the 1914-1915 AMPD lists two houses called the Lyric Theatre at Hazleton, this one at 14 E. Broad Street, and another at 34 E. Main Street, an address that doesn’t exist today. It probably didn’t exist then either.
The earliest mentions of the Lyric I’ve found in the trade journals is a pair of items from the April, 1909 issue of The Nickelodeon. The first: “Hazleton, Pa.—John Powell, manager of the Lyric theater, will conduct a picture theater in Seigfried.”
The second: “Hazleton, Pa.—The Lyric, a moving picture theater, has been purchased by Krapf Brothers.”
In satellite view the building looks to be at least 60 x 120, and the loan company office is only one of five storefronts, so if the auditorium was parallel to the highway and the operation occupied three or more storefronts, it would have been a decent size for a single screen small town theater. And of course the theater being here would not preclude it from having operated in the church building as well at another time. I came across a LinkedIn profile for someone who worked at the Montgomery Cinema during the mid-nineties, so it was operating upwards of thirty years ago.
The January 20, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World said that the newly formed Auslet-Woodward Theatre Corporation of Booneville, Mississippi had taken control of the Lyric Theatre at Louisville.
Various trade journals reported in 1958 that the Keys Theatre had been destroyed by a fire. The house, which had been operating only on weekends for some time, would not be rebuilt, according to owner Mrs. Catherine Keys.
The building on the site now might be in part the remains of the theater building. The walls are made of large bricks characteristic of much postwar construction, but have been painted so it is impossible to guess their approximate age just from Google street views.
A Google AI response to a query I made says that the Keys Theatre was the house previously known as the Liberty Theatre and then the Missouri Theatre, but I have no other sources to confirm that claim. Given the frequency with which I have found errors in AI responses, I’ll need confirmation from a real world source before I’ll accept it.
This item from the Saturday, January 6, 1917 issue of The American Contractor is probably the beginning of this theater. “Moving Picture Theater: 1 sty. 50 x110. Clarkton, Mo. Archt. Lindsay Archt. Co., 261 McCoy, Tanner bldg., Sikeston. Owner L. B. Mobley, Clarkton, taking bids. Brk. & stucco.” Liberty may have been the most popular name for new movie houses in the war year of 1917, and the June 30 issue of Music Trade Review that year said that construction had begun on a new movie theater in Clarkton. This must have been it.
The architectural firm was headed by Alvin Francis Lindsay, one of the region’s most prominent architects during the first half of the 20th century.
Internet says the Montgomery Cinema was at 904 S. Sturgeon Street. An unofficial Facebook page lists it as a Movie and Music Store. The address is in a run-down strip mall, and is now home to an outfit called World Finance Loan & Tax Service. A 2-star Google review posted 14 years ago says that Montgomery Cinema was then no longer in business. We should consider the possibility that this was only a video store, not an actual theater, though it could have been both.
Other Internet sources (including CinemaTour) give the address as 300 N. Sturgeon, but that is an enormous old Victorian building, once occupied by the Methodist Episcopal church, and most recently Oliver’s on Sturgeon, a now-closed branch of a restaurant and catering outfit from Warrenton, Missouri. I suppose a cinema might have operated in the former sanctuary at some point, but I’ve found no compelling evidence that it ever did.
An “air dome” showing movies was mentioned in the September 24, 1909 issue of The Montgomery City Tribune. The house was apparently closing for the season. The item said that “[t]onight Friday will probably be the last appearance of the moving pictures at the air dome. An unusually strong and attractive program will be presented. Don’t fail to attend.”
I’d say the evidence that the Opera House and the Ritz were different theaters is good enough that we should have different pages for them. An early mention of movies in the Opera House appeared in the August 7, 1908 Montgomery Tribune which said a group of local businessmen had leased the Ferguson Opera House and would put in a moving picture show with changes of program three times a week. It would be a five and ten cent house.
As for the Ritz, this Facebook page has a photo of it dated 1981, and the caption says it was on the east corner of 2nd and Allen Street, so definitely not the Opera House. The site is now a parking lot.
The 1912 Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory lists the New Bell Theatre at 3259 Mission. The erroneous address 298 Mission apparently originated with the trade publication that published the photo above, according to Bill Counter’s page for the New Bell Theatre at the San Francisco Theatres blog.
Bill’s page also displays a 1914 Sanborn map showing the theater at 3261 Mission. The building apparently occupied both lots, and was double listed in some directories as the New Bell at 3259 and the New Theatre at 3261. It was first listed in 1911 as the Electric theatre at 3261. The New Bell was last listed in 1916, and neither address is listed as a movie theater in the 1917 or 1920 directories, but the Electric reappears at 3261 in the 1924 Directory.
The old Bell theatre that this house replaced was across the street and a block up at 3366 Mission. It was in operation by 1909 and last listed in the 1911 directory.
The September 18, 1926 issue of The Billboard said that the Hershey Park Theatre had closed its vaudeville season on September 13, and would resume operation on Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) which in 1927 would have been Monday, May 30. At this time the house was still open air, and the item noted that the 1926 season had been successful despite much rain. The indoor Hershey Park Theatre was built in the 1930s and demolished in 1966.
The Olympic Theatre was an early work of noted Cedar Rapids architect William Jay Brown.
The November 27, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World had an item about this house: “VINTON, IA. - The Palace is the name of a new moving picture theater opened here by M. Ford of Cedar Rapids.”
Attempting to find anything about architect W. F. Brown I have concluded that the 1917 MPW item about the house got his middle initial wrong. One of the best known 20th century architects of Cedar Rapids was William Jay Brown, and it must have been he who designed the Vinton Palace. He designed at least four other movie houses in Iowa.
The November 27, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World ran this item: “ADEL, IA. - The opera house here is now being conducted by Carl Hodsen, as a first-class moving picture theater.”
Here is news about the Olympic Theatre from the September 23, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World: “Weirton’s Olympic Reopened. Weirton, W. Va. -The Olympic theater, Weirton, W. V., which was damaged by fire on July 13 to the extent of $1,500, has been reopened after undergoing extensive repairs. The house presents an even more pleasing appearance than before the fire, as much new and attractive equipment has been installed. High-class feature pictures are shown afternoon and evening. C. H. Miller is owner and manager of the Olympic.”
A notice of the opening of Arthur A. Weiland’s eponymous house at Oakland appeared in the January 17, 1936 issue of The Film Daily. The item noted that Weiland also owned a house named for himself at Wilkinson, Pennsylvania.
The January 17, 1936 Film Daily said that Weirton exhibitor N. G. Anas, of Weir-Cove Enterprises, Inc., had acquired the Strand Theatre in Holiday’s Cove and the house was undergoing extensive remodeling in preparation for reopening. A Strand Theatre was listed at Holiday’s Cove in the 1927 FDY. The 1929 edition listed it with 250 seats, so it either moved or was expanded at some point, perhaps in this project for Mr. Anas.
The 1914 Sanborn map of Ely shows only a hospital building at the corner of Camp Street and 2nd Avenue, and it’s the wrong size and shape to have been an auditorium. No building on the map is labeled Opera House, but Google’s AI overview of the Temperance Building, which an August 9, 2024 article in The Ely Echo said became the Opera House, says that it was called the Finnish Opera House for a while. The Sanborn map doesn’t show a Finnish Opera House, but it does show a Finlander’s Hall, at what was then 21 E. Camp Street, corner of 1st Avenue. I think that must be the place, as the building is the right size and shape to fit the description of the Opera House.
The modern address of the now-expanded building is 43 E. Camp Street, and it was long occupied by the Ely Bowling Center, Lounge and Arcade (the original builders of the Temperance Building would surely be scandalized at that Lounge) but the Internet reports that the place has been permanently closed (probably due to the coronavirus pandemic.)
The October, 1914 Sanborn map of Ely shows “Motion Pictures” in a building at 15 E. Chapman Street. That had to have been the Elco, as the map shows no other movie theaters. The building has been demolished.
The January 1, 1949 issue of Boxoffice had an item about the renovations underway at the Lyric Theatre in Fitchburg, which was slated to reopen February 22 as the Saxon Theatre. The project involved complete redecoration and refurbishment, with new equipment, new seats, draperies and carpeting, plus new lounges and restrooms.
Warner’s Embassy Theatre in New Britain had recently had a new box office installed and the lobby had been redecorated, according to Boxoffice of January 1, 1949.
Warner Brothers' Art Theatre in Springfield had recently gotten a new lobby and redecoration, according to an item in Boxoffice of January 1, 1949.
In early February, 1952, the Park Theatre suffered a major fire which began with an explosion so powerful that it threw the popcorn machine into the street. The March 1 Boxofficeitem about the event said that the house had been built in 1937 by H. B. and Lowell Smoots, who operated the house until 1944. At the time of the fire the Park was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Alexander. The Alexanders were still operating the rebuilt house in 1957, when they provided capsule movie reviews to Boxoffice as late as the August 31 issue that year.
I’m not sure that this building has been demolished. Google’s street view from the Main Street side shows a long building with a barrel vaulted roof characteristic of many auditoriums erected in the 1930s through 1950s. The entrance end of the building is covered with shingles and fake mansards, but I think that’s just an alteration, probably from the tacky 1970s, of the original building. Google street view
According to this Facebook post the Gay Theatre was in part of the building now occupied by Buck’s Jellico Hardware, 152 N. Main Street. There was recently a small museum featuring local history in the part of the building the theater was in, but it might be closed.
Jellico had an earlier theater, the Palace, listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD and in the 1929 FDY. The building is still standing at 286 N. Main, but is currently vacant. A later theater called the Capitol operated in the 1950s. It was in the 300 block of Main Street, across from the Post Office. I haven’t found out much about it, but it became a skating rink for a while. It has been demolished.
An early photo of the Diamond Theatre appeared in A Souvenir History of Hazleton, published in 1914. Scan at Google Books
Multiple sources indicate that the Feeley Theatre was designed by architect Arland W. Johnson.
Oddly, the 1914-1915 AMPD lists two houses called the Lyric Theatre at Hazleton, this one at 14 E. Broad Street, and another at 34 E. Main Street, an address that doesn’t exist today. It probably didn’t exist then either.
The earliest mentions of the Lyric I’ve found in the trade journals is a pair of items from the April, 1909 issue of The Nickelodeon. The first: “Hazleton, Pa.—John Powell, manager of the Lyric theater, will conduct a picture theater in Seigfried.”
The second: “Hazleton, Pa.—The Lyric, a moving picture theater, has been purchased by Krapf Brothers.”