MikeRa;
Thanks for the update on the status of the Circle Theatre. It is good to know the building still stands, I wonder what condition it is in nowadays?
I will go back and check my source regarding it’s demolition which I ‘think’ I got from a Theater Historical Society of America document.
This ‘could’ have been known initially as the Strand Theater but there is no reference to a theater of that name in the book I have on the history of the Casino Building.
The Riviera Theater is mentioned several times;
‘that it was only open during the summer season, once the Avalon Theater opened in 1929. Tom White, a Hollywood promotor who held the lease on Avalon’s Riviera Theater, leased the new Avalon Theater in 1929 and also signed on as general manager of the Casino operation. His lifestyle proved to flamboyant, and his association with the Casino ended in December 1929. Art LaShelle, who had managed the Riviera and Avalon Theater’s for Tom White, stayed on to manage both theatres and facilities until 1939.
Over the years Avalon had enjoyed the offerings of a number of summer resident theatrical groups on the stage of the Riviera or the Bandbox Theater in El Encanto.
Western Amusement Company, which operated a number of theaters on the mainland, obtained a lease on both the Avalon and Riviera Theater’s in 1949. The company closed the Avalon Theater during the winter but kept the Riviera Theater open all year until it was converted into a bowling alley in 1961.
The Avalon Theater is still open and operating and is on Cinema Treasures /theaters/22/
Don;
I was with ABC’s rival circuit The Rank Organisation in the mid to late 1960’s. After doing relief manager work mainly in the Midlands; Birmingham area I get to be Manager at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre, Liverpool, built as a variety theatre in 1896, bcame a cinema in 1929 and seated 3,000. It is now demolished.
I have lived in London for 36 years! I did get to know managers and assistant managers from other circuits when travelling around, but as time goes by you loose contact. I didn’t know Kevin or Derek, just have references to them in a book I have on Eccles cinemas and thought it might stir a memory for you!
From the 1937 photo I have of the exterior, I would say the style was Restrained Classical. (I wish we could get the add-a-photo back up and working on the site)
Charles;
Thanks for clarifying the licence/permit issue. I agree that seating capacities which are given in ‘any’ source must always be taken with a pinch of salt. Theater owners always exagerated capacities. We have the same problem here in the UK with our trade book The Kinematograph Yearbook.
Keep up the good work, it is always a pleasure reading input from you and many of the other ‘theatre-buffs’ on the site. If you are not sure about any info on your Baltimore research, send me an e-mail and I will consult with my sources here.
Chuck;
The last licence could have run for a year after the Feb 1936 date, which means a closure of Feb 1937. But this is conjecture, basing my facts on what happens here in the UK when a licence is taken out in advance for a year. Does that happen in the USA?
The “Exit” book is a little vague on a few dates and facts like ‘opened late 1909’, when it has also stated ‘that a permit was granted for a cinema in September 1909’.
Chuck;
Details below from the book “Exit” by Robert Kirk Headley Jnr (1974)
The Aladdin Theatre opened in late 1909. It was known as the New Aladdin Theatre off and on in 1918-1920 and again in 1930. It was also named the New Queen Theatre in 1930 prior to it closing down that year.
It re-opened as the Booker T. Theatre around 1933 until it closed for good in about 1938.
According to the book “Exit” – A History of movies in Baltimore; by Robert Kirk Headley Jnr (1974) this was the 2nd Belnord Theatre on the site.
‘The original Belnord may have been opened by Louis Kolb and Charles Bender sometime between the summer of 1911 and 1913.
A new theatre was built on the site in 1921. The Belnord opened on 14th May 1921 with Katherine MacDonald starring in “The Beauty Market”. The architect was William O. Sparklin and it was built upon Greek lines. Seating was given as between 1,700 and 2,000. It closed in the fall of 1969'.
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1941 gives a seating capacity of 1,750. In the FDY, 1950 a seating capacity is given as 1,577.
Headers for this listing need to be changed:
Status; Closed
Style: Greek
The Broadway Theatre opened on 30th July 1932 and the opening film was Sydney Howard starring in “Up for the Cup”. The theatre was equipped with a Christie 3Manual theater pipe organ which was opened by Thomas Dando.
Don;
I have a note here that the last manager of the Broadway (from 1968 until it closed in March 1974) was Derek Warner who had taken over from Kevin Uttley.
The map link doesn’t work for the address above, which was given in the Film Daily Yearbook, 1950 and 1952.
The building does exist though at the corner of Crescent Avenue and Clarissa Ave. It is one of the first buildings you see when entering the town on foot from the ferry landing.
Star Cinemas held a monopoly of the cinemas in Castleford. They took over the 700 seat Star Cinema which opened in 1912, was re-modelled and re-named Majestic, later becoming the New Star Cinema-the first in the Star Cinemas circuit.
Other Castleford cinemas operated by Star Cinemas were the Albion Picture Palace taken over from ABC Cinemas in 1957, which later became Studio 1-2-3 and then the Cannon Cinema. Also, the Queens Cinema which was taken over about 1948.
Originally opened as the Adolphus Theater on 27th November 1911. It was essentially a vaudeville theater but did screen a first run motion picture after the interval as the 2nd part of the show. It was fitted with a Moller 3Manual/14Rank theater pipe organ which accompanied the motion picture.
It was re-named Hippodrome Theater from 31st August 1913 and continued until closing in the late 1940’s. The reinforced concrete constructed auditorium was demolished in the late 1940’s and became a car parking lot, but the frontage and the 60feet long outer lobby were retained. This became used as the Main St Gymnasium on the 2nd floor for many year, until even this part of the theater was finally demolished.
I went by the site a couple of years ago and it was still a vacant lot.
There is a listing for a Main Theater, 438 S. Main St on CinemaTour.com which could have been the Admiral, aka Rector’s Admiral you mention. I have no record of an Admiral in my listings 1941, 1950, 1952, apart from the Admiral (later Vine) on Hollywood Blvd.
If the Main was at #438, the Regent at # 448 and the Banner at #458, that is 3 theaters on the 400 block (E side of S. Main St).
The Banner Theater has that name through the 1940’s, ‘50’s and as a porn cinema in the 1970’s.
I was on S. Main taking photo’s of the Regent Theater a few years ago when it was operating as a Spanish language ‘straight’ porn cinema. A black street guy saw me and hollered across the street ‘Hey! You mother fu…. white honky, wot u taking pictures of me for’! I made a swift exit as he started to cross the street towards me, but got the photos of the Regent ok.
The Avalon Theater opened on 29th May 1929, with the attraction on screen; Douglas Fairbanks production “The Iron Mask”.
The theater is located on the first floor of the Casino Building, which has the 2,000 dancers capacity, Casino Ballroom above.
The Casino Building was built at a cost of $2m by William Wrigley Jnr, multi-millionaire and founder of the Wrigley chewing gum company. It is still owned by the Wrigley family under a company known as the Santa Catalina Island Company and they embarked on a $1,535,000 renovation of the building commencing in 1988. The beautiful murals on the exterior of the building and in the Avalon Theater auditorium were by John Gabriel Beckman and these were fully restored in 1994.
The theater was equipped from its opening with a Page theater pipe organ, which is still in use today to entertain the movie-going audience at weekends. Manufactured by Page organs of Lima, Ohio, it has 4Manuals and 16Ranks and was the largest organ manufactured by Page.
Santa Catalina Island is located 22 miles off the California coast and can be reached by ferry boat from Long Beach. It is well worth the trip to view the island and the stunning Avalon Theater, Casino Ballroom & Building.
Many thanks for posting (what is currently) the 1st cinema on this site in the country of South Africa. S.A is certainly under-researched and documented (are there any books published on S.A cinemas?) I am sure it had (even has) many wonderful cinema theatre buildings. Please add more if you know details of them.
Thanks again.
There is a photo and more details of Russell McCullough and the Cinemiracle test projection set up that was installed in the Melrose Theatre at this link: View link
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1941 gives a seating capacity for the New Arcata Theater as 476. In the 1952 edition of FDY the Arcata Theater is listed as having 450 seats and the street address is given as 1020 G Street. Has there been re-numbering over the years?
Ron;
Thanks for posting those details, it is always good to piece together another slice of the history, especially when it comes from ‘the horses mouth’.
I have a gay guide book for Boston (published in 1977) in which the Symphony II Theater is listed at a street address 252 Huntington Avenue screening gay male porn movies.
Joe;
Thanks for confirming those details. I agree too, that the Casino was ever a movie theatre, it doesn’t even look like one in the picture you attached. A town the size of San Clemente could never have supported two theaters.
Thanks for that MagicLantern, I will still investigate further!
The exterior of the Tomkat has always looked pretty smart and it looks even better at night, outlined in purple neon.
In the auditorium there isn’t too much in the way of architectural detail to be seen as it’s painted black (nowadays it has video projection so it’s much darker than in the days of carbon arc projection). The ramp in the center orchestra stalls off the stage (used for ‘live’ shows when it was a Pussycat) is still in place.
MikeRa;
Thanks for the update on the status of the Circle Theatre. It is good to know the building still stands, I wonder what condition it is in nowadays?
I will go back and check my source regarding it’s demolition which I ‘think’ I got from a Theater Historical Society of America document.
This ‘could’ have been known initially as the Strand Theater but there is no reference to a theater of that name in the book I have on the history of the Casino Building.
The Riviera Theater is mentioned several times;
‘that it was only open during the summer season, once the Avalon Theater opened in 1929. Tom White, a Hollywood promotor who held the lease on Avalon’s Riviera Theater, leased the new Avalon Theater in 1929 and also signed on as general manager of the Casino operation. His lifestyle proved to flamboyant, and his association with the Casino ended in December 1929. Art LaShelle, who had managed the Riviera and Avalon Theater’s for Tom White, stayed on to manage both theatres and facilities until 1939.
Over the years Avalon had enjoyed the offerings of a number of summer resident theatrical groups on the stage of the Riviera or the Bandbox Theater in El Encanto.
Western Amusement Company, which operated a number of theaters on the mainland, obtained a lease on both the Avalon and Riviera Theater’s in 1949. The company closed the Avalon Theater during the winter but kept the Riviera Theater open all year until it was converted into a bowling alley in 1961.
The Avalon Theater is still open and operating and is on Cinema Treasures /theaters/22/
LOL,
Thats’s what you get for getting involved a cinema/theatre buffs. I am a founder member of the CTA from way back in 1968.
Don;
I was with ABC’s rival circuit The Rank Organisation in the mid to late 1960’s. After doing relief manager work mainly in the Midlands; Birmingham area I get to be Manager at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre, Liverpool, built as a variety theatre in 1896, bcame a cinema in 1929 and seated 3,000. It is now demolished.
I have lived in London for 36 years! I did get to know managers and assistant managers from other circuits when travelling around, but as time goes by you loose contact. I didn’t know Kevin or Derek, just have references to them in a book I have on Eccles cinemas and thought it might stir a memory for you!
From the 1937 photo I have of the exterior, I would say the style was Restrained Classical. (I wish we could get the add-a-photo back up and working on the site)
Charles;
Thanks for clarifying the licence/permit issue. I agree that seating capacities which are given in ‘any’ source must always be taken with a pinch of salt. Theater owners always exagerated capacities. We have the same problem here in the UK with our trade book The Kinematograph Yearbook.
Keep up the good work, it is always a pleasure reading input from you and many of the other ‘theatre-buffs’ on the site. If you are not sure about any info on your Baltimore research, send me an e-mail and I will consult with my sources here.
Chuck;
The last licence could have run for a year after the Feb 1936 date, which means a closure of Feb 1937. But this is conjecture, basing my facts on what happens here in the UK when a licence is taken out in advance for a year. Does that happen in the USA?
The “Exit” book is a little vague on a few dates and facts like ‘opened late 1909’, when it has also stated ‘that a permit was granted for a cinema in September 1909’.
Little by little we build up a complete story Eh!
Chuck;
Details below from the book “Exit” by Robert Kirk Headley Jnr (1974)
The Aladdin Theatre opened in late 1909. It was known as the New Aladdin Theatre off and on in 1918-1920 and again in 1930. It was also named the New Queen Theatre in 1930 prior to it closing down that year.
It re-opened as the Booker T. Theatre around 1933 until it closed for good in about 1938.
According to the book “Exit” – A History of movies in Baltimore; by Robert Kirk Headley Jnr (1974) this was the 2nd Belnord Theatre on the site.
‘The original Belnord may have been opened by Louis Kolb and Charles Bender sometime between the summer of 1911 and 1913.
A new theatre was built on the site in 1921. The Belnord opened on 14th May 1921 with Katherine MacDonald starring in “The Beauty Market”. The architect was William O. Sparklin and it was built upon Greek lines. Seating was given as between 1,700 and 2,000. It closed in the fall of 1969'.
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1941 gives a seating capacity of 1,750. In the FDY, 1950 a seating capacity is given as 1,577.
Headers for this listing need to be changed:
Status; Closed
Style: Greek
The Broadway Theatre opened on 30th July 1932 and the opening film was Sydney Howard starring in “Up for the Cup”. The theatre was equipped with a Christie 3Manual theater pipe organ which was opened by Thomas Dando.
Don;
I have a note here that the last manager of the Broadway (from 1968 until it closed in March 1974) was Derek Warner who had taken over from Kevin Uttley.
The map link doesn’t work for the address above, which was given in the Film Daily Yearbook, 1950 and 1952.
The building does exist though at the corner of Crescent Avenue and Clarissa Ave. It is one of the first buildings you see when entering the town on foot from the ferry landing.
Star Cinemas held a monopoly of the cinemas in Castleford. They took over the 700 seat Star Cinema which opened in 1912, was re-modelled and re-named Majestic, later becoming the New Star Cinema-the first in the Star Cinemas circuit.
Other Castleford cinemas operated by Star Cinemas were the Albion Picture Palace taken over from ABC Cinemas in 1957, which later became Studio 1-2-3 and then the Cannon Cinema. Also, the Queens Cinema which was taken over about 1948.
Originally opened as the Adolphus Theater on 27th November 1911. It was essentially a vaudeville theater but did screen a first run motion picture after the interval as the 2nd part of the show. It was fitted with a Moller 3Manual/14Rank theater pipe organ which accompanied the motion picture.
It was re-named Hippodrome Theater from 31st August 1913 and continued until closing in the late 1940’s. The reinforced concrete constructed auditorium was demolished in the late 1940’s and became a car parking lot, but the frontage and the 60feet long outer lobby were retained. This became used as the Main St Gymnasium on the 2nd floor for many year, until even this part of the theater was finally demolished.
I went by the site a couple of years ago and it was still a vacant lot.
Joe;
There is a listing for a Main Theater, 438 S. Main St on CinemaTour.com which could have been the Admiral, aka Rector’s Admiral you mention. I have no record of an Admiral in my listings 1941, 1950, 1952, apart from the Admiral (later Vine) on Hollywood Blvd.
If the Main was at #438, the Regent at # 448 and the Banner at #458, that is 3 theaters on the 400 block (E side of S. Main St).
The Banner Theater has that name through the 1940’s, ‘50’s and as a porn cinema in the 1970’s.
I was on S. Main taking photo’s of the Regent Theater a few years ago when it was operating as a Spanish language ‘straight’ porn cinema. A black street guy saw me and hollered across the street ‘Hey! You mother fu…. white honky, wot u taking pictures of me for’! I made a swift exit as he started to cross the street towards me, but got the photos of the Regent ok.
The Avalon Theater opened on 29th May 1929, with the attraction on screen; Douglas Fairbanks production “The Iron Mask”.
The theater is located on the first floor of the Casino Building, which has the 2,000 dancers capacity, Casino Ballroom above.
The Casino Building was built at a cost of $2m by William Wrigley Jnr, multi-millionaire and founder of the Wrigley chewing gum company. It is still owned by the Wrigley family under a company known as the Santa Catalina Island Company and they embarked on a $1,535,000 renovation of the building commencing in 1988. The beautiful murals on the exterior of the building and in the Avalon Theater auditorium were by John Gabriel Beckman and these were fully restored in 1994.
The theater was equipped from its opening with a Page theater pipe organ, which is still in use today to entertain the movie-going audience at weekends. Manufactured by Page organs of Lima, Ohio, it has 4Manuals and 16Ranks and was the largest organ manufactured by Page.
Santa Catalina Island is located 22 miles off the California coast and can be reached by ferry boat from Long Beach. It is well worth the trip to view the island and the stunning Avalon Theater, Casino Ballroom & Building.
Marnuse;
Many thanks for posting (what is currently) the 1st cinema on this site in the country of South Africa. S.A is certainly under-researched and documented (are there any books published on S.A cinemas?) I am sure it had (even has) many wonderful cinema theatre buildings. Please add more if you know details of them.
Thanks again.
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1950 gives the Florida Theatre a seating capacity of 1,000.
There is a photo and more details of Russell McCullough and the Cinemiracle test projection set up that was installed in the Melrose Theatre at this link: View link
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1941 gives a seating capacity for the New Arcata Theater as 476. In the 1952 edition of FDY the Arcata Theater is listed as having 450 seats and the street address is given as 1020 G Street. Has there been re-numbering over the years?
Ron;
Thanks for posting those details, it is always good to piece together another slice of the history, especially when it comes from ‘the horses mouth’.
I have a gay guide book for Boston (published in 1977) in which the Symphony II Theater is listed at a street address 252 Huntington Avenue screening gay male porn movies.
The seating capacity for the Empress Theatre given in the Film Daily Yearbook, 1941 is 1,385. In the 1950 edition it it was slightly reduced to 1,313.
The Film Daily Yearbok, 1941 gives a seating capacity of 800 for the Savoy Theater. In the 1950 edition it had reduced slightly to 761.
Joe;
Thanks for confirming those details. I agree too, that the Casino was ever a movie theatre, it doesn’t even look like one in the picture you attached. A town the size of San Clemente could never have supported two theaters.
Thanks for that MagicLantern, I will still investigate further!
The exterior of the Tomkat has always looked pretty smart and it looks even better at night, outlined in purple neon.
In the auditorium there isn’t too much in the way of architectural detail to be seen as it’s painted black (nowadays it has video projection so it’s much darker than in the days of carbon arc projection). The ramp in the center orchestra stalls off the stage (used for ‘live’ shows when it was a Pussycat) is still in place.