An item about the opening of the Michigan Theatre at South Haven that appeared in the July 11, 1947 issue of Film Daily noted that the house was a replacement for the Center Theater which had burned on January 2. However, local newspaper articles published on March 28 and June 20, 1947, both say that the Centre Theatre had burned on February 1, 1945, and Butterfield was unable to rebuild right away due to restrictions by the War Production Board. The newspaper articles are on display at the Michigan Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland.
In any case, it appears that the Phoenix Theatre is a phantom. The Centre (the most common spelling of the name) Theatre was entirely destroyed in 1945 and replaced on the same site by the Michigan Theatre in 1947. South Haven’s only other theater of the period, the Model on Phoenix Street, opened in 1938. Neither CinemaTour nor Water Winter Wonderland lists a Phoenix Theatre at South Haven.
As for the Centre, Water Winter Wonderland has this page for it. It opened on April 13, 1920, originally seating 652 (the 1926 FDY says 438) but expanded to 731 in a 1934 remodeling. Destroyed by a fire on February 2, 1945.
Info from the July 11, 1947 Film Daily: “Butterfield Theaters opened the New Michigan Theater, South Haven, on Wednesday, July 2. With a seating capacity of nearly 1,000, the Michigan seats more than the old Center, which burned down Jan. 2, 1945.”
Like many theaters, the Roxy had CinemaScope equipment installed in 1954, and inaugurated the new format with biblical epic “The Robe.” The October 30 edition of Motion Picture Herald noted the event.
Okay, I checked the article again and it does say the second location of the Cozy was also on Front Street. I must have mistaken the newspaper’s address for the theater address when looking at the Google results summary.
Is there a paywall on my link? I’m still not getting one. It might be because my browser has a VPN setting I’m using. That cab confuse some websites into not blocking access.
The January 2, 1962 issue of Boxoffice had news about this house that had been owned by the local government:
“Plum City Theatre Sold
“PLUM CITY, WIS.—The Plum City Theatre, built in 1938, has been sold by village trustees to Jim Glaus, a local merchant, who plans to remodel the upstairs into a store. The village will have free use of the basement for elections and meetings for 20 years. The theatre has been closed for several years.”
An item in the June 18, 1955 Boxoffice had said that “[t]he theatre at Plum city is being kept open through the sponsorship of the local businessmen.” Such sponsorship must have failed not long after that. It seems unlikely that anybody would have been willing or able to underwrite the expense of converting the house for the wide screen formats that were rapidly displacing the standard 35mm films.
In 1914 Hampton had a house called the Lyric Theatre, but it was at 119 Main Street. Perhaps this item from the January 10, 1919 issue of Film Daily is a clue, or maybe not: “Hampton, Iowa—The Star has been leased to James Keefe, who will operate it in connection with the Windsor.” The only theater listed at Hampton in the 1926, 1929 and 1938 FDYs is the Windsor, and I’m not hopeful that we’d find the Star listed if we checked more of them.
However, there is a second house listed at Hampton in the 1944 FDY, the 280-seat Lido. If no other theaters (but the Windsor) appear on the 1944 map, at least we’ve got a late name for this house. Whether or not it was earlier the Star remains moot, but does seem likely. It might be that once it came under the control of the operators of the Windsor they just kept it mothballed for a long time.
There is a Belleview Iowa in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no Bellevue. It’s undoubtedly an error by the Directory. The house listed at “Belleview” was called the Cozy Theatre. The 1926 FDY still lists a 350-seat house called the Cozy as the only theater at Bellevue. The 1926 house was at a different location, though.
This article from the July 5, 2023 Bellevue Herald-Leader discusses both locations. The Front Street (apparently another former name of Riverview Street) Cozy Theatre opened on May 19, 1913. The Cozy moved to its second location, at 118 S. 2nd Street, in 1916, and operated there into the 1970s. Both buildings are still standing.
If 1343 N. Federal was formerly numbered as 1143 N. Main Street, then this must have been the house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directoryas the Kozy Theatre. I have yet to find the Kozy mentioned in the trade journals, and don’t really expect to. It is, however, listed in Polk’s 1914 Iowa Gazetteer.
Two possible names for this house are mentioned in this item from Motography’s issue of January 6, 1917: “Cal Branson has sold the Electric Theater at Mason City to Charles Carragher, owner of the Palm Theater. Possession will be taken immediately and, no doubt, one of the places will be closed during the winter months.”
But if this address was part of a Kresge store in 1953, then the theater was called the Idle Hour, briefly mentioned in this long article originally published by the Globe Gazette for Mason City’s centennial that year.
None of those three theater names appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Regent was the name of one of the seven movie houses listed at Mason City in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but was one of only two listed without an address (the other was the Princess.)
My August 29 comment provides a source for 1911 opening of this Princess Theater. The Princess listed in the 1908 Cahn guide is, for now, a mystery theater. The 1911 Princess must be the one listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though it is listed without an address.
The earliest mention I’ve found of a house called the Casino in Mason City is this item from the December 4, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World, but either the claim that it was a newly-erected theater was mistaken or this was a different Casino theater: “MASON CITY, IA.—A. Frankel has erected a new moving picture theater which he has named the New Casino.”
This house opened in 1925 as the Plainview Theatre. It was listed as such in the 1926 FDY with seating for 650. An article about the project in the April 18, 1925 Exhibitors Herald said that construction was underway, and noted that the new building would replace an existing Plainview Theatre, and that it had been designed by Amarillo architect Lawrence Kerr.
This house actually opened in 1907. An ad saying that the Deandi Theatre was now open appeared in the September 14, 1907 issue of The Billboard. An item in the July 27 issue of the same weekly publication had said that the house was rapidly nearing completion and was expected to open by August 15. I’ve found no mentions of the Deandi in the issues between those dates, so they might have missed their initial target.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists both the Orpheum, at 110-112 Lemon Street, and Kalbfield’s Grand, no address given. This was probably a double listing resulting from the name change. Louis Kalbfield also owned the Howell Theatre, across the street from the Grand.
The August 2, 2023 issue of the Palatka Daily News noted in a “today in history” type column that, in 1907, the Howell Theatre was nearing completion. Manager Louis Kalbfield had named the house for sheriff R. C. Howell, owner of the lot he had leased to build the theater on. Kalbfield planned to have the theater open by late September.
The Alison-Antrim Museum just posted this photo to its Facebook page. It’s an undated interior shot of the Gem/State’s auditorium. One person commenting on the photo says they remember seeing the 1961 release “The Parent Trap” at the State. As the post is new (October 13, 2023), more comments are likely and might reveal even later operation of the house.
The Sherburn Community Building, which includes the Sherburn Theatre on its ground floor, was built by the municipal government with assistance from the Federal Works Progress Administration. This PDF file contains the Registration Form for the building’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction on the long-anticipated project began in 1936, with plans prepared by New Ulm, Minnesota architect Albert G. Plagens, but the building was not ready for occupancy until 1940.
In addition to the theater, the building contains a basement community banquet hall with kitchen facilities, and the upper floor includes a good-sized meeting room that was originally used as the council chamber.
There was an earlier Sherburn Theatre, though the December 3, 1937 issue of Film Daily misspelled both town and theater name in this item: “Sherburne, Minn.—George Ehlers has bought the Sherburne Theater here.” The Sherburn Theatre actually appears (correctly spelled) in the 1938 FDY, with 250 seats. Though the town had not been listed in the FDY for many years previous, it is likely that this theater was the same house that was listed in FDYs in the late 1920s as the Star Theatre, listed with 350 seats. A 1928 Sanborn map shows “Moving Pictures” with a lodge hall above in the building immediately north of the Community Building’s site, at 118 N. Main Street. The I.O.O.F. building is still standing on this lot.
The original location of the Strand Theatre, in the Knight Block, where it operated from May 8, 1924 until the building was destroyed by fire on March 13, 1926, was in fact the old Chilliwack Opera House, on the top floor of a three story building built in 1907, where Chilliwack’s first regular programs of movies were presented beginning in the summer of 1909. The movie programs were transferred to the new Edison Theatre in 1910, and the Opera House then remained a live venue until adapted into the Strand in 1924. The new Strand of 1926 was in a single-story building on the same site.
The According to this page from the Little Falls Historical Society, the Gateway Theatre was built in 1922, the Rialto closed in 1972, and the building was razed in 1997.
Early reports about the project that was to become the Gateway had W. H. Linton involved. Linton, who had operated the Hippodrome Theatre in Little Falls for over a decade, had also renovated the City Theatre, originally the Skinner Opera House, reopening it as the Lintonian Theatre on May 21, 1919. I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Linton remained connected with the Gateway project or not. In any case, the May 5, 1923 issue of Moving Picture World reported that Linton had given up ownership of his Little Falls houses on May 1, and was planning to build a new theater on the site of his other Hippodrome Theatre, in Utica. The item did not identify who took over Linton’s houses in Little Falls, but the Schine brothers did end up owning every house in town by 1925.
The Gem was still in operation as late as 1925, when it was mentioned in the April 11 issue of Moving Picture World. The original Gem opened some years prior to March 7, 1908, the date on which the MPW reported that its owners were planning to move their theater to a new and larger location:
“NEW THEATER FOR LITTLE FALLS, N. Y.
“Messrs. John E. Reardon and Casper Shults, proprietors of the Gem Theater, have concluded negotiations with R. D. Fuller for the erection of a new theater for them on Main street. Architect Carl Haug is now at work on drawing plans for a model up-to-date playhouse. It will be on the ground floor and will have an attractive city entrance with doors on each side. The inside of the theater will be 25 by 90, and every seat will be elevated. There will be a balcony and gallery and the seating capacity will be about 500. The ceiling will be of iron and the entire structure will be absolutely fireproof. Work will be commenced on the building soon and it is expected that the theater will be ready for occupancy about May 1. Messrs. Reardon and Shults will present vaudeville entertainment in connection with their moving pictures and illustrated songs. They are popular, progressive amusement providers, and their many friends will congratulate them on- this evidence of their prosperity.”
According to this web page from the Little Falls Historical Society, which has an extensive history of the town’s theaters, the Gem Theatre of 1908 was located at 519 E. Main Street, and occupied a building that was half new construction and half a renovated older building. Reardon and Shults eventually took control of other Little Falls movie houses, and in 1920 they sold the Gem to a Mr. and Mrs. McGraw. Following Mr. McGraw’s death in 1925, Mrs. McGraw sold the house to the Schine brothers, who also acquired three other theaters in Little Falls. It does not appear that the Schines ever actually operated the Gem, though, concentrating their efforts primarily on the newer and larger Gateway Theatre, which they renamed the Rialto.
The Historical Society page also notes that Reardon and Shults opened the original Gem at 44 W. Main Street in 1905.
The 1908 Gem’s architect, Carl Haug, was noted in the region, and a few years after the Gem was built founded a firm with two of his sons, one of whom predeceased him.
All the historic buildings on the odd-numbered side of this block of Main Street have been demolished. A very bland, modern bank building occupies the site of the Gem.
The architectural firm of William R. Walker & Son was formed in 1881. William Russell Walker remained the head of the firm until his death in 1905, and was probably the lead architect on the 1888-89 Town Hall project.
The founder of the firm William R. Walker & Son died in 1905, and would not have been involved in drawing the plans for converting the church into a theater in late 1906, so the principal architect on the project, and probably the 1919 alterations and expansion for the Rialto as well, would have been his son, William Howard Walker.
The founder of the architectural firm William R. Walker & Son died in 1905, so the architect of the Majestic Theatre commissioned in 1914 would have been the son, William Howard Walker. The founder’s grandson, William Russell Walker II, was born in 1884 and had undoubtedly joined the family firm by 1914, but I don’t know how much he had to do with this project.
This page needs to be updated with the information provided in Gerald DeLuca’s comment of June 25, 2005: The Park Theatre opened on November 17, 1924, and plans for the building were prepared by William R. Walker & Son. (William Russell Walker died in 1905 and his son William Howard Walker in 1922, so the architect for the Park Theatre of 1924 would have been the founder’s grandson, William Russell Walker II.)
An item about the opening of the Michigan Theatre at South Haven that appeared in the July 11, 1947 issue of Film Daily noted that the house was a replacement for the Center Theater which had burned on January 2. However, local newspaper articles published on March 28 and June 20, 1947, both say that the Centre Theatre had burned on February 1, 1945, and Butterfield was unable to rebuild right away due to restrictions by the War Production Board. The newspaper articles are on display at the Michigan Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland.
In any case, it appears that the Phoenix Theatre is a phantom. The Centre (the most common spelling of the name) Theatre was entirely destroyed in 1945 and replaced on the same site by the Michigan Theatre in 1947. South Haven’s only other theater of the period, the Model on Phoenix Street, opened in 1938. Neither CinemaTour nor Water Winter Wonderland lists a Phoenix Theatre at South Haven.
As for the Centre, Water Winter Wonderland has this page for it. It opened on April 13, 1920, originally seating 652 (the 1926 FDY says 438) but expanded to 731 in a 1934 remodeling. Destroyed by a fire on February 2, 1945.
Info from the July 11, 1947 Film Daily: “Butterfield Theaters opened the New Michigan Theater, South Haven, on Wednesday, July 2. With a seating capacity of nearly 1,000, the Michigan seats more than the old Center, which burned down Jan. 2, 1945.”
Like many theaters, the Roxy had CinemaScope equipment installed in 1954, and inaugurated the new format with biblical epic “The Robe.” The October 30 edition of Motion Picture Herald noted the event.
Okay, I checked the article again and it does say the second location of the Cozy was also on Front Street. I must have mistaken the newspaper’s address for the theater address when looking at the Google results summary.
Is there a paywall on my link? I’m still not getting one. It might be because my browser has a VPN setting I’m using. That cab confuse some websites into not blocking access.
The January 2, 1962 issue of Boxoffice had news about this house that had been owned by the local government:
An item in the June 18, 1955 Boxoffice had said that “[t]he theatre at Plum city is being kept open through the sponsorship of the local businessmen.” Such sponsorship must have failed not long after that. It seems unlikely that anybody would have been willing or able to underwrite the expense of converting the house for the wide screen formats that were rapidly displacing the standard 35mm films.In 1914 Hampton had a house called the Lyric Theatre, but it was at 119 Main Street. Perhaps this item from the January 10, 1919 issue of Film Daily is a clue, or maybe not: “Hampton, Iowa—The Star has been leased to James Keefe, who will operate it in connection with the Windsor.” The only theater listed at Hampton in the 1926, 1929 and 1938 FDYs is the Windsor, and I’m not hopeful that we’d find the Star listed if we checked more of them.
However, there is a second house listed at Hampton in the 1944 FDY, the 280-seat Lido. If no other theaters (but the Windsor) appear on the 1944 map, at least we’ve got a late name for this house. Whether or not it was earlier the Star remains moot, but does seem likely. It might be that once it came under the control of the operators of the Windsor they just kept it mothballed for a long time.
There is a Belleview Iowa in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no Bellevue. It’s undoubtedly an error by the Directory. The house listed at “Belleview” was called the Cozy Theatre. The 1926 FDY still lists a 350-seat house called the Cozy as the only theater at Bellevue. The 1926 house was at a different location, though.
This article from the July 5, 2023 Bellevue Herald-Leader discusses both locations. The Front Street (apparently another former name of Riverview Street) Cozy Theatre opened on May 19, 1913. The Cozy moved to its second location, at 118 S. 2nd Street, in 1916, and operated there into the 1970s. Both buildings are still standing.
If 1343 N. Federal was formerly numbered as 1143 N. Main Street, then this must have been the house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directoryas the Kozy Theatre. I have yet to find the Kozy mentioned in the trade journals, and don’t really expect to. It is, however, listed in Polk’s 1914 Iowa Gazetteer.
Two possible names for this house are mentioned in this item from Motography’s issue of January 6, 1917: “Cal Branson has sold the Electric Theater at Mason City to Charles Carragher, owner of the Palm Theater. Possession will be taken immediately and, no doubt, one of the places will be closed during the winter months.”
But if this address was part of a Kresge store in 1953, then the theater was called the Idle Hour, briefly mentioned in this long article originally published by the Globe Gazette for Mason City’s centennial that year.
None of those three theater names appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Regent was the name of one of the seven movie houses listed at Mason City in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but was one of only two listed without an address (the other was the Princess.)
My August 29 comment provides a source for 1911 opening of this Princess Theater. The Princess listed in the 1908 Cahn guide is, for now, a mystery theater. The 1911 Princess must be the one listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though it is listed without an address.
The earliest mention I’ve found of a house called the Casino in Mason City is this item from the December 4, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World, but either the claim that it was a newly-erected theater was mistaken or this was a different Casino theater: “MASON CITY, IA.—A. Frankel has erected a new moving picture theater which he has named the New Casino.”
This house opened in 1925 as the Plainview Theatre. It was listed as such in the 1926 FDY with seating for 650. An article about the project in the April 18, 1925 Exhibitors Herald said that construction was underway, and noted that the new building would replace an existing Plainview Theatre, and that it had been designed by Amarillo architect Lawrence Kerr.
This house actually opened in 1907. An ad saying that the Deandi Theatre was now open appeared in the September 14, 1907 issue of The Billboard. An item in the July 27 issue of the same weekly publication had said that the house was rapidly nearing completion and was expected to open by August 15. I’ve found no mentions of the Deandi in the issues between those dates, so they might have missed their initial target.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists both the Orpheum, at 110-112 Lemon Street, and Kalbfield’s Grand, no address given. This was probably a double listing resulting from the name change. Louis Kalbfield also owned the Howell Theatre, across the street from the Grand.
The August 2, 2023 issue of the Palatka Daily News noted in a “today in history” type column that, in 1907, the Howell Theatre was nearing completion. Manager Louis Kalbfield had named the house for sheriff R. C. Howell, owner of the lot he had leased to build the theater on. Kalbfield planned to have the theater open by late September.
The Alison-Antrim Museum just posted this photo to its Facebook page. It’s an undated interior shot of the Gem/State’s auditorium. One person commenting on the photo says they remember seeing the 1961 release “The Parent Trap” at the State. As the post is new (October 13, 2023), more comments are likely and might reveal even later operation of the house.
The Sherburn Community Building, which includes the Sherburn Theatre on its ground floor, was built by the municipal government with assistance from the Federal Works Progress Administration. This PDF file contains the Registration Form for the building’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction on the long-anticipated project began in 1936, with plans prepared by New Ulm, Minnesota architect Albert G. Plagens, but the building was not ready for occupancy until 1940.
In addition to the theater, the building contains a basement community banquet hall with kitchen facilities, and the upper floor includes a good-sized meeting room that was originally used as the council chamber.
There was an earlier Sherburn Theatre, though the December 3, 1937 issue of Film Daily misspelled both town and theater name in this item: “Sherburne, Minn.—George Ehlers has bought the Sherburne Theater here.” The Sherburn Theatre actually appears (correctly spelled) in the 1938 FDY, with 250 seats. Though the town had not been listed in the FDY for many years previous, it is likely that this theater was the same house that was listed in FDYs in the late 1920s as the Star Theatre, listed with 350 seats. A 1928 Sanborn map shows “Moving Pictures” with a lodge hall above in the building immediately north of the Community Building’s site, at 118 N. Main Street. The I.O.O.F. building is still standing on this lot.
The original location of the Strand Theatre, in the Knight Block, where it operated from May 8, 1924 until the building was destroyed by fire on March 13, 1926, was in fact the old Chilliwack Opera House, on the top floor of a three story building built in 1907, where Chilliwack’s first regular programs of movies were presented beginning in the summer of 1909. The movie programs were transferred to the new Edison Theatre in 1910, and the Opera House then remained a live venue until adapted into the Strand in 1924. The new Strand of 1926 was in a single-story building on the same site.
The According to this page from the Little Falls Historical Society, the Gateway Theatre was built in 1922, the Rialto closed in 1972, and the building was razed in 1997.
Early reports about the project that was to become the Gateway had W. H. Linton involved. Linton, who had operated the Hippodrome Theatre in Little Falls for over a decade, had also renovated the City Theatre, originally the Skinner Opera House, reopening it as the Lintonian Theatre on May 21, 1919. I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Linton remained connected with the Gateway project or not. In any case, the May 5, 1923 issue of Moving Picture World reported that Linton had given up ownership of his Little Falls houses on May 1, and was planning to build a new theater on the site of his other Hippodrome Theatre, in Utica. The item did not identify who took over Linton’s houses in Little Falls, but the Schine brothers did end up owning every house in town by 1925.
The Gem was still in operation as late as 1925, when it was mentioned in the April 11 issue of Moving Picture World. The original Gem opened some years prior to March 7, 1908, the date on which the MPW reported that its owners were planning to move their theater to a new and larger location:
According to this web page from the Little Falls Historical Society, which has an extensive history of the town’s theaters, the Gem Theatre of 1908 was located at 519 E. Main Street, and occupied a building that was half new construction and half a renovated older building. Reardon and Shults eventually took control of other Little Falls movie houses, and in 1920 they sold the Gem to a Mr. and Mrs. McGraw. Following Mr. McGraw’s death in 1925, Mrs. McGraw sold the house to the Schine brothers, who also acquired three other theaters in Little Falls. It does not appear that the Schines ever actually operated the Gem, though, concentrating their efforts primarily on the newer and larger Gateway Theatre, which they renamed the Rialto.The Historical Society page also notes that Reardon and Shults opened the original Gem at 44 W. Main Street in 1905.
The 1908 Gem’s architect, Carl Haug, was noted in the region, and a few years after the Gem was built founded a firm with two of his sons, one of whom predeceased him.
All the historic buildings on the odd-numbered side of this block of Main Street have been demolished. A very bland, modern bank building occupies the site of the Gem.
An opening day ad for the Hollywood Theatre posted to the photo page by Gerald DeLuca names the architect of the house as Oresto DiSaia.
The architectural firm of William R. Walker & Son was formed in 1881. William Russell Walker remained the head of the firm until his death in 1905, and was probably the lead architect on the 1888-89 Town Hall project.
The founder of the firm William R. Walker & Son died in 1905, and would not have been involved in drawing the plans for converting the church into a theater in late 1906, so the principal architect on the project, and probably the 1919 alterations and expansion for the Rialto as well, would have been his son, William Howard Walker.
The founder of the architectural firm William R. Walker & Son died in 1905, so the architect of the Majestic Theatre commissioned in 1914 would have been the son, William Howard Walker. The founder’s grandson, William Russell Walker II, was born in 1884 and had undoubtedly joined the family firm by 1914, but I don’t know how much he had to do with this project.
This page needs to be updated with the information provided in Gerald DeLuca’s comment of June 25, 2005: The Park Theatre opened on November 17, 1924, and plans for the building were prepared by William R. Walker & Son. (William Russell Walker died in 1905 and his son William Howard Walker in 1922, so the architect for the Park Theatre of 1924 would have been the founder’s grandson, William Russell Walker II.)