Konrad Schiecke’s Historic Movie Theatres in Illinois says that the Ritz Theatre in Arcola opened as the Arcola Theatre in 1928. It is listed (with no seating capacity given) as a “New” theater in the 1928 FDY, alongside the old 800-seat Arcola, and as the 400-seat Arcola Theatre in 1929. Oddly, the Arcola is listed as a silent house in 1932 and as silent and closed in 1933. It appears as the Ritz Theatre in the 1934 FDY, finally equipped for sound.
The Arcolan Theatre and Olympian Theatre are both listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Konrad Schiecke’s Historic Movie Theatres in Illinois says that the Ritz Theatre in Arcola opened as the Arcola Theatre in 1928, so that was probably the last year in which this house operated, at least under that name.
The 1928 FDY lists the 800 seat Arcola (almost certainly this house) and a “New” theater with no capacity listed, and the 1929 edition lists the Arcola with 400 seats (the capacity of the later Ritz) and a house called the Empress, with no capacity listed, but it was probably the old Arcolan/Arcola renamed. Like many smaller towns Arcola vanishes from the 1930 FDY, but it is back with the 400-seat Arcola and the Empress (no capacity listed, but marked as a silent house) in 1931. From 1932 on only the Arcola (or Ritz) is listed.
I wonder if this could have been the Grand Theatre, a West Frankfort house I’ve found mentioned only in disaster-related journals in 1915? It burned on May 4 that year, with an estimated loss of $20,000 according to one of the publications.
Boxoffice of March 25, 1974 reported that bricks had fallen from the west wall of the Strand Theatre in West Frankfort. The house had been shuttered since October, 1973, and had ben the towns' last operating movie theater.
The 1925-built Cameo Theatre is listed in the 1929 FDY with 800 seats. It was one of six movie houses listed for the two Bristols (no British euphemism intended) that year. The NRHP registration form for the Bristol Commercial Historic District says the Cameo’s façade was remodeled in 1950 and again in 1970. Since the form was prepared there has been another major remodeling of the façade, and the current Art Deco look is entirely ahistorical, having been created for the 2021 reopening of the house.
Since reopening, the Cameo has launched a new official web site. It gives the current seating capacity as 510.
If the caption of a photo on page 79 of the book “Bristol,” by George Stone (Google Books preview) is correct, then rivest266’s comment immediately above actually applies to the theater that was next door to the Isis, at 503 State Street, which we have listed as the State Theatre, but which was earlier called the Eagle.
The NRHP registration form for the Bristol Commercial Historic District has a paragraph each for the buildings at 503 and 505 State Street, and does say that the State was at 503, and treats the two structures, both built in 1890, as two separate buildings. However, while the two have different facades, Google’s satellite view shows that they share a single roof, undivided by the common wall we would expect with two separate buildings. I suspect that the researchers for the historic district nomination might not have dug deeply enough into the building’s history, and I think we should consider the possibility that the State, with its eventual listed seating capacity of 750, actually occupied the sites of both the Eagle and the Isis, both of which were smaller.
In any case, while the Isis was not listed in the 1926 FDY it is listed in the 1929 edition, with a capacity of 650, and though the Eagle is also listed that year, the book gives no seating capacity for it. Both houses are named in the listing for the Goebel Theatres company (the others were the Columbia and Cameo) in the 1929 Bristol City Directory, but only the Columbia, Cameo and Isis get individual listings, and while the managers and projectionists of the Columbia, Isis and Cameo are listed at their home addresses, no such personnel are listed for the Eagle. From this I would surmise that the Isis was still in operation at 505 in 1929, but the Eagle, at 503, though still extant, was closed. Tellingly, the addresses in the 1929 directory for Goebel Theatres and the Isis were the same, 505 State Street.
Here is a link to the official web web site of the Woodward Theater. Though now primarily a live music venue and event center, the house is equipped to show movies and has hosted several film events since its renovation in 2014 (see the “Film Exhibitions” section on the site’s “Event Venue” menu.)
The October 22, 1949 issue of Boxoffice said that the 500-seat Roxy Theatre, being built at West Frankfort for the Fox Midwest circuit, was slated to open Thanksgiving Day. The item said the house was at the site of the old Rex Theatre, and construction had begun in May, 1948, after the building’s previous tenants had vacated.
So the 1928 theater might have been in the the building built for the New Grand in 1924. Though only the Family was listed in the 1926 FDY, both the Family and Grand Theatres were listed in the 1927, 1928 and 1929 editions, and the whole town vanished from the 1930 edition. Trade journal reports indicate that the Grand changed hands at least twice within a few months of opening, so it must have been struggling. The 1926 FDY lists houses called the Family Theatre in both West Frankfort and Frankfort Heights, but doesn’t list the New Grand.
A bit more confusion arises from a report in the July, 1915 issue of Safety Engineering that a fire had damaged the Grand Theatre in West Frankfort on May 15. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only a house called the Arc Theatre at West Frankfort and none at Frankfort Heights. The book did miss a lot of theaters though, so it doesn’t mean the Family wasn’t in operation then, or that the Arc didn’t have local competition.
The Strand, Rex, and State Theatres in West Frankfort were all mentioned in the February 23, 1929 issue of Universal Weekly. There is some chance that the State might have been a house opened in 1924 as the Majestic Theatre by William Muhlenbach and sold by him to the Reed, Yemm & Hayes Circuit in 1927, according to the July 5 issue of Film Daily that year. Reed, Yemm & Hayes also owned the Rex Theatre at that time. The Majestic was still listed in the 1929 FDY. However, the 400-seat Majestic would have needed significant alterations to reach the State’s capacity of 698.
A James Clayton, of the Strand Theatre at West Frankfort, was publishing capsule movie reviews in Exhibitors Herald at least as early as the issue of December 30, 1922. I suspect that an item in the July 24, 1918 Film Daily pertained to the Star/Strand. It said simply that Frank Lowry, owner of the Princess Theatre at Salem, Illinois, planned to build a 900-seat movie theater at West Frankfort. The timing is right for the project to have been in operation as the Star in 1919.
This house was undoubtedly on E. Main Street, as the Frankfort Heights area is that direction from downtown West Frankfort. Frankfort Heights was the original town of Frankfort, founded in the 1810s. In the late 19th century a new north-south railroad line bypassed the town to its west and local businesses began moving to a new townsite adjacent to the tracks, and that became the nucleus of West Frankfort.
An April 4, 1925 article in Exhibitors Herald noted that two small theaters in Frankfort Heights had escaped serious damage from a storm that had recently destroyed movie houses in several towns in the region. It didn’t give the names of the theaters, but one must have been the Family and the other a theater called the New Grand, which the February 23, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal had said was slated to open on March 1. The New Grand might have been a renovation of a house called the American Theatre, which the February 3 Reel Journal had said had been temporarily closed.
Theatre #! was renamed the Hill Theatre sometime before closing on July 1, 1950. In 1951, the building was sold to the Baptist church, which moved it to a different location for use as a sanctuary.
An article about a nuclear accident that took place in Los Alamos on August 21, 1945, indicates that Theatre #2 was in operation by that date. The theater was used for religious services and sometimes for meetings related to the work of the Manhattan Project as well.
The 280-seat Conway Theatre makes its first appearance in Film Daily Year Book in 1946, suggesting a 1945 opening. Also listed is the 225-seat Opera House, and I don’t know that we can rule out a double-listing of a remodeled and renamed house. 1945 was a difficult year to open a new theater, given the strict ongoing limits on construction that prevailed for several years after the war. The Opera House was in operation by 1914, and the 1922 Cahn guide listed it with 250 seats, though FDY always listed it with 225 seats.
Here’s an item from the April 5, 1919 issue of Moving Picture World:
“When the moving picture theatre at Midland, Ontario, owned by A. Bugg, was destroyed by fire, the Regal Films, Limited, Toronto, lost twelve reels of pictures, including a print of ‘My Four Years in Germany.’”
Information in the summer, 2013 issue of the Huronia Museum’s newsletter (PDF here) indicates that the Model was in operation by 1915 at the location where the Capitol Theatre would later be, in a building that had been built around 1900.
The Model Theatre and Arthur Bugg had both been mentioned in the April 6, 1918 issue of Canadian Moving Picture Digest. Earlier, the house had been operated by someone else, as the July 8, 1916 issue of Motion Picture News had mentioned “…Lieut. Bill Duncan, for many years in charge of the Model theatre, of Midland, Ont…..”
The restored Model Theatre was still operated by Arthur Bugg in 1929, when they were mentioned together in the March 23 issue of Universal Weekly.
A book published by the Boonton Historical Society says that the Harris Lyceum opened in 1889. It was also the first theater at which George Burns and Gracie Allen performed as a team.
The DeWitt Theater was built for Joseph Hockstein, owner of the older theater at 511 Broadway later known as the Strand. Here is the notice from the September 16, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World: “BAYONNE, N. J.— Jacob Hockstein, 511 Broadway, has plans by Carl I. Goldberg, 467 Broadway, for three-story brick theatre, store and office building, 118 by 175 feet, to be erected at southwest corner Broadway and 25th street.” Architect Goldberg had drawn the plans for remodeling the Strand (then called the Broadway) for Hockstein in 1917.
There is another aka for this house. This item is from the June 16, 1917 issue of Real Estate Record and Builders Guide: “BAYONNE, NJ; Carl I. Goldberg, 437 Broadway, Bayonne, has plans in progress for alterations to the 1 sty brick theatre (Broadway Theatre) at 511 Broadway for Joseph Hockstein, 20 West 27th st, Bayonne, owner. Cost 10,000.”
A brochure with a walking tour of Brooksville (PDF here) says “23 N Main Street Once was the Victory Theater which was run by Alan Hawkins; Later was Lingle’s Dept. Store.” In 1924, the Victory was operated by two guys named Hawkins and Hudson, who submitted capsule movie reviews to Moving Picture World. The earliest one I’ve seen is in the issue of September 13 that year.
Also, the brochure notes a movie theater called the Star, in operation by 1915, so the Victory might not have been the first. Its name does suggest that it might have opened around the time the US entered WWI, though.
The Victory Theatre building has been demolished since the brochure was published in 2007. Today 23 N. Main is the site of a drive-through ATM facility.
A brief article in the September 29, 1951 issue of Boxoffice said that the Roxy Theatre in St. Helens had reopened after having been closed for twelve years. The 442-seat house had been completely renovated, redecorated and reseated and a new powder room, concession stand, box office and marquee added, according to new owner C. H. Smith, who had also bought the Columbia Theatre.
This house apparently continued to be called Harter’s Opera House after the Dickson Brothers took over and rebuilt it, as that is how it is styled in the 1921 and 1922 editions of Wid’s Year Book. Dickson Bros also owned the Eagle Theatre at that time. Cahn guides from 1900 and 1902 list Harter’s as an 800-seat upstairs house. By 1907, Harter’s is no longer listed in Cahn’s guides, having been displaced by the much larger Eagle Theatre.
This Facebook post from Wabash County Historian has some early history of the theater and a photograph from 1897. The building was remodeled and expanded the following year. This building, the second on the site, the first having been built in 1874 and burned in 1875, opened on December 11, 1876 as the Haas Opera House. It had become Harter’s Opera House by 1879.
I noticed that the 1912-1913 Cahn guide lists the 700 seat Sterling Theatre, managed by W. M. Noltie, while a 1911 edition of the Colorado Business Directory lists the Sterling Opera House managed by W. M. Noltie. The May 15, 1910 edition of The Nickelodeon has an item datelined Sterling saying “Wm. Noltie, proprietor of the opera house, has arranged to put on a nightly motion picture show and vaudeville performance.”
Both the Opera House and the Sterling Theatre are listed in the 1913-1914 American Motion Picture Directory, but I’m wondering if perhaps they were the same house, double listed? It wouldn’t be the only time AMPD had done that. Sterling was never a very big town, and the Directory lists two other movie theaters, the Electric and the Princess. Even though the population boomed from just over 3,000 in 1910 to almost 6,500 in 1920, Sterling supporting three theaters in that decade would have been a struggle, and four a miracle, especially if one of them had 700 seats.
Konrad Schiecke’s Historic Movie Theatres in Illinois says that the Ritz Theatre in Arcola opened as the Arcola Theatre in 1928. It is listed (with no seating capacity given) as a “New” theater in the 1928 FDY, alongside the old 800-seat Arcola, and as the 400-seat Arcola Theatre in 1929. Oddly, the Arcola is listed as a silent house in 1932 and as silent and closed in 1933. It appears as the Ritz Theatre in the 1934 FDY, finally equipped for sound.
The Arcolan Theatre and Olympian Theatre are both listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Konrad Schiecke’s Historic Movie Theatres in Illinois says that the Ritz Theatre in Arcola opened as the Arcola Theatre in 1928, so that was probably the last year in which this house operated, at least under that name.
The 1928 FDY lists the 800 seat Arcola (almost certainly this house) and a “New” theater with no capacity listed, and the 1929 edition lists the Arcola with 400 seats (the capacity of the later Ritz) and a house called the Empress, with no capacity listed, but it was probably the old Arcolan/Arcola renamed. Like many smaller towns Arcola vanishes from the 1930 FDY, but it is back with the 400-seat Arcola and the Empress (no capacity listed, but marked as a silent house) in 1931. From 1932 on only the Arcola (or Ritz) is listed.
I wonder if this could have been the Grand Theatre, a West Frankfort house I’ve found mentioned only in disaster-related journals in 1915? It burned on May 4 that year, with an estimated loss of $20,000 according to one of the publications.
Boxoffice of March 25, 1974 reported that bricks had fallen from the west wall of the Strand Theatre in West Frankfort. The house had been shuttered since October, 1973, and had ben the towns' last operating movie theater.
The 1925-built Cameo Theatre is listed in the 1929 FDY with 800 seats. It was one of six movie houses listed for the two Bristols (no British euphemism intended) that year. The NRHP registration form for the Bristol Commercial Historic District says the Cameo’s façade was remodeled in 1950 and again in 1970. Since the form was prepared there has been another major remodeling of the façade, and the current Art Deco look is entirely ahistorical, having been created for the 2021 reopening of the house.
Since reopening, the Cameo has launched a new official web site. It gives the current seating capacity as 510.
If the caption of a photo on page 79 of the book “Bristol,” by George Stone (Google Books preview) is correct, then rivest266’s comment immediately above actually applies to the theater that was next door to the Isis, at 503 State Street, which we have listed as the State Theatre, but which was earlier called the Eagle.
The NRHP registration form for the Bristol Commercial Historic District has a paragraph each for the buildings at 503 and 505 State Street, and does say that the State was at 503, and treats the two structures, both built in 1890, as two separate buildings. However, while the two have different facades, Google’s satellite view shows that they share a single roof, undivided by the common wall we would expect with two separate buildings. I suspect that the researchers for the historic district nomination might not have dug deeply enough into the building’s history, and I think we should consider the possibility that the State, with its eventual listed seating capacity of 750, actually occupied the sites of both the Eagle and the Isis, both of which were smaller.
In any case, while the Isis was not listed in the 1926 FDY it is listed in the 1929 edition, with a capacity of 650, and though the Eagle is also listed that year, the book gives no seating capacity for it. Both houses are named in the listing for the Goebel Theatres company (the others were the Columbia and Cameo) in the 1929 Bristol City Directory, but only the Columbia, Cameo and Isis get individual listings, and while the managers and projectionists of the Columbia, Isis and Cameo are listed at their home addresses, no such personnel are listed for the Eagle. From this I would surmise that the Isis was still in operation at 505 in 1929, but the Eagle, at 503, though still extant, was closed. Tellingly, the addresses in the 1929 directory for Goebel Theatres and the Isis were the same, 505 State Street.
Here is a link to the official web web site of the Woodward Theater. Though now primarily a live music venue and event center, the house is equipped to show movies and has hosted several film events since its renovation in 2014 (see the “Film Exhibitions” section on the site’s “Event Venue” menu.)
The October 22, 1949 issue of Boxoffice said that the 500-seat Roxy Theatre, being built at West Frankfort for the Fox Midwest circuit, was slated to open Thanksgiving Day. The item said the house was at the site of the old Rex Theatre, and construction had begun in May, 1948, after the building’s previous tenants had vacated.
So the 1928 theater might have been in the the building built for the New Grand in 1924. Though only the Family was listed in the 1926 FDY, both the Family and Grand Theatres were listed in the 1927, 1928 and 1929 editions, and the whole town vanished from the 1930 edition. Trade journal reports indicate that the Grand changed hands at least twice within a few months of opening, so it must have been struggling. The 1926 FDY lists houses called the Family Theatre in both West Frankfort and Frankfort Heights, but doesn’t list the New Grand.
A bit more confusion arises from a report in the July, 1915 issue of Safety Engineering that a fire had damaged the Grand Theatre in West Frankfort on May 15. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only a house called the Arc Theatre at West Frankfort and none at Frankfort Heights. The book did miss a lot of theaters though, so it doesn’t mean the Family wasn’t in operation then, or that the Arc didn’t have local competition.
The Strand, Rex, and State Theatres in West Frankfort were all mentioned in the February 23, 1929 issue of Universal Weekly. There is some chance that the State might have been a house opened in 1924 as the Majestic Theatre by William Muhlenbach and sold by him to the Reed, Yemm & Hayes Circuit in 1927, according to the July 5 issue of Film Daily that year. Reed, Yemm & Hayes also owned the Rex Theatre at that time. The Majestic was still listed in the 1929 FDY. However, the 400-seat Majestic would have needed significant alterations to reach the State’s capacity of 698.
A James Clayton, of the Strand Theatre at West Frankfort, was publishing capsule movie reviews in Exhibitors Herald at least as early as the issue of December 30, 1922. I suspect that an item in the July 24, 1918 Film Daily pertained to the Star/Strand. It said simply that Frank Lowry, owner of the Princess Theatre at Salem, Illinois, planned to build a 900-seat movie theater at West Frankfort. The timing is right for the project to have been in operation as the Star in 1919.
This house was undoubtedly on E. Main Street, as the Frankfort Heights area is that direction from downtown West Frankfort. Frankfort Heights was the original town of Frankfort, founded in the 1810s. In the late 19th century a new north-south railroad line bypassed the town to its west and local businesses began moving to a new townsite adjacent to the tracks, and that became the nucleus of West Frankfort.
An April 4, 1925 article in Exhibitors Herald noted that two small theaters in Frankfort Heights had escaped serious damage from a storm that had recently destroyed movie houses in several towns in the region. It didn’t give the names of the theaters, but one must have been the Family and the other a theater called the New Grand, which the February 23, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal had said was slated to open on March 1. The New Grand might have been a renovation of a house called the American Theatre, which the February 3 Reel Journal had said had been temporarily closed.
Theatre #! was renamed the Hill Theatre sometime before closing on July 1, 1950. In 1951, the building was sold to the Baptist church, which moved it to a different location for use as a sanctuary.
An article about a nuclear accident that took place in Los Alamos on August 21, 1945, indicates that Theatre #2 was in operation by that date. The theater was used for religious services and sometimes for meetings related to the work of the Manhattan Project as well.
The 280-seat Conway Theatre makes its first appearance in Film Daily Year Book in 1946, suggesting a 1945 opening. Also listed is the 225-seat Opera House, and I don’t know that we can rule out a double-listing of a remodeled and renamed house. 1945 was a difficult year to open a new theater, given the strict ongoing limits on construction that prevailed for several years after the war. The Opera House was in operation by 1914, and the 1922 Cahn guide listed it with 250 seats, though FDY always listed it with 225 seats.
Here’s an item from the April 5, 1919 issue of Moving Picture World:
Information in the summer, 2013 issue of the Huronia Museum’s newsletter (PDF here) indicates that the Model was in operation by 1915 at the location where the Capitol Theatre would later be, in a building that had been built around 1900.The Model Theatre and Arthur Bugg had both been mentioned in the April 6, 1918 issue of Canadian Moving Picture Digest. Earlier, the house had been operated by someone else, as the July 8, 1916 issue of Motion Picture News had mentioned “…Lieut. Bill Duncan, for many years in charge of the Model theatre, of Midland, Ont…..”
The restored Model Theatre was still operated by Arthur Bugg in 1929, when they were mentioned together in the March 23 issue of Universal Weekly.
The Lyceum Theatre, Broadway and 38th Street, is one of the 14 movie houses listed at Bayonne in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
A book published by the Boonton Historical Society says that the Harris Lyceum opened in 1889. It was also the first theater at which George Burns and Gracie Allen performed as a team.
The DeWitt Theater was built for Joseph Hockstein, owner of the older theater at 511 Broadway later known as the Strand. Here is the notice from the September 16, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World: “BAYONNE, N. J.— Jacob Hockstein, 511 Broadway, has plans by Carl I. Goldberg, 467 Broadway, for three-story brick theatre, store and office building, 118 by 175 feet, to be erected at southwest corner Broadway and 25th street.” Architect Goldberg had drawn the plans for remodeling the Strand (then called the Broadway) for Hockstein in 1917.
There is another aka for this house. This item is from the June 16, 1917 issue of Real Estate Record and Builders Guide: “BAYONNE, NJ; Carl I. Goldberg, 437 Broadway, Bayonne, has plans in progress for alterations to the 1 sty brick theatre (Broadway Theatre) at 511 Broadway for Joseph Hockstein, 20 West 27th st, Bayonne, owner. Cost 10,000.”
A brochure with a walking tour of Brooksville (PDF here) says “23 N Main Street Once was the Victory Theater which was run by Alan Hawkins; Later was Lingle’s Dept. Store.” In 1924, the Victory was operated by two guys named Hawkins and Hudson, who submitted capsule movie reviews to Moving Picture World. The earliest one I’ve seen is in the issue of September 13 that year.
Also, the brochure notes a movie theater called the Star, in operation by 1915, so the Victory might not have been the first. Its name does suggest that it might have opened around the time the US entered WWI, though.
The Victory Theatre building has been demolished since the brochure was published in 2007. Today 23 N. Main is the site of a drive-through ATM facility.
A brief article in the September 29, 1951 issue of Boxoffice said that the Roxy Theatre in St. Helens had reopened after having been closed for twelve years. The 442-seat house had been completely renovated, redecorated and reseated and a new powder room, concession stand, box office and marquee added, according to new owner C. H. Smith, who had also bought the Columbia Theatre.
This house apparently continued to be called Harter’s Opera House after the Dickson Brothers took over and rebuilt it, as that is how it is styled in the 1921 and 1922 editions of Wid’s Year Book. Dickson Bros also owned the Eagle Theatre at that time. Cahn guides from 1900 and 1902 list Harter’s as an 800-seat upstairs house. By 1907, Harter’s is no longer listed in Cahn’s guides, having been displaced by the much larger Eagle Theatre.
This Facebook post from Wabash County Historian has some early history of the theater and a photograph from 1897. The building was remodeled and expanded the following year. This building, the second on the site, the first having been built in 1874 and burned in 1875, opened on December 11, 1876 as the Haas Opera House. It had become Harter’s Opera House by 1879.
Here is the Virginia Theatre’s official web site.
I noticed that the 1912-1913 Cahn guide lists the 700 seat Sterling Theatre, managed by W. M. Noltie, while a 1911 edition of the Colorado Business Directory lists the Sterling Opera House managed by W. M. Noltie. The May 15, 1910 edition of The Nickelodeon has an item datelined Sterling saying “Wm. Noltie, proprietor of the opera house, has arranged to put on a nightly motion picture show and vaudeville performance.”
Both the Opera House and the Sterling Theatre are listed in the 1913-1914 American Motion Picture Directory, but I’m wondering if perhaps they were the same house, double listed? It wouldn’t be the only time AMPD had done that. Sterling was never a very big town, and the Directory lists two other movie theaters, the Electric and the Princess. Even though the population boomed from just over 3,000 in 1910 to almost 6,500 in 1920, Sterling supporting three theaters in that decade would have been a struggle, and four a miracle, especially if one of them had 700 seats.