According to this article in Boxoffice of August 30, 1971, the BremenTowne Theatre opened as a single-screen house. There is a photo of the 1,023-seat auditorium. The house was designed by the architectural firm of Robert Taylor & Associates.
For what it’s worth, newspaper articles from 1971 also call the house the BremenTowne Theatre, spelled and capitalized exactly the way Boxoffice did it. A Chicago Tribune article from as late as January 19, 1994, still called it the Brementowne Theater.
Both CinemaTour and our description say that the theater was moved to the other side of the mall and rebuilt as a quad at some point. DeadMalls has a page for the Brementown Mall which says pretty much the same thing, but it also says that the Mall opened in 1973, which means the theater would have predated it by two years.
The exterior photo and an architectural drawing illustrating the Boxoffice article show an outside entrance to the theater, so I suspect that DeadMalls is right about the mall having been built in 1973. Whether the original theater building was demolished or incorporated into the mall and converted to another use, I don’t know. All the information available on the Internet is pretty sketchy.
If the theater did move from the west end of the mall to the east end when the mall was built, then we actually have two entirely different theaters of the same name here. The house that opened in 1971 was a big, impressive theater. It would have been terribly wasteful for it to have been demolished, or even converted to another use, after only a couple of years, but it looks like that might be what happened.
The August 30, 1971, Boxoffice article about the addition of a second auditorium to the Chris-Town Theatre, which I cited in an earlier comment, can be seen online at this link. From the photo on the first page of the article, as well as various parts of the text, I get the impression that the Chris-Town 1 and Chris-Town 2 didn’t share any common areas inside, though the article never explicitly says that this was the case.
As I noted earlier, architects Pearson, Wuesthoff & Skinner designed the Chris-Town 2.
This article from Boxoffice of August 30, 1971, tells of plans for Holiday Theatres 3-6, and features a drawing of the proposed house. It says that the four-screen expansion had been planned by Denver theater designer Mel C. Glatz.
The 1972 article that Tinseltoes linked to earlier has two photos of the quad as it had been completed. That article also says that the multiplex was to be expanded again, with the addition of four more screens, but as it is still listed here as the Holiday Six I guess that second expansion was never carried out.
The Bruton Terrace IV Theatre was featured in this single-page article in Boxoffice of August 30, 1971. There are four photos. The 1,500-seat quad, operated by Texas Cinema Corporation, was designed by architect Charles Taylor.
Showcase Cinemas 4 & 5 were featured in this single-page article from Boxoffice of August 30, 1971. There are photos of the box office and concession stand. The article doesn’t specifically say if the new twin was a separate building unconnected to the earlier three screens, but I get the impression that it was. For one thing, the concession stand looked just about big enough to serve the 1,424 seats of the twin, and no more.
An article about the ABC Cinema was featured in the “Modern Theatre” section of Boxoffice on August 30, 1971. On opening, the single-screen house had 700 seats. The article confirms John Rowland Thompson (John R. Thompson & Associates) as the architect of this theater.
Also, Movie Tavern’s official page for this house currently lists it with only four screens, not five.
Here is a clickable link to the 1971 Boxoffice article kornpopper76 cited about the conversion of the Cooper 70 into a triplex. The seating capacity of the Cooper 1-2-3 was 1,656, with 832 seats in the original theater and 406 and 418 in Cinemas 2 and 3, respectively. Theater designer Mel C. Glatz collaborated with the architectural firm of Knight & Rorman on the expansion project.
Hhc632: I’m not from Colorado Springs, but could the theater you recall be the Cinema 70, located on Chelton Road just off of East Platte?
As for the multiplex at the mall, the only one we have listed is Picture Show at Citadel Crossing, which is actually across the street and apparently didn’t open until the early 1990s, so it probably isn’t the one you remember. I’ve seen a couple of references to a theater having operated in the mall in the 1970s, but haven’t found any details about it, other than that it has been closed and probably demolished for the expansion of a department store. It isn’t listed at Cinema Treasures yet.
In a 1921 telephone directory, 39 N. Oak Street was listed as the address of the Arcade Theatre, featuring moving pictures. That year, Mt. Carmel also had the Valentine Theatre, at 14 S. Oak, and the Theatorium, at 112 S. Oak, both also moving picture houses. There might have been other theaters that didn’t have telephones yet.
The address of the Lyric Restaurant, still located in the former theater, is 33 W. Center Street. Here is a Google Street View, since ours isn’t currently working.
The Lyric Theatre was noted in the “Among the Picture Theaters” feature of The Moving Picture World for March 22, 1913 (scan here). The house had been recently built for owner-operator Richard Dabb, on the site of his earlier theater of the same name.
An earlier Photoplay Theatre was located on South Main Street and opened in 1910 or 1911. Here is it’s (sparse) page at Utah Theatres. One or the other of the Photoplays was mentioned in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The Photoplay theater is one of the smaller houses of Salt Lake that has enjoyed continued prosperity for several years. It was built by some ranchers and later sold to Mrs. McGrath, its present manager.”
Because the article says it had been in operation for several years, I suspect that it was the first house of that name. I’ve found no other trade journal references to a Photoplay Theatre in Salt Lake City.
Bing’s map quirk is especially odd considering that Main Street runs north and south, not east and west. But I’ve found that it works with any directional indicator- N., S., E., or W. Only the plain Main Street goes to the wrong location.
When I searched the address on Bing Maps, plain Main Street fetched up in a residential neighborhood in West Seneca. Adding E. to it put it in the right place. Google Maps does go to the downtown Buffalo location with or without the E.
The address of the Telenews Theatre was 525 E. Main Street.
This PDF from rjbuffalo.com gives the theater at 525 Main Street, Buffalo, a whole string of aka’s. It opened as the Vendome Theatre in 1909. On February 4, 1912, it became the Happy Hour Theatre, and retained that name until ca.1931, when it was renamed the Embassy Theatre. On April 17, 1942, it became the Telenews Theatre, but was renamed the Vogue Theatre in May, 1946. Two years later it returned to the name Telenews, but was renamed the Guild Theatre by 1950.
The document notes that the Vendome was apparently a conversion of an existing building and the theater was designed by architect F.A. Baynes; that it extended through the block to Washington Street; and that at the time the document was written it housed a Chinese restaurant, which is apparently still there. Google Street View shows the Washington Street end of the building, as Main Street has been converted into a transit mall and the camera car didn’t travel along this block of it.
The document also carries a cryptic note saying “Not to be confused with the Empire at 261 Main, the Empire at 1514 Main, or the Empire at 164–170 Pearl.” This is odd, as Empire Theatre is not listed among the aka’s for the house.
The June 9, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News ran an item that is probably about the Strand Theatre:
“VALLEJO, SOLANO CO., CAL.— Theatre and stores, 2 story and base, reinforced concrete, 35,000. Architect, B. J. Joseph, New Call Bldg.. S. F. Owner, Albert Bernheim. The building will be erected on Georgia street west of Marin, and will cover a large ground area. Besides the theatre the first floor will contain a number of stores. Upper floor will be arranged for offices. Interior of the theatre will be finished in ornamental plaster. Pine trim will be used. There will be steam heat and vacuum cleaning. Special electric work and sheet metal work is called for in the theatre. Patent store fronts are specified. Exterior of the building will be faced with cement plaster. Plans are complete and figures are being taken.”
I’ve come across enough period references to the architect of this theater to be convinced that his name is indeed J. Flood Walker. One item is this from the March 17, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News:
“SANTA ANA, ORANGE CO., CAL.—
"Theatre. 1 story and base, brick. $25,000. Architect. J. Flood Walker. 303 East 4th street, Santa Ana. Owners, West End Improvement Association. The building will be erected at the corner of 4th and Birch streets and will cover a large ground area. There will be two stores besides the theatre. Interior will be finished in pine and ornamental plaster. There will be a special ventilating system, special electric work and metal window sash and frames. Exterior of the building will be faced with pressed brick. Plans are now being prepared.”
Here is an item from the February 17, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News about the alteration of the Chutes Theatre that took place that year, when it was converted into a movie house:
“THEATRE ALTERATION — Concrete
and steel. Cost not stated. San Francisco. Architect, J. R. Miller, Lick Bldg-, S. F. Owners, Realty and Rebuilding Co. The old Chutes Theatre will be moved to the rear of the present stores on Fillmore street between Turk and Eddy streets and a new entrance and other alterations made to conform with the law. Plans are complete and work will be started shortly.”
This brief biography of architect Bjarne H. Moe, from the Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, says that he was the architect for a remodeling of the Capitol Theatre in Walla Walla in 1938.
hanksykes said earlier that the Park Hall Theatre was built in 1913 by builders Moorman & John. The January 4, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an item saying that builders Moorman and John, of Oakley, Ohio, had commissioned architect Edward Sloctemyer to design a theater for them, which was to be built on Madison Road near Gilmore Avenue. No theater name was given, but it must have been the Park Hall/Ambassador.
The January 4, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Sequoia Theatre. The house had opened on November 22, 1910, with 600 seats. It was exclusively a movie house, and the building was 36 feet wide by 130 feet deep, with a lobby 20 feet deep. The operator of the Sequoia was Isidor F. Morris.
On this web page, Cezar Del Valle says that the Bijou Dream was at 106 Main Street East. The first theater in Rochester to be devoted exclusively to movies, it opened in 1906, and closed on February 28, 1913. The space was converted into a cigar store.
The Majestic Theatre’s web site says that their house opened in August, 1913. Here is an item about an unnamed theater to be built in Corvallis, from the January 21, 1913, issue of Building and Industrial News:
“THEATRE— 2 story, and base, brick and concrete, $30,000. Corvallis. Ore. Architect, George Post, Salem. Owner, M. Porter. The building will contain a main auditorium seating in the neighborhood of 900 people. Construction will be of reinforced concrete with exterior walls of pressed brick and terra cotta. A central heating system will be installed. Interior will be finished in metal and ornamental plaster. Floors will be of concrete. Stage equipment will be let under a separate contract. Plans are now being prepared.”
The description fits the Majestic quite well, as does the timing. Salem architect George M. Post is not to be confused with the better known New York architect George B. Post.
The July 13, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Globe Theatre:
“$55,000 MOVING PICTURE HOUSE FOR
SAN PEDRO.
“Luke Kelley will erect on his property at Pablos [sic] Verdes and Sixth Street, San Pedro, Cal., for the Globe Amusement Company, a $55,000 moving picture theater to be known as the Globe Theater No. 5. This house will have large rooms over the auditorium, and will be one of the most beautiful structures in San Pedro. The architect is A. Lawrence Valk.”
A follow-up item appeared in the issue of July 20:
“San Pedro, Cal. — A. Lawrence Valk has completed plans for a $20,000 two-story brick moving picture theater building to be built on the corner of 6th and Palos Verdes Sts., for Luke Kelly.”
The September 7 issue had an item about the Globe Amusement Company itself:
“Announcement that the Globe Amusement Company has acquired another motion picture theater, making six in all, was made this week. The new house is the Starland Theater, located on the $1,000,000 Frazer pier at Ocean Park. It is one of the finest motion picture houses in California. J. M. Boland, former owner of the house, is to be retained as resident manager. The Globe Amusement Company is planning to build or acquire and to operate, 15 houses in and around Los Angeles. No. 1 is at Fifth and Los Angeles Streets, No. 2 at Central Avenue and Jefferson Street, No. 3 at Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park road, No. 4 at 18th and Main Streets and No. 5 at Sixth and Palos Verdes Street. All except the last named, which is in San Pedro, are in Los Angeles proper.”
Architect Arthur Lawrence Valk began practicing in New York City around 1885, as junior partner in has father’s firm, L. B. Valk & Son. His father, Lawrence B. Valk, was best known for his church designs, some of which were built as far afield as Louisiana, Ohio, and Michigan. By 1904, the Valks had moved to Los Angeles. There the firm continued to specialize in churches, but by 1913 Arthur Valk had become well enough known for his work on movie theaters to have been called a “motion picture specialist” by trade journal Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer.
Among his other movie houses were the Argus Theatre (later the Strand) in Santa Barbara, and the Sunbeam Theatre in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles. As he also designed the Globe Theatre # 2 (later the Florence Mills Theatre), it’s possible that he designed other projects for the Globe Amusement Company, perhaps including the Globe # 1 at Fifth and Los Angeles Streets and the Globe # 3 (Holly Theatre) in Echo Park. If the Globe # 4 at 18th and Main is listed at Cinema Treasures under another name, I can’t find it.
The address of the Lovejoy Theatre that was listed in city directories in the 1920s was 1002 Lovejoy Street, which is still the address on the Cricket Wireless building today.
This document (a Microsoft Word file) about some of Buffalo’s silent era theaters quotes the minutes of the common council meeting of March 1, 1909, containing this information about the first Lovejoy Theatre:
“Christian Mumenthaler and one, to build frame nickelodeon, 25x100x15 feet high, front of lot, northwest corner of Lovejoy and Davey streets.”
It also says that the architect of the Lovejoy Theatre was P.L. Cimini. It also lists him as the architect of the nearby Avon Theatre.
In addition, it says that the first Lovejoy Theater was demolished in the late 1940s, which I originally misread (or mis-remebered) as simply 1940.
The architect of record for the Cinemark 18 at Pittsburgh Mills is Kip E. Daniel of The Beck Group.
According to this article in Boxoffice of August 30, 1971, the BremenTowne Theatre opened as a single-screen house. There is a photo of the 1,023-seat auditorium. The house was designed by the architectural firm of Robert Taylor & Associates.
For what it’s worth, newspaper articles from 1971 also call the house the BremenTowne Theatre, spelled and capitalized exactly the way Boxoffice did it. A Chicago Tribune article from as late as January 19, 1994, still called it the Brementowne Theater.
Both CinemaTour and our description say that the theater was moved to the other side of the mall and rebuilt as a quad at some point. DeadMalls has a page for the Brementown Mall which says pretty much the same thing, but it also says that the Mall opened in 1973, which means the theater would have predated it by two years.
The exterior photo and an architectural drawing illustrating the Boxoffice article show an outside entrance to the theater, so I suspect that DeadMalls is right about the mall having been built in 1973. Whether the original theater building was demolished or incorporated into the mall and converted to another use, I don’t know. All the information available on the Internet is pretty sketchy.
If the theater did move from the west end of the mall to the east end when the mall was built, then we actually have two entirely different theaters of the same name here. The house that opened in 1971 was a big, impressive theater. It would have been terribly wasteful for it to have been demolished, or even converted to another use, after only a couple of years, but it looks like that might be what happened.
The August 30, 1971, Boxoffice article about the addition of a second auditorium to the Chris-Town Theatre, which I cited in an earlier comment, can be seen online at this link. From the photo on the first page of the article, as well as various parts of the text, I get the impression that the Chris-Town 1 and Chris-Town 2 didn’t share any common areas inside, though the article never explicitly says that this was the case.
As I noted earlier, architects Pearson, Wuesthoff & Skinner designed the Chris-Town 2.
This article from Boxoffice of August 30, 1971, tells of plans for Holiday Theatres 3-6, and features a drawing of the proposed house. It says that the four-screen expansion had been planned by Denver theater designer Mel C. Glatz.
The 1972 article that Tinseltoes linked to earlier has two photos of the quad as it had been completed. That article also says that the multiplex was to be expanded again, with the addition of four more screens, but as it is still listed here as the Holiday Six I guess that second expansion was never carried out.
The Bruton Terrace IV Theatre was featured in this single-page article in Boxoffice of August 30, 1971. There are four photos. The 1,500-seat quad, operated by Texas Cinema Corporation, was designed by architect Charles Taylor.
Showcase Cinemas 4 & 5 were featured in this single-page article from Boxoffice of August 30, 1971. There are photos of the box office and concession stand. The article doesn’t specifically say if the new twin was a separate building unconnected to the earlier three screens, but I get the impression that it was. For one thing, the concession stand looked just about big enough to serve the 1,424 seats of the twin, and no more.
An article about the ABC Cinema was featured in the “Modern Theatre” section of Boxoffice on August 30, 1971. On opening, the single-screen house had 700 seats. The article confirms John Rowland Thompson (John R. Thompson & Associates) as the architect of this theater.
Also, Movie Tavern’s official page for this house currently lists it with only four screens, not five.
Here is a clickable link to the 1971 Boxoffice article kornpopper76 cited about the conversion of the Cooper 70 into a triplex. The seating capacity of the Cooper 1-2-3 was 1,656, with 832 seats in the original theater and 406 and 418 in Cinemas 2 and 3, respectively. Theater designer Mel C. Glatz collaborated with the architectural firm of Knight & Rorman on the expansion project.
Hhc632: I’m not from Colorado Springs, but could the theater you recall be the Cinema 70, located on Chelton Road just off of East Platte?
As for the multiplex at the mall, the only one we have listed is Picture Show at Citadel Crossing, which is actually across the street and apparently didn’t open until the early 1990s, so it probably isn’t the one you remember. I’ve seen a couple of references to a theater having operated in the mall in the 1970s, but haven’t found any details about it, other than that it has been closed and probably demolished for the expansion of a department store. It isn’t listed at Cinema Treasures yet.
In a 1921 telephone directory, 39 N. Oak Street was listed as the address of the Arcade Theatre, featuring moving pictures. That year, Mt. Carmel also had the Valentine Theatre, at 14 S. Oak, and the Theatorium, at 112 S. Oak, both also moving picture houses. There might have been other theaters that didn’t have telephones yet.
The address of the Lyric Restaurant, still located in the former theater, is 33 W. Center Street. Here is a Google Street View, since ours isn’t currently working.
The Lyric Theatre was noted in the “Among the Picture Theaters” feature of The Moving Picture World for March 22, 1913 (scan here). The house had been recently built for owner-operator Richard Dabb, on the site of his earlier theater of the same name.
An earlier Photoplay Theatre was located on South Main Street and opened in 1910 or 1911. Here is it’s (sparse) page at Utah Theatres. One or the other of the Photoplays was mentioned in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Because the article says it had been in operation for several years, I suspect that it was the first house of that name. I’ve found no other trade journal references to a Photoplay Theatre in Salt Lake City.Bing’s map quirk is especially odd considering that Main Street runs north and south, not east and west. But I’ve found that it works with any directional indicator- N., S., E., or W. Only the plain Main Street goes to the wrong location.
When I searched the address on Bing Maps, plain Main Street fetched up in a residential neighborhood in West Seneca. Adding E. to it put it in the right place. Google Maps does go to the downtown Buffalo location with or without the E.
The address of the Telenews Theatre was 525 E. Main Street.
This PDF from rjbuffalo.com gives the theater at 525 Main Street, Buffalo, a whole string of aka’s. It opened as the Vendome Theatre in 1909. On February 4, 1912, it became the Happy Hour Theatre, and retained that name until ca.1931, when it was renamed the Embassy Theatre. On April 17, 1942, it became the Telenews Theatre, but was renamed the Vogue Theatre in May, 1946. Two years later it returned to the name Telenews, but was renamed the Guild Theatre by 1950.
The document notes that the Vendome was apparently a conversion of an existing building and the theater was designed by architect F.A. Baynes; that it extended through the block to Washington Street; and that at the time the document was written it housed a Chinese restaurant, which is apparently still there. Google Street View shows the Washington Street end of the building, as Main Street has been converted into a transit mall and the camera car didn’t travel along this block of it.
The document also carries a cryptic note saying “Not to be confused with the Empire at 261 Main, the Empire at 1514 Main, or the Empire at 164–170 Pearl.” This is odd, as Empire Theatre is not listed among the aka’s for the house.
The June 9, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News ran an item that is probably about the Strand Theatre:
I’ve come across enough period references to the architect of this theater to be convinced that his name is indeed J. Flood Walker. One item is this from the March 17, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News:
Here is an item from the February 17, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News about the alteration of the Chutes Theatre that took place that year, when it was converted into a movie house:
This brief biography of architect Bjarne H. Moe, from the Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, says that he was the architect for a remodeling of the Capitol Theatre in Walla Walla in 1938.
hanksykes said earlier that the Park Hall Theatre was built in 1913 by builders Moorman & John. The January 4, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an item saying that builders Moorman and John, of Oakley, Ohio, had commissioned architect Edward Sloctemyer to design a theater for them, which was to be built on Madison Road near Gilmore Avenue. No theater name was given, but it must have been the Park Hall/Ambassador.
The January 4, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Sequoia Theatre. The house had opened on November 22, 1910, with 600 seats. It was exclusively a movie house, and the building was 36 feet wide by 130 feet deep, with a lobby 20 feet deep. The operator of the Sequoia was Isidor F. Morris.
On this web page, Cezar Del Valle says that the Bijou Dream was at 106 Main Street East. The first theater in Rochester to be devoted exclusively to movies, it opened in 1906, and closed on February 28, 1913. The space was converted into a cigar store.
The Majestic Theatre’s web site says that their house opened in August, 1913. Here is an item about an unnamed theater to be built in Corvallis, from the January 21, 1913, issue of Building and Industrial News:
The description fits the Majestic quite well, as does the timing. Salem architect George M. Post is not to be confused with the better known New York architect George B. Post.The July 13, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Globe Theatre:
A follow-up item appeared in the issue of July 20:The September 7 issue had an item about the Globe Amusement Company itself:Architect Arthur Lawrence Valk began practicing in New York City around 1885, as junior partner in has father’s firm, L. B. Valk & Son. His father, Lawrence B. Valk, was best known for his church designs, some of which were built as far afield as Louisiana, Ohio, and Michigan. By 1904, the Valks had moved to Los Angeles. There the firm continued to specialize in churches, but by 1913 Arthur Valk had become well enough known for his work on movie theaters to have been called a “motion picture specialist” by trade journal Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer.Among his other movie houses were the Argus Theatre (later the Strand) in Santa Barbara, and the Sunbeam Theatre in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles. As he also designed the Globe Theatre # 2 (later the Florence Mills Theatre), it’s possible that he designed other projects for the Globe Amusement Company, perhaps including the Globe # 1 at Fifth and Los Angeles Streets and the Globe # 3 (Holly Theatre) in Echo Park. If the Globe # 4 at 18th and Main is listed at Cinema Treasures under another name, I can’t find it.
The address of the Lovejoy Theatre that was listed in city directories in the 1920s was 1002 Lovejoy Street, which is still the address on the Cricket Wireless building today.
This document (a Microsoft Word file) about some of Buffalo’s silent era theaters quotes the minutes of the common council meeting of March 1, 1909, containing this information about the first Lovejoy Theatre:
It also says that the architect of the Lovejoy Theatre was P.L. Cimini. It also lists him as the architect of the nearby Avon Theatre.In addition, it says that the first Lovejoy Theater was demolished in the late 1940s, which I originally misread (or mis-remebered) as simply 1940.