I was unaware that there had been two houses called the Lyric in Binghamton. As David W. Jones was the architect of the new Lyric Theatre of 1929, then Sanford O. Lacey had to have been the architect of the 1893 Bijou Theatre, which became the first Lyric in 1908.
Here is a brief biography of Jones, first published in 1924, which notes that he worked in the office of T.I. Lacey & Sons in 1919 and 1920.
Shellimcgeheegray: Thanks for your comment. I’m sorry it took so long for me to respond, but when this site was relaunched a couple of years ago all of our subscriptions to individual theater pages were canceled, so we no longer got notifications of new comments until we re-subscribed, and this is the first time I’ve been back to this page since then.
Another Cinema Treasures member found another Boxoffice article about the UltraVision Theatre in Charleston, and on this page of it there is a photo of five of the people involved in the project, including your Grandfather. The scan is a bit blurry, but I thought you would enjoy seeing it, if you haven’t already. And, perhaps for the only time, the magazine spelled your family’s name correctly in the caption.
Fans of Cinema Treasures are always glad to hear anything about the architects who designed the marvelous theaters we admire. Although I’ve never visited any of the regions where the theaters your Grandfather designed are located, I’ve been impressed by the photos I’ve seen of them, and the reports of other Cinema Treasures members who remember attending them.
This Yahoo Groups page lists a number of theaters that used the UltraVision process, with dates of opening, or of the installation of Ultravision in some cases (<Boxoffice is cited as the source for the information.)
The Oglethorpe Theatre was dated August, 1969, which must have been when its UltraVision equipment was installed, as the very first UltraVision Theatre wasn’t opened until September that year, at Charleston, South Carolina. The Savannah house must have opened not long after, as installation of the screen and projectors would have been done when the project was nearing completion.
Being among the first of its kind, it’s also likely that this theater followed the Charleston prototype closely, using the elliptical auditorium that was developed for UltraVision by architect William B. McGehee, of the firm Six Associates. If anyone recalls the Oglethorpe Theatre looking like the Charleston house as seen in this article from Boxoffice of September 29, 1969, I think we could safely credit William B. McGehee as its architect.
OCRon’s link. Both locations of the Esquire Theatre are listed, with small photos. This one, at 546 Main, was on a corner lot, while the second Esquire, in the former State Theatre, was mid-block.
In our photo section, all the exterior shots except this one depict the second Esquire. I don’t know which theater is shown in the single interior shot.
Lang’s Theatre had probably been closed for about four years when this 1943 photo was made, but the arched entrance that Henry Lang had built in 1920 was still intact.
Roddkay: Information about Shafter’s theaters has been hard to find. It’s good to hear from someone who knew them firsthand. Thanks for your contribution.
I found a 1947 directory for Kern County, and it lists the Shafter Theatre at 148 Central Avenue. However, the directory has the State Theatre listed at 634 James, while its current address is 726 James. Shafter must have changed its numbering system sometime after 1947, which means the Shafter Theatre might have been in what is now the 200 block, between James Street and Munzer Street. Is that where you remember it being?
The April, 2009, issue of Mohave Memories says that the State Theatre was built by Harry Nace and opened in September, 1939. It was designed by Phoenix architects Alexander & Burton, and was erected by local contractors I.M. George and W.S. Ford.
The newsletter doesn’t say when Lang’s Theatre closed (it opened in 1917), but the impression I’ve gotten from various sources is that it closed around the time the State opened. Movies had been shown in Kingman as early as 1907, at the Elk’s Hall.
The April 27, 1911, issue of the City and County of San Francisco’s Municipal Recordreported that Samuel Loverich had been granted a motion picture permit for the Princess Theatre, Ellis Street.
The October, 2012, issue of the Mohave Museum of History & Arts newsletter, Mohave Memories, indicates that the State Theatre at Kingman was in operation by 1940. In 1946, Ira Rawlings was the name of the manager.
The photo labeled RM:17 on this page of the 1985 book The Architectural History of Randolph County North Carolina depicts the former Royal Theatre building. Photo RM:16 also shows the building, plus the building next door which is still standing today. Presumably the photos date from shortly before the book’s publication, so the Royal was demolished sometime after the mid-1980s.
As Google Maps has seen fit to place the Royal Theatre in Franklinville, the next town west of Ramseur, here is a corrected Street View. Oddly, Google Maps has no trouble finding the correct location from its own search page.
According to a document prepared for Arkansas Preservation, the Avon Theatre was located at the southeast corner of West Broadway and Rhodes Street. The site is now occupied by part of a Sonic Drive-in restaurant. Prior to being taken over by Malco and renamed the Avon in 1953, the Joy Theatre sometimes presented live burlesque shows which had been banned in Memphis.
The only photo of the Capitol Theatre I’ve been able to find is in a panoramic view at the bottom of this page of The Architectural History of Randolph County North Carolina. The Capitol was in the right-most building on the left side of the street, partly hidden by the sandwich board sign sitting in the intersection. The image will have to be enlarged enormously (use the + sign in the tool bar at the lower right of the page) to make the theater’s rather plain little marquee visible. The theater’s name is not readable.
Some other sources give the opening year as 1916, but they usually say that it was Asheboro’s first movie theater, and the Randolph County Historical Society’s book Randolph County 1779-1979 quotes an item from the February 18, 1914, issue of The Bulletin and Randleman News indicating that a movie theater was already in operation on Depot Street (now Sunset Avenue) by that time:
“MOVING PICTURE SHOW
“The moving picture show has changed hands. Mr. W. P. Fowler has bought the movie from Col. Bowman, and will close the place until Friday to make it a place beautiful by overhauling and painting and otherwise improving the place. It will give the very highest class pictures service, in fact much better than has ever appeared before in Asheboro. Will be open Friday evening at 7:30p.m. Popular prices, children 5 cents, 10 cents to adults.
“A good movie in Asheboro will meet a long felt want on the part of the people both in town and country. Such is about to be realized, since Mr. Fowler has purchased the show house on Depot Street and will greatly improve the place. He will open up Friday evening and give a matinee every Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock. All ministers families admitted free.”
Either the Joyland Theatre was operating by early 1914, or it was not Asheboro’s first movie theater. DocSouth’s Going to the Show is no help on this one, as it lists for Asheboro only the Sunset, the Capitol, and three houses with unknown names, none at the Joyland’s address.
If the building the Princess occupied was demolished to make way for the construction of the Grand’s lobby, then the Princess should certainly have its own page, as a theater can’t be listed as both demolished and still standing.
If the building the Princess was in was converted into the Grand’s lobby, even though the Grand was opened twelve years after the Princess closed, it could work either way. If you want to submit the Princess, though, I’d say go ahead, and Ken Roe can make the call about whether or not to add a new page for it or just add the information to this page.
On the 1916 Sanborn map, 63 S.Main is listed as vacant, and the auditorium of the Grand Theatre does not exist. It doesn’t appear on the 1922 map either. It’s possible that the building the Princess occupied became part of the lobby of the Grand, but it doesn’t appear to have been a theater after the Princess closed in 1916.
This page from the Organ Historical Society lists a Kilgen & Son organ installed in the Paramount Grand Theatre / Benbow Theatre in Mount Airy in 1928. It must have been this theater, though Internet searches fetch no other instances of the name Paramount Grand Theatre. In the 1931 city directory it’s just the Grand Theatre.
Mayberry on Main is south of the Earle Theatre, and should have a smaller number, but the Earle is 142 N. Main. The shop should probably be listed at 122 N. Main, but for some reason it’s listed all over the Internet at 192. Maybe somebody made a typo once, and it just spread to every other web site.
I was unaware that there had been two houses called the Lyric in Binghamton. As David W. Jones was the architect of the new Lyric Theatre of 1929, then Sanford O. Lacey had to have been the architect of the 1893 Bijou Theatre, which became the first Lyric in 1908.
Here is a brief biography of Jones, first published in 1924, which notes that he worked in the office of T.I. Lacey & Sons in 1919 and 1920.
Shellimcgeheegray: Thanks for your comment. I’m sorry it took so long for me to respond, but when this site was relaunched a couple of years ago all of our subscriptions to individual theater pages were canceled, so we no longer got notifications of new comments until we re-subscribed, and this is the first time I’ve been back to this page since then.
Another Cinema Treasures member found another Boxoffice article about the UltraVision Theatre in Charleston, and on this page of it there is a photo of five of the people involved in the project, including your Grandfather. The scan is a bit blurry, but I thought you would enjoy seeing it, if you haven’t already. And, perhaps for the only time, the magazine spelled your family’s name correctly in the caption.
Fans of Cinema Treasures are always glad to hear anything about the architects who designed the marvelous theaters we admire. Although I’ve never visited any of the regions where the theaters your Grandfather designed are located, I’ve been impressed by the photos I’ve seen of them, and the reports of other Cinema Treasures members who remember attending them.
This Yahoo Groups page lists a number of theaters that used the UltraVision process, with dates of opening, or of the installation of Ultravision in some cases (<Boxoffice is cited as the source for the information.)
The Oglethorpe Theatre was dated August, 1969, which must have been when its UltraVision equipment was installed, as the very first UltraVision Theatre wasn’t opened until September that year, at Charleston, South Carolina. The Savannah house must have opened not long after, as installation of the screen and projectors would have been done when the project was nearing completion.
Being among the first of its kind, it’s also likely that this theater followed the Charleston prototype closely, using the elliptical auditorium that was developed for UltraVision by architect William B. McGehee, of the firm Six Associates. If anyone recalls the Oglethorpe Theatre looking like the Charleston house as seen in this article from Boxoffice of September 29, 1969, I think we could safely credit William B. McGehee as its architect.
OCRon’s link. Both locations of the Esquire Theatre are listed, with small photos. This one, at 546 Main, was on a corner lot, while the second Esquire, in the former State Theatre, was mid-block.
In our photo section, all the exterior shots except this one depict the second Esquire. I don’t know which theater is shown in the single interior shot.
Lang’s Theatre had probably been closed for about four years when this 1943 photo was made, but the arched entrance that Henry Lang had built in 1920 was still intact.
Roddkay: Information about Shafter’s theaters has been hard to find. It’s good to hear from someone who knew them firsthand. Thanks for your contribution.
I found a 1947 directory for Kern County, and it lists the Shafter Theatre at 148 Central Avenue. However, the directory has the State Theatre listed at 634 James, while its current address is 726 James. Shafter must have changed its numbering system sometime after 1947, which means the Shafter Theatre might have been in what is now the 200 block, between James Street and Munzer Street. Is that where you remember it being?
bwmoll3’s link.
The April, 2009, issue of Mohave Memories says that the State Theatre was built by Harry Nace and opened in September, 1939. It was designed by Phoenix architects Alexander & Burton, and was erected by local contractors I.M. George and W.S. Ford.
The newsletter doesn’t say when Lang’s Theatre closed (it opened in 1917), but the impression I’ve gotten from various sources is that it closed around the time the State opened. Movies had been shown in Kingman as early as 1907, at the Elk’s Hall.
The April 27, 1911, issue of the City and County of San Francisco’s Municipal Recordreported that Samuel Loverich had been granted a motion picture permit for the Princess Theatre, Ellis Street.
The October, 2012, issue of the Mohave Museum of History & Arts newsletter, Mohave Memories, indicates that the State Theatre at Kingman was in operation by 1940. In 1946, Ira Rawlings was the name of the manager.
The photo labeled RM:17 on this page of the 1985 book The Architectural History of Randolph County North Carolina depicts the former Royal Theatre building. Photo RM:16 also shows the building, plus the building next door which is still standing today. Presumably the photos date from shortly before the book’s publication, so the Royal was demolished sometime after the mid-1980s.
As Google Maps has seen fit to place the Royal Theatre in Franklinville, the next town west of Ramseur, here is a corrected Street View. Oddly, Google Maps has no trouble finding the correct location from its own search page.
The “Theater Changes” section of The Film Daily of October 4, 1937, listed the Garfield Theatre at Terre Haute, Indiana, as a new house.
The “Theater Changes” section of The Film Daily of October 4, 1937, listed the Morin Theatre at Brookville, Indiana, as a new house.
The “Theatre Changes” section of The Film Daily for October 4, 1937, listed the Holden Theatre in Chicago as a new house.
The October 4, 1937, issue of The Film Daily said that the Home Theatre in Los Angeles had been renamed the Arlin Theatre.
According to a document prepared for Arkansas Preservation, the Avon Theatre was located at the southeast corner of West Broadway and Rhodes Street. The site is now occupied by part of a Sonic Drive-in restaurant. Prior to being taken over by Malco and renamed the Avon in 1953, the Joy Theatre sometimes presented live burlesque shows which had been banned in Memphis.
Chuck, the photo you linked to shows the 1949 Curtis Theatre, which is now the Liberty Showcase Theatre.
There’s a photo of the Sunset Theatre as The Flick at upper left on this page of The Architectural History of Randolph County North Carolina.
The only photo of the Capitol Theatre I’ve been able to find is in a panoramic view at the bottom of this page of The Architectural History of Randolph County North Carolina. The Capitol was in the right-most building on the left side of the street, partly hidden by the sandwich board sign sitting in the intersection. The image will have to be enlarged enormously (use the + sign in the tool bar at the lower right of the page) to make the theater’s rather plain little marquee visible. The theater’s name is not readable.
This chronology of Randolph County lists the opening of the Joyland Picture Palace as a 1913 event.
Some other sources give the opening year as 1916, but they usually say that it was Asheboro’s first movie theater, and the Randolph County Historical Society’s book Randolph County 1779-1979 quotes an item from the February 18, 1914, issue of The Bulletin and Randleman News indicating that a movie theater was already in operation on Depot Street (now Sunset Avenue) by that time:
Either the Joyland Theatre was operating by early 1914, or it was not Asheboro’s first movie theater. DocSouth’s Going to the Show is no help on this one, as it lists for Asheboro only the Sunset, the Capitol, and three houses with unknown names, none at the Joyland’s address.If the building the Princess occupied was demolished to make way for the construction of the Grand’s lobby, then the Princess should certainly have its own page, as a theater can’t be listed as both demolished and still standing.
If the building the Princess was in was converted into the Grand’s lobby, even though the Grand was opened twelve years after the Princess closed, it could work either way. If you want to submit the Princess, though, I’d say go ahead, and Ken Roe can make the call about whether or not to add a new page for it or just add the information to this page.
On the 1916 Sanborn map, 63 S.Main is listed as vacant, and the auditorium of the Grand Theatre does not exist. It doesn’t appear on the 1922 map either. It’s possible that the building the Princess occupied became part of the lobby of the Grand, but it doesn’t appear to have been a theater after the Princess closed in 1916.
This page from the Organ Historical Society lists a Kilgen & Son organ installed in the Paramount Grand Theatre / Benbow Theatre in Mount Airy in 1928. It must have been this theater, though Internet searches fetch no other instances of the name Paramount Grand Theatre. In the 1931 city directory it’s just the Grand Theatre.
Mayberry on Main is south of the Earle Theatre, and should have a smaller number, but the Earle is 142 N. Main. The shop should probably be listed at 122 N. Main, but for some reason it’s listed all over the Internet at 192. Maybe somebody made a typo once, and it just spread to every other web site.