I found the first Cameo mentioned in the January 4, 1933, issue of The Film Daily, and have found ads for it in issues of the Courier from March, April, and June 1933. I haven’t found any issues of the Courier from 1934, and I think they might be missing from the Old Fulton History archive. If that’s the case,then it’s quite possible that the Cameo was open in 1934.
As the Ritz, the house appears to have always been operated by the Sussman Circuit. A 1939 Boxoffice article about the new Cameo Theatre that Sussman opened that year mentioned its manager, Henry Flechsenhaar, and said that he had previously been manager of the Ritz. I’m quite sure the Ritz closed when, or before, the new Cameo opened in 1939.
The December 6, 1923, issue of Variety mentions two theaters operating in Brewster, with about 1,000 seats between them. They were the Brewster Theatre and the Strand Theatre (I’ve not seen any ads for the Strand in the Courier.) It’s possible that the Strand was the theater that was to have been opened by Benjamin Zorn in 1921, noted in my previous comment.
So far I’ve found only the one mention of the Strand in Variety, and none in the other entertainment trade publications or the Courier, but an item in the October, 1922, issue of Millinery Trade Review said that Mrs. Violet Sweet had opened a millinery shop in the Strand Building at Brewster, New York.
There is also a mention of the Strand on this web page about Brewster’s Boy Scout Troop 1, which says that the managers of the Strand Theatre had made a Memorial Day film in 1925, featuring the local scouts.
The Cameo must have been either a new theater built in the early 1920s or the Brewster Theatre renamed. As the Cameo was being advertised as early as 1923, and the Strand was still open in 1925, the Strand and the Cameo wouldn’t have been the same theater. I can’t imagine anybody opening a third theater in a town with a population of 1,800 (according to Variety) and having existing theaters able to accommodate over half of it, so if the Cameo was a new theater, then the Brewster must have been either dismantled or destroyed. If the Cameo was a new name for an existing theater, it must have been the Brewster.
The Putnam County Courier has ads for the Ritz from 1935 to 1939 (the latest I’ve found is from May 4, 1939), but prior to 1935 it has ads for a Cameo Theatre going back to at least 1923. They were the same theater. The name change took place before March, 1935. On the first of that month, a Courier article said:
“Irving Wernick, who originally remodeled the old Cameo Theatre, which is now the Ritz, will again take charge of the management of the Ritz Theatre.”
Mr. Wernick’s remodeling and renaming might have taken place in late 1934 or early 1935.
The Ritz building must have been at least two floors, as in the late 1920s there are ads for a Cameo Beauty Shoppe, located “Over the Cameo Theatre.” An article in the May 6, 1921, issue of the Courier mentions a Brewster Theatre, and the July 1, 1921, issue has an ad for it. This could be an even earlier aka for the Ritz, but I’ve been unable to establish that for certain. I’ve never seen more than one theater in Brewster advertised at any given time. The Brewster Theatre was advertised as early as 1919.
An undated issue of the Courier from the fall of 1921 has an item about a Benjamin Zorn who was preparing to open a new movie theater in the Schnieder Block sometime in November. That house might also have been the first Cameo/Ritz, but the project might also have failed. I’ve found no later references to Mr. Zorn, or to a Schneider Block.
Street View is currently fixed on the Anderson Theatre, which was built at 143 N. Main Street in 1938. The older Mullins Theatre was in the red brick building next door, at 141 N. Main.
No, wait. The Facebook page has a link to this web site, but it has only a request for donations and volunteers, and a notice of a board meeting and an open house, both held last month. Whether this will eventually become an official web site or not I don’t know.
The Corpus Christi Public Library has a few photos of the Grande Theatre.
This one from September 6, 1937, shows the R&R logo on the side wall.
This view is from October 3, 1940. Like the Melba across the street, the Grande probably ran Spanish language movies at least part of the time.
This photo was made in 1961, after the theater had closed but before the building was incorporated into the Breslau Furniture store. The Moderne front looks like it dates from the 1940s or maybe the early 1950s.
The original facade of the Grande was remarkably similar to the Melba’s front, though the Grande’s parapet was a bit plainer. It makes me wonder if the Grande was designed by the Melba’s architects, Hardy & Curran?
For Google Maps to fetch the correct location of the York Theatre, the address field should be changed to read: 164 York Blvd Hamilton, ON L8R 3L4
Wiener Melodien, on the marquee in the photo currently displayed above, was an Austrian movie made in 1947, according to IMDb. It was released in the U.S. in 1950, but I suppose it might have reached Canada earlier.
African Americans in Corpus Christi, by Bruce A. Glasrud, Mary Jo O'Rear, and Gloria Randle Scott, says that the Harlem Theatre opened in 1941. It also says that a live performance venue called the Cotton Club opened in the Harlem Theatre in 1960.
The most likely opening date of the Melba Theatre is November 31, 1927, as the following day the Corpus Christi Times published an article about the event. I can’t find the article itself on the Internet, but it was cited in a paper about the proposed Leopard Street Historic District.
Numerous web sites say that the Melba Theatre was built in the 1930s, but an article by Kenneth L. Anthony says that it was built by Edward and Simon Grossman in 1927. I don’t have access to the article, but it is on one of those web sites that allows access to the holders of cards from some public and institutional libraries, so perhaps someone else can read it. Here is the link.
The Melba was already looking a bit dowdy when this photo was taken in August, 1937.
The Melba was directly across the street from another theater, the Grande, built by Bruce Collins in 1928, and by the 1930s both houses were being operated by the Robb & Rowley chain. Neither was first run. The Grande eventually got an Art Moderne facade, while the Melba retained its Spanish Colonial front throughout its history.
The title of Anthony’s article, Moving Pictures and Migrant Pickers: The Melba Theatre and Spanish Language Movies in Corpus Christi, Texas, 1927-1966 suggests that the Melba operated longer than the Grande, which was converted into retail space for a furniture store in 1961. Judging from satellite view, the Melba is in rough shape, as its roof looks very sketchy. The Grande’s roof looks to be in better shape, as its building was used for retail space until fairly recently.
The Regal Deer Park Stadium 16 was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners. Two photos of it are among photos of several of the firm’s projects for Regal that can be seen on this page of JKR’s web site.
The Dietrich Theatre has been expanded, adding two new screens. The new auditoriums and other alterations were designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners, which features a few words about the theater and one small photo on this page of its web site.
There are three photos of the Ambler Theatre on this page of the web site of JKR Partners (formerly JKRoller Architects), the Philadelphia architectural firm that designed the renovations.
The Penn Cinema Riverfront was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners. Photos of it share this page of the firm’s web site with photos of their first project for Penn Cinemas at Lititz, Pennsylvania.
The locally-owned and operated Penn Cinema in Lititz was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners. There are photos of this house, and of the operators' more recent multiplex at Wilmington, Delaware, on this page of the JKR’s web site.
The Newark CityPlex 12 was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners, which was formerly known as JKRoller Architects. There are six photos of this rather stark, modern cinema on the firm’s web site.
The Flix Brewhouse in Round Rock, Texas, was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners. There are three photos of it at their web site, in the entertainment section of their portfolio.
The remodeling and expansion of the Fairgrounds Square Cinemas in Reading for Cinema Center was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners, formerly known as JKRoller Architects.
The L.A. County Assessor gives a construction year of 1902 and an effective build year of 1950 for the 10,766 sq. ft. building on this lot. Google’s camera car went up the alley alongside the building, and there is a parking lot behind it, so you can get a good view of the section that once housed the Strand Theatre’s auditorium.
It is currently part of the Marco Polo Pizza parlor, which has its main entrance on Philadelphia Street, but has another door facing the parking lot off of Comstock Avenue. The structure doesn’t look like it would have a ceiling high enough for a movie theater. Perhaps it was lowered as part of the 1950 alterations.
Although the Assessor’s office says the entire building was built in 1902, I suspect that the part with the auditorium might have been a later addition, and the Assessor’s office just lost track of the paperwork for it.
This theater had become the Schuylkill Avenue Picture House by 1913, when the July 12 issue of The Moving Picture World published a photo of its operator, Ben H. Zerr, who had lately been elected treasurer of the Pennsylvania Exhibitors' League. He was also President of the Reading chapter of the League.
Having seen Mr. Zerr’s photo, and those of other exhibitors featured in the article, I can safely say that, had I been a patron at any of their theaters, I would not have been inclined to spit tobacco juice on the floor or put my feet on a seat. An intimidating mien must have been a prerequisite for operating a movie house in those days.
The Capital 8 Theatres seat a total of 1,554, according to this page of the web site of Thorp Associates, the architectural firm that designed the project.
TivFan: Your photo could date from as early as 1913, when the October 4 issue of Moving Picture World reported that the New York Motion Picture Exhibitors' League would meet in Rochester on October 15 and 16. A.N. Wolf of the Colonial Theatre was the local contact for details. The item does not give the address of the theater, though.
Mr. Wolf might have been connected with the League for many years, though, and could have been the local contact for many later conventions. There’s a brief article about the Colonial Theatre, with a photo of Mr. Wolf and a photo of the entrance to the theater itself on this page of the October 18, 1913, issue of the same publication. If Mr. Wolf is also in your photo, maybe you’ll recognize him.
I found the first Cameo mentioned in the January 4, 1933, issue of The Film Daily, and have found ads for it in issues of the Courier from March, April, and June 1933. I haven’t found any issues of the Courier from 1934, and I think they might be missing from the Old Fulton History archive. If that’s the case,then it’s quite possible that the Cameo was open in 1934.
As the Ritz, the house appears to have always been operated by the Sussman Circuit. A 1939 Boxoffice article about the new Cameo Theatre that Sussman opened that year mentioned its manager, Henry Flechsenhaar, and said that he had previously been manager of the Ritz. I’m quite sure the Ritz closed when, or before, the new Cameo opened in 1939.
The December 6, 1923, issue of Variety mentions two theaters operating in Brewster, with about 1,000 seats between them. They were the Brewster Theatre and the Strand Theatre (I’ve not seen any ads for the Strand in the Courier.) It’s possible that the Strand was the theater that was to have been opened by Benjamin Zorn in 1921, noted in my previous comment.
So far I’ve found only the one mention of the Strand in Variety, and none in the other entertainment trade publications or the Courier, but an item in the October, 1922, issue of Millinery Trade Review said that Mrs. Violet Sweet had opened a millinery shop in the Strand Building at Brewster, New York.
There is also a mention of the Strand on this web page about Brewster’s Boy Scout Troop 1, which says that the managers of the Strand Theatre had made a Memorial Day film in 1925, featuring the local scouts.
The Cameo must have been either a new theater built in the early 1920s or the Brewster Theatre renamed. As the Cameo was being advertised as early as 1923, and the Strand was still open in 1925, the Strand and the Cameo wouldn’t have been the same theater. I can’t imagine anybody opening a third theater in a town with a population of 1,800 (according to Variety) and having existing theaters able to accommodate over half of it, so if the Cameo was a new theater, then the Brewster must have been either dismantled or destroyed. If the Cameo was a new name for an existing theater, it must have been the Brewster.
The Putnam County Courier has ads for the Ritz from 1935 to 1939 (the latest I’ve found is from May 4, 1939), but prior to 1935 it has ads for a Cameo Theatre going back to at least 1923. They were the same theater. The name change took place before March, 1935. On the first of that month, a Courier article said:
Mr. Wernick’s remodeling and renaming might have taken place in late 1934 or early 1935.The Ritz building must have been at least two floors, as in the late 1920s there are ads for a Cameo Beauty Shoppe, located “Over the Cameo Theatre.” An article in the May 6, 1921, issue of the Courier mentions a Brewster Theatre, and the July 1, 1921, issue has an ad for it. This could be an even earlier aka for the Ritz, but I’ve been unable to establish that for certain. I’ve never seen more than one theater in Brewster advertised at any given time. The Brewster Theatre was advertised as early as 1919.
An undated issue of the Courier from the fall of 1921 has an item about a Benjamin Zorn who was preparing to open a new movie theater in the Schnieder Block sometime in November. That house might also have been the first Cameo/Ritz, but the project might also have failed. I’ve found no later references to Mr. Zorn, or to a Schneider Block.
The Putnam County Courier of Thursday, April 29, 1939, said that the new Cameo Theatre in Brewster would open at eight o'clock the following night.
Street View is currently fixed on the Anderson Theatre, which was built at 143 N. Main Street in 1938. The older Mullins Theatre was in the red brick building next door, at 141 N. Main.
No, wait. The Facebook page has a link to this web site, but it has only a request for donations and volunteers, and a notice of a board meeting and an open house, both held last month. Whether this will eventually become an official web site or not I don’t know.
It appears that the Opera House is now using a Facebook page as its only web site.
The Corpus Christi Public Library has a few photos of the Grande Theatre.
This one from September 6, 1937, shows the R&R logo on the side wall.
This view is from October 3, 1940. Like the Melba across the street, the Grande probably ran Spanish language movies at least part of the time.
This photo was made in 1961, after the theater had closed but before the building was incorporated into the Breslau Furniture store. The Moderne front looks like it dates from the 1940s or maybe the early 1950s.
The original facade of the Grande was remarkably similar to the Melba’s front, though the Grande’s parapet was a bit plainer. It makes me wonder if the Grande was designed by the Melba’s architects, Hardy & Curran?
For Google Maps to fetch the correct location of the York Theatre, the address field should be changed to read: 164 York Blvd Hamilton, ON L8R 3L4
Wiener Melodien, on the marquee in the photo currently displayed above, was an Austrian movie made in 1947, according to IMDb. It was released in the U.S. in 1950, but I suppose it might have reached Canada earlier.
African Americans in Corpus Christi, by Bruce A. Glasrud, Mary Jo O'Rear, and Gloria Randle Scott, says that the Harlem Theatre opened in 1941. It also says that a live performance venue called the Cotton Club opened in the Harlem Theatre in 1960.
The most likely opening date of the Melba Theatre is November 31, 1927, as the following day the Corpus Christi Times published an article about the event. I can’t find the article itself on the Internet, but it was cited in a paper about the proposed Leopard Street Historic District.
Numerous web sites say that the Melba Theatre was built in the 1930s, but an article by Kenneth L. Anthony says that it was built by Edward and Simon Grossman in 1927. I don’t have access to the article, but it is on one of those web sites that allows access to the holders of cards from some public and institutional libraries, so perhaps someone else can read it. Here is the link.
The Melba was already looking a bit dowdy when this photo was taken in August, 1937.
The Melba was directly across the street from another theater, the Grande, built by Bruce Collins in 1928, and by the 1930s both houses were being operated by the Robb & Rowley chain. Neither was first run. The Grande eventually got an Art Moderne facade, while the Melba retained its Spanish Colonial front throughout its history.
The title of Anthony’s article, Moving Pictures and Migrant Pickers: The Melba Theatre and Spanish Language Movies in Corpus Christi, Texas, 1927-1966 suggests that the Melba operated longer than the Grande, which was converted into retail space for a furniture store in 1961. Judging from satellite view, the Melba is in rough shape, as its roof looks very sketchy. The Grande’s roof looks to be in better shape, as its building was used for retail space until fairly recently.
The Regal Deer Park Stadium 16 was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners. Two photos of it are among photos of several of the firm’s projects for Regal that can be seen on this page of JKR’s web site.
The Dietrich Theatre has been expanded, adding two new screens. The new auditoriums and other alterations were designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners, which features a few words about the theater and one small photo on this page of its web site.
There are three photos of the Ambler Theatre on this page of the web site of JKR Partners (formerly JKRoller Architects), the Philadelphia architectural firm that designed the renovations.
JKRoller Architects has changed its name to JKR Partners. There are photos of the Spotlight Theatres on this page of the firm’s web site.
The Penn Cinema Riverfront was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners. Photos of it share this page of the firm’s web site with photos of their first project for Penn Cinemas at Lititz, Pennsylvania.
The locally-owned and operated Penn Cinema in Lititz was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners. There are photos of this house, and of the operators' more recent multiplex at Wilmington, Delaware, on this page of the JKR’s web site.
The Newark CityPlex 12 was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners, which was formerly known as JKRoller Architects. There are six photos of this rather stark, modern cinema on the firm’s web site.
The Flix Brewhouse in Round Rock, Texas, was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners. There are three photos of it at their web site, in the entertainment section of their portfolio.
The remodeling and expansion of the Fairgrounds Square Cinemas in Reading for Cinema Center was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm JKR Partners, formerly known as JKRoller Architects.
In 2008, architectural firm JKRoller Architects, designers of the Cinema Center at Camp Hill, changed its name to JKR Partners.
The L.A. County Assessor gives a construction year of 1902 and an effective build year of 1950 for the 10,766 sq. ft. building on this lot. Google’s camera car went up the alley alongside the building, and there is a parking lot behind it, so you can get a good view of the section that once housed the Strand Theatre’s auditorium.
It is currently part of the Marco Polo Pizza parlor, which has its main entrance on Philadelphia Street, but has another door facing the parking lot off of Comstock Avenue. The structure doesn’t look like it would have a ceiling high enough for a movie theater. Perhaps it was lowered as part of the 1950 alterations.
Although the Assessor’s office says the entire building was built in 1902, I suspect that the part with the auditorium might have been a later addition, and the Assessor’s office just lost track of the paperwork for it.
This theater had become the Schuylkill Avenue Picture House by 1913, when the July 12 issue of The Moving Picture World published a photo of its operator, Ben H. Zerr, who had lately been elected treasurer of the Pennsylvania Exhibitors' League. He was also President of the Reading chapter of the League.
Having seen Mr. Zerr’s photo, and those of other exhibitors featured in the article, I can safely say that, had I been a patron at any of their theaters, I would not have been inclined to spit tobacco juice on the floor or put my feet on a seat. An intimidating mien must have been a prerequisite for operating a movie house in those days.
The Capital 8 Theatres seat a total of 1,554, according to this page of the web site of Thorp Associates, the architectural firm that designed the project.
TivFan: Your photo could date from as early as 1913, when the October 4 issue of Moving Picture World reported that the New York Motion Picture Exhibitors' League would meet in Rochester on October 15 and 16. A.N. Wolf of the Colonial Theatre was the local contact for details. The item does not give the address of the theater, though.
Mr. Wolf might have been connected with the League for many years, though, and could have been the local contact for many later conventions. There’s a brief article about the Colonial Theatre, with a photo of Mr. Wolf and a photo of the entrance to the theater itself on this page of the October 18, 1913, issue of the same publication. If Mr. Wolf is also in your photo, maybe you’ll recognize him.