Replacing an earlier comment that suffered linkrot:
A photo of the marquee of the Hastings Drive-In during construction, featured as the frontispiece of the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice, October 7, 1950. An additional photo of the completed marquee by night appears on another page of the same issue.
Considering the history of this theater given above, I’m a bit puzzled by this item from the April 11, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Remodeling of the Unity Building at the corner of Fifth street and Capitol avenue, to be used as the home of the new Princess Moving Picture Theater, has begun.”
Here is information about the Kozy Theatre from the April 11, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Rodney C. Davis and Rankin Kirkland, of Paducah, are having plans made by A. L. Lassiter & Brothers for a new moving picture house to be known as the Kozy Theater. The new house will he at 417 Broadway. The building will be two stories high, and constructed of white enamel, and ‘Hytex’ brick. The seating capacity will be five hundred. The vestibule, which will be sixteen feet in length, will have a mosaic floor. The auditorium will be 92.6 feet in length, and the flooring will be of concrete, covered with wood and battleship linoleum.”
Architect A. L. Lassiter also designed the Auditorium Theatre at Dawson Springs, Kentucky.
A photo on page 103 of Seneca Falls, by Frances T. Barbieri and Kathy Jans-Duffy, shows this block of Fall Street with the church just down the block from the theater. The caption says the house was originally called the Fisher Theatre. (Google books preview.)
The October 9, 1915, issue of The Auburn Citizen reported that the Fisher Theatre in Seneca Falls had opened the previous night. The Friday opening featured a three-act musical comedy called “Tonight’s the Night”, and a vaudeville show and movies were scheduled for Saturday night.
The December 1, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Strand Theatre in Allentown had opened on October 8th. The Strand was designed by local architects Ruhe & Lange.
Wallace E. Ruhe was the lead architect of this firm, and Robert Lange apparently handled the business end of their projects.
I don’t know why Google Maps has put its pin icon some two miles north of this theater’s actual location. Google Maps fetches the right location for this address at its own web site. I’ve “driven” Street View to the right address, but I can’t fix that map. The Ball Theatre building is on the east side of Main Street between Monroe and Church Streets.
Archiplanet says that the Lyric Theatre dates from 1912, was at 820 Gallia Street, and was listed on the NRHP in 1999 but has since been removed (Presumably due to its demolition.)
A document about the New Castle Historic District prepared for the NRHP says that the Earle Theatre’s address was 2-4 West Fifth Street. The site is now occupied by a 3-story brick condominium.
The caption of a photo in Delaware in Vintage Postcards, by Ellen Rendleand Constance J. Cooper, says that a hotel was moved in the 1930s to clear a site for the Ball Theatre.
According to Baseball Reference, a ballplayer name Walter Betts began operating the Ball Theatre after retiring from baseball. A brief item datelined Millsboro in the July 28, 1938, issue of The Pittsburgh Press says: “Walter (Huck) Betts, former pitcher for Philadelphia and Boston of the National League is the operator of a new theater here.”
Another brief biography of Betts says: “After baseball, he owned and operated the Ball Theatre (a movie theater) in Millsboro, DE, until 1971.”
Page 232 of Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic, by Gabrielle M. Lanier and Bernard L. Herman, says that half of the building occupied by Burton Bros. Hardware Store in Seaford housed a theater at one time, but doesn’t give its name (Google Books preview.) There’s a photo of the building on page 233, and the building can be seen in Google Street View by moving a short block west from Market Street. I have no idea if it was the Palace, though.
The April, 1912, issue of Motography said that the Alhambra Theatre in Shelbyville had opened on Monday, January 21. The owner of the house was Frank J. Rembusch.
Several sources indicate that the Time Theatre was not on the site of the K Theatre, but on the site of the Grand Theatre, which was built at 1416 Broadway in 1911. The fifth entry from the bottom on this page from a Mattoon history web site says that the Grand Theatre burned in 1938 and the Time was built on its site by Clarke, Frisina & Bianchi that year.
An earlier entry says that the K Theatre, which opened in the 1700 block of Broadway in 1913, burned in 1937 and was not replaced.
The Clarke Theatre appears to have been new construction in 1936, though it’s possible that the side walls were common walls shared with the adjacent buildings (often the case in old business districts of small towns) and thus would have belonged to both the Bijou and the Clarke. Everything else was probably new, though. Here’s an item from the May 2, 1936, issue of The Film Daily:
“St. Louis — Bids will be taken May 8 by the Mattoon Theater Co., Mattoon, Ill., for the 800-seat theater to be built there, and on May 15 bids will be taken for the house to be erected by Lyric Theater Co., Salem, Mo. Bruce F. Barnes, St. Louis architect, figured in the plans for both houses.”
A timeline of Mattoon’s theaters on this web page says that the second Bijou Theatre opened in 1910. The first Bijou operated from 1905 to 1908. I’ve been unable to discover if the first and second Bijous were on the same or different sites.
Two different houses called the Mattoon Theatre are conflated in the current description for this theater. The 1920s section of a time line of Mattoon History has this item: “1921 – George Kizer builds Mattoon Theater for motion pictures at 1421 Broadway.”
The 1910s section of the same time line says that the original Mattoon Theatre, which was at 20th and Prairie, was destroyed by a fire in 1916. That house at 2000 Prairie was the one built in 1896 and designed by Charles Mitchell.
There might have been two houses called the Baden Theatre. The September 19. 1925, issue of The Reel Journal had an item about a proposed theater on North Broadway in St. Louis:
“Steve Kaiman, owner of the O'Fallon and Baden theatres in North St. Louis plans to build a new theatre at 8200 North Broadway, a block from the Baden. The new house will cost about $75,000 and seat 800 persons. The plans call for a two-story building, 60 by 130 feet. Contractors will be asked to submit bids on the construction work this week. Theodore Steinmeyer, International Life building, is the architect.”
Darren Snow’s CinemaTour page about the Baden Theatre says that the house opened in 1927, and was built on the site of a theater called the Baden Airdome, which had been in operation at 8201 Broadway since at least 1920. The magazine article gives the address of the proposed house as 8200 Broadway, which would be across the street from the actual location of the Baden, but that might have simply been an error.
Also interesting is the statement that the new theater’s site was “…a block from the Baden.” Perhaps that house a block away was the theater that opened in 1916, or perhaps it was the Airdome that opened in 1916. Either way, it seems likely that the existing Baden Theatre building was built in the mid-1920s, not 1916, though judging from the architectural style it could have been built in either year.
The October 17, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal said that contracts had been let for T. W. Sharp’s new theater to be built at 620 N. Beech Street, Little Rock. The two-story building, 44x140 feet, was expected to cost $50,000.
The item does give the location as Little Rock, not North Little Rock (see wjerdean’s comment previous to mine.) The reason Google Maps can’t find 620 N. Beech Street in Little Rock is because the street is now called Beechwood Street. Kavanaugh Boulevard, just north of the theater’s site, was once called Prospect Avenue. The correct zip code is 72205.
I found a web page saying that the fire that destroyed the theater building took place in 1957, but I’ve lost track of the link.
This item from the May 30, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal might have been about the Strand Theatre:
“$100,000 JONESBORO THEATRE.
“D. J. Wolpert, architect. Jonesboro, Ark., has finished plans for the new house for the Jonesboro Amusement Company, of which E. Y. Collins is manager The structure will cost $100,000 and will be two stories high. It will contain a parquet, balcony and gallery. There will also be a full sized stage, ten dressing rooms, two restrooms and two offices. It will be Spanish in type and be of re-inforced concrete brick and terra cotta construction.”
This theater might have been a bit older, and a bit larger, than we thought, perhaps opening in 1925 as the El Ray (or El Rey) and seating over 1000. There was certainly the intention to build a theater on this site in 1925. Here is part of an item from the March 7, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal:
“Kansas City apparently has fallen into her stride in keeping pace with other cities in the country in theatre expansion with the announcement this week of a plan for building a 1,500 seat theatre at 2611-19 Independence Boulevard by Dr, M. A. Dickey, who recently bought the 100-foot ground frontage. The new house would be the largest theatre in that district.
“The owner plans to add shops and apartment suites to the building which is to be an imposing structure interpreting Spanish architecture. There will be five ground floor store rooms and a lobby on the boulevard frontage.
“Construction will begin as soon as Victor J. De Foe, architect, has completed drawings.
“James Watson, owner of the Benton Theatre, Northeast’s leading theatre, has purchased this new property. Mr. Watson has named the new theatre the El Ray.”
The photo of the Vista does show it to have about the 100-foot frontage of the proposed house in the article, and the style of the facade was certainly Spanish Colonial Revival. A city directory or newspaper article or ads from the period 1925-1932 could reveal if there was an El Ray or El Rey Theatre at this location.
The Reading Drive-In was built by Philadelphia theater owners Jay Emanuel and Frank L. McNamee in partnership with the Fabian circuit, according to an item about the groundbreaking in the June 18, 1949, issue of The Billboard.
According to an item in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor, the theater to be built in Mt. Carmel that W. H. Lee was designing for Chamberlain Amusement Enterprises was to be sited on a 100x150-foot lot at 3rd and Maple Streets. Lee designed a number of theaters for Chamberlain Amusement during this period, but no others in Mt. Carmel, so the item must give the location of the Victoria.
When Lawrence J. Chamberlain died in 1949, a brief obituary appeared in the March 12 issue of The Billboard, mentioning that he was president of Amusements, Inc., with theaters at Allentown and Williamsport, as well as general manager of Victoria Amusement Enterprises, with theaters at Mt. Carmel, Shamokin, Mahanoy City, and Tamaqua.
As can be seen in satellite view, this theater building is almost four times as long as it is wide. It fits the description of a proposed house at Old Forge, Pennsylvania, which was mentioned in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor:
“Theater (moving picture) & Offices & Stores (2): $50,000. 1 & 2 sty. 50x180. Old Forge. Archt. Leon Lempert, Cutler bldg., Rochester, N. Y. Owner withheld. Brk. & hollow tile. Drawing plans.”
The Holland Theatre looks like a smaller and simpler version of the Capitol Theatre at Rome, New York, which Leon Lempert designed a few years later. The item almost certainly refers to the Holland Theatre.
Replacing an earlier comment that suffered linkrot:
A photo of the marquee of the Hastings Drive-In during construction, featured as the frontispiece of the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice, October 7, 1950. An additional photo of the completed marquee by night appears on another page of the same issue.
Considering the history of this theater given above, I’m a bit puzzled by this item from the April 11, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Here is information about the Kozy Theatre from the April 11, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Architect A. L. Lassiter also designed the Auditorium Theatre at Dawson Springs, Kentucky.A photo on page 103 of Seneca Falls, by Frances T. Barbieri and Kathy Jans-Duffy, shows this block of Fall Street with the church just down the block from the theater. The caption says the house was originally called the Fisher Theatre. (Google books preview.)
The October 9, 1915, issue of The Auburn Citizen reported that the Fisher Theatre in Seneca Falls had opened the previous night. The Friday opening featured a three-act musical comedy called “Tonight’s the Night”, and a vaudeville show and movies were scheduled for Saturday night.
The December 1, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Strand Theatre in Allentown had opened on October 8th. The Strand was designed by local architects Ruhe & Lange.
Wallace E. Ruhe was the lead architect of this firm, and Robert Lange apparently handled the business end of their projects.
I don’t know why Google Maps has put its pin icon some two miles north of this theater’s actual location. Google Maps fetches the right location for this address at its own web site. I’ve “driven” Street View to the right address, but I can’t fix that map. The Ball Theatre building is on the east side of Main Street between Monroe and Church Streets.
Archiplanet says that the Lyric Theatre dates from 1912, was at 820 Gallia Street, and was listed on the NRHP in 1999 but has since been removed (Presumably due to its demolition.)
A document about the New Castle Historic District prepared for the NRHP says that the Earle Theatre’s address was 2-4 West Fifth Street. The site is now occupied by a 3-story brick condominium.
The caption of a photo in Delaware in Vintage Postcards, by Ellen Rendleand Constance J. Cooper, says that a hotel was moved in the 1930s to clear a site for the Ball Theatre.
According to Baseball Reference, a ballplayer name Walter Betts began operating the Ball Theatre after retiring from baseball. A brief item datelined Millsboro in the July 28, 1938, issue of The Pittsburgh Press says: “Walter (Huck) Betts, former pitcher for Philadelphia and Boston of the National League is the operator of a new theater here.”
Another brief biography of Betts says: “After baseball, he owned and operated the Ball Theatre (a movie theater) in Millsboro, DE, until 1971.”
Page 232 of Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic, by Gabrielle M. Lanier and Bernard L. Herman, says that half of the building occupied by Burton Bros. Hardware Store in Seaford housed a theater at one time, but doesn’t give its name (Google Books preview.) There’s a photo of the building on page 233, and the building can be seen in Google Street View by moving a short block west from Market Street. I have no idea if it was the Palace, though.
The April, 1912, issue of Motography said that the Alhambra Theatre in Shelbyville had opened on Monday, January 21. The owner of the house was Frank J. Rembusch.
The 1940s section of a timeline of Mattoon history says that the Skyway Drive-In opened in 1947.
The 1980s section of the timeline says that the Skyway closed in 1984.
Several sources indicate that the Time Theatre was not on the site of the K Theatre, but on the site of the Grand Theatre, which was built at 1416 Broadway in 1911. The fifth entry from the bottom on this page from a Mattoon history web site says that the Grand Theatre burned in 1938 and the Time was built on its site by Clarke, Frisina & Bianchi that year.
An earlier entry says that the K Theatre, which opened in the 1700 block of Broadway in 1913, burned in 1937 and was not replaced.
The Clarke Theatre appears to have been new construction in 1936, though it’s possible that the side walls were common walls shared with the adjacent buildings (often the case in old business districts of small towns) and thus would have belonged to both the Bijou and the Clarke. Everything else was probably new, though. Here’s an item from the May 2, 1936, issue of The Film Daily:
A timeline of Mattoon’s theaters on this web page says that the second Bijou Theatre opened in 1910. The first Bijou operated from 1905 to 1908. I’ve been unable to discover if the first and second Bijous were on the same or different sites.Two different houses called the Mattoon Theatre are conflated in the current description for this theater. The 1920s section of a time line of Mattoon History has this item: “1921 – George Kizer builds Mattoon Theater for motion pictures at 1421 Broadway.”
The 1910s section of the same time line says that the original Mattoon Theatre, which was at 20th and Prairie, was destroyed by a fire in 1916. That house at 2000 Prairie was the one built in 1896 and designed by Charles Mitchell.
The Time Theatre is currently listed for sale at $124,500.
The May 23, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal said that the new Lincoln Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska, had been opened on May 18, 1925.
There might have been two houses called the Baden Theatre. The September 19. 1925, issue of The Reel Journal had an item about a proposed theater on North Broadway in St. Louis:
Darren Snow’s CinemaTour page about the Baden Theatre says that the house opened in 1927, and was built on the site of a theater called the Baden Airdome, which had been in operation at 8201 Broadway since at least 1920. The magazine article gives the address of the proposed house as 8200 Broadway, which would be across the street from the actual location of the Baden, but that might have simply been an error.Also interesting is the statement that the new theater’s site was “…a block from the Baden.” Perhaps that house a block away was the theater that opened in 1916, or perhaps it was the Airdome that opened in 1916. Either way, it seems likely that the existing Baden Theatre building was built in the mid-1920s, not 1916, though judging from the architectural style it could have been built in either year.
The October 17, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal said that contracts had been let for T. W. Sharp’s new theater to be built at 620 N. Beech Street, Little Rock. The two-story building, 44x140 feet, was expected to cost $50,000.
The item does give the location as Little Rock, not North Little Rock (see wjerdean’s comment previous to mine.) The reason Google Maps can’t find 620 N. Beech Street in Little Rock is because the street is now called Beechwood Street. Kavanaugh Boulevard, just north of the theater’s site, was once called Prospect Avenue. The correct zip code is 72205.
I found a web page saying that the fire that destroyed the theater building took place in 1957, but I’ve lost track of the link.
The current official web site is at this link.
This item from the May 30, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal might have been about the Strand Theatre:
This theater might have been a bit older, and a bit larger, than we thought, perhaps opening in 1925 as the El Ray (or El Rey) and seating over 1000. There was certainly the intention to build a theater on this site in 1925. Here is part of an item from the March 7, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal:
The photo of the Vista does show it to have about the 100-foot frontage of the proposed house in the article, and the style of the facade was certainly Spanish Colonial Revival. A city directory or newspaper article or ads from the period 1925-1932 could reveal if there was an El Ray or El Rey Theatre at this location.The Reading Drive-In was built by Philadelphia theater owners Jay Emanuel and Frank L. McNamee in partnership with the Fabian circuit, according to an item about the groundbreaking in the June 18, 1949, issue of The Billboard.
According to an item in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor, the theater to be built in Mt. Carmel that W. H. Lee was designing for Chamberlain Amusement Enterprises was to be sited on a 100x150-foot lot at 3rd and Maple Streets. Lee designed a number of theaters for Chamberlain Amusement during this period, but no others in Mt. Carmel, so the item must give the location of the Victoria.
When Lawrence J. Chamberlain died in 1949, a brief obituary appeared in the March 12 issue of The Billboard, mentioning that he was president of Amusements, Inc., with theaters at Allentown and Williamsport, as well as general manager of Victoria Amusement Enterprises, with theaters at Mt. Carmel, Shamokin, Mahanoy City, and Tamaqua.
As can be seen in satellite view, this theater building is almost four times as long as it is wide. It fits the description of a proposed house at Old Forge, Pennsylvania, which was mentioned in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor:
The Holland Theatre looks like a smaller and simpler version of the Capitol Theatre at Rome, New York, which Leon Lempert designed a few years later. The item almost certainly refers to the Holland Theatre.