As the Grand Theatre that opened at 513 Cedar Street in 1915 is already listed at Cinema Treasures, Maybe we could make this page for the first Grand, seen in the photo on this page at the PSTOS web site.
A building at 518 Cedar Street now housing part of Fonk’s General Store might or might not be the same building that housed the first Grand. As the theater probably closed when the new Grand opened, the building now on the site might have been built after that, or it might be the theater’s building remodeled.
Street View currently shows the wrong location. The Madrid was on the northeast corner of Vermont and 82nd Street, in the building that now houses the Tires R-Us store. The building is not recognizable as a former theater from the front, but one of the rear exits can still be seen opening onto the alley off of 82nd Street.
I was never in the Uptown after the 1964 renovation, but I don’t think there were any significant changes to the auditorium. I saw a couple of movies there in 1962, and it looked pretty much as it does in the photos on the CinemaTour page, except for the paint job. In 1962 it was all quite dark.
Given the location in the Triangle Shopping Center, the Triangle Theatre might have been one of the shopping center houses developed by Ron Lesser Enterprises in the 1960s.
The guide to the John and Drew Eberson papers at the Wolfsonian Institute lists a Yorktown Heights Theatre for a client named Lesser as a 1965 design by Drew Eberson. If there were no other theaters built in Yorktown Heights around that time, it must have been the Triangle that was listed.
The June 23, 1963, issue of the Orangetown Telegram has an article announcing the opening of a Cinema 45 the following night. The article gives the location of the theater as Hillcrest, New York, but items in later issues of the same newspaper say it is in Spring Valley.
The 600-seat house was to be programmed as an art cinema, with the Peter Sellers film Only Two Can Play as the opening attraction. The theater was located in the Hillcrest Shopping Center on Route 45 (Main Street) at the northeast corner of Hickory Street. The address I found for the shopping center is 288 N. Main Street, Spring Valley, NY, 10977.
B. F. Shearer Studios was associated with the National Theatre Supply Company at least through 1927. The January 1, 1928, issue of The Film Daily said that Ben Shearer, A. M. Larsen and Frank Harris were reportedly leaving NTS and that Shearer intended to form his own company in association with Larsen and Harris. Apparently a number of other former NTS employees went with them.
B. F. Shearer & Co. soon had branch offices in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other western cities. In 1931, the company supplied all the custom-designed carpets and draperies for the Los Angeles Theatre. B. F. Shearer & Co. operated until about 1972.
In addition to the theater supply business, the Shearer family eventually operated a small chain of about a dozen theaters from California to Alaska.
As can be seen in this photo uploaded by Senorsock, the Beverly Theatre’s auditorium kept its East Indian theme even after it had been converted into a retail store. The 1960 renovation pictured in the Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to was, not surprisingly, Midcentury Modern rather than Art Deco, and the major changes were done primarily to the facade and lobby. The boxy black entrance in this photo uploaded by RonP was built when the building was converted to retail use, and replaced the flat modern marquee seen in the Boxoffice article.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that Weldon Moore was the supervising architect for the Capri Theatre. I’m wondering if he might have been related to William J. Moore, Jack Corgan’s partner (and nephew of R. E. Griffith, founder of the circuit that became Video Independent Theatres.) If so, the Capri was probably designed by Corgan & Moore.
In the interior photo currently displayed, the style of the auditorium looks Moorish/Oriental rather than Renaissance Revival. The facade in the exterior photo looks like a standard commercial block of the period, with a few Art Deco touches and a Moorish arcade on the top floor.
The modern address of the American Theatre’s site is 215 S. Jefferson. Roanoke converted its street numbering system sometime after the theater was built. Street View is set to the wrong block. The American Theatre was in the next block south, on the northwest corner of Jefferson and Kirk Avenue.
The Carolina Theatre as rebuilt in 1948 was designed by architect Erle G. Stillwell, according to the history site Chuck linked to in his earlier comment.
It’s probable that the original theater on the Carolina’s site, partly destroyed by a fire in 1945, was the proposed house that was the subject of this item in the June 22, 1922, issue of Manufacturers Record:
“N. C, Lexington—Lexington Theater Co.. H. B. Varner, Prest.; $128,000 theater. Main St.; fireproof; 3 stores; theater in rear to seat 1500; offices on second floor; Harry Barton, Archt., Greensboro; Harbin Constr. Co., Contr., Lexington; B. McKenzle. Greensboro, heating and ventilating. $10,750: Durham Publicity Service Co.. Durham, electric fixtures and wiring, $14,500; plans include structure 79x210 ft.; ordinary construction; Barrett roof; wood and tile floors: electric lights.”
UNC’s Going to the Show collection has this page for a 1,200-seat house called the Lexington Theatre, located at 215 S. Main Street, operated by H. B. Varner and in operation by 1923.
Young’s Theatre was at 16 N. Main Street, according to this page at UNC’s Going to the Show collection. It was in operation by 1923, and had about 300 seats.
Fagan Arcade was the name of a West Palm Beach shopping arcade developed in the 1920s. I’m not sure the name was ever an AKA for the Arcade Theatre, and the two might not have been related at all, even though they were on the same block.
An advertisement for the proposed arcade development appeared in the Palm Beach Post of March 23, 1925, and made no mention of a theater as part of the project. The advertisement can be seen here at Google News.
This appears to have been the second Arcade Theatre in West Palm Beach. The first, operating by 1915, was the house on Narcissus Street that later became the Rialto. The Clematis Street Arcade might have been the projected theater that was mentioned in the May 18, 1922, issue of Manufacturers Record:
“Fla., West Palm Beach—Williams & Nichols, Inc., Palm Beach Tobacco Co., will erect theater on Clematis Ave. nr. Poinsettia St.; cost $50,000; 88x84 ft.; steel columns and trusses, hollow tile walls; 5-ply built-up roof; interior tile; wire glass; concrete floors; steel sash; ventilators; W. Manly King, Archt.; bids opened about May 25.”
Poinsettia Street has since been renamed Dixie Highway, which crosses Clematis Street a few doors west of the site of the Arcade Theatre. I’ve found no evidence that the second Arcade was actually in operation as early as 1922, but as the building has been demolished and its replacement is old enough to have developed a good-sized crack in the facade, it doesn’t seem unlikely that the theater would have been built that early.
Unless there was more than one Rialto Theatre in West Palm Beach, this house must be the one that was mentioned in an article about theater owner Carl Kettler in the Palm Beach Post of October 22, 1922:
“In 1915 he took over the Arcade Theatre and held it for one year, renaming it the Strand.
“‘In the Summer of 1916 we relinquished our rights to this theater to its original owners, Jonas & Garrison, and they in turn leased it to Alfred A. Tano, who after remodeling it renamed it the Rialto, under which name it is operate [sic] today by the Bijou-Amusu Company,’ Mr. Kettler stated.”
The remodeling of the Arcade in 1916 is mentioned in the March 25 issue of The Moving Picture World:
“WEST PALM BEACH, FLA—Arcade theater has plans by George L. Pfeiffer, Lemon City, Fla., for exterior and interior improvements to building. ”
The Arcade Theatre on Clematis Street must have been the second of that name in West Palm Beach, and built sometime after the original Arcade was renamed the Strand and then the Rialto.
This notice in the June 15, 1922, issue of The Manufacturers Record was about the house that became the State Theatre:
“Fla., Eustis—Mattocks-Wheeler Bldg. Co., J. E. Mattocks, Prest.; $30,000 theater; 58x125.6 ft.; brick, concrete and tile; stone trim; windows of pressed lens glass with tile and marble facings; metal ceilings; concrete and hardwood floors; wire glass; steel sash and trim; seating capacity 500 to 600; 2 stores on first floor; Allan J. McDonough, Archt., Eustis; J. B. Southard, Contr., Orlando.”
Auction site Worthpoint had a real photo postcard (since sold) captioned “Eustis Theater- Mattocks & Wheeler Building- Eustis, Fla.” and it depicted the same building in street view. The photo did not enlarge enough to see if the name Eustis Theater (or State Theatre) was actually on the building.
The June 1, 1922, issue of The Manufacturers Record had this item:
“Fla., West Palm Bench—Carl Kettler will erect Bijou Theater de Luxe; 5 stories; about 12 offices on first floor; Bruce Mitchell, Archt.”>
As the description does not fit the Kettler Theatre, the plans were obviously changed before construction began. it’s possible that a different architect was brought in to design the theater as actually built. I’ve been unable to find any other references to a Florida architect of the period named Bruce Mitchell.
As the Grand Theatre that opened at 513 Cedar Street in 1915 is already listed at Cinema Treasures, Maybe we could make this page for the first Grand, seen in the photo on this page at the PSTOS web site.
A building at 518 Cedar Street now housing part of Fonk’s General Store might or might not be the same building that housed the first Grand. As the theater probably closed when the new Grand opened, the building now on the site might have been built after that, or it might be the theater’s building remodeled.
Street View currently shows the wrong location. The Madrid was on the northeast corner of Vermont and 82nd Street, in the building that now houses the Tires R-Us store. The building is not recognizable as a former theater from the front, but one of the rear exits can still be seen opening onto the alley off of 82nd Street.
I was never in the Uptown after the 1964 renovation, but I don’t think there were any significant changes to the auditorium. I saw a couple of movies there in 1962, and it looked pretty much as it does in the photos on the CinemaTour page, except for the paint job. In 1962 it was all quite dark.
An early photo of the Ruskin Theatres is on this page of Boxoffice, January 15, 1968.
In the photo on this page of Boxoffice, January 15, 1968, the name on the theater’s marquee is RKO Twin Rockaway Boulevard.
Here is a fresh link to the June 19, 1967, Boxoffice page with the two photos of the Antioch Theatre.
As a bonus, on this page of Boxoffice, January 15, 1968, is a photo of the Antioch’s lobby and concession stand.
This page needs the AKA’s Saxon Theatre and Studio Theatre, per the Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to.
Given the location in the Triangle Shopping Center, the Triangle Theatre might have been one of the shopping center houses developed by Ron Lesser Enterprises in the 1960s.
The guide to the John and Drew Eberson papers at the Wolfsonian Institute lists a Yorktown Heights Theatre for a client named Lesser as a 1965 design by Drew Eberson. If there were no other theaters built in Yorktown Heights around that time, it must have been the Triangle that was listed.
The June 23, 1963, issue of the Orangetown Telegram has an article announcing the opening of a Cinema 45 the following night. The article gives the location of the theater as Hillcrest, New York, but items in later issues of the same newspaper say it is in Spring Valley.
The 600-seat house was to be programmed as an art cinema, with the Peter Sellers film Only Two Can Play as the opening attraction. The theater was located in the Hillcrest Shopping Center on Route 45 (Main Street) at the northeast corner of Hickory Street. The address I found for the shopping center is 288 N. Main Street, Spring Valley, NY, 10977.
There are photos of the front and the auditorium of the Beach Theatre in Boxoffice of January 15, 1968. Boxoffice misspells the name as Beech.
B. F. Shearer Studios was associated with the National Theatre Supply Company at least through 1927. The January 1, 1928, issue of The Film Daily said that Ben Shearer, A. M. Larsen and Frank Harris were reportedly leaving NTS and that Shearer intended to form his own company in association with Larsen and Harris. Apparently a number of other former NTS employees went with them.
B. F. Shearer & Co. soon had branch offices in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other western cities. In 1931, the company supplied all the custom-designed carpets and draperies for the Los Angeles Theatre. B. F. Shearer & Co. operated until about 1972.
In addition to the theater supply business, the Shearer family eventually operated a small chain of about a dozen theaters from California to Alaska.
The history section of the Star Cinema’s official web site says that the theater was designed by Salem architect Lyle P. Bartholomew.
As can be seen in this photo uploaded by Senorsock, the Beverly Theatre’s auditorium kept its East Indian theme even after it had been converted into a retail store. The 1960 renovation pictured in the Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to was, not surprisingly, Midcentury Modern rather than Art Deco, and the major changes were done primarily to the facade and lobby. The boxy black entrance in this photo uploaded by RonP was built when the building was converted to retail use, and replaced the flat modern marquee seen in the Boxoffice article.
The link to the photo at Yesco has quit working for some reason. Here’s a new link.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that Weldon Moore was the supervising architect for the Capri Theatre. I’m wondering if he might have been related to William J. Moore, Jack Corgan’s partner (and nephew of R. E. Griffith, founder of the circuit that became Video Independent Theatres.) If so, the Capri was probably designed by Corgan & Moore.
In the interior photo currently displayed, the style of the auditorium looks Moorish/Oriental rather than Renaissance Revival. The facade in the exterior photo looks like a standard commercial block of the period, with a few Art Deco touches and a Moorish arcade on the top floor.
The modern address of the American Theatre’s site is 215 S. Jefferson. Roanoke converted its street numbering system sometime after the theater was built. Street View is set to the wrong block. The American Theatre was in the next block south, on the northwest corner of Jefferson and Kirk Avenue.
The Carolina Theatre as rebuilt in 1948 was designed by architect Erle G. Stillwell, according to the history site Chuck linked to in his earlier comment.
It’s probable that the original theater on the Carolina’s site, partly destroyed by a fire in 1945, was the proposed house that was the subject of this item in the June 22, 1922, issue of Manufacturers Record:
UNC’s Going to the Show collection has this page for a 1,200-seat house called the Lexington Theatre, located at 215 S. Main Street, operated by H. B. Varner and in operation by 1923.Young’s Theatre was at 16 N. Main Street, according to this page at UNC’s Going to the Show collection. It was in operation by 1923, and had about 300 seats.
Fagan Arcade was the name of a West Palm Beach shopping arcade developed in the 1920s. I’m not sure the name was ever an AKA for the Arcade Theatre, and the two might not have been related at all, even though they were on the same block.
An advertisement for the proposed arcade development appeared in the Palm Beach Post of March 23, 1925, and made no mention of a theater as part of the project. The advertisement can be seen here at Google News.
This appears to have been the second Arcade Theatre in West Palm Beach. The first, operating by 1915, was the house on Narcissus Street that later became the Rialto. The Clematis Street Arcade might have been the projected theater that was mentioned in the May 18, 1922, issue of Manufacturers Record:
Poinsettia Street has since been renamed Dixie Highway, which crosses Clematis Street a few doors west of the site of the Arcade Theatre. I’ve found no evidence that the second Arcade was actually in operation as early as 1922, but as the building has been demolished and its replacement is old enough to have developed a good-sized crack in the facade, it doesn’t seem unlikely that the theater would have been built that early.Unless there was more than one Rialto Theatre in West Palm Beach, this house must be the one that was mentioned in an article about theater owner Carl Kettler in the Palm Beach Post of October 22, 1922:
The remodeling of the Arcade in 1916 is mentioned in the March 25 issue of The Moving Picture World:The Arcade Theatre on Clematis Street must have been the second of that name in West Palm Beach, and built sometime after the original Arcade was renamed the Strand and then the Rialto.The Palace might have been the projected house mentioned in the June 22, 1922, issue of Manufacturers Record
This notice in the June 15, 1922, issue of The Manufacturers Record was about the house that became the State Theatre:
Auction site Worthpoint had a real photo postcard (since sold) captioned “Eustis Theater- Mattocks & Wheeler Building- Eustis, Fla.” and it depicted the same building in street view. The photo did not enlarge enough to see if the name Eustis Theater (or State Theatre) was actually on the building.The June 1, 1922, issue of The Manufacturers Record had this item:
As the description does not fit the Kettler Theatre, the plans were obviously changed before construction began. it’s possible that a different architect was brought in to design the theater as actually built. I’ve been unable to find any other references to a Florida architect of the period named Bruce Mitchell.