A brief biography of Edward N. Brown says that he was the partner of George Budde in the opening of the Alcazar Theatre. Brown sold his interest in the project to Budde after about eight months, and then built the Fulton Theatre. In 1916, he opened the Stocking Avenue Theatre. The biography doesn’t give dates for the opening of the Alcazar or the Fulton, but as Brown operated the Fulton for four years, the Alcazar could have been opened as early as 1911, and was probably in operation within a year or two of that at most.
It says he operated the Fulton Theatre for four years before selling it, and devoted his attentions to operating the Stocking Avenue Theatre, so the earliest the Fulton Theatre would have opened was probably 1912, but it was certainly in operation before 1916.
CinemaTour gives the Fulton Theatre the AKA Fulton Vaudette. Vaudette was a popular name for theaters in Grand Rapids during the 1910s, and several houses are listed as Vaudettes in city directories of the period.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown,original owner of Brown’s Stocking Avenue Theatre, says that he built the house in 1916. Earlier, he had been one of the original partners in the Alcazar Theatre, and had then opened the Fulton Theatre.
Volume 2 of a book in Arcadia Publishing Company’s “Images of America” series, Fostoria, Ohio, by Paul H. Krupp, says that the State Theatre was once known as the Colonial Theatre.
The August 9, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that additions and alterations were being made to the Colonial Theatre at Fostoria, with plans by Columbus architect Fred W. Elliot.
The Michigan Theatre was apparently a bit older than the author of the 1938 Boxoffice article I cited earlier thought. Here is an item from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“A new motion picture theater, known as the Michigan theater, and located at Michigan street and Grand avenue, N. E., Grand Rapids, Mich., was recently opened. The owners and operators, G. H. and C. W. Budde, also are owners of the Alcazar theater on Bridge street, N. W. The new picture house is one of the largest of the outlying theaters, having a seating capacity of 650. The decorations of the cosy interior are rose and steel gray, and ample provision has been made for the comfort of the patrons.”
The 1938 photo of the Vogue in Boxoffice has been moved to this link.
Here is an item about this theater from the March 8, 1919, issue of Chicago’s regional business magazine, The Economist:
“Architects Postle & Fischer, 140 South Dearborn street, have completed plans and are receiving bids on the general work for remodeling the former three-story Inter Ocean building, 69x190, Nos. 55 to 59 West Monroe street, into a thoroughly modern motion-picture theater for Harry C. Moir and Wm. S. Barbee. The entire rear portion will be wrecked, and the building reconstructed up from grade, with brick walls and reinforced concrete floor and roof. It will have a seating capacity of 1,000 persons, all on one floor. The design of the interior will be an adaptation of the Spanish renaissance style. The lobby, foyer and spectatorium will be finished in tile, twenty feet high, surmounted by ornamental plaster cornice and ceiling. Special attention has been paid to the color scheme and light effect, which will be unique. An air washing ventilation system and a costly pipe organ will be installed. The improvements are estimated to cost $115,000 to $125,000.”
Andrew Crain Morrison’s highly reliable book Theaters gives the address of the Miami Theatre/May’s Opera House as 207-209 N. Wayne Street, and says that it opened on February 10, 1903, with 1,360 seats.
Memoirs of the Miami Valley, published in 1919, mentions May’s Opera House at the corner of Wayne and Water Streets. The house was built by Charles May and was the largest theater between Dayton and Columbus.
Another source says that May’s was on the northeast corner of Wayne and Water, but this 1913 photo shows that it was on the second lot north of the corner. Today there is a parking lot at that site, so the Miami Theatre has been demolished.
Memoirs also mentions a Bijou Theatre on Ash Street, opened 1903 for vaudeville, a movie house called the Strand, opened in 1915, and the Favorite Theatre, a small movie house on N. Main Street.
The Trio Theatre opened in 1916, according to the September 30 issue of The Moving Picture World that year, though the magazine mistakenly called the theater the Triot. According to a blog post by a former patron of the Adler Theatre, the original owners of the Trio, Kliner, Lang & Scharmann, had operated a hardware business in the building before converting it into a theater. The Trio Theatre can be seen (just barely) in this photo from the Wisconsin Historical Society.
As near as I can tell, the Trio Theatre building has been demolished and replaced by either part of a J. C. Penney store (now sporting the name Penny Court on the facade) or part of the adjacent building housing an enterprise called High Street Salon, Spa, and Travel.
I don’t think that the Piqua Cinema has been demolished. The parking lot side of the building occupied by Readmore’s Hallmark Shop (430 N. Main St.) has the same stair-step pattern in the brick that the wall of the theater has in the American Classic Images photo Chuck linked to in the first comment.
If you move Street View to the Greene Street side of the Hallmark shop, there is a back door to the alley that looks like a theater’s emergency exit. The decorative brickwork on the Main Street facade might be recent, with a retro style, or it might be the original brickwork of the theater, uncovered and restored when the 1969 aluminum false front in the ACI photo was removed.
Unfortunately, the 1970 Boxoffice article about the remodeling of the Piqua Theatre (fresh link here) doesn’t have a “before” photo of the theater. The current facade certainly has a very theater-like configuration, though, as does the whole building, and its style is certainly very 1920s, though I think the parapet is probably a re-creation rather than original, which was probably lost in the 1969 remodeling.
The Wigwam must have been in operation prior to 1921, when the March 18 issue of The Film Daily published the following item:
“To Open Nickel Show
“Muskogee, Okla. — Motion pictures at five and ten cents admission are promised by O. G. Bradshaw, who recently closed a three year lease on the Wigwam. The theater will be remodeled before opening under his management.”
The 1920 rebuilding of the Lorin designed by James Plachek took even longer than the 1916 rebuilding, so it must have been quite extensive. The March 1, 1921, issue of The Film Daily said that the Lorin Theatre had reopened on January 27 after having been closed for four months for rebuilding.
The following item appeared in the February 26, 1921, issue of The Film Daily:
“A 2,500-seat theater and roof garden will be built at 2176-2180 3rd Ave. by Jonas King. The site is 50 by 185 ft. on the southwest corner of E. 119th St. The project will cost $150,000. The structure will be in three stories and will contain meeting rooms and stores. Eugene De Rosa is the architect.”
lostmemory’s comment of July 15, 2008, cits the property record giving the build date of the building as 1921, so it most likely was the Stadium that the item referred to.
In views taken from Third Avenue, Google Street View shows a nearly new building on the southwest corner of the intersection, while in views taken from 119th Street it still shows the old building, which has obviously been demolished since those views were taken. The Stadium is no more.
This theater was in operation prior to 1921. The February 19 issue of The Film Daily that year reported on the start of construction on the house that became the Century Theatre, saying that it was located in between the Highland Theatre in Audubon and the Haddon Heights Theatre, about eight blocks distant.
The February 9, 1921, issue of The Film Daily ran this item about the Apollo Theatre:
“Los Angeles — The new Apollo on
Hollywood Blvd., which will be about the last word in elegance among residential district picture houses, will open shortly with a pre-release of the latest Christie special comedy, ‘Hey, Rube,’ featuring Bobby Vernon, as one of the features.”
It’s very likely that the New Jefferson was the theater referred to in this item in the July 29, 1908, issue of The American Architect and Building News:
“We learn from despatches that Architect Arland C. Johnson, of Toledo, Ohio, is at work on plans for a handsome new theater for Mose Reis to be located at Auburn.”
Aside from getting the architect’s middle initial wrong, this report was probably reliable. Entertainment magazine The Billboard reported (belatedly) on the scheduled opening of the New Jefferson Theatre in its issue of December 12, 1908:
“After making preparations for the past six months, the opening of the New Jefferson Theatre, Auburn, N. Y., will occur November 23 with Eddie Foy in Mr. Hamlet of Broadway. The theatre contains all the latest and most modern improvements of the day. It will be managed by J. O. Brooks, formerly of the Majestic Theatre, Utica, N. Y. The theatre is on the Reis Circuit and has a seating capacity of 1,600.”
C. V. Martina was operating a house in Mount Morris called the Family Theatre at least as early as 1930, when it was mentioned in the Nunda, New York News on December 30. The New Family Theatre could have been either a replacement theater, or the old Family Theatre remodeled.
C. V. Martina of the Martina circuit still had his offices in Albion at least as late as 1960, when he wrote a letter to Motion Picture Herald. He was also mentioned in connection with Albion in an item in the Medina, New York Herald of November 28, 1935, which said that he had taken over the Rialto Theatre at Albion. The Rialto was still in operation at least as late as 1953.
I’ve found theaters in Albion called the Family and the Temple mentioned in various items issues of The Moving Picture world from 1916. Albion also had a stage house called the Pratt Theatre, listed in the Cahn guide of 1910. The theater listed as the Grand Opera House in the 1920 guide was probably the same house.
That photo of Second Avenue at Off the Grid must have been taken from one of the upper floors of the National Theatre building on Houston Street at Chrystie.
The April 28, 1921, issue of Engineering News-Record said that architect and engineer I. Margon was preparing plans for a theater and store building, 138x160 feet, on Kingsbridge Road at Jerome Avenue.
A few years after this theater was built, architect Irving Margon, then in partnership with Adolph Holder, would design, in association with Emery Roth, one of New York City’s iconic apartment buildings, the twin-towered Eldorado Apartments at 300 Central Park West.
I found a later item in Record confirming that Eugene DeRosa was the architect of the Ogden Theatre. The general contract for the project had been let to M. Shapiro & Sons.
An item in the January 21, 1922, issue of Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide says that architects Moore & Landsiedel were preparing plans for a 100x100-foot brick theater and store building for a site on the west side of Webster Avenue about 100 feet north of 204th Street. The project would be ready for bids about February 20.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown says that he was the partner of George Budde in the opening of the Alcazar Theatre. Brown sold his interest in the project to Budde after about eight months, and then built the Fulton Theatre. In 1916, he opened the Stocking Avenue Theatre. The biography doesn’t give dates for the opening of the Alcazar or the Fulton, but as Brown operated the Fulton for four years, the Alcazar could have been opened as early as 1911, and was probably in operation within a year or two of that at most.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown says that he opened the Fulton Theatre. Earlier, he had been one of the original partners in the Alcazar Theatre, and later, in 1916, he opened the Stocking Avenue Theatre.
It says he operated the Fulton Theatre for four years before selling it, and devoted his attentions to operating the Stocking Avenue Theatre, so the earliest the Fulton Theatre would have opened was probably 1912, but it was certainly in operation before 1916.
CinemaTour gives the Fulton Theatre the AKA Fulton Vaudette. Vaudette was a popular name for theaters in Grand Rapids during the 1910s, and several houses are listed as Vaudettes in city directories of the period.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown,original owner of Brown’s Stocking Avenue Theatre, says that he built the house in 1916. Earlier, he had been one of the original partners in the Alcazar Theatre, and had then opened the Fulton Theatre.
Volume 2 of a book in Arcadia Publishing Company’s “Images of America” series, Fostoria, Ohio, by Paul H. Krupp, says that the State Theatre was once known as the Colonial Theatre.
The August 9, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that additions and alterations were being made to the Colonial Theatre at Fostoria, with plans by Columbus architect Fred W. Elliot.
The Michigan Theatre was apparently a bit older than the author of the 1938 Boxoffice article I cited earlier thought. Here is an item from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The 1938 photo of the Vogue in Boxoffice has been moved to this link.Here is an item about this theater from the March 8, 1919, issue of Chicago’s regional business magazine, The Economist:
Here is a slightly better view of the Trio Theatre, though its still partly hidden by the Blodgett Hotel’s entrance portico.
Andrew Crain Morrison’s highly reliable book Theaters gives the address of the Miami Theatre/May’s Opera House as 207-209 N. Wayne Street, and says that it opened on February 10, 1903, with 1,360 seats.
Memoirs of the Miami Valley, published in 1919, mentions May’s Opera House at the corner of Wayne and Water Streets. The house was built by Charles May and was the largest theater between Dayton and Columbus.
Another source says that May’s was on the northeast corner of Wayne and Water, but this 1913 photo shows that it was on the second lot north of the corner. Today there is a parking lot at that site, so the Miami Theatre has been demolished.
Memoirs also mentions a Bijou Theatre on Ash Street, opened 1903 for vaudeville, a movie house called the Strand, opened in 1915, and the Favorite Theatre, a small movie house on N. Main Street.
The Trio Theatre opened in 1916, according to the September 30 issue of The Moving Picture World that year, though the magazine mistakenly called the theater the Triot. According to a blog post by a former patron of the Adler Theatre, the original owners of the Trio, Kliner, Lang & Scharmann, had operated a hardware business in the building before converting it into a theater. The Trio Theatre can be seen (just barely) in this photo from the Wisconsin Historical Society.
As near as I can tell, the Trio Theatre building has been demolished and replaced by either part of a J. C. Penney store (now sporting the name Penny Court on the facade) or part of the adjacent building housing an enterprise called High Street Salon, Spa, and Travel.
I don’t think that the Piqua Cinema has been demolished. The parking lot side of the building occupied by Readmore’s Hallmark Shop (430 N. Main St.) has the same stair-step pattern in the brick that the wall of the theater has in the American Classic Images photo Chuck linked to in the first comment.
If you move Street View to the Greene Street side of the Hallmark shop, there is a back door to the alley that looks like a theater’s emergency exit. The decorative brickwork on the Main Street facade might be recent, with a retro style, or it might be the original brickwork of the theater, uncovered and restored when the 1969 aluminum false front in the ACI photo was removed.
Unfortunately, the 1970 Boxoffice article about the remodeling of the Piqua Theatre (fresh link here) doesn’t have a “before” photo of the theater. The current facade certainly has a very theater-like configuration, though, as does the whole building, and its style is certainly very 1920s, though I think the parapet is probably a re-creation rather than original, which was probably lost in the 1969 remodeling.
The Wigwam must have been in operation prior to 1921, when the March 18 issue of The Film Daily published the following item:
A.H. Blank had recently opened the Strand at Des Moines, according to the March 1, 1921, issue of The Film Daily.
The 1920 rebuilding of the Lorin designed by James Plachek took even longer than the 1916 rebuilding, so it must have been quite extensive. The March 1, 1921, issue of The Film Daily said that the Lorin Theatre had reopened on January 27 after having been closed for four months for rebuilding.
The following item appeared in the February 26, 1921, issue of The Film Daily:
lostmemory’s comment of July 15, 2008, cits the property record giving the build date of the building as 1921, so it most likely was the Stadium that the item referred to.In views taken from Third Avenue, Google Street View shows a nearly new building on the southwest corner of the intersection, while in views taken from 119th Street it still shows the old building, which has obviously been demolished since those views were taken. The Stadium is no more.
This theater was in operation prior to 1921. The February 19 issue of The Film Daily that year reported on the start of construction on the house that became the Century Theatre, saying that it was located in between the Highland Theatre in Audubon and the Haddon Heights Theatre, about eight blocks distant.
The Film Daily of February 9, 1921, said that the Palace Theatre in Athens had opened on February 1. The Palace was a Loew’s house.
If the report in the February 9, 1921, issue of The Film Daily is anywhere near accurate, this theater has lost most of its seats:
The February 9, 1921, issue of The Film Daily ran this item about the Apollo Theatre:
It’s very likely that the New Jefferson was the theater referred to in this item in the July 29, 1908, issue of The American Architect and Building News:
Aside from getting the architect’s middle initial wrong, this report was probably reliable. Entertainment magazine The Billboard reported (belatedly) on the scheduled opening of the New Jefferson Theatre in its issue of December 12, 1908:C. V. Martina was operating a house in Mount Morris called the Family Theatre at least as early as 1930, when it was mentioned in the Nunda, New York News on December 30. The New Family Theatre could have been either a replacement theater, or the old Family Theatre remodeled.
C. V. Martina of the Martina circuit still had his offices in Albion at least as late as 1960, when he wrote a letter to Motion Picture Herald. He was also mentioned in connection with Albion in an item in the Medina, New York Herald of November 28, 1935, which said that he had taken over the Rialto Theatre at Albion. The Rialto was still in operation at least as late as 1953.
I’ve found theaters in Albion called the Family and the Temple mentioned in various items issues of The Moving Picture world from 1916. Albion also had a stage house called the Pratt Theatre, listed in the Cahn guide of 1910. The theater listed as the Grand Opera House in the 1920 guide was probably the same house.
That photo of Second Avenue at Off the Grid must have been taken from one of the upper floors of the National Theatre building on Houston Street at Chrystie.
The April 28, 1921, issue of Engineering News-Record said that architect and engineer I. Margon was preparing plans for a theater and store building, 138x160 feet, on Kingsbridge Road at Jerome Avenue.
A few years after this theater was built, architect Irving Margon, then in partnership with Adolph Holder, would design, in association with Emery Roth, one of New York City’s iconic apartment buildings, the twin-towered Eldorado Apartments at 300 Central Park West.
I found a later item in Record confirming that Eugene DeRosa was the architect of the Ogden Theatre. The general contract for the project had been let to M. Shapiro & Sons.
An item in the January 21, 1922, issue of Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide says that architects Moore & Landsiedel were preparing plans for a 100x100-foot brick theater and store building for a site on the west side of Webster Avenue about 100 feet north of 204th Street. The project would be ready for bids about February 20.