Volume one of A standard history of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio, published in 1922, lists a Liberty Theatre among the movie houses then operating in Springfield. In addition to the Regent, the town’s “A” house, the book lists the Majestic, Princess, Hippodrome, Colonial, and Strand as movie theaters. It also mentions the Fairbanks Theatre as a legitimate stage house, and the Sun Theatre as a high-class vaudeville theater.
The Liberty was still in operation at least as late as 1961, when a demonstration was held by Antioch College students protesting the theater’s policy of excluding African Americans. Here is a recent article about the event from The Springfield Paper.
Why do the description and the address field both place this theater in New Hampshire? It’s clearly supposed to be Franklin, Idaho.
Here is a modern photo of the Princess Theatre. This might be the same theater listed in the 1906 Cahn guide as the Franklin Opera House, though I can’t imagine how they ever crammed the 500 seats Cahn’s guide said it held into that tiny building, which looks to be about 30' x 80'. Franklin then had a population of 875, according to Cahn, so I doubt that it supported two theaters.
Erwin and Unicoi County, by Linda Davis March, says that the Capitol Theatre was opened on November 11, 1935. The house has been run by members of the Hendren family since opening. The Hendrens also operated an earlier theater called the Lyric, which was on South Main Street. When the Capitol opened, the Lyric became the “B” house in Erwin.
I think that this item from an April, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World must be about the Globe/Florence Mills Theatre, which was built that year:
“Plans for a new… theater have been completed by Architect A. Lawrence Valk. Theater being built for John Wagner at Central Avenue, near Jefferson”
Here’s an item published by The Moving Picture World in April, 1912. The theater name and the street are right, but the address doesn’t quite match up, and it was three years after the Empire was supposed to have opened. However, the Empire’s site does include the lots at 1523-1525 Vine as well as 1521, and I don’t know the original source of the opening date of 1909, so I’m posting the item here, just in case the 1909 opening date that’s found all over the Internet is wrong:
“Estimates are being received by Architects Rapp, Zettle & Rapp, for the erection of the Empire Moving Picture Theater, to be erected at 1523-25 Vine Street, by the Empire Theater Co.”
Possibly a small theater from 1909 was replaced by a new, larger building in 1912?
Patsy, there was an earlier Strand Theatre in Asheville, from 1915 to about 1935, but it was on Patton Avenue. It was renamed the State Theatre in the 1930s.
Sources conflict on the name of the first theater in Milledgeville, though they all agree that Oliver Hardy was the projectionist at the house around 1910. While many sources say that the house was called the Electric Theatre, the historical marker for the Milledgeville Hotel is among the sources saying that the theater was called the Palace. It also says that the Palace was across the street from the hotel. As the hotel was located on South Wayne Street, the Palace could not have been the theater on Hancock Street described above. Cinema Treasures lists the Palace Theatre at 133 S. Wayne Street.
The night club on Hancock Street that Ray’s band played in the 1970s might have been the place that for many years was called Dodo’s Pool Room or Dodo’s Opera House, which was located in the building that once housed the Colonial Theatre, which was in operation by 1912. Dodo’s was listed variously at 124 and 128 West Hancock Street. Cinema Treasures lists the Colonial Theatre at 128 W. Hancock.
It’s possible that the Palace Theatre was called the Electric Theatre at the time it opened, or it might be a misunderstanding that there was ever a house in Milledgeville called the Electric Theatre, as the phrase electric theater was sometimes used as a generic term for movie theaters in the early days of the business, rather like nickelodeon. I’ve found a couple of references to the Palace Theatre in trade journals from the 1910s, along with a Star Theatre and the Colonial Theatre, but none to a house called the Electric Theatre.
As it opened in 1990, the River Oaks Plaza 12 must have been designed in the office of architect David K. Mesbur, who was the exclusive designer for Cineplex Odeon from 1983 through 1990.
Salem History changed all its URL’s. The photo of the Wexford Theatre is now at this link. The caption gives the theater’s known period of operation as 1911-1915, but this web page says that the building was probably built in 1909, and that it had been altered into a retail store by 1926.
The building now at this address might or might not have housed a theater. Here is an item from the February 5, 1916, issue of The Motion Picture World tells a different story:
“Judge P. H. D'Arcy, who owns two pieces of theater property in Salem, Ore., is erecting another theater on Court street, on the site of the Wexford theater, recently burned. The building will be 100 by 120 In size, and part of it will be occupied by stores. The auditorium will seat 800 and Judge D'Arcy intends to make the house the finest picture theater in the valley.”
A few weeks later, on February 19 MPW reported that George Bligh had taken over operation of all the movie theaters in Salem, so it’s possible that Mr. D'Arcy had decided to leave the theater business altogether, and rebuilt the D'Arcy Building without a theater in it. I’ve found no references to the Wexford Theatre after the 1916 item, so it’s possible that the Wexford’s career ended with the fire in late 1915 or early 1916.
The Moving Picture World of July 15, 1916, had an article about Carl Laemmle’s first venture into the movie business (Google Books scan here.) There’s a 1906 photo of the White Front Theatre, but it is cropped too close to reveal whether or not it was in the building that now houses the Foot Locker store.
The building did have narrow windows on the upper floor, like the windows in the Foot Locker building, but the article says that the White Front property had a fifty foot frontage, while the Foot Locker building appears to be only half that width. If the theater was at what is now 1257 N. Milwaukee, it’s likely that it has been demolished, as the building now on the site has much wider windows on the second floor. At the very least, the entire facade was replaced.
The MPW article says that Laemmle gave up the theater when his original five-year lease ran out, at that in 1916 the building housed a five-and-ten-cent store.
A book about Fort Wayne published by the Fort Wayne News in 1913 attributes the design of the Lyric Theatre to one of the town’s leading architects of the period, John M. E. Riedel. He also designed the Empress Theatre.
A book about Fort Wayne published by the Fort Wayne News in 1913 attributes the design of the Empress Theatre to one of the town’s leading architects of the period, John M. E. Riedel. He also designed the Lyric Theatre.
In its early years, the Empress presented Sullivan & Considine vaudeville, and as Lee DeCamp was the supervising architect for the circuit, it’s possible that he also had a hand in designing the Empress. In 1912, DeCamp had his main office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about 150 miles from Fort Wayne.
The three photos of the Madison in the November 20, 1967, issue of Boxoffice can now be seen at this link.
The 1947 photo of the auditorium is in the Thortel fabrics ad on this page of Boxoffice.
The Lyric was operated for most of the 1920s by Godfrey Kotzin. L. B. Wilson bought the house in 1927. The news was published in the November 22 issue of the Kentucky Post, but I can’t find it online.
Saraswati8’s comment makes it clear that the Allen could not have been the theater designed by George Burnett and Evan Jones in 1930, as it was opened as the Garden Theatre in 1924. The 1930 project was most likely the Avon Theatre, which was on Long Beach Boulevard at Santa Ana Street, according to this comment by millermike on the Teatro Los Pinos page.
The 1936 remodeling job designed by Clarence Smale was certainly done on the Garden/Allen Theatre, though, and that is the most likely date at which it would have been renamed the South Gate Theatre. It became the Allen Theatre sometime after November 1, 1943, on which date it was still being listed as the South Gate Theatre (comment earlier in this thread by kd6dkc on August 29, 2009).
There was a Reel Joy Theatre operating in King City at least as early as 1922, when the December 9 issue of The Music Trades said that a Fotoplayer had been placed in the house by the San Jose branch of dealers Sherman, Clay & Company
I’ve found a reference to a house called the Sunset Theatre at 630 Irving Street, San Francisco, in the March 25, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. That’s only a bit over a mile from the Superba, so unless the two theaters used the same name at the same time for a while, which seems unlikely, this house must have changed its name before the house on Irving Street opened.
It occurs to me that this theater might well have opened in 1914, but under a different name. Perhaps the grand opening ad from 1919 was just a re-opening under the new name Euclid Theatre. If so, there might be listings for this theater with a 9th Street address and a different name in city directories from 1915 to 1918.
Cleveland also had a house called the Euclid Theatre earlier than 1914. The August 8, 1908, issue of The Billboard mentions a Mr. J.H. Eschman, then operating an amusement park in Minneapolis, saying that “…he started in with the old Euclid Theatre of Cleveland, Ohio….”
A trade journal called Buildings and Building Management published an article about the Union Trust Building in its issue of August 21, 1922. Here is the section that mentions the Euclid Theatre:
“Money and Commerce reports that ground has already been broken for the new twenty-story bank and office building of the Union Trust Company, Cleveland. This building is to be erected at the northeast corner of Euclid avenue and East Ninth street.
“The old Lennox building, which now stands at the northeast corner, the Euclid Theatre building on the corner of Ninth and Chester, a frame house, a power house and large packing ground now occupying the Chester avenue frontage are being removed to make way for the new banking structure.”
I notice that the grand opening ad in Mike Rivest’s album gives the theater’s location as “East 9th Street at Euclid Avenue (Next to Lennox Building)” so the entrance must have been on 9th Street, despite the theater’s name.
I’ve just noticed that the address is visible on the awning of the middle store in the bay-windowed building in the second photo Velostigmat linked to. It was 533. Counting north, 527 would have been in the dark building with the office furniture and stationers shops in it, assuming that that building had been built by 1910 (which it probably was, given its style.)
Volume one of A standard history of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio, published in 1922, lists a Liberty Theatre among the movie houses then operating in Springfield. In addition to the Regent, the town’s “A” house, the book lists the Majestic, Princess, Hippodrome, Colonial, and Strand as movie theaters. It also mentions the Fairbanks Theatre as a legitimate stage house, and the Sun Theatre as a high-class vaudeville theater.
The Liberty was still in operation at least as late as 1961, when a demonstration was held by Antioch College students protesting the theater’s policy of excluding African Americans. Here is a recent article about the event from The Springfield Paper.
Why do the description and the address field both place this theater in New Hampshire? It’s clearly supposed to be Franklin, Idaho.
Here is a modern photo of the Princess Theatre. This might be the same theater listed in the 1906 Cahn guide as the Franklin Opera House, though I can’t imagine how they ever crammed the 500 seats Cahn’s guide said it held into that tiny building, which looks to be about 30' x 80'. Franklin then had a population of 875, according to Cahn, so I doubt that it supported two theaters.
Erwin and Unicoi County, by Linda Davis March, says that the Capitol Theatre was opened on November 11, 1935. The house has been run by members of the Hendren family since opening. The Hendrens also operated an earlier theater called the Lyric, which was on South Main Street. When the Capitol opened, the Lyric became the “B” house in Erwin.
I think that this item from an April, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World must be about the Globe/Florence Mills Theatre, which was built that year:
Here’s an item published by The Moving Picture World in April, 1912. The theater name and the street are right, but the address doesn’t quite match up, and it was three years after the Empire was supposed to have opened. However, the Empire’s site does include the lots at 1523-1525 Vine as well as 1521, and I don’t know the original source of the opening date of 1909, so I’m posting the item here, just in case the 1909 opening date that’s found all over the Internet is wrong:
Possibly a small theater from 1909 was replaced by a new, larger building in 1912?Patsy, there was an earlier Strand Theatre in Asheville, from 1915 to about 1935, but it was on Patton Avenue. It was renamed the State Theatre in the 1930s.
Here is a fresh link to what I believe is the 1924 photo of the Strand that lostmemory linked to earlier.
Sources conflict on the name of the first theater in Milledgeville, though they all agree that Oliver Hardy was the projectionist at the house around 1910. While many sources say that the house was called the Electric Theatre, the historical marker for the Milledgeville Hotel is among the sources saying that the theater was called the Palace. It also says that the Palace was across the street from the hotel. As the hotel was located on South Wayne Street, the Palace could not have been the theater on Hancock Street described above. Cinema Treasures lists the Palace Theatre at 133 S. Wayne Street.
The night club on Hancock Street that Ray’s band played in the 1970s might have been the place that for many years was called Dodo’s Pool Room or Dodo’s Opera House, which was located in the building that once housed the Colonial Theatre, which was in operation by 1912. Dodo’s was listed variously at 124 and 128 West Hancock Street. Cinema Treasures lists the Colonial Theatre at 128 W. Hancock.
It’s possible that the Palace Theatre was called the Electric Theatre at the time it opened, or it might be a misunderstanding that there was ever a house in Milledgeville called the Electric Theatre, as the phrase electric theater was sometimes used as a generic term for movie theaters in the early days of the business, rather like nickelodeon. I’ve found a couple of references to the Palace Theatre in trade journals from the 1910s, along with a Star Theatre and the Colonial Theatre, but none to a house called the Electric Theatre.
As it opened in 1990, the River Oaks Plaza 12 must have been designed in the office of architect David K. Mesbur, who was the exclusive designer for Cineplex Odeon from 1983 through 1990.
Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society has this page about the Grand Theatre, with several photos.
The web site Salem History provides this photo from 1992.
Salem History changed all its URL’s. The photo of the Wexford Theatre is now at this link. The caption gives the theater’s known period of operation as 1911-1915, but this web page says that the building was probably built in 1909, and that it had been altered into a retail store by 1926.
The building now at this address might or might not have housed a theater. Here is an item from the February 5, 1916, issue of The Motion Picture World tells a different story:
A few weeks later, on February 19 MPW reported that George Bligh had taken over operation of all the movie theaters in Salem, so it’s possible that Mr. D'Arcy had decided to leave the theater business altogether, and rebuilt the D'Arcy Building without a theater in it. I’ve found no references to the Wexford Theatre after the 1916 item, so it’s possible that the Wexford’s career ended with the fire in late 1915 or early 1916.The Moving Picture World of July 15, 1916, had an article about Carl Laemmle’s first venture into the movie business (Google Books scan here.) There’s a 1906 photo of the White Front Theatre, but it is cropped too close to reveal whether or not it was in the building that now houses the Foot Locker store.
The building did have narrow windows on the upper floor, like the windows in the Foot Locker building, but the article says that the White Front property had a fifty foot frontage, while the Foot Locker building appears to be only half that width. If the theater was at what is now 1257 N. Milwaukee, it’s likely that it has been demolished, as the building now on the site has much wider windows on the second floor. At the very least, the entire facade was replaced.
The MPW article says that Laemmle gave up the theater when his original five-year lease ran out, at that in 1916 the building housed a five-and-ten-cent store.
Here is a 1927 photo of the Jefferson Theatre.
A book about Fort Wayne published by the Fort Wayne News in 1913 attributes the design of the Lyric Theatre to one of the town’s leading architects of the period, John M. E. Riedel. He also designed the Empress Theatre.
A book about Fort Wayne published by the Fort Wayne News in 1913 attributes the design of the Empress Theatre to one of the town’s leading architects of the period, John M. E. Riedel. He also designed the Lyric Theatre.
In its early years, the Empress presented Sullivan & Considine vaudeville, and as Lee DeCamp was the supervising architect for the circuit, it’s possible that he also had a hand in designing the Empress. In 1912, DeCamp had his main office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about 150 miles from Fort Wayne.
Here is a fresh link to the photo of the Garmar’s lobby on the cover of the “Modern Theatre” section of Boxoffice, December 2, 1950.
Sorry, I put the wrong link for the 1947 photo. It’s here.
The three photos of the Madison in the November 20, 1967, issue of Boxoffice can now be seen at this link.
The 1947 photo of the auditorium is in the Thortel fabrics ad on this page of Boxoffice.
The Lyric was operated for most of the 1920s by Godfrey Kotzin. L. B. Wilson bought the house in 1927. The news was published in the November 22 issue of the Kentucky Post, but I can’t find it online.
Saraswati8’s comment makes it clear that the Allen could not have been the theater designed by George Burnett and Evan Jones in 1930, as it was opened as the Garden Theatre in 1924. The 1930 project was most likely the Avon Theatre, which was on Long Beach Boulevard at Santa Ana Street, according to this comment by millermike on the Teatro Los Pinos page.
The 1936 remodeling job designed by Clarence Smale was certainly done on the Garden/Allen Theatre, though, and that is the most likely date at which it would have been renamed the South Gate Theatre. It became the Allen Theatre sometime after November 1, 1943, on which date it was still being listed as the South Gate Theatre (comment earlier in this thread by kd6dkc on August 29, 2009).
There was a Reel Joy Theatre operating in King City at least as early as 1922, when the December 9 issue of The Music Trades said that a Fotoplayer had been placed in the house by the San Jose branch of dealers Sherman, Clay & Company
I’ve found a reference to a house called the Sunset Theatre at 630 Irving Street, San Francisco, in the March 25, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. That’s only a bit over a mile from the Superba, so unless the two theaters used the same name at the same time for a while, which seems unlikely, this house must have changed its name before the house on Irving Street opened.
It occurs to me that this theater might well have opened in 1914, but under a different name. Perhaps the grand opening ad from 1919 was just a re-opening under the new name Euclid Theatre. If so, there might be listings for this theater with a 9th Street address and a different name in city directories from 1915 to 1918.
Cleveland also had a house called the Euclid Theatre earlier than 1914. The August 8, 1908, issue of The Billboard mentions a Mr. J.H. Eschman, then operating an amusement park in Minneapolis, saying that “…he started in with the old Euclid Theatre of Cleveland, Ohio….”
A trade journal called Buildings and Building Management published an article about the Union Trust Building in its issue of August 21, 1922. Here is the section that mentions the Euclid Theatre:
I notice that the grand opening ad in Mike Rivest’s album gives the theater’s location as “East 9th Street at Euclid Avenue (Next to Lennox Building)” so the entrance must have been on 9th Street, despite the theater’s name.I’ve just noticed that the address is visible on the awning of the middle store in the bay-windowed building in the second photo Velostigmat linked to. It was 533. Counting north, 527 would have been in the dark building with the office furniture and stationers shops in it, assuming that that building had been built by 1910 (which it probably was, given its style.)
A 1946 photo of the Vernal Theatre.