A brief biography of Francis M. Davis appeared in Volume 4 of “History of Idaho: Gem of the Mountains” by James H. Hawley, which was published in 1920. Here is the part pertaining to the theater: “Since the fall of 1915 Mr. Davis has been engaged in the moving picture business. In the spring of 1918 he erected a modern theatre building on an elaborate scale, costing thirty thousand dollars, and which would be a credit to a larger town than Shelley. The theatre is splendidly equipped and is well supported by the citizens.”
Both of Emmett’s theaters, the Ideal and the Liberty, were in operation by 1920. Volume 4 of “History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains” by James H. Hawley, which was published that year, said that the Ideal Theatre was owned by Claude D. Bucknam, who also owned a half interest in the Liberty Theatre.
Both of Emmett’s theaters, the Ideal and the Liberty, were in operation by 1920. Volume 4 of “History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains” by James H. Hawley, which was published that year, said that the Ideal Theatre was owned by Claude D. Bucknam, who also owned a half interest in the Liberty Theatre.
Google Maps has its pin icon in the wrong place again, about a mile north of the theater’s actual location. It’s probably because the address should read simply Overland Avenue, not N. Overland Avenue.
Here is the biography of Stanley J. Osika from volume 4 of “History of Idaho: Gem of the Mountains” by James H. Hawley, which was published in 1920:
“Stanley J. Osika is the proprietor and manager of the Burley Theatre and is numbered among the most alert and energetic young business men of the town of Burley. The width of the continent separates him from his birthplace, for he is a native son of Brooklyn, New York. He was born February 8, 1886, his parents, Peter and Plagnar Osika. The first twelve years of his life were spent in his native city and he then accompanied his parents on their removal westward, their destination being Park City, Utah. He there attended school and also continued his studies in Salt Lake. He took up the study of music under Antone Peterson, specializing in harmony and the trombone, and he has figured prominently in musical circles at Salt Air resorts and in the Liberty and American theatres organized and maintained at various places throughout the country. In October, 1914, he came to Burley, Idaho, where he established a moving picture house where the Blue Bird is now located. In December, 1917, he removed to the Burley Theatre, securing larger and more commodious and modern quarters. He today has one of the finest moving picture houses of Idaho and maintains a six-piece orchestra. He presents the finest attractions of the film world and has a liberal patronage, the business having long since reached profitable proportions.”
It’s not clear if Osika owned the theater building itself or only leased it, but as the book refers to him as the proprietor of the theater he must have owned the business. Stanley J. Osika was listed as a resident of Cassia County, Idaho, in the 1920 U.S. census, but the 1930 census lists him as a resident of Erie, New York.
This page still needs to be updated to attribute the design of the Cinema 70 to Lusk & Wallace (Dietz Lusk Jr. and John J. Wallace) rather than Mel C. Glatz, and to remove the erroneous AKA of Cooper 70 Theatre.
Dietz Lusk didn’t include any of his theaters among the works listed in his entry in the 1970 edition of the AIA’s guide to American architects. By that time the firm was designing a great variety of projects, but so far I’ve found no theaters later than this one among their works.
The Cooper Foundation’s web site once had a PDF with a history of Cooper Theaters, but it is no longer available. The PDF said that the Cooper 70 and the Ute 70 projects were both designed by Mel C. Glatz of Mel C. Glatz & Associates, in association with architect Maynard Rorman. The same team designed the conversion of the Cooper into a triplex.
The Ute 70 Theatre was designed by Mel C. Glatz, in association with architect Maynard Rorman, according to a history of Cooper Theatres that was once available on the Cooper Foundation’s web site (it has since been removed.)
In 1909 this theater, then being operated as the Majestic by the Shubert organization, was converted for a while into a combination movie and vaudeville house. The article about the Majestic in the June 12, 1909, issue of The Moving Picture World is worth quoting in its entirety for the glimpse it offers of the early days of movie exhibition in large theaters:
“The conversion of the Majestic Theater into a moving picture house is an event of first rate importance, for the Majestic, which is situated on Columbus Circle, is pretty well in the heart of New York City and it is a high-class theater, ranking with the best. Presumably the Shuberts, not wishing the house to remain dark in the Summer, are trying an experiment at the Majestic in giving exhibitions of moving pictures sandwiched between chunks of vaudeville. The result of the experiment will, of course, be watched with interest. If it succeeds, then we may expect other Broadway and uptown theaters to follow suit.
“The Majestic is a very large theater and it takes a great number of people to fill it. It is also a beautiful theater. Its situation is unrivaled for tapping a vast section of New York’s population. A little while ago, when writing about a neighboring moving picture house, I suggested that the district of Columbus Circle is one in which a first-class moving picture theater could be profitably placed. I wonder if the Shuberts have adopted my suggestion? If they have and they read this column, they will probably be glad of a few hints as to how to run their theater on a profit-paying basis.
“When I visited the house the other day there was a fair-sized audience. The programme consisted of vaudeville, songs, moving and talking pictures. The vaudeville was just tolerated. It is true that I was present in the afternoon, when things are generally flat and dull, but the audience was sufficiently large to enable me to form an opinion as to how they regarded this innovation at the Majestic. Their interest is chiefly centered in the pictures. These, however, I was sorry to observe, were a month or two old. Nevertheless, the Biograph and Pathe subjects attracted great attention, and, more remarkable still, a phenomenon in the moving picture theater, occasionally elicited considerable applause.
“It is a moot point whether the Majestic is not too large a house for moving pictures—the people at the back of it are a long way from them. Still, the enterprise of the Shuberts should not find any difficulty in filling the place. What is wanted, of course, is less vaudeville, or none at all, and more pictures. Not old subjects, but the very latest releases. Then the manager might try the effect of a little orchestral music, instead of the simple unaccompanied piano.
“Experience shows that the Keith & Proctor houses are successful with moving pictures alone, and there is no reason why the Majestic should not be as successful. Between Columbus Circle and 125th street, on the West Side, there are a large number of people who would, no doubt, be constant visitors to the house if a suitable program of pictures were provided. Then, of course, there is always a floating population of New York City in search of cheap entertainment.
“Evidently, then, the theater magnates of New York City are seriously considering the moving picture as a moneymaking proposition. Let them go about the business on the lines I have indicated and they will be successful. Half-and-half measures are worse than useless. A half-million of people in New York City daily want good pictures. This is probably a larger number than all the visitors to the vaudeville and theater houses combined and it is worth while catering for, in a liberal, intelligent and generous way.”
A Rex Theatre was in operation in Battle Creek prior to 1913, when it burned on January 13. The house was rebuilt, and for some years thereafter was under the operation of the partnership of Lipp & Cross.
The Post Theatre was considerably more than a vaudeville house in its early years. It was Battle Creek’s leading theater. Its ample stage was designed to accommodate the road shows of major productions, and the house continued to present such fare even after becoming a part-time movie theater. It even supported its own stock company for a while, and also presented musical programs such as a 1924 concert by Paul Whiteman’s orchestra which included the first local performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
The Post Theatre opened on March 13, 1902, with Nat Goodwin and Maxine Elliot staring in a performance of H. V. Esmond’s play When We Were Twenty-one. The Post was mentioned in movie trade publications at least as early as 1915. Berenice Bryant Lowe’s Tales of Battle Creek says that the Post Theatre showed its last movie in 1948 and was demolished seven years later.
Polk’s 1914-1915 Richmond-Contra Costa County directory lists a New Orpheum Theatre in Crockett. That might be an early name for the American, but it could also be an early name for another theater, one which was called the Loring in the 1920s and at least into the late 1930s.
The Loring was in the 800 block of Loring Avenue, on a site that is now part of Rithel Park. If the Loring was not mentioned in 1941, it’s possible that something bad happened to it and the American was its replacement.
If the red brick building showing in Street View was the American Theatre, the building itself must be quite old. I’d guess late 19th or early 20th century. It might have been built for some other use and converted into a theater at any time prior to 1941.
As far as I’ve been able to determine, the only theaters operating in Crockett in the late 1930s were the Loring and the Columbia. That’s why I think the American might have opened only after the Loring closed.
The photo recently uploaded shows that the Columbia Theatre was a few doors down the street from the Granada Theatre. The Columbia’s building is still there, at 213 E. 2nd Street, and now houses a bowling alley called Columbia Recreation Lanes.
A 1914-1915 Polk directory for Contra Costa County lists a theater called the Columbio, located in Valona, which was a community that has since been absorbed into Crockett. It was almost certainly this theater. Columbio might have been a typo, or perhaps that actually was the theater’s name at that time.
The main part of the building the Columbia was in is certainly old enough to have been around in 1915. In fact it looks late Victorian. The modern addition which looks like it was built as a new entrance and lobby for the theater appears to date from the late 1940s or early 1950s.
This house might be found listed in later years as the Lanai Theatre. I don’t know if it ever showed movies under that name, but in 1969 as the Lanai Theatre it was the scene of concerts featuring notable Bay Area bands such as the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Google Maps is apparently flummoxed by the fact that the 500 Block of West 5th Street no longer exists (it has been replaced by a freeway offramp along the same alignment.) The pin icon on Fountain Square is five blocks east of the the Pekin Theatre’s actual location.
Chuck, the Google Map on this page doesn’t show Cincinnati. It doesn’t even show Ohio. It shows a small Wisconsin town called Reedsville.
If you zoom in on the Google map of Cincinnati, you’ll find a small fragment of John Street still exists, buried inside the highway interchange, and running a block and a half north from 3rd Street. It no longer intersects with 5th Street.
Google Maps will probably never be able to find this theater’s location. 5th Street has been replaced by an offramp. The neighborhood is entirely gone.
But I find it inexplicable that Google Maps can’t even find downtown Cincinnati from the zip code on this page. It had no trouble finding Cincinnati for the Pekin Theatre page (even though the map there puts the pin icon on East 5th instead of West 5th, where the theater actually was. The Pekin was just down the block from the Lincoln.)
I also don’t know why the name of the Lincoln’s architectural firm isn’t showing. It was designed by Stewart & Stewart, already listed at Cinema Treasures as architects of the Nordland Theatre.
The Midland Theatre was listed in several issue of Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide in the early 1900s. It was a ground-floor house of 983 seats.
In 1909, the Midland was included on a list of theater fires that had occurred so far that year, published in the August 18 issue of The Insurance Press The Midland Theatre fire had taken place on February 1, and had resulted in a loss estimated at $50,000.
There are postcards dated “circa 1910” on various Internet sites that show the Midland Theatre, but I’ve been unable to discover whether or not the house was actually rebuilt following the 1909 fire.
This theater might be on the site of an earlier Osborne Theatre that was destroyed by fire on December 12, 1917, as reported in the January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World. The address of the destroyed theater was not given, but the loss was estimated at $42,000.
The 2004 fire was not the first to strike this building. The January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World reported that the new Lyric Theatre in Frostburg had been heavily damaged by a fire that swept through part of the town’s business district on the previous December 14.
The Rialto opened in 1926. The October 30 issue of The Reel World said that the house had opened the previous Thursday.
An item in an earlier issue of the same publication mentioned the project, and said that the architect of the Rialto was Edwin G. Kratz of Kansas City.
I also found the Savoy Theatre mentioned in a 1926 issue of The Moving Picture World. The operator’s name was William Leucht.
Aside from competition from the new Rialto, the demise of the Savoy Theatre might have been hastened by the advent of talking pictures. Equipping a theater for sound was costly, and beyond the means of many small operators. As a result, small, older theaters such as the Savoy closed by the thousands during the late 1920s.
The Rivoli is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures, unless it is listed under another name but missing the AKA Rivoli. I’ve found brief mentions of several other theaters in St. Joseph that are not yet listed, or perhaps are listed but missing their AKAs. A Star Theatre was mentioned in 1913, A Penn Theatre, a Royal Theatre, an Olive Theatre, a Park Theatre, and a Tootle Theatre were mentioned in the 1920s.
I’ve also found a couple of mentions of a house called the Tivoli, but I think these might have been typos for Rivoli.
This biography of architect Hugh Edward White attributes the design of the Webb Theatre to him, and dates the project as ca.1927.
Here is the new location to the 1951 Boxoffice photo of the Belvedere Theatre that Gerald DeLuca linked to in an earlier comment.
A brief biography of Francis M. Davis appeared in Volume 4 of “History of Idaho: Gem of the Mountains” by James H. Hawley, which was published in 1920. Here is the part pertaining to the theater: “Since the fall of 1915 Mr. Davis has been engaged in the moving picture business. In the spring of 1918 he erected a modern theatre building on an elaborate scale, costing thirty thousand dollars, and which would be a credit to a larger town than Shelley. The theatre is splendidly equipped and is well supported by the citizens.”
Both of Emmett’s theaters, the Ideal and the Liberty, were in operation by 1920. Volume 4 of “History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains” by James H. Hawley, which was published that year, said that the Ideal Theatre was owned by Claude D. Bucknam, who also owned a half interest in the Liberty Theatre.
Both of Emmett’s theaters, the Ideal and the Liberty, were in operation by 1920. Volume 4 of “History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains” by James H. Hawley, which was published that year, said that the Ideal Theatre was owned by Claude D. Bucknam, who also owned a half interest in the Liberty Theatre.
Google Maps has its pin icon in the wrong place again, about a mile north of the theater’s actual location. It’s probably because the address should read simply Overland Avenue, not N. Overland Avenue.
Here is the biography of Stanley J. Osika from volume 4 of “History of Idaho: Gem of the Mountains” by James H. Hawley, which was published in 1920:
It’s not clear if Osika owned the theater building itself or only leased it, but as the book refers to him as the proprietor of the theater he must have owned the business. Stanley J. Osika was listed as a resident of Cassia County, Idaho, in the 1920 U.S. census, but the 1930 census lists him as a resident of Erie, New York.This page still needs to be updated to attribute the design of the Cinema 70 to Lusk & Wallace (Dietz Lusk Jr. and John J. Wallace) rather than Mel C. Glatz, and to remove the erroneous AKA of Cooper 70 Theatre.
Dietz Lusk didn’t include any of his theaters among the works listed in his entry in the 1970 edition of the AIA’s guide to American architects. By that time the firm was designing a great variety of projects, but so far I’ve found no theaters later than this one among their works.
The Cooper Foundation’s web site once had a PDF with a history of Cooper Theaters, but it is no longer available. The PDF said that the Cooper 70 and the Ute 70 projects were both designed by Mel C. Glatz of Mel C. Glatz & Associates, in association with architect Maynard Rorman. The same team designed the conversion of the Cooper into a triplex.
The Ute 70 Theatre was designed by Mel C. Glatz, in association with architect Maynard Rorman, according to a history of Cooper Theatres that was once available on the Cooper Foundation’s web site (it has since been removed.)
The NRHP registration form for the Crest Theatre, available here as a PDF, includes several photos of the theater, as well as a detailed description.
The entry for architect Louis Henry Layton III in the 1970 directory of the AIA lists the Key Theatre in Washington, DC, as one of his works.
The entire even-numbered side of the 200 block of Central Avenue is now a parking lot. The Chief Theatre is gone.
In 1909 this theater, then being operated as the Majestic by the Shubert organization, was converted for a while into a combination movie and vaudeville house. The article about the Majestic in the June 12, 1909, issue of The Moving Picture World is worth quoting in its entirety for the glimpse it offers of the early days of movie exhibition in large theaters:
A Rex Theatre was in operation in Battle Creek prior to 1913, when it burned on January 13. The house was rebuilt, and for some years thereafter was under the operation of the partnership of Lipp & Cross.
The Post Theatre was considerably more than a vaudeville house in its early years. It was Battle Creek’s leading theater. Its ample stage was designed to accommodate the road shows of major productions, and the house continued to present such fare even after becoming a part-time movie theater. It even supported its own stock company for a while, and also presented musical programs such as a 1924 concert by Paul Whiteman’s orchestra which included the first local performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
The Post Theatre opened on March 13, 1902, with Nat Goodwin and Maxine Elliot staring in a performance of H. V. Esmond’s play When We Were Twenty-one. The Post was mentioned in movie trade publications at least as early as 1915. Berenice Bryant Lowe’s Tales of Battle Creek says that the Post Theatre showed its last movie in 1948 and was demolished seven years later.
Polk’s 1914-1915 Richmond-Contra Costa County directory lists a New Orpheum Theatre in Crockett. That might be an early name for the American, but it could also be an early name for another theater, one which was called the Loring in the 1920s and at least into the late 1930s.
The Loring was in the 800 block of Loring Avenue, on a site that is now part of Rithel Park. If the Loring was not mentioned in 1941, it’s possible that something bad happened to it and the American was its replacement.
If the red brick building showing in Street View was the American Theatre, the building itself must be quite old. I’d guess late 19th or early 20th century. It might have been built for some other use and converted into a theater at any time prior to 1941.
As far as I’ve been able to determine, the only theaters operating in Crockett in the late 1930s were the Loring and the Columbia. That’s why I think the American might have opened only after the Loring closed.
The photo recently uploaded shows that the Columbia Theatre was a few doors down the street from the Granada Theatre. The Columbia’s building is still there, at 213 E. 2nd Street, and now houses a bowling alley called Columbia Recreation Lanes.
A 1914-1915 Polk directory for Contra Costa County lists a theater called the Columbio, located in Valona, which was a community that has since been absorbed into Crockett. It was almost certainly this theater. Columbio might have been a typo, or perhaps that actually was the theater’s name at that time.
The main part of the building the Columbia was in is certainly old enough to have been around in 1915. In fact it looks late Victorian. The modern addition which looks like it was built as a new entrance and lobby for the theater appears to date from the late 1940s or early 1950s.
This house might be found listed in later years as the Lanai Theatre. I don’t know if it ever showed movies under that name, but in 1969 as the Lanai Theatre it was the scene of concerts featuring notable Bay Area bands such as the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Google Maps is apparently flummoxed by the fact that the 500 Block of West 5th Street no longer exists (it has been replaced by a freeway offramp along the same alignment.) The pin icon on Fountain Square is five blocks east of the the Pekin Theatre’s actual location.
Chuck, the Google Map on this page doesn’t show Cincinnati. It doesn’t even show Ohio. It shows a small Wisconsin town called Reedsville.
If you zoom in on the Google map of Cincinnati, you’ll find a small fragment of John Street still exists, buried inside the highway interchange, and running a block and a half north from 3rd Street. It no longer intersects with 5th Street.
Google Maps will probably never be able to find this theater’s location. 5th Street has been replaced by an offramp. The neighborhood is entirely gone.
But I find it inexplicable that Google Maps can’t even find downtown Cincinnati from the zip code on this page. It had no trouble finding Cincinnati for the Pekin Theatre page (even though the map there puts the pin icon on East 5th instead of West 5th, where the theater actually was. The Pekin was just down the block from the Lincoln.)
I also don’t know why the name of the Lincoln’s architectural firm isn’t showing. It was designed by Stewart & Stewart, already listed at Cinema Treasures as architects of the Nordland Theatre.
The Midland Theatre was listed in several issue of Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide in the early 1900s. It was a ground-floor house of 983 seats.
In 1909, the Midland was included on a list of theater fires that had occurred so far that year, published in the August 18 issue of The Insurance Press The Midland Theatre fire had taken place on February 1, and had resulted in a loss estimated at $50,000.
There are postcards dated “circa 1910” on various Internet sites that show the Midland Theatre, but I’ve been unable to discover whether or not the house was actually rebuilt following the 1909 fire.
This theater might be on the site of an earlier Osborne Theatre that was destroyed by fire on December 12, 1917, as reported in the January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World. The address of the destroyed theater was not given, but the loss was estimated at $42,000.
The 2004 fire was not the first to strike this building. The January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World reported that the new Lyric Theatre in Frostburg had been heavily damaged by a fire that swept through part of the town’s business district on the previous December 14.
The Rialto opened in 1926. The October 30 issue of The Reel World said that the house had opened the previous Thursday.
An item in an earlier issue of the same publication mentioned the project, and said that the architect of the Rialto was Edwin G. Kratz of Kansas City.
I also found the Savoy Theatre mentioned in a 1926 issue of The Moving Picture World. The operator’s name was William Leucht.
Aside from competition from the new Rialto, the demise of the Savoy Theatre might have been hastened by the advent of talking pictures. Equipping a theater for sound was costly, and beyond the means of many small operators. As a result, small, older theaters such as the Savoy closed by the thousands during the late 1920s.
The Rivoli is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures, unless it is listed under another name but missing the AKA Rivoli. I’ve found brief mentions of several other theaters in St. Joseph that are not yet listed, or perhaps are listed but missing their AKAs. A Star Theatre was mentioned in 1913, A Penn Theatre, a Royal Theatre, an Olive Theatre, a Park Theatre, and a Tootle Theatre were mentioned in the 1920s.
I’ve also found a couple of mentions of a house called the Tivoli, but I think these might have been typos for Rivoli.