I’m puzzled by the references to the “Franchon and Marco circuit” and then “Francon and Marco Circuit” in this theater’s description. If it is meant to read Fanchon and Marco, it can’t possibly be true that they had anything to do with the first Washington Theatre. Fanchon and Marco were teenagers (born 1892 and 1894 respectively) in 1910 when the first Washington was built, and living in California.
Fanchon and Marco would not have built the second Washington Theatre either, as in 1923 they were still producing packaged stage shows, primarily for theaters on the west coast, and had not yet gone into direct operation of theaters (though it’s possible that their older brother Rube had begun building the Los Angeles area circuit he operated, South Side Theatres, by that time.)
As far as I’ve been able to determine, the Fanchon & Marco circuit began its partnership with Harry Arthur in 1934, when rapidly expanding F&M took a long-term lease on the St. Louis Fox Theatre, which Arthur had taken over a few years earlier when William Fox went broke. That was when Arthur joined F&M as general manager of their St. Louis operations. He did not acquire the circuit at that time, so much as the circuit acquired him along with the lease on the Fox.
Arthur might have taken complete control of F&M’s Midwestern operations later, as Fanchon Simon and Marco Wolf concentrated more on their other activities and their Los Angeles area theaters, but I haven’t found much information about that period of the company’s history.
Here’s a fresh link to the first page of the article about the Goodhand Theatre in Boxoffice of December 4, 1954 (the article continues on the two subsequent pages.) The magazine says the architect’s name was Wate Porter, but I think it must have been Wade Porter, who was listed in the 1962 AIA directory as having his office in Cheyenne, Wyoming
This appears to be the correct spelling of the name of one of the architects of this theater: Didrik A. Omeyer. Somehow the NRHP document slipped an inapposite apostrophe into his surname. He was apparently of Norwegian ancestry, not Irish, and so was his partner Martin P. Thori. Their firm was located in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The records of New Orleans architects Edward B. Silverstein and Associates and its predecessor firms, held by the Southeastern Architectural Archive, at Tulane University, include 13 sheets for the People’s Theatre at Greenville. They are dated 1919, and attribute the design to architect J. Rice Scott.
There are a couple of small photos of the Roy Theatre on this web page. The building doesn’t look especially rustic to me. It’s a rather typical small town commercial building, though it’s been gussied up with three painted windows to make it look like it has a second floor.
A somewhat compromised photo of the auditorium of the Ritz Theatre illustrated an ad for the American Seating Company on this page of Motion Picture Times, September 8, 1928. The caption credits the theater’s architect, Roy E. Lane.
The September 8, 1928, issue of Motion Picture Times said that the Arcadia Theatre in Ranger had opened on August 24. The article featured one photo, and said that the new house, operated by Dent Theatres, had a Reuter organ.
The monthly Stone & Webster Journal had the following item in the Fort Madison section of its July, 1919 issue:
“The new moving picture theater called the ‘Strand’ was formally opened on July 1st. This new theater is modern in every respect and is reported to be one of the finest picture houses west of Chicago, having a seating capacity of nearly 1,000.”
The August 11, 1928, issue of Motion Picture Times published remarks from the manager and publicity director of the Strand and Orpheum Theatres in Fort Madison, accompanied by a small photo of the entrance to the Strand looking as though it had been decorated to publicize a particular movie.
O.F.Paulson Co., currently listed in the Firm field, is a construction company. The Iowa Theatre was designed by George Fisher, an Omaha architect who was at one time partnered with Louis Mendelssohn and Harry Lawrie.
The August 11, 1928, issue of Motion Picture Times has an article about the Iowa Theatre, with three photos.
Since the photo linked in an earlier comment shows a different Colonial Theatre, I’m pleased to have found a photo of the Woodward Avenue Colonial on this page of Motion Picture Times, August 4, 1928.
Chuck, the building with the “Rapides” vertical sign on it isn’t the theater. It’s on the side of the street with even-numbered addresses, but the Paramount had an odd-numbered address. The theater was across the street and down the block a bit, and it has been gone for about two decades now.
From the configuration of show windows and the deco detailing, the building with the Rapides sign looks like it might have been a dime store or a department store. Whatever it was originally, it is now the Rapides Foundation Building (the vertical sign has a side attachment with “Foundation” in smaller letters,) which runs all the way to 4th Street. Google doesn’t have street views for the Johnston Street or 4th Street sides of the building, but there’s a decent bird’s-eye at Bing Maps.
droben must have been thinking of “Days of Heaven,” which opened at the Music Box in mid-October, 1978. This was one of the few theaters showing the 70mm version of the movie.
The Favrot of Favrot & Livaudais, architects of the Rapides Opera House, was Charles A. Favrot. His partner was Louis A. Livaudais. Favrot’s son, H. Mortimer Favrot, worked in the office of Favrot & Livaudais until 1934, when he formed the firm of Favrot & Reed with Alan C. Reed. Favrot & Reed went on to design at least three theaters.
I’ve been unable to discover how old the Delta Theatre is, but it was altered and received a new front around 1938-1939, according to the records of the architects for the project, the Lake Charles, Louisiana, firm Dunn & Quinn. The house was then being operated by the Southern Amusement company.
The records of the Lake Charles, Louisiana, architectural firm Dunn & Quinn list an unnamed theater at Winnfield, designed for the Southern Amusement Company in 1947.
The records of the Lake Charles, Louisiana, architectural firm Dunn & Quinn list many theater projects for the Southern Amusement Company during the 1930s and 1940s. A new theater at Crowley, dated July, 1940, is among them. The theater’s name is not given but it must be the Rice Theatre, as that appears to have been the only new theater built in Crowley in 1940.
The architect of the Century’s Argo Theatre was Samuel Lewis Malkind, who also designed the Parsons Theatre in Flushing, New York. Early in his career, Malkind worked as a draftsman in Thomas Lamb’s office.
Later, he was a partner in the firm of Malkind & Weinstein, with Martyn Weinstein (who later changed his name to Martyn Weston.) Malkind & Weinstein were associate architects (with the firm of Reilly & Hall) in the design of Loew’s Coney Island Theatre (later renamed the Shore Theatre) in Brooklyn.
Malkind might have designed other theaters on his own as well, but so far the Argo and the Parsons are the only ones I’ve been able to track down.
Plans for the St. George Playhouse were announced in the March 27, 1927, issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The project was budgeted at $175,000. The location was given as the south side of Pineapple Street, 38 feet west of Fulton Street. Fulton Street is now Cadman Plaza West.
Incidentally, why doesn’t Brooklyn Heights get a neighborhood section in Cinema Treasures' listings, the way other districts of Brooklyn do? I had to click through ten pages of maps and take several side trips before I found this theater.
An item in the September 13, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that a new moving picture theater was to be built on Hennepin Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets in Minneapolis for the Blue Mouse Theater Corporation. The surprising thing is that the theater was being designed not by one of the well-known theater architects in the Great Lakes area, but by Harry Lawrie, whose office was in Omaha. Though Lawrie’s firm, Fisher & Lawrie (dissolved in 1913,) apparently designed the original Creighton Theatre in Omaha, and he drew plans for an Omaha house called the Princess Theatre in 1916, he was not known as a theater architect.
The August 9, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that John Eberson had drawn the plans for the Regent Theatre, to be built at Flint for the Butterfield circuit.
The November 15, 1919, issue of trade journal Motion Picture News had this item in its section on Cleveland:
:“The Shaw-Hayden, also a 1200 seat photoplay house opened its doors to the public for the first time October 25. The Shaw-Hayden is the biggest neighborhood theatre to be built on the East Side. Nothing has been spared to make it complete both in structure, equipment, decorations or program. J. J. Mellert, who also runs the Fulton theatre, Cleveland, is manager of the new Shaw-Hayden.”
A closer reading of the Madison County Historical Society page I linked to in my previous comment reveals that the Starland Theatre became the Times Theatre on March 29, 1942.
This page of the City of Milwaukie’s web site mentions the Victory Theatre, and says it was built in 1945.
I’m puzzled by the references to the “Franchon and Marco circuit” and then “Francon and Marco Circuit” in this theater’s description. If it is meant to read Fanchon and Marco, it can’t possibly be true that they had anything to do with the first Washington Theatre. Fanchon and Marco were teenagers (born 1892 and 1894 respectively) in 1910 when the first Washington was built, and living in California.
Fanchon and Marco would not have built the second Washington Theatre either, as in 1923 they were still producing packaged stage shows, primarily for theaters on the west coast, and had not yet gone into direct operation of theaters (though it’s possible that their older brother Rube had begun building the Los Angeles area circuit he operated, South Side Theatres, by that time.)
As far as I’ve been able to determine, the Fanchon & Marco circuit began its partnership with Harry Arthur in 1934, when rapidly expanding F&M took a long-term lease on the St. Louis Fox Theatre, which Arthur had taken over a few years earlier when William Fox went broke. That was when Arthur joined F&M as general manager of their St. Louis operations. He did not acquire the circuit at that time, so much as the circuit acquired him along with the lease on the Fox.
Arthur might have taken complete control of F&M’s Midwestern operations later, as Fanchon Simon and Marco Wolf concentrated more on their other activities and their Los Angeles area theaters, but I haven’t found much information about that period of the company’s history.
Here’s a fresh link to the first page of the article about the Goodhand Theatre in Boxoffice of December 4, 1954 (the article continues on the two subsequent pages.) The magazine says the architect’s name was Wate Porter, but I think it must have been Wade Porter, who was listed in the 1962 AIA directory as having his office in Cheyenne, Wyoming
This appears to be the correct spelling of the name of one of the architects of this theater: Didrik A. Omeyer. Somehow the NRHP document slipped an inapposite apostrophe into his surname. He was apparently of Norwegian ancestry, not Irish, and so was his partner Martin P. Thori. Their firm was located in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The records of New Orleans architects Edward B. Silverstein and Associates and its predecessor firms, held by the Southeastern Architectural Archive, at Tulane University, include 13 sheets for the People’s Theatre at Greenville. They are dated 1919, and attribute the design to architect J. Rice Scott.
There are a couple of small photos of the Roy Theatre on this web page. The building doesn’t look especially rustic to me. It’s a rather typical small town commercial building, though it’s been gussied up with three painted windows to make it look like it has a second floor.
A somewhat compromised photo of the auditorium of the Ritz Theatre illustrated an ad for the American Seating Company on this page of Motion Picture Times, September 8, 1928. The caption credits the theater’s architect, Roy E. Lane.
The September 8, 1928, issue of Motion Picture Times said that the Arcadia Theatre in Ranger had opened on August 24. The article featured one photo, and said that the new house, operated by Dent Theatres, had a Reuter organ.
The monthly Stone & Webster Journal had the following item in the Fort Madison section of its July, 1919 issue:
The August 11, 1928, issue of Motion Picture Times published remarks from the manager and publicity director of the Strand and Orpheum Theatres in Fort Madison, accompanied by a small photo of the entrance to the Strand looking as though it had been decorated to publicize a particular movie.O.F.Paulson Co., currently listed in the Firm field, is a construction company. The Iowa Theatre was designed by George Fisher, an Omaha architect who was at one time partnered with Louis Mendelssohn and Harry Lawrie.
The August 11, 1928, issue of Motion Picture Times has an article about the Iowa Theatre, with three photos.
Since the photo linked in an earlier comment shows a different Colonial Theatre, I’m pleased to have found a photo of the Woodward Avenue Colonial on this page of Motion Picture Times, August 4, 1928.
Chuck, the building with the “Rapides” vertical sign on it isn’t the theater. It’s on the side of the street with even-numbered addresses, but the Paramount had an odd-numbered address. The theater was across the street and down the block a bit, and it has been gone for about two decades now.
From the configuration of show windows and the deco detailing, the building with the Rapides sign looks like it might have been a dime store or a department store. Whatever it was originally, it is now the Rapides Foundation Building (the vertical sign has a side attachment with “Foundation” in smaller letters,) which runs all the way to 4th Street. Google doesn’t have street views for the Johnston Street or 4th Street sides of the building, but there’s a decent bird’s-eye at Bing Maps.
droben must have been thinking of “Days of Heaven,” which opened at the Music Box in mid-October, 1978. This was one of the few theaters showing the 70mm version of the movie.
The Favrot of Favrot & Livaudais, architects of the Rapides Opera House, was Charles A. Favrot. His partner was Louis A. Livaudais. Favrot’s son, H. Mortimer Favrot, worked in the office of Favrot & Livaudais until 1934, when he formed the firm of Favrot & Reed with Alan C. Reed. Favrot & Reed went on to design at least three theaters.
I’ve been unable to discover how old the Delta Theatre is, but it was altered and received a new front around 1938-1939, according to the records of the architects for the project, the Lake Charles, Louisiana, firm Dunn & Quinn. The house was then being operated by the Southern Amusement company.
The records of the Lake Charles, Louisiana, architectural firm Dunn & Quinn list an unnamed theater at Winnfield, designed for the Southern Amusement Company in 1947.
The records of the Lake Charles, Louisiana, architectural firm Dunn & Quinn list many theater projects for the Southern Amusement Company during the 1930s and 1940s. A new theater at Crowley, dated July, 1940, is among them. The theater’s name is not given but it must be the Rice Theatre, as that appears to have been the only new theater built in Crowley in 1940.
The architect of the Century’s Argo Theatre was Samuel Lewis Malkind, who also designed the Parsons Theatre in Flushing, New York. Early in his career, Malkind worked as a draftsman in Thomas Lamb’s office.
Later, he was a partner in the firm of Malkind & Weinstein, with Martyn Weinstein (who later changed his name to Martyn Weston.) Malkind & Weinstein were associate architects (with the firm of Reilly & Hall) in the design of Loew’s Coney Island Theatre (later renamed the Shore Theatre) in Brooklyn.
Malkind might have designed other theaters on his own as well, but so far the Argo and the Parsons are the only ones I’ve been able to track down.
Plans for the St. George Playhouse were announced in the March 27, 1927, issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The project was budgeted at $175,000. The location was given as the south side of Pineapple Street, 38 feet west of Fulton Street. Fulton Street is now Cadman Plaza West.
Incidentally, why doesn’t Brooklyn Heights get a neighborhood section in Cinema Treasures' listings, the way other districts of Brooklyn do? I had to click through ten pages of maps and take several side trips before I found this theater.
An item in the September 13, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that a new moving picture theater was to be built on Hennepin Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets in Minneapolis for the Blue Mouse Theater Corporation. The surprising thing is that the theater was being designed not by one of the well-known theater architects in the Great Lakes area, but by Harry Lawrie, whose office was in Omaha. Though Lawrie’s firm, Fisher & Lawrie (dissolved in 1913,) apparently designed the original Creighton Theatre in Omaha, and he drew plans for an Omaha house called the Princess Theatre in 1916, he was not known as a theater architect.
The August 9, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that John Eberson had drawn the plans for the Regent Theatre, to be built at Flint for the Butterfield circuit.
The November 15, 1919, issue of trade journal Motion Picture News had this item in its section on Cleveland:
The occupant of the building now on the Palace Theatre’s site, Second Avenue Partners LLC, uses the address 1000 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104.
This page from the Madison County Historical Society web site says that the Madison Theatre was located at 8 West Eighth Street.
A closer reading of the Madison County Historical Society page I linked to in my previous comment reveals that the Starland Theatre became the Times Theatre on March 29, 1942.