koosmal: The Times and Riviera Theatres were on the same block, but were not the same theater. The Times has not been demolished, but the Riviera has. The Times Theatre was in the building next to the alley, as shown in the current Street View. The theater on the corner in the photo Don Lewis linked to in the first comment was the Riviera. You can see a bit of the Times' marquee up the block in that photo.
This photo from Indiana Memory shows the three houses from a slightly different angle, with a slightly better view of the facade of the Times.
The Times Theatre opened on Christmas Day, 1913, as the Starland Theatre. The opening of the Starland was noted in the January 24, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World. This page from the Madison County Historical Society gives the address of the Starland Theatre as 1115 S. Meridian, and the address of the Riviera as 1135 S. Meridian.
The caption of this photo from Indiana Memory indicates that the name Starland was moved at some point to the former Grand Opera House, which had been converted to a vaudeville house called the Granada Theatre in 1924. I tdoesn’t give a date for the renaming to Starland, but it must have been when the original Starland became the Times.
This photo of 2nd and Spring, which Flickr user Rob Ketcherside dates to ca.1911, shows the Palace-Hip building in place, but the marquee says Majestic on it.
Robert Grau’s 1910 book “The Business Man in the Amusement World” has a few paragraphs about vaudeville impresario John W. Considine, including the following lines:
“In his own city of Seattle, Mr. Considine is one of the financial, social and political powers. He is giving his city beautiful buildings, such as the new Majestic Theatre which is declared the finest vaudeville structure in America, and the new Orpheum Theatre, to be ready for business by September 1st.”
A photo of the Majestic appears a couple of pages later (scroll down in the Google Books scan.)
The photos show that the theater was at the southeast corner of 2nd and Spring (2nd Avenue is fairly level, but Spring Street runs sharply uphill east of 2nd.) The Majestic most likely opened in 1910, and certainly no earlier than 1909. I’ve found references to the Hippodrome Theatre in Seattle as early as 1912, so the name must have changed no later than that year.
Here is an extract from a biographical sketch of T. C. White in volume 2 of the 1919 “History of Fresno County, California” by Paul E. Vandor:
“Mr. White owns the corner of I and Merced Streets, 150x150 feet, 50x150 feet having been improved with a three-story building many years ago. Seeing the need for a modern theater building, and the time being ripe, he improved the balance of the lot with the New White Theater, 100x150 feet. This is one of the most modern
theaters in the state, special attention having been given to ventilating, cooling, heating, safety and fire escapes. The theater has a seating capacity of
1,500, and is the largest in the Valley. The front is built four stories and is fitted up especially for the University Club, of which Mr. White is an honorary member.”
I Street was later renamed Broadway Street. Merced Street has been converted partly into a pedestrian mall and partly into a parking lot.
The J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte has a collection of drawings and blueprints of projects built by the Mecklenburg Iron Works, and the Belvedere Theatre is among them. The Mecklenburg collection is not yet among the library’s special collections that are available online. If someone with access to the library could take a look at them, the name of the architect is probably on them. As the drawings are in a special collection, the library might require advance notice from anyone who wants to examine them. Here is the library’s web site.
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.
koosmal: The Times and Riviera Theatres were on the same block, but were not the same theater. The Times has not been demolished, but the Riviera has. The Times Theatre was in the building next to the alley, as shown in the current Street View. The theater on the corner in the photo Don Lewis linked to in the first comment was the Riviera. You can see a bit of the Times' marquee up the block in that photo.
This photo from Indiana Memory shows the three houses from a slightly different angle, with a slightly better view of the facade of the Times.
The Times Theatre opened on Christmas Day, 1913, as the Starland Theatre. The opening of the Starland was noted in the January 24, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World. This page from the Madison County Historical Society gives the address of the Starland Theatre as 1115 S. Meridian, and the address of the Riviera as 1135 S. Meridian.
The caption of this photo from Indiana Memory indicates that the name Starland was moved at some point to the former Grand Opera House, which had been converted to a vaudeville house called the Granada Theatre in 1924. I tdoesn’t give a date for the renaming to Starland, but it must have been when the original Starland became the Times.
This photo of 2nd and Spring, which Flickr user Rob Ketcherside dates to ca.1911, shows the Palace-Hip building in place, but the marquee says Majestic on it.
Robert Grau’s 1910 book “The Business Man in the Amusement World” has a few paragraphs about vaudeville impresario John W. Considine, including the following lines:
A photo of the Majestic appears a couple of pages later (scroll down in the Google Books scan.)The photos show that the theater was at the southeast corner of 2nd and Spring (2nd Avenue is fairly level, but Spring Street runs sharply uphill east of 2nd.) The Majestic most likely opened in 1910, and certainly no earlier than 1909. I’ve found references to the Hippodrome Theatre in Seattle as early as 1912, so the name must have changed no later than that year.
Here is an extract from a biographical sketch of T. C. White in volume 2 of the 1919 “History of Fresno County, California” by Paul E. Vandor:
I Street was later renamed Broadway Street. Merced Street has been converted partly into a pedestrian mall and partly into a parking lot.Boxoffice of January 6, 1951, published a two-page article about the Watts Theatre.
An ad for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in the January 6, 1951, issue of Boxoffice featured a photo of the Vestal Theatre’s streamlined facade.
Here is a fresh link to the 1951 photo of the Marrh Theatre in Boxoffice.
The AKA Carolina Theatre needs to be added. The building is now occupied by a jewelery store.
The J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte has a collection of drawings and blueprints of projects built by the Mecklenburg Iron Works, and the Belvedere Theatre is among them. The Mecklenburg collection is not yet among the library’s special collections that are available online. If someone with access to the library could take a look at them, the name of the architect is probably on them. As the drawings are in a special collection, the library might require advance notice from anyone who wants to examine them. Here is the library’s web site.
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.