Opera House is the name of the only theater listed at Garner in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the November 9, 1918 Moving Picture World mentions a house called the Garner Theatre. I haven’t found the name Electric Theatre associated with Garner in the trade journals. The 1926 FDY lists a 190-seat house called the Lyric Theatre. No clue yet if Garner and/or Lyric were aka’s for the Opera House.
The Sun Theatre at Woodward, Iowa had installed new projection and sound equipment, according to an item in <em<Boxoffice of October 16, 1948. Improvements scheduled for the near future by owner Lorena Hanson included a new canopy, new carpeting, new lighting throughout the building, and the addition of 30 more seats on each side of the balcony.
An interesting item appeared in Boxoffice on October 16, 1948. It said that the old Congregational Church in Mundelein had been converted into a theater. It didn’t give the theater’s name, but said that it seated 100, so it was quite small. I suppose there is a fitting symmetry to Mundelein’s later theater becoming a church.
What Cheer’s theatrical history appears to be richer and more complex than even local people remember. An article datelined What Cheer and headed “What Cheer is Rebuilt and Renamed Tic-Toc” appeared in Boxoffice March 20, 1948. The article said that the theater had been destroyed by a fire on November 6, 1947, but the building had been renovated and the theater and would soon open with 300 new seats, new carpeting, and new sound equipment, plus a nursery for children.
It was to be called the Tic-Toc Theatre and would be operated by the son and daughter-in-law of Mrs. Dorothy Fritz, who had operated the What Cheer for the previous eleven years. The FDY continued to list the What Cheer Theatre, with 225 seats, in its 1949 and 1950 editions, but the name Tic-Toc appears in a few items in trade journals over the years, the last being an item about the closing of the house which was published in the May 22, 1978 issue of Boxoffice. That means the Tic-Toc had a run of thirty years, on top of whatever time it spent as the What Cheer Theatre. One particularly interesting item, in The Exhibitor of November 7, 1951, said “Richard Fritz, owner, Tic-Toc, What Cheer, Ia., purchased the Masonic, What Cheer.” Mr. and Mrs. Fritz still owned the Tic Toc when it closed in 1978.
The history on the Opera House web site doesn’t mention a 1947 fire, or any alternate names for that theater, saying only that it operated as a movie house from sometime in the silent era until 1953. It seems strange that a town as small as What Cheer would have had two movie theaters in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but that’s what the evidence so far seems to be pointing to to: the Masonic Opera House and the What Cheer/Tic Toc were two different theaters.
This house opened on June 27, 1940, and the theater’s advertisements and the newspaper headlines about the event used the spelling Hazle Theatre. This was apparently the correct spelling, despite the variant sometimes used by the FDY.
An item headlined “Rebuild Closed Theatre” in the October 16, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the Cozy Theatre, recently closed by order of the state fire Marshall, would be rebuilt by Marcus Theatres, who had obtained a new lease on the structure. Improvements would include fireproofing, new seating and projection booth equipment, and a new ticket booth.
My surmise that the Margie Grand might have been the old Cumberland Theatre renamed turned out to be wrong. I came across a book published in 1922 that revealed that Harlan’s Cumberland Theatre was located on Main Street. A 1925 Sanborn map shows the site of the Margie Grand vacant, so it now seems likely that the Margie Grand probably did open in 1929, but after that year’s FDY was compiled. The rather old fashioned look of the building can probably be attributed to the aesthetic conservatism of the region.
A building at 108 (modern 107) S. Main Street is labeled “Movies” on the 1925 Sanborn map, and must have been the location of the Cumberland Theatre. It still stands, occupied by an attorney’s offices. The considerably larger Harlan Theatre is named on the map at 107-109 (modern 108-110) S. Main Street. The site is now part of a parking lot.
The Margie Grand Theater first appears in the FDY’s 1930 edition. Prior to that, there was a house called the Cumberland Theatre. No seating capacities were given for either house, so we can’t be sure if Margie Grand was a new name for the Cumberland, but it is a possibility. The Cumberland was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The town also had a house called the New Harlan Theatre, which several sources indicate was the town’s “A” house, but it appears to have been closed following a severe flood that struck the town in 1963, and it’s building was destroyed by a fire in 1970. The Margie Grand was still in operation at least as late as 1977. The New Harlan was built in 1922, and was listed in FDY editions from 1926 on.
The mid-year theater building report in the July 22, 1950 issue of Boxoffice listed the Cumberland Amusement Company’s 750-seat Alene Theatre at Whitesburg, Kentucky as one of the 327 indoor theaters started or opened in the United State since the beginning of the year. The Alene was one of the six (out of ten total) projects in Kentucky that had already opened.
An article in the March 16, 2016 issue of The Mountain Eagle says that the theater closed in the mid-1980s. Part of the ground floor is now occupied by a florists shop, and the remainder of the building has been converted into apartments. On opening, the Alene was the fourth house for the Isaacs family’s Cumberland Amusement Company. They had theaters in Cumberland and Benham, as well as the Kentucky Theatre in Whitesburg.
No theaters were listed at either Cumberland or Valley Falls in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the 1926 FDY lists a 500-seat Strand at Valley Falls.
CinemaScope equipment was installed at the Model Theatre in 1954, and the house had several more years of life before its building was converted into a bakery in 1962. The interior was gutted at the time of the conversion, and the streamline modern exterior of the house has since been entirely concealed behind a “vintage” false front. The bakery still occupies the violated premises.
The correct address of the Model Theatre is 419 Phoenix Street.
An item about the opening of the Michigan Theatre at South Haven that appeared in the July 11, 1947 issue of Film Daily noted that the house was a replacement for the Center Theater which had burned on January 2. However, local newspaper articles published on March 28 and June 20, 1947, both say that the Centre Theatre had burned on February 1, 1945, and Butterfield was unable to rebuild right away due to restrictions by the War Production Board. The newspaper articles are on display at the Michigan Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland.
In any case, it appears that the Phoenix Theatre is a phantom. The Centre (the most common spelling of the name) Theatre was entirely destroyed in 1945 and replaced on the same site by the Michigan Theatre in 1947. South Haven’s only other theater of the period, the Model on Phoenix Street, opened in 1938. Neither CinemaTour nor Water Winter Wonderland lists a Phoenix Theatre at South Haven.
As for the Centre, Water Winter Wonderland has this page for it. It opened on April 13, 1920, originally seating 652 (the 1926 FDY says 438) but expanded to 731 in a 1934 remodeling. Destroyed by a fire on February 2, 1945.
Info from the July 11, 1947 Film Daily: “Butterfield Theaters opened the New Michigan Theater, South Haven, on Wednesday, July 2. With a seating capacity of nearly 1,000, the Michigan seats more than the old Center, which burned down Jan. 2, 1945.”
Like many theaters, the Roxy had CinemaScope equipment installed in 1954, and inaugurated the new format with biblical epic “The Robe.” The October 30 edition of Motion Picture Herald noted the event.
Okay, I checked the article again and it does say the second location of the Cozy was also on Front Street. I must have mistaken the newspaper’s address for the theater address when looking at the Google results summary.
Is there a paywall on my link? I’m still not getting one. It might be because my browser has a VPN setting I’m using. That cab confuse some websites into not blocking access.
The January 2, 1962 issue of Boxoffice had news about this house that had been owned by the local government:
“Plum City Theatre Sold
“PLUM CITY, WIS.—The Plum City Theatre, built in 1938, has been sold by village trustees to Jim Glaus, a local merchant, who plans to remodel the upstairs into a store. The village will have free use of the basement for elections and meetings for 20 years. The theatre has been closed for several years.”
An item in the June 18, 1955 Boxoffice had said that “[t]he theatre at Plum city is being kept open through the sponsorship of the local businessmen.” Such sponsorship must have failed not long after that. It seems unlikely that anybody would have been willing or able to underwrite the expense of converting the house for the wide screen formats that were rapidly displacing the standard 35mm films.
In 1914 Hampton had a house called the Lyric Theatre, but it was at 119 Main Street. Perhaps this item from the January 10, 1919 issue of Film Daily is a clue, or maybe not: “Hampton, Iowa—The Star has been leased to James Keefe, who will operate it in connection with the Windsor.” The only theater listed at Hampton in the 1926, 1929 and 1938 FDYs is the Windsor, and I’m not hopeful that we’d find the Star listed if we checked more of them.
However, there is a second house listed at Hampton in the 1944 FDY, the 280-seat Lido. If no other theaters (but the Windsor) appear on the 1944 map, at least we’ve got a late name for this house. Whether or not it was earlier the Star remains moot, but does seem likely. It might be that once it came under the control of the operators of the Windsor they just kept it mothballed for a long time.
There is a Belleview Iowa in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no Bellevue. It’s undoubtedly an error by the Directory. The house listed at “Belleview” was called the Cozy Theatre. The 1926 FDY still lists a 350-seat house called the Cozy as the only theater at Bellevue. The 1926 house was at a different location, though.
This article from the July 5, 2023 Bellevue Herald-Leader discusses both locations. The Front Street (apparently another former name of Riverview Street) Cozy Theatre opened on May 19, 1913. The Cozy moved to its second location, at 118 S. 2nd Street, in 1916, and operated there into the 1970s. Both buildings are still standing.
If 1343 N. Federal was formerly numbered as 1143 N. Main Street, then this must have been the house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directoryas the Kozy Theatre. I have yet to find the Kozy mentioned in the trade journals, and don’t really expect to. It is, however, listed in Polk’s 1914 Iowa Gazetteer.
Two possible names for this house are mentioned in this item from Motography’s issue of January 6, 1917: “Cal Branson has sold the Electric Theater at Mason City to Charles Carragher, owner of the Palm Theater. Possession will be taken immediately and, no doubt, one of the places will be closed during the winter months.”
But if this address was part of a Kresge store in 1953, then the theater was called the Idle Hour, briefly mentioned in this long article originally published by the Globe Gazette for Mason City’s centennial that year.
None of those three theater names appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Regent was the name of one of the seven movie houses listed at Mason City in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but was one of only two listed without an address (the other was the Princess.)
My August 29 comment provides a source for 1911 opening of this Princess Theater. The Princess listed in the 1908 Cahn guide is, for now, a mystery theater. The 1911 Princess must be the one listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though it is listed without an address.
The earliest mention I’ve found of a house called the Casino in Mason City is this item from the December 4, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World, but either the claim that it was a newly-erected theater was mistaken or this was a different Casino theater: “MASON CITY, IA.—A. Frankel has erected a new moving picture theater which he has named the New Casino.”
This house opened in 1925 as the Plainview Theatre. It was listed as such in the 1926 FDY with seating for 650. An article about the project in the April 18, 1925 Exhibitors Herald said that construction was underway, and noted that the new building would replace an existing Plainview Theatre, and that it had been designed by Amarillo architect Lawrence Kerr.
This house actually opened in 1907. An ad saying that the Deandi Theatre was now open appeared in the September 14, 1907 issue of The Billboard. An item in the July 27 issue of the same weekly publication had said that the house was rapidly nearing completion and was expected to open by August 15. I’ve found no mentions of the Deandi in the issues between those dates, so they might have missed their initial target.
Opera House is the name of the only theater listed at Garner in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the November 9, 1918 Moving Picture World mentions a house called the Garner Theatre. I haven’t found the name Electric Theatre associated with Garner in the trade journals. The 1926 FDY lists a 190-seat house called the Lyric Theatre. No clue yet if Garner and/or Lyric were aka’s for the Opera House.
The Sun Theatre at Woodward, Iowa had installed new projection and sound equipment, according to an item in <em<Boxoffice of October 16, 1948. Improvements scheduled for the near future by owner Lorena Hanson included a new canopy, new carpeting, new lighting throughout the building, and the addition of 30 more seats on each side of the balcony.
An interesting item appeared in Boxoffice on October 16, 1948. It said that the old Congregational Church in Mundelein had been converted into a theater. It didn’t give the theater’s name, but said that it seated 100, so it was quite small. I suppose there is a fitting symmetry to Mundelein’s later theater becoming a church.
What Cheer’s theatrical history appears to be richer and more complex than even local people remember. An article datelined What Cheer and headed “What Cheer is Rebuilt and Renamed Tic-Toc” appeared in Boxoffice March 20, 1948. The article said that the theater had been destroyed by a fire on November 6, 1947, but the building had been renovated and the theater and would soon open with 300 new seats, new carpeting, and new sound equipment, plus a nursery for children.
It was to be called the Tic-Toc Theatre and would be operated by the son and daughter-in-law of Mrs. Dorothy Fritz, who had operated the What Cheer for the previous eleven years. The FDY continued to list the What Cheer Theatre, with 225 seats, in its 1949 and 1950 editions, but the name Tic-Toc appears in a few items in trade journals over the years, the last being an item about the closing of the house which was published in the May 22, 1978 issue of Boxoffice. That means the Tic-Toc had a run of thirty years, on top of whatever time it spent as the What Cheer Theatre. One particularly interesting item, in The Exhibitor of November 7, 1951, said “Richard Fritz, owner, Tic-Toc, What Cheer, Ia., purchased the Masonic, What Cheer.” Mr. and Mrs. Fritz still owned the Tic Toc when it closed in 1978.
The history on the Opera House web site doesn’t mention a 1947 fire, or any alternate names for that theater, saying only that it operated as a movie house from sometime in the silent era until 1953. It seems strange that a town as small as What Cheer would have had two movie theaters in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but that’s what the evidence so far seems to be pointing to to: the Masonic Opera House and the What Cheer/Tic Toc were two different theaters.
This house opened on June 27, 1940, and the theater’s advertisements and the newspaper headlines about the event used the spelling Hazle Theatre. This was apparently the correct spelling, despite the variant sometimes used by the FDY.
Since 2016, the Goodhand Theatre has been operated by a nonprofit 501 © corporation called Friends of the Goodhand. The organization bought the building from the City some time after taking over management. The theater is staffed by volunteers. Movies are presented two weekends a month. Here is the official web site.
An item headlined “Rebuild Closed Theatre” in the October 16, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the Cozy Theatre, recently closed by order of the state fire Marshall, would be rebuilt by Marcus Theatres, who had obtained a new lease on the structure. Improvements would include fireproofing, new seating and projection booth equipment, and a new ticket booth.
My surmise that the Margie Grand might have been the old Cumberland Theatre renamed turned out to be wrong. I came across a book published in 1922 that revealed that Harlan’s Cumberland Theatre was located on Main Street. A 1925 Sanborn map shows the site of the Margie Grand vacant, so it now seems likely that the Margie Grand probably did open in 1929, but after that year’s FDY was compiled. The rather old fashioned look of the building can probably be attributed to the aesthetic conservatism of the region.
A building at 108 (modern 107) S. Main Street is labeled “Movies” on the 1925 Sanborn map, and must have been the location of the Cumberland Theatre. It still stands, occupied by an attorney’s offices. The considerably larger Harlan Theatre is named on the map at 107-109 (modern 108-110) S. Main Street. The site is now part of a parking lot.
The Margie Grand Theater first appears in the FDY’s 1930 edition. Prior to that, there was a house called the Cumberland Theatre. No seating capacities were given for either house, so we can’t be sure if Margie Grand was a new name for the Cumberland, but it is a possibility. The Cumberland was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The town also had a house called the New Harlan Theatre, which several sources indicate was the town’s “A” house, but it appears to have been closed following a severe flood that struck the town in 1963, and it’s building was destroyed by a fire in 1970. The Margie Grand was still in operation at least as late as 1977. The New Harlan was built in 1922, and was listed in FDY editions from 1926 on.
The mid-year theater building report in the July 22, 1950 issue of Boxoffice listed the Cumberland Amusement Company’s 750-seat Alene Theatre at Whitesburg, Kentucky as one of the 327 indoor theaters started or opened in the United State since the beginning of the year. The Alene was one of the six (out of ten total) projects in Kentucky that had already opened.
An article in the March 16, 2016 issue of The Mountain Eagle says that the theater closed in the mid-1980s. Part of the ground floor is now occupied by a florists shop, and the remainder of the building has been converted into apartments. On opening, the Alene was the fourth house for the Isaacs family’s Cumberland Amusement Company. They had theaters in Cumberland and Benham, as well as the Kentucky Theatre in Whitesburg.
No theaters were listed at either Cumberland or Valley Falls in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the 1926 FDY lists a 500-seat Strand at Valley Falls.
CinemaScope equipment was installed at the Model Theatre in 1954, and the house had several more years of life before its building was converted into a bakery in 1962. The interior was gutted at the time of the conversion, and the streamline modern exterior of the house has since been entirely concealed behind a “vintage” false front. The bakery still occupies the violated premises.
The correct address of the Model Theatre is 419 Phoenix Street.
An item about the opening of the Michigan Theatre at South Haven that appeared in the July 11, 1947 issue of Film Daily noted that the house was a replacement for the Center Theater which had burned on January 2. However, local newspaper articles published on March 28 and June 20, 1947, both say that the Centre Theatre had burned on February 1, 1945, and Butterfield was unable to rebuild right away due to restrictions by the War Production Board. The newspaper articles are on display at the Michigan Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland.
In any case, it appears that the Phoenix Theatre is a phantom. The Centre (the most common spelling of the name) Theatre was entirely destroyed in 1945 and replaced on the same site by the Michigan Theatre in 1947. South Haven’s only other theater of the period, the Model on Phoenix Street, opened in 1938. Neither CinemaTour nor Water Winter Wonderland lists a Phoenix Theatre at South Haven.
As for the Centre, Water Winter Wonderland has this page for it. It opened on April 13, 1920, originally seating 652 (the 1926 FDY says 438) but expanded to 731 in a 1934 remodeling. Destroyed by a fire on February 2, 1945.
Info from the July 11, 1947 Film Daily: “Butterfield Theaters opened the New Michigan Theater, South Haven, on Wednesday, July 2. With a seating capacity of nearly 1,000, the Michigan seats more than the old Center, which burned down Jan. 2, 1945.”
Like many theaters, the Roxy had CinemaScope equipment installed in 1954, and inaugurated the new format with biblical epic “The Robe.” The October 30 edition of Motion Picture Herald noted the event.
Okay, I checked the article again and it does say the second location of the Cozy was also on Front Street. I must have mistaken the newspaper’s address for the theater address when looking at the Google results summary.
Is there a paywall on my link? I’m still not getting one. It might be because my browser has a VPN setting I’m using. That cab confuse some websites into not blocking access.
The January 2, 1962 issue of Boxoffice had news about this house that had been owned by the local government:
An item in the June 18, 1955 Boxoffice had said that “[t]he theatre at Plum city is being kept open through the sponsorship of the local businessmen.” Such sponsorship must have failed not long after that. It seems unlikely that anybody would have been willing or able to underwrite the expense of converting the house for the wide screen formats that were rapidly displacing the standard 35mm films.In 1914 Hampton had a house called the Lyric Theatre, but it was at 119 Main Street. Perhaps this item from the January 10, 1919 issue of Film Daily is a clue, or maybe not: “Hampton, Iowa—The Star has been leased to James Keefe, who will operate it in connection with the Windsor.” The only theater listed at Hampton in the 1926, 1929 and 1938 FDYs is the Windsor, and I’m not hopeful that we’d find the Star listed if we checked more of them.
However, there is a second house listed at Hampton in the 1944 FDY, the 280-seat Lido. If no other theaters (but the Windsor) appear on the 1944 map, at least we’ve got a late name for this house. Whether or not it was earlier the Star remains moot, but does seem likely. It might be that once it came under the control of the operators of the Windsor they just kept it mothballed for a long time.
There is a Belleview Iowa in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no Bellevue. It’s undoubtedly an error by the Directory. The house listed at “Belleview” was called the Cozy Theatre. The 1926 FDY still lists a 350-seat house called the Cozy as the only theater at Bellevue. The 1926 house was at a different location, though.
This article from the July 5, 2023 Bellevue Herald-Leader discusses both locations. The Front Street (apparently another former name of Riverview Street) Cozy Theatre opened on May 19, 1913. The Cozy moved to its second location, at 118 S. 2nd Street, in 1916, and operated there into the 1970s. Both buildings are still standing.
If 1343 N. Federal was formerly numbered as 1143 N. Main Street, then this must have been the house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directoryas the Kozy Theatre. I have yet to find the Kozy mentioned in the trade journals, and don’t really expect to. It is, however, listed in Polk’s 1914 Iowa Gazetteer.
Two possible names for this house are mentioned in this item from Motography’s issue of January 6, 1917: “Cal Branson has sold the Electric Theater at Mason City to Charles Carragher, owner of the Palm Theater. Possession will be taken immediately and, no doubt, one of the places will be closed during the winter months.”
But if this address was part of a Kresge store in 1953, then the theater was called the Idle Hour, briefly mentioned in this long article originally published by the Globe Gazette for Mason City’s centennial that year.
None of those three theater names appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Regent was the name of one of the seven movie houses listed at Mason City in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but was one of only two listed without an address (the other was the Princess.)
My August 29 comment provides a source for 1911 opening of this Princess Theater. The Princess listed in the 1908 Cahn guide is, for now, a mystery theater. The 1911 Princess must be the one listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though it is listed without an address.
The earliest mention I’ve found of a house called the Casino in Mason City is this item from the December 4, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World, but either the claim that it was a newly-erected theater was mistaken or this was a different Casino theater: “MASON CITY, IA.—A. Frankel has erected a new moving picture theater which he has named the New Casino.”
This house opened in 1925 as the Plainview Theatre. It was listed as such in the 1926 FDY with seating for 650. An article about the project in the April 18, 1925 Exhibitors Herald said that construction was underway, and noted that the new building would replace an existing Plainview Theatre, and that it had been designed by Amarillo architect Lawrence Kerr.
This house actually opened in 1907. An ad saying that the Deandi Theatre was now open appeared in the September 14, 1907 issue of The Billboard. An item in the July 27 issue of the same weekly publication had said that the house was rapidly nearing completion and was expected to open by August 15. I’ve found no mentions of the Deandi in the issues between those dates, so they might have missed their initial target.