Actually SethG, you are 100% correct on the building.
This triplex opened its doors on July 19, 1985 as the replacement of the Grand Twin Theatre (formerly Grand Theatre) located on Sixth Street downtown. The theater has an original name of “Grand Theatres III” but was officially named simply “Grand Theatres” right after opening. It was actually the fourth Grand Theatre to open in Estherville.
The triplex Grand Theatres was located on the site of the former Red Owl Store building which began remodeling into a theater in December 1984. It featured three screens with a total capacity of 600 seats (with 200 seats in each auditorium) and a video store next door. The theater was renamed “Grand 3 Theatres” in 1997.
NOTE: Although the page said that the Grand 3 Theatres closed for a time in 2002, it was confirmed that the theater did not close at all in 2002. I recently looked up showtime archives from the Grand 3 Theatres and the theater was still strongly running as normal throughout all of 2002.
I’m pretty sure that there are four Grand Theatres in total actually.
The 1st Grand: The first Grand Theatre opened its doors by F.H. Graaf with a capacity of 450 seats, a 12ft lobby, and a 22x125ft auditorium on July 25, 1912 with a presentation of “The Delmar Poster Girls”. That one was destroyed by a fire in 1914.
The 2nd Grand: The second Grand Theatre was relocated to its then-current site and opened its doors on September 20, 1916 with a presentation of “Martha”, also owned by Graaf, with a capacity of 1,000 seats. That one was destroyed by an electrical-related fire on January 8, 1917.
The 3rd Grand: Nearly eight months after the second Grand Theatre was destroyed, the theater was rebuilt on the same site, as it was third time’s the charm when the third Grand Theatre opened on September 19, 1917 featuring fireproof installations (as it was announced by Graaf himself), and had a same amount of seats as the second theater. Talkies were installed in February 1929, followed by remodeling in 1936, and by CinemaScope installations in July 1954. The Grand closed for a short time in February 1970 due to low attendance, but was reopened the following month by new management.
On June 6, 1973, an announcement came that a new theater was built nearby at a location that used to be “Doug’s Stereo Store” according to then-owner Bob Fridley of Fridley Theatres, although the downtown Grand Theatre was still running at the time operated by Al Miller (who also operated the Chief Drive-In at the time). Unfortunately the construction of the mini theater itself nearby did not happen at all.
In April 1977, the Grand Theatre downtown was twinned and was renamed “Grand Twin Theatre”. At the time, the theater was owned by the Community Service Corporation, a subsidiary of First Federal Savings and Loan Association. But on December 18, 1984, then-manager and owner Laddie Kozak announced that construction of a new Fridley triplex theater will be constructed on Central Avenue. This time, the construction did happen.
On July 16, 1985, the downtown Grand Twin Theatre (formerly the Grand Theatre from 1917 until 1977) ran its final showings, and closed its doors for the final time that same evening. This was due to the theater’s relocation from Sixth Street to the new building on Central Avenue. The Grand Theatres III (later the Grand 3 Theatres) would then open its doors three days later on July 19, 1985.
You are right actually. The North Shore Theatre was twinned in late-1969 and was renamed “North Shore 1 & 2” (and later “North Shore Twin” in 1976). In December 1981, it was briefly renamed Cape Ann Cinemas but went back to its normal North Shore Theatre name a few months later.
The North Shore Theatre closed in late-1986, leaving Gloucester without a movie theater until the launch of the 3-screen Gloucester Cinema in early 1991.
So this is the Lyric I see. The Lyric operated from 1911 until 1917.
It was once closed for a short time during 1914 due to the opening of the New Opera House, which both the Lyric and the New Opera House were operated by P.E. Wilcox, but reopened right when 1915 kicked in. On the same day the New Opera House opened in September 1914, the building itself was not even finished yet at the time of its first attraction.
I’m pretty sure that this could be the Gem Theatre (formerly Scenic Theatre).
The Scenic Theatre opened its doors during the week of December 10, 1908 and was renamed Gem Theatre in September 1909. The theater closed in early-1913 and was razed during the first week of May of that same year to make way for the Thompson & Clauson company.
There is also an older opera house simply called “Opera House” that closed down before the opening of the New Opera House (later Forest Theatre) in September 1914, although I cannot find any info rather than its plans dating back to November 1905.
The actual opening date is September 5, 1914 with Dustin Farnum in “The Virginian”. It was first known as “New Opera House” as a replacement of an older opera house.
The closure of the Illinois Valley Cinemas in 1996 left one movie house still operating in LaSalle, and it was the Showplace Cinemas (former Kerasotes/GKC house; also a twin-screener) nearby (until closure sometime in the mid-2000s).
The Illinois Valley Cinemas was once operated by Network Cinema Corporation and lastly by GKC Theatres.
This started life as the Seoul Theater on May 2, 1954 as a single-screen theater, and remained like that for the following few decades but with a couple of name changes from time-to-time. First it was known as the Segi Theater in 1960 and was renamed the Seoul Cinema in 1979. Then in 1989, the name was changed to Seoul Cinema Town, and the theater was split into three screens under the auditorium names “Venice”, “Academy”, and “Cannes”.
A few months later, all the three screens were eventually renamed “Seoul Theater” as it was unfortunately unified. The original Seoul Theater name returned in 1997.
Between 2002 and 2003, the theater expanded to 12 screens that was followed from major remodeling which completed at the end of 2003. It remained like that until another remodel in 2018.
The Seoul Cinema closed for the final time on August 31, 2021.
The Megabox COEX opened its doors with 16 screens and a 4,336-seat capacity on May 13, 2000, the same day the COEX opened its doors to the public. One of the opening attractions shown at the COEX was “Mission Impossible 2”, among others. The COEX is so successful that in July 2001, a record-breaking 30,000 people attend the theater in one single day.
As of October 2023, the COEX had a total of 19 screens, but only 10 of the screens are to the public. The largest screen being Screen 1 but its seating capacity was not the largest there in Screen 1 despite having Dolby Cinema installations as it had 378 seats. Screen 2 has the largest seating capacity of 432 seats. Screen 3 had 348 seats with CinemaScope proportions. Screen 4 had 332 seats, while Screen 5 had 281 seats with VistaVision proportions as well as a Mayer sound system. However in July 2021, a contract was signed with a fitness company and remodeled the screen into an indoor stadium but was restored back as a screen on May 24, 2022. Screens 6 and 7 had 285 seats while Screens 8 and 9 had 255 seats. Screen 10 (formerly Screen 11) had 166 seats, while the former Screen 10 had the same amount of seats as Screen 11 was demolished in June 2023.
Down below featured nine private screens. Three of which were Boutique Suites with a capacity of 32 to 36 seats. There are also two other screens nearby that were also listed as Boutiques but were located in the B1F section, all listing with 82 seats in both screens. Nearby is Screens A and B, which were all similar to the private sections of CHV Cheongdam Cine City. Screen A had only 36 seats, while Screen B had 30. And next to it are two private boutique screens. One only had eight seats and the other only had ten.
With that said, the theater (including the demolished Screen 10) had a total capacity of 3,535 seats. But since June 2023, it now has 3,369 seats. Its current functions are first-run and foreign features.
The Oskaloosa Drive-In opened its gates on August 26, 1949 with Glenn Ford in “The Return Of October” (unknown if any short subjects were added). The theater closed after the 1986 season.
The Ritz opened with Fred MacMurray in “Honeymoon In Bali” and Roland Drew in “Hitler Beast Of Berlin” along with the short “Bill of Rights” and the Merrie Melodies cartoon “Dangerous Dan McFoo”.
Some original information about the Ritz as of 1940 goes as follows: Some original installations include three doors to the main entrance and the ticket booth being located at the left in front of the office that was occupied by first manager Emilio Ouellette of Lewiston. First owners of the Ritz were Leon P. Gorman, Al Cohen, and Irving Cohen, all from Portland. Although the Ritz is not a first-run movie house for the start, it did have some striking features. The red-bricked top features a stunning look over the black glass front of the theater, featuring two ivory bands in the black glass front giving addition relief. The auditorium itself features red and gold draperies and attracts attention by its length, which is 120ft from the projection booth to the screen. There are exits in each side of the auditorium and the walls in color were fibrous compositions in five shades of tan and gray with chromium fixtures on the walls giving indirect lighting. The 800 maroon upholstered deep-slope coil-spring with blue mohair seats featuring enabled arm rests on each seat as of 1940 were placed with 23 in a row. There is also a very unique clock that lights up on the wall as well. Throughout the rest of the 1940s and into the first half of the 1950s, the Ritz screened double features.
When CinemaScope hit the screens in 1954, the Ritz immediately became a first-run movie house when the Ritz ultimately became the first movie house in Lewiston to install CinemaScope in March of that same year. Prior to the Ritz’s installations of CinemaScope, the Empire Theatre was the only (and dominant) first-run movie house in Lewiston.
Throughout time, the capacity of the theater was downgraded to 650 as of the 1970s. In 1974, the Ritz dropped its normal features and switched over to an adult-film policy. However in 1979, the Ritz did briefly returned as a first-run theater but failed miserably on October 31 of that same year. However, its “Rocky II” run did give a hit at the Ritz, but “Alien” and “Superman” did gave poor attendance at the Ritz. This immediately flipped back to adult features. The Ritz closed for a time on March 22, 1984 but reopened on June 5, 1984 under new management, still picking up the same format.
I cannot find info on when the Ritz closed as an adult theater, but the Ritz was renovated in September 1992 and reopened under the Public Theatre a short time later, running performing arts and live performances.
However, shortly after the Lisbon Drive-In closed, things went totally wrong. On November 2, 1986, vandals broke into the screen room and heavily damaged a Coastal Energy truck who was parked on the traces of the theater. The vehicle was severe damaged after the vandals smashed a grill, broke the lights, destroyed the wiper blades, and ripped the antenna off causing $1,000 in damages.
The Amusu Theatre opened as early as 1921, and it became the State Theatre in 1939.
On December 31, 1941, the State Theater was destroyed by a fire, leaving the Kilroy and the Ritz the only movie houses in Winnsboro for a short time. After a full-reconstruction, the State Theater reopened its doors on April 22, 1942 with a total capacity of 635 seats.
The State Theater closed in 1968 for a full year, but reopened in September 1969 under new management of two Dallas men (Joe Foster and Gene Dickerson), one of which was also a resident from DeKalb. This didn’t last long at all, and the State Theater closed for the final time a few months later.
Shortly before the Paramount 7 Theatres was constructed, there was some mystery cinema that had quite a lost timeline located east of the city of Indianola and was unknown if that theater operated or not.
During the first week of November 1988, the Fridley chain announced that the Tomahawk Theatre would close the following year after construction of a then-new 793-seat triplex cinema (with 370 seats at Screen 1, 217 seats at Screen 2, and 206 seats in Screen 3) started at the site of a former Ford dealership located east of downtown, and replied that there will also be a video rental store next to the theater.
As shown above, I don’t know if the triplex actually had life or not.
Actually SethG, you are 100% correct on the building.
This triplex opened its doors on July 19, 1985 as the replacement of the Grand Twin Theatre (formerly Grand Theatre) located on Sixth Street downtown. The theater has an original name of “Grand Theatres III” but was officially named simply “Grand Theatres” right after opening. It was actually the fourth Grand Theatre to open in Estherville.
The triplex Grand Theatres was located on the site of the former Red Owl Store building which began remodeling into a theater in December 1984. It featured three screens with a total capacity of 600 seats (with 200 seats in each auditorium) and a video store next door. The theater was renamed “Grand 3 Theatres” in 1997.
I’m pretty sure that there are four Grand Theatres in total actually.
The 1st Grand: The first Grand Theatre opened its doors by F.H. Graaf with a capacity of 450 seats, a 12ft lobby, and a 22x125ft auditorium on July 25, 1912 with a presentation of “The Delmar Poster Girls”. That one was destroyed by a fire in 1914.
The 2nd Grand: The second Grand Theatre was relocated to its then-current site and opened its doors on September 20, 1916 with a presentation of “Martha”, also owned by Graaf, with a capacity of 1,000 seats. That one was destroyed by an electrical-related fire on January 8, 1917.
The 3rd Grand: Nearly eight months after the second Grand Theatre was destroyed, the theater was rebuilt on the same site, as it was third time’s the charm when the third Grand Theatre opened on September 19, 1917 featuring fireproof installations (as it was announced by Graaf himself), and had a same amount of seats as the second theater. Talkies were installed in February 1929, followed by remodeling in 1936, and by CinemaScope installations in July 1954. The Grand closed for a short time in February 1970 due to low attendance, but was reopened the following month by new management.
On June 6, 1973, an announcement came that a new theater was built nearby at a location that used to be “Doug’s Stereo Store” according to then-owner Bob Fridley of Fridley Theatres, although the downtown Grand Theatre was still running at the time operated by Al Miller (who also operated the Chief Drive-In at the time). Unfortunately the construction of the mini theater itself nearby did not happen at all.
In April 1977, the Grand Theatre downtown was twinned and was renamed “Grand Twin Theatre”. At the time, the theater was owned by the Community Service Corporation, a subsidiary of First Federal Savings and Loan Association. But on December 18, 1984, then-manager and owner Laddie Kozak announced that construction of a new Fridley triplex theater will be constructed on Central Avenue. This time, the construction did happen.
On July 16, 1985, the downtown Grand Twin Theatre (formerly the Grand Theatre from 1917 until 1977) ran its final showings, and closed its doors for the final time that same evening. This was due to the theater’s relocation from Sixth Street to the new building on Central Avenue. The Grand Theatres III (later the Grand 3 Theatres) would then open its doors three days later on July 19, 1985.
The Gloucester Cinema was located at the site of a former dealership, and opened in early 1991 with a total capacity of 361 seats.
You are right actually. The North Shore Theatre was twinned in late-1969 and was renamed “North Shore 1 & 2” (and later “North Shore Twin” in 1976). In December 1981, it was briefly renamed Cape Ann Cinemas but went back to its normal North Shore Theatre name a few months later.
The North Shore Theatre closed in late-1986, leaving Gloucester without a movie theater until the launch of the 3-screen Gloucester Cinema in early 1991.
So this is the Lyric I see. The Lyric operated from 1911 until 1917.
It was once closed for a short time during 1914 due to the opening of the New Opera House, which both the Lyric and the New Opera House were operated by P.E. Wilcox, but reopened right when 1915 kicked in. On the same day the New Opera House opened in September 1914, the building itself was not even finished yet at the time of its first attraction.
I’m pretty sure that this could be the Gem Theatre (formerly Scenic Theatre).
The Scenic Theatre opened its doors during the week of December 10, 1908 and was renamed Gem Theatre in September 1909. The theater closed in early-1913 and was razed during the first week of May of that same year to make way for the Thompson & Clauson company.
There is also an older opera house simply called “Opera House” that closed down before the opening of the New Opera House (later Forest Theatre) in September 1914, although I cannot find any info rather than its plans dating back to November 1905.
The actual opening date is September 5, 1914 with Dustin Farnum in “The Virginian”. It was first known as “New Opera House” as a replacement of an older opera house.
Correction: The correct address is 1874 105th Street, Oelwein, IA 50641. Google Maps tricked me saying that it was located in Hazleton.
This replaced the Mid-Valley II, which closed one day prior to the opening of the 10-screener.
The closure of the Illinois Valley Cinemas in 1996 left one movie house still operating in LaSalle, and it was the Showplace Cinemas (former Kerasotes/GKC house; also a twin-screener) nearby (until closure sometime in the mid-2000s).
The Illinois Valley Cinemas was once operated by Network Cinema Corporation and lastly by GKC Theatres.
Closed.
This started life as the Seoul Theater on May 2, 1954 as a single-screen theater, and remained like that for the following few decades but with a couple of name changes from time-to-time. First it was known as the Segi Theater in 1960 and was renamed the Seoul Cinema in 1979. Then in 1989, the name was changed to Seoul Cinema Town, and the theater was split into three screens under the auditorium names “Venice”, “Academy”, and “Cannes”.
A few months later, all the three screens were eventually renamed “Seoul Theater” as it was unfortunately unified. The original Seoul Theater name returned in 1997.
Between 2002 and 2003, the theater expanded to 12 screens that was followed from major remodeling which completed at the end of 2003. It remained like that until another remodel in 2018.
The Seoul Cinema closed for the final time on August 31, 2021.
The Megabox COEX opened its doors with 16 screens and a 4,336-seat capacity on May 13, 2000, the same day the COEX opened its doors to the public. One of the opening attractions shown at the COEX was “Mission Impossible 2”, among others. The COEX is so successful that in July 2001, a record-breaking 30,000 people attend the theater in one single day.
As of October 2023, the COEX had a total of 19 screens, but only 10 of the screens are to the public. The largest screen being Screen 1 but its seating capacity was not the largest there in Screen 1 despite having Dolby Cinema installations as it had 378 seats. Screen 2 has the largest seating capacity of 432 seats. Screen 3 had 348 seats with CinemaScope proportions. Screen 4 had 332 seats, while Screen 5 had 281 seats with VistaVision proportions as well as a Mayer sound system. However in July 2021, a contract was signed with a fitness company and remodeled the screen into an indoor stadium but was restored back as a screen on May 24, 2022. Screens 6 and 7 had 285 seats while Screens 8 and 9 had 255 seats. Screen 10 (formerly Screen 11) had 166 seats, while the former Screen 10 had the same amount of seats as Screen 11 was demolished in June 2023.
Down below featured nine private screens. Three of which were Boutique Suites with a capacity of 32 to 36 seats. There are also two other screens nearby that were also listed as Boutiques but were located in the B1F section, all listing with 82 seats in both screens. Nearby is Screens A and B, which were all similar to the private sections of CHV Cheongdam Cine City. Screen A had only 36 seats, while Screen B had 30. And next to it are two private boutique screens. One only had eight seats and the other only had ten.
With that said, the theater (including the demolished Screen 10) had a total capacity of 3,535 seats. But since June 2023, it now has 3,369 seats. Its current functions are first-run and foreign features.
First known as the Welling Dreamland Theatre, opening on September 5, 1938.
The Oskaloosa Drive-In opened its gates on August 26, 1949 with Glenn Ford in “The Return Of October” (unknown if any short subjects were added). The theater closed after the 1986 season.
Actual opening date is October 10, 1944 with Walter Brennan in “Home In Indiana” along with a cartoon.
Closed on February 5, 1998 with “Fallen” at Screen 1 and “Titanic” at Screen 2.
The Ritz opened with Fred MacMurray in “Honeymoon In Bali” and Roland Drew in “Hitler Beast Of Berlin” along with the short “Bill of Rights” and the Merrie Melodies cartoon “Dangerous Dan McFoo”.
Some original information about the Ritz as of 1940 goes as follows: Some original installations include three doors to the main entrance and the ticket booth being located at the left in front of the office that was occupied by first manager Emilio Ouellette of Lewiston. First owners of the Ritz were Leon P. Gorman, Al Cohen, and Irving Cohen, all from Portland. Although the Ritz is not a first-run movie house for the start, it did have some striking features. The red-bricked top features a stunning look over the black glass front of the theater, featuring two ivory bands in the black glass front giving addition relief. The auditorium itself features red and gold draperies and attracts attention by its length, which is 120ft from the projection booth to the screen. There are exits in each side of the auditorium and the walls in color were fibrous compositions in five shades of tan and gray with chromium fixtures on the walls giving indirect lighting. The 800 maroon upholstered deep-slope coil-spring with blue mohair seats featuring enabled arm rests on each seat as of 1940 were placed with 23 in a row. There is also a very unique clock that lights up on the wall as well. Throughout the rest of the 1940s and into the first half of the 1950s, the Ritz screened double features.
When CinemaScope hit the screens in 1954, the Ritz immediately became a first-run movie house when the Ritz ultimately became the first movie house in Lewiston to install CinemaScope in March of that same year. Prior to the Ritz’s installations of CinemaScope, the Empire Theatre was the only (and dominant) first-run movie house in Lewiston.
Throughout time, the capacity of the theater was downgraded to 650 as of the 1970s. In 1974, the Ritz dropped its normal features and switched over to an adult-film policy. However in 1979, the Ritz did briefly returned as a first-run theater but failed miserably on October 31 of that same year. However, its “Rocky II” run did give a hit at the Ritz, but “Alien” and “Superman” did gave poor attendance at the Ritz. This immediately flipped back to adult features. The Ritz closed for a time on March 22, 1984 but reopened on June 5, 1984 under new management, still picking up the same format.
I cannot find info on when the Ritz closed as an adult theater, but the Ritz was renovated in September 1992 and reopened under the Public Theatre a short time later, running performing arts and live performances.
Twinned in November 1979. The Mid-Valley Cinema closed during the first week of February 1987 when UA opened the nearby 10-screen theater.
First known as “UA Movies At Newburgh” when it opened on February 6, 1987. It was renamed “United Artists Newburgh Cinema 10” later that same year.
Closed on August 29, 1985 with “Goonies”.
Closed in March 1957.
The actual closing date is September 26, 1986.
However, shortly after the Lisbon Drive-In closed, things went totally wrong. On November 2, 1986, vandals broke into the screen room and heavily damaged a Coastal Energy truck who was parked on the traces of the theater. The vehicle was severe damaged after the vandals smashed a grill, broke the lights, destroyed the wiper blades, and ripped the antenna off causing $1,000 in damages.
The Amusu Theatre opened as early as 1921, and it became the State Theatre in 1939.
On December 31, 1941, the State Theater was destroyed by a fire, leaving the Kilroy and the Ritz the only movie houses in Winnsboro for a short time. After a full-reconstruction, the State Theater reopened its doors on April 22, 1942 with a total capacity of 635 seats.
The State Theater closed in 1968 for a full year, but reopened in September 1969 under new management of two Dallas men (Joe Foster and Gene Dickerson), one of which was also a resident from DeKalb. This didn’t last long at all, and the State Theater closed for the final time a few months later.
Opened on December 22, 1976, closed on July 8, 2001.
Shortly before the Paramount 7 Theatres was constructed, there was some mystery cinema that had quite a lost timeline located east of the city of Indianola and was unknown if that theater operated or not.
During the first week of November 1988, the Fridley chain announced that the Tomahawk Theatre would close the following year after construction of a then-new 793-seat triplex cinema (with 370 seats at Screen 1, 217 seats at Screen 2, and 206 seats in Screen 3) started at the site of a former Ford dealership located east of downtown, and replied that there will also be a video rental store next to the theater.
As shown above, I don’t know if the triplex actually had life or not.