Are we certain of the 1915 opening for this house? The April 12, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the proposed Auditorium Theatre:
“Plans have been completed for the Auditorium Theater, to be erected at Dawson Springs, Ky., at once. The seating capacity of the house will be 1,000, while the cost is estimated at $10,000. The structure will be ready by June 1. The Kentucky Pharmaceutical Association, which will hold its annual convention in Dawson Springs, beginning June 1, will use it for a week. The theater will be devoted to vaudeville and moving pictures. Dawson Springs is a popular summer resort, thousands of folk from Kentucky and adjoining states spending the summer there to obtain the benefit of tbe waters. W. I. Hamby is president of the company, which is erecting the theater.”
The May 10, 1913 issue of The Moving Picture World had this item:
“Paducah, Ky. — Architect A. L. Lassiter, of this city, has completed plans for the Auditorium theater to be erected at Dawson Springs by an association, headed by W. I. Hamby, a prominent resident of the health resort.“
I’ve been unable to find any later items about the Auditorium Theatre confirming that it opened in 1913, but not knowing seanjung’s source for the 1915 date I can’t judge how accurate it is likely to have been. Building projects have often suffered long delays.
I couldn’t make this stuff up, and if I could I’m sure readers would find it too contrived.
The Bijou Theatre began operating in February, 1908, said a brief article in a 1913 issue of The Moving Picture Age. The building had been the city’s opera house prior to its conversion into a combination movie and vaudeville theater by the new operator, Mr. J.E. Hippie. Mr. Hippie, a man clearly ahead of his time, was a former postmaster of Pierre, and editor and publisher of a daily newspaper. The article included this passage about the aptly named exhibitor:
“Mr. Hippie… let it be made known that he is the man who made the successful fight for the Sunday opening of picture shows in that city. Mr. Hippie in a letter to the Moving Picture World says that he is going to look after the interests of the exhibition business at the next legislature, as some local ministers and other persons are contemplating the introduction of bills looking toward a state censorship and other interferences with the picture industry.”
As for the Bijou itself, the article said that it seated 606 patrons in an area 40x97 feet, and that the stage was 16x40 feet. The house was steam-heated, had both alternating current from the city and direct current from its own power plant, and featured such amenities as “…a sanitary drinking fountain, checking rooms, and retiring rooms.”
Trade journal The Moving Picture World reported in its issue of November 18, 1916, that the new Hippodrome Theatre in Lancaster had recently opened. The owners were Mr. and Mrs. George Krupa.
A 1948 catalog of copyright entries from the Library of Congress includes an entry for a copyright, dated February 10, to architect Victor A. Rigaumont, covering 45 pages of specifications and illustrations of the Hollywood Theatre in Dormont.
The same catalog has five other entries for copyrights granted to Rigaumont, so apparently he was in the habit of copyrighting his designs. As in those days material had to be published in order to qualify for copyright, his plans must have been published, even if only a few copies of each were made. I wonder what has become of those publications?
The Grand Theatre in Latrobe was being operated by the Manos Theatres circuit in 1948 when it was updated by architect Victor A. Rigaumont. Rigaumont applied for a copyright on his plans, as listed in the Library of Congress' Catalog of Copyright Entries for 1948. There were 19 pages of specifications and illustrations.
Victor A. Rigaumont was the architect of the Cheswick Theatre. His copyright of the plans for the project was noted in a 1946 Catalog of Copyright Entries from the Library of Congress.
The November, 1915, issue of The Architectural Record ran an article called “Planning the Moving Picture Theatre” which inlcuded the following illustrations featuring the Play House:
Is this theater classified as Art Deco merely because of the flowery murals from the 1940s? The facade is made entirely of classical elements. There’s nothing Art Deco about the balustraded parapet with urns, the cornice, the peaked window pediments, the double pilasters, or the rest of the trim on the facade, and the interior photos show that most of the original plaster work there matched the exterior style. This theater would best be described as Adamesque.
I’d certainly call interior details such as this and this more Adamesque than anything else. It looks like the murals added in the 1940s took up some wall space that had probably been blank until then, but the original architecture was largely untouched.
The Birmingham Masonic Temple was completed in 1922. It was designed by architect Eugene H. Knight, according to his entry in a later edition of the AIA Historical Directory of American Architects.
The web site Birmingham Rewound has some interesting information about the Strand and about its next-door neighbor, the Capitol Theatre. In 1948, the Capitol was renamed the Newmar Theatre, but a few years later that house closed, and the operators took over the Strand and renamed it the Newmar. This name remained until September, 1959, when the house went back to being the Strand. The Strand closed on November 28, 1962, and was demolished in August, 1963.
Here is a photo of the Empire Theatre dated 1937. The triangular marquee and fake stone front in the 1980 photo Chuck linked to were installed in 1949, according to the page Stan Malone linked to earlier. The slicker ground floor features (looks like faux marble to me) and the dark coverings of the second floor windows dated from another remodeling in 1964. The Empire Theatre was demolished in 1984.
The web site Birmingham Rewound says that the Capitol had earlier been called the Alcazar Theatre, and for the last few years of its operation (from 1948 until some time the early 1950s) was called the Newmar Theatre, a name that was moved next door to the Strand Theatre when the Newmar closed.
The Strand was demolished to make way for a parking garage in 1963, and presumably the Alcazar/Capitol/Newmar came down at the same time, if it had not already been razed.
During its last few years as the Newmar, this small theater sported a splendid Streamlined Modern front with a rounded marquee. A photo of it is on the Birmingham Rewound page.
I’ve found text references indicating that the Alcazar was in operation in 1918, but it was probably several years old by that time. Its architectural style and narrow frontage mark it as being from the first wave of movie theater construction, so it probably predated the larger Strand next door by at least a year or more.
The Michigan Theatre was on the south side of the street, which would give it an odd-numbered address. The correct address is 75 Michigan Avenue West. The Michigan Theatre opened October 21, 1941, and was demolished in October, 1984, according to this book.
Main Street is now called Michigan Avenue. The address for the Garden Theatre should be 39-41 Michigan Avenue West.
The Garden was one of seven theaters listed in the 1914 Battle Creek city directory. This timeline of events in Battle Creek says that the Garden Theatre opened in 1913.
Various 1918 issues of the Michigan Film Review gave tentative opening dates for this theater of around July 1, around September 1, late September, sometime in October, and finally November 21. I’ve found no explanation of the repeated delays.
The Regent was built for investment partners Berry and Montgomery, and was leased to Harvey Lipp and Glenn Cross, who were to operate the new house in partnership with W.S. Butterfield. Glenn Cross was to be the manager of the Regent.
Lipp & Cross had been listed in the 1914 Battle Creek city directory as operators of the Rex and Queen theaters. In 1918 they were also operating the Garden Theatre and the Strand, according to items in Michigan Film Review.
This timeline of Battle Creek events says that the Regent Theatre closed in 1955, but it doesn’t mention when the building was demolished.
This theater was designed by Perry E. Crosier, and is mentioned in a biographical sketch of the architect in the Northwest Architectural Archives at the University of Minnesota.
The Perry E. Crosier papers at the University of Minnesota include a listing for the Princess Theatre, 12 4th Street NE, with dates of 1920 and 1934. Both Perry Crosier and Harry G. Carter are credited.
This theater is included on a list of buildings designed by architect Perry E. Crosier, held by the Northwest Architectural Archives at the University of Minnesota.
A theater in St. Peter called variously the Grand Opera House or St. Peter Opera House is listed in various editions of Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the edition of 1897, H.J. Ludeke (that spelling) is listed as the bill poster for the house, and in the 1899-1900 edition he is listed as the manager. In the 1906 edition, the spelling Ludcke was used.
The descriptions of the theater remained the same through this period, saying it was a ground-floor house and giving a seating capacity of 600 or 624. The Minnesota Digital Library has several photos showing the theater. The entrance was in a building that might have dated from as early as the 1860s, but could have been built as late as the 1890s if the town’s architectural taste was very conservative. The entrance is, in any case, of a theatrical style, so it probably wasn’t a converted storefront.
The auditorium was behind it in a fairly utilitarian building with a pitched roof. Auditoriums of that form were being built into the 20th century, but it could have dated from much earlier. Perhaps the original auditorium was destroyed and rebuilt in 1905, but it seems very likely that a theater occupied this site at least as early as the 1890s, and possibly earlier.
One of the photos is from the late 1940s (judging from the cars on the street) and shows the entrance building of the theater, but the taller auditorium building appears to be gone. I can’t tell from the photo if the auditorium was demolished or simply had its upper portion removed. It’s possible that the the auditorium was demolished in the 1940s after the State Theatre opened (a town of St. Peter’s size probably couldn’t have supported two movie houses), but that the entrance building survived until 1961 as retail space.
The photo is probably from 1939. The movie “Missing Daughters” was released that year. The “Jack London Hit” on the marquee could have been “Mutiny on the Elsinore” which was made in 1937 but not released in the U.S. until February, 1939, according to IMDb. Another London tale called “Torture Ship” hit the screen in October, 1939. The marquee looks brand new in that photo.
I don’t know who Norvell was, though, and the Internet isn’t helping, but the name rings a vague bell. Was he a mentalist? An illusionist? Probably something of that sort if he was doing a stage act that was not part of a larger vaudeville show.
San Antonio Theatres: Now & Then does have a page for the Princess Theatre. It opened in 1912 as the Orpheum and was renamed the Princess the following year, operating under that name until it closed in 1929. Then it was either remodeled for use as a department store (according to the San Antonio Theatres web site) or razed and the department store built in its place (according to a note in a book called “Saving San Antonio” by Lewis F. Fisher.)
The web site has three photos, and a drawing by the theater’s architect, Atlee B. Ayres. The address was 215 E. Houston Street.
Here is an early photo of the Hippodrome. The movie on the poster leaning against the building is “The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin”, a film released in 1918. Even if the photo comes from a later year, the style of the building is characteristic of the 1910s, at the latest. I’m sure it isn’t the house that became the Fox, but an earlier theater.
The Fox is undoubtedly the building that is mentioned in two Southwest Builder & Contractor items (July 17 and October 2, 1925) that are cited in the California Index at the Los Angeles Public Library. This project was designed for West Coast Theatres by architect Lewis A. Smith. The Fox building, despite the later alterations which stripped it of its original decor and moved its entrance to the stage house end of the theater, is in its form typical of Smith’s 1920s designs.
The opening must have taken place in either late 1925 or early 1926. The new theater was built partly on the Hippodrome’s site, but is considerably larger than the old Hippodrome. A postcard dated July 4, 1926, (unlinked, as it is at an unstable auction site url) shows the new theater in place. The furniture store seen in Don Lewis’s photo of theold Hippodrome (comment of Sep 4, 210) is also seen. Another postcard (also at an auction site, but probably more stable) is very pale, but shows the new, theater with Hippodrome on its vertical sign.
It’s possible that the original Hippodrome had a different name earlier in its history. The California Index includes cards referencing theaters in Taft called the Optic (having a cooling system installed, according to Southwest Builder & Contractor, February 16, 1916) and White’s Savoy Theatre (opening announcement, The Rounder, September 2, 1911.) The name Hippodrome is not mentioned in the Index in connection with any Taft theater.
There is a possibility that another theater had been built in Taft in 1924. Southwest Builder & Contractor of August 1 that year said that the contract had been awarded to erect a theater and store building at the corner of 4th and North streets in Taft, for the Valley Investment Company. There is currently a building which might have been a theater, on the southwest corner of that intersection, which now houses an automobile agency.
Another theater project, a 1600-seat house for National Theatres which was proposed for the corner of 4th and North streets in 1925 probably didn’t get built, but the southwest corner of that intersection is now a parking lot large enough to have accommodated a theater of that size.
Not theater related, but interesting, is the information on this web page from the Kern County Museum. It says that before it was renamed Taft in 1909, the town was called Moron. I’ll politely refrain from further comment.
Are we certain of the 1915 opening for this house? The April 12, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the proposed Auditorium Theatre:
The May 10, 1913 issue of The Moving Picture World had this item:I’ve been unable to find any later items about the Auditorium Theatre confirming that it opened in 1913, but not knowing seanjung’s source for the 1915 date I can’t judge how accurate it is likely to have been. Building projects have often suffered long delays.
I couldn’t make this stuff up, and if I could I’m sure readers would find it too contrived.
The Bijou Theatre began operating in February, 1908, said a brief article in a 1913 issue of The Moving Picture Age. The building had been the city’s opera house prior to its conversion into a combination movie and vaudeville theater by the new operator, Mr. J.E. Hippie. Mr. Hippie, a man clearly ahead of his time, was a former postmaster of Pierre, and editor and publisher of a daily newspaper. The article included this passage about the aptly named exhibitor:
As for the Bijou itself, the article said that it seated 606 patrons in an area 40x97 feet, and that the stage was 16x40 feet. The house was steam-heated, had both alternating current from the city and direct current from its own power plant, and featured such amenities as “…a sanitary drinking fountain, checking rooms, and retiring rooms.”The Hamilton Theatre was opened in 1917 by Mr. and Mrs. George Krupa, who had opened the Hippodrome Theatre the previous year.
Trade journal The Moving Picture World reported in its issue of November 18, 1916, that the new Hippodrome Theatre in Lancaster had recently opened. The owners were Mr. and Mrs. George Krupa.
Here is a photo of the People’s Theatre, from a history of Maynard published in 1921.
A 1948 catalog of copyright entries from the Library of Congress includes an entry for a copyright, dated February 10, to architect Victor A. Rigaumont, covering 45 pages of specifications and illustrations of the Hollywood Theatre in Dormont.
The same catalog has five other entries for copyrights granted to Rigaumont, so apparently he was in the habit of copyrighting his designs. As in those days material had to be published in order to qualify for copyright, his plans must have been published, even if only a few copies of each were made. I wonder what has become of those publications?
The Grand Theatre in Latrobe was being operated by the Manos Theatres circuit in 1948 when it was updated by architect Victor A. Rigaumont. Rigaumont applied for a copyright on his plans, as listed in the Library of Congress' Catalog of Copyright Entries for 1948. There were 19 pages of specifications and illustrations.
Victor A. Rigaumont was the architect of the Cheswick Theatre. His copyright of the plans for the project was noted in a 1946 Catalog of Copyright Entries from the Library of Congress.
The November, 1915, issue of The Architectural Record ran an article called “Planning the Moving Picture Theatre” which inlcuded the following illustrations featuring the Play House:
The facade
The floor plan
A sectional drawing through the length of the house
The digitized book is available from Google Books, and includes photos and drawings of several other theaters of the period.
Is this theater classified as Art Deco merely because of the flowery murals from the 1940s? The facade is made entirely of classical elements. There’s nothing Art Deco about the balustraded parapet with urns, the cornice, the peaked window pediments, the double pilasters, or the rest of the trim on the facade, and the interior photos show that most of the original plaster work there matched the exterior style. This theater would best be described as Adamesque.
I’d certainly call interior details such as this and this more Adamesque than anything else. It looks like the murals added in the 1940s took up some wall space that had probably been blank until then, but the original architecture was largely untouched.
The Birmingham Masonic Temple was completed in 1922. It was designed by architect Eugene H. Knight, according to his entry in a later edition of the AIA Historical Directory of American Architects.
The web site Birmingham Rewound has some interesting information about the Strand and about its next-door neighbor, the Capitol Theatre. In 1948, the Capitol was renamed the Newmar Theatre, but a few years later that house closed, and the operators took over the Strand and renamed it the Newmar. This name remained until September, 1959, when the house went back to being the Strand. The Strand closed on November 28, 1962, and was demolished in August, 1963.
Here is a photo of the Empire Theatre dated 1937. The triangular marquee and fake stone front in the 1980 photo Chuck linked to were installed in 1949, according to the page Stan Malone linked to earlier. The slicker ground floor features (looks like faux marble to me) and the dark coverings of the second floor windows dated from another remodeling in 1964. The Empire Theatre was demolished in 1984.
Here is a photo of the Capitol Theatre dated 1939.
The web site Birmingham Rewound says that the Capitol had earlier been called the Alcazar Theatre, and for the last few years of its operation (from 1948 until some time the early 1950s) was called the Newmar Theatre, a name that was moved next door to the Strand Theatre when the Newmar closed.
Here is a photo of the theater as the Alcazar, dated 1920.
The Strand was demolished to make way for a parking garage in 1963, and presumably the Alcazar/Capitol/Newmar came down at the same time, if it had not already been razed.
During its last few years as the Newmar, this small theater sported a splendid Streamlined Modern front with a rounded marquee. A photo of it is on the Birmingham Rewound page.
I’ve found text references indicating that the Alcazar was in operation in 1918, but it was probably several years old by that time. Its architectural style and narrow frontage mark it as being from the first wave of movie theater construction, so it probably predated the larger Strand next door by at least a year or more.
The Michigan Theatre was on the south side of the street, which would give it an odd-numbered address. The correct address is 75 Michigan Avenue West. The Michigan Theatre opened October 21, 1941, and was demolished in October, 1984, according to this book.
Main Street is now called Michigan Avenue. The address for the Garden Theatre should be 39-41 Michigan Avenue West.
The Garden was one of seven theaters listed in the 1914 Battle Creek city directory. This timeline of events in Battle Creek says that the Garden Theatre opened in 1913.
A biography of vaudevillian Joe Frisco says that the Strand Theatre in Battle Creek opened on August 14, 1915.
Various 1918 issues of the Michigan Film Review gave tentative opening dates for this theater of around July 1, around September 1, late September, sometime in October, and finally November 21. I’ve found no explanation of the repeated delays.
The Regent was built for investment partners Berry and Montgomery, and was leased to Harvey Lipp and Glenn Cross, who were to operate the new house in partnership with W.S. Butterfield. Glenn Cross was to be the manager of the Regent.
Lipp & Cross had been listed in the 1914 Battle Creek city directory as operators of the Rex and Queen theaters. In 1918 they were also operating the Garden Theatre and the Strand, according to items in Michigan Film Review.
This timeline of Battle Creek events says that the Regent Theatre closed in 1955, but it doesn’t mention when the building was demolished.
This theater was designed by Perry E. Crosier, and is mentioned in a biographical sketch of the architect in the Northwest Architectural Archives at the University of Minnesota.
The Perry E. Crosier papers at the University of Minnesota include a listing for the Princess Theatre, 12 4th Street NE, with dates of 1920 and 1934. Both Perry Crosier and Harry G. Carter are credited.
This theater is included on a list of buildings designed by architect Perry E. Crosier, held by the Northwest Architectural Archives at the University of Minnesota.
A theater in St. Peter called variously the Grand Opera House or St. Peter Opera House is listed in various editions of Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the edition of 1897, H.J. Ludeke (that spelling) is listed as the bill poster for the house, and in the 1899-1900 edition he is listed as the manager. In the 1906 edition, the spelling Ludcke was used.
The descriptions of the theater remained the same through this period, saying it was a ground-floor house and giving a seating capacity of 600 or 624. The Minnesota Digital Library has several photos showing the theater. The entrance was in a building that might have dated from as early as the 1860s, but could have been built as late as the 1890s if the town’s architectural taste was very conservative. The entrance is, in any case, of a theatrical style, so it probably wasn’t a converted storefront.
The auditorium was behind it in a fairly utilitarian building with a pitched roof. Auditoriums of that form were being built into the 20th century, but it could have dated from much earlier. Perhaps the original auditorium was destroyed and rebuilt in 1905, but it seems very likely that a theater occupied this site at least as early as the 1890s, and possibly earlier.
One of the photos is from the late 1940s (judging from the cars on the street) and shows the entrance building of the theater, but the taller auditorium building appears to be gone. I can’t tell from the photo if the auditorium was demolished or simply had its upper portion removed. It’s possible that the the auditorium was demolished in the 1940s after the State Theatre opened (a town of St. Peter’s size probably couldn’t have supported two movie houses), but that the entrance building survived until 1961 as retail space.
The photo is probably from 1939. The movie “Missing Daughters” was released that year. The “Jack London Hit” on the marquee could have been “Mutiny on the Elsinore” which was made in 1937 but not released in the U.S. until February, 1939, according to IMDb. Another London tale called “Torture Ship” hit the screen in October, 1939. The marquee looks brand new in that photo.
I don’t know who Norvell was, though, and the Internet isn’t helping, but the name rings a vague bell. Was he a mentalist? An illusionist? Probably something of that sort if he was doing a stage act that was not part of a larger vaudeville show.
San Antonio Theatres: Now & Then does have a page for the Princess Theatre. It opened in 1912 as the Orpheum and was renamed the Princess the following year, operating under that name until it closed in 1929. Then it was either remodeled for use as a department store (according to the San Antonio Theatres web site) or razed and the department store built in its place (according to a note in a book called “Saving San Antonio” by Lewis F. Fisher.)
The web site has three photos, and a drawing by the theater’s architect, Atlee B. Ayres. The address was 215 E. Houston Street.
Here is an early photo of the Hippodrome. The movie on the poster leaning against the building is “The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin”, a film released in 1918. Even if the photo comes from a later year, the style of the building is characteristic of the 1910s, at the latest. I’m sure it isn’t the house that became the Fox, but an earlier theater.
The Fox is undoubtedly the building that is mentioned in two Southwest Builder & Contractor items (July 17 and October 2, 1925) that are cited in the California Index at the Los Angeles Public Library. This project was designed for West Coast Theatres by architect Lewis A. Smith. The Fox building, despite the later alterations which stripped it of its original decor and moved its entrance to the stage house end of the theater, is in its form typical of Smith’s 1920s designs.
The opening must have taken place in either late 1925 or early 1926. The new theater was built partly on the Hippodrome’s site, but is considerably larger than the old Hippodrome. A postcard dated July 4, 1926, (unlinked, as it is at an unstable auction site url) shows the new theater in place. The furniture store seen in Don Lewis’s photo of theold Hippodrome (comment of Sep 4, 210) is also seen. Another postcard (also at an auction site, but probably more stable) is very pale, but shows the new, theater with Hippodrome on its vertical sign.
It’s possible that the original Hippodrome had a different name earlier in its history. The California Index includes cards referencing theaters in Taft called the Optic (having a cooling system installed, according to Southwest Builder & Contractor, February 16, 1916) and White’s Savoy Theatre (opening announcement, The Rounder, September 2, 1911.) The name Hippodrome is not mentioned in the Index in connection with any Taft theater.
There is a possibility that another theater had been built in Taft in 1924. Southwest Builder & Contractor of August 1 that year said that the contract had been awarded to erect a theater and store building at the corner of 4th and North streets in Taft, for the Valley Investment Company. There is currently a building which might have been a theater, on the southwest corner of that intersection, which now houses an automobile agency.
Another theater project, a 1600-seat house for National Theatres which was proposed for the corner of 4th and North streets in 1925 probably didn’t get built, but the southwest corner of that intersection is now a parking lot large enough to have accommodated a theater of that size.
Not theater related, but interesting, is the information on this web page from the Kern County Museum. It says that before it was renamed Taft in 1909, the town was called Moron. I’ll politely refrain from further comment.