The L.A. County Assessor says that the building at 2415 S. Central was built in 1953. The project north of it, which has a parking lot where the Gayety Theatre was, is even newer, having been built in 1989. The Gayety is gone.
Although some of the eastern parts of the City of Los Angeles, and the entire unincorporated district of East Los Angeles, plus the unincorporated districts of City Terrace and Belvedere, are all referred to colloquially as East L.A., there is a clear official boundary between the city and county areas. The Joy Theatre was well west of Indiana Street, and thus located within the city limits of Los Angeles, not in the unincorporated community of East Los Angeles, which lies entirely east of Indiana Street.
None of the Boxoffice links at Issuu are working tonight. I think the magazine might have removed its archive from the site.
When I first found the Boxoffice archive on Issuu, I didnt link to any of the articles I cited. This was because I didn’t know who had uploaded them, so I feared they might be removed at any time. But after I found that the publishers of Boxoffice had uploaded the archive there themselves I began linking, thinking they would probably remain available. It looks like I might have been wrong.
I hope it’s just a temporary glitch, but everything else at Issuu appears to be working fine, so it does seem likely that Boxoffice has changed its mind about making its archive available online. That would be too bad. It was a useful resource, and I certainly don’t have anything else to compare with it. Plus, Cinema Treasures will now have another goatload of dead links, a large percentage of which I put there.
Here’s something odd. I went to Google maps search page and entered the address 1002 W. 9th St., Los Angeles, CA, and it found the right location downtown. I clicked on the map link above on this page, and it fetched 1002 W. 9th St. in the San Pedro District of Los Angeles, some 20 miles south of downtown. Perhaps if the zip code 90015 was added to the address above, Google Maps would find the correct location.
Still needed is the aka Gore’s Theatre, by the way. Also interesting to note is that the new Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 is only a block south of the former location of the Georgia Theatre. I wonder what Mike Gore would think of that monsterplex?
Magic Lantern is correct. This building is not demolished. The L.A. County Assessor lists this lot as 2928 Vermont, and says that it is occupied by a building of 7693 square feet, erected in 1912 but with an effective construction date of 1930. I thought that 1930 might be the year the building was converted into a theater, but La Tosca Theatre is listed at this address in earlier city directories.
In the 1923 City Directory, 2930 S Vermont is listed as the location of “Lustig & Gore (B.H. Lustig, Michl Gore) motion pictures….” and is listed again as the location of the La Tosca Theatre.
In the 1915 City Directory, the address belongs to “Photoplay Theatre motion pictures….” It looks as though was probably a theater in this building from the time it was built in 1912.
A September 26, 1953, Boxoffice item about the retirement of W. B. Small said that he had opened the Victoria Theatre in partnership with Judge Henry Titus in 1923.
Here is a photo of the entrance to Loew’s East on the cover of the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice, January 16, 1967. The description (on the following page) says that the Loew’s West in Cleveland was opened the same day as Loew’s East.
Boxoffice of July 10, 1943, said that the Regent at Elmira had been dismantled. The last operator had been Howard Shedewitz. Boxoffice of February 30 that same year had run an obituary for Frank H. Tooker which said that he had built the Regent, but it didn’t mention the year it had opened.
The Columbia Theatre is listed at this address in the 1922 Flint City Directory. It’s possible the theater was rebuilt in 1930, but so far I’ve been unable to find anything indicating that this happened.
Boxoffice of June 2, 1956, reported that the Columbia Theatre had been closed, but the September 1 issue that same year reported that the house had been reopened by Lawrence Leon and Jay Walker. Their venture lasted less than a year. Boxoffice of August 10, 1957, said that the Columbia had closed again. I haven’t found the theater mentioned in any later issues of the magazine.
Boxoffice of April 17, 1937, said that Lester Matt’s Della Theatre was scheduled to open on May 1, but the May 8 issue reported that the formal opening had taken place “last Wednesday night,” which would have been May 5.
The 1916 Cheboygan City Directory lists the Liberty Theatre at 417 N. Main Street. I’ve been unable to determine if the same building that the Liberty occupied survived to house the Gold Front, or if it was replaced sometime during the decades between 1916 and 1950. As I said above it doesn’t look like a 1950 vintage building. Perhaps it was a theater converted to retail space and then back into a theater.
I’m pretty sure I’ve accounted for all the theaters operating in Cheboygan during the 1940s, and none were at this location. Missing from Cinema Treasures as of today are the Silver Theatre, closed in 1956, and the Ritz, opened in 1938 and still operating at lest as late as 1956.
Boxoffice of August 1, 1977, had an item about Marjorie Malin, then operator of the Lura Theatre. It mentioned that her father, W. E. Malin, had opened the theater in 1916.
The Lura Theatre is mentioned in many issues of Boxoffice, and was long operated by Marjorie Malin’s mother, Lura Malin. She is first mentioned as operator of the theater in 1950. Prior to that, W. E. Milin was the operator, so he might have died about that time, though I can’t find a death notice for him in Boxoffice. A brief notice of Lura Malin’s death was published in Boxoffice of February 26, 1968.
A single line in Boxoffice of October, 1982, read: “The Lura Theatre, Augusta, recently closed.” I’ve found nolater mentions of it.
Boxoffice of July 3, 1943, said that Roy V. Starling’s new Wings Theatre had opened the previous Saturday night. The theater was in a converted store building, though Boxoffice said the building was “practically new” at the time.
Boxoffice of March 22, 1965, said that the Wings Theatre had been condemned by the city, and that the owners intended to demolish the building and erect a new theater on the same site. I’ve been unable to discover from Boxoffice if the new theater was ever built.
The web site Lost Memory linked to above says that Gordon Smith designed this theater. Smith was a partner in the firm of Smith, Pitts & MacPherson, with DeHaven Pitts and Charles T. MacPherson. The slightly earlier It Theatre in Mathis, Texas, another quonset-type house, is attributed to DeHaven Pitts.
An article headed Final Days of Old Nashville Bijou appeared in Boxoffice of August 10, 1957. It has a brief history of the theater, and some information about the Bijou Amusement Company.
The Bijou circuit served African-American audiences, but was not African-American owned. It was founded by Milton Starr, and various members of the Starr family were involved with its management for several decades. The circuit was quite extensive, operating theaters from the Carolinas all across the south and into Texas and Oklahoma. At its peak there were more than fifty houses in the chain. The headquarters was in Nashville.
There were two theaters called El Cajon, this one being a 1946 replacement for a house that had burned the previous year. Boxoffice of July 20, 1946, ran a double-page spread on the new El Cajon, which had opened on April 24.
The El Cajon Theatre was designed by architect Robert Halley Jr. (one of his last works, if not the very last) and his associate James Wheeler. James Wheeler might have been related to William Henry Wheeler, architect of the Balboa Theatre in San Diego (and former partner of Robert Halley jr.), but I’ve been unable to confirm a connection.
Both the first and second Luez theaters were originally owned and operated by Louise Mask. A January 18, 1941, Boxoffice item gives the origin of the theater’s unusual name. Ms. Mask wanted a name with only four letters, and when building the first theater held a naming contest for it. The name Luez, a phonic contraction the name Louise, was the winning submission. I’ve found Louise Mask mentioned in Boxoffice as operator of the Luez as late as 1967.
Original owners Jerry and Edith Drake opened their new Drake Theatre on March 11, 1948, said Boxoffice of March 20. The Drakes had, since 1929, operated the smaller Ritz Theatre in Bolivar, which they planned to continue operating after the new house opened, though on a weekends-only basis. The plans for the Drake Theatre had been prepared by early 1946, and construction might have started that year, but completion of the house appears to have been delayed, probably by post-war shortages of materials.
Boxoffice of December 15, 1945, had an article about the Drakes and their plans for the new theater and for the renovation of the Ritz which would follow the opening of the Drake. Both projects were designed by Robert Boller, but I’ve been unable to find out if the plans for the Ritz were carried out. I don’t find the Ritz mentioned after 1948.
The Drakes were still operating the Drake Theatre at least as late as 1968, when the September 9 issue of Boxoffice reported that they had closed the house for a few days in August while visiting relatives in Colorado.
I’ve been unable to find any references to this house as the Esquire in Boxoffice, or to discover when B&B took over operation.
The 1958 closing of this theater must have been temporary. Boxoffice of January 7, 1974, said: “The Oriel Theatre in Glencoe has shuttered for an indefinite time.” I don’t find it mentioned in any later issues of the magazine, so late 1973 or early 1974 for the final closing of the Oriel seems likely.
The Oriel might have opened before 1935, too, though perhaps under a different name. Movie Age of August 31, 1929, said that Charles J. Novak, a local theater manager, would begin construction on a new theater at Glencoe in a few days.
The October 11, 1971, issue of Boxoffice said that Les Schultz had taken over the Oriel Theatre from Tom Novak, who had operated the house “…for some forty years.” That indicates a possibility that the Oriel was the theater Charles Novak was planning in 1929. It’s likely that Tom Novak was his son, or other relative.
Though a few items in Boxoffice refer to the “New Crystal Theatre” in Glencoe, I can’t find any items saying that the original Crystal Theatre there was ever replaced with a new building. There was a Crystal Theatre operating in Glencoe at least into the 1970s, and it was run by members of the Gould family throughout its history to that time. The magazine did mention the Crystal Theatre many times, though. Here’s a sampling of some of those that I found revealing.
The Crystal Theatre in Glencoe was the subject of a brief article in Boxoffice, January 3, 1953. 85-year-old Kate Gould was then still working ar the Crystal, which had been opened by her family in 1909 (though this item says it opened in January, 1907, later Boxoffice items all give what is apparently the correct year.) There’s no photo of the theater itself, but the shot of Mrs. Gould doing a bit of embroidery in the box office is downright Rockwellesque.
If an 85-year-old theater cashier is not sufficiently remarkable, this later article (somewhat longer, but lacking a photo) from Boxoffice of January 2, 1961, says that she had taken a few months off from her job at the Crystal, but intended to return to work in the box office. She was then 93. This items also notes that it was her son, Jay, who had opened the Crystal Theatre in 1909.
Boxoffice of November 7, 1966, took note of Kate Gould’s 99th birthday, and said that she had finally retired as the theater’s cashier a few years earlier, at the age of 94.
Boxoffice of October 9, 1967, published Jay Gould’s death notice, mentioning that Kate Gould would be 100 years old the following Monday. The Crystal Theatre was still open at his time, and had for decades been under the management of George Gould, Jay’s brother.
George apparently handed over the theater to another brother, Howard, for a while, as Boxoffice of June 9, 1969, said that George Gould was resuming management of the theater following the death of his brother Howard. The item said that Kate Gould would be 102 on her next birthday.
A brief item in Boxoffice of December 16, 1974, said that George Gould of the Crystal Theatre at Glencoe had been hospitalized for tests and observation. Another Gould, 79-year-old Mrs. Florence Gould, was admitted to a hospital for tests and observation in 1976, reported Boxoffice of October 25 that year. The Crystal must have still been open, as the item said she was “…still active with the Crystal Theatre, Glencoe….” Kate Gould was not mentioned in this item.
I’ve been unable to find a Boxoffice obituary for Kate Gould. Given the frequency with which she was mentioned in the magazine, I find this odd. Perhaps they ran one, but the issue containing it is missing from the online database.
Another odd thing is that an Internet search on “Crystal Theatre, Glencoe” brings up many listings (usually under the classification movie theaters) for something called The Crystal Theatre Company, with an address of 1706 Judd Avenue North, Glencoe. Google Maps satellite view shows this to be an entirely residential neighborhood. I have no idea what to make of this.
Chuck, Mike seldom cites his sources, so I don’t know where the unquestioned dates he uses come from. The dates (and other bits of information) with question marks must be his surmises, or are taken from sources he thinks might be unreliable. I’ve often found his lists very useful, though I usually try to double check his information before I cite it here.
The multiple listing of individual theaters under their different aka’s can be confusing, but can also be useful because they are arranged alphabetically. I’ve sometimes used Mike’s list to track down aka’s that are missing from Cinema Treasures pages.
As for seat counts, I’ve found just about everybody’s to be questionable. It’s not only because the original sources (managers, owners, Boxoffice stringers) are sometimes unreliable, but because seat counts often changed even in houses that hadn’t been fully reseated or remodeled. A theater with declining business might close a balcony to save on upkeep costs (or to avoid hiring two projectionists), leading to a sudden drop in reported capacity; or seats from the front of the house might be moved to replace broken-down seats farther back (a fairly common practice) leading to a creeping reduction in overall capacity.
In more recent times, a drop in capacity of a dozen or so could be the result of retrofitting the house for wheelchair spaces. But seat counts are useful primarily to give an idea of the general size of a theater anyway, so if they are off by a handful I don’t think it’s a big problem. If they are off by hundreds, I’d like to know why.
Also note that Mike does revise his lists, making corrections and filling in gaps, often incorporating information that he finds at Cinema Treasures or CinemaTour (a couple of times he’s even quoted from posts I’ve made here.) Cinema Treasures (and to a lesser extent CiemaTour) can update with corrections and new information more quickly, though, as they both have numerous contributors, while Rivest’s Lists are apparently a one-man project.
I found the Milda Theatre mentioned in Boxoffice as recently as the issue of October 23, 1961, so it was apparently still in operation at that time. Here’s the whole one-line item: “John Semadalis, owenr of the Romova and Milda theatres, returned from a visit to Greece.”
Boxoffice frequently misspelled the name of the Ramova Theatre, but it’s interesting that as far back as the 1930s, the Milda and Ramova were frequently mentioned together, and were apparently for much of their history under the same ownership.
The L.A. County Assessor says that the building at 2415 S. Central was built in 1953. The project north of it, which has a parking lot where the Gayety Theatre was, is even newer, having been built in 1989. The Gayety is gone.
Although some of the eastern parts of the City of Los Angeles, and the entire unincorporated district of East Los Angeles, plus the unincorporated districts of City Terrace and Belvedere, are all referred to colloquially as East L.A., there is a clear official boundary between the city and county areas. The Joy Theatre was well west of Indiana Street, and thus located within the city limits of Los Angeles, not in the unincorporated community of East Los Angeles, which lies entirely east of Indiana Street.
None of the Boxoffice links at Issuu are working tonight. I think the magazine might have removed its archive from the site.
When I first found the Boxoffice archive on Issuu, I didnt link to any of the articles I cited. This was because I didn’t know who had uploaded them, so I feared they might be removed at any time. But after I found that the publishers of Boxoffice had uploaded the archive there themselves I began linking, thinking they would probably remain available. It looks like I might have been wrong.
I hope it’s just a temporary glitch, but everything else at Issuu appears to be working fine, so it does seem likely that Boxoffice has changed its mind about making its archive available online. That would be too bad. It was a useful resource, and I certainly don’t have anything else to compare with it. Plus, Cinema Treasures will now have another goatload of dead links, a large percentage of which I put there.
Here’s something odd. I went to Google maps search page and entered the address 1002 W. 9th St., Los Angeles, CA, and it found the right location downtown. I clicked on the map link above on this page, and it fetched 1002 W. 9th St. in the San Pedro District of Los Angeles, some 20 miles south of downtown. Perhaps if the zip code 90015 was added to the address above, Google Maps would find the correct location.
Still needed is the aka Gore’s Theatre, by the way. Also interesting to note is that the new Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 is only a block south of the former location of the Georgia Theatre. I wonder what Mike Gore would think of that monsterplex?
Magic Lantern is correct. This building is not demolished. The L.A. County Assessor lists this lot as 2928 Vermont, and says that it is occupied by a building of 7693 square feet, erected in 1912 but with an effective construction date of 1930. I thought that 1930 might be the year the building was converted into a theater, but La Tosca Theatre is listed at this address in earlier city directories.
In the 1923 City Directory, 2930 S Vermont is listed as the location of “Lustig & Gore (B.H. Lustig, Michl Gore) motion pictures….” and is listed again as the location of the La Tosca Theatre.
In the 1915 City Directory, the address belongs to “Photoplay Theatre motion pictures….” It looks as though was probably a theater in this building from the time it was built in 1912.
A September 26, 1953, Boxoffice item about the retirement of W. B. Small said that he had opened the Victoria Theatre in partnership with Judge Henry Titus in 1923.
Here is a photo of the entrance to Loew’s East on the cover of the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice, January 16, 1967. The description (on the following page) says that the Loew’s West in Cleveland was opened the same day as Loew’s East.
Boxoffice of July 10, 1943, said that the Regent at Elmira had been dismantled. The last operator had been Howard Shedewitz. Boxoffice of February 30 that same year had run an obituary for Frank H. Tooker which said that he had built the Regent, but it didn’t mention the year it had opened.
The Columbia Theatre is listed at this address in the 1922 Flint City Directory. It’s possible the theater was rebuilt in 1930, but so far I’ve been unable to find anything indicating that this happened.
Boxoffice of June 2, 1956, reported that the Columbia Theatre had been closed, but the September 1 issue that same year reported that the house had been reopened by Lawrence Leon and Jay Walker. Their venture lasted less than a year. Boxoffice of August 10, 1957, said that the Columbia had closed again. I haven’t found the theater mentioned in any later issues of the magazine.
The Star Theatre is listed at this address in the 1922 Flint City Directory.
Boxoffice of April 17, 1937, said that Lester Matt’s Della Theatre was scheduled to open on May 1, but the May 8 issue reported that the formal opening had taken place “last Wednesday night,” which would have been May 5.
The 1916 Cheboygan City Directory lists the Liberty Theatre at 417 N. Main Street. I’ve been unable to determine if the same building that the Liberty occupied survived to house the Gold Front, or if it was replaced sometime during the decades between 1916 and 1950. As I said above it doesn’t look like a 1950 vintage building. Perhaps it was a theater converted to retail space and then back into a theater.
I’m pretty sure I’ve accounted for all the theaters operating in Cheboygan during the 1940s, and none were at this location. Missing from Cinema Treasures as of today are the Silver Theatre, closed in 1956, and the Ritz, opened in 1938 and still operating at lest as late as 1956.
I think it must have been Disney’s animated version of Robin Hood that opened the Merrimon Twins. 1973 was the year it was released.
I finally found an item about W. E. Malin’s death, in Boxoffice of March 11, 1950. He was killed in an automobile accident on March 8 that year.
Boxoffice of August 1, 1977, had an item about Marjorie Malin, then operator of the Lura Theatre. It mentioned that her father, W. E. Malin, had opened the theater in 1916.
The Lura Theatre is mentioned in many issues of Boxoffice, and was long operated by Marjorie Malin’s mother, Lura Malin. She is first mentioned as operator of the theater in 1950. Prior to that, W. E. Milin was the operator, so he might have died about that time, though I can’t find a death notice for him in Boxoffice. A brief notice of Lura Malin’s death was published in Boxoffice of February 26, 1968.
A single line in Boxoffice of October, 1982, read: “The Lura Theatre, Augusta, recently closed.” I’ve found nolater mentions of it.
Boxoffice of July 3, 1943, said that Roy V. Starling’s new Wings Theatre had opened the previous Saturday night. The theater was in a converted store building, though Boxoffice said the building was “practically new” at the time.
Boxoffice of March 22, 1965, said that the Wings Theatre had been condemned by the city, and that the owners intended to demolish the building and erect a new theater on the same site. I’ve been unable to discover from Boxoffice if the new theater was ever built.
The web site Lost Memory linked to above says that Gordon Smith designed this theater. Smith was a partner in the firm of Smith, Pitts & MacPherson, with DeHaven Pitts and Charles T. MacPherson. The slightly earlier It Theatre in Mathis, Texas, another quonset-type house, is attributed to DeHaven Pitts.
An article headed Final Days of Old Nashville Bijou appeared in Boxoffice of August 10, 1957. It has a brief history of the theater, and some information about the Bijou Amusement Company.
The Bijou circuit served African-American audiences, but was not African-American owned. It was founded by Milton Starr, and various members of the Starr family were involved with its management for several decades. The circuit was quite extensive, operating theaters from the Carolinas all across the south and into Texas and Oklahoma. At its peak there were more than fifty houses in the chain. The headquarters was in Nashville.
There were two theaters called El Cajon, this one being a 1946 replacement for a house that had burned the previous year. Boxoffice of July 20, 1946, ran a double-page spread on the new El Cajon, which had opened on April 24.
The El Cajon Theatre was designed by architect Robert Halley Jr. (one of his last works, if not the very last) and his associate James Wheeler. James Wheeler might have been related to William Henry Wheeler, architect of the Balboa Theatre in San Diego (and former partner of Robert Halley jr.), but I’ve been unable to confirm a connection.
Both the first and second Luez theaters were originally owned and operated by Louise Mask. A January 18, 1941, Boxoffice item gives the origin of the theater’s unusual name. Ms. Mask wanted a name with only four letters, and when building the first theater held a naming contest for it. The name Luez, a phonic contraction the name Louise, was the winning submission. I’ve found Louise Mask mentioned in Boxoffice as operator of the Luez as late as 1967.
Original owners Jerry and Edith Drake opened their new Drake Theatre on March 11, 1948, said Boxoffice of March 20. The Drakes had, since 1929, operated the smaller Ritz Theatre in Bolivar, which they planned to continue operating after the new house opened, though on a weekends-only basis. The plans for the Drake Theatre had been prepared by early 1946, and construction might have started that year, but completion of the house appears to have been delayed, probably by post-war shortages of materials.
Boxoffice of December 15, 1945, had an article about the Drakes and their plans for the new theater and for the renovation of the Ritz which would follow the opening of the Drake. Both projects were designed by Robert Boller, but I’ve been unable to find out if the plans for the Ritz were carried out. I don’t find the Ritz mentioned after 1948.
The Drakes were still operating the Drake Theatre at least as late as 1968, when the September 9 issue of Boxoffice reported that they had closed the house for a few days in August while visiting relatives in Colorado.
I’ve been unable to find any references to this house as the Esquire in Boxoffice, or to discover when B&B took over operation.
The 1958 closing of this theater must have been temporary. Boxoffice of January 7, 1974, said: “The Oriel Theatre in Glencoe has shuttered for an indefinite time.” I don’t find it mentioned in any later issues of the magazine, so late 1973 or early 1974 for the final closing of the Oriel seems likely.
The Oriel might have opened before 1935, too, though perhaps under a different name. Movie Age of August 31, 1929, said that Charles J. Novak, a local theater manager, would begin construction on a new theater at Glencoe in a few days.
The October 11, 1971, issue of Boxoffice said that Les Schultz had taken over the Oriel Theatre from Tom Novak, who had operated the house “…for some forty years.” That indicates a possibility that the Oriel was the theater Charles Novak was planning in 1929. It’s likely that Tom Novak was his son, or other relative.
Though a few items in Boxoffice refer to the “New Crystal Theatre” in Glencoe, I can’t find any items saying that the original Crystal Theatre there was ever replaced with a new building. There was a Crystal Theatre operating in Glencoe at least into the 1970s, and it was run by members of the Gould family throughout its history to that time. The magazine did mention the Crystal Theatre many times, though. Here’s a sampling of some of those that I found revealing.
The Crystal Theatre in Glencoe was the subject of a brief article in Boxoffice, January 3, 1953. 85-year-old Kate Gould was then still working ar the Crystal, which had been opened by her family in 1909 (though this item says it opened in January, 1907, later Boxoffice items all give what is apparently the correct year.) There’s no photo of the theater itself, but the shot of Mrs. Gould doing a bit of embroidery in the box office is downright Rockwellesque.
If an 85-year-old theater cashier is not sufficiently remarkable, this later article (somewhat longer, but lacking a photo) from Boxoffice of January 2, 1961, says that she had taken a few months off from her job at the Crystal, but intended to return to work in the box office. She was then 93. This items also notes that it was her son, Jay, who had opened the Crystal Theatre in 1909.
Boxoffice of November 7, 1966, took note of Kate Gould’s 99th birthday, and said that she had finally retired as the theater’s cashier a few years earlier, at the age of 94.
Boxoffice of October 9, 1967, published Jay Gould’s death notice, mentioning that Kate Gould would be 100 years old the following Monday. The Crystal Theatre was still open at his time, and had for decades been under the management of George Gould, Jay’s brother.
George apparently handed over the theater to another brother, Howard, for a while, as Boxoffice of June 9, 1969, said that George Gould was resuming management of the theater following the death of his brother Howard. The item said that Kate Gould would be 102 on her next birthday.
A brief item in Boxoffice of December 16, 1974, said that George Gould of the Crystal Theatre at Glencoe had been hospitalized for tests and observation. Another Gould, 79-year-old Mrs. Florence Gould, was admitted to a hospital for tests and observation in 1976, reported Boxoffice of October 25 that year. The Crystal must have still been open, as the item said she was “…still active with the Crystal Theatre, Glencoe….” Kate Gould was not mentioned in this item.
I’ve been unable to find a Boxoffice obituary for Kate Gould. Given the frequency with which she was mentioned in the magazine, I find this odd. Perhaps they ran one, but the issue containing it is missing from the online database.
Another odd thing is that an Internet search on “Crystal Theatre, Glencoe” brings up many listings (usually under the classification movie theaters) for something called The Crystal Theatre Company, with an address of 1706 Judd Avenue North, Glencoe. Google Maps satellite view shows this to be an entirely residential neighborhood. I have no idea what to make of this.
Chuck, Mike seldom cites his sources, so I don’t know where the unquestioned dates he uses come from. The dates (and other bits of information) with question marks must be his surmises, or are taken from sources he thinks might be unreliable. I’ve often found his lists very useful, though I usually try to double check his information before I cite it here.
The multiple listing of individual theaters under their different aka’s can be confusing, but can also be useful because they are arranged alphabetically. I’ve sometimes used Mike’s list to track down aka’s that are missing from Cinema Treasures pages.
As for seat counts, I’ve found just about everybody’s to be questionable. It’s not only because the original sources (managers, owners, Boxoffice stringers) are sometimes unreliable, but because seat counts often changed even in houses that hadn’t been fully reseated or remodeled. A theater with declining business might close a balcony to save on upkeep costs (or to avoid hiring two projectionists), leading to a sudden drop in reported capacity; or seats from the front of the house might be moved to replace broken-down seats farther back (a fairly common practice) leading to a creeping reduction in overall capacity.
In more recent times, a drop in capacity of a dozen or so could be the result of retrofitting the house for wheelchair spaces. But seat counts are useful primarily to give an idea of the general size of a theater anyway, so if they are off by a handful I don’t think it’s a big problem. If they are off by hundreds, I’d like to know why.
Also note that Mike does revise his lists, making corrections and filling in gaps, often incorporating information that he finds at Cinema Treasures or CinemaTour (a couple of times he’s even quoted from posts I’ve made here.) Cinema Treasures (and to a lesser extent CiemaTour) can update with corrections and new information more quickly, though, as they both have numerous contributors, while Rivest’s Lists are apparently a one-man project.
I found the Milda Theatre mentioned in Boxoffice as recently as the issue of October 23, 1961, so it was apparently still in operation at that time. Here’s the whole one-line item: “John Semadalis, owenr of the Romova and Milda theatres, returned from a visit to Greece.”
Boxoffice frequently misspelled the name of the Ramova Theatre, but it’s interesting that as far back as the 1930s, the Milda and Ramova were frequently mentioned together, and were apparently for much of their history under the same ownership.