The Pines Theatre was originally operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company, and replaced an earlier house at Silsbee the circuit had bought in 1937. This was a 300-seat theater called the Palace, which was condemned in 1947.
Was there a theater built at Bluefield in 1917 or 1918? The March 6, 1917, issue of The Ohio Architect Engineer and Builder has this item: “Architects C.C. and E.A. Weber… have completed preliminary plans for a theater and arcade…. The structure will be two stories and basement, 129x62 feet and will be erected in Bluefield, W. Va….”
A cursory search of Boxoffice turns up half a dozen theaters in Bluefield not yet listed on Cinema Treasures. The Weber brothers' project might have been any of them, or might have been the Colonial. I found one Boxoffice item about a fellow who began his theater career working at the Colonial in 1919, so it must have opened in the teens, not the twenties.
Chris and Edward Weber were well known architects in the region in the early 20th century, and designed Kentucky’s governor’s mansion, among other notable structures.
A.N. and Emil Zeiler opened the Paris Drive-In on June 5, 1950. In the opening announcement in Boxoffice of June 17, the surname Zeiler was misspelled as Seiler. A.N. Zeiler (his first name was Aloysius, though Boxoffice usually refers to him as Ollie) was usually mentioned as the manager for the first few years.
Mr. and Mrs. Emil Zeiler were the operators of the Paris Drive-In when Boxoffice of August 11, 1975, ran an item about the drive-in’s 25th anniversary.
A June 5, 1954, Boxoffice article about the installation of a miniature train at the Paris Drive-In is interesting for providing one of only three references I’ve found to a second drive-in at Paris. It says that Zeiler “…got his first competition….” that year. An August 8, 1953, item datelined Paris says that the K. Lee Williams circuit had bought a site for a 500 car drive-in which would be completed by the next summer. A January 25, 1960, item about the Logan Theatre says that the Williams circuit also operated the Strand and Auto theaters at Paris.
Boxoffice of July 31, 1948, said that C.H. and William Glenn Balch were preparing plans for a drive-in at Bell Gardens for Pacific Drive-Ins.
As the firm of Balch & Balch had been dissolved a few years earlier, and William Glenn Balch had formed a partnership with Louis L. Bryan in 1946, I’m not sure if the inclusion of Clifford Balch in the notice was not just an error by somebody at Boxoffice who didn’t know about the elder Balch’s retirement.
In any case, William Balch had already designed other drive-ins and was almost certainly the lead architect on the Bell Gardens project. Balch & Bryan had several drive-in projects underway in 1948.
The Balch in the firm of Balch, Bryan, Perkins, Hutchason was William Glenn Balch, the considerably younger brother of theater architect Clifford Balch. Following the dissolution of the firm of Balch & Balch, in 1946 Clifford Balch formed a partnership with Louis L. Bryan. Balch & Bryan became Balch, Bryan, Perkins, Hutchason, Architects in 1953, with the addition of partners John Loring Perkins and W.K. Hutchason.
Here is a Boxoffice article about the Star Theatre. It notes that William Glenn Balch had “…designed over 180 southland theatres over the last 25 years….”
A small night photo of the Los Feliz appeared in Boxoffice of June 29, 1935. The caption attributes the design of the theater to architect Clifford Balch.
Boxoffice of July 31, 1948, said that Los Angeles architects Russell & Samaniego were preparing plans for a theater to be built by Griffith Enterprises on Imperial Highway in Inglewood. I’ve been unable to find the opening year for the Imperial, but the theater won an award for its signage from the Wagner Sign Company in 1950.
The partnership of architects George Vernon Russell and Eduardo J. Samaniego was in existence from 1946 to 1950. They designed at least one of the department stores that J.C. Penney was putting up in suburban business districts around Southern California during this period (the one at Van Nuys.) As those J.C. Penney stores all looked much alike, perhaps they designed others as well. I’ve been unable to discover if they designed any theaters other than the Imperial.
Russell was one of the architects of the Sunset Plaza shopping center (1934-1936) on the Sunset Strip, in collaboration with Charles Selkirk, who had been one of the architects of the Alex Theatre in Glendale. George Russell was also the original architect of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas (1945), though he was ousted before the Flamingo was completed, when Bugsy Siegel took over the project from its originator, William Wilkerson.
George Russell’s partner Eduardo Samaniego had an interesting connection to the movies. His older brother, Ramon Samaniego, became an actor during the silent era, adopting the more easily pronounced screen name Ramon Novarro.
Another interesting movie connection involving the Imperial is that the theater was taken over not long after it opened by Phil Isley, whose daughter was actress Jennifer Jones. Isley had cause to regret this attempt to break into the California market, as the Imperial and two other recently built luxury theaters he acquired there, the La Tijera and the California, lost more than a million dollars over a period of three years, according to an article (lower left corner) in Boxoffice of December 20, 1952.
The Imperial had a rather sketchy history, opening and closing several times under different operators. At least it survived as a theater longer than Isley’s La Tijera, which was converted into a bowling alley less than three years after it opened. I’ve been unable to identify the location of the third Isley house mentioned in the Boxoffice article, the California. Does anybody know which California Theatre it was?
Photos of the marquee and auditorium of this splendid little Art Moderne theatre can be seen in this Boxoffice article from December 6, 1941. There is also a ground-floor plan of the Grove and its parent theater, the Redlands, which shows the relationship between the two houses.
The Yale Theatre was indeed located in a former livery stable, and the stable had been built in 1902 by Clem V. Rogers, Will Rogers' father. In 1915, it was converted into a garage, and soon after that into a movie theater, according to this Boxoffice magazine article of August 20, 1938. The drastic Deco/Moderne makeover done in the 1930s was designed by the Dallas architectural firm Corgan & Moore.
The May 5, 1955, issue of Boxoffice has this article about the Studio Theatre/url], which was the Linden Theatre renamed. The article says that the Linden had been closed for nearly five years when it was bought by the Associated circuit in 1955, remodeled, and reopened as the Studio with an art film policy.
A photo of the Carefree Theatre as it originally looked can be seen in Boxoffice, July 29, 1950. The name on the marquee is a bit ambiguous. It might have been the Carefree Theatre or the Carefree Center Theatre.
The building housed several entertainment and convenience facilities, as described in the Boxoffice article, and the operation as a whole was apparently called the Carefree Center. The article calls the theater itself just the Carefree Theatre, though.
Both of the Palm Beach Post articles linked above have vanished. I hope the Boxoffice link works longer.
Boxoffice of January 8, 1949, said that work had begun on a new theater in the Murray Hill district of Jacksonville. The architect was William Marshall. The caption of a photo of the Murray H ill Theatre on this web page also attributes the design to Marshall.
The caption also says the theater now “…operates as an alcohol-free, smoke free, night club featuring live faith based music.”
The May 25, 1970, issue of Boxoffice reported that the former Robinhood Theatre was being razed to make way for a small, decorative mall, part of a beautification project in downtown Grand Haven.
A death notice in Boxoffice of November 11, 1950, datelined Grand Haven, says this: “Charles L. Davis, 62, owner and operator of the Airdome and Vaudette, first motion picture houses here, died here recently. After selling his theatres, he managed the Grand and Robin Hood theatres for Mrs. Margaret Vandenberg.”
Mrs. Vanden Berg (as her name was given in most Boxoffice items about her) also had a theater called the Crescent at Grand Haven, opened in 1925 and closed in 1939. A Mrs. Cora Vanden Berg, former owner of the Crescent Theatre, died at Grand Haven in 1944. I don’t know if Cora and Margaret were the same person or were perhaps sisters-in-law.
The Strand was built as a 900-seat house in 1920, according to Boxoffice of April 8, 1968, but its seating capacity was reduced to 500 after the 1960 fire destroyed the balcony.
The Gratiot County Players web site has several historic photos of the Strand, plus one of another movie house, the Alma, which it says was earlier called the Idle Hour Theatre.
A 1917 publication called Michigan Film Review mentions both an Idle Hour Theatre and a Liberty Theatre operating in Alma at that time.
The Lorain-Fulton Theatre was owned by members of the Urbansky family until 1951. John, Harry, and Thomas Urbansky are mentioned frequently in Boxoffice from 1935 through the 1950s.
Thomas Urbansky opened a theater called the Jennings at Cleveland in 1916, according to The Music Trade Review of November 25 that year. In the absence of an address, I’ve been unable to determine if the Jennings is already listed at Cinema Treasures under a later name. It was operating as the Jennings at least as late as 1946, the last time I find it mentioned in Boxoffice.
The Buccaneer Drive-In opened in 1952. The original owner was Arnulfo Gonzales. The architect, according to Boxoffice of January 24, 1953, was Beverly W. Spillman Sr., of Spillman & Spillman in San Antonio.
Spillman was for a time a member of the advisory board or the Modern Theatre Institute, and though he is frequently mentioned in Boxoffice I’ve only been able to pin down one other theater he designed that was completed, that being the former West Theatre at George West, Texas.
The Quaker was built for the Shea circuit. Shea then already operated a theater called the Union in New Philadelphia. The Union Theatre had been built as the Union Opera House in 1863, according to Boxoffice of July 1, 1939, which reported that the new Shea house was under construction.
However, Boxoffice of June 22, 1940, reported that ground had just been broken for Shea’s new house at New Philadelphia, so unless they built two theaters there in that short space of time (I can’t find any evidence that they did) the original project must have been delayed.
I haven’t found the opening month for the Quaker, but the November 9, 1940, issue of Boxoffice reported that, following the opening of the Quaker, admission prices at the Union Theatre had been reduced.
Shea operated both the Quaker and the Union into the 1950s. The last mention of the Union I’ve found is in Boxoffice of October 30, 1954. I don’t know what became of the building after that.
The February 28, 1977, issue of Boxoffice reported that Mr. and Mrs. James G. Barton had bought the Plaza Theatre and had “…plans to split the 1,100-seat theatre from front to back into two 30-foot auditoriums within the next several months.”
The Uptown at Kirkland Lake was one of the theaters at which General Theatre Supply of Toronto had recently installed a screen, according to an item in Boxoffice of July 1, 1939. It probably opened that year.
There was also a Capitol Theatre in Kirkland Lake, located on Prospect Avenue, and a Strand Theatre, located on Government Road. Both were operating during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Here is a picture of the Capitol not long after it opened, from Boxoffice of September 10, 1938. A March 12, 1938, Boxoffice item had said that the new theater being built at Larder Lake was one of two projects designed by Toronto architect Herbert G. Duerr. The other project was an extensive remodeling of the Strand Theatre at Kirkland Lake.
The September 23, 1950, issue of Boxoffice mentioned the Brownie Theatre. It said that Bob Dean had taken over management of the Manring and Brownie theater from Vic Wintle.
A March 22, 1941, item says “Phoenix Amusement Company, which has long been operating Schine’s Manring and Brownie theatres here under lease arrangements, has acquired the buildings housing the theatres from Charles Otto Brown.”
Phoenix was probably the local operating company set up by Schine.
My guess would be that C.O. Brown had named the Brownie Theatre after himself. The Middlesboro Cemetery has Brown, Charles Otto listed, 02/06/1889-10/21/1942. Assuming it’s the same Charles Otto Brown, given his age there’s no telling how long he was in the theater business at Middlesboro. The Brownie might have been a very old theater.
This is probably nothing to do with the Brownie, but at the far left in this photo of Middlesboro, which looks to be from the early 1960s, could that be a fragment of a theater marquee, or is it just a rather theatrical shop marquee?
I’ve found a reference to the Manring Theatre in a Stanford, Kentucky, newspaper called The Interior Journal, issue of December 13, 1907. The April 21, 1905, issue of the same paper carried a single line in a section of news from Middlesboro saying “J. L. Manring buys the opera house and library building.”
A 2005 book called “Coal and Culture: Opera Houses in Appalachia” contains a reference to a “New Manring Theatre” in 1922, and in a list headed “Opera Houses Studied” has this:
I’ve been unable to discover if the New Manring Theatre in the 1922 reference was the same building as the earlier Princess/Manring Theatre, apparently built in 1889. The Princess Theatre is listed in Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide for 1904, the only Middlesboro house listed.
Here’s a link to a few paragraphs about J.L. Manring in a 1912 book digitized at Google Books. It mentions the Manring Theatre but doesn’t give any details about it. It reveals that Manring converted the library building he’d bought into a headquarters for the Manring Coal Exchange, one of his many enterprises.
Here is an undated photo of the Manring Theatre with the name “Manring” in stone above the entrance. It’s only two floors, unlike the Manring in later photos. Either the New Manring was a different building or the original building was altered and a third floor was added to it.
Boxoffice of October 11, 1947, said that O.G. Roaden expected to have his new Park Theatre in Middlesboro open around Thanksgiving. I can’t find any announcements of the opening, but the Park is mentioned again in the May 29, 1948, Boxoffice which said that it had been equipped by the National Theatre Supply company.
The February 7, 1953,issue of Boxoffice said that the Park Theatre had been taken over by Price Coomer of Harlan, Kentucky. On March 4, 1956, Boxoffice announced that Price Coomer’s Park Theatre was down to four-day operation.
After that I don’t find the Park mentioned again until February 24, 1975, when it is referred to as the J.C. Park Theatre (for the only time) in an item that says the house was now being booked by Interstate Theatre Services rather than Tri-State.
From the photo of the former Hartford Theatre, the building is recognizable as the house designed by architect Erwin G. Fredrick for Frank Walters and M.H. Scheidler, operators of the Orpheum and Jefferson theaters in Hartford City.
The Pines Theatre was originally operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company, and replaced an earlier house at Silsbee the circuit had bought in 1937. This was a 300-seat theater called the Palace, which was condemned in 1947.
Was there a theater built at Bluefield in 1917 or 1918? The March 6, 1917, issue of The Ohio Architect Engineer and Builder has this item: “Architects C.C. and E.A. Weber… have completed preliminary plans for a theater and arcade…. The structure will be two stories and basement, 129x62 feet and will be erected in Bluefield, W. Va….”
A cursory search of Boxoffice turns up half a dozen theaters in Bluefield not yet listed on Cinema Treasures. The Weber brothers' project might have been any of them, or might have been the Colonial. I found one Boxoffice item about a fellow who began his theater career working at the Colonial in 1919, so it must have opened in the teens, not the twenties.
Chris and Edward Weber were well known architects in the region in the early 20th century, and designed Kentucky’s governor’s mansion, among other notable structures.
A.N. and Emil Zeiler opened the Paris Drive-In on June 5, 1950. In the opening announcement in Boxoffice of June 17, the surname Zeiler was misspelled as Seiler. A.N. Zeiler (his first name was Aloysius, though Boxoffice usually refers to him as Ollie) was usually mentioned as the manager for the first few years.
Mr. and Mrs. Emil Zeiler were the operators of the Paris Drive-In when Boxoffice of August 11, 1975, ran an item about the drive-in’s 25th anniversary.
A June 5, 1954, Boxoffice article about the installation of a miniature train at the Paris Drive-In is interesting for providing one of only three references I’ve found to a second drive-in at Paris. It says that Zeiler “…got his first competition….” that year. An August 8, 1953, item datelined Paris says that the K. Lee Williams circuit had bought a site for a 500 car drive-in which would be completed by the next summer. A January 25, 1960, item about the Logan Theatre says that the Williams circuit also operated the Strand and Auto theaters at Paris.
Boxoffice of July 31, 1948, said that C.H. and William Glenn Balch were preparing plans for a drive-in at Bell Gardens for Pacific Drive-Ins.
As the firm of Balch & Balch had been dissolved a few years earlier, and William Glenn Balch had formed a partnership with Louis L. Bryan in 1946, I’m not sure if the inclusion of Clifford Balch in the notice was not just an error by somebody at Boxoffice who didn’t know about the elder Balch’s retirement.
In any case, William Balch had already designed other drive-ins and was almost certainly the lead architect on the Bell Gardens project. Balch & Bryan had several drive-in projects underway in 1948.
The Balch in the firm of Balch, Bryan, Perkins, Hutchason was William Glenn Balch, the considerably younger brother of theater architect Clifford Balch. Following the dissolution of the firm of Balch & Balch, in 1946 Clifford Balch formed a partnership with Louis L. Bryan. Balch & Bryan became Balch, Bryan, Perkins, Hutchason, Architects in 1953, with the addition of partners John Loring Perkins and W.K. Hutchason.
Here is a Boxoffice article about the Star Theatre. It notes that William Glenn Balch had “…designed over 180 southland theatres over the last 25 years….”
A small night photo of the Los Feliz appeared in Boxoffice of June 29, 1935. The caption attributes the design of the theater to architect Clifford Balch.
Boxoffice of July 31, 1948, said that Los Angeles architects Russell & Samaniego were preparing plans for a theater to be built by Griffith Enterprises on Imperial Highway in Inglewood. I’ve been unable to find the opening year for the Imperial, but the theater won an award for its signage from the Wagner Sign Company in 1950.
The partnership of architects George Vernon Russell and Eduardo J. Samaniego was in existence from 1946 to 1950. They designed at least one of the department stores that J.C. Penney was putting up in suburban business districts around Southern California during this period (the one at Van Nuys.) As those J.C. Penney stores all looked much alike, perhaps they designed others as well. I’ve been unable to discover if they designed any theaters other than the Imperial.
Russell was one of the architects of the Sunset Plaza shopping center (1934-1936) on the Sunset Strip, in collaboration with Charles Selkirk, who had been one of the architects of the Alex Theatre in Glendale. George Russell was also the original architect of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas (1945), though he was ousted before the Flamingo was completed, when Bugsy Siegel took over the project from its originator, William Wilkerson.
George Russell’s partner Eduardo Samaniego had an interesting connection to the movies. His older brother, Ramon Samaniego, became an actor during the silent era, adopting the more easily pronounced screen name Ramon Novarro.
Another interesting movie connection involving the Imperial is that the theater was taken over not long after it opened by Phil Isley, whose daughter was actress Jennifer Jones. Isley had cause to regret this attempt to break into the California market, as the Imperial and two other recently built luxury theaters he acquired there, the La Tijera and the California, lost more than a million dollars over a period of three years, according to an article (lower left corner) in Boxoffice of December 20, 1952.
The Imperial had a rather sketchy history, opening and closing several times under different operators. At least it survived as a theater longer than Isley’s La Tijera, which was converted into a bowling alley less than three years after it opened. I’ve been unable to identify the location of the third Isley house mentioned in the Boxoffice article, the California. Does anybody know which California Theatre it was?
Photos of the marquee and auditorium of this splendid little Art Moderne theatre can be seen in this Boxoffice article from December 6, 1941. There is also a ground-floor plan of the Grove and its parent theater, the Redlands, which shows the relationship between the two houses.
The Yale Theatre was indeed located in a former livery stable, and the stable had been built in 1902 by Clem V. Rogers, Will Rogers' father. In 1915, it was converted into a garage, and soon after that into a movie theater, according to this Boxoffice magazine article of August 20, 1938. The drastic Deco/Moderne makeover done in the 1930s was designed by the Dallas architectural firm Corgan & Moore.
The May 5, 1955, issue of Boxoffice has this article about the Studio Theatre/url], which was the Linden Theatre renamed. The article says that the Linden had been closed for nearly five years when it was bought by the Associated circuit in 1955, remodeled, and reopened as the Studio with an art film policy.
A photo of the Carefree Theatre as it originally looked can be seen in Boxoffice, July 29, 1950. The name on the marquee is a bit ambiguous. It might have been the Carefree Theatre or the Carefree Center Theatre.
The building housed several entertainment and convenience facilities, as described in the Boxoffice article, and the operation as a whole was apparently called the Carefree Center. The article calls the theater itself just the Carefree Theatre, though.
Both of the Palm Beach Post articles linked above have vanished. I hope the Boxoffice link works longer.
Boxoffice of January 8, 1949, said that work had begun on a new theater in the Murray Hill district of Jacksonville. The architect was William Marshall. The caption of a photo of the Murray H ill Theatre on this web page also attributes the design to Marshall.
The caption also says the theater now “…operates as an alcohol-free, smoke free, night club featuring live faith based music.”
This is the theater’s web site, which says that the current operation is celebrating its 14th anniversary.
The May 25, 1970, issue of Boxoffice reported that the former Robinhood Theatre was being razed to make way for a small, decorative mall, part of a beautification project in downtown Grand Haven.
A death notice in Boxoffice of November 11, 1950, datelined Grand Haven, says this: “Charles L. Davis, 62, owner and operator of the Airdome and Vaudette, first motion picture houses here, died here recently. After selling his theatres, he managed the Grand and Robin Hood theatres for Mrs. Margaret Vandenberg.”
Mrs. Vanden Berg (as her name was given in most Boxoffice items about her) also had a theater called the Crescent at Grand Haven, opened in 1925 and closed in 1939. A Mrs. Cora Vanden Berg, former owner of the Crescent Theatre, died at Grand Haven in 1944. I don’t know if Cora and Margaret were the same person or were perhaps sisters-in-law.
The Strand was built as a 900-seat house in 1920, according to Boxoffice of April 8, 1968, but its seating capacity was reduced to 500 after the 1960 fire destroyed the balcony.
The Gratiot County Players web site has several historic photos of the Strand, plus one of another movie house, the Alma, which it says was earlier called the Idle Hour Theatre.
A 1917 publication called Michigan Film Review mentions both an Idle Hour Theatre and a Liberty Theatre operating in Alma at that time.
The Lorain-Fulton Theatre was owned by members of the Urbansky family until 1951. John, Harry, and Thomas Urbansky are mentioned frequently in Boxoffice from 1935 through the 1950s.
Thomas Urbansky opened a theater called the Jennings at Cleveland in 1916, according to The Music Trade Review of November 25 that year. In the absence of an address, I’ve been unable to determine if the Jennings is already listed at Cinema Treasures under a later name. It was operating as the Jennings at least as late as 1946, the last time I find it mentioned in Boxoffice.
The Trail made the cover of Boxoffice, October 6, 1951.
The Buccaneer Drive-In opened in 1952. The original owner was Arnulfo Gonzales. The architect, according to Boxoffice of January 24, 1953, was Beverly W. Spillman Sr., of Spillman & Spillman in San Antonio.
Spillman was for a time a member of the advisory board or the Modern Theatre Institute, and though he is frequently mentioned in Boxoffice I’ve only been able to pin down one other theater he designed that was completed, that being the former West Theatre at George West, Texas.
The Quaker was built for the Shea circuit. Shea then already operated a theater called the Union in New Philadelphia. The Union Theatre had been built as the Union Opera House in 1863, according to Boxoffice of July 1, 1939, which reported that the new Shea house was under construction.
However, Boxoffice of June 22, 1940, reported that ground had just been broken for Shea’s new house at New Philadelphia, so unless they built two theaters there in that short space of time (I can’t find any evidence that they did) the original project must have been delayed.
I haven’t found the opening month for the Quaker, but the November 9, 1940, issue of Boxoffice reported that, following the opening of the Quaker, admission prices at the Union Theatre had been reduced.
Shea operated both the Quaker and the Union into the 1950s. The last mention of the Union I’ve found is in Boxoffice of October 30, 1954. I don’t know what became of the building after that.
The February 28, 1977, issue of Boxoffice reported that Mr. and Mrs. James G. Barton had bought the Plaza Theatre and had “…plans to split the 1,100-seat theatre from front to back into two 30-foot auditoriums within the next several months.”
The Uptown at Kirkland Lake was one of the theaters at which General Theatre Supply of Toronto had recently installed a screen, according to an item in Boxoffice of July 1, 1939. It probably opened that year.
There was also a Capitol Theatre in Kirkland Lake, located on Prospect Avenue, and a Strand Theatre, located on Government Road. Both were operating during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Here is a picture of the Capitol not long after it opened, from Boxoffice of September 10, 1938. A March 12, 1938, Boxoffice item had said that the new theater being built at Larder Lake was one of two projects designed by Toronto architect Herbert G. Duerr. The other project was an extensive remodeling of the Strand Theatre at Kirkland Lake.
The September 23, 1950, issue of Boxoffice mentioned the Brownie Theatre. It said that Bob Dean had taken over management of the Manring and Brownie theater from Vic Wintle.
A March 22, 1941, item says “Phoenix Amusement Company, which has long been operating Schine’s Manring and Brownie theatres here under lease arrangements, has acquired the buildings housing the theatres from Charles Otto Brown.”
Phoenix was probably the local operating company set up by Schine.
My guess would be that C.O. Brown had named the Brownie Theatre after himself. The Middlesboro Cemetery has Brown, Charles Otto listed, 02/06/1889-10/21/1942. Assuming it’s the same Charles Otto Brown, given his age there’s no telling how long he was in the theater business at Middlesboro. The Brownie might have been a very old theater.
This is probably nothing to do with the Brownie, but at the far left in this photo of Middlesboro, which looks to be from the early 1960s, could that be a fragment of a theater marquee, or is it just a rather theatrical shop marquee?
I’ve found a reference to the Manring Theatre in a Stanford, Kentucky, newspaper called The Interior Journal, issue of December 13, 1907. The April 21, 1905, issue of the same paper carried a single line in a section of news from Middlesboro saying “J. L. Manring buys the opera house and library building.”
A 2005 book called “Coal and Culture: Opera Houses in Appalachia” contains a reference to a “New Manring Theatre” in 1922, and in a list headed “Opera Houses Studied” has this:
“Middlesboro(ough) Middlesborough (aka Princess/Manring) Theatre 1889”
I’ve been unable to discover if the New Manring Theatre in the 1922 reference was the same building as the earlier Princess/Manring Theatre, apparently built in 1889. The Princess Theatre is listed in Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide for 1904, the only Middlesboro house listed.
Here’s a link to a few paragraphs about J.L. Manring in a 1912 book digitized at Google Books. It mentions the Manring Theatre but doesn’t give any details about it. It reveals that Manring converted the library building he’d bought into a headquarters for the Manring Coal Exchange, one of his many enterprises.
Here is an undated photo of the Manring Theatre with the name “Manring” in stone above the entrance. It’s only two floors, unlike the Manring in later photos. Either the New Manring was a different building or the original building was altered and a third floor was added to it.
Boxoffice of October 11, 1947, said that O.G. Roaden expected to have his new Park Theatre in Middlesboro open around Thanksgiving. I can’t find any announcements of the opening, but the Park is mentioned again in the May 29, 1948, Boxoffice which said that it had been equipped by the National Theatre Supply company.
The February 7, 1953,issue of Boxoffice said that the Park Theatre had been taken over by Price Coomer of Harlan, Kentucky. On March 4, 1956, Boxoffice announced that Price Coomer’s Park Theatre was down to four-day operation.
After that I don’t find the Park mentioned again until February 24, 1975, when it is referred to as the J.C. Park Theatre (for the only time) in an item that says the house was now being booked by Interstate Theatre Services rather than Tri-State.
From the photo of the former Hartford Theatre, the building is recognizable as the house designed by architect Erwin G. Fredrick for Frank Walters and M.H. Scheidler, operators of the Orpheum and Jefferson theaters in Hartford City.
Mr. Fredrick’s rendering of the proposed theater was displayed in the “Just Off the Boards” feature of Boxoffice, August 17, 1946.