Looks like the name of this theater became detached over the years. The awning over the building entrance now reads “Le Rose” but I think the name was meant to be LeRose, without the gap. The name on the marquee in the old photos has no letter-sized gap in the name, though the cursive script of the two parts is not directly connected. The name of the house usually appears as LeRose in Boxoffice Magazine, and an Internet search reveals that people with the surname LeRose usually use the gap-less form.
The June 5, 1937, issue of Boxoffice ran an item datelined Jeffersonville which said: “John F. Gilooly has completely remodeled the LeRose Theatre here, which has been closed since the floods, and has reopened the house. Complete reseating was included in the job.” Gilooly was then the manager for Switlow Amusements, operator of both theaters in Jeffersonville.
Several early photos and a couple of drawings of the Capitol Theatre are on display at the web site of the Flaxman Library of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Use the name Capitol Theatre in the Keyword search box.
An interesting item form the October 7, 1974, issue of Boxoffice:
“Mr. and Mrs. Neil Haugen are interested in obtaining any information, pictures, or material anyone might have on the Garden Theatre, Frankfort. The house opened in 1923 as the Victoria Theatre. The Haugens wish to compile a history of the theatre and desire more background material than they presently have.”
The Garden Theatre’s web site has a history pagewhich also gives 1923 as the opening date, but doesn’t mention the aka. In fact, most of the history on the history page dates from 2008.
The earliest mention of the Garden I’ve found in Boxoffice is in the June 10, 1939, issue which said the Mrs. Custer C. Carland was remodeling the house. A September 14, 1940, item said that the Garden had been acquired by the Ashmun Theatres circuit.
The Garden got another remodeling in 1947, reported in the May 17 issue of Boxoffice. There were to be 700 new seats, a new marquee, a porcelain sign, new flooring and carpeting, new concessions stand, redecorating, and some structural alterations including moving the box office.
The August 3, 1940, issue of Boxoffice mentions that “…the new Strand at Roscommon, opened by Bruce Freeman….” had joined the Mutual Theatres booking combine. As is often the case with brief Boxoffice items, you can’t tell for sure if Mr. Freeman had built a new theater or simply reopened and perhaps renamed an existing house.
The theater was called the Strand at least as late as October, 1974, per various mentions in Boxoffice. The first instance of the name Roscommon Cinema I’ve found is from July, 1996.
Boxoffice of May 1, 1948, had an item headlined “Start Work in Santa Fe To Replace Old Paris” which said the site of the Paris was being cleared for construction of a new 700-seat theater. The Paris, the item said, had been “…wrecked by fire three years ago….” The replacemnt house, the El Paseo Theatre, was open by late 1948 or early 1949.
As the Paris was on the same site as the later El Paseo Theatre, it probably had the same address of 123 W. San Francisco Street.
The May 1, 1948, issue of Boxoffice said that the site of the old Paris Theatre, destroyed by fire three years earlier, was being cleared for construction of a new 700-seat theater. This was entirely new construction, not a remodeled and renamed Paris Theatre.
I haven’t found an opening date for the El Paseo, but the January 15, 1949, issue of Boxoffice said that free holiday morning matinees had been presented at theaters in Santa Fe, and the El Paseo was listed among them, so it must have been open by late 1948.
The July 14, 1975, issue of Boxoffice reported that the El Paseo had been reopened as the New Mexico 2000 Theatre, named for a “…25-minute multimedia journey through 2000 years of New Mexico history….” which had begun an open-ended run at the renovated house after premiering on July 3. The production was the brainchild of David E. Wynne, and it might have been related to Wynne’s documentary, “New Mexico, The Enchanted Land,” released the same year. I don’t know how long the multimedia event ran.
An illustrated article about the Fox Theatre in Trona was published in Boxoffice, April 2, 1955. The new house had 648 seats and featured a curved screen 19x45 feet. No architect is named, but it was most likely designed by whoever the Fox West Coast circuit’s in-house architect was in 1954 (Carl Moeller, perhaps?)
Photos with the article show some art moderne touches in the lobby and the wall murals in the auditorium, but the auditorium ceiling showed exposed steel beams and the walls were of exposed concrete block. The facade was basic 1950s modern. The booth was equipped for CinemaScope, VistaVision, Magna, Todd-AO, and large screen television projection.
The remodeling of the Granada Theatre and its reopening as the Downtown Theatre was the subject of an article in Boxoffice Magazine, April 2, 1955. The limited-budget project, done in-house by the Famous Players circuit, included the removal of much of the Granada’s old decoration, but (unfortunately) not the columns supporting the ancient balcony. A number of the Downtown’s 853 new seats must have been virtually unusable due to these columns interfering with their view of the new CinemaScope screen.
Loews Orpheum VII opened on November 22, 1991. The seven auditoriums had from 225 to 450 seats, with a total seating capacity of 2,090, slightly smaller than the Loews Orpheum Twin which had previously stood on the site. The new theater was designed by Manhattan architectural firm Frank Williams and Associates as part of the commercial-residential development called The Gotham.
The May, 1992, issue of Boxoffice had an article about the Loews Orpheum VII. There were no photos, unfortunately.
The Dorsey was last known as the Johnstown Cinema, but I don’t know how long it operated under that name.
Boxoffice of May 15, 1972, reported that Charles Evans and Ed Cheatwood were updating the Dorsey Theatre and would reopen sometime in June. They had not yet decided whether or not to keep the old name.
The June 19, 1972, issue of Boxoffice said that the Johnstown Theatre at Johnstown, Ohio, had been opened Friday, June 2, after having been closed for a decade.
The February 18, 1974, issue of Boxoffice reported the sale of the Johnstown Cinema to Wes Matheny. The item was repeated in the March 4 issue, and after that I can’t find the theater mentioned ever again.
As the owner’s name was Benjamin Pitts, there should not be an apostrophe in the aka above.
The Culpeper house was one of several mentioned in an article about expansion of Benjamin Pitts Enterprises which appeared in Boxoffice of August 14, 1937. The Pitts Theatre in Emporia had recently opened, the Victoria at Fredericksburg was due to open by Labor Day, and the East End Theatre in Richmond was under construction. The as-yet-unnamed house at Culpeper was in the planning stage. I’ve been unable to find anything about the opening in Boxoffice, but it most likely happened in 1938.
R/C Theatres renovated the Pitts and changed the name to State Theatre in 1970, according to Boxoffice of September 21 that year.
An article about the Monica I & II was published in Boxoffice of September 21, 1970. There were four interior photos. The Monica I originally seated 737, and the Monica II seated 471. The architect for the project was Stanley Borbals.
I thought I posted this comment last night, but I must have only hit “Preview” and forgotten it. Luckily I have a copy.
Photos of the new Hillside Theatre appeared in Boxoffice Magazine, January 7, 1963. The Hillside was designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm Liebenberg, Kaplan, Glotter, & Associates.
Boxoffice of February 22, 1947, said that the Lynn had been gutted by fire on January 13. Rebuilding was about to get underway. The house was being operated by East Texas Theatres.
The Lynn and the Paramount were not the same theater. An August 3, 1946, Boxoffice item said that East Texas Theatres had bought a lot in the 400 block of Washington where they intended to build a new theater when materials became available. The item said “The new theatre will be located between the Lynn and Paramount theatres, which are owned and operated by East Texas Theatres.”
Could someone who has seen this theater take a look at the picture on the cover of Boxoffice Magazine for January 7, 1963, and tell me if the 1962 Maurice Sornik-designed house for Prudential Theatres it depicts is the Bay Shore Cinema in New York? The caption says that it is in Bay Shore, New Jersey, but I’ve been unable to find any confirmation that the New Jersey town ever had a theater called the Cinema. I think the caption writer might have made a mistake.
The postcard view Lost Memory linked to on Feb 14, 2008, is no longer at the same location, and the link now fetches another version of the same postcard ken mc linked to in the subsequent comment. The card showing the Mirror Theatre next door to the Capitol is now here.
The Mirror could not have been the Telenews unless the same auditorium was reached through two different street-front buildings at different times. If it wasn’t the same auditorium, with the entrance shifted to the adjacent building when the Telenews was opened, then the Mirror had to have been an entirely different theater. It must have had a different address, too. Also, if the date Moody’s Collectibles gives for the postcard I just linked to is correct (1931) then the name Mirror was given to the house before 1933.
As for the Pantages time-line currently given in the intro, Motion Picture Times of October 6, 1928, said that the Pantages Theatre in Dallas was being remodeled and was slated to reopen as the Ritz on October 16. Unless the new operators, Robb and Rowley, changed their minds about renaming the theatre at that time, the city directory cited by Jack Coursey in the first comment above kept the name Pantages way too long.
The Oklahoma City column of Boxoffice, September 17, 1938, says this: “…a Negro house, the Jewel, 400 seater at Ardmore, being opened by P. H. James who also operates the new Jewel, Negro house, here….” That’s the earliest mention of James or the Jewel I’ve found in Boxoffice.
A brief notice of the death of P. H. James appeared in the Oklahoma City column of Boxoffice, November 15, 1965: “P. H. James, former operator of the Jewell Theatres here and in Ardmore, died in a nursing home. He also had owned and operated the Jay-Kola Bottling Co. Survivors include the wife, two daughters, two sons, a brother and one sister.”
The April 13, 1940, issue of Boxoffice said that the new Campus Theatre in College Station was expected to open in about fifteen days. It was built by Ben Ferguson and Bill Underwood, but by 1961 it was being operated by the Schulmans, operators of the theaters in nearby Bryan, Texas.
The December 2, 1939, issue of Boxoffice reported that the rebuilt Queen Theatre had opened the previous Tuesday. It was being operated by Mrs. Morris Schulman, who also operated the Palace and Dixie Theatres at Bryan. She had bought the Queen, then dark, in 1938, according to Boxoffice of October 1 that year.
An early report on plans for this theater in Boxoffice of September 3, 1973, said that it was to be a twin with each auditorium having 500 seats. The twins were to be called the Duke and the Duchess. The theater was to be operated by the Sameric Theatre Corporation of Philadelphia.
By late 1974 Boxoffice was reporting that construction on the project had not yet begun due to disputes with the city over parking requirements. The house finally opened as the Eric Twin in June, 1975, according to a later Boxoffice item.
The September 18, 1978, issue of Boxoffice said that two additional screens would be added to the Eric Easton Twin. The original auditoriums, it said, seated 665 and 352, and the new auditoriums would seat 364 and 378. The project was to be completed before Christmas that year, but an August, 1983, Boxoffice item about the planned expansion of the house to six screens said the the expansion to four screens had been completed in June, 1980.
The 1983 item said that the fifth and sixth auditoriums of the Eric 6 would have 350 and 434 seats respectively. This would have brought the total seating capacity to 2,532. I haven’t found the exact opening date for the last two screens, or confirmation of their seating capacity, but the city allowed the fifth and sixth screens to operate for thirty days in October, 1983, according to that month’s issue of Boxoffice. A final permit to operate would be contingent on the developers completing work on sidewalks, parking facilities, and some interior work on the complex.
The last mention I’ve found of the Easton Eric Six in Boxoffice was a report in September, 1988, about a taxicab that had jumped the curb and crashed into the lobby. I haven’t found either the Marquis or the Cinema Paradiso mentioned in Boxoffice at all.
This theater was opened as the Cinema I and Cinema II in 1968 by Alliance Amusements, and house the office of the circuit’s city manager. It was described in Boxoffice’s issue of August 26, not long after the opening. These were fairly luxurious theaters, featuring continental seating arrangements in rows 40 inches wide, 20x40-foot screens, and 70mm capability in the 854-seat Cinema I. Cinema II had 610 seats. Alliance then operated more than 80 theaters and five CATV systems in four states.
The August 18, 1969, issue of Boxoffice referred to the house as the Markland Twin Cinemas I & II, and said they were operated by the Cinecom Theatres Midwest States, Inc. division.
I’ve been unable to find anything about this theater between then and 1991, when the November issue of Boxoffice said that construction had begun to add two screens at the Markland 3 in Kokomo, and that the house would be renamed the Markland 5.
Photos of the Belcourt Playhouse are here in the July 8, 1963, issue of Boxoffice. The theater had recently been taken over and remodeled by Rockwood Amusement Company, and was operated as an art house. Seating had been reduced from 550 to 344. The article says the house had also been known as the Children’s Theatre after being called the Community Playhouse.
Rockwood Amusement must have operated the Belcourt Playhouse for only a year or so, as by August, 1964, Boxoffice was calling it the Belcourt Cinema and said it was being operated by the Nashville Theatre Company. In 1968 it was part of Fred Massey’s Masco circuit, and the August 26 issue of Boxoffice carried the announcement of Masco’s intention to add a second auditorium to the house. The January 20, 1969, issue listed the Belcourt Cinema II as being under construction. I’ve been unable to find an opening date.
Here’s a ca1910 photo of the LaSalle Theatre from the Art Institute of Chicago web site.
This item from the Art Institute of Chicago might depict the Joy Theatre soon after its construction.
Looks like the name of this theater became detached over the years. The awning over the building entrance now reads “Le Rose” but I think the name was meant to be LeRose, without the gap. The name on the marquee in the old photos has no letter-sized gap in the name, though the cursive script of the two parts is not directly connected. The name of the house usually appears as LeRose in Boxoffice Magazine, and an Internet search reveals that people with the surname LeRose usually use the gap-less form.
Jerry J. Noaks' book, Jeffersonville Indiana, also uses the form LeRose.
The June 5, 1937, issue of Boxoffice ran an item datelined Jeffersonville which said: “John F. Gilooly has completely remodeled the LeRose Theatre here, which has been closed since the floods, and has reopened the house. Complete reseating was included in the job.” Gilooly was then the manager for Switlow Amusements, operator of both theaters in Jeffersonville.
Several early photos and a couple of drawings of the Capitol Theatre are on display at the web site of the Flaxman Library of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Use the name Capitol Theatre in the Keyword search box.
An interesting item form the October 7, 1974, issue of Boxoffice:
The Garden Theatre’s web site has a history pagewhich also gives 1923 as the opening date, but doesn’t mention the aka. In fact, most of the history on the history page dates from 2008.The earliest mention of the Garden I’ve found in Boxoffice is in the June 10, 1939, issue which said the Mrs. Custer C. Carland was remodeling the house. A September 14, 1940, item said that the Garden had been acquired by the Ashmun Theatres circuit.
The Garden got another remodeling in 1947, reported in the May 17 issue of Boxoffice. There were to be 700 new seats, a new marquee, a porcelain sign, new flooring and carpeting, new concessions stand, redecorating, and some structural alterations including moving the box office.
The August 3, 1940, issue of Boxoffice mentions that “…the new Strand at Roscommon, opened by Bruce Freeman….” had joined the Mutual Theatres booking combine. As is often the case with brief Boxoffice items, you can’t tell for sure if Mr. Freeman had built a new theater or simply reopened and perhaps renamed an existing house.
The theater was called the Strand at least as late as October, 1974, per various mentions in Boxoffice. The first instance of the name Roscommon Cinema I’ve found is from July, 1996.
Boxoffice of May 1, 1948, had an item headlined “Start Work in Santa Fe To Replace Old Paris” which said the site of the Paris was being cleared for construction of a new 700-seat theater. The Paris, the item said, had been “…wrecked by fire three years ago….” The replacemnt house, the El Paseo Theatre, was open by late 1948 or early 1949.
As the Paris was on the same site as the later El Paseo Theatre, it probably had the same address of 123 W. San Francisco Street.
The May 1, 1948, issue of Boxoffice said that the site of the old Paris Theatre, destroyed by fire three years earlier, was being cleared for construction of a new 700-seat theater. This was entirely new construction, not a remodeled and renamed Paris Theatre.
I haven’t found an opening date for the El Paseo, but the January 15, 1949, issue of Boxoffice said that free holiday morning matinees had been presented at theaters in Santa Fe, and the El Paseo was listed among them, so it must have been open by late 1948.
A photo of the El Paseo appeared in Boxoffice of March 25, 1950.
The July 14, 1975, issue of Boxoffice reported that the El Paseo had been reopened as the New Mexico 2000 Theatre, named for a “…25-minute multimedia journey through 2000 years of New Mexico history….” which had begun an open-ended run at the renovated house after premiering on July 3. The production was the brainchild of David E. Wynne, and it might have been related to Wynne’s documentary, “New Mexico, The Enchanted Land,” released the same year. I don’t know how long the multimedia event ran.
An illustrated article about the Fox Theatre in Trona was published in Boxoffice, April 2, 1955. The new house had 648 seats and featured a curved screen 19x45 feet. No architect is named, but it was most likely designed by whoever the Fox West Coast circuit’s in-house architect was in 1954 (Carl Moeller, perhaps?)
Photos with the article show some art moderne touches in the lobby and the wall murals in the auditorium, but the auditorium ceiling showed exposed steel beams and the walls were of exposed concrete block. The facade was basic 1950s modern. The booth was equipped for CinemaScope, VistaVision, Magna, Todd-AO, and large screen television projection.
Link to article.
The remodeling of the Granada Theatre and its reopening as the Downtown Theatre was the subject of an article in Boxoffice Magazine, April 2, 1955. The limited-budget project, done in-house by the Famous Players circuit, included the removal of much of the Granada’s old decoration, but (unfortunately) not the columns supporting the ancient balcony. A number of the Downtown’s 853 new seats must have been virtually unusable due to these columns interfering with their view of the new CinemaScope screen.
A few before-and-after photos illustrated the Boxoffice article.
Forgot to link to the Boxoffice article.
Loews Orpheum VII opened on November 22, 1991. The seven auditoriums had from 225 to 450 seats, with a total seating capacity of 2,090, slightly smaller than the Loews Orpheum Twin which had previously stood on the site. The new theater was designed by Manhattan architectural firm Frank Williams and Associates as part of the commercial-residential development called The Gotham.
The May, 1992, issue of Boxoffice had an article about the Loews Orpheum VII. There were no photos, unfortunately.
The Dorsey was last known as the Johnstown Cinema, but I don’t know how long it operated under that name.
Boxoffice of May 15, 1972, reported that Charles Evans and Ed Cheatwood were updating the Dorsey Theatre and would reopen sometime in June. They had not yet decided whether or not to keep the old name.
The June 19, 1972, issue of Boxoffice said that the Johnstown Theatre at Johnstown, Ohio, had been opened Friday, June 2, after having been closed for a decade.
The February 18, 1974, issue of Boxoffice reported the sale of the Johnstown Cinema to Wes Matheny. The item was repeated in the March 4 issue, and after that I can’t find the theater mentioned ever again.
As the owner’s name was Benjamin Pitts, there should not be an apostrophe in the aka above.
The Culpeper house was one of several mentioned in an article about expansion of Benjamin Pitts Enterprises which appeared in Boxoffice of August 14, 1937. The Pitts Theatre in Emporia had recently opened, the Victoria at Fredericksburg was due to open by Labor Day, and the East End Theatre in Richmond was under construction. The as-yet-unnamed house at Culpeper was in the planning stage. I’ve been unable to find anything about the opening in Boxoffice, but it most likely happened in 1938.
R/C Theatres renovated the Pitts and changed the name to State Theatre in 1970, according to Boxoffice of September 21 that year.
An article about the Monica I & II was published in Boxoffice of September 21, 1970. There were four interior photos. The Monica I originally seated 737, and the Monica II seated 471. The architect for the project was Stanley Borbals.
I thought I posted this comment last night, but I must have only hit “Preview” and forgotten it. Luckily I have a copy.
Photos of the new Hillside Theatre appeared in Boxoffice Magazine, January 7, 1963. The Hillside was designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm Liebenberg, Kaplan, Glotter, & Associates.
Boxoffice of February 22, 1947, said that the Lynn had been gutted by fire on January 13. Rebuilding was about to get underway. The house was being operated by East Texas Theatres.
The Lynn and the Paramount were not the same theater. An August 3, 1946, Boxoffice item said that East Texas Theatres had bought a lot in the 400 block of Washington where they intended to build a new theater when materials became available. The item said “The new theatre will be located between the Lynn and Paramount theatres, which are owned and operated by East Texas Theatres.”
Could someone who has seen this theater take a look at the picture on the cover of Boxoffice Magazine for January 7, 1963, and tell me if the 1962 Maurice Sornik-designed house for Prudential Theatres it depicts is the Bay Shore Cinema in New York? The caption says that it is in Bay Shore, New Jersey, but I’ve been unable to find any confirmation that the New Jersey town ever had a theater called the Cinema. I think the caption writer might have made a mistake.
The postcard view Lost Memory linked to on Feb 14, 2008, is no longer at the same location, and the link now fetches another version of the same postcard ken mc linked to in the subsequent comment. The card showing the Mirror Theatre next door to the Capitol is now here.
The Mirror could not have been the Telenews unless the same auditorium was reached through two different street-front buildings at different times. If it wasn’t the same auditorium, with the entrance shifted to the adjacent building when the Telenews was opened, then the Mirror had to have been an entirely different theater. It must have had a different address, too. Also, if the date Moody’s Collectibles gives for the postcard I just linked to is correct (1931) then the name Mirror was given to the house before 1933.
As for the Pantages time-line currently given in the intro, Motion Picture Times of October 6, 1928, said that the Pantages Theatre in Dallas was being remodeled and was slated to reopen as the Ritz on October 16. Unless the new operators, Robb and Rowley, changed their minds about renaming the theatre at that time, the city directory cited by Jack Coursey in the first comment above kept the name Pantages way too long.
The Oklahoma City column of Boxoffice, September 17, 1938, says this: “…a Negro house, the Jewel, 400 seater at Ardmore, being opened by P. H. James who also operates the new Jewel, Negro house, here….” That’s the earliest mention of James or the Jewel I’ve found in Boxoffice.
A brief notice of the death of P. H. James appeared in the Oklahoma City column of Boxoffice, November 15, 1965: “P. H. James, former operator of the Jewell Theatres here and in Ardmore, died in a nursing home. He also had owned and operated the Jay-Kola Bottling Co. Survivors include the wife, two daughters, two sons, a brother and one sister.”
The April 13, 1940, issue of Boxoffice said that the new Campus Theatre in College Station was expected to open in about fifteen days. It was built by Ben Ferguson and Bill Underwood, but by 1961 it was being operated by the Schulmans, operators of the theaters in nearby Bryan, Texas.
The December 2, 1939, issue of Boxoffice reported that the rebuilt Queen Theatre had opened the previous Tuesday. It was being operated by Mrs. Morris Schulman, who also operated the Palace and Dixie Theatres at Bryan. She had bought the Queen, then dark, in 1938, according to Boxoffice of October 1 that year.
An early report on plans for this theater in Boxoffice of September 3, 1973, said that it was to be a twin with each auditorium having 500 seats. The twins were to be called the Duke and the Duchess. The theater was to be operated by the Sameric Theatre Corporation of Philadelphia.
By late 1974 Boxoffice was reporting that construction on the project had not yet begun due to disputes with the city over parking requirements. The house finally opened as the Eric Twin in June, 1975, according to a later Boxoffice item.
The September 18, 1978, issue of Boxoffice said that two additional screens would be added to the Eric Easton Twin. The original auditoriums, it said, seated 665 and 352, and the new auditoriums would seat 364 and 378. The project was to be completed before Christmas that year, but an August, 1983, Boxoffice item about the planned expansion of the house to six screens said the the expansion to four screens had been completed in June, 1980.
The 1983 item said that the fifth and sixth auditoriums of the Eric 6 would have 350 and 434 seats respectively. This would have brought the total seating capacity to 2,532. I haven’t found the exact opening date for the last two screens, or confirmation of their seating capacity, but the city allowed the fifth and sixth screens to operate for thirty days in October, 1983, according to that month’s issue of Boxoffice. A final permit to operate would be contingent on the developers completing work on sidewalks, parking facilities, and some interior work on the complex.
The last mention I’ve found of the Easton Eric Six in Boxoffice was a report in September, 1988, about a taxicab that had jumped the curb and crashed into the lobby. I haven’t found either the Marquis or the Cinema Paradiso mentioned in Boxoffice at all.
This theater was opened as the Cinema I and Cinema II in 1968 by Alliance Amusements, and house the office of the circuit’s city manager. It was described in Boxoffice’s issue of August 26, not long after the opening. These were fairly luxurious theaters, featuring continental seating arrangements in rows 40 inches wide, 20x40-foot screens, and 70mm capability in the 854-seat Cinema I. Cinema II had 610 seats. Alliance then operated more than 80 theaters and five CATV systems in four states.
The August 18, 1969, issue of Boxoffice referred to the house as the Markland Twin Cinemas I & II, and said they were operated by the Cinecom Theatres Midwest States, Inc. division.
I’ve been unable to find anything about this theater between then and 1991, when the November issue of Boxoffice said that construction had begun to add two screens at the Markland 3 in Kokomo, and that the house would be renamed the Markland 5.
Photos of the Belcourt Playhouse are here in the July 8, 1963, issue of Boxoffice. The theater had recently been taken over and remodeled by Rockwood Amusement Company, and was operated as an art house. Seating had been reduced from 550 to 344. The article says the house had also been known as the Children’s Theatre after being called the Community Playhouse.
Rockwood Amusement must have operated the Belcourt Playhouse for only a year or so, as by August, 1964, Boxoffice was calling it the Belcourt Cinema and said it was being operated by the Nashville Theatre Company. In 1968 it was part of Fred Massey’s Masco circuit, and the August 26 issue of Boxoffice carried the announcement of Masco’s intention to add a second auditorium to the house. The January 20, 1969, issue listed the Belcourt Cinema II as being under construction. I’ve been unable to find an opening date.