The NRHP registration form for the Downtown Bessemer Historic District says that the State Theatre closed in 1960 and the building was completely remodeled for a chain jewelry store in 1964. It also mistakenly says that the building housed “…the Grand (later the State) Theatre for many years….” The building down the block that actually housed the Grand is long gone.
Both the Grand and the State were in operation in 1945 when their operating company, Bessemer Theatres Inc., filed a lawsuit against the city over its license fees for the theaters. The Alabama Supreme Court’s final decision, handed down in 1955, favored the city.
The Rialto listed in FDY’s in the 1940s and 1950s is either a mistake or was at a different location. This photo of the Cameo looks to have been taken around 1940 (judging from the cars, as the titles on the Cameo marquee aren’t clear enough for my eyes) and the Woolworth store had already taken over the space formerly occupied by the Rialto and its neighbor to the south. A page from the Anniston Photo Archives says that the Woolworth store moved to this location ca.1939, so the Rialto had to have been gone by then.
Two theaters are conflated on this page. The confusion arises from an address shift. Current 1026 Noble, the Cameo’s building, is one door north of the earlier 1026 Noble, where the Theatorium/Theato/Rialto was located. The modern address of the Theato would be 1024 Noble. The Cameo was apparently a new house opened in former retail space in 1939 and had no akas.
A photo of the Theato can be seen on this Facebook page from the Anniston Photo Archives. The original name was Theatorium, which is how it was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. It had been renamed Theato by March, 1919. The text on the photo page says the Theato closed in the early 1930s and reopened as the Rialto in 1933 (a comment by 50sSNIPES on our Anniston Roxy page says the Rialto opened on Christmas Day, 1933.) I don’t have access to FDYs at the moment, but I believe that the Rialto had closed by the time the Cameo was opened next door in 1939.
The headline of a brief item datelined Franklin, Ohio in the May 18, 1970 issue of Boxoffice reads “Police Raid Franklin Cinema.” The story says that the 18 year old manager (unnamed) of the house had been arrested for being in possession of an obscene movie. About 55 people had been in the theater at the time of the arrest, watching the 1969 Great Empire Films release “The Calico Queen” (aka The Hanging of Jake Ellis.“) Hint: the movie was not about a feline mother.
The cinema had recently been remodeled by a new owner, Pete Gall, who, true to his surname, told Boxoffice the house would be reopened the next weekend. I have not discovered how long the citizens of Franklin and vicinity were treated to such titillating fare, but hey, it was the seventies, so maybe quite a while.
A photo of the Strand has surfaced, and it was showing the 1916 film “The Crisis.” In the 1930s, the building was remodeled for use as a retail store by the S. S. Kresge Company, predecessor of Kmart stores. It was likely that this conversion is what saved the building from the wrecking ball during the period when most of downtown Steubenville’s theaters were being demolished. Kresge’s store is long gone now, but the building is still standing, occupied by a second-hand appliance shop. The correct address is 438 Market Street.
This May 22, 2024 article is the most recent report I’ve found on the progress of the Grand Theatre’s renovation. The lobby has been restored, and the Wurlitzer organ was lately recommissioned, but restoration or replacement of water-damaged plaster in the Auditorium is still underway. A couple of photos show much of the auditorium still in very rough condition. No target date for completion of the project is given, but I suspect it will be quite some time.
I think I worded my previous comment badly, leading to misunderstandings. The theater added above the market hall (or maybe in a new municipal building that replaced the market hall completely) in 1882 was a rival to Garrett’s Hall, not a new location for it. The online sources for information about theaters in Steubenville are numerous but scattered, contradictory, and often puzzling, but I believe the market hall theater operated as the City Opera House for a few years, and then maybe under another name I haven’t tracked down, and then finally became the Victoria Theatre. It was demolished in the late 1920s, but I don’t know when it closed. I’ve found references to it running Keith vaudeville around 1925, and it usually ran four or five acts, which suggest it was a combination house that also ran movies. It was at 312 Market Street.
Garrett’s Hall was simply renamed Garrett’s Opera House after the new municipally-owned Opera House opened, and remained in the building that dated back to 1829-1830 as Washington Hall and then Kilgore’s Hall and was rebuilt and renamed Garrett’s Hall in 1869-1870. It was renamed Rex Theatre prior to being rebuilt as a ground floor house in 1916. I’m not positive that this venerable structure was the same house that reopened under the Rex name in the 1930s, but it could have been.
A third large house, the 800 seat Theatre Comique, operated in the late 19th century, but it burned in January, 1899, and I’ve found no indication that it was ever rebuilt.
The first year the Rexy is listed in the FDY is 1930, but the seating capacity isn’t given until the 1933 edition. There is actually a Rex Theatre listed in 1929, but again with no seating capacity. It might be that the house opened in (probably) 1928 as the Rex, or FDY might have been thrown by the unusual name Rexy and didn’t correct it until the 1931 edition. Another likely mistake is the 1934-only appearance of a 100-seat house called the Roxy.
Another possibility is that the Rexy started out at a different location, and then moved into the Family Theatre’s building, possibly in 1932. The Family is listed in the 1927 and 1929 FDYs, the capacity given only in 1929, when it had 300 seats, then vanishes until 1931 when it reappears listed with 498 seats but still a silent house. It is listed again in 1932, still not wired for sound, and also listed as closed. This was its final appearance. The Rexy was listed in both of those years, and was wired, but as I said no seating capacity given. In 1933 the Rexy is listed with a capacity for the first time, that being 448 seats.
The July 13, 1939 issue of Film Daily mentions Glenn Floyd, whose name (minus one surplus n) appears in the 1915 ad for the Family Theatre recently uploaded by robboehm. The item says: “Pittsburgh—Oaks Floyd, brother and partner of Glenn Floyd who operates theaters in Follansbee, W. Va., and Monaca, died of a heart attack.” Glen Floyd is also mentioned in the November 10, 1948 issue of The Exhibitor as co-owner of both theaters in Follansbee. Mr. Floyd’s long tenure in Follansbee, and his early connection to the Family Theatre, does, I think, make it more likely that the Rexy moved into the Family Theatre’s former location in 1932.
The May 20, 1916 issue ofMoving Picture World had news about the Rex: “The Rex, which recently fell under the ban of the inspectors of the Ohio Industrial Commission, as it was on the second floor, is being extensively remodeled so as to come up to all requirements.”
The fact that the Rex was an upstairs theater reflects its very long history. In 1869, local banker and merchant Horatio Gates Garrett, disappointed that a major touring opera company had skipped over Steubenville because its largest theater lacked adequate stage facilities, bought that theater, then called Kilgore Hall, and rebuilt it as a modern house which he named Garrett’s Hall. The sources are unclear, but Kilgore Hall might have dated to 1829 and opened as Washington Hall.
In 1882, Steubenville had another upstairs opera house built atop the town’s market hall, and after this Garrett’s Hall was renamed Garrett’s Opera House. For a while it was called Gray & Garrett’s Hall, but I haven’t found in which years. By the early 1910s it had become the Rex Theatre. It was one of nine theaters listed at Steubenville in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Rats. I confused the Bradford and Brantford Theatoriums. The one in Canada had the explosion, and was replaced by a house called the Gem. The Pennsylvania Theatorium just got sold to new owners in 1909.
As for the Gem noted in the Bradford Landmarks newsletter, that publication cites no sources, so there’s no way to check them. I’ve found no other text references to a Gem Theatre in Bradford, but the Landmark Society’s web site has a photo collection, and this undated early photo of South Avenue features the Bradford/Shea’s Theatre. The writing is very difficult to make out, but it appears to me that the small building just this side of the Bradford has a sign that could read “Gem Novelties.” I wonder if that might have been a short-lived nickelodeon?
The newsletter article doesn’t mention the People’s Opera House, but does list a house on Chambers Street (no number) called the Theater Comique, which ran from 1877 until burning in 1880. The only other mention of Chambers Street is the Wagner Opera House, which it lists at Main and Chambers from 1878 to 1903. In any case, it’s clear that the newsletter list is, unfortunately, not entirely reliable.
There is a 1910 photo of the Peerless Theatre’s entrance on this WorthPoint listing, but it won’t enlarge enough to be clear if it were uploaded here. It’s a Real Photo post card, so another copy might turn up on another auction site someday. The accompanying text gives the operating years as 1907 to 1913, contradicting the Landmark Society’s newsletter dates of 1907-1917.
A list of Bradford’s early theaters in a newsletter from the Bradford Landmark Society (PDF here) gives the following names for the house at 11 Main Street: The Star Continuous Show (1906-1912); The Star (1912-1919); The Strand (1919-1924.) It was listed as the Star Theatre in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Theatorium, 29 Main St., is still listed at Bradford in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. However, a newsletter from the Bradford Landmark Society (PDF here) has a list of Bradford’s early theaters and also says the Theatorium closed in 1910, and had opened in 1906.
To add a bit more confusion, This Wikipedia article about Jay and Jules Allen, founders of Canada’s famous Allen Theatres chain, says that they were the original owners of the Theatorium, having opened it on November 10, 1906. However, Wiki’s article says that the Theatorium was destroyed by an explosion in September, 1908, “…resulting in its replacement by the Gem.”
The local newsletter lists the Gem as a house on Chambers Street which operated from 1880 until 1912, when it was converted to a horse stable. The Allens sold their local holdings in 1909, according to Wikipedia. It does not help that the Allens' first Canadian Theater was also called the Theatorium, and was in Brantford, Ontario. I’ve also found a reference to the Bradford Theatorium being in operation again in 1909, at 29 Main street, under the ownership of “Travis, Walker and Bush.”
Obviously not everything said about the Theatorium from all these sources can be correct, but I’ve not yet been able to establish which claims are accurate. There might be sources I haven’t found yet.
The December, 2020 issue of The Inkwell, billing itself as “A Newsletter for Friends of the Bradford Landmark Society” (PDF here) included a list of Bradford’s theaters, and says that a house called the Peerless Theatre operated at 115 Main Street from 1907 to 1917. I’ve found the Peerless mentioned in trade journals in 1912, but it was not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though that publication is known for its frequent omissions.
The May 22, 1920 issue of Moving Picture World said that the Melvin brothers, operating the Lyceum Theater at Bradford, Pennsylvania, had purchased a franchise from The First National Exhibitors Exchange. First National was formed in 1917 by a merger of 26 large theater circuits, and eventually controlled 600 houses nationwide, about 200 of them being first run operations. Thomas Talley of Los Angeles was among the founders, though the company’s headquarters was in New Orleans. The chain established production facilities in Burbank, California in 1924, which became the Warner Bros studio in 1929.
Film Daily of August 28, 1927 said that “Geo. Kilgen & Son, Inc., pipe organ Builders of St. Louis, have shipped a two manual organ to the Rex, Albion, Nebraska, which is now being installed.”
The most succinct history of this theater I’ve found is this post from the Kiel Area Historical Society’s Facebook page. It says that Keil’s original Pastime Theatre operated at 501 Fremont Street from 1912 to 1917, when it was replaced by the second Pastime at 510 Fremont. The new theater operated as the Pastime until 1939, when it was renamed the Kiel Theatre. The Kiel Theatre closed in 1961 and the building was converted for use as an automobile showroom the following year. It has since been converted for ordinary retail purposes, though on the most recent Google street view car’s pass (August, 2024) it appeared to be vacant.
There are several photos of the 1917 house on the Internet. It featured a triumphal arch façade, perhaps the single most popular style for small, purpose-built movie theaters in the U.S. during the period leading up to the First World War. The building is still recognizable today despite a few unfortunate alterations. An August 28, 1927 Film Daily item said that a $7,000 organ had just been installed in the Pastime, an expense the owners most likely soon regretted when it became apparent that talking pictures were here to stay.
The Texas section of the “Theatre Changes” column in the October 4, 1937 issue of Film Daily listed the Timberland Theatre at Diboll under the heading “Openings.” It was first listed in the 1938 FDY with 400 seats.
A quick check of earlier FDYs shows no listing for Diboll in 1935, 1936, or 1937, nor in 1926 or 1929, but the town had at least two theaters earlier. The July 1, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World had this item: “Diboll, Tex.—B. F. Tucker has opened a new theater at Diboll. This gives this fine little city two theaters.” Diboll, however, made no appearance in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
This memorial page for Elvis Larry Bowman says that he “…was the owner of the Timberland Theatre in Diboll from 1970 – 1989.” As it doesn’t say that he actually operated the theater or at least leased it to an operator, it can’t be assumed the place was actually open during that period, but it might have been.
There is a 1941 photo of the Timberland on this web page, and to my eye it bears no resemblance to the building at the theater’s address now, though in a glimpse of the back of the current building available on Google’s street view it looks much older than the front, so it is possible it was simply remodeled beyond recognition.
The plain, vernacular style of the original building might have been built at just about any time in the first half of the 20th century, so it could be that the house did date from 1915 or 1916 and, long dormant, was renovated and reopened in 1937.
The November 13, 1954 issue of Boxoffice said that CinemaScope equipment had been installed at the Tejas Theatre in Grapeland. A predecessor house called the Star Theatre had installed a new projector, according to the January 13, 1923 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review. The Star might have been the house the July 1, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World said that B. C. Lively had recently opened at Grapeland.
The theaters listed at Madera in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory were called the Royal and the Pastime. The latter was mentioned in The Billboard in January, 1911. As there is no clue where they were located, either name might have been an aka for the house that became the Wonderland.
The NRHP registration form for the Downtown Bessemer Historic District says that the State Theatre closed in 1960 and the building was completely remodeled for a chain jewelry store in 1964. It also mistakenly says that the building housed “…the Grand (later the State) Theatre for many years….” The building down the block that actually housed the Grand is long gone.
Both the Grand and the State were in operation in 1945 when their operating company, Bessemer Theatres Inc., filed a lawsuit against the city over its license fees for the theaters. The Alabama Supreme Court’s final decision, handed down in 1955, favored the city.
The Lincoln Theatre, now undergoing restoration, has this official web site.
The Rialto listed in FDY’s in the 1940s and 1950s is either a mistake or was at a different location. This photo of the Cameo looks to have been taken around 1940 (judging from the cars, as the titles on the Cameo marquee aren’t clear enough for my eyes) and the Woolworth store had already taken over the space formerly occupied by the Rialto and its neighbor to the south. A page from the Anniston Photo Archives says that the Woolworth store moved to this location ca.1939, so the Rialto had to have been gone by then.
Two theaters are conflated on this page. The confusion arises from an address shift. Current 1026 Noble, the Cameo’s building, is one door north of the earlier 1026 Noble, where the Theatorium/Theato/Rialto was located. The modern address of the Theato would be 1024 Noble. The Cameo was apparently a new house opened in former retail space in 1939 and had no akas.
A photo of the Theato can be seen on this Facebook page from the Anniston Photo Archives. The original name was Theatorium, which is how it was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. It had been renamed Theato by March, 1919. The text on the photo page says the Theato closed in the early 1930s and reopened as the Rialto in 1933 (a comment by 50sSNIPES on our Anniston Roxy page says the Rialto opened on Christmas Day, 1933.) I don’t have access to FDYs at the moment, but I believe that the Rialto had closed by the time the Cameo was opened next door in 1939.
When Cinecom opened the Mounds Cinema in 1970, it was Anderson’s first indoor house outside the downtown area.
The headline of a brief item datelined Franklin, Ohio in the May 18, 1970 issue of Boxoffice reads “Police Raid Franklin Cinema.” The story says that the 18 year old manager (unnamed) of the house had been arrested for being in possession of an obscene movie. About 55 people had been in the theater at the time of the arrest, watching the 1969 Great Empire Films release “The Calico Queen” (aka The Hanging of Jake Ellis.“) Hint: the movie was not about a feline mother.
The cinema had recently been remodeled by a new owner, Pete Gall, who, true to his surname, told Boxoffice the house would be reopened the next weekend. I have not discovered how long the citizens of Franklin and vicinity were treated to such titillating fare, but hey, it was the seventies, so maybe quite a while.
This house may be the same one that was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory as the Bijou Dream Theatre, on West State Street.
The Gem was one of three theaters listed at Fremont in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
A photo of the Strand has surfaced, and it was showing the 1916 film “The Crisis.” In the 1930s, the building was remodeled for use as a retail store by the S. S. Kresge Company, predecessor of Kmart stores. It was likely that this conversion is what saved the building from the wrecking ball during the period when most of downtown Steubenville’s theaters were being demolished. Kresge’s store is long gone now, but the building is still standing, occupied by a second-hand appliance shop. The correct address is 438 Market Street.
This May 22, 2024 article is the most recent report I’ve found on the progress of the Grand Theatre’s renovation. The lobby has been restored, and the Wurlitzer organ was lately recommissioned, but restoration or replacement of water-damaged plaster in the Auditorium is still underway. A couple of photos show much of the auditorium still in very rough condition. No target date for completion of the project is given, but I suspect it will be quite some time.
I think I worded my previous comment badly, leading to misunderstandings. The theater added above the market hall (or maybe in a new municipal building that replaced the market hall completely) in 1882 was a rival to Garrett’s Hall, not a new location for it. The online sources for information about theaters in Steubenville are numerous but scattered, contradictory, and often puzzling, but I believe the market hall theater operated as the City Opera House for a few years, and then maybe under another name I haven’t tracked down, and then finally became the Victoria Theatre. It was demolished in the late 1920s, but I don’t know when it closed. I’ve found references to it running Keith vaudeville around 1925, and it usually ran four or five acts, which suggest it was a combination house that also ran movies. It was at 312 Market Street.
Garrett’s Hall was simply renamed Garrett’s Opera House after the new municipally-owned Opera House opened, and remained in the building that dated back to 1829-1830 as Washington Hall and then Kilgore’s Hall and was rebuilt and renamed Garrett’s Hall in 1869-1870. It was renamed Rex Theatre prior to being rebuilt as a ground floor house in 1916. I’m not positive that this venerable structure was the same house that reopened under the Rex name in the 1930s, but it could have been.
A third large house, the 800 seat Theatre Comique, operated in the late 19th century, but it burned in January, 1899, and I’ve found no indication that it was ever rebuilt.
The first year the Rexy is listed in the FDY is 1930, but the seating capacity isn’t given until the 1933 edition. There is actually a Rex Theatre listed in 1929, but again with no seating capacity. It might be that the house opened in (probably) 1928 as the Rex, or FDY might have been thrown by the unusual name Rexy and didn’t correct it until the 1931 edition. Another likely mistake is the 1934-only appearance of a 100-seat house called the Roxy.
Another possibility is that the Rexy started out at a different location, and then moved into the Family Theatre’s building, possibly in 1932. The Family is listed in the 1927 and 1929 FDYs, the capacity given only in 1929, when it had 300 seats, then vanishes until 1931 when it reappears listed with 498 seats but still a silent house. It is listed again in 1932, still not wired for sound, and also listed as closed. This was its final appearance. The Rexy was listed in both of those years, and was wired, but as I said no seating capacity given. In 1933 the Rexy is listed with a capacity for the first time, that being 448 seats.
The July 13, 1939 issue of Film Daily mentions Glenn Floyd, whose name (minus one surplus n) appears in the 1915 ad for the Family Theatre recently uploaded by robboehm. The item says: “Pittsburgh—Oaks Floyd, brother and partner of Glenn Floyd who operates theaters in Follansbee, W. Va., and Monaca, died of a heart attack.” Glen Floyd is also mentioned in the November 10, 1948 issue of The Exhibitor as co-owner of both theaters in Follansbee. Mr. Floyd’s long tenure in Follansbee, and his early connection to the Family Theatre, does, I think, make it more likely that the Rexy moved into the Family Theatre’s former location in 1932.
The May 20, 1916 issue ofMoving Picture World had news about the Rex: “The Rex, which recently fell under the ban of the inspectors of the Ohio Industrial Commission, as it was on the second floor, is being extensively remodeled so as to come up to all requirements.”
The fact that the Rex was an upstairs theater reflects its very long history. In 1869, local banker and merchant Horatio Gates Garrett, disappointed that a major touring opera company had skipped over Steubenville because its largest theater lacked adequate stage facilities, bought that theater, then called Kilgore Hall, and rebuilt it as a modern house which he named Garrett’s Hall. The sources are unclear, but Kilgore Hall might have dated to 1829 and opened as Washington Hall.
In 1882, Steubenville had another upstairs opera house built atop the town’s market hall, and after this Garrett’s Hall was renamed Garrett’s Opera House. For a while it was called Gray & Garrett’s Hall, but I haven’t found in which years. By the early 1910s it had become the Rex Theatre. It was one of nine theaters listed at Steubenville in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Rats. I confused the Bradford and Brantford Theatoriums. The one in Canada had the explosion, and was replaced by a house called the Gem. The Pennsylvania Theatorium just got sold to new owners in 1909.
As for the Gem noted in the Bradford Landmarks newsletter, that publication cites no sources, so there’s no way to check them. I’ve found no other text references to a Gem Theatre in Bradford, but the Landmark Society’s web site has a photo collection, and this undated early photo of South Avenue features the Bradford/Shea’s Theatre. The writing is very difficult to make out, but it appears to me that the small building just this side of the Bradford has a sign that could read “Gem Novelties.” I wonder if that might have been a short-lived nickelodeon?
The newsletter article doesn’t mention the People’s Opera House, but does list a house on Chambers Street (no number) called the Theater Comique, which ran from 1877 until burning in 1880. The only other mention of Chambers Street is the Wagner Opera House, which it lists at Main and Chambers from 1878 to 1903. In any case, it’s clear that the newsletter list is, unfortunately, not entirely reliable.
There is a 1910 photo of the Peerless Theatre’s entrance on this WorthPoint listing, but it won’t enlarge enough to be clear if it were uploaded here. It’s a Real Photo post card, so another copy might turn up on another auction site someday. The accompanying text gives the operating years as 1907 to 1913, contradicting the Landmark Society’s newsletter dates of 1907-1917.
A list of Bradford’s early theaters in a newsletter from the Bradford Landmark Society (PDF here) gives the following names for the house at 11 Main Street: The Star Continuous Show (1906-1912); The Star (1912-1919); The Strand (1919-1924.) It was listed as the Star Theatre in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Theatorium, 29 Main St., is still listed at Bradford in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. However, a newsletter from the Bradford Landmark Society (PDF here) has a list of Bradford’s early theaters and also says the Theatorium closed in 1910, and had opened in 1906.
To add a bit more confusion, This Wikipedia article about Jay and Jules Allen, founders of Canada’s famous Allen Theatres chain, says that they were the original owners of the Theatorium, having opened it on November 10, 1906. However, Wiki’s article says that the Theatorium was destroyed by an explosion in September, 1908, “…resulting in its replacement by the Gem.”
The local newsletter lists the Gem as a house on Chambers Street which operated from 1880 until 1912, when it was converted to a horse stable. The Allens sold their local holdings in 1909, according to Wikipedia. It does not help that the Allens' first Canadian Theater was also called the Theatorium, and was in Brantford, Ontario. I’ve also found a reference to the Bradford Theatorium being in operation again in 1909, at 29 Main street, under the ownership of “Travis, Walker and Bush.”
Obviously not everything said about the Theatorium from all these sources can be correct, but I’ve not yet been able to establish which claims are accurate. There might be sources I haven’t found yet.
The December, 2020 issue of The Inkwell, billing itself as “A Newsletter for Friends of the Bradford Landmark Society” (PDF here) included a list of Bradford’s theaters, and says that a house called the Peerless Theatre operated at 115 Main Street from 1907 to 1917. I’ve found the Peerless mentioned in trade journals in 1912, but it was not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though that publication is known for its frequent omissions.
Dreamland was opened by, but not necessarily on, February 5, 1908, and was mentioned in the March 28 issue of Moving Picture World that year.
The May 22, 1920 issue of Moving Picture World said that the Melvin brothers, operating the Lyceum Theater at Bradford, Pennsylvania, had purchased a franchise from The First National Exhibitors Exchange. First National was formed in 1917 by a merger of 26 large theater circuits, and eventually controlled 600 houses nationwide, about 200 of them being first run operations. Thomas Talley of Los Angeles was among the founders, though the company’s headquarters was in New Orleans. The chain established production facilities in Burbank, California in 1924, which became the Warner Bros studio in 1929.
Film Daily of August 28, 1927 said that “Geo. Kilgen & Son, Inc., pipe organ Builders of St. Louis, have shipped a two manual organ to the Rex, Albion, Nebraska, which is now being installed.”
The most succinct history of this theater I’ve found is this post from the Kiel Area Historical Society’s Facebook page. It says that Keil’s original Pastime Theatre operated at 501 Fremont Street from 1912 to 1917, when it was replaced by the second Pastime at 510 Fremont. The new theater operated as the Pastime until 1939, when it was renamed the Kiel Theatre. The Kiel Theatre closed in 1961 and the building was converted for use as an automobile showroom the following year. It has since been converted for ordinary retail purposes, though on the most recent Google street view car’s pass (August, 2024) it appeared to be vacant.
There are several photos of the 1917 house on the Internet. It featured a triumphal arch façade, perhaps the single most popular style for small, purpose-built movie theaters in the U.S. during the period leading up to the First World War. The building is still recognizable today despite a few unfortunate alterations. An August 28, 1927 Film Daily item said that a $7,000 organ had just been installed in the Pastime, an expense the owners most likely soon regretted when it became apparent that talking pictures were here to stay.
The Texas section of the “Theatre Changes” column in the October 4, 1937 issue of Film Daily listed the Timberland Theatre at Diboll under the heading “Openings.” It was first listed in the 1938 FDY with 400 seats.
A quick check of earlier FDYs shows no listing for Diboll in 1935, 1936, or 1937, nor in 1926 or 1929, but the town had at least two theaters earlier. The July 1, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World had this item: “Diboll, Tex.—B. F. Tucker has opened a new theater at Diboll. This gives this fine little city two theaters.” Diboll, however, made no appearance in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
This memorial page for Elvis Larry Bowman says that he “…was the owner of the Timberland Theatre in Diboll from 1970 – 1989.” As it doesn’t say that he actually operated the theater or at least leased it to an operator, it can’t be assumed the place was actually open during that period, but it might have been.
There is a 1941 photo of the Timberland on this web page, and to my eye it bears no resemblance to the building at the theater’s address now, though in a glimpse of the back of the current building available on Google’s street view it looks much older than the front, so it is possible it was simply remodeled beyond recognition.
The plain, vernacular style of the original building might have been built at just about any time in the first half of the 20th century, so it could be that the house did date from 1915 or 1916 and, long dormant, was renovated and reopened in 1937.
The November 13, 1954 issue of Boxoffice said that CinemaScope equipment had been installed at the Tejas Theatre in Grapeland. A predecessor house called the Star Theatre had installed a new projector, according to the January 13, 1923 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review. The Star might have been the house the July 1, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World said that B. C. Lively had recently opened at Grapeland.
The theaters listed at Madera in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory were called the Royal and the Pastime. The latter was mentioned in The Billboard in January, 1911. As there is no clue where they were located, either name might have been an aka for the house that became the Wonderland.