It looks like Stanley Steck was still (or once again) running theaters in Utah in 1951, when the November issue of Boxoffice said that he had returned from a trip to check on his theater interests in Ogden and Salt Lake City.
The magazine also misspells his name as “Stack” from time to time. A 1945 item says that S.B. Stack, of the Adams Theatre, had returned to town after attending the funeral of his brother Elmer in Del Rio, Texas.
Most interesting to Mr. Steck’s fan base will be the item in the March 17, 1945, issue of Boxoffice. The brief profile of his career up to that time features a small photo of him- a respectable looking gentleman with a receding hairline and wire-rimmed glasses. The scan of the magazine is poor and partly unreadable, but I can make out that he began operating a theater in a small town in Idaho in 1911, and two years later became the owner the Lyceum in Ogden. In the next two years he added the Rex and the Cozy.
The years he quit running the Rex and Cozy are illegible, but both look to be in the 1930s. The year he took over the Adams is also very muddy, but appears to be 1928. In Los Angeles he was also a director and treasurer of the ITO of Southern California.
Stanley Steck doesn’t have any mentions in the California Index, but he does show up in various issues of Boxoffice. In the November 9, 1940, issue there’s an item saying that he was returning to Los Angeles after visiting friends in Utah, where he had formerly operated theaters.
That’s the earliest reference to him I’ve found. The most recent reference was in the February 26, 1955, issue, which said that he was closing the Adams and had no plans to reopen in the foreseeable future.
Robert Boller un-reversed this theater when he remodeled it, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, March 19, 1944. It was originally a reverse theater, with patrons entering the auditorium from the screen end.
Oh, here’s something that sounds a bit omenous, from this page: “Deconstruction of the historic Strand Theatre at 1102 Main has begun with renovations to follow.”
The Fox and the Strand at Hays are both mentioned in the 1951 consent decree pertaining to the various Fox theater chains. The text of the decree was published in the June 9, 1951, issue of Boxoffice. Unfortunately, the scan of it available on the Internet has a page fold obscuring too much of the text, and I can’t figure out exactly what it says, but possibly Fox was running both this theatre and the Strand at that time. The Strand was apparently still open, though.
The Strand’s address of 1102 Main Street sounds like it was a corner lot. If that’s so, then the Muriel, being directly across the street, might have been across either Main Street or across the cross street. Maybe somebody from Hays will know.
From the March 4, 1950, issue of Boxoffice: “R.W. Steen, whose Atlantic Theatre in Atlantic, Iowa, burned recently, is to rebuild. O.C.Johnson, manager of the wrecked showhouse, and of the Strand of Atlantic, made the announcement.”
I can’t find any other references to a Strand Theatre in Atlantic, but there are quite a few references to a Grand Theater, so I think “Strand” might have been an error in this particular article. Both houses were operated by Pioneer Theatres.
Here’s something from a later issue of Boxoffice, April 1, 1950: “The Iosco, 200-seater at Oscoda, Michigan, has not been closed, says owner Mrs. A.A. Affelt, wife of the late owner of the house.” They got the second initial wrong, though. Back in 1932, Mr. A.F. Affelt of Oscoda was shopping for rectifiers through the want-ad section of the New England Film Journal. I can’t find any post-1950 references to the Iosco, though.
Here’s another interesting tidbit about Oscoda, from the August 6, 1973, issue of Boxoffice: “The Mini Art Theatre, Oscoda, has been renamed the Variety.” I wonder if maybe somebody reopened the Iosco as an art house? Wherever it was, the Mini-Art might have been opened in late 1972 or early 1973, as they were seeking 16mm projectors in a want ad published in the November 27, 1972, issue of Boxoffice.
The May 21, 1973, issue of Boxoffice said that Mr. and Mrs. Jack Brown of Oscoda had bought the Family Theatre in East Tawas, Michigan, and added that the Browns also owned the Lake and Mini-Art Theatres in Oscoda and the Gem Theatre in Hale. I’ve found no references to the Mini-Art/Variety after 1973.
Evidence of a couple of early Hays, Kansas theaters not yet included in the Cinema Treasures database, from the March 13, 1926, issue of The Reel Journal, a regional predecessor of Boxoffice Magazine:[quote]“M.G. Kirkman will open his new Murial Theatre in Hays, Kansas, on April 1, the opening picture being "Tumbleweeds” a United Artists release.
“‘Every effort will be made to make this house one of the best in the west,’ Mr. Kirkman writes The Reel Journal. The new Murial will be directly across the street from Kirkman’s Strand Theatre.”[/quote] Does anybody know anything more about either of these early Hays theaters?
From Boxoffice, March 11, 1950: “William Frank scheduled March 13 for the opening of his new 423-seat Lake Theatre here. Frank, who is a partner with R.V. Rule in the Alco at Harrisville, will operate the new house on his own. The Old Iosco, a 200-seater operated by the late A.F. Affelt, has been closed.”
The Bradford Theatre burned, along with a nearby diner, on January 18, 1959. The May 4, 1959, issue of Boxoffice says the theater had been a quonset hut structure.
Back in 1931, Bradford’s only theater had been a 425 seat house called the Colonial, which was offered for sale in the Clearing House section of the January 20 issue of Exhibitor’s Forum that year. I don’t think quonset huts existed before WWII, so the Colonial had to have been a different theater.
The Strand was operated by the Silverman Brothers. Isaac “Ike” Silverman had opened Altoona’s first movie house, a nickelodeon called the Pastime Theatre, in 1906. He closed the Pastime in 1917, the year after opening the Strand, which was on the same block as the Pastime.
I came across a PDF file in the Pennsylvania State University’s digital library. Published in 1922, it is a program booklet published for a local event called Old Home Week, and it mentions ten Altoona theaters by name, and includes an illustrated advertisement for the Strand on page 49. Unfortunately it gives no addresses for any of the theaters, but the ten it mentions were:
Mishler (stage productions featuring Chicago stock companies)
Orpheum (Keith vaudeville, and movies)
movie houses:
Strand
Capitol
Olympic
New Victoria
Palace
Boyer
Colonial
Lyric
The PDF is in three parts: Part 1 includes the list of theaters, and also has a picture of the Mishler. Part 3 has several ads (all of them text-only except for the Strand’s ad) for several theaters. Part 2 doesn’t have anything about theaters, but is interesting in any case.
The Strand ad boasts of “..the most comfortable seats west of New York…” and of the theater’s “…$47,000 Hope Jones Organ.”
I came across a couple of PDF files at Pennsylvania State University’s digital library. One is a 1949 booklet from Altoona’s centennial, and it mentions in passing that, at that time, Altoona had ten theaters and movie houses. It doesn’t give their names, though.
The other PDF includes a 1922 ad for the Strand in it, so I’m going to comment about it on the Strand’s page.
Like the Belle Meade, its twin, the Melrose Theatre was an Art Moderne house designed by the Nashville architectural firm Marr & Holman. The Melrose opened on July 1, 1942, according to the July 11 issue of Boxoffice Magazine. Marr & Holman also designed the adjacent shops and bowling alley.
Marr & Holman partner Joseph W. Holman was also a partner in the Crescent Amusement Company, and according to his obituary in the October 25, 1952, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, designed all the circuit’s major theaters. The obituary said that he had designed about 100 theatres altogether, for Crescent and other exhibitors.
The Wheaton Plaza Playhouse was built by John J. Broumas, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, December 25, 1961. The single-screen house was expected to be open by March, 1962. The comment above indicates that it opened several months behind schedule.
The article said that the architect, Edmund W. Dreyfuss had designed many other theaters, but I can’t find any references to any of them on the Internet, and not even in any other issues of Boxoffice. A tantalizing mystery.
The July 4, 1966, issue of Boxoffice said that Ira Sichelman and Louis Heon had acquired John Broumas’s stock in the Wheaton Plaza Playhouse, and would operate the theater.
The Wheaton Plaza was being operated by S&H Theatres in 1974, when the October 28 issue of Boxoffice said that a 600 seat two-screen addition adjacent to the original theater was scheduled for an early November opening. The architectural firm of Gitlin & Canton designed the addition. The theater was to be renamed the Wheaton Plaza 3.
I can’t find any references to when, or how, the complex was converted to four screens.
The Princess Theatre was designed by the Nashville architecture firm Marr & Holman.
This house was either opened or reopened in 1948. The October 6, 1945, issue of Boxoffice said that J.C. Tune had hired Marr & Holman to prepare plans for a complete rebuilding of his Princess Theatre at Shelbyville.
Then the March 2, 1946 issue of Boxoffice had carried the following notice: “Last rites were held in Shelbyville, Tenn. for J.C. Tune, who operated the Princess there.”
And then Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of November 13, 1948, carried a brief announcement that the new Princess Theatre in Shelbyville had recently opened after seven months of construction. The seating capacity was given as 800. The owner-manager of the house was named J.T. Tune.
A J.M. Tune is briefly mentioned as the operator of the Princess and of the 41 Drive-In at Shelbyville, in the March 24, 1958, issue of Boxoffice.
The Tune family’s operation of the Princess came to an end by 1968, according to an item in the January 22 issue of Boxoffice that year. It said that Morton Tune had sold the house to Fred H. Massey, president of Masco, operators of the Belcourt Cinema in Nashville. Massey planned an extensive remodeling of the Princess, with the plans to be done by the original architectural firm, Marr & Holman.
I can’t find any references to the Princess in Boxoffice, or anywhere else on the Internet, earlier than 1945, so I have no idea how long the place was around before the 1940s rebuilding, but if it needed a rebuilding then I’d guess it was already pretty old.
This was one of at least four 1970s multi-screen theaters designed for Plitt Theatres by the Chicago architectural firm of Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein. The others were:
This was one of at least four 1970s multi-screen theaters designed for Plitt Theatres by the Chicago architectural firm of Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein. The others were:
This was one of at least four 1970s multi-screen theaters designed for Plitt Theatres by the Chicago architectural firm of Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein. The others were:
This was one of at least four 1970s multi-screen theaters designed for Plitt Theatres by the Chicago architectural firm of Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein. Others included quads in the Chicago suburbs of Vernon Hills and Orland Park, and another in Aurora, Illinois.
The Cherryvale Mall triplex had 1494 seats, according to an ad for the Massey Seating Company published in Boxoffice Magazine, August 2, 1976.
The L.A. Library’s California Index has a few other references to the Glade Theatre. The L.A. Times of March 30, 1924, said that a pipe organ was being installed there. The August 4, 1929, Times said that improvements were being made to the Glade Theater. Motion Picture Herald of January 2, 1932, said that the Glade had been sold to J.L. Seiter and William Gustine.
Another reference may or may not concern the Glade. The Rounder, September 23, 1911, said that a new theater was to be built in Lindsay.
The earliest reference to the Lindsay Theatre I’ve found so far is in the July 4, 1942, issue of Boxoffice, which mentions an advertising campaign. It says that the manager at that time was named Harry Stark.
However, the Glade Theatre at Lindsay is listed in an ad for the Pacific Coast Theatre Supply Company in the August 13, 1938, issue of Boxoffice. It was a list of theaters in the area which had installed Floating Comfort Theatre Chairs made by the International Seat Corporation. No temporal overlap between the names increases the likelihood that the rebuilt Glade and the Lindsay were the same theater.
Here’s more confusion: The November 6, 1948, issue of Boxoffice says that the new Parsons Theatre in Lindsay almost didn’t open on schedule because of a problem with the delivery of one of the movies. The owner of the house was named Aubrey Parsons, so maybe Boxoffice just lost track of the actual name of the theater and substituted the owner’s name. This could have been the Grove, but then if it was I don’t see why it would have been remodeled only two years after it was built.
It’s possible that the Grove just didn’t last very long. The early 1950s were not the best of times for movie theaters, and a lot of them closed, especially in smaller towns that had competing theaters.
Were there two Santikos multiplexes called the Northwest? A Wikipedia article on Santikos Theatres says that the “Northwest 10” was the second Santikos theater at this intersection, and also says that it had a four-screen annex which had been closed for repairs, and then two of those screens had been reopened.
This is stuff I found that’s not in the Wikipedia article: A 3000 seat multiplex called the Northwest Six was opened by Santikos Theatres in April of 1975, according to a special issue of Boxoffice Magazine published in August 2, 1976. Then, the September, 1988, issue of Boxoffice reported that Santikos had completed a four-screen addition to their former Northwest 10-plex. Were the Northwest Six and Northwest 10/14 the same theater? If so, then the Northwest Six must have had an earlier addition or must have had some of its auditoriums spilt.
The 1976 Boxoffice item said that the Northwest Six had pairs of 400, 500, and 600 seat auditoriums. If it isn’t the same house as the Northwest 10/Northwest 14, does anybody know what became of it?
The Plaza Twin was designed by architect Mandel Sprachman, known for his restoration work on the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres and for designing the first large multiplex, Nat Taylor’s Eaton Centre Cinemas, also in Toronto.
The Plaza Twin was featured in a special Modern Theatre issue of Boxoffice Magazine published on August 2, 1976. The recently opened Famous Players house had 1049 seats, with 664 in the larger and 385 in the smaller auditorium.
It looks like Stanley Steck was still (or once again) running theaters in Utah in 1951, when the November issue of Boxoffice said that he had returned from a trip to check on his theater interests in Ogden and Salt Lake City.
The magazine also misspells his name as “Stack” from time to time. A 1945 item says that S.B. Stack, of the Adams Theatre, had returned to town after attending the funeral of his brother Elmer in Del Rio, Texas.
Most interesting to Mr. Steck’s fan base will be the item in the March 17, 1945, issue of Boxoffice. The brief profile of his career up to that time features a small photo of him- a respectable looking gentleman with a receding hairline and wire-rimmed glasses. The scan of the magazine is poor and partly unreadable, but I can make out that he began operating a theater in a small town in Idaho in 1911, and two years later became the owner the Lyceum in Ogden. In the next two years he added the Rex and the Cozy.
The years he quit running the Rex and Cozy are illegible, but both look to be in the 1930s. The year he took over the Adams is also very muddy, but appears to be 1928. In Los Angeles he was also a director and treasurer of the ITO of Southern California.
Stanley Steck doesn’t have any mentions in the California Index, but he does show up in various issues of Boxoffice. In the November 9, 1940, issue there’s an item saying that he was returning to Los Angeles after visiting friends in Utah, where he had formerly operated theaters.
That’s the earliest reference to him I’ve found. The most recent reference was in the February 26, 1955, issue, which said that he was closing the Adams and had no plans to reopen in the foreseeable future.
Robert Boller un-reversed this theater when he remodeled it, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, March 19, 1944. It was originally a reverse theater, with patrons entering the auditorium from the screen end.
Oh, here’s something that sounds a bit omenous, from this page: “Deconstruction of the historic Strand Theatre at 1102 Main has begun with renovations to follow.”
Don’t like that word “Deconstruction.”
I’ve submitted the Strand.
The Fox and the Strand at Hays are both mentioned in the 1951 consent decree pertaining to the various Fox theater chains. The text of the decree was published in the June 9, 1951, issue of Boxoffice. Unfortunately, the scan of it available on the Internet has a page fold obscuring too much of the text, and I can’t figure out exactly what it says, but possibly Fox was running both this theatre and the Strand at that time. The Strand was apparently still open, though.
The Strand’s address of 1102 Main Street sounds like it was a corner lot. If that’s so, then the Muriel, being directly across the street, might have been across either Main Street or across the cross street. Maybe somebody from Hays will know.
From the March 4, 1950, issue of Boxoffice: “R.W. Steen, whose Atlantic Theatre in Atlantic, Iowa, burned recently, is to rebuild. O.C.Johnson, manager of the wrecked showhouse, and of the Strand of Atlantic, made the announcement.”
I can’t find any other references to a Strand Theatre in Atlantic, but there are quite a few references to a Grand Theater, so I think “Strand” might have been an error in this particular article. Both houses were operated by Pioneer Theatres.
Here’s something from a later issue of Boxoffice, April 1, 1950: “The Iosco, 200-seater at Oscoda, Michigan, has not been closed, says owner Mrs. A.A. Affelt, wife of the late owner of the house.” They got the second initial wrong, though. Back in 1932, Mr. A.F. Affelt of Oscoda was shopping for rectifiers through the want-ad section of the New England Film Journal. I can’t find any post-1950 references to the Iosco, though.
Here’s another interesting tidbit about Oscoda, from the August 6, 1973, issue of Boxoffice: “The Mini Art Theatre, Oscoda, has been renamed the Variety.” I wonder if maybe somebody reopened the Iosco as an art house? Wherever it was, the Mini-Art might have been opened in late 1972 or early 1973, as they were seeking 16mm projectors in a want ad published in the November 27, 1972, issue of Boxoffice.
The May 21, 1973, issue of Boxoffice said that Mr. and Mrs. Jack Brown of Oscoda had bought the Family Theatre in East Tawas, Michigan, and added that the Browns also owned the Lake and Mini-Art Theatres in Oscoda and the Gem Theatre in Hale. I’ve found no references to the Mini-Art/Variety after 1973.
The Alco in Harrisville isn’t listed at Cinema Treasures yet, either, but the Michigan theaters web site has it. They don’t have the Iosco, though.
Evidence of a couple of early Hays, Kansas theaters not yet included in the Cinema Treasures database, from the March 13, 1926, issue of The Reel Journal, a regional predecessor of Boxoffice Magazine:[quote]“M.G. Kirkman will open his new Murial Theatre in Hays, Kansas, on April 1, the opening picture being "Tumbleweeds” a United Artists release.
“‘Every effort will be made to make this house one of the best in the west,’ Mr. Kirkman writes The Reel Journal. The new Murial will be directly across the street from Kirkman’s Strand Theatre.”[/quote] Does anybody know anything more about either of these early Hays theaters?
From Boxoffice, March 11, 1950: “William Frank scheduled March 13 for the opening of his new 423-seat Lake Theatre here. Frank, who is a partner with R.V. Rule in the Alco at Harrisville, will operate the new house on his own. The Old Iosco, a 200-seater operated by the late A.F. Affelt, has been closed.”
The Bradford Theatre burned, along with a nearby diner, on January 18, 1959. The May 4, 1959, issue of Boxoffice says the theater had been a quonset hut structure.
Back in 1931, Bradford’s only theater had been a 425 seat house called the Colonial, which was offered for sale in the Clearing House section of the January 20 issue of Exhibitor’s Forum that year. I don’t think quonset huts existed before WWII, so the Colonial had to have been a different theater.
The Strand was operated by the Silverman Brothers. Isaac “Ike” Silverman had opened Altoona’s first movie house, a nickelodeon called the Pastime Theatre, in 1906. He closed the Pastime in 1917, the year after opening the Strand, which was on the same block as the Pastime.
I came across a PDF file in the Pennsylvania State University’s digital library. Published in 1922, it is a program booklet published for a local event called Old Home Week, and it mentions ten Altoona theaters by name, and includes an illustrated advertisement for the Strand on page 49. Unfortunately it gives no addresses for any of the theaters, but the ten it mentions were:
Mishler (stage productions featuring Chicago stock companies)
Orpheum (Keith vaudeville, and movies)
movie houses:
Strand
Capitol
Olympic
New Victoria
Palace
Boyer
Colonial
Lyric
The PDF is in three parts:
Part 1 includes the list of theaters, and also has a picture of the Mishler.
Part 3 has several ads (all of them text-only except for the Strand’s ad) for several theaters.
Part 2 doesn’t have anything about theaters, but is interesting in any case.
The Strand ad boasts of “..the most comfortable seats west of New York…” and of the theater’s “…$47,000 Hope Jones Organ.”
I came across a couple of PDF files at Pennsylvania State University’s digital library. One is a 1949 booklet from Altoona’s centennial, and it mentions in passing that, at that time, Altoona had ten theaters and movie houses. It doesn’t give their names, though.
The other PDF includes a 1922 ad for the Strand in it, so I’m going to comment about it on the Strand’s page.
The Shoals Theatre was designed by the Nashville architectural firm Marr & Holman, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, April 10, 1948.
Like the Belle Meade, its twin, the Melrose Theatre was an Art Moderne house designed by the Nashville architectural firm Marr & Holman. The Melrose opened on July 1, 1942, according to the July 11 issue of Boxoffice Magazine. Marr & Holman also designed the adjacent shops and bowling alley.
Marr & Holman partner Joseph W. Holman was also a partner in the Crescent Amusement Company, and according to his obituary in the October 25, 1952, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, designed all the circuit’s major theaters. The obituary said that he had designed about 100 theatres altogether, for Crescent and other exhibitors.
The Wheaton Plaza Playhouse was built by John J. Broumas, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, December 25, 1961. The single-screen house was expected to be open by March, 1962. The comment above indicates that it opened several months behind schedule.
The article said that the architect, Edmund W. Dreyfuss had designed many other theaters, but I can’t find any references to any of them on the Internet, and not even in any other issues of Boxoffice. A tantalizing mystery.
The July 4, 1966, issue of Boxoffice said that Ira Sichelman and Louis Heon had acquired John Broumas’s stock in the Wheaton Plaza Playhouse, and would operate the theater.
The Wheaton Plaza was being operated by S&H Theatres in 1974, when the October 28 issue of Boxoffice said that a 600 seat two-screen addition adjacent to the original theater was scheduled for an early November opening. The architectural firm of Gitlin & Canton designed the addition. The theater was to be renamed the Wheaton Plaza 3.
I can’t find any references to when, or how, the complex was converted to four screens.
The Princess Theatre was designed by the Nashville architecture firm Marr & Holman.
This house was either opened or reopened in 1948. The October 6, 1945, issue of Boxoffice said that J.C. Tune had hired Marr & Holman to prepare plans for a complete rebuilding of his Princess Theatre at Shelbyville.
Then the March 2, 1946 issue of Boxoffice had carried the following notice: “Last rites were held in Shelbyville, Tenn. for J.C. Tune, who operated the Princess there.”
And then Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of November 13, 1948, carried a brief announcement that the new Princess Theatre in Shelbyville had recently opened after seven months of construction. The seating capacity was given as 800. The owner-manager of the house was named J.T. Tune.
A J.M. Tune is briefly mentioned as the operator of the Princess and of the 41 Drive-In at Shelbyville, in the March 24, 1958, issue of Boxoffice.
The Tune family’s operation of the Princess came to an end by 1968, according to an item in the January 22 issue of Boxoffice that year. It said that Morton Tune had sold the house to Fred H. Massey, president of Masco, operators of the Belcourt Cinema in Nashville. Massey planned an extensive remodeling of the Princess, with the plans to be done by the original architectural firm, Marr & Holman.
I can’t find any references to the Princess in Boxoffice, or anywhere else on the Internet, earlier than 1945, so I have no idea how long the place was around before the 1940s rebuilding, but if it needed a rebuilding then I’d guess it was already pretty old.
This was one of at least four 1970s multi-screen theaters designed for Plitt Theatres by the Chicago architectural firm of Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein. The others were:
Cherryvale Mall Cinema, Rockford, Illinois.
Orland Square Cinemas, Orland Park, Illinois.
Hawthorne Theatres, Vernon Hills, Illinois.
The other three Plitt theaters designed by Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein are also listed at Cinema Treasures:
Hawthorne Theatres, Vernon Hills, Illinois.
Fox Valley Theatres, Aurora, Illinois.
Orland Square Cinemas, Orland Park, Illinois.
This was one of at least four 1970s multi-screen theaters designed for Plitt Theatres by the Chicago architectural firm of Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein. The others were:
Cherryvale Mall Cinema, Rockford, Illinois.
Hawthorne Theatres, Vernon Hills, Illinois.
Fox Valley Theatres, Aurora, Illinois.
This was one of at least four 1970s multi-screen theaters designed for Plitt Theatres by the Chicago architectural firm of Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein. The others were:
Cherryvale Mall Cinema, Rockford, Illinois.
Orland Square Cinemas, Orland Park, Illinois.
Fox Valley Theatres, Aurora, Illinois.
This was one of at least four 1970s multi-screen theaters designed for Plitt Theatres by the Chicago architectural firm of Finck, Stowell & Frolichstein. Others included quads in the Chicago suburbs of Vernon Hills and Orland Park, and another in Aurora, Illinois.
The Cherryvale Mall triplex had 1494 seats, according to an ad for the Massey Seating Company published in Boxoffice Magazine, August 2, 1976.
The L.A. Library’s California Index has a few other references to the Glade Theatre. The L.A. Times of March 30, 1924, said that a pipe organ was being installed there. The August 4, 1929, Times said that improvements were being made to the Glade Theater. Motion Picture Herald of January 2, 1932, said that the Glade had been sold to J.L. Seiter and William Gustine.
Another reference may or may not concern the Glade. The Rounder, September 23, 1911, said that a new theater was to be built in Lindsay.
The earliest reference to the Lindsay Theatre I’ve found so far is in the July 4, 1942, issue of Boxoffice, which mentions an advertising campaign. It says that the manager at that time was named Harry Stark.
However, the Glade Theatre at Lindsay is listed in an ad for the Pacific Coast Theatre Supply Company in the August 13, 1938, issue of Boxoffice. It was a list of theaters in the area which had installed Floating Comfort Theatre Chairs made by the International Seat Corporation. No temporal overlap between the names increases the likelihood that the rebuilt Glade and the Lindsay were the same theater.
Here’s more confusion: The November 6, 1948, issue of Boxoffice says that the new Parsons Theatre in Lindsay almost didn’t open on schedule because of a problem with the delivery of one of the movies. The owner of the house was named Aubrey Parsons, so maybe Boxoffice just lost track of the actual name of the theater and substituted the owner’s name. This could have been the Grove, but then if it was I don’t see why it would have been remodeled only two years after it was built.
It’s possible that the Grove just didn’t last very long. The early 1950s were not the best of times for movie theaters, and a lot of them closed, especially in smaller towns that had competing theaters.
Were there two Santikos multiplexes called the Northwest? A Wikipedia article on Santikos Theatres says that the “Northwest 10” was the second Santikos theater at this intersection, and also says that it had a four-screen annex which had been closed for repairs, and then two of those screens had been reopened.
This is stuff I found that’s not in the Wikipedia article: A 3000 seat multiplex called the Northwest Six was opened by Santikos Theatres in April of 1975, according to a special issue of Boxoffice Magazine published in August 2, 1976. Then, the September, 1988, issue of Boxoffice reported that Santikos had completed a four-screen addition to their former Northwest 10-plex. Were the Northwest Six and Northwest 10/14 the same theater? If so, then the Northwest Six must have had an earlier addition or must have had some of its auditoriums spilt.
The 1976 Boxoffice item said that the Northwest Six had pairs of 400, 500, and 600 seat auditoriums. If it isn’t the same house as the Northwest 10/Northwest 14, does anybody know what became of it?
The Plaza Twin was designed by architect Mandel Sprachman, known for his restoration work on the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres and for designing the first large multiplex, Nat Taylor’s Eaton Centre Cinemas, also in Toronto.
The Plaza Twin was featured in a special Modern Theatre issue of Boxoffice Magazine published on August 2, 1976. The recently opened Famous Players house had 1049 seats, with 664 in the larger and 385 in the smaller auditorium.