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.
The May 20, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Grove Theatre in Lindsay had recently reopened after being completely remodeled and redecorated.
The May 20, 1950 issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Serra Theatre had opened on May 18. Operated by Golden State Theatres, the house had a stadium section, and a total (probably rounded off) seating capacity of 1000.
Ground was broken for the Fox Theatre in November, 1968. The November 18, 1968, issue of Boxoffice said that National General’s chief of construction, J. Walter Bantau, was supervising the project.
The June 16, 1969, issue of Boxoffice Magazine ran a brief item announcing that the Fox had opened on May 27. The new house had 814 seats. NGC’s Fox-West Coast Theatres division was already operating three other theaters in Ventura County; the Fox in Ventura, the Fox in Santa Paula, and the Conejo in Thousand Oaks.
The November 2, 1964, issue of Boxoffice said that the Annandale Theatre had recently opened. It also named the architect as Dwight G. Chase, and said that interior decoration was by Sydell Sandy, Alexandria. The house was operated by the Town Theatre Group.
The October 11, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that Stanley Warner’s new Topanga Theatre was scheduled to open on October 26 with the premier of “The Bedford Incident”. The regular opening would be on the 27th, with “Ship of Fools.”
The seating capacity of the new house was given as 1350, which would be in line with the other theaters Stanley Warner was building at the time. There’s a small reproduction of a rendering of the theater in Boxoffice, but it isn’t clear enough in the scan that I can read the architect’s name, which is not mentioned in the article.
The introductory paragraph on this page currently says that Reinhardt Dempwolf was the architect of the Strand. The theater’s official website attributes the Strand to E.C. Horn & Sons, as does spectrum in the comment of Oct 17, 2007, above.
Reinhardt Dempwolf was the architect of the Capitol Theatre. See this essay about J.A. Dempwolf Architects by Jim McClure, editor of the York Daily Record/Sunday News.
I’m going to put this here so it won’t get lost. Isaac “Ike” Silverman was Altoona’s first theater operator. He opened the Pastime Theatre as a nickelodeon in 1906, and eventually expanded it to 500 seats. Silverman opened the new Strand Theatre on the same block in 1916, and the Pastime was closed a year later and its building converted to retail use.
Boxoffice Magazine published an item in its August 21, 1937, issue saying that the Pastime Theatre building was being demolished. No address or street name was given for either theater in the Boxoffice article, but I’ve seen possibly reliable claims that the Strand (and thus the Pastime as well) was on 11th Avenue. If anybody can dig up addresses feel free to submit either or both theaters to Cinema Treasures.
The Blair Theatre was scheduled to open on December 23, 1937, according to the December 25 issue of Boxoffice Magazine that year. It was designed for the Silverman brothers by Pittsburgh architect Victor A. Rigaumont.
The Logan might be the theater described in an item published by Boxoffice Magazine on July 17, 1937, which said that Jacob and Isaac Silverman were building two new theaters in Pennsylvania: a 750 seat house in Hollidaysburg, and a two-story theatre 50'x120' in Altoona. Victor A. Rigaumont was the architect of both houses.
The Silverman Brothers were already operating a theater in Altoona called the Strand. I’ll poke around and see if I can find anything else about any of these theaters.
::pokes::
OK, the Logan was indeed the Rigaumont-designed house in Altoona, and had been re-scheduled for a grand opening on January 10, 1938, according to the December 25, 1937, issue of Boxoffice. Apparently there were more delays, because the February 12, 1938, issue of Boxoffice said that the Logan had opened “last week.”
The Hollidaysburg theater Rigaumont also designed was the Blair.
From the “Theatre Construction, Openings and Sales” column in the February 5, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine: “Premont, Tex.– R.H. Smith Theatres Inc., opened 500 seat Rig.”
The January, 1987, issue of Boxoffice Magazine announced that the City of Elkhart had ordered the demolition of the Bucklen Theatre building. A part of the theater’s roof had collapsed in March, 1978. This had been repaired, but another section of roof collapsed in December, 1981. Attempts to raise money to restore the venerable house were made, but had been unsuccessful.
The Elkhart Opera House had opened on September 29, 1884, with Mr. and Mrs. George S. Knight & Company appearing in their comic play “Over the Garden Wall,” which had been a great success in many cities across the country that year. Movies were first shown at the Opera House in the late 1890s, but the Boxoffice article fails to say when the theater became a full-time movie house.
The January 13, 1975, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the former Fox Twin in San Antonio had reopened as a triplex on December 20, 1974. Actress Rhonda Fleming made a personal appearance at the opening. She had attended the opening of another Mann Theatre the previous day, at Lubbock.
Mann Theatres had plans to add three more screens to the Fox Central Park 3 at a future date, but it looks like they never got around to it.
The June 9, 1951, issue of Boxoffice said that N.N. Bernstein, operator of the State, had closed the theater on May 26, with no plans to reopen. Bernstein closed three additional houses the same weekend, in Hammond, Indiana, and in Waukegan and Harvey, Illinois. He cited losses due to competition from television and drive-in theaters.
The item also noted that the State had been built in 1940, and had opened in August of that year.
From Boxoffice Magazine, January 25, 1947: “Gene Mueller and Bob Dennis will open their new 850-seat Josephine Theatre here January 31. The owners are operating as Muel-Den Enterprises and have other businesses besides the theatre. They were projectionists for the Interstate circuit for many years and both are officers in the local projectionists union.”
I’ve found a mention of the Lyceum in the October 15, 1949, issue of Boxoffice. The house had won a minor prize for its performance in a charity fund-raising competition the magazine had been running.
Small picture of the State sandwiched between the National and Colonial in this photo, dating from the early 1960s, judging from the cars on the street.
Also interesting is this newsreel clip from 1933 (missing its soundtrack, alas) of the opening of the State. Mostly close-up shots.
The November 15, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Morley Theatre had been dedicated on November 6. The article said that the new house had 1210 seats, but also gave the figures of 798 on the main floor, 512 in the balcony, which would add up to 1310. It’s anybody’s guess which figure was a typo. The article also mentioned that there were two crying rooms with seven seats each.
Guests at the opening included the theater’s architect, Jack Corgan, and its decorator, R. F. Churchill, both of Dallas. The first show kicked off with a half hour live performance by “Singin' Sam” Harrison, followed by the feature film, “Cynthia.”
The January 4, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that Erle G. Stilwell was the architect of the Center Theatre. The rendering in the magazine showed a four-story business building as part of the project, but the photos at Flickr show what looks like a theatre without any upper floors. The project must have been scaled down. The rounded marquee is the same in both, though.
A couple of interior photos of the recently remodeled Ark Theatre were published in the May 25, 1940, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The new Art Moderne design had been done by architect Erwin G. Fredrick, in association with interior designer Hans Teichert.
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.
The May 20, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Grove Theatre in Lindsay had recently reopened after being completely remodeled and redecorated.
The May 20, 1950 issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Serra Theatre had opened on May 18. Operated by Golden State Theatres, the house had a stadium section, and a total (probably rounded off) seating capacity of 1000.
The Sunset Theatre opened on January 20, 1950. The new T&D Jr. house had 1000 seats.
Ground was broken for the Fox Theatre in November, 1968. The November 18, 1968, issue of Boxoffice said that National General’s chief of construction, J. Walter Bantau, was supervising the project.
The June 16, 1969, issue of Boxoffice Magazine ran a brief item announcing that the Fox had opened on May 27. The new house had 814 seats. NGC’s Fox-West Coast Theatres division was already operating three other theaters in Ventura County; the Fox in Ventura, the Fox in Santa Paula, and the Conejo in Thousand Oaks.
The November 2, 1964, issue of Boxoffice said that the Annandale Theatre had recently opened. It also named the architect as Dwight G. Chase, and said that interior decoration was by Sydell Sandy, Alexandria. The house was operated by the Town Theatre Group.
The October 11, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that Stanley Warner’s new Topanga Theatre was scheduled to open on October 26 with the premier of “The Bedford Incident”. The regular opening would be on the 27th, with “Ship of Fools.”
The seating capacity of the new house was given as 1350, which would be in line with the other theaters Stanley Warner was building at the time. There’s a small reproduction of a rendering of the theater in Boxoffice, but it isn’t clear enough in the scan that I can read the architect’s name, which is not mentioned in the article.
The introductory paragraph on this page currently says that Reinhardt Dempwolf was the architect of the Strand. The theater’s official website attributes the Strand to E.C. Horn & Sons, as does spectrum in the comment of Oct 17, 2007, above.
Reinhardt Dempwolf was the architect of the Capitol Theatre. See this essay about J.A. Dempwolf Architects by Jim McClure, editor of the York Daily Record/Sunday News.
I’m going to put this here so it won’t get lost. Isaac “Ike” Silverman was Altoona’s first theater operator. He opened the Pastime Theatre as a nickelodeon in 1906, and eventually expanded it to 500 seats. Silverman opened the new Strand Theatre on the same block in 1916, and the Pastime was closed a year later and its building converted to retail use.
Boxoffice Magazine published an item in its August 21, 1937, issue saying that the Pastime Theatre building was being demolished. No address or street name was given for either theater in the Boxoffice article, but I’ve seen possibly reliable claims that the Strand (and thus the Pastime as well) was on 11th Avenue. If anybody can dig up addresses feel free to submit either or both theaters to Cinema Treasures.
The Blair Theatre was scheduled to open on December 23, 1937, according to the December 25 issue of Boxoffice Magazine that year. It was designed for the Silverman brothers by Pittsburgh architect Victor A. Rigaumont.
The Logan might be the theater described in an item published by Boxoffice Magazine on July 17, 1937, which said that Jacob and Isaac Silverman were building two new theaters in Pennsylvania: a 750 seat house in Hollidaysburg, and a two-story theatre 50'x120' in Altoona. Victor A. Rigaumont was the architect of both houses.
The Silverman Brothers were already operating a theater in Altoona called the Strand. I’ll poke around and see if I can find anything else about any of these theaters.
::pokes::
OK, the Logan was indeed the Rigaumont-designed house in Altoona, and had been re-scheduled for a grand opening on January 10, 1938, according to the December 25, 1937, issue of Boxoffice. Apparently there were more delays, because the February 12, 1938, issue of Boxoffice said that the Logan had opened “last week.”
The Hollidaysburg theater Rigaumont also designed was the Blair.
From the “Theatre Construction, Openings and Sales” column in the February 5, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine: “Premont, Tex.– R.H. Smith Theatres Inc., opened 500 seat Rig.”
The January, 1987, issue of Boxoffice Magazine announced that the City of Elkhart had ordered the demolition of the Bucklen Theatre building. A part of the theater’s roof had collapsed in March, 1978. This had been repaired, but another section of roof collapsed in December, 1981. Attempts to raise money to restore the venerable house were made, but had been unsuccessful.
The Elkhart Opera House had opened on September 29, 1884, with Mr. and Mrs. George S. Knight & Company appearing in their comic play “Over the Garden Wall,” which had been a great success in many cities across the country that year. Movies were first shown at the Opera House in the late 1890s, but the Boxoffice article fails to say when the theater became a full-time movie house.
As it says Fox Pantages on the ticket, I’d say that’s definitely an aka.
The January 13, 1975, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the former Fox Twin in San Antonio had reopened as a triplex on December 20, 1974. Actress Rhonda Fleming made a personal appearance at the opening. She had attended the opening of another Mann Theatre the previous day, at Lubbock.
Mann Theatres had plans to add three more screens to the Fox Central Park 3 at a future date, but it looks like they never got around to it.
The June 9, 1951, issue of Boxoffice said that N.N. Bernstein, operator of the State, had closed the theater on May 26, with no plans to reopen. Bernstein closed three additional houses the same weekend, in Hammond, Indiana, and in Waukegan and Harvey, Illinois. He cited losses due to competition from television and drive-in theaters.
The item also noted that the State had been built in 1940, and had opened in August of that year.
From Boxoffice Magazine, January 25, 1947: “Gene Mueller and Bob Dennis will open their new 850-seat Josephine Theatre here January 31. The owners are operating as Muel-Den Enterprises and have other businesses besides the theatre. They were projectionists for the Interstate circuit for many years and both are officers in the local projectionists union.”
Oddly enough, they won a Ronson pocket lighter.
I’ve found a mention of the Lyceum in the October 15, 1949, issue of Boxoffice. The house had won a minor prize for its performance in a charity fund-raising competition the magazine had been running.
Small picture of the State sandwiched between the National and Colonial in this photo, dating from the early 1960s, judging from the cars on the street.
Also interesting is this newsreel clip from 1933 (missing its soundtrack, alas) of the opening of the State. Mostly close-up shots.
The Ginter was designed by Richmond architect Fred Bishop, according to Boxoffice Magazine, September 11, 1937.
The November 15, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Morley Theatre had been dedicated on November 6. The article said that the new house had 1210 seats, but also gave the figures of 798 on the main floor, 512 in the balcony, which would add up to 1310. It’s anybody’s guess which figure was a typo. The article also mentioned that there were two crying rooms with seven seats each.
Guests at the opening included the theater’s architect, Jack Corgan, and its decorator, R. F. Churchill, both of Dallas. The first show kicked off with a half hour live performance by “Singin' Sam” Harrison, followed by the feature film, “Cynthia.”
The January 4, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that Erle G. Stilwell was the architect of the Center Theatre. The rendering in the magazine showed a four-story business building as part of the project, but the photos at Flickr show what looks like a theatre without any upper floors. The project must have been scaled down. The rounded marquee is the same in both, though.
A couple of interior photos of the recently remodeled Ark Theatre were published in the May 25, 1940, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The new Art Moderne design had been done by architect Erwin G. Fredrick, in association with interior designer Hans Teichert.