At the center top of this photograph at the USC digital archives, there can be seen the rear of a theatre with the painted sign “Strand Theatre' on its wall (use the archive’s "zoom” feature to enlarge the section and make the writing legible.) This is probably the Mozart, which I believe was the only theatre on that block of Grand Avenue. I’ve also found that the name Orange Grove was used for this theatre in the mid-1920’s, not the 1940’s.
Incidentally, though the photo is labeled by the archives as being from 1921, it must be from 1920 or earlier, as demolition of the buildings left foreground on 7th and Broadway, where Loew’s State Theatre opened in 1921, had not yet begun.
vokoban: The June 12, 1926 article you posted is particularly interesting for its mention of the Orange Grove Theatre. That was one of the names used by the Mozart Theatre on Grand Avenue. That’s a rather mysterious theatre itself, and it’s been difficult to track down much solid information about it.
The last line of that article sounds a bit strange today. I wonder if somebody Googling for “Morrissey” will come across this post in their results and be terribly confused?
It also seems a bit odd that Beau Deep refers to the Majestic with the phrase “…those antiquated purlieus…” in his 1933 remembrance. The place was only 25 years old! I supposed it probably did seem antiquated in comparison to the new Orpheum across the street, though, and the even newer Los Angeles Theatre a few blocks up. Broadway’s theatres did become far more lavish over that quarter century.
I’ve heard excerpts from the 1884 Manon by Massenet, and the entire 1893 Manon by Puccini, but Auber’s earlier version is so rarely recorded (and almost as rarely performed) that I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much as a single aria from it.
The Lyric Opera company’s ticket prices seem quite reasonable, though. The ten dollar tickets are probably for the second balcony. I’ve only ever been up there once, but I recall the view being fairly decent— in fact, better than the comparable seats in the Music Center’s Ahmanson Theatre (though the best seats in the Los Angeles are definitely those in the side sections that extend from the first balcony.) I wish I could get to L.A. for this event. Even if Auber was no Puccini, it would be worth sitting through an archaic, Victorian opera just to see the Los Angeles Theatre in operation again.
Oops. My bad. The link I posted goes to the same page ken mc linked to in the comment just above mine. Remind me to click previously posted links before adding a new one.
Here is a page containing a photo of the Admiral Theatre on it’s opening night, January 22, 1942. The caption of the photo reveals that the theatre was owned by John Danz’s Sterling Theaters (later SRO), and that it opened with 1000 seats.
According to a photo caption on this page, the classical Greek Revival facade of the Colonial Theatre was still intact as late as 1981. By 2001, the location was occupied by a Borders book store. The caption does not say whether the building was replaced or merely remodeled.
It seems from that article that all six of Greenville’s Main Street theatres were in operation from 1925 until perhaps as late as 1947, when the oldest of them, the 1905 Bijou burned. It says that the Majestic and the Casino didn’t make it past the end of the 1950’s, and that the Carolina closed in the 1960’s and the Rivoli/Fox closed in 1978. The only theatre whose closing period is not mentioned is the Rialto. So, unless the Rialto closed earlier than the Bijou, Greenville supported six movie houses for more than two decades.
The article says nothing about which theatres might have been demolished, or if any are still standing. Even the Bijou is said only to have been “gutted” by the fire, so it’s possible the building is still there, used for something else. I’ve never been to Greenville, so I don’t know if any of the buildings have survived. If there is a local historical society or a history room at the local library, the information would probably be known to someone there.
Ah, so it is. My mistake. I just checked their Greenville, South Carolina page and there are no pictures there of any theatres except one modern multiplex. In fact, none of Greenville’s old Main Street theatres are listed on that site at all, not even the Carolina (my link to the Carolina in my earlier comment doesn’t work for some reason.) At one time, there were apparently six theatres on Main Street: The Bijou, the Carolina, the Rivoli/Fox (all listed at CT), the Casino, the Rialto, and the Majestic (not yet listed.)
I expect day-and-date release to be an advantage for small, independent movies that rely on word of mouth to maximize their audience. Blockbusters with corporate money can saturate the theatres and spend as much on advertising as was spent on making the movie. Of course, if the movie is crap, all the advertising won’t bail it out, but the saturation of theatres will at least bring in some revenue before the negative word-of-mouth kills the box office. I don’t think the big, expensive movies will gain anything by day-and-date release.
The small movie can only afford to be in a few theatres at a time, and will probably never be shown at all in some markets unless word-of-mouth makes it a sleeper hit. Releasing such a movie to DVD and, even more importantly, to the Internet at the same time as it is released to theatres may be able to serve as the independent filmmaker’s substitute for the millions the big boys spend on advertising and widely distributing their costly special effects movies.
In the long run, assuming a particular independent movie is good enough to attract an audience at all, day-and-date release may actually help it sell more tickets to its theatrical runs, and even get it into more theatres than it would have been in otherwise. We’ll have to wait and see if it works out this way, but I’d say it’s worth trying.
This entry needs to be corrected. I beleive the correct address is 523 South Main. 533 South Main was the address of the Optic Theatre. This rough map, c1950, shows the “Gayety” theatre north of the Star Theatre, which was at 529 South Main. I believe that the Gaiety was a later name for the theatre at 523 South Main, which was opened by Charles Alphin some years before 1914, and at various times went by the names Olympic (before 1914), Alphin (c1914), Omar (c1917) and Moon (c1923.)
Here is a circa 1917 photograph showing the Omar Theatre at lower left. I’ve come to these conclusions about this theatre mainly from information in various comments by vokoban, ken mc, and Alphin on Cinema Treasures Optic Theatre page.
Maybe somebody familiar with Lincoln Heights can help clarify an old memory I have. A few times when I was a kid we drove through the neighborhood around Five Points, and somewhere in that area I recall seeing a very old theatre which had been converted into a school supply store. This was in the late 1950’s-early 1960’s, and the place looked as though it hadn’t been used as a theatre for years. I can’t remember which street it was on, but it was close to a main intersection. I don’t know what it’s name had been as a theatre, either, so I don’t know if it is listed at Cinema Treasures or not. I don’t think it was on North Broadway, because I recall the street it was on as being narrower. This vague memory has been nagging me for years, and I’d be happy to know just where this place was.
Stockton was a fairly large city by the time movies were invented and, until the recent burgeoning of Bakersfield, was long the third largest city in the central valley. I’d be very surprised if the city had not had at least a dozen movie theatres over the years. Unfortunately, Stockton’s old center was largely wiped out by urban renewal projects beginning in the 1960’s, so it’s unlikely that many of the buildings containing those theatres survived. I only ever visited downtown Stockton three or four times, and that in the 1970’s when demolition was already well advanced.
Incidentally, the web page listing Robert Lippert Theatres (the company owned two in Stockton; the Liberty and the Lincoln) has expired, ints domain name not having been renewed. For the time being you can still see the Google cache of the page here.
The Fox opened as the Rivoli in 1925. Like the nearby Carolina Theatre, opened the same year, it was designed by local architects Beacham and LeGrand. As the Rivoli, it seated 750. Closed in 1949, it was renovated and reopened as the Fox, which then operated until 1978.
Patsy: I’ve searched for photos of Greenville’s theatres on the web, but I’ve found only one small picture of a theatre called the State at this CinemaTour page.
A story published today (Feb 8, 2006- I believe it will be available for seven days) at the web site GreenvilleOnline describes the Carolina Theater. The article gives the opening as June, 1925; says that the theatre was fitted out for stage productions as well as movies; gives the seating capacity as 1,400; reveals that the theatre’s Wurlitzer organ cost $20,000 dollars; and names the designers as local architects Beacham and LeGrand. It confirms that the theatre was located on Main Street, but the exact address is not given. It was closed sometime in the 1960’s.
Several other Greenville theatres are mentioned in the article, but with little detail. Names, and a few opening and closing dates are given.
Here is a brief essay about the Metropolitan, on the occasion of its closing, from the Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. There are three small photographs of the theatre.
Welcome to Cinema Treasures, Howard. You might find some of your grandfather’s other theatres listed here (though if their names have changed over the years, they’ll probably be listed under their later names.) Any information you can provide about any of them would be welcome, as would information about any theatres not yet listed here.
The Colorado was a rather plain theatre, especially when compared to its competitor a few blocks away, the Egyptian-styled Uptown. The Quonset hut style became popular for a while in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. I know of two other quonset hut theatres from that period within a few miles of Pasadena: the Garmar, in Montebello, and the Star in La Puente. I recall seeing quonset hut theatres in other parts of Los Angeles, but can’t remember their names offhand.
I’ve also seen quite a few such theatres in other places listed at Cinema Treasures. Not even counting theatres on military bases, many of which were in quonset huts, large or small, I think it’s likely that upward of a hundred quonset hut theatres were built in the U.S. during those years. It was about the cheapest form of construction available at the time.
So, the theatre must have opened in very late 1924 or early 1925 as the New Broadway Theater, and then dropped the “New” from its name before March of 1926 (assuming that the Times' reporters got the names right.) The building’s owners were lucky to get such a reliable tenant as the Broadway. That endless parade of arriving and departing retail tenants prior to the theatre’s 60-some year occupancy must have been annoying.
I notice that Rivest’s latest list only shows “? 1930-1988” for this theatre. I wonder what his source for the original 1919 date was? Both Tally’s New Broadway at 554 S. and the Tally’s Broadway at 833 S. are documented in the L.A. library photo collection, but this theatre isn’t, and it isn’t mentioned in the library’s California Index, either.
Apparently, Tally gave up the original New Broadway when he opened the Broadway next to Hamburger’s (later the May Company), and that’s when it became the Garnett. As the Broadway remained open until 1929, when it was demolished to make way for an expansion to the May Company, it would have made sense for Tally to revive the New Broadway name for this theatre at 428 S. Broadway. Even at that, the question remains of exactly when this theatre opened, though.
At the center top of this photograph at the USC digital archives, there can be seen the rear of a theatre with the painted sign “Strand Theatre' on its wall (use the archive’s "zoom” feature to enlarge the section and make the writing legible.) This is probably the Mozart, which I believe was the only theatre on that block of Grand Avenue. I’ve also found that the name Orange Grove was used for this theatre in the mid-1920’s, not the 1940’s.
Incidentally, though the photo is labeled by the archives as being from 1921, it must be from 1920 or earlier, as demolition of the buildings left foreground on 7th and Broadway, where Loew’s State Theatre opened in 1921, had not yet begun.
vokoban: The June 12, 1926 article you posted is particularly interesting for its mention of the Orange Grove Theatre. That was one of the names used by the Mozart Theatre on Grand Avenue. That’s a rather mysterious theatre itself, and it’s been difficult to track down much solid information about it.
The last line of that article sounds a bit strange today. I wonder if somebody Googling for “Morrissey” will come across this post in their results and be terribly confused?
It also seems a bit odd that Beau Deep refers to the Majestic with the phrase “…those antiquated purlieus…” in his 1933 remembrance. The place was only 25 years old! I supposed it probably did seem antiquated in comparison to the new Orpheum across the street, though, and the even newer Los Angeles Theatre a few blocks up. Broadway’s theatres did become far more lavish over that quarter century.
I’ve heard excerpts from the 1884 Manon by Massenet, and the entire 1893 Manon by Puccini, but Auber’s earlier version is so rarely recorded (and almost as rarely performed) that I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much as a single aria from it.
The Lyric Opera company’s ticket prices seem quite reasonable, though. The ten dollar tickets are probably for the second balcony. I’ve only ever been up there once, but I recall the view being fairly decent— in fact, better than the comparable seats in the Music Center’s Ahmanson Theatre (though the best seats in the Los Angeles are definitely those in the side sections that extend from the first balcony.) I wish I could get to L.A. for this event. Even if Auber was no Puccini, it would be worth sitting through an archaic, Victorian opera just to see the Los Angeles Theatre in operation again.
Ken, the theatre on the right is the Rialto.
There is also an interesting bird’s eye view of the demolition of the Metropolitan in 1956.
Oops. My bad. The link I posted goes to the same page ken mc linked to in the comment just above mine. Remind me to click previously posted links before adding a new one.
Here is a page containing a photo of the Admiral Theatre on it’s opening night, January 22, 1942. The caption of the photo reveals that the theatre was owned by John Danz’s Sterling Theaters (later SRO), and that it opened with 1000 seats.
According to a photo caption on this page, the classical Greek Revival facade of the Colonial Theatre was still intact as late as 1981. By 2001, the location was occupied by a Borders book store. The caption does not say whether the building was replaced or merely remodeled.
The East Tennessee Paranormal society has a page about the Bijou, with a few small historic photographs.
It seems from that article that all six of Greenville’s Main Street theatres were in operation from 1925 until perhaps as late as 1947, when the oldest of them, the 1905 Bijou burned. It says that the Majestic and the Casino didn’t make it past the end of the 1950’s, and that the Carolina closed in the 1960’s and the Rivoli/Fox closed in 1978. The only theatre whose closing period is not mentioned is the Rialto. So, unless the Rialto closed earlier than the Bijou, Greenville supported six movie houses for more than two decades.
The article says nothing about which theatres might have been demolished, or if any are still standing. Even the Bijou is said only to have been “gutted” by the fire, so it’s possible the building is still there, used for something else. I’ve never been to Greenville, so I don’t know if any of the buildings have survived. If there is a local historical society or a history room at the local library, the information would probably be known to someone there.
Ah, so it is. My mistake. I just checked their Greenville, South Carolina page and there are no pictures there of any theatres except one modern multiplex. In fact, none of Greenville’s old Main Street theatres are listed on that site at all, not even the Carolina (my link to the Carolina in my earlier comment doesn’t work for some reason.) At one time, there were apparently six theatres on Main Street: The Bijou, the Carolina, the Rivoli/Fox (all listed at CT), the Casino, the Rialto, and the Majestic (not yet listed.)
I expect day-and-date release to be an advantage for small, independent movies that rely on word of mouth to maximize their audience. Blockbusters with corporate money can saturate the theatres and spend as much on advertising as was spent on making the movie. Of course, if the movie is crap, all the advertising won’t bail it out, but the saturation of theatres will at least bring in some revenue before the negative word-of-mouth kills the box office. I don’t think the big, expensive movies will gain anything by day-and-date release.
The small movie can only afford to be in a few theatres at a time, and will probably never be shown at all in some markets unless word-of-mouth makes it a sleeper hit. Releasing such a movie to DVD and, even more importantly, to the Internet at the same time as it is released to theatres may be able to serve as the independent filmmaker’s substitute for the millions the big boys spend on advertising and widely distributing their costly special effects movies.
In the long run, assuming a particular independent movie is good enough to attract an audience at all, day-and-date release may actually help it sell more tickets to its theatrical runs, and even get it into more theatres than it would have been in otherwise. We’ll have to wait and see if it works out this way, but I’d say it’s worth trying.
This entry needs to be corrected. I beleive the correct address is 523 South Main. 533 South Main was the address of the Optic Theatre. This rough map, c1950, shows the “Gayety” theatre north of the Star Theatre, which was at 529 South Main. I believe that the Gaiety was a later name for the theatre at 523 South Main, which was opened by Charles Alphin some years before 1914, and at various times went by the names Olympic (before 1914), Alphin (c1914), Omar (c1917) and Moon (c1923.)
Here is a circa 1917 photograph showing the Omar Theatre at lower left. I’ve come to these conclusions about this theatre mainly from information in various comments by vokoban, ken mc, and Alphin on Cinema Treasures Optic Theatre page.
Maybe somebody familiar with Lincoln Heights can help clarify an old memory I have. A few times when I was a kid we drove through the neighborhood around Five Points, and somewhere in that area I recall seeing a very old theatre which had been converted into a school supply store. This was in the late 1950’s-early 1960’s, and the place looked as though it hadn’t been used as a theatre for years. I can’t remember which street it was on, but it was close to a main intersection. I don’t know what it’s name had been as a theatre, either, so I don’t know if it is listed at Cinema Treasures or not. I don’t think it was on North Broadway, because I recall the street it was on as being narrower. This vague memory has been nagging me for years, and I’d be happy to know just where this place was.
Stockton was a fairly large city by the time movies were invented and, until the recent burgeoning of Bakersfield, was long the third largest city in the central valley. I’d be very surprised if the city had not had at least a dozen movie theatres over the years. Unfortunately, Stockton’s old center was largely wiped out by urban renewal projects beginning in the 1960’s, so it’s unlikely that many of the buildings containing those theatres survived. I only ever visited downtown Stockton three or four times, and that in the 1970’s when demolition was already well advanced.
Incidentally, the web page listing Robert Lippert Theatres (the company owned two in Stockton; the Liberty and the Lincoln) has expired, ints domain name not having been renewed. For the time being you can still see the Google cache of the page here.
The Fox opened as the Rivoli in 1925. Like the nearby Carolina Theatre, opened the same year, it was designed by local architects Beacham and LeGrand. As the Rivoli, it seated 750. Closed in 1949, it was renovated and reopened as the Fox, which then operated until 1978.
Patsy: I’ve searched for photos of Greenville’s theatres on the web, but I’ve found only one small picture of a theatre called the State at this CinemaTour page.
The Fox was Greenville’s last surviving downtown theatre. It closed in 1978.
A story published today (Feb 8, 2006- I believe it will be available for seven days) at the web site GreenvilleOnline describes the Carolina Theater. The article gives the opening as June, 1925; says that the theatre was fitted out for stage productions as well as movies; gives the seating capacity as 1,400; reveals that the theatre’s Wurlitzer organ cost $20,000 dollars; and names the designers as local architects Beacham and LeGrand. It confirms that the theatre was located on Main Street, but the exact address is not given. It was closed sometime in the 1960’s.
Several other Greenville theatres are mentioned in the article, but with little detail. Names, and a few opening and closing dates are given.
Here is a brief essay about the Metropolitan, on the occasion of its closing, from the Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. There are three small photographs of the theatre.
The second link posted by Lost Memory on May 25 2005 no longer works.
Here is the new Moore Theatre Home Page.
Here is the Moore Theatre History Page.
Welcome to Cinema Treasures, Howard. You might find some of your grandfather’s other theatres listed here (though if their names have changed over the years, they’ll probably be listed under their later names.) Any information you can provide about any of them would be welcome, as would information about any theatres not yet listed here.
The Colorado was a rather plain theatre, especially when compared to its competitor a few blocks away, the Egyptian-styled Uptown. The Quonset hut style became popular for a while in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. I know of two other quonset hut theatres from that period within a few miles of Pasadena: the Garmar, in Montebello, and the Star in La Puente. I recall seeing quonset hut theatres in other parts of Los Angeles, but can’t remember their names offhand.
I’ve also seen quite a few such theatres in other places listed at Cinema Treasures. Not even counting theatres on military bases, many of which were in quonset huts, large or small, I think it’s likely that upward of a hundred quonset hut theatres were built in the U.S. during those years. It was about the cheapest form of construction available at the time.
So, the theatre must have opened in very late 1924 or early 1925 as the New Broadway Theater, and then dropped the “New” from its name before March of 1926 (assuming that the Times' reporters got the names right.) The building’s owners were lucky to get such a reliable tenant as the Broadway. That endless parade of arriving and departing retail tenants prior to the theatre’s 60-some year occupancy must have been annoying.
I notice that Rivest’s latest list only shows “? 1930-1988” for this theatre. I wonder what his source for the original 1919 date was? Both Tally’s New Broadway at 554 S. and the Tally’s Broadway at 833 S. are documented in the L.A. library photo collection, but this theatre isn’t, and it isn’t mentioned in the library’s California Index, either.
Apparently, Tally gave up the original New Broadway when he opened the Broadway next to Hamburger’s (later the May Company), and that’s when it became the Garnett. As the Broadway remained open until 1929, when it was demolished to make way for an expansion to the May Company, it would have made sense for Tally to revive the New Broadway name for this theatre at 428 S. Broadway. Even at that, the question remains of exactly when this theatre opened, though.
Maybe the letters were stolen. Investigators should look for a guy named Bo.