The Chester Theatre originally housed 712 seats, but by the mid-1970s according to a May 1976 article about the “then-new” Cinema Twin being constructed at the People’s Plaza Shopping Center, the Chester Theatre during its final years of operation did had a downgrade with its capacity to 490 (which occur sometime in the early-1970s).
The Chester Theatre closed its doors for the final time on June 3, 1976 with “Nashville Girl”, leaving the Chester Drive-In the only theater in town for a time. Unfortunately, the drive-in at the time mainly focused towards adult fare with some mainstream films being partially added to its lineup, meaning that stuff you see previously at the former first-run Chester Theatre were really hard to catch in Chester, otherwise people have to travel 15 miles north to see first-run movies in Rock Hill. This lasted until the launch of the Cinema Twin on November 30, 1976. Although the first-run stuff brought back to Chester after the launch of the twin, people who wanted to see selected mainstream titles throughout the years could either go to the Cinema Twin in Chester, or still go back up again to Rock Hill (via the Cherry Road Cinema 4 [later 7], Pix Theatre, or the Oakland Avenue Cinema).
This is the second out of two Chester Theatres in downtown Chester. The first Chester Theatre was devastated in a fire on July 29, 1939. Powell spent $55,000 on the second theater building on 163 Main just across the street from the then-Post Office on September 29 of that same year.
On May 3, 1979, the Alimar Theatre along with its neighboring Dixie Grill were both gutted by a fire. The fire occur a few hours after its screening of a double-feature, with one film being “Smokey And The Bandit”. The Live Oak Fire Department’s Chief Howard Wright said that it was reported by the daughter of the theater’s operator at the time, Paula Johnson.
Right after the credits roll and everyone left the theater after showing as normal for the evening, Johnson and her sister Debra Chauncy were the last to leave for the night. The pair after cleaning then went to one of the all-night convenience stores to buy food at approximately 3:00 AM that morning. At 3:11 AM is when the fire happened. Wright also said that during response, a Seaboard Coast Line train traveling through Live Oak delayed one pumper and a salvage truck from Station #1 from reaching the scene for seven minutes. Wright said that the engineer increased the SCL train’s speed to move out of the way so that way the fire department continue their Code 3 call. Meanwhile at Station #2 located one-and-a-half blocks south of the buildings, responded only with a pumper unit.
Local paperboy Robert Allen was picking up copies of the morning edition of the city’s newspaper one block east of the scene when he saw the blaze. Allen said that as he made the delivery on the north side, the whole downtown area looked as if it were on fire. Debris covered the city streets for blocks, and firefighters fight the blaze after opening the theater doors. Right after the fire extinguished, no damage estimates were made right after the fire was reported.
Later that month, it was reported that an arson might’ve caused multiple blazes throughout May 1979 in the city. His name is unrecognizable.
During the week of October 5, 1979, the Dixie Grill reopened its new location, but the Alimar Theatre though (which at the time was expecting to be renovated into a twin theater) was a mass of rubble.
A twin-screen theater named “Cinema 1 & 2” (which has its own Cinema Treasures page) would later open its doors somewhere on East Howard Street, although I cannot find any information about it.
Found it. The Autovue opened its gates by Ray Strawick on June 8, 1946 with Dick Powell in “Murder, My Sweet” along with an unnamed Disney cartoon and a newsreel. The Autovue originally had a capacity of 500 cars but expanded to 740 in the 1950s. The theater opened on the same day the East Trent Motor-In opened its gates.
In 1980, a large chunk of the theater’s capacity were replaced by a U-Haul facility and a Mel’s Nursery store, but the theater was still operational at the time.
The Autovue closed for the final time on October 7, 1984 with “Tightrope” and “Sudden Impact”.
The Brunswick Rt. 1 Drive-In closed for the final time on September 19, 1984 with “Ghostbusters” and “Christine”. It was demolished a year or two later and was replaced by a shopping center.
It used to occupy another store before the now-current 119,386-square foot Walmart was built. The Walmart opened its doors on October 26, 1993.
The Magnet Theatre opened its doors on April 1, 1921 with Mildred Harris Chaplin in “Polly Of The Storm Country” along with a comedy reel and a Kinogram. The Magnet name was named after Barre native Milton Bradley (the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Bradley) of 5 King Street who won $50 in a local theater-naming contest a day prior.
The Magnet was last operated by the Brigham Theatres chain led by manager Dave Higgins, and the theater closed for the final time on September 1, 1956 with “Raw Edge” and “Behind The High Wall” with no extra short subjects.
The Strand Theatre opened in 1927 but I cannot find its opening date.
Throughout much of 1939, the Strand became the only movie house in Vermont’s capital for a time after the nearby Playhouse Theatre was destroyed by a large fire on April 1 of that same year. After the much-larger Capitol Theatre opened its doors on November 2, 1939, its mainstream policy at the Strand slowly began to fall apart as the nearby Capitol Theatre immediately became the dominant mainstream movie theater in Montpelier. The Strand management had no choice to compete.
As the Capitol Theatre became the A-film theater for the capital in a flash after opening, the Strand ended up becoming a second-run and B-film theater.
The Strand closed for the final time on February 6, 1955 with “The Caine Munity” with no extras. After being abandoned for most of the year, the former Strand was converted into a bar, and the bar opened in December 1955.
The Playhouse Theatre opened its doors on Christmas Day 1916, and was first managed by L.W. Schultz.
On September 21, 1938, the 1938 Great New England Hurricane struck the northeast, marking the deadliest Northeast/New England hurricane in U.S. history. The Playhouse Theatre did receive damage from the storm. The Playhouse (managed by Ralph S. Gilbert at the time) immediately closed its doors for a time that evening after an elm tree leaned into the theater building’s roof from Category 1 winds, uprooting yards from the sidewalk and battered down a chimney showering tons of bricks and plaster through the roof. At the time of the roof damage although it didn’t receive as much damage as the other areas and states do, 150 people were in the Playhouse at the time getting set to watch Betty Grable’s “Campus Confessions” along with Evelyn Chandler in “Zero Girl”, a novelty, a newsreel, a movie quiz contest snipe, and a special appearance by Hank Luisetti before showing.
The theater reopened shortly afterward but on the morning of April 2, 1939, the Playhouse Theatre once again went into a disaster, this time it was destroyed by a large fire. This came right after the showing of Wallace Beery’s “Sergeant Madden” along with Colonel Stoopnagle’s Cavalade Of Stuff and a newsreel a day prior. Although nobody was killed or injured from the fire, the damage cost an estimate $100,000. Its upcoming showing of Walter Pidgeon’s “Society Lawyer” along with the latest March Of Time reel were forced to be canceled due to the fire.
On June 23, 1939, Gilbert along with operators from the former Playhouse made an appearance at the City Hall’s board of civil authority meeting, and obtained a rebate of $228 on the real estate and personal property under his theater company.
The theater building was immediately remodeled after the fire and after seven months and three days, then-new manager John J. Ford reopened the theater as the renamed Capitol Theatre on November 2, 1939 with the World Premiere of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in “Rulers Of The Sea” along with an unnamed Donald Duck cartoon and a March Of Time reel.
The Capitol Theatre on February 20, 1981 announced that renovation will take place by Barre’s Paramount Theatre owner Frederick Bashara, who at the time recently twinned the Paramount in Barre. Bashara said that an additional couple of screens will be added to the Capitol in Montpelier. Unfortunately, after its main auditorium was divided, it was first divided into two screens under its “first-phase”. The Capitol Theatre reopened as a twin-screen theater under the name “Capitol Showplace 1 & 2” on July 3, 1981 with “The Four Seasons” at Screen 1 and “Superman II” at Screen 2. Two more screens were added in 1983 bringing a total to four screens and was renamed “Capitol Showplace 1-4”. A fifth screen was added in the mid-to-late 1980s and was once again renamed to “Capitol Showplace 1-5”. In the early-2000s, the theater name was reverted back to its old “Capitol Theatre” name.
Definitely taken on September 22, 1938. I can tell because of the Category 1 damage from the remainings of the 1938 Great New England Hurricane a day prior. The elm tree leaned over the Playhouse’s building destroying its chimney and damaging the roof.
The roof made a rebuilt but it didn’t last long due to the April 1, 1939 fire that gutted the Playhouse in its entirety. The building was remodeled and the former Playhouse reopened under the Capitol Theatre name on November 2, 1939.
The Arlington Drive-In opened its gates by Southwest Theatres on Christmas Eve 1950 with Randolph Scott in “Abilene Town” (unclear if any short subjects were added). The theater originally had a car capacity of 550 but expanded to 600 when it was twinned in late-1968.
Note: The theater was named “Arlington Drive-In” throughout its entire life. There is no sign of the theater’s previous name as just simply “Drive-In”.
The Cinema 1-2 was first operated by Burlington native and longtime Burlington theater operator Merrill G. Jarvis, who was also the supervisor for the SBC chain. At the time the 1-2 was still under construction, Orero J. Bernardini, the longtime owner of the Mountain View Drive-In in Winooski, on April 13, 1970 gave Jarvis and his SBC chain a long-time lease wanting them to operate his drive-in which turned into a successful deal.
The Cinema 1-2 (later 1-2-3) was also notable for its location. The theater is located a few buildings away from Ted Bundy’s childhood home on Shelburne Road, and was the closest movie theater to that significant location.
This first opened as the AMC Lake Square 6 Theatres on May 22, 1981 with the following in screen order: “Four Seasons”, “Friday The 13th Part II”, “Death Hunt”, Walt Disney’s “Amy” and “Alice In Wonderland” reissue, “Goin' Ape”, and “Tess”. The opening of the theater also sponsors a free Los Angeles trip contest sponsored by Orlando’s then-hit music station WBJW-FM (now WOMX-FM) or BJ105 (now Mix 105.1).
In October 1995, six more screens were added bringing a total to 12 screens. It was an AMC theater throughout its entire life.
The Lake Sumter area of Lady Lake didn’t start constructing their project until the Spring of 2004. The Old Mill Playhouse Theatre is one of the first few to construct, and it opened its doors on August 27, 2004.
Original screen was 60ft and the original projection booth measures 40x40ft.
The Chester Theatre originally housed 712 seats, but by the mid-1970s according to a May 1976 article about the “then-new” Cinema Twin being constructed at the People’s Plaza Shopping Center, the Chester Theatre during its final years of operation did had a downgrade with its capacity to 490 (which occur sometime in the early-1970s).
The Chester Theatre closed its doors for the final time on June 3, 1976 with “Nashville Girl”, leaving the Chester Drive-In the only theater in town for a time. Unfortunately, the drive-in at the time mainly focused towards adult fare with some mainstream films being partially added to its lineup, meaning that stuff you see previously at the former first-run Chester Theatre were really hard to catch in Chester, otherwise people have to travel 15 miles north to see first-run movies in Rock Hill. This lasted until the launch of the Cinema Twin on November 30, 1976. Although the first-run stuff brought back to Chester after the launch of the twin, people who wanted to see selected mainstream titles throughout the years could either go to the Cinema Twin in Chester, or still go back up again to Rock Hill (via the Cherry Road Cinema 4 [later 7], Pix Theatre, or the Oakland Avenue Cinema).
This is the second out of two Chester Theatres in downtown Chester. The first Chester Theatre was devastated in a fire on July 29, 1939. Powell spent $55,000 on the second theater building on 163 Main just across the street from the then-Post Office on September 29 of that same year.
The former Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre location was short-lived, and operated from July 11, 1982 until Early 1984.
On May 3, 1979, the Alimar Theatre along with its neighboring Dixie Grill were both gutted by a fire. The fire occur a few hours after its screening of a double-feature, with one film being “Smokey And The Bandit”. The Live Oak Fire Department’s Chief Howard Wright said that it was reported by the daughter of the theater’s operator at the time, Paula Johnson.
Right after the credits roll and everyone left the theater after showing as normal for the evening, Johnson and her sister Debra Chauncy were the last to leave for the night. The pair after cleaning then went to one of the all-night convenience stores to buy food at approximately 3:00 AM that morning. At 3:11 AM is when the fire happened. Wright also said that during response, a Seaboard Coast Line train traveling through Live Oak delayed one pumper and a salvage truck from Station #1 from reaching the scene for seven minutes. Wright said that the engineer increased the SCL train’s speed to move out of the way so that way the fire department continue their Code 3 call. Meanwhile at Station #2 located one-and-a-half blocks south of the buildings, responded only with a pumper unit.
Local paperboy Robert Allen was picking up copies of the morning edition of the city’s newspaper one block east of the scene when he saw the blaze. Allen said that as he made the delivery on the north side, the whole downtown area looked as if it were on fire. Debris covered the city streets for blocks, and firefighters fight the blaze after opening the theater doors. Right after the fire extinguished, no damage estimates were made right after the fire was reported.
Later that month, it was reported that an arson might’ve caused multiple blazes throughout May 1979 in the city. His name is unrecognizable.
During the week of October 5, 1979, the Dixie Grill reopened its new location, but the Alimar Theatre though (which at the time was expecting to be renovated into a twin theater) was a mass of rubble.
A twin-screen theater named “Cinema 1 & 2” (which has its own Cinema Treasures page) would later open its doors somewhere on East Howard Street, although I cannot find any information about it.
Closed on March 29, 1990 with “The Hunt For Red October” at Screen 1, “Joe Versus The Volcano” at Screen 2, and “My Left Foot” at Screen 3.
This was first known as “Darbey’s Top-Hi Drive-In” when it opened in October 1950.
So then it must say that this was the first “in the United States” to simulcast movie audio via FM Stereo in 1986.
December 18, 1959
Found it. The Autovue opened its gates by Ray Strawick on June 8, 1946 with Dick Powell in “Murder, My Sweet” along with an unnamed Disney cartoon and a newsreel. The Autovue originally had a capacity of 500 cars but expanded to 740 in the 1950s. The theater opened on the same day the East Trent Motor-In opened its gates.
In 1980, a large chunk of the theater’s capacity were replaced by a U-Haul facility and a Mel’s Nursery store, but the theater was still operational at the time.
The Autovue closed for the final time on October 7, 1984 with “Tightrope” and “Sudden Impact”.
Regal Cinemas once operated the Delaware Squares Movies from April 1994 until November 2000.
This closed as the Art Cinema in 1978.
I know.
Closed on September 6, 1999.
The Brunswick Rt. 1 Drive-In closed for the final time on September 19, 1984 with “Ghostbusters” and “Christine”. It was demolished a year or two later and was replaced by a shopping center.
It used to occupy another store before the now-current 119,386-square foot Walmart was built. The Walmart opened its doors on October 26, 1993.
The Magnet Theatre opened its doors on April 1, 1921 with Mildred Harris Chaplin in “Polly Of The Storm Country” along with a comedy reel and a Kinogram. The Magnet name was named after Barre native Milton Bradley (the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Bradley) of 5 King Street who won $50 in a local theater-naming contest a day prior.
The Magnet was last operated by the Brigham Theatres chain led by manager Dave Higgins, and the theater closed for the final time on September 1, 1956 with “Raw Edge” and “Behind The High Wall” with no extra short subjects.
Twinned on February 20, 1981.
The Strand Theatre opened in 1927 but I cannot find its opening date.
Throughout much of 1939, the Strand became the only movie house in Vermont’s capital for a time after the nearby Playhouse Theatre was destroyed by a large fire on April 1 of that same year. After the much-larger Capitol Theatre opened its doors on November 2, 1939, its mainstream policy at the Strand slowly began to fall apart as the nearby Capitol Theatre immediately became the dominant mainstream movie theater in Montpelier. The Strand management had no choice to compete.
As the Capitol Theatre became the A-film theater for the capital in a flash after opening, the Strand ended up becoming a second-run and B-film theater.
The Strand closed for the final time on February 6, 1955 with “The Caine Munity” with no extras. After being abandoned for most of the year, the former Strand was converted into a bar, and the bar opened in December 1955.
The Playhouse Theatre opened its doors on Christmas Day 1916, and was first managed by L.W. Schultz.
On September 21, 1938, the 1938 Great New England Hurricane struck the northeast, marking the deadliest Northeast/New England hurricane in U.S. history. The Playhouse Theatre did receive damage from the storm. The Playhouse (managed by Ralph S. Gilbert at the time) immediately closed its doors for a time that evening after an elm tree leaned into the theater building’s roof from Category 1 winds, uprooting yards from the sidewalk and battered down a chimney showering tons of bricks and plaster through the roof. At the time of the roof damage although it didn’t receive as much damage as the other areas and states do, 150 people were in the Playhouse at the time getting set to watch Betty Grable’s “Campus Confessions” along with Evelyn Chandler in “Zero Girl”, a novelty, a newsreel, a movie quiz contest snipe, and a special appearance by Hank Luisetti before showing.
The theater reopened shortly afterward but on the morning of April 2, 1939, the Playhouse Theatre once again went into a disaster, this time it was destroyed by a large fire. This came right after the showing of Wallace Beery’s “Sergeant Madden” along with Colonel Stoopnagle’s Cavalade Of Stuff and a newsreel a day prior. Although nobody was killed or injured from the fire, the damage cost an estimate $100,000. Its upcoming showing of Walter Pidgeon’s “Society Lawyer” along with the latest March Of Time reel were forced to be canceled due to the fire.
On June 23, 1939, Gilbert along with operators from the former Playhouse made an appearance at the City Hall’s board of civil authority meeting, and obtained a rebate of $228 on the real estate and personal property under his theater company.
The theater building was immediately remodeled after the fire and after seven months and three days, then-new manager John J. Ford reopened the theater as the renamed Capitol Theatre on November 2, 1939 with the World Premiere of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in “Rulers Of The Sea” along with an unnamed Donald Duck cartoon and a March Of Time reel.
The Capitol Theatre on February 20, 1981 announced that renovation will take place by Barre’s Paramount Theatre owner Frederick Bashara, who at the time recently twinned the Paramount in Barre. Bashara said that an additional couple of screens will be added to the Capitol in Montpelier. Unfortunately, after its main auditorium was divided, it was first divided into two screens under its “first-phase”. The Capitol Theatre reopened as a twin-screen theater under the name “Capitol Showplace 1 & 2” on July 3, 1981 with “The Four Seasons” at Screen 1 and “Superman II” at Screen 2. Two more screens were added in 1983 bringing a total to four screens and was renamed “Capitol Showplace 1-4”. A fifth screen was added in the mid-to-late 1980s and was once again renamed to “Capitol Showplace 1-5”. In the early-2000s, the theater name was reverted back to its old “Capitol Theatre” name.
Definitely taken on September 22, 1938. I can tell because of the Category 1 damage from the remainings of the 1938 Great New England Hurricane a day prior. The elm tree leaned over the Playhouse’s building destroying its chimney and damaging the roof.
The roof made a rebuilt but it didn’t last long due to the April 1, 1939 fire that gutted the Playhouse in its entirety. The building was remodeled and the former Playhouse reopened under the Capitol Theatre name on November 2, 1939.
The Arlington Drive-In opened its gates by Southwest Theatres on Christmas Eve 1950 with Randolph Scott in “Abilene Town” (unclear if any short subjects were added). The theater originally had a car capacity of 550 but expanded to 600 when it was twinned in late-1968.
Note: The theater was named “Arlington Drive-In” throughout its entire life. There is no sign of the theater’s previous name as just simply “Drive-In”.
The Cinema 1-2 was first operated by Burlington native and longtime Burlington theater operator Merrill G. Jarvis, who was also the supervisor for the SBC chain. At the time the 1-2 was still under construction, Orero J. Bernardini, the longtime owner of the Mountain View Drive-In in Winooski, on April 13, 1970 gave Jarvis and his SBC chain a long-time lease wanting them to operate his drive-in which turned into a successful deal.
The Cinema 1-2 (later 1-2-3) was also notable for its location. The theater is located a few buildings away from Ted Bundy’s childhood home on Shelburne Road, and was the closest movie theater to that significant location.
This first opened as the AMC Lake Square 6 Theatres on May 22, 1981 with the following in screen order: “Four Seasons”, “Friday The 13th Part II”, “Death Hunt”, Walt Disney’s “Amy” and “Alice In Wonderland” reissue, “Goin' Ape”, and “Tess”. The opening of the theater also sponsors a free Los Angeles trip contest sponsored by Orlando’s then-hit music station WBJW-FM (now WOMX-FM) or BJ105 (now Mix 105.1).
In October 1995, six more screens were added bringing a total to 12 screens. It was an AMC theater throughout its entire life.
Opened on January 17, 1998.
The Lake Sumter area of Lady Lake didn’t start constructing their project until the Spring of 2004. The Old Mill Playhouse Theatre is one of the first few to construct, and it opened its doors on August 27, 2004.