One source says that the Mecca Theatre originally opened around 1915 in the same block of Main Street the Palace Theatre was later built in, but it burned in 1924 and was rebuilt in the 100 N block of Main Street, across the street from the depot. The depot is at 169 N. Main, and one of the buildings across from it has a copy of the photo of the Mecca we have above mounted on its front. This is supposed to have been the Mecca’s building, though it isn’t recognizable.
The building has no visible street number, but judging from the businesses up and down the block it is probably about 124 N. Main. The front and the alley side display several posters advertising various productions of the Cumberland County Playhouse, and the side wall has the theater company’s name on it. The Playhouse itself is at another location, but as the old Mecca building has the company’s sign on it, it must serve some auxiliary purpose, though there’s no clue what.
Here is a Google street view. Oddly, a street view notation says this is the location of an outfit called Southern Crane, but a search for Southern Crane gives that company a totally different address.
We are missing an aka for this house. This item is from the August 1, 1917 issue of The New York Clipper: “Saginaw, Mich., July 29. — Charles Carlisle, manager of the Mecca Theatre, is back on the job after a week in the hospital. The management of this house has taken over the Palace Theatre and will conduct it as a high class picture house, renaming it the Mecca-Palace. The old Mecca is now called the Grand.” I haven’t discovered how long the Grand operated, but it was not listed in 1926.
This item appears in the July 15, 1946 issue of Motion Picture News: “Among new theatres nearly completed in this area are C. T. Nelson’s Park in Hahira, Ga., which is expected to open about Aug. 1.” Why the Park was being rebuilt in 1946 is explained by this earlier item from Showmen’s Trade Review of April 6 that same year: “The Park Theatre, Hahira, Ga., was destroyed by fire when flames swept the entire central business block of the South Georgia tobacco center.”
The April 17, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the new theater to be built at Russellville, Alabama, for the Hartselle Theatre Corp. of Nashville would be designed by the architectural firm of Speight & Hibbs. Clarence Speight and Lacy Hibbs established their practice in 1937. Cinema Treasures currently attributes eight other movie theaters to the firm.
A vacant lot in 1904, by 1911 the site of the Grand Theatre was occupied by a two-story wood framed building with a furniture store on the ground floor and an Opera House upstairs. By 1919, a Sanborn map shows a motion picture theater on the ground floor and a “Hall” upstairs. The map now has the notation “stuccoed” for the building, which was still wood framed. It seems likely that the modern building is the same one, but with a brick veneer added at some point. It also seems likely that movies were shown in the upstairs hall for some time before the dedicated movie house was installed on the ground floor.
For most of its history the Grand was operated by members of the Vincent family. For five years between 1929 and 1934 it was operated by Emil Plain. A Thursday, January 24, 1929 item about the transfer in Film Daily noted that Wilfrid Vincent had operated the house for about ten years, suggesting that it might have been he who had installed the house on the ground floor, possibly by late 1918 and certainly by August, 1919, when it appeared on the Sanborn map. After Plain’s lease expired in 1934, the Grand returned to the Vincents control, operated by Wilfrid’s son Irving and then by Irving’s wife Magdalene, who was still operating the house when it closed in 1976.
This house was once part of the Miner circuit, as noted in this item from the April 23, 1957 issue of Motion Picture Daily: “Leo Miner has sold the Isle Theatre, Cumberland, Wisc. to Robert Taylor of Menomonie, Wisc. The house has been part of the Miner circuit for several years.”
The theater’s current occupant, Nezzy’s Sports Bar & Grill, is now billing itself as the Isle Event Center. The web site has a few recent photos of the space.
Scheicke’s address for the theater is wrong, but the remainder, including the opening year, appears to be correct. The apartment house now on the theater’s site (and adjacent lots) uses the address 215 Grand.
This is the description of the Badger Theatre in Konrad Scheicke’s Historic Movie Theatres of Wisconsin:“206 Grand Avenue. Open: 1904; closed: 1960; seats: 500 The Badger Hotel and Opera House opened on October 10, 1904, in a ‘flat iron design’ by architects Van Ryn and DeGelleke. Movies started to be presented around 1911. The entire structure was gutted by fire in 1967.”
Henry J. Van Ryn and Gerrit Jacob DeGelleke had one of Milwaukee’s leading architectural firms during the first third of the 20th century.
Konrad Scheicke’s Historic Movie Theatres of Wisconsin has this brief paragraph for the Milltown Theatre: “Milltown Theatre Main Street. Open: 1946; closed: 1970; seats: 358 The theatre was built by Paulsen Amusements who also built the theatre in Amery. The theatre building is currently [2009] for sale.”
The Roza Theatre opened on January 25, 1947 with Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical “State Fair.” According to comments on a Zillah history page at Facebook, the theater building was next door to the Granger building on 1st Avenue, and was still standing as recently as 2016, but has since been demolished. The address of the theater was probably 507 1st Avenue. This Facebook page has a photo clipped from a 1951 issue of the Yakima Valley Mirror showing the 500 Block of 1st Avenue with the modest, concrete block Roza Theatre building at left.
Anthony Bou offered this drive-in and his indoor Mendota Theatre for sale in 1963, citing poor health as his reason for selling. Both were still in operation at that time.
Zooming in with Google Street View we can see that the building at 719 Quince has the name “A. Bou” on its parapet. It also has the year 1941 on it, presumably the year it was built. I don’t see how there could be any doubt that this was the building that housed Anthony Bou’s Mendota Theatre.
In a classified ad in the July 15, 1963 issue of Boxoffice, Anthony Bou offered a 500-space drive-in theater and a 512-seat conventional theater showing “Spanish films” for sale. The ad gave Bou’s reason for selling as “[f]orced to retire from business, bad health.”
This item appears in the March 23, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World: “NEOSHO, MO.—White Way is name of new moving picture theater opened here by G. D. Hall.”
I haven’t yet come across a reference to the Rex, but I would not be surprised if Grand was not just an aka for the Masonic Opera House. Although the Cahn guides listed it as the Masonic Opera House, theatrical journals of the period such as Billboard often called it the Oskaloosa Grand Opera House, and the earliest mention of it in Moving Picture World (from 1908) also called it the Grand Opera House.
Nothing about the Unique, but an item in the April 6, 1912 issue of Moving Picture World pertains to the profusion of theaters in Oskaloosa. It says that there were then five movie theaters operating in the city of 10,000. Managers of four houses had formed a combine with the purpose of buying the lease on the fifth house and closing it permanently, but the County Attorney had implied that if they attempted to carry out this plan he could prosecute them under Iowa’s rather strict laws forbidding combines to restrain trade in any way. Hefty fines of $500 to $5,000 and/or up to a year in prison were the prescribed punishments. I’ve found no follow-up articles about the plan, so I suspect the managers had wise second thoughts and gave it up.
Whether the Palace opened in 1908 or not, it underwent rebuilding in 1911, according to the June issue of Motography that year: “The new Palace theater of Oskaloosa which has been in the hands of the carpenters and decorators for some time, has again opened its doors to the public. The theater has been rebuilt at much expense. All the material used has been the very best. The front of the theater is illuminated by nearly 300 electric lights. The house is ventilated by two rear exits and eight large fans and is always cool. Newell Bros. are the owners and operators.”
Oskaloosa’s Lyric Theatre, then operated by E. M. McCray, was mentioned in the October 6, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World. The house had just enjoyed great success with a full week run of the Metro feature “The Slacker.”
The Palace is the only Oskaloosa house we have listed on First Avenue West, so I’ll put this item from the July 4, 1908 issue of Moving Picture World here: “Oskaloosa, Ia.— E. T. McCormick and Herbert Hanna have leased the Mateer building on First avenue west and will open up a moving picture show.”
Moving Picture World of October 3, 1908 said “Oskaloosa, Ia., has another moving picture theater. During the open season the Grand Opera House will be turned into a moving picture and vaudeville theater.”
The Oskaloosa Orpheum was part of a chain that does not appear to have been related to the national Orpheum vaudeville circuit. Here is part of an item from the January 26, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World: “M. R. Angel, of the Angel Brothers, who operated and owned the first chain of picture houses in the Middle West, was a caller at the Pathe exchange in Des Moines last week. Mr. Angel and his brother owned the famous Angel Bros.‘ Orpheum circuit and opened houses in Oskaloosa, Keokuk, Cedar Rapids, Savannah, Ill., and Galesburg, Ill.”
Here is an item from the July 10, 1915 issue of The American Contractor: “Tipton, Ia.- Opera House, Odd Fellows' Hall & Store Bldg. (2 stores): 55x142. Archt. B. W. Gartside, 526 Lane bldg., Davenport, Ia. Owner Hardacre Estate, J. W. Moore, trustee, Tipton. Bids were received until noon, July 10.” Architect Benjamin W. Gartside had at least one NRHP listed building in Davenport, a library and newspaper office, but it was de-listed after being demolished a few years ago.
The April 15, 1916 Moving Picture World had this item about the house: “TIPTON, IA.-Ralph E. Kent has leased the new Hardacre Opera House and the opening is scheduled to take place on or about April 10. The house will be devoted to road shows and photoplays. Building and equipment modern in every particular; stage 22 by 46 feet; seating capacity 600; steam heat; electric lights, etc.”
The Tall Corn/Roxy Theatre was at 213 N. Main Street. The building is still standing, though the ground floor, last occupied by Big Brad’s BBQ & Grocery, is currently vacant. The structure clearly dates from considerably earlier than the 1931 opening of the Tall Corn Theatre, so earlier it might have been the location of the Star Theatre, which was mentioned in the February 6, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News.
Flickr member Roger Peters displays this photo of Kanawha’s Main Street which probably dates from 1950, based on the car parked at the corner and the fact that the theater still has the Tall Corn name on its vertical sign.
The remodeling of the Royal Theatre at Seneca was noted in the December 9, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. A new screen, flooring, air conditioning and seating were among the improvements. The new name was not mentioned, but the item said that “[a] new front will be built on the house after the completion of other work.” The renaming was likely done then.
One source says that the Mecca Theatre originally opened around 1915 in the same block of Main Street the Palace Theatre was later built in, but it burned in 1924 and was rebuilt in the 100 N block of Main Street, across the street from the depot. The depot is at 169 N. Main, and one of the buildings across from it has a copy of the photo of the Mecca we have above mounted on its front. This is supposed to have been the Mecca’s building, though it isn’t recognizable.
The building has no visible street number, but judging from the businesses up and down the block it is probably about 124 N. Main. The front and the alley side display several posters advertising various productions of the Cumberland County Playhouse, and the side wall has the theater company’s name on it. The Playhouse itself is at another location, but as the old Mecca building has the company’s sign on it, it must serve some auxiliary purpose, though there’s no clue what.
Here is a Google street view. Oddly, a street view notation says this is the location of an outfit called Southern Crane, but a search for Southern Crane gives that company a totally different address.
This item appeared in the January 24, 1922 issue of Film Daily: “Crossville, Tenn.—The Mecca is now under the management of C. P. Harrison.”
We are missing an aka for this house. This item is from the August 1, 1917 issue of The New York Clipper: “Saginaw, Mich., July 29. — Charles Carlisle, manager of the Mecca Theatre, is back on the job after a week in the hospital. The management of this house has taken over the Palace Theatre and will conduct it as a high class picture house, renaming it the Mecca-Palace. The old Mecca is now called the Grand.” I haven’t discovered how long the Grand operated, but it was not listed in 1926.
This item appears in the July 15, 1946 issue of Motion Picture News: “Among new theatres nearly completed in this area are C. T. Nelson’s Park in Hahira, Ga., which is expected to open about Aug. 1.” Why the Park was being rebuilt in 1946 is explained by this earlier item from Showmen’s Trade Review of April 6 that same year: “The Park Theatre, Hahira, Ga., was destroyed by fire when flames swept the entire central business block of the South Georgia tobacco center.”
The April 17, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the new theater to be built at Russellville, Alabama, for the Hartselle Theatre Corp. of Nashville would be designed by the architectural firm of Speight & Hibbs. Clarence Speight and Lacy Hibbs established their practice in 1937. Cinema Treasures currently attributes eight other movie theaters to the firm.
Here is the official web site of the Dallas Theatre.
A vacant lot in 1904, by 1911 the site of the Grand Theatre was occupied by a two-story wood framed building with a furniture store on the ground floor and an Opera House upstairs. By 1919, a Sanborn map shows a motion picture theater on the ground floor and a “Hall” upstairs. The map now has the notation “stuccoed” for the building, which was still wood framed. It seems likely that the modern building is the same one, but with a brick veneer added at some point. It also seems likely that movies were shown in the upstairs hall for some time before the dedicated movie house was installed on the ground floor.
For most of its history the Grand was operated by members of the Vincent family. For five years between 1929 and 1934 it was operated by Emil Plain. A Thursday, January 24, 1929 item about the transfer in Film Daily noted that Wilfrid Vincent had operated the house for about ten years, suggesting that it might have been he who had installed the house on the ground floor, possibly by late 1918 and certainly by August, 1919, when it appeared on the Sanborn map. After Plain’s lease expired in 1934, the Grand returned to the Vincents control, operated by Wilfrid’s son Irving and then by Irving’s wife Magdalene, who was still operating the house when it closed in 1976.
This house was once part of the Miner circuit, as noted in this item from the April 23, 1957 issue of Motion Picture Daily: “Leo Miner has sold the Isle Theatre, Cumberland, Wisc. to Robert Taylor of Menomonie, Wisc. The house has been part of the Miner circuit for several years.”
The theater’s current occupant, Nezzy’s Sports Bar & Grill, is now billing itself as the Isle Event Center. The web site has a few recent photos of the space.
Scheicke’s address for the theater is wrong, but the remainder, including the opening year, appears to be correct. The apartment house now on the theater’s site (and adjacent lots) uses the address 215 Grand.
This is the description of the Badger Theatre in Konrad Scheicke’s Historic Movie Theatres of Wisconsin:“206 Grand Avenue. Open: 1904; closed: 1960; seats: 500 The Badger Hotel and Opera House opened on October 10, 1904, in a ‘flat iron design’ by architects Van Ryn and DeGelleke. Movies started to be presented around 1911. The entire structure was gutted by fire in 1967.”
Henry J. Van Ryn and Gerrit Jacob DeGelleke had one of Milwaukee’s leading architectural firms during the first third of the 20th century.
Konrad Scheicke’s Historic Movie Theatres of Wisconsin has this brief paragraph for the Milltown Theatre: “Milltown Theatre Main Street. Open: 1946; closed: 1970; seats: 358 The theatre was built by Paulsen Amusements who also built the theatre in Amery. The theatre building is currently [2009] for sale.”
The Roza Theatre opened on January 25, 1947 with Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical “State Fair.” According to comments on a Zillah history page at Facebook, the theater building was next door to the Granger building on 1st Avenue, and was still standing as recently as 2016, but has since been demolished. The address of the theater was probably 507 1st Avenue. This Facebook page has a photo clipped from a 1951 issue of the Yakima Valley Mirror showing the 500 Block of 1st Avenue with the modest, concrete block Roza Theatre building at left.
Anthony Bou offered this drive-in and his indoor Mendota Theatre for sale in 1963, citing poor health as his reason for selling. Both were still in operation at that time.
Zooming in with Google Street View we can see that the building at 719 Quince has the name “A. Bou” on its parapet. It also has the year 1941 on it, presumably the year it was built. I don’t see how there could be any doubt that this was the building that housed Anthony Bou’s Mendota Theatre.
In a classified ad in the July 15, 1963 issue of Boxoffice, Anthony Bou offered a 500-space drive-in theater and a 512-seat conventional theater showing “Spanish films” for sale. The ad gave Bou’s reason for selling as “[f]orced to retire from business, bad health.”
This item appears in the March 23, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World: “NEOSHO, MO.—White Way is name of new moving picture theater opened here by G. D. Hall.”
I haven’t yet come across a reference to the Rex, but I would not be surprised if Grand was not just an aka for the Masonic Opera House. Although the Cahn guides listed it as the Masonic Opera House, theatrical journals of the period such as Billboard often called it the Oskaloosa Grand Opera House, and the earliest mention of it in Moving Picture World (from 1908) also called it the Grand Opera House.
Nothing about the Unique, but an item in the April 6, 1912 issue of Moving Picture World pertains to the profusion of theaters in Oskaloosa. It says that there were then five movie theaters operating in the city of 10,000. Managers of four houses had formed a combine with the purpose of buying the lease on the fifth house and closing it permanently, but the County Attorney had implied that if they attempted to carry out this plan he could prosecute them under Iowa’s rather strict laws forbidding combines to restrain trade in any way. Hefty fines of $500 to $5,000 and/or up to a year in prison were the prescribed punishments. I’ve found no follow-up articles about the plan, so I suspect the managers had wise second thoughts and gave it up.
Whether the Palace opened in 1908 or not, it underwent rebuilding in 1911, according to the June issue of Motography that year: “The new Palace theater of Oskaloosa which has been in the hands of the carpenters and decorators for some time, has again opened its doors to the public. The theater has been rebuilt at much expense. All the material used has been the very best. The front of the theater is illuminated by nearly 300 electric lights. The house is ventilated by two rear exits and eight large fans and is always cool. Newell Bros. are the owners and operators.”
Oskaloosa’s Lyric Theatre, then operated by E. M. McCray, was mentioned in the October 6, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World. The house had just enjoyed great success with a full week run of the Metro feature “The Slacker.”
The Palace is the only Oskaloosa house we have listed on First Avenue West, so I’ll put this item from the July 4, 1908 issue of Moving Picture World here: “Oskaloosa, Ia.— E. T. McCormick and Herbert Hanna have leased the Mateer building on First avenue west and will open up a moving picture show.”
Moving Picture World of October 3, 1908 said “Oskaloosa, Ia., has another moving picture theater. During the open season the Grand Opera House will be turned into a moving picture and vaudeville theater.”
The Oskaloosa Orpheum was part of a chain that does not appear to have been related to the national Orpheum vaudeville circuit. Here is part of an item from the January 26, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World: “M. R. Angel, of the Angel Brothers, who operated and owned the first chain of picture houses in the Middle West, was a caller at the Pathe exchange in Des Moines last week. Mr. Angel and his brother owned the famous Angel Bros.‘ Orpheum circuit and opened houses in Oskaloosa, Keokuk, Cedar Rapids, Savannah, Ill., and Galesburg, Ill.”
Here is an item from the July 10, 1915 issue of The American Contractor: “Tipton, Ia.- Opera House, Odd Fellows' Hall & Store Bldg. (2 stores): 55x142. Archt. B. W. Gartside, 526 Lane bldg., Davenport, Ia. Owner Hardacre Estate, J. W. Moore, trustee, Tipton. Bids were received until noon, July 10.” Architect Benjamin W. Gartside had at least one NRHP listed building in Davenport, a library and newspaper office, but it was de-listed after being demolished a few years ago.
The April 15, 1916 Moving Picture World had this item about the house: “TIPTON, IA.-Ralph E. Kent has leased the new Hardacre Opera House and the opening is scheduled to take place on or about April 10. The house will be devoted to road shows and photoplays. Building and equipment modern in every particular; stage 22 by 46 feet; seating capacity 600; steam heat; electric lights, etc.”
The Tall Corn/Roxy Theatre was at 213 N. Main Street. The building is still standing, though the ground floor, last occupied by Big Brad’s BBQ & Grocery, is currently vacant. The structure clearly dates from considerably earlier than the 1931 opening of the Tall Corn Theatre, so earlier it might have been the location of the Star Theatre, which was mentioned in the February 6, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News.
Flickr member Roger Peters displays this photo of Kanawha’s Main Street which probably dates from 1950, based on the car parked at the corner and the fact that the theater still has the Tall Corn name on its vertical sign.
The remodeling of the Royal Theatre at Seneca was noted in the December 9, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. A new screen, flooring, air conditioning and seating were among the improvements. The new name was not mentioned, but the item said that “[a] new front will be built on the house after the completion of other work.” The renaming was likely done then.