This article from the Uniontown (PA) Evening Standard is dated 11/21/63, the day before the Kennedy assassination:
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) â€"A general alarm fire broke out early today in a movie theater about 13 blocks south of Monday’s disastrous hotel fire in this resort city. The movie house, the Surf
Theater, was closed for the night and empty when an alarm sounded at 1:23 a.m. Ten residents of apartments above the two-story, stucco theater escaped from the building without injury, firemen said.
The flames, believed to have started in the projection room, were brought under control within a few hours. Fire Chief Warren Conover estimated damage at $50,000. The theater, on Atlantic Avenue, is a block from Convention Hall. Today’s general alarmer came less than 72 hours after the Surfside Hotel disaster that so far has claimed 12 known dead, with 13 more missing and 10 buildings destroyed.
Here is part of a June 1974 article in the Pasadena Star-News:
The Duarte premiere of the X-rated movies “Deep Throat” and “The Devil in Miss Jones” has been met with the predictable outcry from several citizens and city officials. While the opening this week was well attended, so were gatherings of anti-pornography groups, who deluged city hall with complaints about the sexually explicit films being shown at the Buena Vista Cinema.
The theater is located next to Thrifty Drug Store in the Von’s Shopping Center at the corner of Buena Vista and Huntington Drive in Duarte. Management of the theater has recently changed hands, and the new operator has replaced “family” entertainment with the X-rated double bill. The previous operator was Winston Evans, who has moved his “family” film operation to the Crest Theatre in Monrovia, where the dust is settling from a fight by irate anti-smut forces against X-rated movies. The same double bill appeared at the Crest until the previous management gave up under pressure from city hall and police.
The manager of the Buena Vista Cinema denies any association with the former Crest operators, but declined to state the name of the new lease holder. When the Crest opened with “Throat” and “Devil” last month, Monrovia found reasons to close the theatre down. First it was closed for failure to comply with business license requirements and the manager was arrested. Later the Monrovia council passed an ordinance prohibiting the operation of an adult movie theater within 1,000 feet of a school, in this case, Clifton Middle School.
Constitutionality of the ordinance was questioned, but the theater managers backed off before the issue was settled by the council. The owners of the movie house announced they would lease the theater to Evans and cancel the showing of X-rated films.
Here is part of a November 1952 article in the Zanesville Signal:
The State theater opened yesterday in the renovated Quimby. In the shuffle Zanesville lost an old theatrical name and two theaters. The 39-year old Quimby sign came down and wreckers started to work on the old Schultz and the Grand. This train of events was started by the announcement in September that the old Schultz Opera block on North Fifth street had been sold to Hyman Cohn of Chicago. The reason for this sale became known on Oct. 25 when the J.C. Penny company leased the property and announced that it would be torn down to make room for a modern store building.
The Variety theater, as the former Schultz opera house was known, closed its doors on October 2. Closing of the Variety gave an opportunity to the Shea theater people to turn on the lights in the old Quimby. At the same time they decided to remove the equipment from the old Grand. That leaves Zanesville with three year-round theaters instead of five. The shift can probably be attributed drive-in theaters and television.
It seems that Walter C. Quimby managed both of the theaters whose signs are to go down. In the Zanesville city directory for 1912, Quimby was listed as a resident of 702 Main street. His wife was Lottie A. Quimby. His occupation was manager of the Casino Theater at 624 Main street, the second door above Cypress alley on the south side of Main street between Sixth and Seventh. That is the location of the current Grand.
Neal Watkins of 1021 Greenwood avenue worked for Quimby at his South Fifth street theater. He recalls that Quimby had been a bicycle racer before he came to Zanesville from Steubenville. He sold his racing medals and rented chairs from undertakers to open a small nickelodeon in the present Zulandt grocery store location on South Seventh street.
After getting a start there, Quimby opened the Casino on Main street in the room later known as the Grand. At the same time he operated the Airdrome on the site of the old Palace Garden on South Sixth street. Later other proprietors built a roof over the Airdrome and converted it into a roller skating rink.
Soon after Quimby opened the theater that bore his name on South Fifth street, he disposed of the Grand. In the Zanesville Signal for the early months of 1913, we find advertisements for both the Grand and the Quimby theaters. Those ads prove two things: Quimby’s theater was built in 1912 and the name of the old Casino was changed to the Grand in the same year.
Zanesville had eight theaters in 1916. When motion pictures were new and stage plays and vaudeville were still kicking, the city directory listed as theaters the Orpheum, 61 North Fourth; Schultz Opera house, 22 North Fifth; and Weller theater, 13 North Third. A separate list under moving pictures included American theater, 530 Main (present Carr drug store); Grand theater, 624 Main; Hippodrome, 320 Main (present Rose Furniture store site); Imperial theater, 513 Main (North side between Fifht and Sewer alley); and Quimby, South Fifth street.
The Shea Theater Corporation took over Zanesville Theaters, Inc. in 1940. By that transaction the Shea organization secured the management of the Imperial, Quimby and Grand theaters. The Weller had been controlled by the Shea interests before that date. The Grand was closed in 1950 because of lack of patronage. The Shea officials are now dismantling the equipment in that theater. The building is owned by Tom and Paul Joseph. Owners of the former Quimby building on South Fifth street are Dr. Lester Lind and Mrs. Herbert Lind.
By 1919 Walter Quimby had moved to Indiana, and the theater that bore his name was managed by the Imperial Theater company. In the neighboring state Quimby expanded his activities and became head of a chain of theaters. After Quimby’s death about a dozen years ago, his widow and her brother sold several of their theaters to Paramount.
Based on articles in the Carroll Times Daily Herald, the Carroll 5 opened as a twin in 1974, at approximately the same time the old Carroll Theater was razed to make way for a civic center. The twin theater was expanded to five screens in 1998.
The first article discusses the impending demolition of the Carroll to make way for the civic center. The second article confirms the demolition in 1974.
When the Carroll Theaters (also owned by Fridley) were expanded from a two- to five-screen complex in 1998, Doug Burns and I wrote a few articles about the process. We also discussed our concern about how three more theaters might impact the Capri just 21 miles to the north.
Here are some 1987 photos. There is a possibility that these may have actually been taken inside Pioneer Town.
http://tinyurl.com/yd3jvuv
http://tinyurl.com/ydu9psm
Here are two 1983 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/ydtvp6n
http://tinyurl.com/y8k3pof
Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y86fqau
LA Times story today about the impending demolition. I will take some photos when they start bulldozing. Poor displaced strippers.
Here is a 1986 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ycsbfxt
I can imagine that you would not want to own a theater called the Reich during WW 2.
Here is a November 1963 ad from the Lima News:
http://tinyurl.com/yeppqdo
This is a 1980 photo, assuming this is the 1940s Smyrna and not the other one.
http://tinyurl.com/kuvlpx
Here is another 1982 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/m2929j
Here is a 1987 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/nj2cw7
This article from the Uniontown (PA) Evening Standard is dated 11/21/63, the day before the Kennedy assassination:
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) â€"A general alarm fire broke out early today in a movie theater about 13 blocks south of Monday’s disastrous hotel fire in this resort city. The movie house, the Surf
Theater, was closed for the night and empty when an alarm sounded at 1:23 a.m. Ten residents of apartments above the two-story, stucco theater escaped from the building without injury, firemen said.
The flames, believed to have started in the projection room, were brought under control within a few hours. Fire Chief Warren Conover estimated damage at $50,000. The theater, on Atlantic Avenue, is a block from Convention Hall. Today’s general alarmer came less than 72 hours after the Surfside Hotel disaster that so far has claimed 12 known dead, with 13 more missing and 10 buildings destroyed.
$19.98 on the MTV site:
http://tinyurl.com/mnrelk
Here is another 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/n89e45
Here is part of a June 1974 article in the Pasadena Star-News:
The Duarte premiere of the X-rated movies “Deep Throat” and “The Devil in Miss Jones” has been met with the predictable outcry from several citizens and city officials. While the opening this week was well attended, so were gatherings of anti-pornography groups, who deluged city hall with complaints about the sexually explicit films being shown at the Buena Vista Cinema.
The theater is located next to Thrifty Drug Store in the Von’s Shopping Center at the corner of Buena Vista and Huntington Drive in Duarte. Management of the theater has recently changed hands, and the new operator has replaced “family” entertainment with the X-rated double bill. The previous operator was Winston Evans, who has moved his “family” film operation to the Crest Theatre in Monrovia, where the dust is settling from a fight by irate anti-smut forces against X-rated movies. The same double bill appeared at the Crest until the previous management gave up under pressure from city hall and police.
The manager of the Buena Vista Cinema denies any association with the former Crest operators, but declined to state the name of the new lease holder. When the Crest opened with “Throat” and “Devil” last month, Monrovia found reasons to close the theatre down. First it was closed for failure to comply with business license requirements and the manager was arrested. Later the Monrovia council passed an ordinance prohibiting the operation of an adult movie theater within 1,000 feet of a school, in this case, Clifton Middle School.
Constitutionality of the ordinance was questioned, but the theater managers backed off before the issue was settled by the council. The owners of the movie house announced they would lease the theater to Evans and cancel the showing of X-rated films.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/krp4tm
Here is a photo:
http://tinyurl.com/m6ezdm
Here is a loopnet ad:
http://tinyurl.com/m3z7hs
I stand corrected.
Here is a photo of the Tacora:
http://tinyurl.com/nhwso3
Here are two more night photos from 1984:
http://tinyurl.com/nezpzt
http://tinyurl.com/l9gj3r
Here is part of a November 1952 article in the Zanesville Signal:
The State theater opened yesterday in the renovated Quimby. In the shuffle Zanesville lost an old theatrical name and two theaters. The 39-year old Quimby sign came down and wreckers started to work on the old Schultz and the Grand. This train of events was started by the announcement in September that the old Schultz Opera block on North Fifth street had been sold to Hyman Cohn of Chicago. The reason for this sale became known on Oct. 25 when the J.C. Penny company leased the property and announced that it would be torn down to make room for a modern store building.
The Variety theater, as the former Schultz opera house was known, closed its doors on October 2. Closing of the Variety gave an opportunity to the Shea theater people to turn on the lights in the old Quimby. At the same time they decided to remove the equipment from the old Grand. That leaves Zanesville with three year-round theaters instead of five. The shift can probably be attributed drive-in theaters and television.
It seems that Walter C. Quimby managed both of the theaters whose signs are to go down. In the Zanesville city directory for 1912, Quimby was listed as a resident of 702 Main street. His wife was Lottie A. Quimby. His occupation was manager of the Casino Theater at 624 Main street, the second door above Cypress alley on the south side of Main street between Sixth and Seventh. That is the location of the current Grand.
Neal Watkins of 1021 Greenwood avenue worked for Quimby at his South Fifth street theater. He recalls that Quimby had been a bicycle racer before he came to Zanesville from Steubenville. He sold his racing medals and rented chairs from undertakers to open a small nickelodeon in the present Zulandt grocery store location on South Seventh street.
After getting a start there, Quimby opened the Casino on Main street in the room later known as the Grand. At the same time he operated the Airdrome on the site of the old Palace Garden on South Sixth street. Later other proprietors built a roof over the Airdrome and converted it into a roller skating rink.
Soon after Quimby opened the theater that bore his name on South Fifth street, he disposed of the Grand. In the Zanesville Signal for the early months of 1913, we find advertisements for both the Grand and the Quimby theaters. Those ads prove two things: Quimby’s theater was built in 1912 and the name of the old Casino was changed to the Grand in the same year.
Zanesville had eight theaters in 1916. When motion pictures were new and stage plays and vaudeville were still kicking, the city directory listed as theaters the Orpheum, 61 North Fourth; Schultz Opera house, 22 North Fifth; and Weller theater, 13 North Third. A separate list under moving pictures included American theater, 530 Main (present Carr drug store); Grand theater, 624 Main; Hippodrome, 320 Main (present Rose Furniture store site); Imperial theater, 513 Main (North side between Fifht and Sewer alley); and Quimby, South Fifth street.
The Shea Theater Corporation took over Zanesville Theaters, Inc. in 1940. By that transaction the Shea organization secured the management of the Imperial, Quimby and Grand theaters. The Weller had been controlled by the Shea interests before that date. The Grand was closed in 1950 because of lack of patronage. The Shea officials are now dismantling the equipment in that theater. The building is owned by Tom and Paul Joseph. Owners of the former Quimby building on South Fifth street are Dr. Lester Lind and Mrs. Herbert Lind.
By 1919 Walter Quimby had moved to Indiana, and the theater that bore his name was managed by the Imperial Theater company. In the neighboring state Quimby expanded his activities and became head of a chain of theaters. After Quimby’s death about a dozen years ago, his widow and her brother sold several of their theaters to Paramount.
Based on articles in the Carroll Times Daily Herald, the Carroll 5 opened as a twin in 1974, at approximately the same time the old Carroll Theater was razed to make way for a civic center. The twin theater was expanded to five screens in 1998.
Right. The twin opened in 1974 and expanded to five screens in 1998.
The first article discusses the impending demolition of the Carroll to make way for the civic center. The second article confirms the demolition in 1974.
This is from the Herald on 9/11/00:
When the Carroll Theaters (also owned by Fridley) were expanded from a two- to five-screen complex in 1998, Doug Burns and I wrote a few articles about the process. We also discussed our concern about how three more theaters might impact the Capri just 21 miles to the north.