As the Grand Opera House, this theater is listed under Danville IL in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. A.W. Heinly was Mgr., and the seating capacity was 1,000. The theater was on the first floor, had both gas and electric illumination and ticket prices ranging from 25 cents to $1. The proscenium opening was 32 feet square, and the stage was 40 feet deep. There were 7 members of the house orchestra. There were 3 daily newspapers and one German weekly. The hotel for show folk was the Aetna House, and the railroad was the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. The 1897 population of Danville was 18,000.
As noted above, from 1892 to 1938, the site of this theater was occupied by the Grand Opera House. That theater is listed under Jacksonville IL in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. H.M. Ravenscroft was the Mgr; the theater had 1,219 seats and was on the ground floor. It had both gas and electric illumination; ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to $1. The proscenium opening was 33 feet wide X 30 feet high, and the stage was 43 feet deep. There were 14 members of the house orchestra. There were 3 daily newspapers, the Journal, the Courier, and the News. Hotels for show folk were the Dunlap House, the Pacific and the Park hotels. The principle railroad was the Chicago & Alton. The 1897 population of Jacksonville was 14,000.
The 1927 Film Daily Yearbook lists 3 movie venues in Ayer- the Strand Theatre with 745 seats, open 7 days per week; the YMCA auditorium, 600 seats, open 6 days per week; and “Camp Devens” cinema, no information listed.
Mitch and Moe Mark were active as film exhibition pioneers in the Boston area in the post-1900 era. They opened the Theatre Comique in Scollay Square, Boston in August 1906, the first purpose-built cinema in downtown Boston. They were also involved with other venues in the area. I had heard that they were from Lynn MA (north of Boston), but although they may have lived in Lynn briefly while opening a movie show there, they really were out-of-towners. They were also affiliated with Joe & Max Levinson, another pair of film-exhibition brothers.
I clipped a large display ad for the Loew’s State from either the Boston Globe or the Boston Post in late-Feb. 1951. I clipped it because it was advertising a stage show there which was not common by that period. The ad says “Loew’s State only” because they usually ran a combined ad with the Loew’s Orpheum as “Loew’s State and Orpheum” due to the fact that the same movies played both houses. This ad says “Happy Days are Here Again! America’s Biggest Stage and Screen Show. On Stage- America’s Foremost Quartet, the Ink Spots, stars of stage-screen-radio. Jack E. Leonard, "Fun by the Ton”. Ada Lynne “Curvacious Clown”, Winik & Mae “Dancing Stars of Hollywood Blackouts” (the Hollywood Blackouts was a long-running stage revue out there). Larry Green, his piano and his Victor Recording orchestra featuring Bobby Doyle. On Screen- This girl is in trouble- Loretta Young in “Cause for Alarm”, MGM’s Surprise Thriller. Try (to) Guess the Surprise Ending! Doors open 11 AM."
The last reference I have to it is that it was listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook. I don’t know what happened to it after that, or even if it was ever wired for sound. I can’t get a Google Street View for the address.
This theater is listed under Hicksville OH as “Huber’s Opera House” in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. The Mgr. was A.A. Huber. Seating capacity was listed as 925, and the theater was on the ground floor. Tickets were 25 cents and 50 cents. The proscenium opening was 25 feet wide X 20 feet high, and the stage was 25 feet deep. The house had electric illumination and there were up to 7 players in the house orchestra. There were 2 local newspapers, the Independent and the News, and 2 hotels for show folks, the Swilly House and the Hotel Baltimore. The railroad was the Baltimore & Ohio. The 1897 population of Hicksville was 3,000.
E.M. Loew was a prominent operator of movie theaters, mostly in New England, starting in the 1930s. He was headquartered in Boston MA. He is not to be confused with Marcus Loew, who was older, and who operated a large theater circuit, headquartered in New York, which operated this theater in Springfield.
The Plimoth Cinema’s section in the website of Plimoth Plantation has a new feature- a complete listing of movies shown there. It says that it opened on Sept. 15, 2007 with “La Vie en Rose”.
The Ideal had a facade very similar to that of the Niagara Temple cinema on Blue Hill Avenue. (Similar, but not identical). One wonders if they were both designed by the same architect.
It always interests me when a theater has an entrance in the rear like the Alhambra. One wonders how patrons gained entrance to the front of the house. According to the information above, the original entrance on Leicester Square was even closed up and the rear entrance on Charing Cross Road became the only entrance. The La Fenice Opera House in Venice has a rear entrance, under the rear stage wall. From it lead two corridors, one on each side of the building. They pass under the wings of the stage and then alongside the auditorium and into the front foyer. Perhaps there was a similiar arrangement at the Alhambra.
Although the facade of the Niagara Temple was rather ornate, the interior was quite plain. There was some decoration around the proscenium and on either side of it. On the upper rear wall was a small 2-port projection booth, which was not quite centered. Next to it was a small balcony with 3 or 4 rows of seats.
In his article about South End theaters, written around 1980, Paul Chavanne mentions that he had met an elderly lady in the South End who remembered the building both as a church and then as a cinema. She told him that many of the church’s decorative elements, such as murals, were retained in the Scenic Temple. She attended many silient movies there, which were accompanied by a “tinkling piano”.
I have heard nothing more about the status of the Seville since the news, above, from March 2008. If you look at the two photos linked to above on 3-9-08 which were taken 6 ½ years ago, the interior was not as bad as it could have been, and there was still some decor remaining.
It was a free-standing structure with an elaborate and distinctive facade. There was a side-street along the right side of the building. The entrance was in the center with a tiny retail store to the left and a slightly larger store on the right. A couple of steps (possibly marble) led up from the sidewalk to the center box-office with a pair of French doors on each side. There was an arch above the entrance which appears to be full of stained glass. There was a vertical sign in front of the arch, but no marquee. There was no NETOCO (New England Theatre Operating Co.) oval emblem out front, but the style of the photos of the exterior and interior is very much like the company photos which NETOCO made of their other theaters during the 1910-1920 period.
I don’t know much about this theater after it opened as a neighborhood movie house. Paul Chavanne says that in 1918, during the first World War, it was in use as military barracks. I don’t know if it reopened after the war as a cinema again. It was demolished around 1930 to make way for the District 4 police station.
Thanks for posting this link, CWalczak. I have a black & white photo of the Paramount interior when it was new. The new design elements are pretty true to the original, for the side-walls, where the walls meet the ceiling, and the ceiling itself. The first photo of the set of 3 seems to show the design right above the center of the proscenium. The caption says that the Paramount had 1,700 seats, but it was really close to 1,800. It says that they will have 800 seats in the new Paramount. Three very nice photos.
Thank you, Roger. I had been told that it was on the lower-numbered end of Blue Hill Ave, not far from the Shawmut/Roxie which was at 263 Blue Hill Ave. The 1927 Film Daily Yearbook lists it as being in Roxbury, open 7 days per week, and having 900 seats. However, I think that it had between 600 and 650 seats. Joe Cifre said that it was also known as Zenacon Temple, apparently when it was first opened.
The Scenic Temple was located a short distance to the rear of the National Theatre on Tremont St. In research about the theaters in the South End of Boston which he conducted for the South End Historical Society in 1980, the late J. Paul Chavanne stated that the Scenic Temple was converted from the Berkeley Congregatonal Church. Donald King, in his book about Boston theaters, agrees that it was converted from a church, but states that it was known as Berkeley Hall before being named Scenic Temple. Paul Chavanne never mentions Bekeley Hall. The Boston Police Dept.’s District 4 police station was built on the site of the theater.
JackCoursey- I can see what you mean by lighting— the photos make the place look run-down, cold and drab; whereas it isn’t like that at all when all the lights are on.
REandres- please do not fret too much over the info above from the Cahn Guide ! Those guides are full of errors. They were published every year in the late-summer for the benefit of roadshow producers and stage managers. Julius Cahn was a New York theatrical agent. In an age long before computers he must have struggled to maintain an accurate data base every year. The info about the Plumb from the Guide may or may not be 100% accurate.
There is a rather long article entitled “Boston Theatres of To-Day” by Atherton Brownell in the Sept. 1895 issue of Bostonian Magazine. It has 2 photos of the Bowdoin Square Theatre, one exterior and one interior. Plus one sketch of the box office area in the lobby. It’s hard to tell, but in the exterior shot, the arch above the entrance appears to be open and not filled in. Th entrance was very fancy, but not very wide. It was at the left end of a building. The interior shot was made by someone standing in the right-front orchestra area looking toward the front portion of the left side-wall of the auditorium. It was quite ornate. The proscenium arch appears to be rectangular. Next to its left edge was a large arch with columns on each side. At the bottom of the arch were 2 big boxes on the orchestra floor. Above them were 5 small boxes which dropped like stair treads from the front of the first balcony down to the right end of the arch. At the top of the arch was a chandelier. Very nice auditorium, now gone for over 50 years.
As the Grand Opera House, this theater is listed under Danville IL in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. A.W. Heinly was Mgr., and the seating capacity was 1,000. The theater was on the first floor, had both gas and electric illumination and ticket prices ranging from 25 cents to $1. The proscenium opening was 32 feet square, and the stage was 40 feet deep. There were 7 members of the house orchestra. There were 3 daily newspapers and one German weekly. The hotel for show folk was the Aetna House, and the railroad was the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. The 1897 population of Danville was 18,000.
As noted above, from 1892 to 1938, the site of this theater was occupied by the Grand Opera House. That theater is listed under Jacksonville IL in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. H.M. Ravenscroft was the Mgr; the theater had 1,219 seats and was on the ground floor. It had both gas and electric illumination; ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to $1. The proscenium opening was 33 feet wide X 30 feet high, and the stage was 43 feet deep. There were 14 members of the house orchestra. There were 3 daily newspapers, the Journal, the Courier, and the News. Hotels for show folk were the Dunlap House, the Pacific and the Park hotels. The principle railroad was the Chicago & Alton. The 1897 population of Jacksonville was 14,000.
I have been told that the Magnet was at one time known as the “Colony Theatre”. I don’t know how accurate that info is.
The 1927 Film Daily Yearbook lists 3 movie venues in Ayer- the Strand Theatre with 745 seats, open 7 days per week; the YMCA auditorium, 600 seats, open 6 days per week; and “Camp Devens” cinema, no information listed.
Mitch and Moe Mark were active as film exhibition pioneers in the Boston area in the post-1900 era. They opened the Theatre Comique in Scollay Square, Boston in August 1906, the first purpose-built cinema in downtown Boston. They were also involved with other venues in the area. I had heard that they were from Lynn MA (north of Boston), but although they may have lived in Lynn briefly while opening a movie show there, they really were out-of-towners. They were also affiliated with Joe & Max Levinson, another pair of film-exhibition brothers.
I clipped a large display ad for the Loew’s State from either the Boston Globe or the Boston Post in late-Feb. 1951. I clipped it because it was advertising a stage show there which was not common by that period. The ad says “Loew’s State only” because they usually ran a combined ad with the Loew’s Orpheum as “Loew’s State and Orpheum” due to the fact that the same movies played both houses. This ad says “Happy Days are Here Again! America’s Biggest Stage and Screen Show. On Stage- America’s Foremost Quartet, the Ink Spots, stars of stage-screen-radio. Jack E. Leonard, "Fun by the Ton”. Ada Lynne “Curvacious Clown”, Winik & Mae “Dancing Stars of Hollywood Blackouts” (the Hollywood Blackouts was a long-running stage revue out there). Larry Green, his piano and his Victor Recording orchestra featuring Bobby Doyle. On Screen- This girl is in trouble- Loretta Young in “Cause for Alarm”, MGM’s Surprise Thriller. Try (to) Guess the Surprise Ending! Doors open 11 AM."
The last reference I have to it is that it was listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook. I don’t know what happened to it after that, or even if it was ever wired for sound. I can’t get a Google Street View for the address.
This theater is listed under Hicksville OH as “Huber’s Opera House” in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. The Mgr. was A.A. Huber. Seating capacity was listed as 925, and the theater was on the ground floor. Tickets were 25 cents and 50 cents. The proscenium opening was 25 feet wide X 20 feet high, and the stage was 25 feet deep. The house had electric illumination and there were up to 7 players in the house orchestra. There were 2 local newspapers, the Independent and the News, and 2 hotels for show folks, the Swilly House and the Hotel Baltimore. The railroad was the Baltimore & Ohio. The 1897 population of Hicksville was 3,000.
tisloews- No, E.M. and Marcus were not related to one another.
E.M. Loew was a prominent operator of movie theaters, mostly in New England, starting in the 1930s. He was headquartered in Boston MA. He is not to be confused with Marcus Loew, who was older, and who operated a large theater circuit, headquartered in New York, which operated this theater in Springfield.
The Plimoth Cinema’s section in the website of Plimoth Plantation has a new feature- a complete listing of movies shown there. It says that it opened on Sept. 15, 2007 with “La Vie en Rose”.
The Ideal had a facade very similar to that of the Niagara Temple cinema on Blue Hill Avenue. (Similar, but not identical). One wonders if they were both designed by the same architect.
It always interests me when a theater has an entrance in the rear like the Alhambra. One wonders how patrons gained entrance to the front of the house. According to the information above, the original entrance on Leicester Square was even closed up and the rear entrance on Charing Cross Road became the only entrance. The La Fenice Opera House in Venice has a rear entrance, under the rear stage wall. From it lead two corridors, one on each side of the building. They pass under the wings of the stage and then alongside the auditorium and into the front foyer. Perhaps there was a similiar arrangement at the Alhambra.
Although the facade of the Niagara Temple was rather ornate, the interior was quite plain. There was some decoration around the proscenium and on either side of it. On the upper rear wall was a small 2-port projection booth, which was not quite centered. Next to it was a small balcony with 3 or 4 rows of seats.
In his article about South End theaters, written around 1980, Paul Chavanne mentions that he had met an elderly lady in the South End who remembered the building both as a church and then as a cinema. She told him that many of the church’s decorative elements, such as murals, were retained in the Scenic Temple. She attended many silient movies there, which were accompanied by a “tinkling piano”.
I have heard nothing more about the status of the Seville since the news, above, from March 2008. If you look at the two photos linked to above on 3-9-08 which were taken 6 ½ years ago, the interior was not as bad as it could have been, and there was still some decor remaining.
The cuisine there is typical of any large Asian restaurant. And it’s not that expensive.
It was a free-standing structure with an elaborate and distinctive facade. There was a side-street along the right side of the building. The entrance was in the center with a tiny retail store to the left and a slightly larger store on the right. A couple of steps (possibly marble) led up from the sidewalk to the center box-office with a pair of French doors on each side. There was an arch above the entrance which appears to be full of stained glass. There was a vertical sign in front of the arch, but no marquee. There was no NETOCO (New England Theatre Operating Co.) oval emblem out front, but the style of the photos of the exterior and interior is very much like the company photos which NETOCO made of their other theaters during the 1910-1920 period.
I don’t know much about this theater after it opened as a neighborhood movie house. Paul Chavanne says that in 1918, during the first World War, it was in use as military barracks. I don’t know if it reopened after the war as a cinema again. It was demolished around 1930 to make way for the District 4 police station.
Thanks for posting this link, CWalczak. I have a black & white photo of the Paramount interior when it was new. The new design elements are pretty true to the original, for the side-walls, where the walls meet the ceiling, and the ceiling itself. The first photo of the set of 3 seems to show the design right above the center of the proscenium. The caption says that the Paramount had 1,700 seats, but it was really close to 1,800. It says that they will have 800 seats in the new Paramount. Three very nice photos.
Thank you, Roger. I had been told that it was on the lower-numbered end of Blue Hill Ave, not far from the Shawmut/Roxie which was at 263 Blue Hill Ave. The 1927 Film Daily Yearbook lists it as being in Roxbury, open 7 days per week, and having 900 seats. However, I think that it had between 600 and 650 seats. Joe Cifre said that it was also known as Zenacon Temple, apparently when it was first opened.
The Scenic Temple was located a short distance to the rear of the National Theatre on Tremont St. In research about the theaters in the South End of Boston which he conducted for the South End Historical Society in 1980, the late J. Paul Chavanne stated that the Scenic Temple was converted from the Berkeley Congregatonal Church. Donald King, in his book about Boston theaters, agrees that it was converted from a church, but states that it was known as Berkeley Hall before being named Scenic Temple. Paul Chavanne never mentions Bekeley Hall. The Boston Police Dept.’s District 4 police station was built on the site of the theater.
JackCoursey- I can see what you mean by lighting— the photos make the place look run-down, cold and drab; whereas it isn’t like that at all when all the lights are on.
REandres- please do not fret too much over the info above from the Cahn Guide ! Those guides are full of errors. They were published every year in the late-summer for the benefit of roadshow producers and stage managers. Julius Cahn was a New York theatrical agent. In an age long before computers he must have struggled to maintain an accurate data base every year. The info about the Plumb from the Guide may or may not be 100% accurate.
There is a rather long article entitled “Boston Theatres of To-Day” by Atherton Brownell in the Sept. 1895 issue of Bostonian Magazine. It has 2 photos of the Bowdoin Square Theatre, one exterior and one interior. Plus one sketch of the box office area in the lobby. It’s hard to tell, but in the exterior shot, the arch above the entrance appears to be open and not filled in. Th entrance was very fancy, but not very wide. It was at the left end of a building. The interior shot was made by someone standing in the right-front orchestra area looking toward the front portion of the left side-wall of the auditorium. It was quite ornate. The proscenium arch appears to be rectangular. Next to its left edge was a large arch with columns on each side. At the bottom of the arch were 2 big boxes on the orchestra floor. Above them were 5 small boxes which dropped like stair treads from the front of the first balcony down to the right end of the arch. At the top of the arch was a chandelier. Very nice auditorium, now gone for over 50 years.