The Tower Theatre might not be utterly doomed after all. This article posted by the Glenn County Transcript on August 27, 2019, tells of a non-profit organization called the Willows Revitalization Group which had acquired title to the theater and plans to renovate it as a mixed-use facility housing a restaurant, culinary school and downsized theater. That I can find no more recent information about the project is not an encouraging sign, but the pandemic has undoubtedly delayed their work, and perhaps the plans will go forward eventually.
Oklahoma City apparently had more than one theater called the Broadway, too. This item is from the January 21, 1922 issue of Exhibitors Herald:
“Oklahoma City, Okla. — The Broadway theatre, with a seating capacity of 400, has been opened here. Music is furnished by an electric orchestra.”
I’ve been unable to track down where this second Broadway Theatre was located or what became of it, so I’m putting the information here to avoid losing track of it.
The original Broadway Theatre was not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, nor was any other house at its address. The only theater the Directory listed on Broadway was the Star, at 217 N.
Here is an item from the April 1, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Sullivan, Ind. — C. J. Sherman, the old time theater man of Sullivan has been presented with Shriner’s pin by fellow merchants of his home city at the opening of his new theater, the Sherman.”
An article about the Peerless Theatre appeared in the December 31, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald. No photos, alas, but the descriptions are quite effusive.
Newport’s Opera House opened on December 28, 1867, with a performance of the drama “Lucretia Borgia.” Newspaper reports of the time indicate that the theater was designed by architect-builder James Rudolph, with the assistance of architect-engineer Benjamin Coit.
Here’s something from the “Rhode Island Jotting” column of Motion Picture News for November 4, 1922:
“The Emery theatre, which shows feature and comedy pictures in connection with its vaudeville, celebrated its eighth birthday during the week of October 23.”
By 1921, the Lyric was being operated by Southern Enterprises, Inc., a subsidiary of Famous Players-Lasky, then the theater operating arm of Paramount Pictures.
The November 5, 1921 issue of Moving Picture World mentioned the Palace and the Lyric in San Angelo, both managed by Mr. R. P. Whitfield on behalf of Southern Enterprises, the regional theater chain founded as a subsidiary of Famous Players-Lasky, aka Paramount.
Of the nine theaters listed at Johnstown in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory only three were listed without addresses, and of those three the Grand is accounted for. The other two were the Family Theatre (not to be confused with the Park Family Theatre, which was also listed) and the Victoria Theatre. Assuming that this little neighborhood theater was listed, and was still in operation, it must have been one of those two.
A 1927 Sanborn map shows the Opera House (with notation “Dance Hall & Movies”) on the north side of W. Front Street, just east of midblock. This is now the location of a parking lot adjacent to an Ace Hardware store. The hardware store runs through the block and uses the address 115 W. Nebraska Street, but Google maps street view gives the address 108 WI-133 Trunk (W. Front Street) to the parking lot where the theater once stood.
The Bijou Theatre opened in 1915, and around 1923 was remodeled and reopened as the Queen Theatre. According to the St. Croix Historical Society, the Queen closed in 1957, but the destruction by fire of the only other movie house in the region, the State Theatre in Calais, Maine, led to the Queen’s reopening in 1958, after which it continued to operate for many years, well patronized both by Canadians and by Mainers.
The State Theatre opened in 1928, and the original building was destroyed by a fire on March 4, 1958. A post from the St. Croix Historical Society (rather far down this page) says that the State was not rebuilt for many years, and in the meantime Calais movie fans had to attend the theater in St. Stephen, across the Canadian border.
The Palace didn’t make it into the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but a very brief article from the local historical society (PDF here) says that it opened in February, 1914, and its advertisements vanished from the local paper by 1919. The building which had housed the Palace burned to the ground in 1948 and was replaced by a W.T. Grant store, now also demolished.
I’ve been unable to puzzle out the exact location of the Palace, but the article indicates that it was on part of what is now a small park and the parking lot for the Downeast Heritage Center, which is at 39 Union Street. The parking area is quite long, and the earliest aerial view at Historic Aerials is from 1996, by which time much of the area had already been demolished, so I can’t find the street corner the Palace was on. Judging from old photos and aerial views, it was across the street from some surviving historic buildings on the south side of the street, roughly between the shops now occupied by Kendall’s Jewelers at 293 Main and Artemis’s Attic at 311 Main, so the Palace must have been at approximately 300 Main Street.
A history of Rockingham published by the town of Bellows Falls in 1958 says that, prior to being taken over by H. DeMotte Perry in 1912, the Grand had been known as the Standard Theatre, and had originally been operated by a Fred “Skid” Kimball.
This theater is a rebuild of the original Bellows Falls Opera House which was destroyed by fire in 1925. The original Opera House had been showing movies since 1914.
Freeman’s Hall, Pliny Freeman proprietor, is listed with 600 seats in Harry Miner’s dramatic directory for 1884-85. A book called Geneseo Centennial History 1836-1936 mentions a gathering to celebrate the opening of the town’s first library in 1881, held at Freeman’s Hall. A book with biographical sketches of some of Geneseo’s prominent citizens includes Pliny Freeman, saying that around 1869 he invested in rebuilding a commercial building his brother had owned which had been destroyed by fire that year. Though the book doesn’t specify, that might have been the building which contains Freeman’s Hall.
This brief article about silent film comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle says that for several months in 1909 he was a resident of Bisbee, where he appeared regularly on the stage of the Orpheum Theatre.
Although the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum says that the Orpheum opened as the Grand Theatre, a book called Arizona on Stage: Playhouses, Plays, and Players in the Territory, 1879-1912 by Thomas P. Collins doesn’t mention the name Grand. It merely says that the Orpheum Theatre was built by a Swiss immigrant named Joseph Maria Muheim who had prospered in Bisbee, that it opened on July 24, 1907, and that it was designed by local architect Fred C. Hurst. The original seating capacity was 1,000, according to the 1909-1910 Cahn guide.
The Lyric Theatre was built in 1917 by the Diamos family to replace their earlier house of the same name in Brewery Gulch, and it remained in operation for almost 72 years. It was equipped for movies, vaudeville, and legitimate stage shows. In 1930, the Diamos family sold their small chain to Fox West Coast Theatres, who operated them for three years. In 1933 the houses reverted to the Diamos family, and a couple of years later John Diamos became the sole proprietor of the Lyric.
Diamos was still operating the Lyric in 1970, when the December 21 issue of Boxoffice reported that he had temporarily closed the house for repairs and refurbishing. He died in 1977, and the following year the heirs leased the Lyric to its last operator, Lee Hayes. He kept the theater open for a bit more than a decade with a combination of movies, stage shows and concerts, but finally closed the Lyric in January, 1989.
A few years later the building was sold to a local real estate company who remodeled the front of the building for their offices, but the darkened auditorium remained largely intact. A few years ago the real estate office closed, and the Lyric Theatre has been waiting for someone with the vision to restore and reopen it. One individual has hired Herb Stratford’s Historic Theatre Consultants to survey the property, and the company has a few recent photos of the house on their web site, but as yet I’ve heard nothing about any firm plans to restore the theater.
A Facebook post from the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum says “[t]he Grand Theatre at the mouth of the Gulch later became the Orpheum.” The Orpheum was already listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Boxoffice of September 10, 1955 said that the new Cahokia Drive-In, soon to open at Alorton, had been designed by Cleveland architect-engineer George M. Petersen.
The death of Ritz owner Hugh McGregor on March 11, 1955 led to the closing of the theater on August 29, at which time the McGregor estate put the house up for sale. McGregor had opened the Ritz, Arcola’s first movie theater, on December 15, 1933. According to Boxoffice of September 10, 1955, the estate was also selling the Oakland Theatre at Oakland, Illinois, which had been dark since May 28.
An item in the March 24, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture World said that the new Rialto Theatre in Kewanee was owned by Chris C. Taylor, who also owned the Dreamland Theatre. The March 10 issue of the same journal had noted that the plans for remodeling an existing building to accommodate the Rialto had been prepared by Chicago architect W. T. Braun. William T. Braun had been the architect of the Barker-Swan Film Service studio at Peoria, Illinois, according to Motography of March 25, 1916.
The September 10, 1955 Boxoffice said that the Peerless Theatre would not be reopened. The item did not say how long the house had been closed, but it had been struggling for years. Boxoffice of March 22, 1952 had announced that the Peerless had been shut down after having been on a four-day-a-week schedule for some months, and that plans for the building’s future were indefinite.
It’s possible that the theater never reopened after that, though the 1955 item said that it had been under lease to Rod Lorenz Theatres, operators of the Wanee Theatre and Wanee Drive-In. The building was still owned by the heirs of the theater’s long-time operator, the late William T. Pierce. In any case, whether it ran its last show in 1952 or as late as 1955, it is likely that the Peerless was one of the many old theaters that was never retrofitted for wide-screen movies.
Boxoffice of September 10, 1955 carried a brief notice datelined Eagle Rock saying “[l]ong dark, the Dale Theatre here has been reopened by W. C. Jenkins and Peter Fox.”
The Tower Theatre might not be utterly doomed after all. This article posted by the Glenn County Transcript on August 27, 2019, tells of a non-profit organization called the Willows Revitalization Group which had acquired title to the theater and plans to renovate it as a mixed-use facility housing a restaurant, culinary school and downsized theater. That I can find no more recent information about the project is not an encouraging sign, but the pandemic has undoubtedly delayed their work, and perhaps the plans will go forward eventually.
Oklahoma City apparently had more than one theater called the Broadway, too. This item is from the January 21, 1922 issue of Exhibitors Herald:
I’ve been unable to track down where this second Broadway Theatre was located or what became of it, so I’m putting the information here to avoid losing track of it.The original Broadway Theatre was not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, nor was any other house at its address. The only theater the Directory listed on Broadway was the Star, at 217 N.
Here is an item from the April 1, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World:
The Lyric was opened very early in the year, as the event was noted in the January 14, 1922 issue of Exhibitors Herald.
An article about the Peerless Theatre appeared in the December 31, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald. No photos, alas, but the descriptions are quite effusive.
Newport’s Opera House opened on December 28, 1867, with a performance of the drama “Lucretia Borgia.” Newspaper reports of the time indicate that the theater was designed by architect-builder James Rudolph, with the assistance of architect-engineer Benjamin Coit.
Here’s something from the “Rhode Island Jotting” column of Motion Picture News for November 4, 1922:
By 1921, the Lyric was being operated by Southern Enterprises, Inc., a subsidiary of Famous Players-Lasky, then the theater operating arm of Paramount Pictures.
The November 5, 1921 issue of Moving Picture World mentioned the Palace and the Lyric in San Angelo, both managed by Mr. R. P. Whitfield on behalf of Southern Enterprises, the regional theater chain founded as a subsidiary of Famous Players-Lasky, aka Paramount.
Of the nine theaters listed at Johnstown in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory only three were listed without addresses, and of those three the Grand is accounted for. The other two were the Family Theatre (not to be confused with the Park Family Theatre, which was also listed) and the Victoria Theatre. Assuming that this little neighborhood theater was listed, and was still in operation, it must have been one of those two.
A 1927 Sanborn map shows the Opera House (with notation “Dance Hall & Movies”) on the north side of W. Front Street, just east of midblock. This is now the location of a parking lot adjacent to an Ace Hardware store. The hardware store runs through the block and uses the address 115 W. Nebraska Street, but Google maps street view gives the address 108 WI-133 Trunk (W. Front Street) to the parking lot where the theater once stood.
The Bijou Theatre opened in 1915, and around 1923 was remodeled and reopened as the Queen Theatre. According to the St. Croix Historical Society, the Queen closed in 1957, but the destruction by fire of the only other movie house in the region, the State Theatre in Calais, Maine, led to the Queen’s reopening in 1958, after which it continued to operate for many years, well patronized both by Canadians and by Mainers.
The State Theatre opened in 1928, and the original building was destroyed by a fire on March 4, 1958. A post from the St. Croix Historical Society (rather far down this page) says that the State was not rebuilt for many years, and in the meantime Calais movie fans had to attend the theater in St. Stephen, across the Canadian border.
The Palace didn’t make it into the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but a very brief article from the local historical society (PDF here) says that it opened in February, 1914, and its advertisements vanished from the local paper by 1919. The building which had housed the Palace burned to the ground in 1948 and was replaced by a W.T. Grant store, now also demolished.
I’ve been unable to puzzle out the exact location of the Palace, but the article indicates that it was on part of what is now a small park and the parking lot for the Downeast Heritage Center, which is at 39 Union Street. The parking area is quite long, and the earliest aerial view at Historic Aerials is from 1996, by which time much of the area had already been demolished, so I can’t find the street corner the Palace was on. Judging from old photos and aerial views, it was across the street from some surviving historic buildings on the south side of the street, roughly between the shops now occupied by Kendall’s Jewelers at 293 Main and Artemis’s Attic at 311 Main, so the Palace must have been at approximately 300 Main Street.
A history of Rockingham published by the town of Bellows Falls in 1958 says that, prior to being taken over by H. DeMotte Perry in 1912, the Grand had been known as the Standard Theatre, and had originally been operated by a Fred “Skid” Kimball.
This theater is a rebuild of the original Bellows Falls Opera House which was destroyed by fire in 1925. The original Opera House had been showing movies since 1914.
Freeman’s Hall, Pliny Freeman proprietor, is listed with 600 seats in Harry Miner’s dramatic directory for 1884-85. A book called Geneseo Centennial History 1836-1936 mentions a gathering to celebrate the opening of the town’s first library in 1881, held at Freeman’s Hall. A book with biographical sketches of some of Geneseo’s prominent citizens includes Pliny Freeman, saying that around 1869 he invested in rebuilding a commercial building his brother had owned which had been destroyed by fire that year. Though the book doesn’t specify, that might have been the building which contains Freeman’s Hall.
This brief article about silent film comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle says that for several months in 1909 he was a resident of Bisbee, where he appeared regularly on the stage of the Orpheum Theatre.
Although the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum says that the Orpheum opened as the Grand Theatre, a book called Arizona on Stage: Playhouses, Plays, and Players in the Territory, 1879-1912 by Thomas P. Collins doesn’t mention the name Grand. It merely says that the Orpheum Theatre was built by a Swiss immigrant named Joseph Maria Muheim who had prospered in Bisbee, that it opened on July 24, 1907, and that it was designed by local architect Fred C. Hurst. The original seating capacity was 1,000, according to the 1909-1910 Cahn guide.
The Lyric Theatre was built in 1917 by the Diamos family to replace their earlier house of the same name in Brewery Gulch, and it remained in operation for almost 72 years. It was equipped for movies, vaudeville, and legitimate stage shows. In 1930, the Diamos family sold their small chain to Fox West Coast Theatres, who operated them for three years. In 1933 the houses reverted to the Diamos family, and a couple of years later John Diamos became the sole proprietor of the Lyric.
Diamos was still operating the Lyric in 1970, when the December 21 issue of Boxoffice reported that he had temporarily closed the house for repairs and refurbishing. He died in 1977, and the following year the heirs leased the Lyric to its last operator, Lee Hayes. He kept the theater open for a bit more than a decade with a combination of movies, stage shows and concerts, but finally closed the Lyric in January, 1989.
A few years later the building was sold to a local real estate company who remodeled the front of the building for their offices, but the darkened auditorium remained largely intact. A few years ago the real estate office closed, and the Lyric Theatre has been waiting for someone with the vision to restore and reopen it. One individual has hired Herb Stratford’s Historic Theatre Consultants to survey the property, and the company has a few recent photos of the house on their web site, but as yet I’ve heard nothing about any firm plans to restore the theater.
A Facebook post from the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum says “[t]he Grand Theatre at the mouth of the Gulch later became the Orpheum.” The Orpheum was already listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Boxoffice of September 10, 1955 said that the new Cahokia Drive-In, soon to open at Alorton, had been designed by Cleveland architect-engineer George M. Petersen.
The death of Ritz owner Hugh McGregor on March 11, 1955 led to the closing of the theater on August 29, at which time the McGregor estate put the house up for sale. McGregor had opened the Ritz, Arcola’s first movie theater, on December 15, 1933. According to Boxoffice of September 10, 1955, the estate was also selling the Oakland Theatre at Oakland, Illinois, which had been dark since May 28.
An item in the March 24, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture World said that the new Rialto Theatre in Kewanee was owned by Chris C. Taylor, who also owned the Dreamland Theatre. The March 10 issue of the same journal had noted that the plans for remodeling an existing building to accommodate the Rialto had been prepared by Chicago architect W. T. Braun. William T. Braun had been the architect of the Barker-Swan Film Service studio at Peoria, Illinois, according to Motography of March 25, 1916.
The September 10, 1955 Boxoffice said that the Peerless Theatre would not be reopened. The item did not say how long the house had been closed, but it had been struggling for years. Boxoffice of March 22, 1952 had announced that the Peerless had been shut down after having been on a four-day-a-week schedule for some months, and that plans for the building’s future were indefinite.
It’s possible that the theater never reopened after that, though the 1955 item said that it had been under lease to Rod Lorenz Theatres, operators of the Wanee Theatre and Wanee Drive-In. The building was still owned by the heirs of the theater’s long-time operator, the late William T. Pierce. In any case, whether it ran its last show in 1952 or as late as 1955, it is likely that the Peerless was one of the many old theaters that was never retrofitted for wide-screen movies.
Boxoffice of September 10, 1955 carried a brief notice datelined Eagle Rock saying “[l]ong dark, the Dale Theatre here has been reopened by W. C. Jenkins and Peter Fox.”