On the evening of March 5, 1951, the State Theatre’s marquee crashed down to the sidewalk when the chains holding the outer end were loose, damaging the front of the theater. Luckily enough, nobody was caught in the fall, but there were reports that five young children were playing with the chains under it just before the crash. However, there was a narrow escape when a 4-year-old girl sustained slight bruises on her arm where the marquee fell. The large neon sign above it was also both damaged and broken.
I cannot confirm if this was separate, but this was most likely later known as the Main Theatre. However, there was a marquee incident that happened outside the theater.
Shortly before 6:45 PM on September 25, 1951, manager Leo Cane and his helper Beck Thompson decided that the neon sign spelling out “Main” needed to be both fixed and adjusted. With this in mind, the two climbed on top of the marquee and began the adjustments. Leo was sitting on top of the highest part of the sign and Bec was below steadying the sign when the cables ripped out, and marquee fell and crashed down to the ground. Luckily enough, both Leo and Beck were not seriously injured, but both had minor injuries. Beck had to have five stitches taken in a cut under his chin, and Leo had a deep gash in his hand. The marquee incident caused the show to postpone, with the damage costing $500 total.
One of the Carolina Theatre’s original managers is Emory Johnson, who at the age of 30, became a murderer after gunning down a 44-year-old textile worker named William Taft Hughes during a telephone argument on May 15, 1954, as confirmed by Gastonia police chief at the time G.F. Peninger.
Three days before JFK’s assassination on November 19, 1963, the original box office of the Grove Theater was severely damaged by a Chevrolet Bel-Air after the driver attempted to escape a runaway Meadow Gold Milk truck. Both the truck and the car suffered minor damages.
The driver of the milk truck confirmed that he did check the safety breaks after parking in front of Beck Apartments but left the motor running for a reason. For some weird reason, the brakes were released and the truck backed across Main Street, striking the Bel-Air, causing the Bel-Air to jump the curb and strike the tile front of the theater.
Shortly after its closure, the Queens Chapel’s original Century Model CC projectors, RCA sound, and RCA speakers were placed on auction on January 6, 1984.
While the Route 66 Drive-In was still abandoned for 22 years, there was a death reported at the theater’s property at one time. Springfield Police discovered a 39-year-old man named Robert J. Grimes dead from carbon monoxide poisoning from inside his car on the afternoon of April 20, 1990. Officers recovered a hose that was found taped to an exhaust pipe that leads into the car.
The Prospect Theatre ran its normal first-run movie on April 4, 1991 with “Kindergarten Cop”, but continued to show “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for two more days until April 6, when it closed for the final time.
Correction: The first Princess Theatre became the Strand Theatre and closed on August 6, 1916, and has its own CT page. The second Princess Theatre operated from April 1, 1914 and closed in early 1927.
There’s only a small amount of information about this, but on August 4, 1990, a man was shot in the right buttock while walking at the Rowen Plaza Cinemas' lobby and heading outside. There’s no other information rather than the man was taken to a nearby hospital in good condition.
On December 2, 1990, the Whitestone became national headlines again after two men were shot during a Sunday morning screening of “Misery” in one of the auditoriums. One of the men, a 19-year-old, was pronounced dead at the scene after being shot in the side, while the other man was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound in the stomach. According to the NYPD, officials confirmed that the men got into an argument with the shooter before the suspect opened fire and ran away.
Closed on October 9, 1983 with “Kill & Kill Again” and “Kill Or Be Killed” (damn the tongue-twister). Both 1985 and 1986 aerial views show the drive-in in extremely rough shape. It was already gone by the early-1990s.
This is the second Princess Theatre that opened on April 1, 1914 by John C. Miller. The earlier Princess Theatre that opened on September 1, 1911 would eventually become the Strand Theatre afterward.
Right after the Princess closure in early 1927, the original Princess building was demolished that Spring to make way for Miller’s new Miller Theatre, a 62x120ft buff-colored pressed-brick house (with cut-stone base and pilasters alongside a tile roof) that was partially built on the site of both the Princess Theatre and the E.J. Fields Hardware Company store. And a little fun fact here is that the Miller Theatre was originally planned to open as the Princess Theatre as well, but sometime later in its construction, he decided to use his last name as his business and opened as the Miller Theatre.
If you guys know where the perpetrator, James Eagan Holmes (born December 13, 1987 in San Diego, California) is now, he’s incarcerating his 12 consecutive life sentences (plus 3,318 years) at United States Penitentiary (USP) Allenwood, in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, located between Williamsport and Lewisburg, and 75 miles north of Harrisburg.
What’s really strange is that there are two Illinois theater chains that were named RMC Cinemas. There is that RMC Cinemas here by Dan Rogers (that operated Streator’s Eagle, alongside three other theaters in Effingham, Jacksonville, and Waterloo), and there is the RMC Cinemas in the Northwest Chicagoland suburbs that operated a dozen theaters across McHenry and Lake Counties also known as Rhyan Management Corp. by Thomas (Tom), Scott, and Jeff Rhyan.
This was taken four days before grand opening, on August 12, 1961.
On the evening of March 5, 1951, the State Theatre’s marquee crashed down to the sidewalk when the chains holding the outer end were loose, damaging the front of the theater. Luckily enough, nobody was caught in the fall, but there were reports that five young children were playing with the chains under it just before the crash. However, there was a narrow escape when a 4-year-old girl sustained slight bruises on her arm where the marquee fell. The large neon sign above it was also both damaged and broken.
I cannot confirm if this was separate, but this was most likely later known as the Main Theatre. However, there was a marquee incident that happened outside the theater.
Shortly before 6:45 PM on September 25, 1951, manager Leo Cane and his helper Beck Thompson decided that the neon sign spelling out “Main” needed to be both fixed and adjusted. With this in mind, the two climbed on top of the marquee and began the adjustments. Leo was sitting on top of the highest part of the sign and Bec was below steadying the sign when the cables ripped out, and marquee fell and crashed down to the ground. Luckily enough, both Leo and Beck were not seriously injured, but both had minor injuries. Beck had to have five stitches taken in a cut under his chin, and Leo had a deep gash in his hand. The marquee incident caused the show to postpone, with the damage costing $500 total.
One of the Carolina Theatre’s original managers is Emory Johnson, who at the age of 30, became a murderer after gunning down a 44-year-old textile worker named William Taft Hughes during a telephone argument on May 15, 1954, as confirmed by Gastonia police chief at the time G.F. Peninger.
Three days before JFK’s assassination on November 19, 1963, the original box office of the Grove Theater was severely damaged by a Chevrolet Bel-Air after the driver attempted to escape a runaway Meadow Gold Milk truck. Both the truck and the car suffered minor damages.
The driver of the milk truck confirmed that he did check the safety breaks after parking in front of Beck Apartments but left the motor running for a reason. For some weird reason, the brakes were released and the truck backed across Main Street, striking the Bel-Air, causing the Bel-Air to jump the curb and strike the tile front of the theater.
Shortly after its closure, the Queens Chapel’s original Century Model CC projectors, RCA sound, and RCA speakers were placed on auction on January 6, 1984.
While the Route 66 Drive-In was still abandoned for 22 years, there was a death reported at the theater’s property at one time. Springfield Police discovered a 39-year-old man named Robert J. Grimes dead from carbon monoxide poisoning from inside his car on the afternoon of April 20, 1990. Officers recovered a hose that was found taped to an exhaust pipe that leads into the car.
The Prospect Theatre ran its normal first-run movie on April 4, 1991 with “Kindergarten Cop”, but continued to show “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for two more days until April 6, when it closed for the final time.
Became a five-screen theater on May 23, 1986.
Correction: The first Princess Theatre became the Strand Theatre and closed on August 6, 1916, and has its own CT page. The second Princess Theatre operated from April 1, 1914 and closed in early 1927.
There’s only a small amount of information about this, but on August 4, 1990, a man was shot in the right buttock while walking at the Rowen Plaza Cinemas' lobby and heading outside. There’s no other information rather than the man was taken to a nearby hospital in good condition.
On December 2, 1990, the Whitestone became national headlines again after two men were shot during a Sunday morning screening of “Misery” in one of the auditoriums. One of the men, a 19-year-old, was pronounced dead at the scene after being shot in the side, while the other man was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound in the stomach. According to the NYPD, officials confirmed that the men got into an argument with the shooter before the suspect opened fire and ran away.
The Concord Monitor briefly advertised the theater between May and November 1994. I don’t know why though.
Closed on October 9, 1983 with “Kill & Kill Again” and “Kill Or Be Killed” (damn the tongue-twister). Both 1985 and 1986 aerial views show the drive-in in extremely rough shape. It was already gone by the early-1990s.
Actual closing date is October 9, 2019.
Once operated by Loews.
Closed in the early-1960s. The Capitol is a Famous Players theater.
This is the second Princess Theatre that opened on April 1, 1914 by John C. Miller. The earlier Princess Theatre that opened on September 1, 1911 would eventually become the Strand Theatre afterward.
Right after the Princess closure in early 1927, the original Princess building was demolished that Spring to make way for Miller’s new Miller Theatre, a 62x120ft buff-colored pressed-brick house (with cut-stone base and pilasters alongside a tile roof) that was partially built on the site of both the Princess Theatre and the E.J. Fields Hardware Company store. And a little fun fact here is that the Miller Theatre was originally planned to open as the Princess Theatre as well, but sometime later in its construction, he decided to use his last name as his business and opened as the Miller Theatre.
If you guys know where the perpetrator, James Eagan Holmes (born December 13, 1987 in San Diego, California) is now, he’s incarcerating his 12 consecutive life sentences (plus 3,318 years) at United States Penitentiary (USP) Allenwood, in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, located between Williamsport and Lewisburg, and 75 miles north of Harrisburg.
What’s really strange is that there are two Illinois theater chains that were named RMC Cinemas. There is that RMC Cinemas here by Dan Rogers (that operated Streator’s Eagle, alongside three other theaters in Effingham, Jacksonville, and Waterloo), and there is the RMC Cinemas in the Northwest Chicagoland suburbs that operated a dozen theaters across McHenry and Lake Counties also known as Rhyan Management Corp. by Thomas (Tom), Scott, and Jeff Rhyan.
Last operated by RMC Cinemas.
Once operated by RMC Cinemas. It was taken over by C You At The Movies in the early-2000s.
RMC Cinemas once operated the Antioch until it was taken over by C You At The Movies in the mid-2000s.
RMC Cinemas once operated the Liberty until it was taken over by C You At The Movies in the mid-2000s.
Once operated by RMC Cinemas.