This item from Moving Picture World Of November 6, 1926, might be about this house: “Forms Havana Co.
“Nat Liebeskind, formerly manager of the Universal exchange in Cuba, has formed the Havana Theatre Company, Inc., to operate picture theatres in Havana. On or about November 1 the first theatre will be opened. This will be known as the Cine Esmeralde.”
If Mr. Liebeskind’s house was indeed this one, then he was taking over an existing theater. This page from the “Lost Architecture” subreddit has an earlier photo of the house, dating its construction to 1908 and attributing its original, fanciful Art Nouveau design to architect Alberto de Castro. I wonder if Mr. Liebeskind was responsible for the old fashioned yet wretchedly inferior remodeling of the façade? The current front does look like a 1920s design, and few in the 1920s had respect for the Art Nouveau style.
The Meta Theatre made its first appearance in the FDY in 1936, suggesting a 1935 opening. Prior to that, Lamont had not appeared in the Yearbook since 1929, when the 235 seat Cozy Theatre was last listed. The Cozy had been in operation since at least as early as July, 1925, when manager W. C. Snyder was submitting capsule movie reviews to Moving Picture World. Given how small Lamont was it seems likely that the Meta was the Cozy reopened. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only a house called the Elite at Lamont, with no details, but it might also have been the same theater.
The Streamline remodeling this house underwent prior to reopening in early 1947 was designed by the local architectural firm Coston & Frankfurt (Truett Harry Coston and William Wallace Frankfurt.) The January 3, 1948 issue of Boxoffice featured an article about the Home State Theatre, revealing that the original lessee, R. Lewis Barton, had recently sold his interest in the house to H. T. Braucht and Robert D. Curran, who had been handling the live events at the house throughout Barton’s tenure.
About $10,000 of the $250,000 renovation budget was expended on improvements for the stage, which was 45 feet deep and featured a 60 foot wide proscenium. Both major road shows and local civic events were presented on the stage. The article also revealed that the 2,200 capacity of the house was actually 2,000 seats and room for 200 standees.
Here is an item from the October 12, 1912 issue of The Billboard noting the opening of the new Broadway Theatre in Muskogee on October 6: “Muskogee, Okla., Oct. 11 (Special to The Billboard).—The new Broadway Theatre was opened on October 6, with five vaudeville acts from the Interstate Amusement time. A crowded and enthusiastic audience was present. Fred E, Turner is the owner and R. B, Stephens, the sole proprietor. The new house is located in the heart of the shopping district and is elaborately finished, with a capacity of 1008
“Muskogee has needed a first-class vaudeville theatre for some time as Oklahoma City is the only other place in the state that plays first class circuits and the productions furnished by the Interstate Company will insure a prosperous and successful career”
Boxoffice of March 6, 1948, reported that Earl Kerr had taken over the Grand and Marion theatres at Knoxville, Iowa from Mrs. A. M. Black. George D. Hart, formerly manager of Kerr’s Iowa Theatre at Winterset was named manager of the two Knoxville houses.
An item in Boxoffice of October 2, 1948 mentioned George Hart as the manager of the Grand theatre in Knoxville, while another item in the same issue said that E. W. Kerr had recently been a guest of his manager George D. Hart while in Knoxville inspecting his theaters, so the Grand must have been run by Kerr Theatres at least as early as that year.
This item from Motion Picture News of May 8, 1926, says that the house that would become the Dickinson theatre was to be in an entirely new building in 1926, not just a remodeling of the old Novelty Theatre: “A new theatre will be constructed on the site of the present Novelty Theatre, Eighth Avenue and Quincy Street, Topeka, Kans., it is rumored, although the name of the prospective builder, or builders, has not been disclosed.”
Whether the house was entirely new in 1926 or not, this web page from the University of Kansas indicates that the Novelty originally opened in 1906 as the Aurora theater and was renamed the Novelty in 1909. The house was showing movies by 1914, and was listed in the American Motion Picture Directory that year. The new or remodeled house of 1926 operated as the Novelty until 1944, when it became the Dickinson.
A brief note of praise for the trade journal Motion Picture News, from “Ray Tuller, Mgr. and Owner, Palace theatre, Afton, Iowa” appeared in the magazine’s issue of July 3, 1920. That is the earliest, and almost only, mention of Afton I’ve been able to find in the trade journals.
I don’t know if the theater in this item from Motion Picture Herald of October 3, 1931 was an entirely new house or simply new to Mr. Wellemeyer. “B. A. WELLEMEYER has named his new theatre in Afton, Iowa, the Aftonia.”
Much later news from Afton is found in this item from Boxoffice January 22, 1962: “Closes Afton, Iowa, Paris
“AFTON, IOWA — After operating the Paris Theatre for nearly 17 years, L. J. Kessler has closed the theatre and sold the building to an oil company. The final screen program at the Paris was shown December 18, the equipment then being dismantled and removed from the building.”
The name Community Theatre was in use at New Market by early 1928, when a capsule movie review by the Community’s manager E. W. Lawrence appeared in the January 21 issue of Movie Age.
This item appeared in the January 6, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “J. F. MILLER has purchased the Community Theatre, New Market, Iowa, from Ed Lawrence. Miller hails from Knoxville.”
A D. B. Pace of the Isis Theatre in New Market was submitting reviews to Exhibitors Herald in September, 1926.
From The Show World, October 22, 1910: “L. P. Priessman, president of the Comet Amusement Company of Creston, Iowa, which operates houses at Red Oak, Alba and Creston, will open a new theater at Creston, November 7. All of the Comet houses are booked by the W. V. M. A..”
As the house at 211 W. Adams was in operation by 1907, the 1910 project must have been another theater, but I’ve been unable to determine which one. Perhaps it was the unidentified predecessor to the Uptown, just down the block from the Comet.
This fire-prone theater also burned in 1909, the December 11 issue of The Show World reporting $40,000 dollars damage to the Temple Grand Opera House at Creston the previous day. Only $13,000 was covered by insurance. Spontaneous combustion of boiler coal stored in the basement was blamed for the fire.
Could this theater, casually mentioned in the July 3, 1961 issue of Boxoffice, have something to do with the Hardin building?: “Wilbur Young of the Hardin Theatre at Bedford, Iowa, is spending his spare afternoons fishing….” A September 24, 1955 Boxoffice item had said that Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Young, operators of the Rialto Theatre at Bedford for several years, had leased the new Hardin Theatre, under construction there, and hoped to have it open by mid-October. If the Hardin building was built in front of the Rialto’s burnt-out carcass then that carcass probably housed the new theater.
An announcement of the opening of the new Hardin finally appeared in Boxoffice of November 19, but the exact date of the event was not mentioned. The Hardin was apparently still in operation in 1977, when it was mentioned in the August 5 issue of the Bedford Times-Press.
The Clark Theatre was mentioned in Exhibitors Herald of October 2, 1920, and the earliest mention of the Rialto I’ve found is in Motion Picture News November 7, 1925.
The building that was remodeled to house the Meigs Theatre was the Pomeroy Presbyterian church. Multiple sources say the theater was on East Main Street, but none say exactly where. Old photos show the front of the building was approached by a rather impressive stairway, and so the front had to have been set back some distance from Main Street.
One thing I find quite bizarre is that the Film Daily Year Books don’t list the Meigs until 1946, and then they list it with only 250 seats. There was definitely something screwy going on with that.
The official web site link for this closed theater is of course dead and can be taken down. The Colusa Theatre in Williams mentioned in the previous comment by MichaelKilgore is a different house, and shared this theater’s name because both towns are in Colusa County. It is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures, though the drive-in there is.
It turns out that the Temple Theatre at Villisca is mentioned in the May, 1911 issue of Motography, being operated by a Dr. F. M. Childs. To my mind (such as it is) that increases the odds that the Temple was the house at 305 S. 4th. That by June, 1919, an F. M. Childs of the Cozy (sometimes Kozy) Theatre in Villisca was providing capsule movie reviews to Exhibitors Herald And Motography is equally tantalizing.
One fly in the ointment (or perhaps in the popcorn butter) is this item in the Iowa column of the November, 1911 issue of Motography: “A moving picture theater has been opened at Villisca under the management of J. M. Drury, formerly of Storm Lake.” We can’t ignore the possibility that Mr. Drury’s nameless house was the one that occupied the crude premises at 305. I’d like to think that the Temple inhabited quarters more appropriate to its name, such as a substantial Masonic or Pythian lodge building, but if none such were available we might be stuck with that used furniture emporium, as Dr. Childs might have been.
The town was mistakenly listed as Villisea in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, when the only house listed was called the Temple Theatre. This house doesn’t seem very temple-like, but theater owners have seldom been without a capacity for hyperbole. It might have survived until 1914, maybe even longer. The 1926 FDY lists a house called the Cozy theatre, though it’s seating capacity (200) is not given until the 1929 edition. 305 S. 4th would certainly have been cozy….
It occurs to me that movies shown in a used furniture store would likely have plenty of seats available, some probably quite comfy, and there might even be a piano available. It would be a good way to pick up some extra income with minimal additional investment. If the movie business prospered enough you could phase out the furniture sales, and if it didn’t you still had your income from selling furniture. It’s not as goofy a business plan as it might seem at first glance.
This house was triplexed by Video Independent Theatres in 1980, opening as the Video Three Theatre on November 20, according to documents in the Griffith Amusement Company Collection at the Oklahoma Historical Society.
At various times over its long history, the Vaska Theatre was operated by Video Independent Theatres, Martin Theatres, and Carmike cinemas. It is now independently operated.
This item from Moving Picture World Of November 6, 1926, might be about this house: “Forms Havana Co.
“Nat Liebeskind, formerly manager of the Universal exchange in Cuba, has formed the Havana Theatre Company, Inc., to operate picture theatres in Havana. On or about November 1 the first theatre will be opened. This will be known as the Cine Esmeralde.”
If Mr. Liebeskind’s house was indeed this one, then he was taking over an existing theater. This page from the “Lost Architecture” subreddit has an earlier photo of the house, dating its construction to 1908 and attributing its original, fanciful Art Nouveau design to architect Alberto de Castro. I wonder if Mr. Liebeskind was responsible for the old fashioned yet wretchedly inferior remodeling of the façade? The current front does look like a 1920s design, and few in the 1920s had respect for the Art Nouveau style.
The Meta Theatre made its first appearance in the FDY in 1936, suggesting a 1935 opening. Prior to that, Lamont had not appeared in the Yearbook since 1929, when the 235 seat Cozy Theatre was last listed. The Cozy had been in operation since at least as early as July, 1925, when manager W. C. Snyder was submitting capsule movie reviews to Moving Picture World. Given how small Lamont was it seems likely that the Meta was the Cozy reopened. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only a house called the Elite at Lamont, with no details, but it might also have been the same theater.
The Streamline remodeling this house underwent prior to reopening in early 1947 was designed by the local architectural firm Coston & Frankfurt (Truett Harry Coston and William Wallace Frankfurt.) The January 3, 1948 issue of Boxoffice featured an article about the Home State Theatre, revealing that the original lessee, R. Lewis Barton, had recently sold his interest in the house to H. T. Braucht and Robert D. Curran, who had been handling the live events at the house throughout Barton’s tenure.
About $10,000 of the $250,000 renovation budget was expended on improvements for the stage, which was 45 feet deep and featured a 60 foot wide proscenium. Both major road shows and local civic events were presented on the stage. The article also revealed that the 2,200 capacity of the house was actually 2,000 seats and room for 200 standees.
Here is an item from the October 12, 1912 issue of The Billboard noting the opening of the new Broadway Theatre in Muskogee on October 6: “Muskogee, Okla., Oct. 11 (Special to The Billboard).—The new Broadway Theatre was opened on October 6, with five vaudeville acts from the Interstate Amusement time. A crowded and enthusiastic audience was present. Fred E, Turner is the owner and R. B, Stephens, the sole proprietor. The new house is located in the heart of the shopping district and is elaborately finished, with a capacity of 1008
“Muskogee has needed a first-class vaudeville theatre for some time as Oklahoma City is the only other place in the state that plays first class circuits and the productions furnished by the Interstate Company will insure a prosperous and successful career”
Boxoffice of March 6, 1948, reported that Earl Kerr had taken over the Grand and Marion theatres at Knoxville, Iowa from Mrs. A. M. Black. George D. Hart, formerly manager of Kerr’s Iowa Theatre at Winterset was named manager of the two Knoxville houses.
In fact, Boxoffice of March 6, 1948 said that “E. W. Kerr, Denver, has taken over the Grand and Marion theatres in Knoxville, Iowa.”
An item in Boxoffice of October 2, 1948 mentioned George Hart as the manager of the Grand theatre in Knoxville, while another item in the same issue said that E. W. Kerr had recently been a guest of his manager George D. Hart while in Knoxville inspecting his theaters, so the Grand must have been run by Kerr Theatres at least as early as that year.
This item from Motion Picture News of May 8, 1926, says that the house that would become the Dickinson theatre was to be in an entirely new building in 1926, not just a remodeling of the old Novelty Theatre: “A new theatre will be constructed on the site of the present Novelty Theatre, Eighth Avenue and Quincy Street, Topeka, Kans., it is rumored, although the name of the prospective builder, or builders, has not been disclosed.”
Whether the house was entirely new in 1926 or not, this web page from the University of Kansas indicates that the Novelty originally opened in 1906 as the Aurora theater and was renamed the Novelty in 1909. The house was showing movies by 1914, and was listed in the American Motion Picture Directory that year. The new or remodeled house of 1926 operated as the Novelty until 1944, when it became the Dickinson.
A brief note of praise for the trade journal Motion Picture News, from “Ray Tuller, Mgr. and Owner, Palace theatre, Afton, Iowa” appeared in the magazine’s issue of July 3, 1920. That is the earliest, and almost only, mention of Afton I’ve been able to find in the trade journals.
I don’t know if the theater in this item from Motion Picture Herald of October 3, 1931 was an entirely new house or simply new to Mr. Wellemeyer. “B. A. WELLEMEYER has named his new theatre in Afton, Iowa, the Aftonia.”
Much later news from Afton is found in this item from Boxoffice January 22, 1962: “Closes Afton, Iowa, Paris
“AFTON, IOWA — After operating the Paris Theatre for nearly 17 years, L. J. Kessler has closed the theatre and sold the building to an oil company. The final screen program at the Paris was shown December 18, the equipment then being dismantled and removed from the building.”
The July 12, 1931 Film Daily mentioned this house: “Mt. Ayr, Ia.— Will H. Eddy has purchased his second theater, the Princess here.”
The name Community Theatre was in use at New Market by early 1928, when a capsule movie review by the Community’s manager E. W. Lawrence appeared in the January 21 issue of Movie Age.
This item appeared in the January 6, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “J. F. MILLER has purchased the Community Theatre, New Market, Iowa, from Ed Lawrence. Miller hails from Knoxville.”
A D. B. Pace of the Isis Theatre in New Market was submitting reviews to Exhibitors Herald in September, 1926.
From The Show World, October 22, 1910: “L. P. Priessman, president of the Comet Amusement Company of Creston, Iowa, which operates houses at Red Oak, Alba and Creston, will open a new theater at Creston, November 7. All of the Comet houses are booked by the W. V. M. A..”
As the house at 211 W. Adams was in operation by 1907, the 1910 project must have been another theater, but I’ve been unable to determine which one. Perhaps it was the unidentified predecessor to the Uptown, just down the block from the Comet.
This fire-prone theater also burned in 1909, the December 11 issue of The Show World reporting $40,000 dollars damage to the Temple Grand Opera House at Creston the previous day. Only $13,000 was covered by insurance. Spontaneous combustion of boiler coal stored in the basement was blamed for the fire.
The Hardin theatre was in operation at least as late as 1977, when it was mentioned in the August 5 issue of the Bedford Times-Press.
There are photos on Facebook and it was pretty much nothing but rubble after the fire.
Could this theater, casually mentioned in the July 3, 1961 issue of Boxoffice, have something to do with the Hardin building?: “Wilbur Young of the Hardin Theatre at Bedford, Iowa, is spending his spare afternoons fishing….” A September 24, 1955 Boxoffice item had said that Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Young, operators of the Rialto Theatre at Bedford for several years, had leased the new Hardin Theatre, under construction there, and hoped to have it open by mid-October. If the Hardin building was built in front of the Rialto’s burnt-out carcass then that carcass probably housed the new theater.
An announcement of the opening of the new Hardin finally appeared in Boxoffice of November 19, but the exact date of the event was not mentioned. The Hardin was apparently still in operation in 1977, when it was mentioned in the August 5 issue of the Bedford Times-Press.
The Clark Theatre was mentioned in Exhibitors Herald of October 2, 1920, and the earliest mention of the Rialto I’ve found is in Motion Picture News November 7, 1925.
The building that was remodeled to house the Meigs Theatre was the Pomeroy Presbyterian church. Multiple sources say the theater was on East Main Street, but none say exactly where. Old photos show the front of the building was approached by a rather impressive stairway, and so the front had to have been set back some distance from Main Street.
One thing I find quite bizarre is that the Film Daily Year Books don’t list the Meigs until 1946, and then they list it with only 250 seats. There was definitely something screwy going on with that.
The official web site link for this closed theater is of course dead and can be taken down. The Colusa Theatre in Williams mentioned in the previous comment by MichaelKilgore is a different house, and shared this theater’s name because both towns are in Colusa County. It is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures, though the drive-in there is.
It turns out that the Temple Theatre at Villisca is mentioned in the May, 1911 issue of Motography, being operated by a Dr. F. M. Childs. To my mind (such as it is) that increases the odds that the Temple was the house at 305 S. 4th. That by June, 1919, an F. M. Childs of the Cozy (sometimes Kozy) Theatre in Villisca was providing capsule movie reviews to Exhibitors Herald And Motography is equally tantalizing.
One fly in the ointment (or perhaps in the popcorn butter) is this item in the Iowa column of the November, 1911 issue of Motography: “A moving picture theater has been opened at Villisca under the management of J. M. Drury, formerly of Storm Lake.” We can’t ignore the possibility that Mr. Drury’s nameless house was the one that occupied the crude premises at 305. I’d like to think that the Temple inhabited quarters more appropriate to its name, such as a substantial Masonic or Pythian lodge building, but if none such were available we might be stuck with that used furniture emporium, as Dr. Childs might have been.
The town was mistakenly listed as Villisea in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, when the only house listed was called the Temple Theatre. This house doesn’t seem very temple-like, but theater owners have seldom been without a capacity for hyperbole. It might have survived until 1914, maybe even longer. The 1926 FDY lists a house called the Cozy theatre, though it’s seating capacity (200) is not given until the 1929 edition. 305 S. 4th would certainly have been cozy….
It occurs to me that movies shown in a used furniture store would likely have plenty of seats available, some probably quite comfy, and there might even be a piano available. It would be a good way to pick up some extra income with minimal additional investment. If the movie business prospered enough you could phase out the furniture sales, and if it didn’t you still had your income from selling furniture. It’s not as goofy a business plan as it might seem at first glance.
This house was triplexed by Video Independent Theatres in 1980, opening as the Video Three Theatre on November 20, according to documents in the Griffith Amusement Company Collection at the Oklahoma Historical Society.
At various times over its long history, the Vaska Theatre was operated by Video Independent Theatres, Martin Theatres, and Carmike cinemas. It is now independently operated.
Here is the official web site. The “About” section has a few interior photos of the auditoriums.
By 1965, the Lawton Theatre was operated by the Video Independent chain. August 4, 1976 was the last show at the house.
By 1963 the Diana Theatre was part of the Griffith/Video Independent Theatres chain.