The June 14, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World said that the Bob White Theatre, which had then been open for about six months, had been designed by Portland architect Lee Thomas. While the article does not mention Albert Mercier, he and Thomas were partners at this time, and collaborated on several other theater projects.
I’ve come across a reference to another remodeling job at the Strand Theatre, this from the March 24, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
“Plans are being prepared by Architect Mark T. Jorgensen of San Francisco for extensive remodeling work in the Strand Theatre, Berkeley, Cal., owned and operated by the Beach-Krahn Amusement Co.”
We don’t have a page for the Gem Theatre at Jasper, Indiana. I suspect that there wasn’t one, and dallasmovietheaters just mentioned the wrong town. I’ve found a reference to a Christian Winkenhofer being the operator of the Gem in Huntingburg, and the Gem in Huntingburg is the only theater of that name I’ve found mentioned in the archives of the Jasper Herald, which otherwise mentions only the Tivoli, the Astra, and earlier a house called the Star Theatre, operating in the 1910s.
However, the Huntingburg Independent does mention the Gem Theatre in its issue of July 29, 1916, so dallasmovietheaters' opening year of 1913 could be correct. As the building at 414 E. Fourth Street was built in 1920 (confirmed by the NRHP registration form for the Huntingburg Commercial Historic District) it must be that the original Gem was either rebuilt, or moved to new quarters at this location.
This web page has information about a movie theater which appears to have been the only one in Madison. It was at 120 E. Washington Street, and opened in 1921 as the Strand Theatre. In 1923 it was renamed the Genesta Theatre, in 1925 it became the Madison Square Theatre, and in 1931 the Madison Theatre. In 1976 the building was converted into offices for an insurance agent.
There are three photos of the building, two from 1949 and one from ca. 1970. Sometime after 1949, and probably not long after, a wedge marquee and a vertical sign were added to the building. The later photo is not very clear, and it’s not possible to tell if the theater is open at that time or not, but it does look like there might be a movie poster on display. Around 1950 the trade journals mentioned a proposal for a new theater in Madison, but I haven’t found evidence that it was actually built. I suspect that the project proved too costly for a town of 2,500, and the old theater was renovated instead.
The Crown Theatre was one of two houses listed at Amesbury in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The other was the Town Hall, located on Friend Street.
This web pagehas a history of theaters in North Adams, including some information about the Richmond and a nice cross-sectional drawing. I’ve found the house mentioned as the New Richmond Theatre a early as 1900, and in its early years it was a vaudeville and stage theater, sometimes presenting tryouts of plays destined for New York City.
The Richmond began showing movies in 1909, according to an item in the August 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon, which noted that its operator had taken a five year leas on the house. However, it must have reverted to live performances by 1914, as it was not among the three movie houses listed in North Adams in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
It did return to being a movie house later, though, and in the early 1930s was being operated under a lease by E. M. Loew chain. The imminent loss of the lease led Loew to build the Mohawk Theatre in 1937. The Richmond was thereafter operated by Western Massachusetts Theatres until closing in the mid-1940s, after which it was remodeled to serve as a lodge hall for the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Like the nearby Empire/Paramount Theatre, it was demolished in the 1970s as part of a municipal redevelopment scheme.
The Empire was one of three theaters listed at North Adams in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The other two were called the Bijou and the Wilson.
This web page has a history of the theaters in North Adams, and says that the Empire Theatre as rebuilt following the fire of 1912 incorporated three walls that survived from the original Empire that had opened in 1902. It also says that the Paramount, like the nearby Richmond Theatre, was demolished in the 1970s for the city’s redevelopment project.
Also lost was a ghost house that would have been called the Capitol Theatre had it ever opened. It was built in the 1920s by the Sullivan brothers, who then controlled all the theaters in North Adams, and it was used as the headquarters for their real estate business. It had been designed for quick outfitting as a theater in case any rival theater company attempted to build a new house in their territory. By the time the E. M. Loew’s chain announced plans for the Mohawk Theatre in 1937, the Sullivans had retired from the theater business, and the threat to open the Capitol was never carried out by Western Massachusetts Theatres, which had taken over the Sullivan properties.
This weblog post by David Blakeslee says that the Roxy opened on May 16, 1935. B. F. Shearer Co. of Seattle operated the house from its opening at least into the mid-1950s.
Boxoffice of December 17, 1973 said that the 516-seat addition to ABC’s Phipps Plaza Theatre, slated to open December 26, had been designed by the Columbus, Georgia firm Brookbank, Murphy & Shields.
The first four-screen theater in the Roanoke area opened on January 30, 1976 as the Valley Cinema. The four auditoria were configured to radiate from the octagonal lobby, so they shared no common walls. The largest auditorium, with 350 seats, had its own projection booth, and the other three, with 300, 250, and 200 seats respectively, shared one booth. The Project architect was Bill Murphy of the Columbus, Georgia firm Brookbank, Murphy & Shields.
Knight, manager of the American Theatre, submitted multiple capsule movie reviews for the “What the Picture Did For Me” section of Motion Picture Herald in early 1934.
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 has a history of the town’s theaters, and says that the Lou Ana Theatre opened in 1951.
The July 8, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that the recently opened LaSalle Theatre in Kirkland Lake was one of several Ontario houses that was presenting live vaudeville shows along with their movies. The Cartier Theatre at Timmons had also adopted the combination house policy.
I believe this house might have opened in 1939 as the Macon Theatre. The Tennessee news column of the July 8, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that “[t]he Mason, [sic] a new theater at Lafayette, opened July 4.” Lafayette being such a small town it seems unlikely that two new theaters would have been opened there in the 1930s.
The Spanish Colonial Atmospheric auditorium the Aztec Theatre was the result of a remodeling that was done in 1939. The reopening of the house, which had taken place on June 7, was noted in the July 8 issue of Boxoffice. H. S. Leon had recently become the sole owner of the Aztec, in which he had acquired a part interest in 1932.
The Schine circuit had control of the State by 1926, when the March 13 issue of Moving Picture World said that the company planned a complete remodeling of the house. The $75,000 project was slated to begin on May 1.
When the Palace was taken over by Michaels Theatrical Enterprises in 1926, the March 13 issue of Moving Picture World said that the “…first-run picture hose was built a decade ago by the late Mitchell H. Mark and associates….” It added that “[t]he Palace was the second high-class picture house to be built in Buffalo.” The house probably opened in early 1915, as the February 6 issue of The Buffalo Times mentioned that an organist had been hired for “…the new Palace Theatre which will open soon in Buffalo.”
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 says that the Delta Grand Theatre opened on April 1, 1933 as the Conrad Theatre. It was renamed Delta Theatre in 1934.
Oops. Something from the article I left out of my comment is that in 1932 the Princess was sold to R. Bailey, who renamed it the Bailey Theatre. A Harold Bailey of Opelousas is mentioned as a recent visitor to film row in New Orleans in the January 7, 1936 issue of The Film Daily.
Something the Daily World article missed is another fire at the Princess, on February 4, 1926. The reopening of the house was mentioned in the March 13, 1926 issue of Moving Picture World.
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 has a history of movie theaters in Opelousas, and it says that a house called the Bon Ami Theatre had opened by 1911, with its entrance on Court Street. Some time later (before 1914) it was expanded into a building on Landry Street and renamed the Princess Theatre. It operated for a time with entrances on both streets.
In 1916, a new owner took over and built a new, brick building for the Princess at another location on Landry Street, and it was this 1916 building that eventually became the Rex. The Princess apparently started out as a reverse theater, as the article says that in 1923 it was remodeled and expanded, and the screen was moved to the rear of the building. In 1932, a fire caused about $8,000 of damage to the building, and it had to be partly rebuilt. By 1937 it had been renamed the Rex. In its later years the Rex was operated by the same company that owned the Delta Theatre.
The article doesn’t give the closing year for the Rex, but notes that the Rose Theatre opened on Market Street in 1947 and the Lou Ana Theatre opened on North Court Street in 1951, so it’s likely that the Rex closed not long after that, despite the 1951 remodeling project. With three other theaters in town, plus the drive-in, I doubt the Rex was ever outfitted with costly CinemaScope equipment, and most non-CinemaScope houses everywhere had been closed by the end of 1956.
Houses called the Yale Theatre and the Novelty Theatre are both listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Novelty is listed at 410 E. Douglas, but no address is given for the Yale.
The June 14, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World said that the Bob White Theatre, which had then been open for about six months, had been designed by Portland architect Lee Thomas. While the article does not mention Albert Mercier, he and Thomas were partners at this time, and collaborated on several other theater projects.
I’ve come across a reference to another remodeling job at the Strand Theatre, this from the March 24, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
We don’t have a page for the Gem Theatre at Jasper, Indiana. I suspect that there wasn’t one, and dallasmovietheaters just mentioned the wrong town. I’ve found a reference to a Christian Winkenhofer being the operator of the Gem in Huntingburg, and the Gem in Huntingburg is the only theater of that name I’ve found mentioned in the archives of the Jasper Herald, which otherwise mentions only the Tivoli, the Astra, and earlier a house called the Star Theatre, operating in the 1910s.
However, the Huntingburg Independent does mention the Gem Theatre in its issue of July 29, 1916, so dallasmovietheaters' opening year of 1913 could be correct. As the building at 414 E. Fourth Street was built in 1920 (confirmed by the NRHP registration form for the Huntingburg Commercial Historic District) it must be that the original Gem was either rebuilt, or moved to new quarters at this location.
This web page has information about a movie theater which appears to have been the only one in Madison. It was at 120 E. Washington Street, and opened in 1921 as the Strand Theatre. In 1923 it was renamed the Genesta Theatre, in 1925 it became the Madison Square Theatre, and in 1931 the Madison Theatre. In 1976 the building was converted into offices for an insurance agent.
There are three photos of the building, two from 1949 and one from ca. 1970. Sometime after 1949, and probably not long after, a wedge marquee and a vertical sign were added to the building. The later photo is not very clear, and it’s not possible to tell if the theater is open at that time or not, but it does look like there might be a movie poster on display. Around 1950 the trade journals mentioned a proposal for a new theater in Madison, but I haven’t found evidence that it was actually built. I suspect that the project proved too costly for a town of 2,500, and the old theater was renovated instead.
Repaired link here. (Sorry for the delay. For some reason I’m not getting email notifications of new comments anymore.)
The Crown Theatre was one of two houses listed at Amesbury in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The other was the Town Hall, located on Friend Street.
This web pagehas a history of theaters in North Adams, including some information about the Richmond and a nice cross-sectional drawing. I’ve found the house mentioned as the New Richmond Theatre a early as 1900, and in its early years it was a vaudeville and stage theater, sometimes presenting tryouts of plays destined for New York City.
The Richmond began showing movies in 1909, according to an item in the August 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon, which noted that its operator had taken a five year leas on the house. However, it must have reverted to live performances by 1914, as it was not among the three movie houses listed in North Adams in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
It did return to being a movie house later, though, and in the early 1930s was being operated under a lease by E. M. Loew chain. The imminent loss of the lease led Loew to build the Mohawk Theatre in 1937. The Richmond was thereafter operated by Western Massachusetts Theatres until closing in the mid-1940s, after which it was remodeled to serve as a lodge hall for the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Like the nearby Empire/Paramount Theatre, it was demolished in the 1970s as part of a municipal redevelopment scheme.
The Empire was one of three theaters listed at North Adams in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The other two were called the Bijou and the Wilson.
This web page has a history of the theaters in North Adams, and says that the Empire Theatre as rebuilt following the fire of 1912 incorporated three walls that survived from the original Empire that had opened in 1902. It also says that the Paramount, like the nearby Richmond Theatre, was demolished in the 1970s for the city’s redevelopment project.
Also lost was a ghost house that would have been called the Capitol Theatre had it ever opened. It was built in the 1920s by the Sullivan brothers, who then controlled all the theaters in North Adams, and it was used as the headquarters for their real estate business. It had been designed for quick outfitting as a theater in case any rival theater company attempted to build a new house in their territory. By the time the E. M. Loew’s chain announced plans for the Mohawk Theatre in 1937, the Sullivans had retired from the theater business, and the threat to open the Capitol was never carried out by Western Massachusetts Theatres, which had taken over the Sullivan properties.
This weblog post by David Blakeslee says that the Roxy opened on May 16, 1935. B. F. Shearer Co. of Seattle operated the house from its opening at least into the mid-1950s.
Boxoffice of December 17, 1973 said that the 516-seat addition to ABC’s Phipps Plaza Theatre, slated to open December 26, had been designed by the Columbus, Georgia firm Brookbank, Murphy & Shields.
I forgot to put a citation in my previous comment. The information is from the June, 1976 issue of The Virginia Record Magazine.
The first four-screen theater in the Roanoke area opened on January 30, 1976 as the Valley Cinema. The four auditoria were configured to radiate from the octagonal lobby, so they shared no common walls. The largest auditorium, with 350 seats, had its own projection booth, and the other three, with 300, 250, and 200 seats respectively, shared one booth. The Project architect was Bill Murphy of the Columbus, Georgia firm Brookbank, Murphy & Shields.
The manager’s name was G. C. Knight. I had it right, but it didn’t come through in the posting of the comment.
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 has a history of the town’s theaters, and says that the Lou Ana Theatre opened in 1951.
The July 8, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that the recently opened LaSalle Theatre in Kirkland Lake was one of several Ontario houses that was presenting live vaudeville shows along with their movies. The Cartier Theatre at Timmons had also adopted the combination house policy.
I believe this house might have opened in 1939 as the Macon Theatre. The Tennessee news column of the July 8, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that “[t]he Mason, [sic] a new theater at Lafayette, opened July 4.” Lafayette being such a small town it seems unlikely that two new theaters would have been opened there in the 1930s.
The Spanish Colonial Atmospheric auditorium the Aztec Theatre was the result of a remodeling that was done in 1939. The reopening of the house, which had taken place on June 7, was noted in the July 8 issue of Boxoffice. H. S. Leon had recently become the sole owner of the Aztec, in which he had acquired a part interest in 1932.
The Schine circuit had control of the State by 1926, when the March 13 issue of Moving Picture World said that the company planned a complete remodeling of the house. The $75,000 project was slated to begin on May 1.
The March 13, 1926 issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Majestic Theatre would open in Rochester on March 17.
When the Palace was taken over by Michaels Theatrical Enterprises in 1926, the March 13 issue of Moving Picture World said that the “…first-run picture hose was built a decade ago by the late Mitchell H. Mark and associates….” It added that “[t]he Palace was the second high-class picture house to be built in Buffalo.” The house probably opened in early 1915, as the February 6 issue of The Buffalo Times mentioned that an organist had been hired for “…the new Palace Theatre which will open soon in Buffalo.”
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 says that the Delta Grand Theatre opened on April 1, 1933 as the Conrad Theatre. It was renamed Delta Theatre in 1934.
Oops. Something from the article I left out of my comment is that in 1932 the Princess was sold to R. Bailey, who renamed it the Bailey Theatre. A Harold Bailey of Opelousas is mentioned as a recent visitor to film row in New Orleans in the January 7, 1936 issue of The Film Daily.
Something the Daily World article missed is another fire at the Princess, on February 4, 1926. The reopening of the house was mentioned in the March 13, 1926 issue of Moving Picture World.
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 has a history of movie theaters in Opelousas, and it says that a house called the Bon Ami Theatre had opened by 1911, with its entrance on Court Street. Some time later (before 1914) it was expanded into a building on Landry Street and renamed the Princess Theatre. It operated for a time with entrances on both streets.
In 1916, a new owner took over and built a new, brick building for the Princess at another location on Landry Street, and it was this 1916 building that eventually became the Rex. The Princess apparently started out as a reverse theater, as the article says that in 1923 it was remodeled and expanded, and the screen was moved to the rear of the building. In 1932, a fire caused about $8,000 of damage to the building, and it had to be partly rebuilt. By 1937 it had been renamed the Rex. In its later years the Rex was operated by the same company that owned the Delta Theatre.
The article doesn’t give the closing year for the Rex, but notes that the Rose Theatre opened on Market Street in 1947 and the Lou Ana Theatre opened on North Court Street in 1951, so it’s likely that the Rex closed not long after that, despite the 1951 remodeling project. With three other theaters in town, plus the drive-in, I doubt the Rex was ever outfitted with costly CinemaScope equipment, and most non-CinemaScope houses everywhere had been closed by the end of 1956.
Houses called the Yale Theatre and the Novelty Theatre are both listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Novelty is listed at 410 E. Douglas, but no address is given for the Yale.