Boxoffice of May 15, 1948, said that Rudy Buchanan and Charles Johnston’s Lakeside Theatre in Bijou, California (the original name of this town later absorbed into South Lake Tahoe) would be ready for opening about the middle of June.
There is contradictory information about this house on the Internet. According to a list at Oregon Historic Theatres, the Midway opened in 1930 and has also been known as the Ark Theatre. However, this post at Waymraking calls it the Arc Theatre, and says that it opened as the Midway in 1936. This post also gives the aka Ark, saying “[t]his single-screen theater closed in 1992 but was restored from 1996 to 1998, when it reopened as a mixed-use venue for retail, an art gallery, wine tastings, live theater and concerts called the Ark Historical Theatre and Art Gallery.”
As the facade is a bit advanced for 1930, I’m inclined to go with the 1936 opening date for the Midway, although it’s possible the house opened in 1930 and was remodeled in 1936. And as for the variant spellings of the aka, the building is currently the home of the non-denominational Ark Bible Church, which the Internet tells me was established in 1997, so Ark was probably the spelling of the aka from the beginning. That’s the spelling that’s currently displayed on the building.
Although it gives a drastically different spelling for the owner’s name, the October 14, 1916 issue of Motography also mentions the remodeling project at the Star Theatre:
“H. Heneing is remodeling and adding 75 feet to the Star Theater at Independence. Mr. Heneing recently purchased the Star.”
The October 7 issue of The Moving Picture World also mentioned the project, using the same spelling of the owner’s name.
The Strand was at 234 Main Street. The building is still standing, easily recognizable as a former theater, with the name “Strand” on the floor at the entrance. The building is now occupied by an establishment called Park 5, which bills itself as an “…ice cream parlor for ‘kids’ by day-Park 5 Pub for ‘big kids’ by night.”
“The new Strand Theater in McGregor is nearing completion and will be opened soon” was the notice appearing in the October 14, 1916 issue of Motography.
If this was Hedrick’s only movie house then in 1926 it was called the Gem Theatre. This item is from the September 11 issue of Motion Picture News that year:
“Fire caused considerable damage to the theatre at Hedrick, the Gem, owned by W. J. Jinks. The fire broke out in the booth from burning film. The damage caused is to the interior of the theatre, which was badly smoked, and to the booth. The Gem is closed while the adjustment of the insurance is being made.”
The October 9 issue of the same journal said that the fire-damaged Gem Theatre in Hedrick, Iowa, was undergoing repairs and would reopen soon.
This house must be the project mentioned in the December 12, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review:
“OMAHA, NEBR.
“Archt : James T. Allen, Brandeis Theatre bldg. Drawing plans on a theatre at 16th & Corby. Owners, Sam & Lewis Epstein, 4932 S. 24th, South Omaha, Nebr.”
Planning for the Deerpath Theatre began nearly three years before it was opened. Here is an item from the November 21, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review:
“LAKE FOREST, ILL. Archt: Anderson & Ticknor, care Jas. A. Anderson, Deerpath. Drawing plans on theatres, stores, and offices at N. E. Forest and Deerpath. Owner— Estate of Jas. Anderson, Geo. Anderson, trustee.”
The James Anderson Trust, owners of the property, was named for architect Stanley Anderson’s grandfather, a Lake Forest pioneer.
The Hudson Theatre is also listed in the 1927 FDY. The house might have opened in 1926, and it is likely that this item from the November 21, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review is about the Hudson:
“KEARNY, N. J.
“Archt. W. E. Lehman, 972 Broad st., Newark, N. J. Drawing plans on theatre, stores and offices at 59-69 Kearney ave., Kearney. Owner: Joseph Stern, 207 Market st., Newark, N. J.”
Boxoffice of November 20, 1978 noted the opening of the renovated New Oriental Theatre, formerly the long-closed Strand. Fred McLennan planned to operate the house with a policy of two changes of program a week, featuring both revivals and current movies, with an admission price of $1.50.
Boxoffice of November 20, 1978, said that the 170-seat Cinema Take One in Coral Gables would open that week. The first movie shown would be the 1972 Italian production Indian Summer in its belated American premier. Theater owners Joel Konski and Alan Martin had spent 60,000 to convert a former warehouse building into the cinema.
A short article in the November 20, 1978 issue of Boxoffice said that the Colonial Theatre in Harrisburg had suffered major damage from a probable arson fire on October 29. The house had been permanently closed some years earlier. The article noted that part of the building dated back to the mid-1830s, when it had housed the Wilson Hotel. The building was partly demolished and rebuilt and opened as the Colonial Theatre in 1912.
Here is a link to the first page of an article about the Hawaii Theatre in The Moving Picture World of March 3, 1923. Scroll down for additional photos and text on the next page and more text on a third page.
The March 24, 1923 issue of The Moving Picture World said that “[t]he new Carolina Theatre at Pinehurst, replacing the old one of the same name, opened on February 26.” Although the operating company was called the Pinehurst Theatre Co., the house itself was called the Carolina Theatre, at least during its early years.
Several sources indicate that the Alhambra Cinema Theatre opened in 1922. It was built for someone called H. Howard, and designed in a Moorish-atmospheric style by architect Arthur George Cross. The building was either completely replaced or radically altered (sources are not clear) in 1952 for African Consolidated Theatres, which had taken over operation of the house in 1927.
The new Alhambra opened with 800 seats on December 31, 1952, and operated as a first run cinema until 1963, when the lease was taken over by the newly-formed Natal Performing Arts Council for use as a venue for live performances. NAPAC bought the leasehold outright in 1970, and continued to use the Alhambra through its 1985 season. After that the theater became a church.
Using the name Riverside still works to fetch this theater’s location in Google maps, but officially the area is now called Jurupa Valley. Here’s the rather old news from Wikipedia: “On March 8, 2011, voters of Rubidoux and adjoining towns passed Measure A by a 54% ‘Yes’ vote, to incorporate the areas of Mira Loma, Pedley, Rubidoux, Glen Avon, and Sunnyslope into the new city of Jurupa Valley. The effective date of incorporation was July 1, 2011.”
The description of this 1914 photo from the McArthur Library notes “Balsams Theater, the first ground-floor movie theater in Biddeford. Located at Franklin and Main Streets, the admission was 5 cents and it operated from 1912 to 1916.”
The earliest mention of the State I’ve found in the trades is from the July 6, 1933 issue of The Film Daily and it simply says: “Bridgton, Me.— C. W. Millett has closed the State.”
Another brief item appears in the May 2, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “C. F. Millett is having the State, 900-seat theatre in Bridgton, Me., extensively reconditioned.” This would probably account for the claim of a 1936 opening for the State in the MGM Theatre Report cited earlier by Ron Salters.
Bridgton earlier had theaters called the Opera House and the Riverside. State might have been a later name for the Opera House (Cinema Tour gives the location of the Riverside Theatre as Depot Street.)
The Mayfair Theatre opened on June 5th, 1929 as the Meserve Theatre. Later operating as the Mayfair for a time, it was eventually renamed the Brookside Theatre, and finally the Magic Lantern Theatre. In 1990, the theater’s stage was closed and a second screen was added. The Magic Lantern Theatre closed on October 2nd, 2005, and the aged building, parts of which dated back to 1856, was demolished on February 7th, 2006. On the cleared site rose the new Magic Lantern Theatre, a three-screen operation which pays tribute to its predecessor by calling its three auditoriums the Meserve, the Mayfair, and the Brookside.
This history, and a bit more detail, can be found on this page of the Magic Lantern’s web site. There is also one historic photo of the original theater building.
“Ogden Theatre closed in 1974 when Bill McGraw passed away at the age of 88.” (Ogden Reporter, January 24, 2018.) The operators of the McGraw Center have bought a 16-foot inflatable screen which has been set up on the stage, and a used projector (type not specified) and as of 2018 were attempting to bring movies back to the theater part time, but were having trouble with getting licenses from the movie companies. I don’t see anything on the Internet about movies being shown there currently, so they’ve probably not been able to get the project going yet.
Here is an item from the January 22, 1927 issue of The Moving Picture World Concerning the theater to be built at Sylvania and Belmar avenues in Toledo:
“WEST TOLEDO, O. — Barbare Ferris has plans by Albert [sic] Hahn for two-story moving picture theatre and store building, to be located at northwest corner Sylvania and Belmar avenues. Site contains 130 feet on Sylvania avenue and extends 185 feet on Belmar avenue. Estimated cost $100,000.”
Note that the architect’s first name is in error. The correct name is Alfred A. Hahn.
Boxoffice of May 15, 1948, said that Rudy Buchanan and Charles Johnston’s Lakeside Theatre in Bijou, California (the original name of this town later absorbed into South Lake Tahoe) would be ready for opening about the middle of June.
There is contradictory information about this house on the Internet. According to a list at Oregon Historic Theatres, the Midway opened in 1930 and has also been known as the Ark Theatre. However, this post at Waymraking calls it the Arc Theatre, and says that it opened as the Midway in 1936. This post also gives the aka Ark, saying “[t]his single-screen theater closed in 1992 but was restored from 1996 to 1998, when it reopened as a mixed-use venue for retail, an art gallery, wine tastings, live theater and concerts called the Ark Historical Theatre and Art Gallery.”
As the facade is a bit advanced for 1930, I’m inclined to go with the 1936 opening date for the Midway, although it’s possible the house opened in 1930 and was remodeled in 1936. And as for the variant spellings of the aka, the building is currently the home of the non-denominational Ark Bible Church, which the Internet tells me was established in 1997, so Ark was probably the spelling of the aka from the beginning. That’s the spelling that’s currently displayed on the building.
Although it gives a drastically different spelling for the owner’s name, the October 14, 1916 issue of Motography also mentions the remodeling project at the Star Theatre:
The October 7 issue of The Moving Picture World also mentioned the project, using the same spelling of the owner’s name.The Strand was at 234 Main Street. The building is still standing, easily recognizable as a former theater, with the name “Strand” on the floor at the entrance. The building is now occupied by an establishment called Park 5, which bills itself as an “…ice cream parlor for ‘kids’ by day-Park 5 Pub for ‘big kids’ by night.”
Here is a Google street view.
“The new Strand Theater in McGregor is nearing completion and will be opened soon” was the notice appearing in the October 14, 1916 issue of Motography.
If this was Hedrick’s only movie house then in 1926 it was called the Gem Theatre. This item is from the September 11 issue of Motion Picture News that year:
The October 9 issue of the same journal said that the fire-damaged Gem Theatre in Hedrick, Iowa, was undergoing repairs and would reopen soon.This house must be the project mentioned in the December 12, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review:
Planning for the Deerpath Theatre began nearly three years before it was opened. Here is an item from the November 21, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review:
The James Anderson Trust, owners of the property, was named for architect Stanley Anderson’s grandfather, a Lake Forest pioneer.The Hudson Theatre is also listed in the 1927 FDY. The house might have opened in 1926, and it is likely that this item from the November 21, 1925 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review is about the Hudson:
Boxoffice of November 20, 1978, said that the 170-seat Cinema Take One in Coral Gables would open that week. The first movie shown would be the 1972 Italian production Indian Summer in its belated American premier. Theater owners Joel Konski and Alan Martin had spent 60,000 to convert a former warehouse building into the cinema.
A short article in the November 20, 1978 issue of Boxoffice said that the Colonial Theatre in Harrisburg had suffered major damage from a probable arson fire on October 29. The house had been permanently closed some years earlier. The article noted that part of the building dated back to the mid-1830s, when it had housed the Wilson Hotel. The building was partly demolished and rebuilt and opened as the Colonial Theatre in 1912.
Burford Theatre official web site. The “history” section has a couple of historic photos and five current photos.
Here is a link to the first page of an article about the Hawaii Theatre in The Moving Picture World of March 3, 1923. Scroll down for additional photos and text on the next page and more text on a third page.
The March 24, 1923 issue of The Moving Picture World said that “[t]he new Carolina Theatre at Pinehurst, replacing the old one of the same name, opened on February 26.” Although the operating company was called the Pinehurst Theatre Co., the house itself was called the Carolina Theatre, at least during its early years.
The Grand was one of two theaters listed at Orrville in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The other was a house called the Fairyland.
Several sources indicate that the Alhambra Cinema Theatre opened in 1922. It was built for someone called H. Howard, and designed in a Moorish-atmospheric style by architect Arthur George Cross. The building was either completely replaced or radically altered (sources are not clear) in 1952 for African Consolidated Theatres, which had taken over operation of the house in 1927.
The new Alhambra opened with 800 seats on December 31, 1952, and operated as a first run cinema until 1963, when the lease was taken over by the newly-formed Natal Performing Arts Council for use as a venue for live performances. NAPAC bought the leasehold outright in 1970, and continued to use the Alhambra through its 1985 season. After that the theater became a church.
The Continental Cinema in Etterbeek is listed as a 1936 project of architect Victor Bourgeois in the book Contemporary Architects, by Muriel Emanuel.
Using the name Riverside still works to fetch this theater’s location in Google maps, but officially the area is now called Jurupa Valley. Here’s the rather old news from Wikipedia: “On March 8, 2011, voters of Rubidoux and adjoining towns passed Measure A by a 54% ‘Yes’ vote, to incorporate the areas of Mira Loma, Pedley, Rubidoux, Glen Avon, and Sunnyslope into the new city of Jurupa Valley. The effective date of incorporation was July 1, 2011.”
The description of this 1914 photo from the McArthur Library notes “Balsams Theater, the first ground-floor movie theater in Biddeford. Located at Franklin and Main Streets, the admission was 5 cents and it operated from 1912 to 1916.”
Cinema Tour gives 69 Main Street as the address of this house. The entrance of the new Magic Lantern is around the corner on Depot Street.
The earliest mention of the State I’ve found in the trades is from the July 6, 1933 issue of The Film Daily and it simply says: “Bridgton, Me.— C. W. Millett has closed the State.”
Another brief item appears in the May 2, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “C. F. Millett is having the State, 900-seat theatre in Bridgton, Me., extensively reconditioned.” This would probably account for the claim of a 1936 opening for the State in the MGM Theatre Report cited earlier by Ron Salters.
Bridgton earlier had theaters called the Opera House and the Riverside. State might have been a later name for the Opera House (Cinema Tour gives the location of the Riverside Theatre as Depot Street.)
The Mayfair Theatre opened on June 5th, 1929 as the Meserve Theatre. Later operating as the Mayfair for a time, it was eventually renamed the Brookside Theatre, and finally the Magic Lantern Theatre. In 1990, the theater’s stage was closed and a second screen was added. The Magic Lantern Theatre closed on October 2nd, 2005, and the aged building, parts of which dated back to 1856, was demolished on February 7th, 2006. On the cleared site rose the new Magic Lantern Theatre, a three-screen operation which pays tribute to its predecessor by calling its three auditoriums the Meserve, the Mayfair, and the Brookside.
This history, and a bit more detail, can be found on this page of the Magic Lantern’s web site. There is also one historic photo of the original theater building.
“Ogden Theatre closed in 1974 when Bill McGraw passed away at the age of 88.” (Ogden Reporter, January 24, 2018.) The operators of the McGraw Center have bought a 16-foot inflatable screen which has been set up on the stage, and a used projector (type not specified) and as of 2018 were attempting to bring movies back to the theater part time, but were having trouble with getting licenses from the movie companies. I don’t see anything on the Internet about movies being shown there currently, so they’ve probably not been able to get the project going yet.
Here is an item from the January 22, 1927 issue of The Moving Picture World Concerning the theater to be built at Sylvania and Belmar avenues in Toledo:
Note that the architect’s first name is in error. The correct name is Alfred A. Hahn.