The Donaldson Guide listed the old opera house by that name, and at least one 1908 issue of The Billboard used that name for the new opera house, but the new one was already listed in the 1908 Cahn guide as the Herron Theatre.
Addresses in Lakeland have been changed since 1913. The modern address for the Auditorium Theatre would be about 107 S. Massachusetts. This site is now a small park jutting into Mirror Lake at the east end of Main Street. The Auditorium once closed the view east on Main Street.
Although it had been open only intermittently for some time, the Auditorium was active at least as late as 1926, when the August 26 issue of The Billboard said that vaudeville and roadshows would be presented at the house while a new theater was under construction elsewhere in town. The Auditorium was also available for conventions and for entertainments given by local organizations, according to the Lakeland Amusement Company.
Lakeland had at least two opera houses in its history. The older one appears on the 1903 Sanborn map, upstairs in a commercial building on Tennessee Street at the northwest corner of Main Street, probably about 104 Tennessee. A 350-seat Lakeland Opera House was listed in the 1894 Donaldson Guide. It apparently never made the Cahn guide. By 1908 this had been replaced by a new upstairs house, at 121 Main Street.
The only theater listed at Lakeland in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide is the Herron Theatre, which it describes as a 700-seat upstairs house. It appears on the 1908 and 1913 Sanborn maps of Lakeland. As the opera house was the only upstairs theater on Main Street, it had to have been the Herron, which a 1921 Lakeland Evening Telegram article confirmed was on Main Street. The article was about a fire that had recently ravaged the building, including the theater which at that time had been closed for several months. I have left a comment on the Herron page with the few details I’ve been able to ferret out so far.
The 1912-1913 Cahn guide and an article in the January 24, 1921 Lakeland Evening Telegram reveal that the Herron Theatre could only have been an aka for the old Lakeland Opera House at 121 Main Street. The Cahn guide lists the Herron as a 700-seat upstairs house. The 1921 newspaper article reported that the Herron building on Main Street had suffered some $15,000 damage in a fire. The upstairs theater itself had been closed for several months and was in process of being dismantled. The Herron is mentioned in the newspaper only infrequently after 1912, most often in the context of a special event of some sort, but it did manage to survive on such skimpy fare until 1920.
The opening year we give for this house must be wrong. Not only is there no Casino theatre listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, but no theater appears at its address on the Sanborn map published in November, 1913, and there is no indication that the buildings that were on the site were being demolished soon, or that any new construction was planned.
The Casino was certainly in operation by late 1916, as it was mentioned in the December 2 issue of the Lakeland Evening Telegram that year, but the claim that it opened in 1913 appears to be a local urban legend. The AMPD might (and often did) fail to list a theater, but the Sanborn map company would have caught hell from some very powerful people in the insurance industry for such a significant omission, so it seems very unlikely they would have left it off of their 1913 map.
An unidentified moving picture theater that might have been the Lyric appears on the 1913 Sanborn map of Lakeland, at 2 S. Kentucky Avenue (southeast corner of Pine Street) and was the only theater on the map that has not yet been identified. That makes it the most likely location of the house that became the Lyric.
This building had housed a hardware and furniture store in 1908, so if this house was the Edisonia then it was not Lakeland’s first movie show. The July, 1908 Sanborn map shows an “Electric Theatre” in a storefront at what would by 1913 be numbered 122 S. Kentucky Avenue. 122 was more likely the location of the town’s first movie house.
None of the names given above for this theater appear in the 1914-1915 AMPD. The only names listed therein are the Auditorium, the Majestic, and the Star. As the first two houses are now accounted for, and the Star we have listed was closed in 1912, I’m wondering if the name Star might have been revived and used at this house for a while?
The Sanborn map of Lakeland published in July, 1908 shows an “Electric Theatre” in a storefront that would by 1913 be numbered 122 S. Kentucky Avenue (it was 427 in 1908.) Even if the Herron didn’t open until October 1, 1908, this might still have been its location, if it had operated earlier under an as-yet unknown name or indeed as the Electric Theatre. There are no other movie houses indicated on the 1908 map, and by 1913 this storefront housed a boot and shoe shop.
A Star Theatre was still listed at Lakeland in the 1914-1915 AMPD, so unless the directory made a mistake, the name Star must have been revived for use at another theater.
The 1914-1915 AMPD lists the Majestic Theatre at 231 E. Main Street, but addresses might have been shifted since then, as the caption of this historic photo from the Lakeland Retro Facebook page says it was at 219 Main, in the Deen-Bryant building, which is still standing.
The Busby Opera House opened on March 13, 1908, with a performance of popular star DeWolf Hopper’s comic opera “Happyland.” A few months later the Busby’s generous (42x80 foot) stage hosted perhaps its grandest production, the road show of “Ben Hur,” the company of which gave four performances. Cast, crew, orchestra, stagehands and assorted helpers numbered two hundred, arriving on a special train which had been preceded by another train bringing sets, properties and stage machinery, as well as the live horses that appeared in the famous chariot race scene. The production was a grand success, drawing patrons from surrounding territory by more special trains. The 1,362 seats were filled for every performance, and several hundred standees also attended.
The great era of the Busby Opera House lasted a bit over a decade. The builder of the house, William Busby, died in 1913 and his heirs sold the theater and adjacent hotel to outside investors, but for several years long-time manager A. B. Estes remained in charge and continued to follow the ambitious policy Busby had established. During this time hardly a single major roadshow or popular concert performer failed to make at least one appearance at the Busby, and McAlester gained a reputation as one of the cultural capitals of Oklahoma.
Also during these years, movies were run when other events were not available, and both the theater and Mr. Estes were often mentioned in movie theater industry trade journals. After Mr. Estes departed in 1919 movies became more frequent, though live events continued to be an important part of the Busby Theatre’s programming, but fewer each year. For a while in the 1920s Publix had a lease on the house, which they sold to the regional Robb & Rowley circuit in 1929. That was also the year in which the last big stage production, a minstrel company, appeared at the Busby. With the onset of the depression, the theater was closed, and in 1933 it was sold to a church.
Sadly, the various houses of worship that had occupied the building during its later years had been unable to afford the upkeep necessary to maintain the structure, and in 1983, despite the attempts of a newly organized historical society to acquire and save the property, the theater was demolished and its site converted into a parking lot for the nearby Baptist congregation.
The Palace, previously a Publix house, became part of the Robb & Rowley chain in early 1929, according to this item from Film Daily of January 20 that year: “R & R Gets Three Houses
“McAlester, Okla. — The Palace, Rialto and Busby leases have been secured by R & R Theaters from Publix. The R & R circuit consists of 65 houses in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The new leasees plan extensive alterations at the Palace, installing sound equipment. The Busby which has been closed will reopen while the policy at the Rialto remains the same.”
The reopening of the Palace with talking pictures was noted in the April 21 Film Daily.
The Model Building was at 15 E. Choctaw, so the Fotosho was probably at either 13 or 17 Choctaw. Either address would have been almost across the street from what is now the Okla Theatre, and not far from the corner of Main Street. The whole block across from the Okla has been demolished, so the Fotosho’s building is gone. I haven’t been able to find any photos of the Fotosho, but here is a ca.1964 photo of the Model Building which shows part of the neighboring buildings, one of which once held the theater: McAlester community page at Facebook.
The 1918 Sanborn map of McAlester shows a bakery and restaurant at 113 N. First Street, so the Star Theatre had been dismantled at least three years before the Rex opened in the Star’s former building.
The November, 1913 Sanborn map of McAlester shows “Moving Pictures” in the storefront at 32 E. Choctaw Avenue, which is directly opposite the end of First Street. This has to have been the Liberty.
I’ve managed to scrape together fragments of search results indicating that the Palace Theatre was built in 1910 by a Samuel O. Small, and opened as the Majestic Theatre. Although the pages the search results reference are infuriatingly unavailable, the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory does list the Majestic Theatre at 18-20 E. Choctaw Avenue in McAlester, so the place did exist.
The October 2, 1915 issue of Motography mentioned a Star Airdome in McAlester: “The Star Airdome at McAlester, Okla., closed for the season Saturday night, September 11. The Dome will reopen in the spring with A. Bert Estes as manager and will show moving pictures on dates not filled by stock, musical comedy and vaudeville companies.” I haven’t been able to find evidence of any connection between the Star and the Star Airdome, but it seems likely there was one.
The Wellmont’s official web site provides a bit more detailed information than our current description. The house opened on June 16, 1922, and though it presented vaudeville and stage plays it was used primarily as a movie theater from the beginning, which was not surprising since the builder, Herman Wellenbrink, was a pioneer in film exhibition, having opened his first movie house (in Los Angeles) in 1906. The web site says that the Stanley Fabian chain took over operations in 1929 (but maybe they didn’t.)
A September 9, 1974 Boxoffice article about the takeover of the house by local exhibitor Paul Peterson (owner since 1960 of the Clairidge theatre) from RKO-Stanley Warner Theatres also mentions the Fabian connection, but says that Wellenbrink leased the house to Jacob Fabian in 1927. I haven’t found exactly when Robert Roberts took over the house, but his 2002 obituary said he began acquiring theaters in the early 1980s. It might be that it was Paul Peterson who triplexed the Wellmont, before the Roberts chain took over.
This house opened on New Year’s Day, 1912 as the Pico Grand Theatre, according to this item from the January 6, 1912 issue of Moving Picture News: “Mr. H. H. Wellinbrink opened his new house, The Pico Grand, at 1408 Pico street, last Monday night. This is one of the largest surburban theaters in the city, having a seating capacity of 650. Four reels of Trust pictures are shown; the admission charged is ten and fifteen cents. Mr. Wellinbrink’s chief operator, Mr. Roy Robbins, has been transferred from the Central Theater to take charge
of the new house.”
1408 Pico is listed in the 1912 city directory only under the name “Wellenbrink H H” but in the 1913 edition it is listed as the Pico Grand. From 1915 through 1923 it was listed as the Sunbeam Theatre, a name it shared with a house on Pasadena Avenue (later to be North Figueroa Street.) In 1924 it was listed as the New Sun Theatre, and in 1925 became simply the Sun Theatre.
An item about the future Park 70 Theatre from Moving Picture News of January 6, 1912: “Mason City, Ia.—The H. L. Stevens Company, of Chicago, have been awarded the contract for the erection of
a new $10,000 theater here to replace the Wilson Theater which was destroyed by fire.”
This item from the January 6, 1912 issue of Moving Picture News indicates that the Forum Theater operated in at least two locations in McAlester: “McAlester, Okla.—The Forum Moving Picture Theater No. 2 was slightly damaged by fire.” This may explain why there is a photo of a Forum Theater running a movie released around 1917 (as per the description above) even though the house apparently closed in 1914.
A history of the Drift Theatre on this web page says that the original Drift theatre burned and was rebuilt by Ernest and Mae Turner. Ernest was the son of W. J. Turner, who might have been the original builder.
A fellow named John Newsome commenting on a 2015 Facebook post about the Drift Theatre said the first time he went to a movie theater was the Drift, in 1968. The movie was Clint Eastwood in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (apparently took a while for movies to reach this small town, as it was a 1966 release.)
This web page about the Drift Theatre in Drift, Kentucky, has one photo (the second one down) showing the Wheelwright Theatre. The house had a large, free-standing kiosk-like box office standing several feet away from the building entrance. The theater’s marquee had a neon W on it, but no attraction board. The crowd outside the theater in this ca.1946 photo includes several people of obvious African ancestry, so perhaps Wheelwright was an exception to the strict segregation that prevailed in most of Kentucky during this period.
The NRHP nomination form for the Wheelwright Commercial District (PDF here) says that most of the buildings in the district had been built between 1916 and 1920, but “[d]uring 1940 and 1941, an intensive modernization program was undertaken: the theater was brick-veneered and the ticket booth-pay window was built…” A new clubhouse was built at the same time, designed by architect Albert Franklin Tucker, who probably handled the entire renovation project as well.
The Wheelwright Theatre is listed in the 1926 FDY. A map in the NRHP form shows the theater on Main Street across from the Post Office. The address 1590 KY-306, Wheelwright brings up a Google street view of the site.
The Donaldson Guide listed the old opera house by that name, and at least one 1908 issue of The Billboard used that name for the new opera house, but the new one was already listed in the 1908 Cahn guide as the Herron Theatre.
Addresses in Lakeland have been changed since 1913. The modern address for the Auditorium Theatre would be about 107 S. Massachusetts. This site is now a small park jutting into Mirror Lake at the east end of Main Street. The Auditorium once closed the view east on Main Street.
Although it had been open only intermittently for some time, the Auditorium was active at least as late as 1926, when the August 26 issue of The Billboard said that vaudeville and roadshows would be presented at the house while a new theater was under construction elsewhere in town. The Auditorium was also available for conventions and for entertainments given by local organizations, according to the Lakeland Amusement Company.
Lakeland had at least two opera houses in its history. The older one appears on the 1903 Sanborn map, upstairs in a commercial building on Tennessee Street at the northwest corner of Main Street, probably about 104 Tennessee. A 350-seat Lakeland Opera House was listed in the 1894 Donaldson Guide. It apparently never made the Cahn guide. By 1908 this had been replaced by a new upstairs house, at 121 Main Street.
The only theater listed at Lakeland in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide is the Herron Theatre, which it describes as a 700-seat upstairs house. It appears on the 1908 and 1913 Sanborn maps of Lakeland. As the opera house was the only upstairs theater on Main Street, it had to have been the Herron, which a 1921 Lakeland Evening Telegram article confirmed was on Main Street. The article was about a fire that had recently ravaged the building, including the theater which at that time had been closed for several months. I have left a comment on the Herron page with the few details I’ve been able to ferret out so far.
The 1912-1913 Cahn guide and an article in the January 24, 1921 Lakeland Evening Telegram reveal that the Herron Theatre could only have been an aka for the old Lakeland Opera House at 121 Main Street. The Cahn guide lists the Herron as a 700-seat upstairs house. The 1921 newspaper article reported that the Herron building on Main Street had suffered some $15,000 damage in a fire. The upstairs theater itself had been closed for several months and was in process of being dismantled. The Herron is mentioned in the newspaper only infrequently after 1912, most often in the context of a special event of some sort, but it did manage to survive on such skimpy fare until 1920.
The opening year we give for this house must be wrong. Not only is there no Casino theatre listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, but no theater appears at its address on the Sanborn map published in November, 1913, and there is no indication that the buildings that were on the site were being demolished soon, or that any new construction was planned.
The Casino was certainly in operation by late 1916, as it was mentioned in the December 2 issue of the Lakeland Evening Telegram that year, but the claim that it opened in 1913 appears to be a local urban legend. The AMPD might (and often did) fail to list a theater, but the Sanborn map company would have caught hell from some very powerful people in the insurance industry for such a significant omission, so it seems very unlikely they would have left it off of their 1913 map.
An unidentified moving picture theater that might have been the Lyric appears on the 1913 Sanborn map of Lakeland, at 2 S. Kentucky Avenue (southeast corner of Pine Street) and was the only theater on the map that has not yet been identified. That makes it the most likely location of the house that became the Lyric.
This building had housed a hardware and furniture store in 1908, so if this house was the Edisonia then it was not Lakeland’s first movie show. The July, 1908 Sanborn map shows an “Electric Theatre” in a storefront at what would by 1913 be numbered 122 S. Kentucky Avenue. 122 was more likely the location of the town’s first movie house.
None of the names given above for this theater appear in the 1914-1915 AMPD. The only names listed therein are the Auditorium, the Majestic, and the Star. As the first two houses are now accounted for, and the Star we have listed was closed in 1912, I’m wondering if the name Star might have been revived and used at this house for a while?
The Sanborn map of Lakeland published in July, 1908 shows an “Electric Theatre” in a storefront that would by 1913 be numbered 122 S. Kentucky Avenue (it was 427 in 1908.) Even if the Herron didn’t open until October 1, 1908, this might still have been its location, if it had operated earlier under an as-yet unknown name or indeed as the Electric Theatre. There are no other movie houses indicated on the 1908 map, and by 1913 this storefront housed a boot and shoe shop.
A Star Theatre was still listed at Lakeland in the 1914-1915 AMPD, so unless the directory made a mistake, the name Star must have been revived for use at another theater.
The 1913 Sanborn map of Lakeland shows the Auditorium at 311 S. Massachusetts Avenue.
The 1914-1915 AMPD lists the Majestic Theatre at 231 E. Main Street, but addresses might have been shifted since then, as the caption of this historic photo from the Lakeland Retro Facebook page says it was at 219 Main, in the Deen-Bryant building, which is still standing.
The Busby Opera House opened on March 13, 1908, with a performance of popular star DeWolf Hopper’s comic opera “Happyland.” A few months later the Busby’s generous (42x80 foot) stage hosted perhaps its grandest production, the road show of “Ben Hur,” the company of which gave four performances. Cast, crew, orchestra, stagehands and assorted helpers numbered two hundred, arriving on a special train which had been preceded by another train bringing sets, properties and stage machinery, as well as the live horses that appeared in the famous chariot race scene. The production was a grand success, drawing patrons from surrounding territory by more special trains. The 1,362 seats were filled for every performance, and several hundred standees also attended.
The great era of the Busby Opera House lasted a bit over a decade. The builder of the house, William Busby, died in 1913 and his heirs sold the theater and adjacent hotel to outside investors, but for several years long-time manager A. B. Estes remained in charge and continued to follow the ambitious policy Busby had established. During this time hardly a single major roadshow or popular concert performer failed to make at least one appearance at the Busby, and McAlester gained a reputation as one of the cultural capitals of Oklahoma.
Also during these years, movies were run when other events were not available, and both the theater and Mr. Estes were often mentioned in movie theater industry trade journals. After Mr. Estes departed in 1919 movies became more frequent, though live events continued to be an important part of the Busby Theatre’s programming, but fewer each year. For a while in the 1920s Publix had a lease on the house, which they sold to the regional Robb & Rowley circuit in 1929. That was also the year in which the last big stage production, a minstrel company, appeared at the Busby. With the onset of the depression, the theater was closed, and in 1933 it was sold to a church.
Sadly, the various houses of worship that had occupied the building during its later years had been unable to afford the upkeep necessary to maintain the structure, and in 1983, despite the attempts of a newly organized historical society to acquire and save the property, the theater was demolished and its site converted into a parking lot for the nearby Baptist congregation.
The Palace, previously a Publix house, became part of the Robb & Rowley chain in early 1929, according to this item from Film Daily of January 20 that year: “R & R Gets Three Houses
“McAlester, Okla. — The Palace, Rialto and Busby leases have been secured by R & R Theaters from Publix. The R & R circuit consists of 65 houses in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The new leasees plan extensive alterations at the Palace, installing sound equipment. The Busby which has been closed will reopen while the policy at the Rialto remains the same.”
The reopening of the Palace with talking pictures was noted in the April 21 Film Daily.
The Model Building was at 15 E. Choctaw, so the Fotosho was probably at either 13 or 17 Choctaw. Either address would have been almost across the street from what is now the Okla Theatre, and not far from the corner of Main Street. The whole block across from the Okla has been demolished, so the Fotosho’s building is gone. I haven’t been able to find any photos of the Fotosho, but here is a ca.1964 photo of the Model Building which shows part of the neighboring buildings, one of which once held the theater: McAlester community page at Facebook.
The 1918 Sanborn map of McAlester shows a bakery and restaurant at 113 N. First Street, so the Star Theatre had been dismantled at least three years before the Rex opened in the Star’s former building.
The November, 1913 Sanborn map of McAlester shows “Moving Pictures” in the storefront at 32 E. Choctaw Avenue, which is directly opposite the end of First Street. This has to have been the Liberty.
I’ve managed to scrape together fragments of search results indicating that the Palace Theatre was built in 1910 by a Samuel O. Small, and opened as the Majestic Theatre. Although the pages the search results reference are infuriatingly unavailable, the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory does list the Majestic Theatre at 18-20 E. Choctaw Avenue in McAlester, so the place did exist.
The October 2, 1915 issue of Motography mentioned a Star Airdome in McAlester: “The Star Airdome at McAlester, Okla., closed for the season Saturday night, September 11. The Dome will reopen in the spring with A. Bert Estes as manager and will show moving pictures on dates not filled by stock, musical comedy and vaudeville companies.” I haven’t been able to find evidence of any connection between the Star and the Star Airdome, but it seems likely there was one.
The Wellmont’s official web site provides a bit more detailed information than our current description. The house opened on June 16, 1922, and though it presented vaudeville and stage plays it was used primarily as a movie theater from the beginning, which was not surprising since the builder, Herman Wellenbrink, was a pioneer in film exhibition, having opened his first movie house (in Los Angeles) in 1906. The web site says that the Stanley Fabian chain took over operations in 1929 (but maybe they didn’t.)
A September 9, 1974 Boxoffice article about the takeover of the house by local exhibitor Paul Peterson (owner since 1960 of the Clairidge theatre) from RKO-Stanley Warner Theatres also mentions the Fabian connection, but says that Wellenbrink leased the house to Jacob Fabian in 1927. I haven’t found exactly when Robert Roberts took over the house, but his 2002 obituary said he began acquiring theaters in the early 1980s. It might be that it was Paul Peterson who triplexed the Wellmont, before the Roberts chain took over.
This house opened on New Year’s Day, 1912 as the Pico Grand Theatre, according to this item from the January 6, 1912 issue of Moving Picture News: “Mr. H. H. Wellinbrink opened his new house, The Pico Grand, at 1408 Pico street, last Monday night. This is one of the largest surburban theaters in the city, having a seating capacity of 650. Four reels of Trust pictures are shown; the admission charged is ten and fifteen cents. Mr. Wellinbrink’s chief operator, Mr. Roy Robbins, has been transferred from the Central Theater to take charge of the new house.”
1408 Pico is listed in the 1912 city directory only under the name “Wellenbrink H H” but in the 1913 edition it is listed as the Pico Grand. From 1915 through 1923 it was listed as the Sunbeam Theatre, a name it shared with a house on Pasadena Avenue (later to be North Figueroa Street.) In 1924 it was listed as the New Sun Theatre, and in 1925 became simply the Sun Theatre.
An item about the future Park 70 Theatre from Moving Picture News of January 6, 1912: “Mason City, Ia.—The H. L. Stevens Company, of Chicago, have been awarded the contract for the erection of a new $10,000 theater here to replace the Wilson Theater which was destroyed by fire.”
This item from the January 6, 1912 issue of Moving Picture News indicates that the Forum Theater operated in at least two locations in McAlester: “McAlester, Okla.—The Forum Moving Picture Theater No. 2 was slightly damaged by fire.” This may explain why there is a photo of a Forum Theater running a movie released around 1917 (as per the description above) even though the house apparently closed in 1914.
A history of the Drift Theatre on this web page says that the original Drift theatre burned and was rebuilt by Ernest and Mae Turner. Ernest was the son of W. J. Turner, who might have been the original builder.
A fellow named John Newsome commenting on a 2015 Facebook post about the Drift Theatre said the first time he went to a movie theater was the Drift, in 1968. The movie was Clint Eastwood in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (apparently took a while for movies to reach this small town, as it was a 1966 release.)
Here is a web page about the Drift Theatre, with several photos.
This web page about the Drift Theatre in Drift, Kentucky, has one photo (the second one down) showing the Wheelwright Theatre. The house had a large, free-standing kiosk-like box office standing several feet away from the building entrance. The theater’s marquee had a neon W on it, but no attraction board. The crowd outside the theater in this ca.1946 photo includes several people of obvious African ancestry, so perhaps Wheelwright was an exception to the strict segregation that prevailed in most of Kentucky during this period.
The NRHP nomination form for the Wheelwright Commercial District (PDF here) says that most of the buildings in the district had been built between 1916 and 1920, but “[d]uring 1940 and 1941, an intensive modernization program was undertaken: the theater was brick-veneered and the ticket booth-pay window was built…” A new clubhouse was built at the same time, designed by architect Albert Franklin Tucker, who probably handled the entire renovation project as well.
The Wheelwright Theatre is listed in the 1926 FDY. A map in the NRHP form shows the theater on Main Street across from the Post Office. The address 1590 KY-306, Wheelwright brings up a Google street view of the site.