This paragraph is from a brief article about a Steger & Sons piano, originally installed in Clyne’s Theatre, now in the possession of the Steelworks Center Museum in Pueblo:
“The Clyne Theater, located at 417-419 West Northern Avenue, opened in June of 1917 with a showing of Satan’s Private Door, a Musty Suffer comedy, and an ‘athletic short’ film. According to a Pueblo Chieftain article, more than 3,000 people attended the films throughout the day. The theater included 800 seats on the lower level and 300 in the balcony. Advertisements for the theater describe it as having gradually sloping seats, a sunken orchestra pit under the front of the stage, and a drinking fountain in the lobby. In August 1934, the Clyne closed for a short time to install the latest in theater technology, an RCA Victor Photophone High Fidelity Sound System, rendering the piano an obsolete piece of theater technology. The Clyne Theater remained in operation showing films until the late 1960s. The Steger and Sons Piano was donated to the Steelworks Center in 2007.”
An item about the Clyne Theatre appearing in the April 14, 1917 issue of The American Contractor names G. W. Roe as the architect for the project. A brief biography of George W. Roe from the Colorado Historical Society says that he also designed the 1904 library building at the University of Colorado in Boulder which was later converted into the University Theatre.
The April 14, 1917 issue of The American Contractor had this item about a theater to be built in Table Rock:
“Theater: $20,000. 2 sty. & bas. 32x94. Table Rock, Nebr. Archt. A. Bandy, 138 S. 13th, Lincoln. Owner Community Syndicate, care E. E. Hassel, mgr., Table Rock. Owner builds by day work. Brk. & Carthage or Bedford stone, tar & gravel rf., cement & tile trpf. Excav.”
The only other references I can find to A. Bandy on the Internet are all connected with his design of the Lincoln Hotel in Scottsbluff. His connection to the Table Rock Theatre has apparently been forgotten by local historians, as I don’t find him mentioned on the page SethG linked to.
The book I cited on my 2012 comment dating the opening of the Capitol Theatre to 1935 was wrong, according to Jan Bradley, the Capitol’s last owner, and granddaughter of the theater’s founder, Earle Hendren. The house opened in September, 1940, and was converted into a twin cinema in the 1980s by Bradley’s father, who enclosed the balcony to accommodate a second screen. Bradley is quoted in this article published by The Erwin Record on August 9, 2019. The article, which announced Bradley’s decision to make the closing of the theater permanent, did not give the exact date of the Capitol’s last shows.
I could submit a page for it, but it would be very sketchy as I don’t have either a timeline for the theater or definite evidence of what the modern address would be. Perhaps Ken Roe would be able to find more information about it and add a page. I think he might have access to resources that I don’t have.
The Majestic Theatre that was next door to the Hippodrome was not the same house as the 1915 Majestic. The first Majestic must have either closed or been renamed by the time the new Majestic opened in 1915. As the Hippodrome opened in 1912 and lasted less than a year, closing in early 1913, the photo showing both of these houses in operation had to have been taken during that brief time.
I’ve been trying to discover if the old Majestic survived the opening of the new house, but the task is complicated by the fact that Detroit changed its addresses in 1921. As near as I can figure, the old Majestic’s address of 231-233 ended up in the 1500 block, and was just below Witherell Street. The first Majestic and Hippodrome were across the street and up a couple of doors from the Woodward Arcade, still standing at 1545 Woodward, so the first Majestic was probably at approximately 1550 Woodward. Apparently Cinema Treasures has no pages for either of them.
The original Hippodrome only lasted from July, 1912 until early 1913, so this photo has to date from that period. Over the sidewalk on the near side of the street we can see the sign for the Woodward Arcade, which has the modern address 1545 Woodward, which would put the first Majestic, the Hippodrome’s neighbor, at approximately 1550 Woodward.
This article from a local Westfield web site says that the 1941 Grand Theatre was the third of that name on the site. The first Grand opened in 1917, with 775 seats, and was destroyed by a fire on November 3, 1923. The rebuilt house reopened in September, 1924, and was destroyed in a second fire in 1940.
The third Grand opened July 17, 1941. The house was taken over by the Blatt Brothers circuit on July 7, 1965, and then by Kirsch Theatres of Erie, PA in the late 1970s. It closed around 1982. Plans were afoot to reopen the house in 1985, but they came to nothing. The building was demolished in 1992.
The January 1, 1910 issue of The New York Dramatic Mirror mentions the Geyer Grand Theatre in Lexington, Missouri. Charles Geyer was listed as the manager. The Geyer Grand was listed in the 1910-1911 Cahn guide as a 740-seat, ground floor house. It had been listed in the 1909-1910 guide as the New Grand Theatre.
A letter from the Lexington Historical Association in response to the Historic Missouri Theatres Questionnaire (a very large pdf but quite useful,) and dated June 10, 1998, has this paragraph about the Grand:
“Our most notorious theatre was the Grand Opera House built in 1879 by Henry Hagan. Hagan built the structure at a cost of $5,000 and the price of the lot. It was 40' by 100' and seated 800 people. It’s opening in 1885 and featured ‘Othello’. The opera house was later known as Wrights Theatre until its destruction by fire in August of 1924. It was located at the corner of what is now 9th Street and Franklin Avenue.”
The house had become Wright’s Grand Theatre by 1913, as that is how it is listed in the 1913-1914 Cahn Guide. As the Grand is not one of the two movie houses listed at Lexington in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory it was likely still a live theater at that time. However, by 1917 (and possibly by late 1915) it had begun showing movies, as this item appeared in the September 1, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture World:
“YOUNG BUYS GRAND THEATER AT LEXINGTON.
“John C. Young, who for about two years has been associated with Clyde Wright as part owner of Wright’s Grand theater, Lexington, Mo., has purchased Mr. Wright’s interest in the house. Mr. Young, who will now assume full charge, is welt fitted for his duties as he has had several years experience in the motion picture business. This change is due to Mr. Wright’s recent illness, together with the great increase in his duties as Justice of the Peace. He has proved himself to be an enterprising manager and a great believer in the efficiency of advertising, and his many friends regret to see him give up the business with which he has been associated for several years.”
The Princess Theatre, 11th and Franklin, was one of two movie houses listed at Lexington in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory. No location was given fro the rival Evening Star Theatre.
As some of the earlier comments on this theater note, it originally opened on March 21, 1963 as a single-screen house with 600 seats. It was twinned sometime between 1980 and 1982.
A July 4, 1999 article by Mike McCormick in the Terre Haute Tribune Star says that there were two theaters on this site. The original Lyric was renamed the Orpheum at some point, but was demolished to make way for a new Orpheum in 1919. Other sources indicate that the Lyric opened in 1905.
On September 6, 1959, the Terre Haute Tribune reported that the Orpheum Theatre was under new management and would soon be remodeled.
The Moving Picture World of January 22, 1910 had this item in its “Among the Exhibitors” column: “Terre Haute, Ind. — A new moving picture theater has been opened at 323 Wabash avenue. It is known as the Savoy.”
A rather sketchy history of theaters in Hibbing by a member of the Edelstein family says that the Garden Theatre was closed in 1929 due to the cost of conversion for sound movies, and then reopened about a decade later as the Gopher. The Gumm Sisters made an appearance at the Garden in 1927. Little Frances Gumm (aka Judy Garland) would have thurned five years old that year.
A web page about downtown Hibbing has this to say about the Gopher Theatre:“An Edelstein theatre from 1925-1928. 434 seats.
It was originally called the Garden Theater.”
The December 17, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review had this brief item datelined Hibbing in its “New Theatres” column: “State opened a few days ago.”
The State was the first of three new theaters opened in Hibbing in a very short time. The magazine’s January 7, 1922 issue noted the recent opening of the Plaza Theatre and the January 21 issue mentioned the opening of the Homer Theatre.
The March 4, 2018 issue of CCNJ Daily said that the Ocean City Tabenacle had closed the Moorlyn Theatre and listed it for sale. The March 13 issue said that the building had been sold to Sey West Realty Partners LLC of Ocean City. I haven’t found anything about the purchaser’s plans for the property, but there are no listings on the Internet so the theater remains closed. It was last operated by Ocean City Tabernacle under the name Moorlyn Family Theatre.
The calendar of the previous year’s theatrical events in the 1893 edition of The New York Clipper Annual said that the Opera House in Charleroi, Pennsylvania was dedicated on September 14, 1892. A play called “Killarney and the Rhine” was the first presentation.
Unless the Alessios were expecting full houses with all 800 seats filled by people who had driven to the theater alone, 25% of them towing an extra car behind them just in case the first one broke down, 1000 parking spaces seems like a bit of overkill. More likely the newspaper’s typesetter accidentally added an extra zero to the number.
This paragraph is from a brief article about a Steger & Sons piano, originally installed in Clyne’s Theatre, now in the possession of the Steelworks Center Museum in Pueblo:
An item about the Clyne Theatre appearing in the April 14, 1917 issue of The American Contractor names G. W. Roe as the architect for the project. A brief biography of George W. Roe from the Colorado Historical Society says that he also designed the 1904 library building at the University of Colorado in Boulder which was later converted into the University Theatre.The April 14, 1917 issue of The American Contractor had this item about a theater to be built in Table Rock:
The only other references I can find to A. Bandy on the Internet are all connected with his design of the Lincoln Hotel in Scottsbluff. His connection to the Table Rock Theatre has apparently been forgotten by local historians, as I don’t find him mentioned on the page SethG linked to.I wonder what the odds are that someone could raise a million bucks on GoFundMe? I can’t imagine they’d be very good.
Club Fais Do-Do’s web site includes a gallery, and I believe the gallery section titled The Ballroom shows the Variety Theatre’s former auditorium.
The book I cited on my 2012 comment dating the opening of the Capitol Theatre to 1935 was wrong, according to Jan Bradley, the Capitol’s last owner, and granddaughter of the theater’s founder, Earle Hendren. The house opened in September, 1940, and was converted into a twin cinema in the 1980s by Bradley’s father, who enclosed the balcony to accommodate a second screen. Bradley is quoted in this article published by The Erwin Record on August 9, 2019. The article, which announced Bradley’s decision to make the closing of the theater permanent, did not give the exact date of the Capitol’s last shows.
The article posted by rivest266 notes that the projected Marcal Theatre was being designed by architect William Allen.
I could submit a page for it, but it would be very sketchy as I don’t have either a timeline for the theater or definite evidence of what the modern address would be. Perhaps Ken Roe would be able to find more information about it and add a page. I think he might have access to resources that I don’t have.
The Majestic Theatre that was next door to the Hippodrome was not the same house as the 1915 Majestic. The first Majestic must have either closed or been renamed by the time the new Majestic opened in 1915. As the Hippodrome opened in 1912 and lasted less than a year, closing in early 1913, the photo showing both of these houses in operation had to have been taken during that brief time.
I’ve been trying to discover if the old Majestic survived the opening of the new house, but the task is complicated by the fact that Detroit changed its addresses in 1921. As near as I can figure, the old Majestic’s address of 231-233 ended up in the 1500 block, and was just below Witherell Street. The first Majestic and Hippodrome were across the street and up a couple of doors from the Woodward Arcade, still standing at 1545 Woodward, so the first Majestic was probably at approximately 1550 Woodward. Apparently Cinema Treasures has no pages for either of them.
The original Hippodrome only lasted from July, 1912 until early 1913, so this photo has to date from that period. Over the sidewalk on the near side of the street we can see the sign for the Woodward Arcade, which has the modern address 1545 Woodward, which would put the first Majestic, the Hippodrome’s neighbor, at approximately 1550 Woodward.
This article from a local Westfield web site says that the 1941 Grand Theatre was the third of that name on the site. The first Grand opened in 1917, with 775 seats, and was destroyed by a fire on November 3, 1923. The rebuilt house reopened in September, 1924, and was destroyed in a second fire in 1940.
The third Grand opened July 17, 1941. The house was taken over by the Blatt Brothers circuit on July 7, 1965, and then by Kirsch Theatres of Erie, PA in the late 1970s. It closed around 1982. Plans were afoot to reopen the house in 1985, but they came to nothing. The building was demolished in 1992.
The January 1, 1910 issue ofThe New York Dramatic Mirror mentions the Geyer Grand Theatre in Lexington, Missouri. Charles Geyer was listed as the manager. The Geyer Grand was listed in the 1910-1911 Cahn guide as a 740-seat, ground floor house. It had been listed in the 1909-1910 guide as the New Grand Theatre.
A letter from the Lexington Historical Association in response to the Historic Missouri Theatres Questionnaire (a very large pdf but quite useful,) and dated June 10, 1998, has this paragraph about the Grand:
The house had become Wright’s Grand Theatre by 1913, as that is how it is listed in the 1913-1914 Cahn Guide. As the Grand is not one of the two movie houses listed at Lexington in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory it was likely still a live theater at that time. However, by 1917 (and possibly by late 1915) it had begun showing movies, as this item appeared in the September 1, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture World:The Evening Star Theatre is one of the two movie houses listed at Lexington in the 1914-1915 editon of The American Motion Picture Directory.
The Princess Theatre, 11th and Franklin, was one of two movie houses listed at Lexington in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory. No location was given fro the rival Evening Star Theatre.
As some of the earlier comments on this theater note, it originally opened on March 21, 1963 as a single-screen house with 600 seats. It was twinned sometime between 1980 and 1982.
A July 4, 1999 article by Mike McCormick in the Terre Haute Tribune Star says that there were two theaters on this site. The original Lyric was renamed the Orpheum at some point, but was demolished to make way for a new Orpheum in 1919. Other sources indicate that the Lyric opened in 1905.
On September 6, 1959, the Terre Haute Tribune reported that the Orpheum Theatre was under new management and would soon be remodeled.
The Cozy began operation in very early 1910, its recent opening having been noted in the January 22 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The Moving Picture World of January 22, 1910 had this item in its “Among the Exhibitors” column: “Terre Haute, Ind. — A new moving picture theater has been opened at 323 Wabash avenue. It is known as the Savoy.”
A rather sketchy history of theaters in Hibbing by a member of the Edelstein family says that the Garden Theatre was closed in 1929 due to the cost of conversion for sound movies, and then reopened about a decade later as the Gopher. The Gumm Sisters made an appearance at the Garden in 1927. Little Frances Gumm (aka Judy Garland) would have thurned five years old that year.
A web page about downtown Hibbing has this to say about the Gopher Theatre:“An Edelstein theatre from 1925-1928. 434 seats.
It was originally called the Garden Theater.”
The December 17, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review had this brief item datelined Hibbing in its “New Theatres” column: “State opened a few days ago.”
The State was the first of three new theaters opened in Hibbing in a very short time. The magazine’s January 7, 1922 issue noted the recent opening of the Plaza Theatre and the January 21 issue mentioned the opening of the Homer Theatre.
An item datelined Hibbing in the January 21, 1922 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review said “The Homer recently had a big opening.”
The “New Theatres” column of the January 7, 1922 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review said that “Mrs. W. J. Rezac has opened her Plaza” in Hibbing.
The March 4, 2018 issue of CCNJ Daily said that the Ocean City Tabenacle had closed the Moorlyn Theatre and listed it for sale. The March 13 issue said that the building had been sold to Sey West Realty Partners LLC of Ocean City. I haven’t found anything about the purchaser’s plans for the property, but there are no listings on the Internet so the theater remains closed. It was last operated by Ocean City Tabernacle under the name Moorlyn Family Theatre.
The calendar of the previous year’s theatrical events in the 1893 edition of The New York Clipper Annual said that the Opera House in Charleroi, Pennsylvania was dedicated on September 14, 1892. A play called “Killarney and the Rhine” was the first presentation.
Unless the Alessios were expecting full houses with all 800 seats filled by people who had driven to the theater alone, 25% of them towing an extra car behind them just in case the first one broke down, 1000 parking spaces seems like a bit of overkill. More likely the newspaper’s typesetter accidentally added an extra zero to the number.