Sadly, Ken, it wasn’t just the phone lines that were down. The theater has been destroyed by a fire that devastated the Town of Paradise on November 8th. I had to leave my house with no more than ten minutes notice myself, and there were fires in every part of town we passed through in the some four hours it took us to get out. I doubt that as much as ten percent of the town survives.
The San Carlino was a fairly old theater. It was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Biographies of opera singer Rosa Ponselle note that she gave some of her earliest public performances at the San Carlino, around 1914, when she was still a teenager. In an interview she described the San Carlino as “… a full-sized theater….nearly a thousand seats, counting the balcony and the boxes. It had a pretty large stage, and there was also an orchestra pit.” It was operated by a Mr. Richard T. Halliwell, who also had smaller theaters in Meriden and Ansonia.
The house had been renamed the Strand by 1915, when the July 10 issue of Motion Picture Newsnoted its recent closing. A notice of an open plumbing contract at the “Carlino” Theatre in New Haven ran in the October 2, 1909 issue of The Metal Worker, Plumber and Steam Fitter, so that might have been when the theater was built, though it might also have been only some repair work or remodeling going on. The house must have been in existence by 1909, though.
This page at GenDisasters features the text of an article from the April 26, 1915 issue of The New York Times about the destruction of this theater by fire the previous day. The house had been built in 1860.
It is likely that this was the house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory as the Grand Theatre, 184 Crown Street (the building most likely occupied a double lot, 182 and 184.) Twenty-two movie theaters were listed at New Haven.
The Leb Theatre was in operation by October 12, 1919, the date on which it was the site of a service commemorating the anniversary of a large fire that had destroyed much of the town the previous year.
The owner of the Leb Theatre in Cloquet was planning to build a new house, according to this brief item from the April 10, 1935 issue of The Film Daily: “Cloquet — W. W. Miller, proprietor of Leb Theater, will erect a new 375-seat house.”
This house was called called the Rialto Theatre until being renamed the Dewmar Theatre in March, 1949. This item is from the March 10, 1949 issue of The Daily Republic of Mitchell, South Dakota:
“De Smet Couple Buys Theater At W. Springs
“Wessington Springs, S. D.—(Special)—Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Grabinski of De Smet have purchased the Rialto theater of this city to take possession Saturday, March 12 Grabinski spent several days this week in the Twin Cities purchasing new equipment which he plans to install as early as possible. Before going, he spent some time here making plans for improvement which will include the rebuilding of the projectors and a complete new sound system. The theater has been renamed the Dewmar. Mr. and Mrs. Grabinski and four children plan to move here as soon as a residence can be secured.”
This house had some earlier aka’s, according to this paragraph from the NRHP registration form for the Alma Downtown Historic District:
“The Vermeulen Block, sometimes known as the Lee Mercantile Building, was constructed between 1891 and 1893. Henry J. Vermeulen purchased the lot from William Bahlke in 1890. The building originally housed Vermeulen’s General Store. In 1893 Vermeulen mortgaged the building with W. S. Turck and Company in order to build the eastern addition, which soon housed some of Alma’s early theaters. These include the Fishbeck Theatre, the Alma Vaudette, the Genesta Theatre and the Liberty Theatre.”
It also says the Liberty went out of business in the 1920s. The house was listed as the Vaudette in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
A clip from his 1947 obituary in the entry for Lloyd Elgin Scobell at Ancient Faces says that he was the “[o]wner operator Cozy Theater/aka ELBS Theater in Wagner.” There was a Cozy Theatre listed at Wagner in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but it was not the same house as the later Elbs. Mr. Scobell’s widow sold the Elbs Theatre in 1959, as noted in this item from the June 3 issue of The Daily Republic from Mitchell, South Dakota, which provides another fragment of the theater’s history:
“Mrs. Scobell was in the theater business here for 30 years, associated with her late husband, Lloyd, and after his death with his brother, Mark. Their first place of business was the Cozy, and later they purchased a brick building on Main St., and made a completely modern building, which they called The Elbs.”
The purchaser of the Elbs in 1959 was likely O. R. Eleeson, who had been running the house at the time of his death, which was noted in the April 10, 1961 issue of Boxoffice. His widow inherited the house, but I haven’t been able to discover if she kept it open, or for how long it continued in operation after that.
The NRHP registration form for the Wessington Opera House says that it opened on November 3, 1905. William Brimner was both architect and builder of the project.
The April 1, 1905 issue of The Improvement Bulletin said that H. J. Ludcke was taking bids for construction of an opera house at Saint Peter, with plans by Minneapolis architects Bell & Detweiler (Charles Emlen Bell and Menno Schlicter Detweiler.)
A timeline of Warren history published in 1980 said that the new Warren Theatre had opened in 1941. It replaced an earlier theater of the same name, though it doesn’t say if the new house was on the same site as the old one.
The Garden Theatre was remodeled in 1917. Construction was to start at once, according to the October 13 issue of Motography. Plans for the project had been prepared by C. Howard Crane.
It might be that the Methodist church is now an Ethiopian Orthodox church, if it was in the old building at the northeast corner of Neil Avenue and Goodale Street. The organ could still be there, or the Methodists might have taken it with them.
The Mercer Theatre was in operation at least as late as 1966, when it advertised in the February 7 issue of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. The house was most likely dismantled in 1973, when a classified ad in the Telegrpah of October 25 offered the Mercer Theatre’s seats for sale.
The Mercer, under new management, was renovated in 1956. The grand opening ad appeared in the September 16 Telegraph, offering the recent Columbia Pictures hit “Picnic” as the only feature attraction, and touting the new carpeting in the balcony and a new snack bar.
The Mercer was advertised in the Telegraph on March 2, 1938. The house was owned by L. A. Von Court, who also owned the Royal Theatre. His intention to convert the building across the street from the Royal into a theater was noted in the April 30, 1937 issue of the Telegraph, but I’ve been unable to find an announcement of the opening.
Despite its condemnation in 2012, a Google street view dated May, 2018 shows Del Rio building still standing, with its vertical sign intact. It did look vacant at that time, and I’ve found no recent information about it on the Internet. The most recent mention is a March 23, 2016 article in The Modesto Bee. At that time the building had been sold to a Modesto businessman who intended to renovate it for use as an event center. The project had obviously not come to fruition by May this year.
The ongoing (since 2013) renovation of the Lavon Theatre has led to several articles about it in the press. This one from the February 11, 2017 issue of The State Journal says that the Royal Theatre opened in 1911 and operated under that name until 1954. At that time it was bought by Dr. Lawrence Von Court, who had his office in one of the storefronts flanking the theater entrance, and he renamed it the Lavon Theatre.
The Princeton Renaissance Project, the outfit renovating the house, apparently intends to keep the name Lavon, although the rebuilt marquee features three capital R’s on it, presumably a nod to the origin of the house as the Royal.
Links to several other articles about the theater, along with many photos of it, both vintage and modern, can be seen on this Facebook page titled “Celebrating and Reviving the Lavon Theater, Princeton West Virginia.”
The Royal Theatre was listed in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide, though without any details. The Royal was mentioned in the June 24, 1916 issue of Motography.
It looks like Hank Aaron Drive is the dividing line between SW and SE numbers. Georgia Avenue now makes that curve between Hank Aaron and Pollard Boulevard, where it once ran straight, crossing Crew Street midway between them. 42 Georgia Avenue SW was undoubtedly the correct address, but when you search for it on Google maps it defaults to the 42 Georgia SE location because the SW address no longer exists.
PlazaChris: Google Maps' pin icon shows this theater at the corner of Georgia Avenue at Fraser Street, but if you look at the ad for the 1928 grand opening on our photos page it says the Empire was on Georgia Avenue at Crew Street. Crew was two blocks west of Fraser. We probably just have the wrong address for the theater. The Empire’s site is under part of the Georgia State Stadium project, and the intersection itself doesn’t even exist anymore. I don’t know what the building at Georgia and Fraser used to be, but it wasn’t the Empire Theatre.
Herman John Duncan Sr. (1891-1056) was the senior architect of the firm of Duncan & Barron, and began practicing architecture in Lafayette around 1912. Later he would form the firm of Herman J. Duncan & Co., succeeded by the firm of Duncan & Duncan with his son Herman John Duncan Jr. I’ve been unable to find out anything about his first partner, Barron, or how long that partnership lasted.
Sadly, Ken, it wasn’t just the phone lines that were down. The theater has been destroyed by a fire that devastated the Town of Paradise on November 8th. I had to leave my house with no more than ten minutes notice myself, and there were fires in every part of town we passed through in the some four hours it took us to get out. I doubt that as much as ten percent of the town survives.
The Pequot Theatre, 86 Grand Avenue, was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Lawrence Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The San Carlino was a fairly old theater. It was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Biographies of opera singer Rosa Ponselle note that she gave some of her earliest public performances at the San Carlino, around 1914, when she was still a teenager. In an interview she described the San Carlino as “… a full-sized theater….nearly a thousand seats, counting the balcony and the boxes. It had a pretty large stage, and there was also an orchestra pit.” It was operated by a Mr. Richard T. Halliwell, who also had smaller theaters in Meriden and Ansonia.
The house had been renamed the Strand by 1915, when the July 10 issue of Motion Picture Newsnoted its recent closing. A notice of an open plumbing contract at the “Carlino” Theatre in New Haven ran in the October 2, 1909 issue of The Metal Worker, Plumber and Steam Fitter, so that might have been when the theater was built, though it might also have been only some repair work or remodeling going on. The house must have been in existence by 1909, though.
The Bronx Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory as the Bijou Dream Theatre, 26 Church Street, was probably this one.
This page at GenDisasters features the text of an article from the April 26, 1915 issue of The New York Times about the destruction of this theater by fire the previous day. The house had been built in 1860.
It is likely that this was the house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory as the Grand Theatre, 184 Crown Street (the building most likely occupied a double lot, 182 and 184.) Twenty-two movie theaters were listed at New Haven.
There is a rather dull apartment block where the Apollo Theatre once stood, though the Spanish Colonial Revival style building next door has survived.
The Leb Theatre was in operation by October 12, 1919, the date on which it was the site of a service commemorating the anniversary of a large fire that had destroyed much of the town the previous year.
The owner of the Leb Theatre in Cloquet was planning to build a new house, according to this brief item from the April 10, 1935 issue of The Film Daily: “Cloquet — W. W. Miller, proprietor of Leb Theater, will erect a new 375-seat house.”
This house was called called the Rialto Theatre until being renamed the Dewmar Theatre in March, 1949. This item is from the March 10, 1949 issue of The Daily Republic of Mitchell, South Dakota:
This house had some earlier aka’s, according to this paragraph from the NRHP registration form for the Alma Downtown Historic District:
It also says the Liberty went out of business in the 1920s. The house was listed as the Vaudette in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.A clip from his 1947 obituary in the entry for Lloyd Elgin Scobell at Ancient Faces says that he was the “[o]wner operator Cozy Theater/aka ELBS Theater in Wagner.” There was a Cozy Theatre listed at Wagner in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but it was not the same house as the later Elbs. Mr. Scobell’s widow sold the Elbs Theatre in 1959, as noted in this item from the June 3 issue of The Daily Republic from Mitchell, South Dakota, which provides another fragment of the theater’s history:
The purchaser of the Elbs in 1959 was likely O. R. Eleeson, who had been running the house at the time of his death, which was noted in the April 10, 1961 issue of Boxoffice. His widow inherited the house, but I haven’t been able to discover if she kept it open, or for how long it continued in operation after that.The NRHP registration form for the Wessington Opera House says that it opened on November 3, 1905. William Brimner was both architect and builder of the project.
The April 1, 1905 issue of The Improvement Bulletin said that H. J. Ludcke was taking bids for construction of an opera house at Saint Peter, with plans by Minneapolis architects Bell & Detweiler (Charles Emlen Bell and Menno Schlicter Detweiler.)
The Palm Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The February 6, 1909 issue of The Moving Picture World had this item:
The Fern Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
A timeline of Warren history published in 1980 said that the new Warren Theatre had opened in 1941. It replaced an earlier theater of the same name, though it doesn’t say if the new house was on the same site as the old one.
The Garden Theatre was remodeled in 1917. Construction was to start at once, according to the October 13 issue of Motography. Plans for the project had been prepared by C. Howard Crane.
It might be that the Methodist church is now an Ethiopian Orthodox church, if it was in the old building at the northeast corner of Neil Avenue and Goodale Street. The organ could still be there, or the Methodists might have taken it with them.
The Mercer Theatre was in operation at least as late as 1966, when it advertised in the February 7 issue of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. The house was most likely dismantled in 1973, when a classified ad in the Telegrpah of October 25 offered the Mercer Theatre’s seats for sale.
The Mercer, under new management, was renovated in 1956. The grand opening ad appeared in the September 16 Telegraph, offering the recent Columbia Pictures hit “Picnic” as the only feature attraction, and touting the new carpeting in the balcony and a new snack bar.
The Mercer was advertised in the Telegraph on March 2, 1938. The house was owned by L. A. Von Court, who also owned the Royal Theatre. His intention to convert the building across the street from the Royal into a theater was noted in the April 30, 1937 issue of the Telegraph, but I’ve been unable to find an announcement of the opening.
Despite its condemnation in 2012, a Google street view dated May, 2018 shows Del Rio building still standing, with its vertical sign intact. It did look vacant at that time, and I’ve found no recent information about it on the Internet. The most recent mention is a March 23, 2016 article in The Modesto Bee. At that time the building had been sold to a Modesto businessman who intended to renovate it for use as an event center. The project had obviously not come to fruition by May this year.
The ongoing (since 2013) renovation of the Lavon Theatre has led to several articles about it in the press. This one from the February 11, 2017 issue of The State Journal says that the Royal Theatre opened in 1911 and operated under that name until 1954. At that time it was bought by Dr. Lawrence Von Court, who had his office in one of the storefronts flanking the theater entrance, and he renamed it the Lavon Theatre.
The Princeton Renaissance Project, the outfit renovating the house, apparently intends to keep the name Lavon, although the rebuilt marquee features three capital R’s on it, presumably a nod to the origin of the house as the Royal.
Links to several other articles about the theater, along with many photos of it, both vintage and modern, can be seen on this Facebook page titled “Celebrating and Reviving the Lavon Theater, Princeton West Virginia.”
The Royal Theatre was listed in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide, though without any details. The Royal was mentioned in the June 24, 1916 issue of Motography.
It looks like Hank Aaron Drive is the dividing line between SW and SE numbers. Georgia Avenue now makes that curve between Hank Aaron and Pollard Boulevard, where it once ran straight, crossing Crew Street midway between them. 42 Georgia Avenue SW was undoubtedly the correct address, but when you search for it on Google maps it defaults to the 42 Georgia SE location because the SW address no longer exists.
PlazaChris: Google Maps' pin icon shows this theater at the corner of Georgia Avenue at Fraser Street, but if you look at the ad for the 1928 grand opening on our photos page it says the Empire was on Georgia Avenue at Crew Street. Crew was two blocks west of Fraser. We probably just have the wrong address for the theater. The Empire’s site is under part of the Georgia State Stadium project, and the intersection itself doesn’t even exist anymore. I don’t know what the building at Georgia and Fraser used to be, but it wasn’t the Empire Theatre.
Herman John Duncan Sr. (1891-1056) was the senior architect of the firm of Duncan & Barron, and began practicing architecture in Lafayette around 1912. Later he would form the firm of Herman J. Duncan & Co., succeeded by the firm of Duncan & Duncan with his son Herman John Duncan Jr. I’ve been unable to find out anything about his first partner, Barron, or how long that partnership lasted.