Here is a bit more information about the Crystal’s licensing troubles in 1916, from the May 6 Issue of Moving Picture World that year: “Theater Loses License. Minneapolis, Minn. — Because Miss Constance Madison of the Humane Society said J. Barnet’s theater, the Crystal, had become a rendezvous for minors and disorderly characters, the city council has tied up the application for a renewal of the license. The Crystal has been operating all night and it also was claimed it worked to the detriment of the curfew law.”
The New Franklin Theatre was slated to open on May 22, 1916, according to this brief article in the May 6 issue of Moving Picture World that year:
“Minneapolis, Minn. May 22 will see the opening of the largest one-floor house west of Chicago, the New Franklin theater, 1021 Franklin avenue. The theater will seat 1,000. It is being erected by C. E. Marrs, real estate dealer, at a cost of $40,000. F. H. Coyle, a new figure in the moving picture business, will manage the house.
“Fourteen huge drop lights will be used in the theater proper and the lobby will blaze with ornamental side lights and 161 ceiling lamps. The entire interior will be decorated in a soft rose tint as a predominating color note. There will be four aisles. The building is so constructed that if desired a balcony may be put in later. The offices will be on the second floor. The lobby may be entered through five sets of revolving doors.
“Particular attention is being paid to the projection room, which will be one of the finest equipped and largest in the country. Two 6A machines have been purchased. The screen is 100 feet from the machine.
“Mr. Coyle has obtained advertising for the house in the shape of a neat folder bearing a picture of the theater on the front.”
The May 6, 1916 issue of Moving Picture world noted the name change of this house from Isis to U.S.A.: “Sioux City, Ia. — The U. S. A. theater is the new name Hammitt Brothers have be- stowed upon the Isis, which they recently purchased. They make the significant announcement that cheap vaudeville will be a thing of the past and that they aim to make it a high-class moving picture theater.”
Here is an item from the May 6, 1916 issue ofMoving Picture World: “Atlantic, Ia.— Will Frost, proprietor of the Unique theater, has taken over the Garden theater from Chris Geannacopoulos and will operate both houses, at least for a while. The only change is that the programs have been switched.”
This item datelined Emporia, Kansas, from the July 11, 1914 issue of The American Contractor was probably about the Electric Theatre: “Picture Show (rem): 1 sty. $4M. Archt. H.W. Brinkman. Owner P.J. Concannon. Work just starting. Owner will buy materials & constr. by day labor. Painting, plastering, carp. work.” Henry William Brinkman established his architectural practice at Emporia in 1907 and remained active until 1948. He gained a reputation as one of the leading ecclesiastical architects in the region.
The Majestic Music Hall was in operation by late 1909. The May 10, 1911 issue of Contract Record, a Canadian construction journal, said that the Majestic had been designed by architect Walter S. Painter, who had soon after become chief architect for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Walter Scott Painter designed a number of theaters in Canada and the United States.
The Lyric Theatre at Greenfield was mentioned in the September 4, 1920 issue of The Billboard. One of the three movie houses listed at Greenfield in the 1914-1915 AMPD was on Washington street (the other two were on Jefferson) and was called the Electric Theatre. This might have been the Lyric under an earlier name, but the AMPD gave no street number for it.
The Lyric was open at least as late as 1956. The November 7 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor reported that the Lyric had been closed due to the failure of the owner, a Mrs. Gray, to make repairs required by the State. The November 21 issue of the same journal said that Pearl Gray had sold the Lyric to a Mr. Charles Weller. I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Weller repaired and reopened the house or not. As the Rand theatre was still in operation and a new Drive-In had recently opened (on June 3, according to the June 9, 1956 issue of Boxoffice it might be that the Lyric was no longer economically viable.
The original Crawford Theatre, aka Crawford Grand Opera House, was listed at 201-205 S. Topeka Avenue in 1910. It opened on February 1, 1887. When the New Crawford Theatre opened in 1911 the Opera House was renamed the Lyceum Theatre, but it only operated for about two years before the building was destroyed by a fire.
A book about Wichita published in 1910 lists eight theaters, including the Yale, 504 E. Douglas Avenue, featuring vaudeville and moving pictures. The house had 350 seats. The Yale is also mentioned in the October, 1911 issue of Motography and in the August 21, 1915 issue ofMoving Picture World.
This classified ad appeared in the December 21, 1917 issue of The Standard from Lykens, Pennsylvania: “FOR SALE- Moving Picture theatre and equipment including new building, Powers 6. A. much asbestos booth, 250 opera chairs, piano, complete electric lighting outfit, scenery, drums, all used very little, and will sacrifice. ROYAL THEATRE HALIFAX, PA. C. M. RICHTER”
Although the Royal Theater and Halifax are listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, I haven’t found either mentioned in trade journals of the period, and neither appear in the 1926 or 1929 FDY’s.
This page is currently pathetic. Although the associated photo page has almost nothing but images of the original 1928 theater, the description is a single paragraph about the single-screen mini-cinema that was installed in the building some years after the original theater was closed. Multiple sources I’ve come across indicate that the Cinema Cartier has been operating as a multiplex for more than a decade now, this English translation of the theater’s French Wikipedia page saying that two new screening rooms were added in 2012, and that these were doubled to six in 2014. The current number appears to be eight, though I couldn’t swear to it. What is clear is that the official web site shows as many as eleven shows scheduled in a day, which certainly wouldn’t be happening with only one screen, or probably not even with six.
In any case, when the description is updated a bit of information is available in the Wikipedia article, including the fact that the house was operated by Famous Players for some time, until it was leased by independent operator Roland Smith in 1972, and that the original architects were Wilfrid Lacroix and Jean-Charles Drouin. The Cartier, though it has not operated continuously the entire time, is now nearly a century old, and was for almost six decades one of Quebec City’s leading cinemas. It deserves a better page than this.
This news supposedly about the then-Brock Theatre (which later became the Capitol) appearing in the September 3, 1921 issue ofMoving Picture World turned out to be mistaken, and ought to have named the New Theatre, which had not been called the Brock for about a decade:
“Announcement is made that Peter Gorman and Harry W. Doran, of Ottawa, Ontario, have sub-leased the Brock Theatre at Brockville for a term of three years, the owner of which, Mr. John M. McLennan, passed away recently in his 63d year, after a lengthy illness. It is understood that Messrs. Gorman and Doran will take over the theatre in the early fall with Mr. Doran acting as resident manager.
“The Brock Theatre is the only moving picture theatre in Brockville, a city of 12,000 people. It was recently renovated and remodeled.”
This correction of the error appeared on a later page of the same issue of MPW: “Harry Doran, of Ottawa, Ontario, has sub-leased the New Theatre at Brockville, Ontario, for a term of three years and not the Brock Theatre there, as previously reported. The New Theatre will be reopened shortly under a policy that will include the presentation of road shows in addition to moving pictures.”
Summerside’s Capitol Theatre had a very long life. A CBC news item from October 9, 2000 said that longtime theater owner Emery Perry would close the house on Thanksgiving weekend (the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday was on Monday, October 9 that year, so that must have been the last day of operation.) The item said that the theater had been open for nearly a century. One source says it opened around 1911 as the Happyland Theatre, and was renamed Capitol Theatre in 1922. It was located on Water Street, but I’ve been unable to pin down an address.
When the City of Summerside purchased the Regent Theatre building and three adjacent structures for a planned redevelopment project in 2020, the CBC posted this article on its web site.
It says the the Regent is believed to have been closed for the first time in the 1950s, after which the building was occupied by a series of other businesses, but in 1973 it was bought by the owner of the Capitol Theatre, renovated and reopened as a cinema which operated until about 1980. After that it housed a restaurant and night club also called the Regent, then a bar, but by the time the city bought it it had been vacant for some time.
The historic address of the Regent was 12 Summer Street, which was on the west side of that thoroughfare just a few doors north of Water Street. The site is now under the footprint of a large multi-use project that was under construction in the most recent satellite view at Google maps, though the theater can currently still be seen in the street view, which has not been updated since 2018.
A brief history of Hill City (PDF here), after retelling the story of a rivalry that developed between the northern and southern sections of town, says that reconciliation began when “Mr. and Mrs. John Welty constructed The Midway, a theater/stage presentation venue atop the topographical dividing line in 1920….” The Welty’s remained in the theater business at Hill City for decades, and opened the Riverside Drive-In there in 1953.
The Auditorium is listed in the 1908-1909 Cahn guide with 950 seats; 400 in the orchestra, 250 in the balcony, and 300 in the gallery. The gallery was lost in the late 1940s remodeling, when the upper portion of the building was entirely removed. The Auditorium was also one of three houses listed at Norton in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
I the FDY editions from 1926 through 1930, the only theater listed at Norton was the Cozy, but in 1931 that house was joined by the 582-seat Norton Theatre, which must have been this house, finally returned to use as a cinema.
This item from Moving Picture World of December 17, 1929 might provide the reason why the theater was renamed Capitol around that time: “The Patricia Theatre, Leamington, Ontario, established for quite a few years, has been secured by the Allens on a lease basis. Fred Broadley had charge of the Patricia for a considerable time.”
This item from the October 5, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily might reveal the origin of the Alpine: “The Liberty Amusement Co., Wellsville, has resumed work on the construction of a house at Salineville which was started last spring. It will have 400 seats.”
Earlier, movies had been among the entertainments presented by Glaubner’s Opera House, an 1888 venue that burned to the ground on June 28, 1931. It had been the town’s only theater, and Mr. Glaubner did not return to exhibition. His death notice in a 1940 issue of Boxoffice said he had operated the house for 25 years before his retirement in 1931, so 1916? The 1914-1915 AMPD lists only a house called the Theatorium at Salineville, which might have been only a storefront nickelodeon.
An August 1, 1958 item also in Motion Picture Daily mentioned the Valley Theatre at Salinevile, which may have been a later aka for the Alpine.
Aside from the Auditorium, the only theater names I’ve found associated with Beaver City prior to the Oriental are Axstern, Lyric, and Liberty. The first was the name coined for a house opened in the Armory building by partners named Axtell and Stearn, noted in the February 12, 1916 Moving Picture World. The May 26, 1917 issue of Motography said that W. H. Williams had bought the Lyric Theatre at Beaver City, and the October 27, 1921 issue of the local newspaper said that “Harold Lloyd comedies are the feature this week at the Liberty Theatre in Beaver City.”
It was almost certainly a 1935 opening for the Oriental. A 1940 “Who’s Who” biography for John Jacob Metzger says that he owned a half interest in the Palace Theatre at Syracuse, Nebraska, from 1922 to 1936, and that he was owner and operator of the Oriental Theatre in Beaver City from 1935. Metzger still operated the Oriental at least as late as 1942, when they were mentioned in the February 4 issue of Variety. I’ve found references to the Theobald family in Beaver City, but none in connection to theater operation. Perhaps they were the landlords.
The 1937 rebuilding of the Nueva Theatre and a change of ownership is noted in this item from Boxoffice of April 10 that year:
“LOWE BUYS BRILES’S NUEVA AT STAFFORD
“Kansas City—The Nueva, E. A. Briles’s theatre at Stafford, Kas., has been acquired by F. L. Lowe, who operates houses also in Hays, Lyons, Lucas and Sterling, Kas. The Stafford acquisition gives ‘Doc’ five.
“Briles publishes the Stafford newspaper and represents his community in the Kansas house of representatives.
“Fire almost completely destroyed the Nueva last month. It is being rebuilt and is expected to open around May 1.”
So far I haven’t found the origin of the Nueva. The 1926 and 1929 FDYs list only a 320-seat Mystic Theatre at Stafford. Given that the word nueva is Spanish for new, the Nueva might have been a replacement for the Mystic, or a rebuild of it. If the latter was the case, then the Ritz is a very old theater indeed, as the Mystic was one of the three movie houses listed at Stafford in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
The Garden was an A. H. Blank property from the beginning, as noted in this item from Motography of March 6, 1915: “A. H. Blank is going to erect a $50,000 moving picture theater seating 1,000 in Davenport. Sam Greenebaum is associated with him. The theater will be located on Third street between Brady and Main and will be known as the Garden.”
The beginning of the end for the Varieties Theatre was noted in the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography which told of what was probably the final leasing of the house: “INDIANA: Another moving picture enterprise has been launched in Terre Haute, where John H Jensen, Tom Moore and Isaac Ades closed a two years lease on the Varieties theater building, to be devoted to moving pictures. While the lease was taken by them as individuals, it is their intention to incorporate a company to take it over, with the men named as the stockholders. Possession was given them on February 15. It is expected to open the place under the new management on March 1, the intervening time to be taken up in renovation of the theater, repainting it, etc. The theater has a seating capacity of 1,000. John H. Jensen is to have personal charge of the new enterprise.”
Though they misspelled the house’s name, the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography revealed that “[t]he Fisher theater in Danville has changed its policy and now being operated as a motion picture theater. Nate Erber Fort Wayne Indiana is in charge.” The Fischer had not been among the five movie houses listed at Danville in the 1914-1915 ANPD.
Nickerson’s longest-running movie theater appears to have been one called the Gem, but an early (probably mid-1910s) real photo postcard on sale at eBay shows it in a single-story building across the street from 6 N. Nickerson. The earliest mention of the Gem I’ve found in trade journals is from 1918, and it is mentioned again in 1923 and is listed in FDYs from 1926 and 1929. It might have started out at 6 N. Nickerson and later moved, or vice-versa, and might have been listed under a different name in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
Here is a bit more information about the Crystal’s licensing troubles in 1916, from the May 6 Issue of Moving Picture World that year: “Theater Loses License. Minneapolis, Minn. — Because Miss Constance Madison of the Humane Society said J. Barnet’s theater, the Crystal, had become a rendezvous for minors and disorderly characters, the city council has tied up the application for a renewal of the license. The Crystal has been operating all night and it also was claimed it worked to the detriment of the curfew law.”
The New Franklin Theatre was slated to open on May 22, 1916, according to this brief article in the May 6 issue of Moving Picture World that year:
“Minneapolis, Minn. May 22 will see the opening of the largest one-floor house west of Chicago, the New Franklin theater, 1021 Franklin avenue. The theater will seat 1,000. It is being erected by C. E. Marrs, real estate dealer, at a cost of $40,000. F. H. Coyle, a new figure in the moving picture business, will manage the house.
“Fourteen huge drop lights will be used in the theater proper and the lobby will blaze with ornamental side lights and 161 ceiling lamps. The entire interior will be decorated in a soft rose tint as a predominating color note. There will be four aisles. The building is so constructed that if desired a balcony may be put in later. The offices will be on the second floor. The lobby may be entered through five sets of revolving doors.
“Particular attention is being paid to the projection room, which will be one of the finest equipped and largest in the country. Two 6A machines have been purchased. The screen is 100 feet from the machine.
“Mr. Coyle has obtained advertising for the house in the shape of a neat folder bearing a picture of the theater on the front.”
The May 6, 1916 issue of Moving Picture world noted the name change of this house from Isis to U.S.A.: “Sioux City, Ia. — The U. S. A. theater is the new name Hammitt Brothers have be- stowed upon the Isis, which they recently purchased. They make the significant announcement that cheap vaudeville will be a thing of the past and that they aim to make it a high-class moving picture theater.”
Here is an item from the May 6, 1916 issue ofMoving Picture World: “Atlantic, Ia.— Will Frost, proprietor of the Unique theater, has taken over the Garden theater from Chris Geannacopoulos and will operate both houses, at least for a while. The only change is that the programs have been switched.”
This item datelined Emporia, Kansas, from the July 11, 1914 issue of The American Contractor was probably about the Electric Theatre: “Picture Show (rem): 1 sty. $4M. Archt. H.W. Brinkman. Owner P.J. Concannon. Work just starting. Owner will buy materials & constr. by day labor. Painting, plastering, carp. work.” Henry William Brinkman established his architectural practice at Emporia in 1907 and remained active until 1948. He gained a reputation as one of the leading ecclesiastical architects in the region.
The Majestic Music Hall was in operation by late 1909. The May 10, 1911 issue of Contract Record, a Canadian construction journal, said that the Majestic had been designed by architect Walter S. Painter, who had soon after become chief architect for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Walter Scott Painter designed a number of theaters in Canada and the United States.
The Lyric Theatre at Greenfield was mentioned in the September 4, 1920 issue of The Billboard. One of the three movie houses listed at Greenfield in the 1914-1915 AMPD was on Washington street (the other two were on Jefferson) and was called the Electric Theatre. This might have been the Lyric under an earlier name, but the AMPD gave no street number for it.
The Lyric was open at least as late as 1956. The November 7 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor reported that the Lyric had been closed due to the failure of the owner, a Mrs. Gray, to make repairs required by the State. The November 21 issue of the same journal said that Pearl Gray had sold the Lyric to a Mr. Charles Weller. I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Weller repaired and reopened the house or not. As the Rand theatre was still in operation and a new Drive-In had recently opened (on June 3, according to the June 9, 1956 issue of Boxoffice it might be that the Lyric was no longer economically viable.
The original Crawford Theatre, aka Crawford Grand Opera House, was listed at 201-205 S. Topeka Avenue in 1910. It opened on February 1, 1887. When the New Crawford Theatre opened in 1911 the Opera House was renamed the Lyceum Theatre, but it only operated for about two years before the building was destroyed by a fire.
A book about Wichita published in 1910 lists eight theaters, including the Yale, 504 E. Douglas Avenue, featuring vaudeville and moving pictures. The house had 350 seats. The Yale is also mentioned in the October, 1911 issue of Motography and in the August 21, 1915 issue ofMoving Picture World.
This classified ad appeared in the December 21, 1917 issue of The Standard from Lykens, Pennsylvania: “FOR SALE- Moving Picture theatre and equipment including new building, Powers 6. A. much asbestos booth, 250 opera chairs, piano, complete electric lighting outfit, scenery, drums, all used very little, and will sacrifice. ROYAL THEATRE HALIFAX, PA. C. M. RICHTER”
Although the Royal Theater and Halifax are listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, I haven’t found either mentioned in trade journals of the period, and neither appear in the 1926 or 1929 FDY’s.
This page is currently pathetic. Although the associated photo page has almost nothing but images of the original 1928 theater, the description is a single paragraph about the single-screen mini-cinema that was installed in the building some years after the original theater was closed. Multiple sources I’ve come across indicate that the Cinema Cartier has been operating as a multiplex for more than a decade now, this English translation of the theater’s French Wikipedia page saying that two new screening rooms were added in 2012, and that these were doubled to six in 2014. The current number appears to be eight, though I couldn’t swear to it. What is clear is that the official web site shows as many as eleven shows scheduled in a day, which certainly wouldn’t be happening with only one screen, or probably not even with six.
In any case, when the description is updated a bit of information is available in the Wikipedia article, including the fact that the house was operated by Famous Players for some time, until it was leased by independent operator Roland Smith in 1972, and that the original architects were Wilfrid Lacroix and Jean-Charles Drouin. The Cartier, though it has not operated continuously the entire time, is now nearly a century old, and was for almost six decades one of Quebec City’s leading cinemas. It deserves a better page than this.
This news supposedly about the then-Brock Theatre (which later became the Capitol) appearing in the September 3, 1921 issue ofMoving Picture World turned out to be mistaken, and ought to have named the New Theatre, which had not been called the Brock for about a decade:
“Announcement is made that Peter Gorman and Harry W. Doran, of Ottawa, Ontario, have sub-leased the Brock Theatre at Brockville for a term of three years, the owner of which, Mr. John M. McLennan, passed away recently in his 63d year, after a lengthy illness. It is understood that Messrs. Gorman and Doran will take over the theatre in the early fall with Mr. Doran acting as resident manager.
“The Brock Theatre is the only moving picture theatre in Brockville, a city of 12,000 people. It was recently renovated and remodeled.”
This correction of the error appeared on a later page of the same issue of MPW: “Harry Doran, of Ottawa, Ontario, has sub-leased the New Theatre at Brockville, Ontario, for a term of three years and not the Brock Theatre there, as previously reported. The New Theatre will be reopened shortly under a policy that will include the presentation of road shows in addition to moving pictures.”
Summerside’s Capitol Theatre had a very long life. A CBC news item from October 9, 2000 said that longtime theater owner Emery Perry would close the house on Thanksgiving weekend (the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday was on Monday, October 9 that year, so that must have been the last day of operation.) The item said that the theater had been open for nearly a century. One source says it opened around 1911 as the Happyland Theatre, and was renamed Capitol Theatre in 1922. It was located on Water Street, but I’ve been unable to pin down an address.
When the City of Summerside purchased the Regent Theatre building and three adjacent structures for a planned redevelopment project in 2020, the CBC posted this article on its web site.
It says the the Regent is believed to have been closed for the first time in the 1950s, after which the building was occupied by a series of other businesses, but in 1973 it was bought by the owner of the Capitol Theatre, renovated and reopened as a cinema which operated until about 1980. After that it housed a restaurant and night club also called the Regent, then a bar, but by the time the city bought it it had been vacant for some time.
The historic address of the Regent was 12 Summer Street, which was on the west side of that thoroughfare just a few doors north of Water Street. The site is now under the footprint of a large multi-use project that was under construction in the most recent satellite view at Google maps, though the theater can currently still be seen in the street view, which has not been updated since 2018.
A brief history of Hill City (PDF here), after retelling the story of a rivalry that developed between the northern and southern sections of town, says that reconciliation began when “Mr. and Mrs. John Welty constructed The Midway, a theater/stage presentation venue atop the topographical dividing line in 1920….” The Welty’s remained in the theater business at Hill City for decades, and opened the Riverside Drive-In there in 1953.
The Auditorium is listed in the 1908-1909 Cahn guide with 950 seats; 400 in the orchestra, 250 in the balcony, and 300 in the gallery. The gallery was lost in the late 1940s remodeling, when the upper portion of the building was entirely removed. The Auditorium was also one of three houses listed at Norton in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
I the FDY editions from 1926 through 1930, the only theater listed at Norton was the Cozy, but in 1931 that house was joined by the 582-seat Norton Theatre, which must have been this house, finally returned to use as a cinema.
This item from Moving Picture World of December 17, 1929 might provide the reason why the theater was renamed Capitol around that time: “The Patricia Theatre, Leamington, Ontario, established for quite a few years, has been secured by the Allens on a lease basis. Fred Broadley had charge of the Patricia for a considerable time.”
This item from the October 5, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily might reveal the origin of the Alpine: “The Liberty Amusement Co., Wellsville, has resumed work on the construction of a house at Salineville which was started last spring. It will have 400 seats.”
Earlier, movies had been among the entertainments presented by Glaubner’s Opera House, an 1888 venue that burned to the ground on June 28, 1931. It had been the town’s only theater, and Mr. Glaubner did not return to exhibition. His death notice in a 1940 issue of Boxoffice said he had operated the house for 25 years before his retirement in 1931, so 1916? The 1914-1915 AMPD lists only a house called the Theatorium at Salineville, which might have been only a storefront nickelodeon.
An August 1, 1958 item also in Motion Picture Daily mentioned the Valley Theatre at Salinevile, which may have been a later aka for the Alpine.
Aside from the Auditorium, the only theater names I’ve found associated with Beaver City prior to the Oriental are Axstern, Lyric, and Liberty. The first was the name coined for a house opened in the Armory building by partners named Axtell and Stearn, noted in the February 12, 1916 Moving Picture World. The May 26, 1917 issue of Motography said that W. H. Williams had bought the Lyric Theatre at Beaver City, and the October 27, 1921 issue of the local newspaper said that “Harold Lloyd comedies are the feature this week at the Liberty Theatre in Beaver City.”
It was almost certainly a 1935 opening for the Oriental. A 1940 “Who’s Who” biography for John Jacob Metzger says that he owned a half interest in the Palace Theatre at Syracuse, Nebraska, from 1922 to 1936, and that he was owner and operator of the Oriental Theatre in Beaver City from 1935. Metzger still operated the Oriental at least as late as 1942, when they were mentioned in the February 4 issue of Variety. I’ve found references to the Theobald family in Beaver City, but none in connection to theater operation. Perhaps they were the landlords.
The 1937 rebuilding of the Nueva Theatre and a change of ownership is noted in this item from Boxoffice of April 10 that year:
“LOWE BUYS BRILES’S NUEVA AT STAFFORD
“Kansas City—The Nueva, E. A. Briles’s theatre at Stafford, Kas., has been acquired by F. L. Lowe, who operates houses also in Hays, Lyons, Lucas and Sterling, Kas. The Stafford acquisition gives ‘Doc’ five.
“Briles publishes the Stafford newspaper and represents his community in the Kansas house of representatives.
“Fire almost completely destroyed the Nueva last month. It is being rebuilt and is expected to open around May 1.”
So far I haven’t found the origin of the Nueva. The 1926 and 1929 FDYs list only a 320-seat Mystic Theatre at Stafford. Given that the word nueva is Spanish for new, the Nueva might have been a replacement for the Mystic, or a rebuild of it. If the latter was the case, then the Ritz is a very old theater indeed, as the Mystic was one of the three movie houses listed at Stafford in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
The Garden was an A. H. Blank property from the beginning, as noted in this item from Motography of March 6, 1915: “A. H. Blank is going to erect a $50,000 moving picture theater seating 1,000 in Davenport. Sam Greenebaum is associated with him. The theater will be located on Third street between Brady and Main and will be known as the Garden.”
The beginning of the end for the Varieties Theatre was noted in the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography which told of what was probably the final leasing of the house: “INDIANA: Another moving picture enterprise has been launched in Terre Haute, where John H Jensen, Tom Moore and Isaac Ades closed a two years lease on the Varieties theater building, to be devoted to moving pictures. While the lease was taken by them as individuals, it is their intention to incorporate a company to take it over, with the men named as the stockholders. Possession was given them on February 15. It is expected to open the place under the new management on March 1, the intervening time to be taken up in renovation of the theater, repainting it, etc. The theater has a seating capacity of 1,000. John H. Jensen is to have personal charge of the new enterprise.”
Though they misspelled the house’s name, the March 6, 1915 issue of Motography revealed that “[t]he Fisher theater in Danville has changed its policy and now being operated as a motion picture theater. Nate Erber Fort Wayne Indiana is in charge.” The Fischer had not been among the five movie houses listed at Danville in the 1914-1915 ANPD.
Nickerson’s longest-running movie theater appears to have been one called the Gem, but an early (probably mid-1910s) real photo postcard on sale at eBay shows it in a single-story building across the street from 6 N. Nickerson. The earliest mention of the Gem I’ve found in trade journals is from 1918, and it is mentioned again in 1923 and is listed in FDYs from 1926 and 1929. It might have started out at 6 N. Nickerson and later moved, or vice-versa, and might have been listed under a different name in the 1914-1915 AMPD.