Time Theatre
1416 Broadway Avenue,
Mattoon,
IL
61938
1416 Broadway Avenue,
Mattoon,
IL
61938
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2 screens on July 5th, 1985. Grand opening ad also in the photo section.
This opened on August 18th, 1937. Its grand opening ad can be found in the photo section.
This opened on December 19th, 1910 as Grand. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
The “Theaters Planned” column of The Film Daily for May 21, 1938, said that the Time Theatre in Mattoon would be designed by architect Paul Leaman, but I’ve been unable to find any other references to an architect of that name, so it might be a typo. I’ve found a single reference to a Decatur, Illinois, architect named Paul Lehman, but it is from 1965.
I have exterior photos of both the Time and Mattoon Theaters in 1977 (when we moved away), but will have to post them to a public site. I’ve never been able to find any online photos of the interior of either theater.
I took a few pictures of the Time Theater when I was there this past Summer. I do have one picture of the interior that I shot by holding my lens up against the window of a door.
Here’s a link to the first photo. You can see the rest by paging through my photostream from there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stormdog42/8360832150/
Thanks everyone for posting the pics of the Time Theatre. Does anyone have any pics of the Mattoon Theatre inside or out?
Several sources indicate that the Time Theatre was not on the site of the K Theatre, but on the site of the Grand Theatre, which was built at 1416 Broadway in 1911. The fifth entry from the bottom on this page from a Mattoon history web site says that the Grand Theatre burned in 1938 and the Time was built on its site by Clarke, Frisina & Bianchi that year.
An earlier entry says that the K Theatre, which opened in the 1700 block of Broadway in 1913, burned in 1937 and was not replaced.
The Time Theatre is currently listed for sale at $124,500.
I was in 5th grade at St Mary’s School when the nuns took the school to see The Sound Of Music at the Time Theater in 1965. It was a memorable day not only to go to see a movie during school, but also we had a tremendous ice storm that night that closed school for 2 days! Glad the theater is still there and in good shape!
Here are 1983 photos. The second one is supposed to be 1987, but I doubt if the same film ran for four years.
http://tinyurl.com/coprxj
http://tinyurl.com/dlf3my
Here is the Davis Cone painting (original in color) dated 1983 from “Popcorn Palaces”:
http://tinyurl.com/2rekst
I have a disk with copies of some Davis Cone paintings (Popcorn Palace), in black and white, unfortunately. I also have some photos from Michael Putnam’s book. I e-mailed management to see what the rules are on posting these, but if any CT denizen can give me the info I would appreciate it.
Ken: This theatre is very unique and should be restored. I believe it is featured in Popcorn Palaces. The very talented photographer, ‘agilitynut’ has traveled around the country taking many wonderful theatre photos as I have emailed her from time to time.
It looks like the theater’s website has taken a time out (no pun intended). Here are some photos:
http://www.agilitynut.com/05/10/mattoon2.jpg
http://www.agilitynut.com/05/10/mattoon3.jpg
http://www.agilitynut.com/05/10/mattoon1.jpg
This theatre is one of the art deco theatres featured in Davis Cone’s Popcorn Palaces on page 44. It caught my eye as it has a beautiful Time clock in the center of the marquee which is so unusual! Cone is the art deco painter who resides in Miami Beach FL.