Royal Theatre

The Royal Theatre was a store show era nickelodeon that had a five-year run in downtown Mobile providing English-titled and German-titled films for Mobile’s significant Germanic customer base. The theatre opened in 1911 by Josiah Pearce & Sons Syndicate and closed by R.L. Goldberg on June 17, 1916 as its third operator.

Josiah Pearce & Sons were much better known for their amusement parks and their wood-framed roller coasters that were found in various locations in the United States. They started their amusement park business in 1903 and found that hand-cranked Kinetoscopes were a significant part of their operation. Born in Pittsburgh, the Pearces saw the potential of Harry Davis and John P. Harris Nickelodeon in 1905 for making money in the cold weather months.

The Pearces started with a nickelodeon just months later in New Orleans in 1905 for a $3,000 investment. Making as much as $400 on the best of nights, profits were to be had. Pearce & Sons expanded to Houston, Dallas, Vicksburg, Lake Charles, and here in Mobile. But they were soon overmatched in Mobile - especially with new theatres like the Empire Theatre opening in 1914 and live theaters including the venerable Crown Theatre converting operations to movies. So the Pearces sold out here and by the onset of sound in the 1920’s had moved exclusively back to amusement park design and amusement ride creation.

The final Royal Theatre operator, R.L. Goldberg, had his final showing - all shorts - Helen Gibson in “The Open Track”, Rube Goldberg’s “The Fatal Pie”, Joseph McDermott in “The Man Who Was Never Caught”, and John Cossar in “Gold Dust”. Goldberg cited lack of business for the closure. Larger theaters programming full feature length photoplays sealed the Royal Theatre’s fate. The space was converted back to retail and is still in use as of the 2020’s.

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