A feature in the Times in October 1927 concerning the opening of HL Gumbiner’s new Tower Theatre mentions that Gumbiner owned and operated the Cameo Theater (‘with success’) before launching the Tower.
He had previously presided over Gumbiner Theatrical Enterprises in Chicago, with up to 14 small theaters.
ARTISANS BUSY REBUILDING NEW CAMEO THEATER
“The best and most luxuriously appointed ‘small’ theater on Broadway when the renovations are completed.”
That’s the promise of O.D. Cloakey, manager of the Cameo Theater, the newly named film playhouse, which takes the place of the old Clune’s Broadway.
A half-hundred carpenters, electricians, decorators and upholsterers are in possession of the place now. The auditorium is a chaos of wreckage, but out of this chaos William Cutts is devising a new orderliness from which will rise a new theater adequately equipped to take its place alongside Broadway’s best.
Its old seating capacity of 800 will be slightly increased by the new space arrangement. A larger orchestra pit is being made to make room for the sixteen players who will be directed by Theodore Henkel, newly appointed musical director. The projection-room will be widened.
A suite of drawing and sitting-rooms is being fitted out in luxurious style on the second floor, where women patrons will find quiet, comfort and opportunity for rest.'
Etc. Plans were to reopen sometime in July 1924 with a Wallace Beery super-feature, ‘The Signal Tower’.
Indeed, he announced his acquisition on Sep 24 1919 (after which it is noted that he and his son Seymour locked their desks and went on a hunting trip to the mountains). On his way out he stated that the policy of the theater is to be materially advanced in every respect, with several changes to the stage and interior, as well as the front of the house, already being contemplated.
Post hunt, the famous Compani Tipica, Mexicana Orchestra, under direction of Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, Mexico’s greatest composer, was unveiled for an unlimited engagement at both Tally’s Kinema and Broadway theaters…
Thanks! Yep, I meant Tally’s New (ie first) Broadway as the candidate for first movie theatre on Broadway.
I’m now finding LA Times references to ‘Tally’s Kinema’ in late 1919… (Viz, Dec 5: ‘During his weekly executive session with the staffs of his two theaters, the Broadway and the Kinema…’)
Could this have been the ‘handsome and comfortable picture house’ he was dreaming about to the Times a year before (see my quote under Tally’s Broadway. But the quote makes it sound like he was intending to build a theatre, not take one over. And then – could he have retired in the ‘20s, and then resumed control of the Kinema? 'Tis most byzantine…
I guess the question is, what makes a movie palace? I read somewhere a figure of 2,500 seats, which would exclude the Million Dollar. (And indeed the Los Angeles Theatre, so surely architectural and decorative style is also part of the answer.) It sounds like the Kinema was halfway there…
But no, I don’t think Tally’s came close. He made the first dedicated space for projected movies at the back of his Phonograph Parlor, in 1896; his 1902 Electric Theater on Spring Street was the first standalone, purpose-built movie theater in the country; and he may or may not have opened the first movie theater on Broadway. He also seems to have owned the Kinema right at the end of his career, sometime after he’d announced his retirement.
nickb
commented about
Mayanon
Jan 25, 2008 at 5:51 pm
The Mayan opened on August 16 1927 as a playhouse, not first as a movie theater (per the top of the page).
To quote the Los Angeles Times (July 31): ‘The property will be devoted solely to the presentation of musical comedies.’
and in an Aug 17 review of the opening night:
‘Messrs David, Butler and Belasco have done well in presenting such a sparkling general production, to open their new theater, which is to cultivate the lighter muse, as an adjunct to their already successful playhouse, the Belasco.’
Evidently they’d changed their plans within the first couple of years of operation (per Ken’s Nov 1 posting).
A rather glib description of the theater from the latter article:
‘The Mayan casts an agreeable warmth over the spectator. It is abundantly decorative, but the effects are well blended, and typical of an architectural scheme that has never previously been expressed in any playhouse in this locality. It is a building that in its richness and detail elicits a curious as well as a pleased interest, because it is in every sense a novelty.’
I figured both were possible – that the LA Times might have been boosting the figure, and that the seat numbers might have fallen over time, with refurbishments and redesigns…
But bottom line, we’re sure this wasn’t the first purpose-built movie palace in Los Angeles?
A review of the Kinema’s opening gala in the Los Angeles Times, Dec 17 1917, says that the theater sat either 2300 or 2500 (more likely the latter, but the copy is hard to read).
Could it have lost so many seats by the time of the 1941 Film Daily Yearbook, and the Theatre Historical Society of America record (cf Ken Roe’s comments, Dec 14 2004)?
’T.L. Tally, while not ready to say much about it in detail, announces that with the closing of the war and the bright outlook for pictures, his new theater will soon be no longer a mere dream. That it will be one of the handsomest and most comfortable picture houses in the country, with the finest music obtainable, one needs only to know the conduct of Tally’s Broadway to believe.'
But by the time of a career-retrospective feature (Times, October 27 1929, which says he has been retired ‘a few’ years) there is no mention of him having built anything after his ‘new’ Broadway, next door to the May Company (ie at 833).
’T.L. Tally, while not ready to say much about it in detail, announces that with the closing of the war and the bright outlook for pictures, his new theater will soon be no longer a mere dream. That it will be one of the handsomest and most comfortable picture houses in the country, with the finest music obtainable, one needs only to know the conduct of Tally’s Broadway to believe.'
But by the time of a career-retrospective feature (Times, October 27 1929, which says he has been retired ‘a few’ years) there is no mention of him having built anything after his ‘new’ Broadway, next door to the May Company (ie at 833).
So had anyone found an opening date for this theatre? It must be sometime between 1902, when Tally opened his Electric Theatre on Spring St, and 1909, when he traded this site in for the site at 833 (the Broadway Theatre).
I’m wondering if this was the first movie theatre on Broadway?
The Los Angeles ran a story on July 11 1909, under the headline ‘Houses, Lots and Lands’:
“RA Rowan & Co report the following recent leases through their agency: For the Century Company to the Clune Theater Company was rented the northwest corner of Fifth and Main streets, with a frontage of 70 feet on Main and extending back 150 feet to an alley. The term of the lease is five years and the monthly rental is reported at $1175 which would make the total rent $70,500.”
A feature in the Times in October 1927 concerning the opening of HL Gumbiner’s new Tower Theatre mentions that Gumbiner owned and operated the Cameo Theater (‘with success’) before launching the Tower.
He had previously presided over Gumbiner Theatrical Enterprises in Chicago, with up to 14 small theaters.
From the LA Times, July 20 1924:
ARTISANS BUSY REBUILDING NEW CAMEO THEATER
“The best and most luxuriously appointed ‘small’ theater on Broadway when the renovations are completed.”
That’s the promise of O.D. Cloakey, manager of the Cameo Theater, the newly named film playhouse, which takes the place of the old Clune’s Broadway.
A half-hundred carpenters, electricians, decorators and upholsterers are in possession of the place now. The auditorium is a chaos of wreckage, but out of this chaos William Cutts is devising a new orderliness from which will rise a new theater adequately equipped to take its place alongside Broadway’s best.
Its old seating capacity of 800 will be slightly increased by the new space arrangement. A larger orchestra pit is being made to make room for the sixteen players who will be directed by Theodore Henkel, newly appointed musical director. The projection-room will be widened.
A suite of drawing and sitting-rooms is being fitted out in luxurious style on the second floor, where women patrons will find quiet, comfort and opportunity for rest.'
Etc. Plans were to reopen sometime in July 1924 with a Wallace Beery super-feature, ‘The Signal Tower’.
Indeed, he announced his acquisition on Sep 24 1919 (after which it is noted that he and his son Seymour locked their desks and went on a hunting trip to the mountains). On his way out he stated that the policy of the theater is to be materially advanced in every respect, with several changes to the stage and interior, as well as the front of the house, already being contemplated.
Post hunt, the famous Compani Tipica, Mexicana Orchestra, under direction of Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, Mexico’s greatest composer, was unveiled for an unlimited engagement at both Tally’s Kinema and Broadway theaters…
Thanks! Yep, I meant Tally’s New (ie first) Broadway as the candidate for first movie theatre on Broadway.
I’m now finding LA Times references to ‘Tally’s Kinema’ in late 1919… (Viz, Dec 5: ‘During his weekly executive session with the staffs of his two theaters, the Broadway and the Kinema…’)
Could this have been the ‘handsome and comfortable picture house’ he was dreaming about to the Times a year before (see my quote under Tally’s Broadway. But the quote makes it sound like he was intending to build a theatre, not take one over. And then – could he have retired in the ‘20s, and then resumed control of the Kinema? 'Tis most byzantine…
I guess the question is, what makes a movie palace? I read somewhere a figure of 2,500 seats, which would exclude the Million Dollar. (And indeed the Los Angeles Theatre, so surely architectural and decorative style is also part of the answer.) It sounds like the Kinema was halfway there…
But no, I don’t think Tally’s came close. He made the first dedicated space for projected movies at the back of his Phonograph Parlor, in 1896; his 1902 Electric Theater on Spring Street was the first standalone, purpose-built movie theater in the country; and he may or may not have opened the first movie theater on Broadway. He also seems to have owned the Kinema right at the end of his career, sometime after he’d announced his retirement.
The Mayan opened on August 16 1927 as a playhouse, not first as a movie theater (per the top of the page).
To quote the Los Angeles Times (July 31): ‘The property will be devoted solely to the presentation of musical comedies.’
and in an Aug 17 review of the opening night:
‘Messrs David, Butler and Belasco have done well in presenting such a sparkling general production, to open their new theater, which is to cultivate the lighter muse, as an adjunct to their already successful playhouse, the Belasco.’
Evidently they’d changed their plans within the first couple of years of operation (per Ken’s Nov 1 posting).
A rather glib description of the theater from the latter article:
‘The Mayan casts an agreeable warmth over the spectator. It is abundantly decorative, but the effects are well blended, and typical of an architectural scheme that has never previously been expressed in any playhouse in this locality. It is a building that in its richness and detail elicits a curious as well as a pleased interest, because it is in every sense a novelty.’
I figured both were possible – that the LA Times might have been boosting the figure, and that the seat numbers might have fallen over time, with refurbishments and redesigns…
But bottom line, we’re sure this wasn’t the first purpose-built movie palace in Los Angeles?
A review of the Kinema’s opening gala in the Los Angeles Times, Dec 17 1917, says that the theater sat either 2300 or 2500 (more likely the latter, but the copy is hard to read).
Could it have lost so many seats by the time of the 1941 Film Daily Yearbook, and the Theatre Historical Society of America record (cf Ken Roe’s comments, Dec 14 2004)?
From the Los Angeles Times, November 24 1918:
’T.L. Tally, while not ready to say much about it in detail, announces that with the closing of the war and the bright outlook for pictures, his new theater will soon be no longer a mere dream. That it will be one of the handsomest and most comfortable picture houses in the country, with the finest music obtainable, one needs only to know the conduct of Tally’s Broadway to believe.'
But by the time of a career-retrospective feature (Times, October 27 1929, which says he has been retired ‘a few’ years) there is no mention of him having built anything after his ‘new’ Broadway, next door to the May Company (ie at 833).
From the Los Angeles Times, November 24 1918:
’T.L. Tally, while not ready to say much about it in detail, announces that with the closing of the war and the bright outlook for pictures, his new theater will soon be no longer a mere dream. That it will be one of the handsomest and most comfortable picture houses in the country, with the finest music obtainable, one needs only to know the conduct of Tally’s Broadway to believe.'
But by the time of a career-retrospective feature (Times, October 27 1929, which says he has been retired ‘a few’ years) there is no mention of him having built anything after his ‘new’ Broadway, next door to the May Company (ie at 833).
Tally’s second Broadway at 833 also predates Clune’s: it opened in May 1910, versus October for the Clune’s…
So had anyone found an opening date for this theatre? It must be sometime between 1902, when Tally opened his Electric Theatre on Spring St, and 1909, when he traded this site in for the site at 833 (the Broadway Theatre).
I’m wondering if this was the first movie theatre on Broadway?
(The Los Angeles Times, that is.)
The Los Angeles ran a story on July 11 1909, under the headline ‘Houses, Lots and Lands’:
“RA Rowan & Co report the following recent leases through their agency: For the Century Company to the Clune Theater Company was rented the northwest corner of Fifth and Main streets, with a frontage of 70 feet on Main and extending back 150 feet to an alley. The term of the lease is five years and the monthly rental is reported at $1175 which would make the total rent $70,500.”