Jerry Dallas’s Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi says that the Booker-T Theatre was in a new brick building erected on the site of the first Alamo Theatre.
My apologies to Jerry Dallas. He did say that the Paramount was originally intended to have 1,800 seats but opened with 1,668. It was not his error, but the fact that I was reading the Google cache of a PDF which failed to render the numbers correctly.
Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi, by Jerry Dallas (PDF here– see page 4) says that there were two adjacent houses Capitol Street called the New Majestic Theatre. The first house opened on September 14, 1913, at 126 E. Capitol Street, and the second, soon built on the adjacent lot at 124 E. Capitol, opened on October 22, 1915. The first New Majestic was then remodeled for use as a Woolworth 5&10 cent store.
The second New Majestic opened with 1,250 seats, and was designed in the Spanish Renaissance style. At some time after the Paramount Theatre opened across the street (both houses were under the same ownership), the Majestic was relegated to second runs, and it closed in July, 1951.
There was also the original Majestic Theatre, located in the 100 block of West Capitol Street. After the first New Majestic opened, the Old Majestic continued to operate until the fall of 1914. A footnote says that by the time it closed it was known as the Little Majestic Theatre.
This photo of the Majestic shows a bit of the first New Majestic Theatre building in the background, after it had been converted into a Woolworth store (right click on this photo to select larger sizes.)
My previous comments are irrelevant. This theater was already listed at Cinema Treasures under its later name, the Royal Music Hall.
Ken Roe: mecooper77 has uploaded a nice collection of photos for this theater. Is it possible to move them to the Royal page before this page is removed, or at least notify mecooper that they will have to be re-uploaded there?
(Or you could break from precedent and just eliminate the Royal page and rename this one- though we would then lose CSWalczak’s photo link on that page.)
This theater has been entirely demolished, as long ago as 1961 according to Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi, by Jerry Dallas (PDF here.)
The Century Theatre can be seen in this vintage postcard. It was in the third building from the corner of President Street. The corner building is still standing, but the next two buildings have been replaced by a parking lot.
Also, Jerry Dallas’s paper Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi (PDF here) gives the address of the Century as 510 E. Capitol Street.
mecooper77 is correct that the Century Theatre building has been entirely demolished. The Century Theatre was in the five-story building with the shed-like entrance canopy seen in this early postcard. The three-story building on the corner of President Street is still standing, but the next two buildings in the photo have been replaced by a parking lot.
The October 4, 1937, issue of The Film Daily said that the Bijou Theatre in Xenia, Ohio, had been renamed the Xenia Theatre. The October 21 issue had this item:
“Xenia, O. — A continuous run policy every day is proving successful in the new Chakeres-Xenia Theater. Before the opening of this new de luxe theater in the Greene County capital none of the city’s three theaters even maintained a daily matinee policy.”
One of the other two theaters then operating in Xenia was called the Ohio, but I haven’t yet found the name of the third house.
I think there were two narrow aisles flanking the continental seats. There are two doors, one to each side, at the back of the auditorium. The Beverly Theatre might have already been fairly old in 1938, as the seats appear to have wooden backs. The owners probably couldn’t afford more than a new coat of paint to spruce the place up.
The Grand Theatre was built for African-American audiences. Boxoffice of June 25, 1938, said the house had opened on May 11. It was designed by Raymond F. Smith for the Community Amusement Company.
Bids were received for construction of a another new African American theater, seating 500, for the Bijou Amusement Company, on June 7. The magazine didn’t give the name of this second Fort Worth project.
Interstate’s Yale Theatre opened on May 30, 1938. A drawing of it appeared at lower right on this page of the June 25 issue of Boxoffice. The Yale was designed by Raymond F. Smith of the Dallas firm Houston & Smith.
A photo of the auditorium of the Roxy Theatre at Kalispell appears at lower left on this page of Boxoffice, June 25, 1938. The caption does not reveal if the Roxy was a new theater or an old house that had lately been redecorated.
An architect’s rendering of the 1938 facade of the Palace Theatre, demolished after the 1946 explosion, can be seen at upper right on this page of the June 25, 1938, issue of Boxoffice the caption of the drawing says that the Palace was designed by the San Antonio architectural firm of Spillman & Spillman.
The caption says nothing about whether the Palace was entirely new construction or a remodeling, but if there was a theater on the site in the silent era it must have been one or the other.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that the Paramount Theatre was designed by Jackson architect R. W. Naef.
An article called Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi, by Jerry Dallas, says that the Paramount was initially planned to have 800 seats, but the capacity was cut to 668 by the time it opened. The Boxoffice article claims a seating capacity of 1,800, and says that the auditorium was 76x125 feet. A 1960 view at Historic Aerials confirms that this was a very large theater, and I suspect that Boxoffice was closer to the truth than Dallas was. Perhaps the house was intended to have 1,800 seats and opened with 1,668, and Dallas lost a digit from each number.
An AIA survey form filled out by R. W. Naef’s office lists the cost of the Paramount Theatre project as $200,000, and in Mississippi, in still-depressed 1938, that would certainly have bought far more than a 700-seat theater. Also, the Boxoffice photo shows a foyer and lounge much too spacious for a small house.
It might have been only a reopening under a new owner. The Rosebud’s address was the same in 1915 and 1942, so it was probably the same building in 1933. New construction was a rarity in African American neighborhoods during the early years of the depression.
Another example of the occasional sloppiness of old newspaper reports: The caption of the sketch Tinseltoes just uploaded mangles architect William Sterling Hebbard’s name into W. S. Shephard.
The October 2, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the former Orpheum Theatre in Topeka had reopened as the Electric Theatre after having been closed for two months for remodeling by its new owners, the Grubel Brothers. The new name didn’t stick for long, though, and the house was called the Orpheum again by late summer of 1916.
The item said that the Orpheum, with a seating capacity of 1,700 and a good location on West Eighth Street, “…has had an irregular career, sometimes vaudeville, sometimes pictures, for several years.” I’ve looked for earlier references to the Topeka Orpheum, but haven’t been able to find any. Still, it must have opened quite some time prior to 1915.
I came across a Duluth Herald item about the Othello Theatre, dated January 29, 1910. It referred to the house as a new theater. It’s the first paragraph of the Gilbert news section on this page. Then a July 22, 1915, Herald item says that the old Othello Theatre in Eveleth was to be boarded up by order of the health department (left column of this page.)
I now can’t find the item about the Strand that I thought was from 1912, so I might have gotten sloppy when I noted it down. It’s quite possible that the earliest actual reference to it is from early 1916, in which case it could well have been the Bijou renamed. The reference I thought was from 1912 was probably from 1917. The earliest reference to the Bijou I’ve found is in an issue of Variety from May, 1908. The latest is from The Moving Picture World of October 2, 1915, so I don’t think that the Bijou and the Othello were the same house.
rvarani, as you know where these theaters were, maybe you’d like to add them to Cinema Treasures. Just start with the “Submit Your Favorite” box on the site’s home page.
I’ve also come across a couple of references to a house called the Bijou Theatre in Eveleth, from 1908 and 1915. As the Strand and Empress were both operating before and after 1915, the Bijou must have been yet another theater.
I should have checked the photos. I see that the Empress appears in one of them. In Google Street View it looks like the building has a new front and is part of the Wells Fargo Bank.
Jerry Dallas’s Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi says that the Booker-T Theatre was in a new brick building erected on the site of the first Alamo Theatre.
My apologies to Jerry Dallas. He did say that the Paramount was originally intended to have 1,800 seats but opened with 1,668. It was not his error, but the fact that I was reading the Google cache of a PDF which failed to render the numbers correctly.
Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi, by Jerry Dallas (PDF here– see page 4) says that there were two adjacent houses Capitol Street called the New Majestic Theatre. The first house opened on September 14, 1913, at 126 E. Capitol Street, and the second, soon built on the adjacent lot at 124 E. Capitol, opened on October 22, 1915. The first New Majestic was then remodeled for use as a Woolworth 5&10 cent store.
The second New Majestic opened with 1,250 seats, and was designed in the Spanish Renaissance style. At some time after the Paramount Theatre opened across the street (both houses were under the same ownership), the Majestic was relegated to second runs, and it closed in July, 1951.
There was also the original Majestic Theatre, located in the 100 block of West Capitol Street. After the first New Majestic opened, the Old Majestic continued to operate until the fall of 1914. A footnote says that by the time it closed it was known as the Little Majestic Theatre.
This photo of the Majestic shows a bit of the first New Majestic Theatre building in the background, after it had been converted into a Woolworth store (right click on this photo to select larger sizes.)
My previous comments are irrelevant. This theater was already listed at Cinema Treasures under its later name, the Royal Music Hall.
Ken Roe: mecooper77 has uploaded a nice collection of photos for this theater. Is it possible to move them to the Royal page before this page is removed, or at least notify mecooper that they will have to be re-uploaded there?
(Or you could break from precedent and just eliminate the Royal page and rename this one- though we would then lose CSWalczak’s photo link on that page.)
This theater has been entirely demolished, as long ago as 1961 according to Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi, by Jerry Dallas (PDF here.)
The Century Theatre can be seen in this vintage postcard. It was in the third building from the corner of President Street. The corner building is still standing, but the next two buildings have been replaced by a parking lot.
Also, Jerry Dallas’s paper Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi (PDF here) gives the address of the Century as 510 E. Capitol Street.
mecooper77 is correct that the Century Theatre building has been entirely demolished. The Century Theatre was in the five-story building with the shed-like entrance canopy seen in this early postcard. The three-story building on the corner of President Street is still standing, but the next two buildings in the photo have been replaced by a parking lot.
The October 4, 1937, issue of The Film Daily said that the Bijou Theatre in Xenia, Ohio, had been renamed the Xenia Theatre. The October 21 issue had this item:
One of the other two theaters then operating in Xenia was called the Ohio, but I haven’t yet found the name of the third house.I think there were two narrow aisles flanking the continental seats. There are two doors, one to each side, at the back of the auditorium. The Beverly Theatre might have already been fairly old in 1938, as the seats appear to have wooden backs. The owners probably couldn’t afford more than a new coat of paint to spruce the place up.
The Grand Theatre was built for African-American audiences. Boxoffice of June 25, 1938, said the house had opened on May 11. It was designed by Raymond F. Smith for the Community Amusement Company.
Bids were received for construction of a another new African American theater, seating 500, for the Bijou Amusement Company, on June 7. The magazine didn’t give the name of this second Fort Worth project.
Interstate’s Yale Theatre opened on May 30, 1938. A drawing of it appeared at lower right on this page of the June 25 issue of Boxoffice. The Yale was designed by Raymond F. Smith of the Dallas firm Houston & Smith.
A photo of the auditorium of the Roxy Theatre at Kalispell appears at lower left on this page of Boxoffice, June 25, 1938. The caption does not reveal if the Roxy was a new theater or an old house that had lately been redecorated.
An architect’s rendering of the 1938 facade of the Palace Theatre, demolished after the 1946 explosion, can be seen at upper right on this page of the June 25, 1938, issue of Boxoffice the caption of the drawing says that the Palace was designed by the San Antonio architectural firm of Spillman & Spillman.
The caption says nothing about whether the Palace was entirely new construction or a remodeling, but if there was a theater on the site in the silent era it must have been one or the other.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that the Paramount Theatre was designed by Jackson architect R. W. Naef.
An article called Movie Theaters in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi, by Jerry Dallas, says that the Paramount was initially planned to have 800 seats, but the capacity was cut to 668 by the time it opened. The Boxoffice article claims a seating capacity of 1,800, and says that the auditorium was 76x125 feet. A 1960 view at Historic Aerials confirms that this was a very large theater, and I suspect that Boxoffice was closer to the truth than Dallas was. Perhaps the house was intended to have 1,800 seats and opened with 1,668, and Dallas lost a digit from each number.
An AIA survey form filled out by R. W. Naef’s office lists the cost of the Paramount Theatre project as $200,000, and in Mississippi, in still-depressed 1938, that would certainly have bought far more than a 700-seat theater. Also, the Boxoffice photo shows a foyer and lounge much too spacious for a small house.
The Pawnee Drive-In was designed by Wichita architect Homer K. Brunk, as noted in his entry in the 1962 AIA directory.
John P. Filbert was a contractor. The architect of the Holiday Theatre, according to his entry in the 1962 AIA directory, was William N. Bonham.
The entry for Battle Creek architect Henry Chase Black in the 1962 AIA directory lists the West Point Auto Theatre as his design.
Here is a photo of the Soisson Theatre, ca.1946.
Another photo can be found in the third row of thumbnails on this page.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that the Oak Village Theatre was designed by architects Richard B. Walton and Woodrow Bush.
It might have been only a reopening under a new owner. The Rosebud’s address was the same in 1915 and 1942, so it was probably the same building in 1933. New construction was a rarity in African American neighborhoods during the early years of the depression.
Another example of the occasional sloppiness of old newspaper reports: The caption of the sketch Tinseltoes just uploaded mangles architect William Sterling Hebbard’s name into W. S. Shephard.
The October 2, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the former Orpheum Theatre in Topeka had reopened as the Electric Theatre after having been closed for two months for remodeling by its new owners, the Grubel Brothers. The new name didn’t stick for long, though, and the house was called the Orpheum again by late summer of 1916.
The item said that the Orpheum, with a seating capacity of 1,700 and a good location on West Eighth Street, “…has had an irregular career, sometimes vaudeville, sometimes pictures, for several years.” I’ve looked for earlier references to the Topeka Orpheum, but haven’t been able to find any. Still, it must have opened quite some time prior to 1915.
I came across a Duluth Herald item about the Othello Theatre, dated January 29, 1910. It referred to the house as a new theater. It’s the first paragraph of the Gilbert news section on this page. Then a July 22, 1915, Herald item says that the old Othello Theatre in Eveleth was to be boarded up by order of the health department (left column of this page.)
I now can’t find the item about the Strand that I thought was from 1912, so I might have gotten sloppy when I noted it down. It’s quite possible that the earliest actual reference to it is from early 1916, in which case it could well have been the Bijou renamed. The reference I thought was from 1912 was probably from 1917. The earliest reference to the Bijou I’ve found is in an issue of Variety from May, 1908. The latest is from The Moving Picture World of October 2, 1915, so I don’t think that the Bijou and the Othello were the same house.
rvarani, as you know where these theaters were, maybe you’d like to add them to Cinema Treasures. Just start with the “Submit Your Favorite” box on the site’s home page.
I’ve also come across a couple of references to a house called the Bijou Theatre in Eveleth, from 1908 and 1915. As the Strand and Empress were both operating before and after 1915, the Bijou must have been yet another theater.
I should have checked the photos. I see that the Empress appears in one of them. In Google Street View it looks like the building has a new front and is part of the Wells Fargo Bank.