The Reading Drive-In was built by Philadelphia theater owners Jay Emanuel and Frank L. McNamee in partnership with the Fabian circuit, according to an item about the groundbreaking in the June 18, 1949, issue of The Billboard.
According to an item in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor, the theater to be built in Mt. Carmel that W. H. Lee was designing for Chamberlain Amusement Enterprises was to be sited on a 100x150-foot lot at 3rd and Maple Streets. Lee designed a number of theaters for Chamberlain Amusement during this period, but no others in Mt. Carmel, so the item must give the location of the Victoria.
When Lawrence J. Chamberlain died in 1949, a brief obituary appeared in the March 12 issue of The Billboard, mentioning that he was president of Amusements, Inc., with theaters at Allentown and Williamsport, as well as general manager of Victoria Amusement Enterprises, with theaters at Mt. Carmel, Shamokin, Mahanoy City, and Tamaqua.
As can be seen in satellite view, this theater building is almost four times as long as it is wide. It fits the description of a proposed house at Old Forge, Pennsylvania, which was mentioned in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor:
“Theater (moving picture) & Offices & Stores (2): $50,000. 1 & 2 sty. 50x180. Old Forge. Archt. Leon Lempert, Cutler bldg., Rochester, N. Y. Owner withheld. Brk. & hollow tile. Drawing plans.”
The Holland Theatre looks like a smaller and simpler version of the Capitol Theatre at Rome, New York, which Leon Lempert designed a few years later. The item almost certainly refers to the Holland Theatre.
I just noticed kerfr1’s comment of November 15, 2009, saying that the State had once been the Carlton Theatre. I’ve found many references in The Billboard about a Karlton Theatre in Williamsport during the 1930s and 1940s. It appears to have been primarily a legitimate house, with some live music events.
This recent article from the Sun-Gazette indicates that the Karlton was the former Majestic Theatre, and was at the southwest corner of Pine and West Church Streets, so kerfl1 must have conflated the Karlton with the State.
This extract from a book about Lycoming County says that the Majestic/Carlton was built in 1907 as the Family Theatre, became the Majestic in 1917, the Karlton in the 1930s, and was demolished in 1952, but I’ve found some conflicting information I’ll have to check out. The house might have shown some movies in its early years, though.
The same book says that the State Theatre was demolished in 1978.
According to a book about Independence which I cited on the Electric Theatre page, the Electric Theatre was at 215 N. Main Street from the 1910s into the 1940s. I’ve been unable to discover any definite AKAs for the Plaza, but if Electric was already in use for the house on Main Street, that wouldn’t have been one of them.
If the two items I cited in my April 4, 2012, comment on this page are indeed about the Plaza, then this house might have been known as the New Elliot Theatre when it opened. A. E. Elliot built the original Elliot Theatre in 1912, and rebuilt the house after it was destroyed by a fire in 1916. I’ve found references to a house called the New Elliot Theatre in the trade journals beginning in the mid-1920s. It seems very likely that the New Elliot became the Plaza. I’ve been unable to discover either the location or the fate of the theater Elliot built in 1916.
The May 28, 1924, issue of The Film Daily had this item datelined Williamsport, PA: “The Rialto, which was recently destroyed by fire has been rebuilt and re-opened.”
The building does look like it could be older than the 1929 date currently given for the opening. I’d say the facade might even predate the 1924 fire.
I’ve now found the Electric Theatre mentioned in a few trade journal items from the 1920s. A 1926 item in The Reel Journal mentioned the Electric as one of three Independence houses being operated by Glen W. Dickinson Enterprises. The others were the Lewis Theatre and the Elliot Theatre.
There was a Capitol (or Capital) Theatre in Utica prior to 1936, which was to be replaced that year, but I’ve been unable to discover if the plans were carried out. The September 26, 1936, issue of The Film Daily had an item about current projects of the architectural firm Bennett & Straight, part of which read:
“Other jobs in progress include: Remodeling of a building at Utica, Mich., to be named the Capitol when converted from a store building into a theater. F. R. Spangle, who now operates the old Capitol Theater at Utica, will be the owner.”
If the project was carried out, then it must have been this building at 45136 Cass Avenue, but if the project was abandoned, then this building could be the location of the older Capitol Theatre, which was in operation by 1930.
This house might also have been one of the rare theaters that used the name Capital instead of Capitol. The book What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic, by Henry Jenkins, cites a September 6, 1930, item from Motion Picture Herald which was apparently quoting a movie review by theater manager K. M. Wickware, and it uses the spelling Capital Theater. The architectural firm now in the building, the Cummins Group, also uses the spelling Capital Theater on its web site.
The March 4, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World has an item about the Strand:
“Jack Nash of Trinidad has taken over the Bio theater there and will remodel it and operate it under the name of the Strand.”
I have also found two references to Jack Nash as operator of the Isis Theatre, in 1913 and 1915. The fact that no theaters are listed at the Strand’s address in the 1915-1916 city directory (probably published in late 1914 or early 1915) increases the likelihood that the Bio/Strand was the theater under construction in August, 1915, as noted in my earlier comment on this theater, November 11, 2010.
Chuck: Aside from that photo that shows up on Flickr and other sites, there’s very little about the Isis on the Internet. The 1910-1911 Polk City Directory for Trinidad lists it at 307 N. Commercial Street. In the 1915-1916 directory it is listed at 243 N. Commercial Street (CinemaTour lists it at 114 W.Main Street, but doesn’t cite a source or give a year.) Unless Trinidad renumbered, the Isis must have changed locations between 1910 and 1915, and I don’t know which location the 1913 photo depicts.
Michael G. Ankerich’s Broken Silence: Conversations with 23 Silent Film Stars says that about 1914 the owners of the Isis, Leon and Edyth Osborn, sold the theater and moved to California to work in the movie business. Their adopted daughter had a brief acting career during the silent era as Baby Marie Osborne. Here is her obituary. It doesn’t mention the Isis, but is worth reading.
This is an item from the October 14, 1936, issue of The Film Daily concerning Ferdinand Midelburg’s plans for a new theater in Logan:
“Midelburg Starts $150,000
Theater in Logan, W. Va.
“Logan, W. Va. — Ferd Midelburg, independent chain operator, is building a 1,000-seat house at a cost of $150,000. The theater will be modern in every detail and will include a 400-seat balcony. Meanor & Handloser, Charleston architects, have been engaged to plan the new project. Midelburg operates theaters in Beckley, Madison, Charleston and Logan, W. Va., and in Hazard, Ky.”
As this item was published two years before the Logan Theatre opened, I don’t know if Meanor & Handloser stayed with the project or not. The theater Midelburg owned in Beckley might have been the Beckley Theatre, built in 1935, which was definitely designed by Meanor & Handloser.
There was a house called the Vaudette in Mt. Pleasant as early as 1908, when it was mentioned in the November 14 and 28 issues of The Billboard, but as spinninglens said earlier it apparently wasn’t this house.
In 1908, the Vaudette was presenting vaudeville, but it is mentioned in several issues of The Michigan Film Review in 1917, when it was running movies.
The September 4, 1936, issue of The Film Daily had this item about the Gladwin/Booth Theatre: “Bennett & Straight, architects, are starting work on remodeling the Gladwin Theater for Julius D. London. House will be renamed the Booth, with opening about Oct. 1.”
Articles of incorporation were filed for the New Liberty Theater Company of Cincinnati on March 21, 1916. On March 27 its original capitalization of $1,000 was increased to $60,000. That would have built a good-sized neighborhood theater in the late 1910s.
The April 2, 1936, issue of The Film Daily said that the New Liberty Theatre in Cincinnati had been transferred to George A. Mease by W. Corbus.
That’s as much as I’ve been able to find about the New Liberty on the Internet.
If this house opened in 1915 as the Pantages, and became the Palomar in 1936, when was it called the Rex? I found a reference to John Hamrick being the manager of the Rex Theatre in Seattle in 1917. Could it be that the first Pantages (opened about 1905 at 2nd and Seneca) became the Rex, and not this house?
The source of the AKA’s Rex and Mayfair appears to the the PSTOS page for this theater, but this photo from April, 1965, just two months before the house was demolished, shows the Palomar vertical sign still in place.
This article from The Seatlle Times says that the Pantages became the Palomar in 1936, and doesn’t mention the AKAs Mayfair or Rex.
Maybe somebody with access to old city directories or other such sources can find the Rex and Mayfair names attached to some other theater. I suspect the first Pantages is the most likely candidate. PSTOS might have conflated the histories of the two theaters. They definitely got the opening year of this house wrong, and it apparently never had any names other than Pantages and Palomar.
The Elks Theatre opened on December 22, 1904. It was located at S. 18th Street and Broadway Avenue. In 1914, it became the Orpheum Theatre. The Orpheum operated until it was destroyed by fire on December 20, 1939. It was never rebuilt. There is now a hotel on its site.
There are a couple of photos in Parsons, by David Mattox and Mike Brotherton (Google Books preview.)
The September 15, 1917, issue of Motography said that the Dale Theatre was opened by I. B. and S. Raisman in May, 1914. It originally seated 700, and was built at a cost of $22,000.
Here is an item from the March 2, 1918, issue of the trade journal Motography:
“Architects C. C. and E. A. Weber, Citizens' Building, Cincinnati, O., have prepared plans for the construction of a $35,000 theater three stories in height for Frank Middleburg of Logan.”
Despite the misspelling of Mr. Midelburg’s name, the item must be about this theater.
Engineering News might simply have gotten the name of this house wrong, or the owners or lessees of the theater might have decided before it opened to call it the Strand instead. Any maybe it did open as the Stratford. Our page for the Stratford on 7th Street says that it opened in 1913 as the Becker Theater, but doesn’t give a date for the name change.
But the existence of both the April item about plans for a theater and the September item about construction of a theater, both noting Ketcham & McQuade as builders, one noting the Hoffman company as the designers, make it clear that a big theater was being built at this intersection in 1916. Maybe the Strand was an expansion of or a replacement for a smaller theater that had opened in 1914, or maybe Glazer just got the opening year wrong.
The Reading Drive-In was built by Philadelphia theater owners Jay Emanuel and Frank L. McNamee in partnership with the Fabian circuit, according to an item about the groundbreaking in the June 18, 1949, issue of The Billboard.
According to an item in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor, the theater to be built in Mt. Carmel that W. H. Lee was designing for Chamberlain Amusement Enterprises was to be sited on a 100x150-foot lot at 3rd and Maple Streets. Lee designed a number of theaters for Chamberlain Amusement during this period, but no others in Mt. Carmel, so the item must give the location of the Victoria.
When Lawrence J. Chamberlain died in 1949, a brief obituary appeared in the March 12 issue of The Billboard, mentioning that he was president of Amusements, Inc., with theaters at Allentown and Williamsport, as well as general manager of Victoria Amusement Enterprises, with theaters at Mt. Carmel, Shamokin, Mahanoy City, and Tamaqua.
As can be seen in satellite view, this theater building is almost four times as long as it is wide. It fits the description of a proposed house at Old Forge, Pennsylvania, which was mentioned in the July 15, 1922, issue of The American Contractor:
The Holland Theatre looks like a smaller and simpler version of the Capitol Theatre at Rome, New York, which Leon Lempert designed a few years later. The item almost certainly refers to the Holland Theatre.Historic Hancock County: An Illustrated History, by Paulette J. Weise, gives the operating years of the State Theatre as c. 1937-1976.
Historic Hancock County: An Illustrated History, by Paulette J. Weise, says that the Harris Theatre opened in 1906 as the Majestic Theatre.
I just noticed kerfr1’s comment of November 15, 2009, saying that the State had once been the Carlton Theatre. I’ve found many references in The Billboard about a Karlton Theatre in Williamsport during the 1930s and 1940s. It appears to have been primarily a legitimate house, with some live music events.
This recent article from the Sun-Gazette indicates that the Karlton was the former Majestic Theatre, and was at the southwest corner of Pine and West Church Streets, so kerfl1 must have conflated the Karlton with the State.
This extract from a book about Lycoming County says that the Majestic/Carlton was built in 1907 as the Family Theatre, became the Majestic in 1917, the Karlton in the 1930s, and was demolished in 1952, but I’ve found some conflicting information I’ll have to check out. The house might have shown some movies in its early years, though.
The same book says that the State Theatre was demolished in 1978.
That would certainly make mores sense, Roger, but Boxoffice said it was the Bristol (item two, left hand column under heading “New Britain”) and said the same a second time (first item, right had column) and then a third time (right hand column, second item from bottom). I’ve been unable to find the item from May, 1978. The magazine might have garbled the information, of course.
Here is a bigger version of the photo of Keith’s and the adjacent Strand that Bill linked to on March 15, 2011.
This photo, dated May 16, 1913, shows a Gayety Theatre in Cincinnati, but it doesn’t have any resemblance to the Strand in the other photo.
Did Cincinnati have more than one Gayety Theatre in 1913? Was the front entirely rebuilt when it became the Strand in 1914? Does anybody know?
According to a book about Independence which I cited on the Electric Theatre page, the Electric Theatre was at 215 N. Main Street from the 1910s into the 1940s. I’ve been unable to discover any definite AKAs for the Plaza, but if Electric was already in use for the house on Main Street, that wouldn’t have been one of them.
If the two items I cited in my April 4, 2012, comment on this page are indeed about the Plaza, then this house might have been known as the New Elliot Theatre when it opened. A. E. Elliot built the original Elliot Theatre in 1912, and rebuilt the house after it was destroyed by a fire in 1916. I’ve found references to a house called the New Elliot Theatre in the trade journals beginning in the mid-1920s. It seems very likely that the New Elliot became the Plaza. I’ve been unable to discover either the location or the fate of the theater Elliot built in 1916.
The May 28, 1924, issue of The Film Daily had this item datelined Williamsport, PA: “The Rialto, which was recently destroyed by fire has been rebuilt and re-opened.”
The building does look like it could be older than the 1929 date currently given for the opening. I’d say the facade might even predate the 1924 fire.
I’ve now found the Electric Theatre mentioned in a few trade journal items from the 1920s. A 1926 item in The Reel Journal mentioned the Electric as one of three Independence houses being operated by Glen W. Dickinson Enterprises. The others were the Lewis Theatre and the Elliot Theatre.
There was a Capitol (or Capital) Theatre in Utica prior to 1936, which was to be replaced that year, but I’ve been unable to discover if the plans were carried out. The September 26, 1936, issue of The Film Daily had an item about current projects of the architectural firm Bennett & Straight, part of which read:
If the project was carried out, then it must have been this building at 45136 Cass Avenue, but if the project was abandoned, then this building could be the location of the older Capitol Theatre, which was in operation by 1930.This house might also have been one of the rare theaters that used the name Capital instead of Capitol. The book What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic, by Henry Jenkins, cites a September 6, 1930, item from Motion Picture Herald which was apparently quoting a movie review by theater manager K. M. Wickware, and it uses the spelling Capital Theater. The architectural firm now in the building, the Cummins Group, also uses the spelling Capital Theater on its web site.
The March 4, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World has an item about the Strand:
I have also found two references to Jack Nash as operator of the Isis Theatre, in 1913 and 1915. The fact that no theaters are listed at the Strand’s address in the 1915-1916 city directory (probably published in late 1914 or early 1915) increases the likelihood that the Bio/Strand was the theater under construction in August, 1915, as noted in my earlier comment on this theater, November 11, 2010.Chuck: Aside from that photo that shows up on Flickr and other sites, there’s very little about the Isis on the Internet. The 1910-1911 Polk City Directory for Trinidad lists it at 307 N. Commercial Street. In the 1915-1916 directory it is listed at 243 N. Commercial Street (CinemaTour lists it at 114 W.Main Street, but doesn’t cite a source or give a year.) Unless Trinidad renumbered, the Isis must have changed locations between 1910 and 1915, and I don’t know which location the 1913 photo depicts.
Michael G. Ankerich’s Broken Silence: Conversations with 23 Silent Film Stars says that about 1914 the owners of the Isis, Leon and Edyth Osborn, sold the theater and moved to California to work in the movie business. Their adopted daughter had a brief acting career during the silent era as Baby Marie Osborne. Here is her obituary. It doesn’t mention the Isis, but is worth reading.
Here is a weblog post about the Logan Theatre.
This is an item from the October 14, 1936, issue of The Film Daily concerning Ferdinand Midelburg’s plans for a new theater in Logan:
As this item was published two years before the Logan Theatre opened, I don’t know if Meanor & Handloser stayed with the project or not. The theater Midelburg owned in Beckley might have been the Beckley Theatre, built in 1935, which was definitely designed by Meanor & Handloser.There was a house called the Vaudette in Mt. Pleasant as early as 1908, when it was mentioned in the November 14 and 28 issues of The Billboard, but as spinninglens said earlier it apparently wasn’t this house.
In 1908, the Vaudette was presenting vaudeville, but it is mentioned in several issues of The Michigan Film Review in 1917, when it was running movies.
The September 4, 1936, issue of The Film Daily had this item about the Gladwin/Booth Theatre: “Bennett & Straight, architects, are starting work on remodeling the Gladwin Theater for Julius D. London. House will be renamed the Booth, with opening about Oct. 1.”
Articles of incorporation were filed for the New Liberty Theater Company of Cincinnati on March 21, 1916. On March 27 its original capitalization of $1,000 was increased to $60,000. That would have built a good-sized neighborhood theater in the late 1910s.
The April 2, 1936, issue of The Film Daily said that the New Liberty Theatre in Cincinnati had been transferred to George A. Mease by W. Corbus.
That’s as much as I’ve been able to find about the New Liberty on the Internet.
If this house opened in 1915 as the Pantages, and became the Palomar in 1936, when was it called the Rex? I found a reference to John Hamrick being the manager of the Rex Theatre in Seattle in 1917. Could it be that the first Pantages (opened about 1905 at 2nd and Seneca) became the Rex, and not this house?
The source of the AKA’s Rex and Mayfair appears to the the PSTOS page for this theater, but this photo from April, 1965, just two months before the house was demolished, shows the Palomar vertical sign still in place.
This article from The Seatlle Times says that the Pantages became the Palomar in 1936, and doesn’t mention the AKAs Mayfair or Rex.
Maybe somebody with access to old city directories or other such sources can find the Rex and Mayfair names attached to some other theater. I suspect the first Pantages is the most likely candidate. PSTOS might have conflated the histories of the two theaters. They definitely got the opening year of this house wrong, and it apparently never had any names other than Pantages and Palomar.
The Liberty Theatre opened in early December, 1917, according to the December 8 issue of Motography that year.
The Elks Theatre opened on December 22, 1904. It was located at S. 18th Street and Broadway Avenue. In 1914, it became the Orpheum Theatre. The Orpheum operated until it was destroyed by fire on December 20, 1939. It was never rebuilt. There is now a hotel on its site.
There are a couple of photos in Parsons, by David Mattox and Mike Brotherton (Google Books preview.)
The September 15, 1917, issue of Motography said that the Dale Theatre was opened by I. B. and S. Raisman in May, 1914. It originally seated 700, and was built at a cost of $22,000.
Here is an item from the March 2, 1918, issue of the trade journal Motography:
Despite the misspelling of Mr. Midelburg’s name, the item must be about this theater.Engineering News might simply have gotten the name of this house wrong, or the owners or lessees of the theater might have decided before it opened to call it the Strand instead. Any maybe it did open as the Stratford. Our page for the Stratford on 7th Street says that it opened in 1913 as the Becker Theater, but doesn’t give a date for the name change.
But the existence of both the April item about plans for a theater and the September item about construction of a theater, both noting Ketcham & McQuade as builders, one noting the Hoffman company as the designers, make it clear that a big theater was being built at this intersection in 1916. Maybe the Strand was an expansion of or a replacement for a smaller theater that had opened in 1914, or maybe Glazer just got the opening year wrong.
The Rite Aid parking lot is on the northeast corner of 7th and Dickinson. The Stratford Theater has been demolished, in any case.