There’s a fairly long article about the New Mission Theatre on pages 1990-1991 of the September 23, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. Scan at Google Books.
Obituaries of San Francisco architect William H. Crim, Jr. list the El Capitan Theatre in San Francisco as one of his designs. I think that the current attribution of the house to G. Albert Lansburgh on this page might be the result of a conflation of the San Francisco El Capitan with the Hollywood El Capitan, which Lansburgh did design. I’ve been unable to find any sources showing any connection between Lansburgh and this San Francisco house, though I suppose it’s possible he was architect for a later remodeling job.
It looks like the NRHP document got the date of the Larkin’s conversion to movies wrong. An item in the March 18, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Larkin Theatre, which had been closed for some time, had been remodeled and would open as “…a first class moving picture house….” under the direction of Charles Goodwin, former operator of the Elite Theatre.
A document prepared for the NRHP says that this theater was designed by architect William Knowles. This was probably William F. Knowles, who practiced in San Francisco early in the 20th century, but as the document doesn’t specify, I suppose there is a slight possibility that it refers to the much younger William K. Knowles as the architect of a later remodeling.
The document, which is a bit ambiguous, appears to indicate that there was a theater at this location as early as 1914, that the Larkin Theatre operated as a movie house from 1920 to 1962, and that it began operating as the Century Theatre in 1980. It doesn’t offer any clues as to what went on between 1962 and 1980. A document about the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District prepared for the NRHP mentions the Larkin as a live theater that was in operation by 1915.
I’m trying to find more information about a house called the Ferris Harriman Theatre, which was located very near the Tivoli. It was built in 1911 in conjunction with a hotel of the same name. The hotel was renamed the Ambassador in 1922, and is still standing today at 55 Mason Street. The theater was converted into a garage in 1929. I’ve been unable to discover whether or not the theater ever operated as a movie house, or if its name was ever changed; neither do I know its address, or if the garage it became is still standing.
Jimmy Edwards' desire to build a theater in San Marino was the subject of an item in the February 12, 1937, issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor. Plans for a 750-seat reinforced concrete movie house with dimensions of 55x130 feet were being prepared by architect John Walker Smart.
Three years after being rebuffed by San Marino, Edwards was planning to build a theater on Huntington Drive in adjacent South Pasadena. A February 9, 1940, Southwest Builder item said that S. Charles Lee would be the architect for the South Pasadena house. This project was never carried out either, though I have no idea why.
I’ve come across several references to proposed Edwards theaters that never got built. Among them were two proposals for theaters on Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park— a 1,000-seat house in 1939 and a 1,200 seat house in 1945— that failed to materialize.
Incidentally, John Walker Smart was the architect of Sylvester Dupuy’s Pyrenees Castle, the hilltop mansion in Alhambra which became infamous a few years ago as the site of record producer Phil Spector’s murder of Lana Clarkson.
Smart was also the architect of an unbuilt Moorish-style theater proposed for Alhambra in late 1923. It’s possible that it was intended for the site of the Alhambra Theatre itself. Even if Smart’s project was intended for some other site, if it had been built the Alhambra, dating to late 1924, might not have been.
Architect/contractor Colonel J. W. Wood designed the Metropole Hotel and Broadway Theatre with an exterior in a rather austere version of the Romanesque Revival style, but the auditorium, seen in this photo from the Denver Public Library’s L. C. McClure collection, was a lavishly Oriental space, encrusted with decoration.
As the photo is black and white, we can only imagine what riot of color the room must have displayed. William G. M. Stone’s 1892 guide The Colorado Handbook describes the Broadway Theatre as having one of “…the prettiest interiors in The Great West, in luxurious appointments equal to the best.” The description of the Broadway’s auditorium in Andrew Craig Morrison’s Theaters is positively effusive:
“No theater anywhere could surpass the exotic visual display that veteran theater architect J.M. Wood incorporated into its vast auditorium, and few could equal it. ‘A Glimpse of India,’ the scene painted on the asbestos safety curtain, was extended into the third tier for the Broadway’s audiences, who found themselves engulfed in an Indo—Moorish fantasy that surpassed even New York’s extravagant Casino.”
Here is a photo of the Isis Theatre, with a photo of the sprawling Holiday Inn that now occupies the sites of both the Isis and the Paramount Theatre. The caption notes that the Isis was a reverse theater, with the screen at the entrance end of the auditorium.
The August 12, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that Jake Wells had secured Fred Karch to play the Seeburg organ at the Isis Theatre. Wells was one of the leading vaudeville impresarios and movie exhibitors in the south before selling his holdings in 1919.
I was a bit surprised to see the mention of a Seeburg organ. J. P. Seeburg Co., later known for its jukeboxes, was then known for making coin-operated player pianos and orchestrions, and I had no idea they had ever made theater organs. Apparently they were quite popular around 1916, when The Music Trade Review ran an article about the expansion of the Seeburg plant to accommodate the demand for theater pipe organs.
An item in the July 1, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Signal Amusement Company, operators of six movie theaters in Chattanooga, intended to built a new theater with 1,500 seats in that city. The item also said that Signal Amusement would remodel their Alcazar Theatre and expand its seating capacity from 675 to 1,100.
The papers of Rock Island architect George P. Stauduhar include plans for the Spencer Square Theatre, dated 1915-16. The only other theater project in the papers is a house called Shield’s Movie Theatre, also in Rock Island, dated 1917. I’ve been unable to find any other references to it on the Internet.
The Badger Hotel and its associated theater were built in 1907 by August H. Stange, a local lumber magnate, banker, and sash and door manufacturer. The theater was originally called the Badger Opera House, and I’ve found references to it under that name published as late as 1924.
The Badger Opera House was listed in the 1913-1914 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 988 seats, 402 of which were in the second balcony and gallery. These two sections were probably closed when the house converted to movies.
A ca.1915 photo of the auditorium of the Badger Opera House can bee seen on this web page.
The Washington Theatre/Cinema 35 closed in 1983 and the building was demolished in 1988 according to this page at Historic Evansville. The “View all images” link on that page fetches several additional photos of the theater, including an interior shot of the spacious auditorium. There is also a Sanborn map from 1962.
This theater opened about 1908 as the West End Electric Palace, and was rebuilt as the Franklin Theatre in 1912. An advertisement for the house’s first anniversary as the Franklin can be seen on this web page.
This page at Historic Evansville says the theater was remodeled in 1941, became an adult theatre in 1983, and was demolished in 1994. That page has a link to several additional photos of the theater.
Two additional photos of the Carlton Theatre are linked from this page at Historic Evansville. In a late 1937 shot, the marquee says “The New Carlton Will Open Christmas Day.” The largest version shows some of the Art Deco detailing at the top of the Vitrolite facade.
This page at Historic Evansville gives the American Theatre the AKA Novelty Theatre. According to the December 6, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World, the Novelty Theatre had opened early that year.
Though designed primarily as a movie house, the Novelty boasted a small stage and four dressing rooms. In addition to a piano, the theater had a three-piece orchestra. The mirror screen was 13x17 feet, and movies were projected with two Simplex machines.
Click on the “View all images” link on this page at Historic Evansville to see many additional photos of the Grand Theatre, most of them from its early years. Unfortunately there is only one interior shot, taken while the building was being demolished in 1962.
Historic Evansville says that this house opened as the People’s Theatre on November 7, 1892, was renamed the Orpheum in 1908, and burned to the ground in 1917.
The Roxy Theatre in Yorkton was designed by architect Max Zev Blankstein, according to a list of some of his projects on this page of the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada. The list also includes the similar Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon.
This page from the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada lists the Broadway Theatre in Regina as one of the works of Winnipeg architect Max Zev Blankstein.
Architect Max Blankstein’s middle initial was not E. His middle name was Zev. This page from the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada has a list of some of Blankstein’s designs, and it includes the Roxy. Blankstein’s office was in Winnipeg, quite some distance from Saskatoon.
I’ve found only a couple of period references to F. F. LeMaistre; one from 1915 listing him as a draftsman and one from 1939 listing him as an architect with offices at 112 Bryce Street in Winnipeg. I’ve been unable to discover anything about LeMaistre’s role in the Roxy project. However, I do see considerable resemblance between the Roxy and the Palace Theatre in Winnipeg, built in 1912 and expanded and remodeled in 1927-28, with Max Blankstein being both the original architect and the architect for the remodeling.
There’s a fairly long article about the New Mission Theatre on pages 1990-1991 of the September 23, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. Scan at Google Books.
Obituaries of San Francisco architect William H. Crim, Jr. list the El Capitan Theatre in San Francisco as one of his designs. I think that the current attribution of the house to G. Albert Lansburgh on this page might be the result of a conflation of the San Francisco El Capitan with the Hollywood El Capitan, which Lansburgh did design. I’ve been unable to find any sources showing any connection between Lansburgh and this San Francisco house, though I suppose it’s possible he was architect for a later remodeling job.
It looks like the NRHP document got the date of the Larkin’s conversion to movies wrong. An item in the March 18, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Larkin Theatre, which had been closed for some time, had been remodeled and would open as “…a first class moving picture house….” under the direction of Charles Goodwin, former operator of the Elite Theatre.
A document prepared for the NRHP says that this theater was designed by architect William Knowles. This was probably William F. Knowles, who practiced in San Francisco early in the 20th century, but as the document doesn’t specify, I suppose there is a slight possibility that it refers to the much younger William K. Knowles as the architect of a later remodeling.
The document, which is a bit ambiguous, appears to indicate that there was a theater at this location as early as 1914, that the Larkin Theatre operated as a movie house from 1920 to 1962, and that it began operating as the Century Theatre in 1980. It doesn’t offer any clues as to what went on between 1962 and 1980. A document about the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District prepared for the NRHP mentions the Larkin as a live theater that was in operation by 1915.
I’m trying to find more information about a house called the Ferris Harriman Theatre, which was located very near the Tivoli. It was built in 1911 in conjunction with a hotel of the same name. The hotel was renamed the Ambassador in 1922, and is still standing today at 55 Mason Street. The theater was converted into a garage in 1929. I’ve been unable to discover whether or not the theater ever operated as a movie house, or if its name was ever changed; neither do I know its address, or if the garage it became is still standing.
Does anybody know? Bueller? Tillmany?
Jimmy Edwards' desire to build a theater in San Marino was the subject of an item in the February 12, 1937, issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor. Plans for a 750-seat reinforced concrete movie house with dimensions of 55x130 feet were being prepared by architect John Walker Smart.
Three years after being rebuffed by San Marino, Edwards was planning to build a theater on Huntington Drive in adjacent South Pasadena. A February 9, 1940, Southwest Builder item said that S. Charles Lee would be the architect for the South Pasadena house. This project was never carried out either, though I have no idea why.
I’ve come across several references to proposed Edwards theaters that never got built. Among them were two proposals for theaters on Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park— a 1,000-seat house in 1939 and a 1,200 seat house in 1945— that failed to materialize.
Incidentally, John Walker Smart was the architect of Sylvester Dupuy’s Pyrenees Castle, the hilltop mansion in Alhambra which became infamous a few years ago as the site of record producer Phil Spector’s murder of Lana Clarkson.
Smart was also the architect of an unbuilt Moorish-style theater proposed for Alhambra in late 1923. It’s possible that it was intended for the site of the Alhambra Theatre itself. Even if Smart’s project was intended for some other site, if it had been built the Alhambra, dating to late 1924, might not have been.
Architect/contractor Colonel J. W. Wood designed the Metropole Hotel and Broadway Theatre with an exterior in a rather austere version of the Romanesque Revival style, but the auditorium, seen in this photo from the Denver Public Library’s L. C. McClure collection, was a lavishly Oriental space, encrusted with decoration.
As the photo is black and white, we can only imagine what riot of color the room must have displayed. William G. M. Stone’s 1892 guide The Colorado Handbook describes the Broadway Theatre as having one of “…the prettiest interiors in The Great West, in luxurious appointments equal to the best.” The description of the Broadway’s auditorium in Andrew Craig Morrison’s Theaters is positively effusive:
Here is a photo of the Isis Theatre, with a photo of the sprawling Holiday Inn that now occupies the sites of both the Isis and the Paramount Theatre. The caption notes that the Isis was a reverse theater, with the screen at the entrance end of the auditorium.
The August 12, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that Jake Wells had secured Fred Karch to play the Seeburg organ at the Isis Theatre. Wells was one of the leading vaudeville impresarios and movie exhibitors in the south before selling his holdings in 1919.
I was a bit surprised to see the mention of a Seeburg organ. J. P. Seeburg Co., later known for its jukeboxes, was then known for making coin-operated player pianos and orchestrions, and I had no idea they had ever made theater organs. Apparently they were quite popular around 1916, when The Music Trade Review ran an article about the expansion of the Seeburg plant to accommodate the demand for theater pipe organs.
An item in the July 1, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Signal Amusement Company, operators of six movie theaters in Chattanooga, intended to built a new theater with 1,500 seats in that city. The item also said that Signal Amusement would remodel their Alcazar Theatre and expand its seating capacity from 675 to 1,100.
The papers of Rock Island architect George P. Stauduhar include plans for the Spencer Square Theatre, dated 1915-16. The only other theater project in the papers is a house called Shield’s Movie Theatre, also in Rock Island, dated 1917. I’ve been unable to find any other references to it on the Internet.
The Badger Hotel and its associated theater were built in 1907 by August H. Stange, a local lumber magnate, banker, and sash and door manufacturer. The theater was originally called the Badger Opera House, and I’ve found references to it under that name published as late as 1924.
The Badger Opera House was listed in the 1913-1914 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 988 seats, 402 of which were in the second balcony and gallery. These two sections were probably closed when the house converted to movies.
A ca.1915 photo of the auditorium of the Badger Opera House can bee seen on this web page.
Many additional photos of the Columbia Theatre can be found on this page at Historic Evansville.
The Washington Theatre/Cinema 35 closed in 1983 and the building was demolished in 1988 according to this page at Historic Evansville. The “View all images” link on that page fetches several additional photos of the theater, including an interior shot of the spacious auditorium. There is also a Sanborn map from 1962.
This theater opened about 1908 as the West End Electric Palace, and was rebuilt as the Franklin Theatre in 1912. An advertisement for the house’s first anniversary as the Franklin can be seen on this web page.
This page at Historic Evansville says the theater was remodeled in 1941, became an adult theatre in 1983, and was demolished in 1994. That page has a link to several additional photos of the theater.
Two additional photos of the Carlton Theatre are linked from this page at Historic Evansville. In a late 1937 shot, the marquee says “The New Carlton Will Open Christmas Day.” The largest version shows some of the Art Deco detailing at the top of the Vitrolite facade.
This page at Historic Evansville gives the American Theatre the AKA Novelty Theatre. According to the December 6, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World, the Novelty Theatre had opened early that year.
Though designed primarily as a movie house, the Novelty boasted a small stage and four dressing rooms. In addition to a piano, the theater had a three-piece orchestra. The mirror screen was 13x17 feet, and movies were projected with two Simplex machines.
Click on the “View all images” link on this page at Historic Evansville to see many additional photos of the Grand Theatre, most of them from its early years. Unfortunately there is only one interior shot, taken while the building was being demolished in 1962.
Historic Evansville says that this house opened as the People’s Theatre on November 7, 1892, was renamed the Orpheum in 1908, and burned to the ground in 1917.
The Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada lists the Seneca Theatre in Niagara Falls as a 1940 project designed by architect Jay English.
The Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada lists the Park Theatre in Windsor as a 1939 design by architect Jay English.
The Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada lists the Geneva Theatre in Orillia as a 1939 project of architect Jay English.
The Roxy Theatre in Yorkton was designed by architect Max Zev Blankstein, according to a list of some of his projects on this page of the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada. The list also includes the similar Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon.
Max Blankstein’s middle initial was not E. His middle name was Zev.
This page from the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada lists the Broadway Theatre in Regina as one of the works of Winnipeg architect Max Zev Blankstein.
Architect Max Blankstein’s middle initial was not E. His middle name was Zev. This page from the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada has a list of some of Blankstein’s designs, and it includes the Roxy. Blankstein’s office was in Winnipeg, quite some distance from Saskatoon.
I’ve found only a couple of period references to F. F. LeMaistre; one from 1915 listing him as a draftsman and one from 1939 listing him as an architect with offices at 112 Bryce Street in Winnipeg. I’ve been unable to discover anything about LeMaistre’s role in the Roxy project. However, I do see considerable resemblance between the Roxy and the Palace Theatre in Winnipeg, built in 1912 and expanded and remodeled in 1927-28, with Max Blankstein being both the original architect and the architect for the remodeling.