Advertising for the Fire Proof Door Company in the 1906 edition of Sweet’s Catalogue of Building Construction included a photo of the copper entrance doors of the Unique Theatre, which can be seen at lower left on this page. The caption identifies the architects of the Unique Theatre as Bertrand & Chamberlain.
The Tudor Theatre was opened in 1913 by Josiah Pearce & Sons, who had opened their first New Orleans movie house, the Electric Theatre, located on Canal Street, in late 1905 or early 1906.
An article on movie theaters in New Orleans in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World described the Pearce’s career in the city. In 1906, they opened a house called the Dreamland Theatre on St. Charles Street, followed by the Grand Theatre on Canal Street, opened in 1907, the Bijou Dream Theatre, built on St. Charles Street for $25,000 in 1910, and the $45,000 Trianon Theatre on Canal Street in 1911. The Pearce’s had expended $85,000 on the Tudor Theatre.
As of 1916 they were operating seven theaters in New Orleans, including the recently-opened Newcomb Theatre on Canal Street, making their’s the largest moving picture chain in the city.
The company expanded well beyond New Orleans, and a biographical sketch of Frederick William Pearce published in 1922 said that at one time they not only operated movie theaters from Pennsylvania to Texas, but had roller coasters and other outdoor amusements in parks from New England to Colorado.
Josiah Pearce & Sons closed its New Orleans headquarters in 1918, moving to Detroit and concentrating on the outdoor amusement business. It’s likely that 1918 was the year that the Saenger chain took over the Tudor Theatre and the Pearce’s other interests in New Orleans.
Multiple sources from the early 20th century indicate that Bruce Price was the lead architect of Keith’s Theatre in Philadelphia, and Albert E. Westover his local associate. The web site of the Art Institute of Chicago displays three photos of Keith’s Theatre, originally published in the journal The Inland Architect and News Record:
The March, 1904, issue of The Theatre had an article about Philadelphia’s theaters which included the following description of Keith’s Theatre:
“Another interesting example of distinctions in Philadelphia is furnished in Keith’s New Chestnut Street Theatre, in the next block. B. F. Keith first gave Philadelphians the ‘continuous’ in the Bijou Theatre on Eighth Street. While very popular, the playhouse did not draw many people from Chestnut street, the chief promenade of the city. So Mr. Keith invaded the fashionable shopping district by erecting his new million-dollar playhouse. Besides being one of the largest and safest theatres in the city, Keith’s is a veritable palace after the style of the French Renaissance. Marbles and mural paintings, rich hangings, sculptures and pale lights are somewhat bewildering at first with their elaborate designs. A salon in white and crystal is traversed while passing into the auditorium. The music room and women’s parlors are models of luxury. A series of mural decorations were done by William McL. Dodge, whose paintings in the Congressional Library in Washington attracted so much attention. Opened two years ago last November, Mr. Keith’s new theatre has become one of the fashionable resorts in the city.”
The February, 1912, issue of The Western Architect said that the Brandeis Theatre had been designed by the architectural firm of Barnett, Haynes & Barnett.
The impression I got from the item was that it was an entirely new theater in 1916. This is what it said:
“The New Columbia Opens.
St. Louis, Mo.—The Columbia, a new theater in the Clifton Heights district of St. Louis, opened recently with an all-picture program, and with an admission price of five cents during the week and ten cents on Saturday and Sunday, when special features are shown.“
Is it possible that the operators of the Columbia Airdome built an enclosed theater on their property in 1916?
The lighting system in the Pitt Theatre was redesigned as part of an early renovation, and the theater and its lighting were described at length and rather effusively in an article in the trade journal Electrical Review of June 20, 1914:
“Artistic New Lighting in Old Theater.
“The theater-going public must be pleased not only with the performance but also with physical comfort at the theaters it attends. Realizing this, the Pitt Theater, of Pittsburgh, Pa., recently remodeled the entire house and installed the latest improvements in lighting.
“The details are of interest, as there is much theater building going on now owing to the steadily increasing popularity of motion pictures. Illumination for this class of work is special and there is a noteworthy lack of definite information on the subject. In the following description of the Pitt is given a good example of recent practice in this line.
“The main ceiling has three Parian bowls, a 500-watt lamp in each, hanging 20 feet from ceiling. In front of the second balcony are 14 eight-inch Parian acorns with a 40-watt lamp in each. In front of the first balcony are 17 Parian panels with two 16-candle power carbon linolite lamps and Frink reflectors behind each panel. The ceiling over the first balcony has four Parian bowls with 250-watt lamp in each. The second-floor corridor has six bowls each with 150-watt lamp. In the first-floor corridor are five bowls, 250-watt lamp in each.
“On the newel post at the foot of the stairs are Parian urns with a 150-watt lamp in each. Under the first balcony are four bowls, 250-watt lamp in each. In the first-floor box eight bowls are used as ceiling lights with three 25watt round-bulb tungsten lamps in each. The second-floor boxes have eight Parian acorns suspended with arms so that they give the appearance of urns, a 150-watt lamp being in each. The height of the main ceiling is about 40 feet. The floor space of main floor, including corridor, is 80 by 100 feet. The area of the first balcony is about 35 by 100 feet.
“The color scheme of the theater is blue and old ivory. The hangings, draperies, etc., dark blue. All the glass work is decorated light blue and old ivory, with a blue band, the fret work on the Grecian band being brought out in blue. For the ladies' retiring room special bowls colored old rose to match the hangings were selected. Frink reflectors are used over the ticket window, around the inner edge of the marquise, and inside the framework of the two billboards in front.
“Parian balls are set on the marquise and on the top of the theater. The inside brackets use blue and old-ivory decorated shades. Special bracket fixtures for mirrors, handle trimmings and silk shades, candelabra fixtures, fire logs, etc., complete the lighting installation which, was furnished throughout by the H. W. Johns Manville Company, New York City.
“The architects, Simpson & Isles, of Pittsburgh, Pa., have received much praise from the management and patrons for the excellent effects they have secured. Formerly with the ordinary fixtures the lamps were exposed and gave the usual disagreeable glare. With the new equipment, beside accomplishing a decided current decrease, not a lamp is visible and the restful comfort and beauty are conspicuous.”
Here is a drawing of the theater made by Anthony Dumas during the period when it was known as the Shubert Pitt Theatre (1919-1935.)
I doubt that Simpson & Isles were the original architects of the theater. They probably only designed the later renovation. About the only thing I can find about them on the Internet is that the partnership was dissolved in 1915. An earlier Pittsbrgh house built by Thomas Kenyon was designed by William Kauffman, so Kauffman might have designed the New Kenyon as well, though so far I’ve found no evidence that he did.
The New Colton Theatre was a striking building, still sporting some Streamline Modern touches but leaning more toward Midcentury Modern. Despite the fact that the new house had “New” in its name, Myers must have changed the name of the earlier Colton Theatre after the new house opened. Larry Sheffield’s book Colton has a photo of 8th Street (since rather pretentiously renamed La Cadena Drive) in September, 1947, and the caption calls the theater the Hub City Theatre. It must be the earlier Colton, as that house was located on 8th Street between H and I Streets.
In fact, the original Colton Theatre was built in 1912 at the corner of H and 8th, but there are indications that the house was rebuilt down the block, most likely in 1930. An item in Southwest Builder & Contractor of April 18, 1930, said the L. C. Myers was having new furnishings and equipment installed in the Colton Theatre. This included stage and projection equipment, heating and ventilation equipment, and 700 seats supplied by Barker Bros. furniture company in Los Angeles.
There is an item in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which says that the Columbia Theatre in the Clifton Heights district of St. Louis had opened recently. The theater operated on a pictures-only policy, with admission charges of five cents on weekdays and ten cents on Saturday and Sunday.
Clifton Heights is immediately adjacent to the neighborhood now called The Hill, and I think that this theater is most likely the same Columbia Theatre opened in 1916. The style of the building with its classical pediment and cornice is characteristic of the later 1910s.
The earlier Columbia Theatre at 6th and St. Charles Streets downtown was in operation at the same time as the Columbia Theatre in Clifton Heights. While the downtown Columbia was primarily a vaudeville house, it was equipped to show movies. an item in the July 8, 1916,issue of The Moving Picture World says that the downtown Columbia would be showing movies made by the Triangle studio, which had previously been exhibited at the American Theatre. The American, owned by the same company as the Columbia, was being closed for the summer.
Here is a brief article about the opening of the Ivory Theatre from the July 8, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“NEW ST. LOUIS THEATER. The Ivory Theater Opens With Smashing Big Program.
“By A. H. Giebler, 236 Vanole Bldg., St Louis, Mo., Special Correspondent.
“ST LOUIS, Mo.—The Ivory theater, which has just opened its doors to the public at 7712 Ivory street, gave a smashing big program of pictures on opening night, and had an excellent orchestra to accompany the pictures. The Ivory is a new house operated under the management of the Ivory Amusement Company, with E. J. Paule at the head of the enterprise. Mr. Paule was formerly a councilman of St. Louis, and on opening day the lobby of the theater was filled to overflowing with floral offerings from his many friends and business associates.
“The Ivory is a model and up-to-date theater in every respect. The seating capacity is 850 and the two new Power’s 6-A machines and other furnishings of the house are of the most modern and approved designs. The Ivory has been playing to good audiences ever since opening day, and is a very attractive addition to the neighborhood.”
The entry for Abraham Albertson at the Pacific Coast Architectural Database says that he arrived in Seattle in 1907 and served as the supervising architect for the Seattle office of the New York City firm Howells & Stokes for the next ten years.
An ad for the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works in the 1913 edition of Sweet’s Catalog of Building and Construction attributes the design of the Metropolitan Theatre in Seattle to the firm of Howells & Stokes.
Testimony in a 1911 lawsuit involving the Poli Theatre at Scranton reveals that the architect of the house was Albert E. Westover. The testimony was published in volume 80 of the legal journal Atlantic Reporter.
A picture of the Queensboro Theatre’s auditorium illustrates and ad for Link theatre organs on this page of Motion Picture News of December 29, 1928. (Enlarge the picture by clicking on the + sign in the bar at lower right of the page.)
This might have been posted before, but all the old links that might have been to it appear to be dead.
The December 29, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that the Riviera Theatre at Scranton had opened on December 9. The 1,500-seat house featured a “…Spanish type of architecture….” and had cost $300,000. It was operated by the Comerford chain, and was the first theater in Scranton to have been built specifically to show talking pictures. The first feature presented at the Riviera was Lilac Time,, with Colleen Moore, and the opening night program included an organ recital by professor Lawson Reid.
The December 29, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that a 400-seat house called the Star Theatre had opened in Delano on December 7. The manager was named as H. Yamoto. As the house had a Japanese manager, it was certainly aimed at a minority audience (inland California was a racially intolerant as any place in America in those days.)
I’m beginning to suspect very strongly that the Star Theatre and the West Theatre were the same house. I don’t think Delano was large enough to have supported two theaters for minority groups during that period.
The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that Dominick Fresna had opened the remodeled Princess Theatre at Springfield, Illinois, as the Lincoln Theatre on Thanksgiving Day.
The Dodge Theatre is the right age and size to be the house mentioned in the December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News:
“Bids have been taken for the construction of a theater and commercial building to be erected in Dodge City, Kansas, by Otto Theis. The building complete will cost $150,000 and the theatre will include a main floor, mezzanine and balcony and will cover a site 125 by 115 feet. Ellis Charles and Co. are the architects.”
Otto Theis was a prominent local rancher and businessman, and would not have operated the theater himself, which would have led to the Fox circuit’s involvement. Architect Ellis Charles was based in Wichita, and is little known outside that city.
The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that the Washington Theatre in Granite City had recently been bought by Skouras Brothers Enterprises. Skouras Brothers planned to expend about $25,000 for improvements to the house, including the installation of Vitaphone sound equipment. The value of the sale was not released, but MPM said that the estimated value of the Washington Theatre was $300,000.
A 1938 issue of Motion Picture Herald said that W. R. Vincent had opened the 499-seat De Pere Theatre at De Pere, Wisconsin. The theater was located in a former storage garage, and the conversion had been designed by Green Bay architects Geniesse & Connell. The item also noted that the new house gave De Pere six operating movie theaters, the same number as nearby Green Bay, which had more than five times the population of De Pere.
Information about theaters in De Pere is scant in the early trade publications, but I’ve found a 1913 reference to a Dreamland Theatre which had just moved to a new location in the Roffers Building on Main Avenue; a 1916 reference to a Pearl Theatre, which had reopened on March 4 after being damaged by fire; and a 1915 reference to a planned but yet unnamed theater, two stories and 60x120 feet, to be built that spring.
An issue of Engineering News Record from March, 1921, had this item about plans for a new theater on College Avenue:
“Wis., Appleton—Theater—Elite Theater c/o N. Duffy, mgr., 101 College Ave., having plans prepared by H. Wildhagen, archt., 842 College St, for 2 story, 60 x 135 ft, brick, rein.-con. and tile, on College Ave. About $75,000.”
.If the Elite was indeed designed by Henry Wildhagen, it was one of his later works. He was born in 1856, and by the late 19th century had become one of northern Wisconsin’s leading architects. Many of the buildings he designed are listed on the NRHP.
Neil Duffy opened the first Elite Theatre (probably the house at 101 College Avenue) in Appleton in 1908, according to The Fox Heritage: A History of Wisconsin’s Fox Cities, by Ellen Kort. It was the first movie theater in the Fox River Valley.
It appears that the second Elite Theatre operated for less than thirty years. The headline of a story in the May 15, 1950, issue of the Appleton Post Crescent read “Curtain to ring down Tuesday on last picture in Elite Theater.”
The Carrington Youth Center doesn’t have its own web site, but show times and the name of the current movie are posted on this page of the City of Carrington’s web site.
The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that Don Tracy planned to open his new Grand Theatre at Carrington, North Dakota, on December 31.
A photo of the vertical sign of the Dixwell Theatre illustrated an ad for Flexlume Electric Displays on this page of Motion Picture News, December 1, 1928.
There are probably few people who remember the original 1928 look of the Little Carnegie Playhouse. It was a strikingly modern design, most likely inspired, at least in part, by the work of the German Bauhaus. Here are two photos from the December 1, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News showing the auditorium and lounge.
I don’t know how much of the original design was lost in the early 1940s remodeling by Thomas Lamb’s office, but whatever might have remained after that was wiped out in the gut renovation designed by John McNamara that was undertaken in 1952. So far I’ve been unable to discover who the theater’s original architect was.
Advertising for the Fire Proof Door Company in the 1906 edition of Sweet’s Catalogue of Building Construction included a photo of the copper entrance doors of the Unique Theatre, which can be seen at lower left on this page. The caption identifies the architects of the Unique Theatre as Bertrand & Chamberlain.
The Tudor Theatre was opened in 1913 by Josiah Pearce & Sons, who had opened their first New Orleans movie house, the Electric Theatre, located on Canal Street, in late 1905 or early 1906.
An article on movie theaters in New Orleans in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World described the Pearce’s career in the city. In 1906, they opened a house called the Dreamland Theatre on St. Charles Street, followed by the Grand Theatre on Canal Street, opened in 1907, the Bijou Dream Theatre, built on St. Charles Street for $25,000 in 1910, and the $45,000 Trianon Theatre on Canal Street in 1911. The Pearce’s had expended $85,000 on the Tudor Theatre.
As of 1916 they were operating seven theaters in New Orleans, including the recently-opened Newcomb Theatre on Canal Street, making their’s the largest moving picture chain in the city.
The company expanded well beyond New Orleans, and a biographical sketch of Frederick William Pearce published in 1922 said that at one time they not only operated movie theaters from Pennsylvania to Texas, but had roller coasters and other outdoor amusements in parks from New England to Colorado.
Josiah Pearce & Sons closed its New Orleans headquarters in 1918, moving to Detroit and concentrating on the outdoor amusement business. It’s likely that 1918 was the year that the Saenger chain took over the Tudor Theatre and the Pearce’s other interests in New Orleans.
Multiple sources from the early 20th century indicate that Bruce Price was the lead architect of Keith’s Theatre in Philadelphia, and Albert E. Westover his local associate. The web site of the Art Institute of Chicago displays three photos of Keith’s Theatre, originally published in the journal The Inland Architect and News Record:
Entrance
Crystal Room
Lobby
The March, 1904, issue of The Theatre had an article about Philadelphia’s theaters which included the following description of Keith’s Theatre:
The February, 1912, issue of The Western Architect said that the Brandeis Theatre had been designed by the architectural firm of Barnett, Haynes & Barnett.
The impression I got from the item was that it was an entirely new theater in 1916. This is what it said:
Is it possible that the operators of the Columbia Airdome built an enclosed theater on their property in 1916?The lighting system in the Pitt Theatre was redesigned as part of an early renovation, and the theater and its lighting were described at length and rather effusively in an article in the trade journal Electrical Review of June 20, 1914:
Here is a drawing of the theater made by Anthony Dumas during the period when it was known as the Shubert Pitt Theatre (1919-1935.)I doubt that Simpson & Isles were the original architects of the theater. They probably only designed the later renovation. About the only thing I can find about them on the Internet is that the partnership was dissolved in 1915. An earlier Pittsbrgh house built by Thomas Kenyon was designed by William Kauffman, so Kauffman might have designed the New Kenyon as well, though so far I’ve found no evidence that he did.
The New Colton Theatre was a striking building, still sporting some Streamline Modern touches but leaning more toward Midcentury Modern. Despite the fact that the new house had “New” in its name, Myers must have changed the name of the earlier Colton Theatre after the new house opened. Larry Sheffield’s book Colton has a photo of 8th Street (since rather pretentiously renamed La Cadena Drive) in September, 1947, and the caption calls the theater the Hub City Theatre. It must be the earlier Colton, as that house was located on 8th Street between H and I Streets.
In fact, the original Colton Theatre was built in 1912 at the corner of H and 8th, but there are indications that the house was rebuilt down the block, most likely in 1930. An item in Southwest Builder & Contractor of April 18, 1930, said the L. C. Myers was having new furnishings and equipment installed in the Colton Theatre. This included stage and projection equipment, heating and ventilation equipment, and 700 seats supplied by Barker Bros. furniture company in Los Angeles.
There is an item in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which says that the Columbia Theatre in the Clifton Heights district of St. Louis had opened recently. The theater operated on a pictures-only policy, with admission charges of five cents on weekdays and ten cents on Saturday and Sunday.
Clifton Heights is immediately adjacent to the neighborhood now called The Hill, and I think that this theater is most likely the same Columbia Theatre opened in 1916. The style of the building with its classical pediment and cornice is characteristic of the later 1910s.
The earlier Columbia Theatre at 6th and St. Charles Streets downtown was in operation at the same time as the Columbia Theatre in Clifton Heights. While the downtown Columbia was primarily a vaudeville house, it was equipped to show movies. an item in the July 8, 1916,issue of The Moving Picture World says that the downtown Columbia would be showing movies made by the Triangle studio, which had previously been exhibited at the American Theatre. The American, owned by the same company as the Columbia, was being closed for the summer.
Here is a brief article about the opening of the Ivory Theatre from the July 8, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The entry for Abraham Albertson at the Pacific Coast Architectural Database says that he arrived in Seattle in 1907 and served as the supervising architect for the Seattle office of the New York City firm Howells & Stokes for the next ten years.
An ad for the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works in the 1913 edition of Sweet’s Catalog of Building and Construction attributes the design of the Metropolitan Theatre in Seattle to the firm of Howells & Stokes.
Testimony in a 1911 lawsuit involving the Poli Theatre at Scranton reveals that the architect of the house was Albert E. Westover. The testimony was published in volume 80 of the legal journal Atlantic Reporter.
A photo of the Hollywood Theatre illustrates an ad for Cutler-Hammer dimmers on this page of Motion Picture News from December 29, 1928.
A picture of the Queensboro Theatre’s auditorium illustrates and ad for Link theatre organs on this page of Motion Picture News of December 29, 1928. (Enlarge the picture by clicking on the + sign in the bar at lower right of the page.)
This might have been posted before, but all the old links that might have been to it appear to be dead.
The December 29, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that the Riviera Theatre at Scranton had opened on December 9. The 1,500-seat house featured a “…Spanish type of architecture….” and had cost $300,000. It was operated by the Comerford chain, and was the first theater in Scranton to have been built specifically to show talking pictures. The first feature presented at the Riviera was Lilac Time,, with Colleen Moore, and the opening night program included an organ recital by professor Lawson Reid.
The December 29, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that a 400-seat house called the Star Theatre had opened in Delano on December 7. The manager was named as H. Yamoto. As the house had a Japanese manager, it was certainly aimed at a minority audience (inland California was a racially intolerant as any place in America in those days.)
I’m beginning to suspect very strongly that the Star Theatre and the West Theatre were the same house. I don’t think Delano was large enough to have supported two theaters for minority groups during that period.
The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that Dominick Fresna had opened the remodeled Princess Theatre at Springfield, Illinois, as the Lincoln Theatre on Thanksgiving Day.
The Dodge Theatre is the right age and size to be the house mentioned in the December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News:
Otto Theis was a prominent local rancher and businessman, and would not have operated the theater himself, which would have led to the Fox circuit’s involvement. Architect Ellis Charles was based in Wichita, and is little known outside that city.The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that the Washington Theatre in Granite City had recently been bought by Skouras Brothers Enterprises. Skouras Brothers planned to expend about $25,000 for improvements to the house, including the installation of Vitaphone sound equipment. The value of the sale was not released, but MPM said that the estimated value of the Washington Theatre was $300,000.
A 1938 issue of Motion Picture Herald said that W. R. Vincent had opened the 499-seat De Pere Theatre at De Pere, Wisconsin. The theater was located in a former storage garage, and the conversion had been designed by Green Bay architects Geniesse & Connell. The item also noted that the new house gave De Pere six operating movie theaters, the same number as nearby Green Bay, which had more than five times the population of De Pere.
Information about theaters in De Pere is scant in the early trade publications, but I’ve found a 1913 reference to a Dreamland Theatre which had just moved to a new location in the Roffers Building on Main Avenue; a 1916 reference to a Pearl Theatre, which had reopened on March 4 after being damaged by fire; and a 1915 reference to a planned but yet unnamed theater, two stories and 60x120 feet, to be built that spring.
An issue of Engineering News Record from March, 1921, had this item about plans for a new theater on College Avenue:
.If the Elite was indeed designed by Henry Wildhagen, it was one of his later works. He was born in 1856, and by the late 19th century had become one of northern Wisconsin’s leading architects. Many of the buildings he designed are listed on the NRHP.Neil Duffy opened the first Elite Theatre (probably the house at 101 College Avenue) in Appleton in 1908, according to The Fox Heritage: A History of Wisconsin’s Fox Cities, by Ellen Kort. It was the first movie theater in the Fox River Valley.
It appears that the second Elite Theatre operated for less than thirty years. The headline of a story in the May 15, 1950, issue of the Appleton Post Crescent read “Curtain to ring down Tuesday on last picture in Elite Theater.”
Motion Picture News of December 22, 1928, reported that the remodeled Homewood Theatre would open the following week.
The Carrington Youth Center doesn’t have its own web site, but show times and the name of the current movie are posted on this page of the City of Carrington’s web site.
The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that Don Tracy planned to open his new Grand Theatre at Carrington, North Dakota, on December 31.
A photo of the vertical sign of the Dixwell Theatre illustrated an ad for Flexlume Electric Displays on this page of Motion Picture News, December 1, 1928.
There are probably few people who remember the original 1928 look of the Little Carnegie Playhouse. It was a strikingly modern design, most likely inspired, at least in part, by the work of the German Bauhaus. Here are two photos from the December 1, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News showing the auditorium and lounge.
I don’t know how much of the original design was lost in the early 1940s remodeling by Thomas Lamb’s office, but whatever might have remained after that was wiped out in the gut renovation designed by John McNamara that was undertaken in 1952. So far I’ve been unable to discover who the theater’s original architect was.