Winnipeg Theatres gives the address of the Elite Theatre as 527-529 Main Street, and gives it the AKA Unique Theatre.
According to the book Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895-1939, by Peter Morris, the Unique Theatre was opened in the fall of 1903 by John Schuberg. It was located in space that had been occupied by a funeral parlor in a building called the Cement Block (try researching that name on Google!) The first move shown at the Unique was Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery.
The earliest reference I can find to the name Elite Theatre in Winnipeg comes from January, 1909, when the Elite was the site of a religious meeting, according to the February issue of Unitarian Word and Work.
Winnipeg Theatres says that this house opened around 1910 as the Columbia Theatre, and became the Fox in 1935. I found an article about the Columbia Theatre in the April 6, 1912, issue of Electrical Review and Western Electrician, which noted that the house was the latest movie theater to be opened in Winnipeg (page 663 of the Google Books scan.)
I’ve found a period source which adds a missing piece to the early history of the Bijou Theatre as told here and at Theatres of Winnipeg. The source is the 1913 edition of Western Law Reporter (Canada), which gives a synopsis of a 1912 court case involving events that took place in 1910. The details of the case are not relevant, but the following sentences are:
“On the 21st April following the date of the contract, the lessees of the Empress Theatre vacated the premises and removed all their plant (excepting the drop curtain, which did not fit the new building) to another building, in another street in Winnipeg. The new building was given the name “Empress Theatre,” and the building vacated was afterwards known as the “Bijou.” The Empress, both in the old and in the new building, was what is generally known as a vaudeville show, while the Bijou was run as a moving picture show.”
As the Empress, this house was part of the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville circuit, which used the name Empress for most of its theaters. The Bijou joined the circuit in 1908, when the October 3 issue of The Billboard said:
“Mr. and Mrs. Frank Fairchilds are touring Western Canada and meeting with great success. They are playing a new circuit formed by J. M. Nash of the Bijou Theatre, Winnipeg, and booked through the Sullivan and Considine office.”
The Bijou probably adopted the name Empress shortly after joining the Sullivan & Considine circuit, so must have had the name for less than two years, until it was moved to the former Dominion Theatre in 1910.
An article about the Fotoplayer pipe organ installed in the New Mission Theatre can be seen in this PDF file of a page from the August 12, 1916, issue of The Music Trade Review. There are two small photos of the theater, showing the front and the auditorium. The auditorium photo shows the house before the balcony was added in 1918. American Photo Player Co., makers of the Fotoplayer organ, were based in Berkeley, California.
Having both North Sacramento and Old North Sacramento as locations for these theaters is not exactly what I had in mind. The two names refer to the same place; a single district of the City of Sacramento, which was once a separate incorporated city called North Sacramento, but which was dissolved and subsequently annexed to Sacramento itself in 1964. Both theaters ended up inside the corporate limits of the City of Sacramento, so should be listed as being in Sacramento, with North Sacramento (or Old North Sacramento) listed only as the district.
The book Independence, by Richard N. Piland and Marietta Wilson Boenker (Google Books preview), says that the Electric Theatre was in the building at 215 North Main from the 1910s into the 1940s. This building is currently occupied by the Knitcraft yarn shop. I’ve been unable to find the Electric Theatre mentioned in any of the early trade journals.
The Plaza might be the theater mentioned in this item from the January 2, 1924, issue of The Film Daily: “Independence, Mo. — Work has begun on the new theater on Lexington St. A. E. Elliot is behind the project.”
Although it was published more than a year earlier, this item from the August 3, 1922, issue of Manufacturers Record also might be about the Plaza:
“Mo., Independence—Elliott Theater Corp., A. E. Elliott, Prest., Grand Ave., Kansas City, will erect $65,000 motion-picture theater; 2 stories and basement; 40x164 ft.; brick and terra cotta; stone trim; to seat 1200; R. E. Peden Co., Archt, 945 New York Life Bldg., Kansas City.”
There are no theaters on Lexington Avenue but the Plaza, and satellite views show its building to be about 40x164 feet.
An item in the January 29, 1916, issue of The Music Trade Review says that the “Grove” Theatre (perhaps a typo for “Globe”) at 5th and Los Angeles Streets had been reopened by Silverman & Kramer as the Jewel Theatre. I don’t know how long the operation lasted. There are no Los Angeles city directories for the years 1916 through 1922 available online. The 1923 directory lists the Jewel Theatre on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, but no theater at 5th and Los Angeles Streets.
North Sacramento was a separate incorporated city for forty years, but has been a district of the City of Sacramento since 1964. That’s where it should be listed, with North Sacramento as the district.
Also, the Grand Theatre is currently listed in “Old North Sacramento,” which is the same neighborhood.
An inventory of historic buildings in Beckley prepared for the NRHP in 1994 gives the address of the Beckley Theatre as 411-417 W. Neville Street. It was built in 1935, and was designed by the Huntington, West Virginia, architectural firm Meanor & Handloser.
The Arcadia Publishing Company book Beckley, by Fran Klaus, says that the Beckley Theatre closed in 1982, and was demolished in 1997. The site is now part of a parking lot.
The 1921 edition of Julius Cahn’s guide lists a Beckley Theatre in Beckley, so this house must have been at least the second to have the name.
An inventory of historic buildings in Beckley prepared for the NRHP in 1994 indicates that the Lyric Theatre was on what was by then a vacant lot at 300 Neville Street.
The document actually says 310 Neville, but this is a typo, as another building, still standing today, is also listed as 310 Neville. The document also gives the name Lyric/Palace Theatre, but other sources show that the Palace was on Kanawha Street, and opened before the Lyric. Unless the Lyric was renamed very late in its history, it wasn’t ever called the Palace.
A timeline of Beckley history on this web page says that the Lyric Theatre on Neville Street opened in 1920 and showed its last movie in 1967, but the Arcadia Publishing Company book Beckley, by Fran Klaus, says that the theater closed in 1959.
An article about Acousti-Celotex, a recently-developed acoustical tile product, appeared in the December 14, 1929, issue of Movie Age, and was illustrated by a photo of the Mesa Theatre’s auditorium.
Many buildings in Richwood were destroyed by a general conflagration on August 15, 1921, and the original Star Theatre was among them. The original Star was listed in the 1913-1914 Cahn-Leighton guide as a 500 seat, ground floor house, but the theater had been in operation since at least August, 1908, when it advertised in various issues of The Billboard that it was seeking a piano player.
Here’s an item from Exhibitors Trade Review of December 3, 1921: “RICHWOOD, W. VA.— Charles Halt will build to replace Star Theater recently burned.”
The NRHP registration form for the Downtown Richwood Historic District says that the New Star Theatre was designed by Huntington, West Virginia, architect Levi J. Dean.
Here is a a quick link to the photo page ksteinhoff posted. They show that the Vitrolite front has been removed, exposing the original brick facade of 1921. The Vitrolite front was probably of 1930s vintage, though perhaps 1940s, indicating a remodeling sometime during one of those decades.
At David and Noelle’s list of known Boller Brothers theaters, the entry for the Broadway has the notation “cooling only,” so the Bollers did not design the theater. As David and Noelle don’t mention any other work the Bollers did on the house, they probably didn’t design that later Vitrolite front, either.
One of ksteinhoff’s photos show the balcony soffit, and shows a column supporting the balcony. That’s rather surprising in a theater built in 1921, as by then most architects and engineers knew how to cantilever a balcony.
The Broadway Theatre was probably the project in this item from the May 21, 1921, issue of The American Contractor:
“Theatre (M. P. & vaudeville): $80,000.
“1 sty. & bas. balcony. 60 ft. front, 60x163. Cape Girardeau, Mo. Engr. C. A. Koerner Engr. Co.. Odd Fellows bldg.. St. Louis. Owner Company Composed of C. O. Hobbs, member, Cape Girardeau. Brk. frpf., brk. re. cone. Owner builds. C. W. Boutin will supt. const, on site. Owner taking bids on sep. contracts.”
As the item names only an engineer, and not an architect, I would imagine that the interiors were designed by the decorators, which the opening day ad section of the loacl newspaper Mike Rivest linked to earlier says was Blore Brothers of Cape Girardeau.
The Engineer, C. A. Koerner, apparently moved his company to Louisville, as the only other reference to him I can find on the Internet places the company there in 1924, when they acted as general contractors on the Kosair Temple.
The photo currently displayed at the top of this page depicts not the Galard Theatre, but the Carman Theatre, across the street. If Irving Glazer, author of Philadelphia Theatres, A-Z, is correct (and I see no reason to doubt him), the house that became the Galard also opened as the Carman, not the Carmen. The new Carman Theatre built across the street in 1928 was its replacement, and occasioned the name change to Galard Theatre. There never was a Carmen Theatre in Philadelphia, though more than a few periodicals over the years used the erroneous spelling when referring to the Carman.
Here is an item about the Central Theatre from the April 21, 1921, issue of Engineering News-Record:
“Newark—Theatre— H. Kappalon. c/o F. Grad, archt. and engrs.. 245 Springfield Ave., having plans prepared for brick and stone, brick foundation, at 505 Central Ave. About $150,000.”
An item in a later issue noted that Grad was revising the plans, and that the projected cost of the theater was now $100,000. Architect Frank Grad also designed Newark’s Stanley Theatre and collaborated on the design of Symphony Hall.
The May, 1921, issue of The Bridgemen’s Magazine has an item which is surely about the Rivoli:
“Theatre— F. Grad, architect and engineer, 245 Springfield avenue, opens bids March 18, building brick and stone, brick foundation, on Ferry street and Wilson avenue, for Mate Bros., Farley avenue. About $200,000.”
Frank Grad and Henry Baechlin collaborated on the design of Newark’s Symphony Hall, and on at least two other projects in Newark that I’ve found references to: an (apparently unbuilt) exhibition hall in 1922, and an office building in 1927. It’s possible that there were more.
Although the text of the pages about this theater in the Hofstra collection (the last two links in Ed Solero’s previous comment) gives the opening date of the house as April 3, 1926, a notice that plans were being drawn for the project was published in the April 28, 1921, issue of Engineering News-Record:
“N. Y., Hempstead—Theater and Stores— Rivoli Theater Corp., c/o Reilley & Hall, archts. and engrs., 405 Lexington Ave.. New York City, having sketches made for 2 story, 80 x 200 ft., brick and stone, concrete foundation, here. About $250,000.”
As both sources name Reilly & Hall as the architects, one of two things must be true; either it took the Rivoli Theater Corporation five years to get this house built, or Hofstra got the year it opened wrong. Items in other trade journals from 1921 indicate that contracts for the Rivoli were let in July, and that construction was set to begin in August, but I can’t find anything later.
A bit more digging has unearthed additional information. There’s still no opening date for the Crystal Theatre, but the house was renamed Pantages Theatre in 1908, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Buildings Index at the Tacoma Public Library. The same source reveals that the theater was remodeled by B. Marcus Priteca in 1913. It was renamed the Columbia Theatre in early 1918 and became the Victory late that same year.
In late 1924, the building was converted into a hall for the Tacoma post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In later years it served a variety of purposes, including an athletic club, a night club, and a restaurant.
The building was still standing as late as the mid-1960s, and is depicted along with its next-door neighbor, the Capri Theatre, in this photo dated c.1966 by the Tacoma Public Library. There is also this photo dated only c.1920s, apparently taken after the theater had closed.
The Tacoma library web site has been having problems all night, so the links in my previous comment might not be displaying anything. If the library doesn’t fix its problems soon I’ll just repost the comment without links, and put the library on the list of web sites I never link to.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Buildings Index says that the Riviera Theatre was built on the site of the former Liberty Theatre. It was new construction, as the Liberty building had been erected as a commercial structure in 1884 and was obsolete. The Riviera was opened on July 7, 1929 in a building designed by architect Silas E. Nelsen.
This house was next door to the building which had housed the first Tacoma Pantages Theatre, which later became the Victory, but was closed by late 1924, five years before the Riviera replaced the Liberty.
This photo of the Capri Theatre from the Tacoma Public Library is dated c.1966. Another photo, dated c.1963 shows the house with the Riviera name still on its marquee. The Index says the name was changed in 1964, and the building was demolished as part of an urban renewal project in 1969.
This photo depicts the entrance to the Liberty Theatre in either 1926 or 1927 (the years of the two bouts between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney), so not too long before the house was demolished to make way for the Riviera.
The even-numbered side of the 900 block of Pacific Avenue is now occupied by half of a two-block long parking structure. The Victory Theatre has been demolished.
This house was in operation as the Pantages Theatre at least as early as 1908, when it was mentioned in the August 15 issue of The Billboard. I haven’t found the opening year for the first Tacoma Pantages, but according to Robert Grau’s The Stage in the Twentieth Century, this was the second house in the Pantages circuit, and was originally known as the Crystal Theatre:
“Next followed the taking over of a store building in Tacoma and its evolution into what is now known as the Pantages Theatre. Like the stepping-stone house in Seattle, this theatre was first known as the Crystal.”
As Alexander Pantages’s first theatre, in Seattle, opened in 1902, and Pantages built his circuit very rapidly, the first Tacoma house might have opened as early as 1903.
Winnipeg Theatres gives the address of the Elite Theatre as 527-529 Main Street, and gives it the AKA Unique Theatre.
According to the book Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895-1939, by Peter Morris, the Unique Theatre was opened in the fall of 1903 by John Schuberg. It was located in space that had been occupied by a funeral parlor in a building called the Cement Block (try researching that name on Google!) The first move shown at the Unique was Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery.
The earliest reference I can find to the name Elite Theatre in Winnipeg comes from January, 1909, when the Elite was the site of a religious meeting, according to the February issue of Unitarian Word and Work.
Winnipeg Theatres says that this house opened around 1910 as the Columbia Theatre, and became the Fox in 1935. I found an article about the Columbia Theatre in the April 6, 1912, issue of Electrical Review and Western Electrician, which noted that the house was the latest movie theater to be opened in Winnipeg (page 663 of the Google Books scan.)
Winnipeg Theatres gives the address of the Colonial Theatre as 634 Main Street.
I’ve found a period source which adds a missing piece to the early history of the Bijou Theatre as told here and at Theatres of Winnipeg. The source is the 1913 edition of Western Law Reporter (Canada), which gives a synopsis of a 1912 court case involving events that took place in 1910. The details of the case are not relevant, but the following sentences are:
As the Empress, this house was part of the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville circuit, which used the name Empress for most of its theaters. The Bijou joined the circuit in 1908, when the October 3 issue of The Billboard said:The Bijou probably adopted the name Empress shortly after joining the Sullivan & Considine circuit, so must have had the name for less than two years, until it was moved to the former Dominion Theatre in 1910.Theatres of Winnipeg says that this house opened as the Strand in 1914, and was renamed the Beacon in 1930.
An article about the Fotoplayer pipe organ installed in the New Mission Theatre can be seen in this PDF file of a page from the August 12, 1916, issue of The Music Trade Review. There are two small photos of the theater, showing the front and the auditorium. The auditorium photo shows the house before the balcony was added in 1918. American Photo Player Co., makers of the Fotoplayer organ, were based in Berkeley, California.
Having both North Sacramento and Old North Sacramento as locations for these theaters is not exactly what I had in mind. The two names refer to the same place; a single district of the City of Sacramento, which was once a separate incorporated city called North Sacramento, but which was dissolved and subsequently annexed to Sacramento itself in 1964. Both theaters ended up inside the corporate limits of the City of Sacramento, so should be listed as being in Sacramento, with North Sacramento (or Old North Sacramento) listed only as the district.
The book Independence, by Richard N. Piland and Marietta Wilson Boenker (Google Books preview), says that the Electric Theatre was in the building at 215 North Main from the 1910s into the 1940s. This building is currently occupied by the Knitcraft yarn shop. I’ve been unable to find the Electric Theatre mentioned in any of the early trade journals.
The Plaza might be the theater mentioned in this item from the January 2, 1924, issue of The Film Daily: “Independence, Mo. — Work has begun on the new theater on Lexington St. A. E. Elliot is behind the project.”
Although it was published more than a year earlier, this item from the August 3, 1922, issue of Manufacturers Record also might be about the Plaza:
There are no theaters on Lexington Avenue but the Plaza, and satellite views show its building to be about 40x164 feet.An item in the January 29, 1916, issue of The Music Trade Review says that the “Grove” Theatre (perhaps a typo for “Globe”) at 5th and Los Angeles Streets had been reopened by Silverman & Kramer as the Jewel Theatre. I don’t know how long the operation lasted. There are no Los Angeles city directories for the years 1916 through 1922 available online. The 1923 directory lists the Jewel Theatre on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, but no theater at 5th and Los Angeles Streets.
North Sacramento was a separate incorporated city for forty years, but has been a district of the City of Sacramento since 1964. That’s where it should be listed, with North Sacramento as the district.
Also, the Grand Theatre is currently listed in “Old North Sacramento,” which is the same neighborhood.
An inventory of historic buildings in Beckley prepared for the NRHP in 1994 gives the address of the Beckley Theatre as 411-417 W. Neville Street. It was built in 1935, and was designed by the Huntington, West Virginia, architectural firm Meanor & Handloser.
The Arcadia Publishing Company book Beckley, by Fran Klaus, says that the Beckley Theatre closed in 1982, and was demolished in 1997. The site is now part of a parking lot.
The 1921 edition of Julius Cahn’s guide lists a Beckley Theatre in Beckley, so this house must have been at least the second to have the name.
An inventory of historic buildings in Beckley prepared for the NRHP in 1994 indicates that the Lyric Theatre was on what was by then a vacant lot at 300 Neville Street.
The document actually says 310 Neville, but this is a typo, as another building, still standing today, is also listed as 310 Neville. The document also gives the name Lyric/Palace Theatre, but other sources show that the Palace was on Kanawha Street, and opened before the Lyric. Unless the Lyric was renamed very late in its history, it wasn’t ever called the Palace.
A timeline of Beckley history on this web page says that the Lyric Theatre on Neville Street opened in 1920 and showed its last movie in 1967, but the Arcadia Publishing Company book Beckley, by Fran Klaus, says that the theater closed in 1959.
An article about Acousti-Celotex, a recently-developed acoustical tile product, appeared in the December 14, 1929, issue of Movie Age, and was illustrated by a photo of the Mesa Theatre’s auditorium.
Many buildings in Richwood were destroyed by a general conflagration on August 15, 1921, and the original Star Theatre was among them. The original Star was listed in the 1913-1914 Cahn-Leighton guide as a 500 seat, ground floor house, but the theater had been in operation since at least August, 1908, when it advertised in various issues of The Billboard that it was seeking a piano player.
Here’s an item from Exhibitors Trade Review of December 3, 1921: “RICHWOOD, W. VA.— Charles Halt will build to replace Star Theater recently burned.”
The NRHP registration form for the Downtown Richwood Historic District says that the New Star Theatre was designed by Huntington, West Virginia, architect Levi J. Dean.
It does make sense that the 62 Drive-In would be on Highway 62.
Here is a quick link toozarknature’s map.
Here is a a quick link to the photo page ksteinhoff posted. They show that the Vitrolite front has been removed, exposing the original brick facade of 1921. The Vitrolite front was probably of 1930s vintage, though perhaps 1940s, indicating a remodeling sometime during one of those decades.
At David and Noelle’s list of known Boller Brothers theaters, the entry for the Broadway has the notation “cooling only,” so the Bollers did not design the theater. As David and Noelle don’t mention any other work the Bollers did on the house, they probably didn’t design that later Vitrolite front, either.
One of ksteinhoff’s photos show the balcony soffit, and shows a column supporting the balcony. That’s rather surprising in a theater built in 1921, as by then most architects and engineers knew how to cantilever a balcony.
The Broadway Theatre was probably the project in this item from the May 21, 1921, issue of The American Contractor:
As the item names only an engineer, and not an architect, I would imagine that the interiors were designed by the decorators, which the opening day ad section of the loacl newspaper Mike Rivest linked to earlier says was Blore Brothers of Cape Girardeau. The Engineer, C. A. Koerner, apparently moved his company to Louisville, as the only other reference to him I can find on the Internet places the company there in 1924, when they acted as general contractors on the Kosair Temple.The photo currently displayed at the top of this page depicts not the Galard Theatre, but the Carman Theatre, across the street. If Irving Glazer, author of Philadelphia Theatres, A-Z, is correct (and I see no reason to doubt him), the house that became the Galard also opened as the Carman, not the Carmen. The new Carman Theatre built across the street in 1928 was its replacement, and occasioned the name change to Galard Theatre. There never was a Carmen Theatre in Philadelphia, though more than a few periodicals over the years used the erroneous spelling when referring to the Carman.
Here is an item about the Central Theatre from the April 21, 1921, issue of Engineering News-Record:
An item in a later issue noted that Grad was revising the plans, and that the projected cost of the theater was now $100,000. Architect Frank Grad also designed Newark’s Stanley Theatre and collaborated on the design of Symphony Hall.The May, 1921, issue of The Bridgemen’s Magazine has an item which is surely about the Rivoli:
Frank Grad and Henry Baechlin collaborated on the design of Newark’s Symphony Hall, and on at least two other projects in Newark that I’ve found references to: an (apparently unbuilt) exhibition hall in 1922, and an office building in 1927. It’s possible that there were more.Although the text of the pages about this theater in the Hofstra collection (the last two links in Ed Solero’s previous comment) gives the opening date of the house as April 3, 1926, a notice that plans were being drawn for the project was published in the April 28, 1921, issue of Engineering News-Record:
As both sources name Reilly & Hall as the architects, one of two things must be true; either it took the Rivoli Theater Corporation five years to get this house built, or Hofstra got the year it opened wrong. Items in other trade journals from 1921 indicate that contracts for the Rivoli were let in July, and that construction was set to begin in August, but I can’t find anything later.A bit more digging has unearthed additional information. There’s still no opening date for the Crystal Theatre, but the house was renamed Pantages Theatre in 1908, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Buildings Index at the Tacoma Public Library. The same source reveals that the theater was remodeled by B. Marcus Priteca in 1913. It was renamed the Columbia Theatre in early 1918 and became the Victory late that same year.
In late 1924, the building was converted into a hall for the Tacoma post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In later years it served a variety of purposes, including an athletic club, a night club, and a restaurant.
The building was still standing as late as the mid-1960s, and is depicted along with its next-door neighbor, the Capri Theatre, in this photo dated c.1966 by the Tacoma Public Library. There is also this photo dated only c.1920s, apparently taken after the theater had closed.
The Tacoma library web site has been having problems all night, so the links in my previous comment might not be displaying anything. If the library doesn’t fix its problems soon I’ll just repost the comment without links, and put the library on the list of web sites I never link to.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Buildings Index says that the Riviera Theatre was built on the site of the former Liberty Theatre. It was new construction, as the Liberty building had been erected as a commercial structure in 1884 and was obsolete. The Riviera was opened on July 7, 1929 in a building designed by architect Silas E. Nelsen.
This house was next door to the building which had housed the first Tacoma Pantages Theatre, which later became the Victory, but was closed by late 1924, five years before the Riviera replaced the Liberty.
This photo of the Capri Theatre from the Tacoma Public Library is dated c.1966. Another photo, dated c.1963 shows the house with the Riviera name still on its marquee. The Index says the name was changed in 1964, and the building was demolished as part of an urban renewal project in 1969.
This photo depicts the entrance to the Liberty Theatre in either 1926 or 1927 (the years of the two bouts between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney), so not too long before the house was demolished to make way for the Riviera.
The even-numbered side of the 900 block of Pacific Avenue is now occupied by half of a two-block long parking structure. The Victory Theatre has been demolished.
This house was in operation as the Pantages Theatre at least as early as 1908, when it was mentioned in the August 15 issue of The Billboard. I haven’t found the opening year for the first Tacoma Pantages, but according to Robert Grau’s The Stage in the Twentieth Century, this was the second house in the Pantages circuit, and was originally known as the Crystal Theatre:
As Alexander Pantages’s first theatre, in Seattle, opened in 1902, and Pantages built his circuit very rapidly, the first Tacoma house might have opened as early as 1903.