A pencil drawing of the Gopher Theatre at Crookston, dated 1940, is listed among the papers of architects Liebenberg & Kaplan at the University of Minnesota library, so the firm probably did design the house.
The Gopher must have been in operation at least as late as 1963. A courtesy advertisement in the 1963 edition of the University of Minnesota Northwest School of Agriculture’s annual, The Aggie, reads “Compliments of Grand and Gopher Theaters.”
I think the Gopher has been either completely or partly demolished. 211 N. Broadway is currently listed as the location of an outfit called Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. I can' tell from Street View if the address is in the modern Bremer Bank building on the corner of 2nd Street, or the smaller building next door. The smaller building looks old enough to have been around in the 1940s, but it isn’t deep enough to have accommodated a 700-seat theater. It’s possible that this was the front of the theater but that the rear part of the auditorium was demolished and the rest of it converted into offices. Either way, the Gopher Theatre is gone. I guess the magic of the “Magic Fountain” wasn’t strong enough to save the place.
There’s a photo of the entrance of a large theater in the December 24, 1921, issue of Exhibitors Trade Review, and the caption identifies it as the Crystal Palace Theatre in Sydney. Could it be the Paris Theatre? It can be seen at lower left of this scan at the Internet Archive (click the + sign at lower right of the page to make it bigger.)
The Castle Theatre is still open as a live music venue. There is an official web site, and the house has at least one event per week booked through January, with other events scheduled into March.
The February 19, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an article about the opening of the Castle Theatre, which can be read in this Google Books scan. The theater was built by C. U. Williams, a Bloomington businessman who, along with being involved in various other enterprises, was a well-known publisher of picture postcards.
The Castle Theatre was part of the headquarters building of C. U. Williams & Son, and was originally operated under lease by William R. Lyon (or Lyons) and Delmar Schnepp. In 1923 the Castle was taken over by Clarence Irvin, who had been operating other theaters in Bloomington for more than a decade.
Many sources on the Internet claim that the Castle was originally a Balaban & Katz house, but it appears that B&K only became involved in the operation later. I’ve found references to the Castle being a B&K house by 1927. It was still being operated by B&K in 1949 according to this list on the Balaban & Katz Foundation’s web site.
The Irvin Theatre, according to entries on this web page, was under construction in April, 1915. That same year, the November issue of The International Confectioner listed the Irvin Theatre Candy Shop at Bloomington in its new businesses section. The theater most likely opened about the same time.
The July 22, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the owner of the Irvin Theatre, Clarence E. Irvin, had closed his older Princess Theatre, which had been located at 412 N. Main Street.
Clarence Irvin operated several other theaters in Bloomington at various times, including the Castle and the Illini. He eventually entered into various arrangements with both the Midwest Theatres circuit and Publix Great States Theatres.
The AKA should be spelled Chatterton. Here is a web page with pretty much the same information about the Chatterton Opera House/Illini Theatre that is in RobertEndres earlier comment, but with the additional information that the Chatterton was designed by local architect George H. Miller.
An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area by Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny says that this house opened in 1911 as a nickelodeon called the Sunset Theatre, and was in operation as the Superba until 1924. The architect was Bernard J. Joseph.
Bernard J. Jospeh had been in a partnership with architect G. Albert Lansburgh from 1906 to 1908, and collaborated with him on a number of projects even after Lansburgh had established his own practice, including the Orpheum Theatre on O'Farrell Street, opened in 1909.
The official web site of the Strand Theatre has moved to this URL.
Delaware (where, incidentally, director Vincente Minnelli was born in 1903) has always been a small town, and the Strand has probably been its only large theater. Thus, the item headed “Fine New House at Delaware, O.” in the January 8, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World must have been about the Strand. The item said the new theater was under construction and was expected to open about April 1 (the Strand’s official web site says it actually opened on April 10.) The Strand Theatre was designed by Columbus architect Fred W. Elliot.
The January 8, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an item in its San Francisco column saying that plans for the Royal Theatre Company’s new house on California Street near Polk had been completed, but the architect the item named was Bernard J. Joseph.
Does anyone know why Joseph’s plans were abandoned for those of the Reid Brothers, or why the theater’s entrance was placed around the corner on Polk Street instead of on California Street?
The book I cited in my previous comment also has a nice photo of Fuller Claflin (scroll up a bit in the Google Books scan.) You can also read the earlier parts of his biographical sketch, which covers the history of his family in North America. The Claflins were an interesting lot.
I’ve found a brief biography of architect Fuller Claflin in Volume 4 of History of Michigan, by Charles Moore, published in 1915. It doesn’t mention the Duplex Theatre, but the section dealing with his career as an architect up to 1915 is worth quoting in full, and this is as good a place as any to do so:
“Fuller Claflin, who was born at East Saginaw, now a part of the city of Saginaw, on January 29, 1872, was about nine years old when the family moved from Saginaw to Albion, and about four years later they all went out to California. His education was principally received in the public schools of Michigan and California. In 1890 he entered the office of a San Francisco architect, and architecture has been his study and practical work throughout his entire career. In 1892 he became a member of the firm of Wood and Lovell, San Francisco architects, who made a specialty of theatre construction. When that firm subsequently moved its headquarters to Chicago, Mr. Claflin was left in charge of all its Pacific coast business. In 1895 Mr. Claflin removed to New York city, and became a member of the firm of J. B. McElfatrick and Son, theatre architects, whose services were of national scope, extending to all states and cities. Mr. Claflin continued with that firm about five years, and eventually became a partner of E. C. Horn, a general contractor with offices in New York city. Together they built many theatres both as architects and contractors. Mr. Horn’s death terminated the partnership, but Mr. Claflin continued building theatres, and in 1909 established offices in Detroit. He has built theatres in many cities of the Union and in Canada, and has a very notable record in Michigan, made since he opened offices at Detroit. Among others in the last half dozen years he has built the Family, the Garrick, the Gayety, the New Empire and the Forest theatres in Detroit, and also erected the Gladmer Theatre at Lansing, which is one of the finest theatres of the state. Other theatres in many smaller cities have been constructed on plans drawn by Mr. Claflin, with the construction supervised from his office.”
The Lyceum built in 1867 and remodeled to Leon Lempert’s design in the 1890s was completely destroyed by fire on March 6, 1904. But according to the April 9, 1904, issue of Real Estate Record and Builder’s Guide, the house was to be rebuilt:
“Fuller Claflin, 1133 Broadway. New York City, and B. C. Horn are making plans for a new Lyceum Theatre to replace the one recently burned in Elmira. Colonel D. C. Robinson is the owner of the property.”
The theaters page of the Plainfield Library’s online exhibit Plainfield: Lost But not Forgotten says that this house began as the Amphion Theatre, and then was known as Elkwood Hall and Washington Hall before becoming the Plainfield Theatre.
According to Andrew Craig Morrison’s book Theaters, the house reopened as the Plainfield Theatre on August 24, 1905, and the architect for the project was Fuller Claflin.
My surmise that the Duplex Theatre was designed by C. Howard Crane was wrong. According to the February 12, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World Fuller Claflin was the architect of the Duplex.
The Americus Theatre at 4026 Hamilton Avenue was mentioned in The Moving Picture World of February 12, 1916. George F. Hornung was the proprietor. There’s a photo of the Americus in Dann Woellert’s book Cincinnati’s Northside Neighborhood (Google Books preview,) and the caption says that the house was built in 1911 and demolished in the early 1950s.
meheuck: There was a Liberty Theatre opened at 3938 Spring Grove Avenue in 1909, but Woellert’s book says that it closed in 1929 and became the Liberty Chili Parlor. I don’t know if your dad is old enough to remember a theater that closed in 1929. The Liberty does not appear to be listed at Cinema Treasures yet.
The Avenue Theatre operated as a movie house as early as 1916, under the name Triangle Theatre. Here is the item announcing the policy change, from The Moving Picture World, January 22, 1916:
“The Avenue theater, at Woodward and Jefferson avenues, one of the oldest amusement places in the city and for the past three years playing stock, has been leased to the Triangle Theater Corporation by Frank Drew, capitalized at $1,000, the principal stockholders being Pliny P. Craft, Fred M. Randall and Kenneth H. Kolpein. The theater closed with stock at eleven o'clock Saturday night, Jan. 8, and 12 hours later reopened as an exclusive motion picture house playing Triangle films, downtown first run.
“The house manager appointed is James Rutherford, for the past seven months he was assistant manager and press agent of the Miles-Detroit theater. The name of the theater has been changed to the Triangle. Prices are 10 to 25 cents for matinees and 10 to 50 cents at night.”
I’ve found mentions of the Avenue Theatre from as early as 1902, but it could well have been operation much earlier, perhaps under a different name. The facade of the building was of an Italianate style that reached its peak of popularity in the 1870s, but could have been built as early as the 1850s. The ornate arched theater entrance and other details look as though they were made of cast iron rather than terra cotta.
Thanks for the time line on Fanchon & Marco’s St. Louis operations, JAlex. All I had was a few fragments I’ve picked up from various sources, some of which contradict each other.
And I’ll second Chuck’s call for a separate page for the first Washington Theatre. RetroMike’s comment of June 14 provides plenty of details for one.
The name of one of the architects is misspelled. It should be Edwin O. Kuenzli. The page of Copper Country Architects devoted to Demetrius F. Charlton and his partners credits Kuenzli, who headed the firm’s Milwaukee office, with the design of this theater. Charlton & Kuenzli also designed the Butler Theatre in Ishpeming, Michigan.
The June 3, 1916, issue of Electrical Review and Western Electrician said that the Butler Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Charlton & Kuenzli, which had offices in Milwaukee and Marquette. Demetrius F. Charlton had designed the Ishpeming City Hall in 1889, prior to his association with Edwin O. Kuenzli.
In the 1915 Los Angeles City Directory, a house called the Columbia Theatre is listed at 2117 W. Jefferson. In the 1923, 1926 and 1927 directories, it’s listed as the address of the Palace Theatre. No directory for 1928 is available online, and I can’t find a theater listed for the address in the 1929 directory, but the 1932 directory lists the Home Theatre at 2117 W. Jefferson.
As the L.A. County Assessor’s office says that the Arlin’s building was built in 1930, something must have happened to the Columbia/Palace building around 1929, and the current building was built in 1930 to replace it.
I’m puzzled by the references to the “Franchon and Marco circuit” and then “Francon and Marco Circuit” in this theater’s description. If it is meant to read Fanchon and Marco, it can’t possibly be true that they had anything to do with the first Washington Theatre. Fanchon and Marco were teenagers (born 1892 and 1894 respectively) in 1910 when the first Washington was built, and living in California.
Fanchon and Marco would not have built the second Washington Theatre either, as in 1923 they were still producing packaged stage shows, primarily for theaters on the west coast, and had not yet gone into direct operation of theaters (though it’s possible that their older brother Rube had begun building the Los Angeles area circuit he operated, South Side Theatres, by that time.)
As far as I’ve been able to determine, the Fanchon & Marco circuit began its partnership with Harry Arthur in 1934, when rapidly expanding F&M took a long-term lease on the St. Louis Fox Theatre, which Arthur had taken over a few years earlier when William Fox went broke. That was when Arthur joined F&M as general manager of their St. Louis operations. He did not acquire the circuit at that time, so much as the circuit acquired him along with the lease on the Fox.
Arthur might have taken complete control of F&M’s Midwestern operations later, as Fanchon Simon and Marco Wolf concentrated more on their other activities and their Los Angeles area theaters, but I haven’t found much information about that period of the company’s history.
Here’s a fresh link to the first page of the article about the Goodhand Theatre in Boxoffice of December 4, 1954 (the article continues on the two subsequent pages.) The magazine says the architect’s name was Wate Porter, but I think it must have been Wade Porter, who was listed in the 1962 AIA directory as having his office in Cheyenne, Wyoming
A pencil drawing of the Gopher Theatre at Crookston, dated 1940, is listed among the papers of architects Liebenberg & Kaplan at the University of Minnesota library, so the firm probably did design the house.
The Gopher must have been in operation at least as late as 1963. A courtesy advertisement in the 1963 edition of the University of Minnesota Northwest School of Agriculture’s annual, The Aggie, reads “Compliments of Grand and Gopher Theaters.”
I think the Gopher has been either completely or partly demolished. 211 N. Broadway is currently listed as the location of an outfit called Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. I can' tell from Street View if the address is in the modern Bremer Bank building on the corner of 2nd Street, or the smaller building next door. The smaller building looks old enough to have been around in the 1940s, but it isn’t deep enough to have accommodated a 700-seat theater. It’s possible that this was the front of the theater but that the rear part of the auditorium was demolished and the rest of it converted into offices. Either way, the Gopher Theatre is gone. I guess the magic of the “Magic Fountain” wasn’t strong enough to save the place.
There’s a photo of the entrance of a large theater in the December 24, 1921, issue of Exhibitors Trade Review, and the caption identifies it as the Crystal Palace Theatre in Sydney. Could it be the Paris Theatre? It can be seen at lower left of this scan at the Internet Archive (click the + sign at lower right of the page to make it bigger.)
The Castle Theatre is still open as a live music venue. There is an official web site, and the house has at least one event per week booked through January, with other events scheduled into March.
The February 19, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an article about the opening of the Castle Theatre, which can be read in this Google Books scan. The theater was built by C. U. Williams, a Bloomington businessman who, along with being involved in various other enterprises, was a well-known publisher of picture postcards.
The Castle Theatre was part of the headquarters building of C. U. Williams & Son, and was originally operated under lease by William R. Lyon (or Lyons) and Delmar Schnepp. In 1923 the Castle was taken over by Clarence Irvin, who had been operating other theaters in Bloomington for more than a decade.
Many sources on the Internet claim that the Castle was originally a Balaban & Katz house, but it appears that B&K only became involved in the operation later. I’ve found references to the Castle being a B&K house by 1927. It was still being operated by B&K in 1949 according to this list on the Balaban & Katz Foundation’s web site.
The Irvin Theatre, according to entries on this web page, was under construction in April, 1915. That same year, the November issue of The International Confectioner listed the Irvin Theatre Candy Shop at Bloomington in its new businesses section. The theater most likely opened about the same time.
The July 22, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the owner of the Irvin Theatre, Clarence E. Irvin, had closed his older Princess Theatre, which had been located at 412 N. Main Street.
Clarence Irvin operated several other theaters in Bloomington at various times, including the Castle and the Illini. He eventually entered into various arrangements with both the Midwest Theatres circuit and Publix Great States Theatres.
The AKA should be spelled Chatterton. Here is a web page with pretty much the same information about the Chatterton Opera House/Illini Theatre that is in RobertEndres earlier comment, but with the additional information that the Chatterton was designed by local architect George H. Miller.
The Princess Theatre was mentioned in the December 17, 1921, issue of Exhibitors Trade Review. The manager of the theater was named A.C. Stalcup.
The Strand Theatre at Creston was mentioned in the December 17, 1921, issue of Exhibitors Trade Review.
An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area by Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny says that this house opened in 1911 as a nickelodeon called the Sunset Theatre, and was in operation as the Superba until 1924. The architect was Bernard J. Joseph.
Bernard J. Jospeh had been in a partnership with architect G. Albert Lansburgh from 1906 to 1908, and collaborated with him on a number of projects even after Lansburgh had established his own practice, including the Orpheum Theatre on O'Farrell Street, opened in 1909.
The official web site of the Strand Theatre has moved to this URL.
Delaware (where, incidentally, director Vincente Minnelli was born in 1903) has always been a small town, and the Strand has probably been its only large theater. Thus, the item headed “Fine New House at Delaware, O.” in the January 8, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World must have been about the Strand. The item said the new theater was under construction and was expected to open about April 1 (the Strand’s official web site says it actually opened on April 10.) The Strand Theatre was designed by Columbus architect Fred W. Elliot.
The January 8, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an item in its San Francisco column saying that plans for the Royal Theatre Company’s new house on California Street near Polk had been completed, but the architect the item named was Bernard J. Joseph.
Does anyone know why Joseph’s plans were abandoned for those of the Reid Brothers, or why the theater’s entrance was placed around the corner on Polk Street instead of on California Street?
In the quote in my previous comment, B.C. Horn should read E.C. Horn. I copied and pasted without noticing the error in the scan.
The book I cited in my previous comment also has a nice photo of Fuller Claflin (scroll up a bit in the Google Books scan.) You can also read the earlier parts of his biographical sketch, which covers the history of his family in North America. The Claflins were an interesting lot.
I’ve found a brief biography of architect Fuller Claflin in Volume 4 of History of Michigan, by Charles Moore, published in 1915. It doesn’t mention the Duplex Theatre, but the section dealing with his career as an architect up to 1915 is worth quoting in full, and this is as good a place as any to do so:
The Lyceum built in 1867 and remodeled to Leon Lempert’s design in the 1890s was completely destroyed by fire on March 6, 1904. But according to the April 9, 1904, issue of Real Estate Record and Builder’s Guide, the house was to be rebuilt:
The theaters page of the Plainfield Library’s online exhibit Plainfield: Lost But not Forgotten says that this house began as the Amphion Theatre, and then was known as Elkwood Hall and Washington Hall before becoming the Plainfield Theatre.
According to Andrew Craig Morrison’s book Theaters, the house reopened as the Plainfield Theatre on August 24, 1905, and the architect for the project was Fuller Claflin.
My surmise that the Duplex Theatre was designed by C. Howard Crane was wrong. According to the February 12, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World Fuller Claflin was the architect of the Duplex.
The Americus Theatre at 4026 Hamilton Avenue was mentioned in The Moving Picture World of February 12, 1916. George F. Hornung was the proprietor. There’s a photo of the Americus in Dann Woellert’s book Cincinnati’s Northside Neighborhood (Google Books preview,) and the caption says that the house was built in 1911 and demolished in the early 1950s.
meheuck: There was a Liberty Theatre opened at 3938 Spring Grove Avenue in 1909, but Woellert’s book says that it closed in 1929 and became the Liberty Chili Parlor. I don’t know if your dad is old enough to remember a theater that closed in 1929. The Liberty does not appear to be listed at Cinema Treasures yet.
The Avenue Theatre operated as a movie house as early as 1916, under the name Triangle Theatre. Here is the item announcing the policy change, from The Moving Picture World, January 22, 1916:
I’ve found mentions of the Avenue Theatre from as early as 1902, but it could well have been operation much earlier, perhaps under a different name. The facade of the building was of an Italianate style that reached its peak of popularity in the 1870s, but could have been built as early as the 1850s. The ornate arched theater entrance and other details look as though they were made of cast iron rather than terra cotta.Thanks for the time line on Fanchon & Marco’s St. Louis operations, JAlex. All I had was a few fragments I’ve picked up from various sources, some of which contradict each other.
And I’ll second Chuck’s call for a separate page for the first Washington Theatre. RetroMike’s comment of June 14 provides plenty of details for one.
The name of one of the architects is misspelled. It should be Edwin O. Kuenzli. The page of Copper Country Architects devoted to Demetrius F. Charlton and his partners credits Kuenzli, who headed the firm’s Milwaukee office, with the design of this theater. Charlton & Kuenzli also designed the Butler Theatre in Ishpeming, Michigan.
The June 3, 1916, issue of Electrical Review and Western Electrician said that the Butler Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Charlton & Kuenzli, which had offices in Milwaukee and Marquette. Demetrius F. Charlton had designed the Ishpeming City Hall in 1889, prior to his association with Edwin O. Kuenzli.
In the 1915 Los Angeles City Directory, a house called the Columbia Theatre is listed at 2117 W. Jefferson. In the 1923, 1926 and 1927 directories, it’s listed as the address of the Palace Theatre. No directory for 1928 is available online, and I can’t find a theater listed for the address in the 1929 directory, but the 1932 directory lists the Home Theatre at 2117 W. Jefferson.
As the L.A. County Assessor’s office says that the Arlin’s building was built in 1930, something must have happened to the Columbia/Palace building around 1929, and the current building was built in 1930 to replace it.
This page of the City of Milwaukie’s web site mentions the Victory Theatre, and says it was built in 1945.
I’m puzzled by the references to the “Franchon and Marco circuit” and then “Francon and Marco Circuit” in this theater’s description. If it is meant to read Fanchon and Marco, it can’t possibly be true that they had anything to do with the first Washington Theatre. Fanchon and Marco were teenagers (born 1892 and 1894 respectively) in 1910 when the first Washington was built, and living in California.
Fanchon and Marco would not have built the second Washington Theatre either, as in 1923 they were still producing packaged stage shows, primarily for theaters on the west coast, and had not yet gone into direct operation of theaters (though it’s possible that their older brother Rube had begun building the Los Angeles area circuit he operated, South Side Theatres, by that time.)
As far as I’ve been able to determine, the Fanchon & Marco circuit began its partnership with Harry Arthur in 1934, when rapidly expanding F&M took a long-term lease on the St. Louis Fox Theatre, which Arthur had taken over a few years earlier when William Fox went broke. That was when Arthur joined F&M as general manager of their St. Louis operations. He did not acquire the circuit at that time, so much as the circuit acquired him along with the lease on the Fox.
Arthur might have taken complete control of F&M’s Midwestern operations later, as Fanchon Simon and Marco Wolf concentrated more on their other activities and their Los Angeles area theaters, but I haven’t found much information about that period of the company’s history.
Here’s a fresh link to the first page of the article about the Goodhand Theatre in Boxoffice of December 4, 1954 (the article continues on the two subsequent pages.) The magazine says the architect’s name was Wate Porter, but I think it must have been Wade Porter, who was listed in the 1962 AIA directory as having his office in Cheyenne, Wyoming