As the Mansfield Theatre was less than 15 years old in 1941, but had been open for more than 10 years, it was possibly the theater mentioned in the July 8, 1927, issue of Film Daily:
“Mansfield, Mass.— E. L. & H. L. White will build a theater on Main St. from plans by Architect John E. Kelley of Randolph, Mass.”
I think the building must be gone. The only commercial area on South Main Street is in the block just south of West Street/East Street, and none of the buildings there now are big enough to have held a theater. I suspect that the theater was on the corner of East Street, where the Citgo gasoline station is now. Everything else on the block looks fairly old.
This web page has scans of newspaper ads for four of the five theaters that were operating in Salisbury in 1954. They are the Boulevard Theatre, the New Theatre, the Ritz Theatre, and the Wicomico Theatre. Missing is the Ulmans Theatre.
In addition, I’ve come across references to an Arcade Theatre operating in Salisbury by 1917, and still operating in the early 1930s. There are also references to the house as the New Arcade Theatre, so it might be an aka for the New Theatre in the 1954 ad.
The “New Theaters” section of Film Daily for July 1, 1927, mentions a theater to be built at Salisbury:
“Salisbury, Md.— A theater to seat 1,000 and costing $120,000 will be built here soon from plans by Edward C. May, architect of
Wilmington, Del.”
As the Ulmans Theatre was an old opera house and the Boulevard was built in 1947, if this project was completed it must have been one of the other three houses advertised in 1954.
The July 8, 1927, issue of Film Daily says that O. C. Williams was indeed the architect of the theater being built at Pismo Beach for W. W. Ward. The location of the new theater was given as Dolliver and Pomeroy, so there can be no more doubt that the Central Coast/Pismo Theatre and the Ward Theatre of 1927 are the same house.
The “New Theaters” column of the July 1, 1927, issue of Film Daily mentions the Orpheum: “Kingston, N. Y. — Work has started on the
site for the Orpheum on lower Broadway.” It doesn’t clear up the mystery of the Two Orpheums. Possibly the 1927 project was a partial or complete rebuilding of the original Orpheum on the same, or an adjacent, site.
The Rialto has been demolished. It was located on the north side of the 400 block of Broadway Street, about mid-block. The site is now occupied by one end of a modern, two-story building housing an outfit called Four Rivers Behavioral Health.
The historic buildings to the east of the Rialto’s site are all still standing, though some have been considerably altered from the year (I’d guess around 1952) when this photo of Broadway Street, with the Rialto’s marquee at far left, appeared in Life magazine.
Here’s another mention of a theater in Kenedy from the trades, this time from the July 1, 1927, issue of Film Daily:
“Hall Industries Open Another
“Kennedy, Tex. — Hall Industries,
operating a chain in this section, has
opened the Kentex, its second local
house.”
I’ve been unable to discover if the Kentex Theatre was the house that later became the Rialto, or if the Rialto was the other theater Hall was already operating in Kenedy in 1927, or if it was a third theater.
The October 13, 1917, issue of The American Contractor said that the Colonial Theatre on Broad Street in Columbus was being remodeled, and that the work was about 1/3 complete. The architect for the project was Fred W. Elliot.
Here is a web page that is mostly about the original Fairmont Theatre. It says that the house opened on June 4, 1923, and was destroyed by fire in February, 1945. The architect of the original Fairmont Theatre was Fred W. Elliot, of Columbus, Ohio.
seanjung: Thanks for the update. Since I posted my earlier comment, a page for the Olympia has been added to Cinema Treasures. It is listed under the name Roxy Theatre.
Originally the Mann 12 Theatres, this multiplex was designed by Behr Browers Architects, who feature a slide show on their web site. The theaters originally had standard raked floors, but a subsequent remodeling has converted them to stadium seating. The exterior and the lobby of the building were designed in a sort of Palladian Revival style (which the architects' web site inexplicably calls “early American,”) but there were only hints of the style in the auditoriums.
The web site of Behr Browers Architects, designers of the Mann Arvada 14, features a slide show of the theater. It must have been remodeled to accommodate the all-stadium seating it advertises, as the auditorium photos in the slide show have regular sloped floors.
This multiplex was designed by Behr Browers Architects with a Chinese theme, recalling the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, which was then Mann’s flagship house. Behr Browers' web site has a slide show.
The Rex was in the building now occupied by the easterly section of the Army & Navy store (the part with no windows on the upper floors.)
I don’t know if there’s any point in updating the update to the updated link, but this is probably the 1950 photo that keeps going missing. Vancouver Public Library has a user-hostile web site. If the photo vanishes again, I’ll be willing to let it stay lost.
Thanks for the update, Melissa. As the fourth screen was an addition, the ultimate total seating capacity must have been more than 1,600. Do you have any idea what it was?
I came across a web page about Coddingtown Mall. One of the comments (very near the bottom of the page) says that the theater was demolished, but a reply to the comment indicates that it was only partly demolished and the remainder was incorporated into the retail building currently occupied by Beverly’s Crafts & Fabrics. I’ve set Street View to show the entrance of Beverly’s, but I have no idea if that was where the theater entrance was. The building has a style characteristic of the years around 2000, so it must have been substantially altered.
Little detail is visible in this photo of the Queen’s auditorium, but it’s bright enough to reveal that the house had a stadium seating section. The photo is dated 1960.
Here is a 1928 photo of this house when it was called the Palace, and here’s another view from the same year (click the images to embiggen, then see the “All Image Sizes” link to the right of the next page to fetch even bigger versions.)
In this photo of the Palace, there’s an ad for the 1929 movie “Hot Stuff” with Alice White. This film was a musical, so the Palace had been wired for sound by then.
Oddly, there is no theater name visible on the building in any of these photos. The name and location are derived from text written on the sheets to which the photos are mounted.
Here is a close-up photo of the Rialto’s entrance. The movie advertised is “Captain Blood,” which was released in December, 1935, but a smaller market such as Beeville would probably not have gotten the movie until some weeks later, so the photo was probably taken in 1936, about the time the house reopened. This might even have been the first movie shown in the newly remodeled house.
The caption of this photo says that the truck is parked in front of the Queen Theatre. The photo looks to be from the 1920s. Although there appear to be movie posters on the front of the building with the arches, the Queen was actually in the building to the left, only half seen in this photo. This was probably the original 1916 facade of the building.
After the reopening of the house in 1938, it looked like this (though the undated photo appears to have been taken in a later year.) The windows on the second floor had been bricked up, but the brackets under the cornice are recognizable.
A still later photo is dated 1960, but the movie being advertised was released in 1956. The decorative details of the facade are barely visible, perhaps because this is a night shot, or perhaps because they have been covered by another coat of paint.
Still, the theater’s front appears to have looked about the same throughout its history, except for the addition of a modern marquee, probably in 1938. Any significant changes that resulted from the remodeling done that year, designed by architect David S. Castle, must have been on the interior.
The Cinema Treasures page for the Hart Theatre says that it was opened in 1941, and was designed by architect J. T. Knight Jr., while Somdal Associates' timeline gives 1931 as the year they designed the hotel and theater project for Interstate. Given the ten year delay, the original plans must have been abandoned.
A book published in 2001, “Neon Eulogy: Vancouver Café and Street,” by Keith McKellar, attributes the design of the Grandview Theatre to architect Henry Holdsby Simmonds. It also attributes to Simmonds the design of a theater called the Olympia, presumably also in Vancouver, but I can’t find that house listed at Cinema Treasures.
This photo of the Lincoln Theatre probably dates from 1961. In the larger sizes of the photo, the poster for the 1961 movie “Man Trap” can be made out.
David and Noelle Soren’s list of known Boller Brothers theaters includes the Varsity in Columbia.
As the Mansfield Theatre was less than 15 years old in 1941, but had been open for more than 10 years, it was possibly the theater mentioned in the July 8, 1927, issue of Film Daily:
I think the building must be gone. The only commercial area on South Main Street is in the block just south of West Street/East Street, and none of the buildings there now are big enough to have held a theater. I suspect that the theater was on the corner of East Street, where the Citgo gasoline station is now. Everything else on the block looks fairly old.Here are demolition photos of the Boulevard Theatre from 2009:
Part I
Part II
Part III
This web page has scans of newspaper ads for four of the five theaters that were operating in Salisbury in 1954. They are the Boulevard Theatre, the New Theatre, the Ritz Theatre, and the Wicomico Theatre. Missing is the Ulmans Theatre.
In addition, I’ve come across references to an Arcade Theatre operating in Salisbury by 1917, and still operating in the early 1930s. There are also references to the house as the New Arcade Theatre, so it might be an aka for the New Theatre in the 1954 ad.
The “New Theaters” section of Film Daily for July 1, 1927, mentions a theater to be built at Salisbury:
As the Ulmans Theatre was an old opera house and the Boulevard was built in 1947, if this project was completed it must have been one of the other three houses advertised in 1954.The July 8, 1927, issue of Film Daily says that O. C. Williams was indeed the architect of the theater being built at Pismo Beach for W. W. Ward. The location of the new theater was given as Dolliver and Pomeroy, so there can be no more doubt that the Central Coast/Pismo Theatre and the Ward Theatre of 1927 are the same house.
The “New Theaters” column of the July 1, 1927, issue of Film Daily mentions the Orpheum: “Kingston, N. Y. — Work has started on the site for the Orpheum on lower Broadway.” It doesn’t clear up the mystery of the Two Orpheums. Possibly the 1927 project was a partial or complete rebuilding of the original Orpheum on the same, or an adjacent, site.
The Rialto has been demolished. It was located on the north side of the 400 block of Broadway Street, about mid-block. The site is now occupied by one end of a modern, two-story building housing an outfit called Four Rivers Behavioral Health.
The historic buildings to the east of the Rialto’s site are all still standing, though some have been considerably altered from the year (I’d guess around 1952) when this photo of Broadway Street, with the Rialto’s marquee at far left, appeared in Life magazine.
Here’s another mention of a theater in Kenedy from the trades, this time from the July 1, 1927, issue of Film Daily:
I’ve been unable to discover if the Kentex Theatre was the house that later became the Rialto, or if the Rialto was the other theater Hall was already operating in Kenedy in 1927, or if it was a third theater.The 1952 Boxoffice Magazine item about the Plaza Theater cited in my earlier comment is now located at this link.
The October 13, 1917, issue of The American Contractor said that the Colonial Theatre on Broad Street in Columbus was being remodeled, and that the work was about 1/3 complete. The architect for the project was Fred W. Elliot.
Here is a web page that is mostly about the original Fairmont Theatre. It says that the house opened on June 4, 1923, and was destroyed by fire in February, 1945. The architect of the original Fairmont Theatre was Fred W. Elliot, of Columbus, Ohio.
The rebuilt Fairmont was opened on July 18, 1946.
seanjung: Thanks for the update. Since I posted my earlier comment, a page for the Olympia has been added to Cinema Treasures. It is listed under the name Roxy Theatre.
Behr Browers Architects provide a slide show of the Muvico theaters on their web site. The architectural firm is headquartered in Thousand Oaks.
Originally the Mann 12 Theatres, this multiplex was designed by Behr Browers Architects, who feature a slide show on their web site. The theaters originally had standard raked floors, but a subsequent remodeling has converted them to stadium seating. The exterior and the lobby of the building were designed in a sort of Palladian Revival style (which the architects' web site inexplicably calls “early American,”) but there were only hints of the style in the auditoriums.
The web site of Behr Browers Architects, designers of the Mann Arvada 14, features a slide show of the theater. It must have been remodeled to accommodate the all-stadium seating it advertises, as the auditorium photos in the slide show have regular sloped floors.
This multiplex was designed by Behr Browers Architects with a Chinese theme, recalling the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, which was then Mann’s flagship house. Behr Browers' web site has a slide show.
The Rex was in the building now occupied by the easterly section of the Army & Navy store (the part with no windows on the upper floors.)
I don’t know if there’s any point in updating the update to the updated link, but this is probably the 1950 photo that keeps going missing. Vancouver Public Library has a user-hostile web site. If the photo vanishes again, I’ll be willing to let it stay lost.
Thanks for the update, Melissa. As the fourth screen was an addition, the ultimate total seating capacity must have been more than 1,600. Do you have any idea what it was?
I came across a web page about Coddingtown Mall. One of the comments (very near the bottom of the page) says that the theater was demolished, but a reply to the comment indicates that it was only partly demolished and the remainder was incorporated into the retail building currently occupied by Beverly’s Crafts & Fabrics. I’ve set Street View to show the entrance of Beverly’s, but I have no idea if that was where the theater entrance was. The building has a style characteristic of the years around 2000, so it must have been substantially altered.
Little detail is visible in this photo of the Queen’s auditorium, but it’s bright enough to reveal that the house had a stadium seating section. The photo is dated 1960.
Here is a 1928 photo of this house when it was called the Palace, and here’s another view from the same year (click the images to embiggen, then see the “All Image Sizes” link to the right of the next page to fetch even bigger versions.)
In this photo of the Palace, there’s an ad for the 1929 movie “Hot Stuff” with Alice White. This film was a musical, so the Palace had been wired for sound by then.
Oddly, there is no theater name visible on the building in any of these photos. The name and location are derived from text written on the sheets to which the photos are mounted.
Here is a close-up photo of the Rialto’s entrance. The movie advertised is “Captain Blood,” which was released in December, 1935, but a smaller market such as Beeville would probably not have gotten the movie until some weeks later, so the photo was probably taken in 1936, about the time the house reopened. This might even have been the first movie shown in the newly remodeled house.
The caption of this photo says that the truck is parked in front of the Queen Theatre. The photo looks to be from the 1920s. Although there appear to be movie posters on the front of the building with the arches, the Queen was actually in the building to the left, only half seen in this photo. This was probably the original 1916 facade of the building.
After the reopening of the house in 1938, it looked like this (though the undated photo appears to have been taken in a later year.) The windows on the second floor had been bricked up, but the brackets under the cornice are recognizable.
A still later photo is dated 1960, but the movie being advertised was released in 1956. The decorative details of the facade are barely visible, perhaps because this is a night shot, or perhaps because they have been covered by another coat of paint.
Still, the theater’s front appears to have looked about the same throughout its history, except for the addition of a modern marquee, probably in 1938. Any significant changes that resulted from the remodeling done that year, designed by architect David S. Castle, must have been on the interior.
The Cinema Treasures page for the Hart Theatre says that it was opened in 1941, and was designed by architect J. T. Knight Jr., while Somdal Associates' timeline gives 1931 as the year they designed the hotel and theater project for Interstate. Given the ten year delay, the original plans must have been abandoned.
A book published in 2001, “Neon Eulogy: Vancouver Café and Street,” by Keith McKellar, attributes the design of the Grandview Theatre to architect Henry Holdsby Simmonds. It also attributes to Simmonds the design of a theater called the Olympia, presumably also in Vancouver, but I can’t find that house listed at Cinema Treasures.
This photo of the Lincoln Theatre probably dates from 1961. In the larger sizes of the photo, the poster for the 1961 movie “Man Trap” can be made out.
Here is a photo of the San Carlos when it was the Palace Theatre and sported a very slick Art Moderne marquee.
Here is a later photo (probably 1961) with the San Carlos marquee on the building.