The towns of Poteau and Heavener are a few miles apart in LeFlore County, of which Poteau is the County Seat. It seems odd that one town would have a theater named for the other town.
There is a three-screen Poteau Theatre operating in Poteau today, though. Heavener apparently has no theaters open.
The June 9, 1958, issue of Boxoffice reported that the Liberty Theatre at Heavener had been closed for remodeling on May 10, reopening on May 21 for an 11-day run of “The Ten Commandments.”
A July 9, 1958, Boxoffice item about Claud Thompson, operator of the Thompson Theatre, said that he would be away from the theater for several months, having recently suffered a heart attack. The item said that Claud Thompson had been operating the house for many years, since his late father, Jim Thompson, had retired.
Boxoffice of June 9, 1958, said: “The Sequoyah Theatre, which was the only theatre in Tahlequah for many years, has been dismantled.” It’s not clear from the context of the item whether the Sequoyah had been dismantled recently, or some years earlier. The item is actually about Claud Thompson, operator of the Thompson Theatre, but it also mentions the Dream Theatre, operated by Allender Scott, and the Tahlequah Drive-In, operated by Bill Pierce.
The upper part of the Sequoyah Theatre building in the photos looks quite old. From the style I’d guess it dated from the 1910s, or at the latest the early 1920s.
The domain name of the Dream Theatre’s official web site is now for sale. The old official web site is back up, but the man page says only “Currentland is coming soon!” It has a link to The Current, a monthly publication. I have no idea what the connection is. In any case, the Dream Theatre appears to be closed, at least for now.
Though the main page of the old web site doesn’t link to it, one of its obsolete pages survives. It advertises a 2005 event, but it does feature two small photos of the auditorium.
This page from the Wisconsin Historical Society says that the auditorium in Columbus’s City Hall had, among its other functions, “…served as a motion picture theater until the local Rudalt Theater was built in 1917.”
Here is an illustrated article about Orchestra Hall in the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. There are two photos, plus floor plans of four levels of the theater (scroll down.) There is also one photo of C. Howard Crane’s Grand Theatre in Pittsburgh. There are several additional photos of Orchestra Hall beginning on this page.
The pictures can be resized using the + and- buttons in the toolbar at lower right. Whatever size you chose can be downloaded using the usual right click and save commands. That’s useful when the pictures are displayed sideways, as they sometimes are.
Schenck & Williams designed the Dayton Theatre in a restrained Beaux Arts style, as can be seen from the photographs here, in the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. There’s also a floor plan. Scroll down to see a page with four interior photos.
The Internet Archive reader displays the photos as they were published, so some face sideways on the monitor, and there’s no mechanism for turning them right side up. Fortunately, they can be downloaded. Resize the pages using the + sign in the toolbar at lower right, then right click and save as usual. Any decent image viewer program should be able to rotate them. I’d recommend IrfanView for anyone who doesn’t have it. It’s free, and fairly easy to use.
A facade photo and a floor plan of the Frederick Theatre appeared in the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. It can bee seen online here, at the Internet Archive. The caption says that the Frederick was designed by Pittsburgh architect Harry S. Bair.
A book called “Brookville” by Carole A. Briggs has a photo of the Columbia, and provides the information that the 1904 structure was a hotel. The auditorium was added to the back of the building some years later. The alterations were designed by Pittsburgh architect Harry S. Bair.
A photo and floor plan of the Plaza Theatre appeared in the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. It can be seen online here, courtesy of the Internet Archive. The caption attributes the design of the Plaza Theatre to architect Harry S. Bair, who also designed Pittsburgh’s Regent Theatre.
I was hoping to see some interior photos of this theater here, so I could compare them with the photos of a Pittsburgh theater called the Grand, designed by C. Howard Crane and displayed on this page of the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. As the Warner is the only Pittsburgh theater attributed to Crane at Cinema Treasures, I’m guessing that it must be the 1920 Grand. Maybe somebody who attended the Warner will recognize it in the photos and confirm my surmise.
Scroll down the page at Internet Archive to see a longitudinal section and floor plans of the Grand Theatre. Pages can be resized using the + and – signs in the toolbar at lower left, and the images can be dowloaded in the size you’ve chosen using your computer’s usual right click-save feature.
The Book “West Haven Revisited” by Carole A. Laydon McElrath displays the front page of a souvenir program from the opening day of the Rivoli, which was December 25, 1926.
A book published in 1918 titled “A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County” says this about a Mr. William H. Wood: “In 1916 he, in partnership with his brother-inlaw, Wm. H. Whitman, erected a fine large modern building at No. 812 Dixwell avenue in Highwood for his drug store and the Dixwell Theater.”
Bing Maps locates 812 Dixwell Avenue across Cherry Ann Street from the Dixwell Theatre, and that lot is the site of some buildings that look to date from before 1916, so I suspect that a renumbering of the lots has taken place, and the 1916 Dixwell was on the same lot as the current Dixwell.
The question then is whether the current Dixwell Theatre is the 1916 house, and it was remodeled in 1938, of if some disaster befell the 1916 theater and it was replaced by an entirely new building in 1938. The bird’s eye view at Bing Maps shows that the bulk of the theater is a brick structure of a type that might have been built in either year, so it provides no answer.
Responding to the comments by Prov (March 16, 2008) and Ron Salters (October 19, 2008,) I’ve found this item in the trade journal The Moving Picture World, issue of August 19, 1916: “LOWELL, MASS.â€"Archts. Funk & Wilcox, 120 Boylston street, Boston, are preparing plans for a two-story theater, store and office building, 52 by 115 feet, and 106 by 151 feet.” The project must have been the Strand.
The matchbook picture shows that the Adams was a Streamline Modern style theater. I found a Facebook comment by a user from Dorchester who says she remembers seeing the Adams Theatre built and seeing it torn down, though she doesn’t say what years those were. She also remembers seeing “Now, Voyager” and “Gone With the Wind” at the Adams. My guess would be that the house was probably built in the late 1930s, and certainly no later than 1940.
Patricia Favata’s book says that the damage to the theater from the 1943 fire that destroyed the building next door was primarily water damage. Apparently, the fire burned so hot that the fire department had to keep pouring water on the theater’s roof to prevent it from combusting. The 1943 fire took place on January 22.
The long delay in the restoration and reopening of the theater was probably due to the wartime shortages of materials, and the difficulty in getting permits. As Newburgh was then plentifully supplied with theaters, restoring the Broadway would not have been given a high priority by the Federal officials in charge of such matters.
Warren is correct. The building in the photo he linked to might or might not be in Newburgh, but it certainly isn’t the Broadway Theatre. Not only was the Broadway, as restored after the 1943 fire, an Art Moderne building, but it was demolished following the second fire in 1965, so couldn’t have been there to be photographed in 1986.
It’s possible that the building in the photo was not a theater at all. The entrance was awfully narrow for a theater, plus it looks like the side walls had large, factory-style windows in them. It might have originally been a printing plant or some such thing. Whatever its original use, it certainly looks to have been built in the 19th century. The small, moderne marquee and the poster cases at the entrance suggest that it might have been used later as a dance hall, as those frequently had such features.
As for the Broadway Theatre, according to the book “Newburgh: The Heart of the City,” by Patricia A. Favata, the Broadway originally opened on February 28, 1914. The 1965 fire which ended its career took place on September 1.
Gustavus A. Mang must have been the local associate architect for this theater. The Regent Theatre in Buffalo is listed among the works of Detroit architect C. Howard Crane in the thesis of Lisa Maria DiChiera, “The Theater Designs of C. Howard Crane,” which can be read on line at the Internet Archive.
Like the Majestic Theatre (1915) in Detroit, also a Crane design, the Regent featured a section of stadium seating which had considerably greater capacity than the orchestra floor.
Loren Ruth Lerner and Mary F. Williamson’s book “Art and Architecture in Canada” attributes the design of the Bedford Theatre to architect Murray Brown.
The July, 1916, issue of Canadian trade journal Construction featured a multi-page article about the Theatre St-Denis with more than a dozen photos, drawings, and plans. Read online at the Internet Archive, or choose another format from this page.
An article titled “Some Problems in Theatre Construction” in the July, 1921, issue of the Canadian journal Construction is illustrated by photos of the Allen Theatre in Vancouver. The facade, entrance, foyer, mezzanine, balcony, and auditorium are all depicted. Judging from the photos, I’d consider the architectural style to be predominantly Adamesque rather than Greek Revival.
The article is available online from the Internet Archive (for those whose browsers might not be compatible with that format, you can select other formats from this page.) Navigating the Internet Archive’s online reader can be tricky, until you get used to it, which is why I usually link to the easier-to-use Google Books when they both have the item available, even though Internet Archive provides far better page scans.
The November 26, 1919, issue of the trade journal Engineering and Contracting featured an article about the construction system used for the roof the new theater. There are four line drawings, one of which (a longitudinal section of the building) was unfortunately printed upside down.
Allen’s Bloor Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Hynes, Feldman & Watson, also designers of Allen’s Downtown Theatre (later the Tivoli) and associate architects for Allen’s Danforth Theatre, now the Danforth Music Hall.
Loren Ruth Lerner and Mary F. Williamson’s book “Art and Architecture of Canada” calls the exterior style of the Bloor Theatre “somewhat Italian” and describes the interior as “…a modern development of Louis XVI style….”
This web page says that the Rich Theatre opened in 1923 in a building formerly occupied by an automobile dealership.
I wonder if the project listed in the January 6, 1919, issue of the trade journal Lumber ever got built:
“Montpelierâ€"S. A. Shreeve, architect, Col.-Hudson Building, Ogden, Utah, is preparing preliminary plans for 80x150 ft. brick theater on Main Street here. $70,000.”
Does anybody know if there were any other theaters operating in Montpelier during the 1920s?
The towns of Poteau and Heavener are a few miles apart in LeFlore County, of which Poteau is the County Seat. It seems odd that one town would have a theater named for the other town.
There is a three-screen Poteau Theatre operating in Poteau today, though. Heavener apparently has no theaters open.
The June 9, 1958, issue of Boxoffice reported that the Liberty Theatre at Heavener had been closed for remodeling on May 10, reopening on May 21 for an 11-day run of “The Ten Commandments.”
A July 9, 1958, Boxoffice item about Claud Thompson, operator of the Thompson Theatre, said that he would be away from the theater for several months, having recently suffered a heart attack. The item said that Claud Thompson had been operating the house for many years, since his late father, Jim Thompson, had retired.
Boxoffice of June 9, 1958, said: “The Sequoyah Theatre, which was the only theatre in Tahlequah for many years, has been dismantled.” It’s not clear from the context of the item whether the Sequoyah had been dismantled recently, or some years earlier. The item is actually about Claud Thompson, operator of the Thompson Theatre, but it also mentions the Dream Theatre, operated by Allender Scott, and the Tahlequah Drive-In, operated by Bill Pierce.
The upper part of the Sequoyah Theatre building in the photos looks quite old. From the style I’d guess it dated from the 1910s, or at the latest the early 1920s.
The domain name of the Dream Theatre’s official web site is now for sale. The old official web site is back up, but the man page says only “Currentland is coming soon!” It has a link to The Current, a monthly publication. I have no idea what the connection is. In any case, the Dream Theatre appears to be closed, at least for now.
Though the main page of the old web site doesn’t link to it, one of its obsolete pages survives. It advertises a 2005 event, but it does feature two small photos of the auditorium.
According to this web page about Tecumseh, the Opera House was built in 1905.
This page from the Wisconsin Historical Society says that the auditorium in Columbus’s City Hall had, among its other functions, “…served as a motion picture theater until the local Rudalt Theater was built in 1917.”
Here is an illustrated article about Orchestra Hall in the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. There are two photos, plus floor plans of four levels of the theater (scroll down.) There is also one photo of C. Howard Crane’s Grand Theatre in Pittsburgh. There are several additional photos of Orchestra Hall beginning on this page.
The pictures can be resized using the + and- buttons in the toolbar at lower right. Whatever size you chose can be downloaded using the usual right click and save commands. That’s useful when the pictures are displayed sideways, as they sometimes are.
Schenck & Williams designed the Dayton Theatre in a restrained Beaux Arts style, as can be seen from the photographs here, in the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. There’s also a floor plan. Scroll down to see a page with four interior photos.
The Internet Archive reader displays the photos as they were published, so some face sideways on the monitor, and there’s no mechanism for turning them right side up. Fortunately, they can be downloaded. Resize the pages using the + sign in the toolbar at lower right, then right click and save as usual. Any decent image viewer program should be able to rotate them. I’d recommend IrfanView for anyone who doesn’t have it. It’s free, and fairly easy to use.
A facade photo and a floor plan of the Frederick Theatre appeared in the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. It can bee seen online here, at the Internet Archive. The caption says that the Frederick was designed by Pittsburgh architect Harry S. Bair.
A book called “Brookville” by Carole A. Briggs has a photo of the Columbia, and provides the information that the 1904 structure was a hotel. The auditorium was added to the back of the building some years later. The alterations were designed by Pittsburgh architect Harry S. Bair.
A photo and floor plan of the Plaza Theatre appeared in the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. It can be seen online here, courtesy of the Internet Archive. The caption attributes the design of the Plaza Theatre to architect Harry S. Bair, who also designed Pittsburgh’s Regent Theatre.
I was hoping to see some interior photos of this theater here, so I could compare them with the photos of a Pittsburgh theater called the Grand, designed by C. Howard Crane and displayed on this page of the August, 1920, issue of the professional journal Architecture. As the Warner is the only Pittsburgh theater attributed to Crane at Cinema Treasures, I’m guessing that it must be the 1920 Grand. Maybe somebody who attended the Warner will recognize it in the photos and confirm my surmise.
Scroll down the page at Internet Archive to see a longitudinal section and floor plans of the Grand Theatre. Pages can be resized using the + and – signs in the toolbar at lower left, and the images can be dowloaded in the size you’ve chosen using your computer’s usual right click-save feature.
The Book “West Haven Revisited” by Carole A. Laydon McElrath displays the front page of a souvenir program from the opening day of the Rivoli, which was December 25, 1926.
A book published in 1918 titled “A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County” says this about a Mr. William H. Wood: “In 1916 he, in partnership with his brother-inlaw, Wm. H. Whitman, erected a fine large modern building at No. 812 Dixwell avenue in Highwood for his drug store and the Dixwell Theater.”
Bing Maps locates 812 Dixwell Avenue across Cherry Ann Street from the Dixwell Theatre, and that lot is the site of some buildings that look to date from before 1916, so I suspect that a renumbering of the lots has taken place, and the 1916 Dixwell was on the same lot as the current Dixwell.
The question then is whether the current Dixwell Theatre is the 1916 house, and it was remodeled in 1938, of if some disaster befell the 1916 theater and it was replaced by an entirely new building in 1938. The bird’s eye view at Bing Maps shows that the bulk of the theater is a brick structure of a type that might have been built in either year, so it provides no answer.
Responding to the comments by Prov (March 16, 2008) and Ron Salters (October 19, 2008,) I’ve found this item in the trade journal The Moving Picture World, issue of August 19, 1916: “LOWELL, MASS.â€"Archts. Funk & Wilcox, 120 Boylston street, Boston, are preparing plans for a two-story theater, store and office building, 52 by 115 feet, and 106 by 151 feet.” The project must have been the Strand.
The matchbook picture shows that the Adams was a Streamline Modern style theater. I found a Facebook comment by a user from Dorchester who says she remembers seeing the Adams Theatre built and seeing it torn down, though she doesn’t say what years those were. She also remembers seeing “Now, Voyager” and “Gone With the Wind” at the Adams. My guess would be that the house was probably built in the late 1930s, and certainly no later than 1940.
Patricia Favata’s book says that the damage to the theater from the 1943 fire that destroyed the building next door was primarily water damage. Apparently, the fire burned so hot that the fire department had to keep pouring water on the theater’s roof to prevent it from combusting. The 1943 fire took place on January 22.
The long delay in the restoration and reopening of the theater was probably due to the wartime shortages of materials, and the difficulty in getting permits. As Newburgh was then plentifully supplied with theaters, restoring the Broadway would not have been given a high priority by the Federal officials in charge of such matters.
Warren is correct. The building in the photo he linked to might or might not be in Newburgh, but it certainly isn’t the Broadway Theatre. Not only was the Broadway, as restored after the 1943 fire, an Art Moderne building, but it was demolished following the second fire in 1965, so couldn’t have been there to be photographed in 1986.
It’s possible that the building in the photo was not a theater at all. The entrance was awfully narrow for a theater, plus it looks like the side walls had large, factory-style windows in them. It might have originally been a printing plant or some such thing. Whatever its original use, it certainly looks to have been built in the 19th century. The small, moderne marquee and the poster cases at the entrance suggest that it might have been used later as a dance hall, as those frequently had such features.
As for the Broadway Theatre, according to the book “Newburgh: The Heart of the City,” by Patricia A. Favata, the Broadway originally opened on February 28, 1914. The 1965 fire which ended its career took place on September 1.
Gustavus A. Mang must have been the local associate architect for this theater. The Regent Theatre in Buffalo is listed among the works of Detroit architect C. Howard Crane in the thesis of Lisa Maria DiChiera, “The Theater Designs of C. Howard Crane,” which can be read on line at the Internet Archive.
Like the Majestic Theatre (1915) in Detroit, also a Crane design, the Regent featured a section of stadium seating which had considerably greater capacity than the orchestra floor.
Loren Ruth Lerner and Mary F. Williamson’s book “Art and Architecture in Canada” attributes the design of the Bedford Theatre to architect Murray Brown.
The July, 1916, issue of Canadian trade journal Construction featured a multi-page article about the Theatre St-Denis with more than a dozen photos, drawings, and plans. Read online at the Internet Archive, or choose another format from this page.
An article titled “Some Problems in Theatre Construction” in the July, 1921, issue of the Canadian journal Construction is illustrated by photos of the Allen Theatre in Vancouver. The facade, entrance, foyer, mezzanine, balcony, and auditorium are all depicted. Judging from the photos, I’d consider the architectural style to be predominantly Adamesque rather than Greek Revival.
The article is available online from the Internet Archive (for those whose browsers might not be compatible with that format, you can select other formats from this page.) Navigating the Internet Archive’s online reader can be tricky, until you get used to it, which is why I usually link to the easier-to-use Google Books when they both have the item available, even though Internet Archive provides far better page scans.
The November 26, 1919, issue of the trade journal Engineering and Contracting featured an article about the construction system used for the roof the new theater. There are four line drawings, one of which (a longitudinal section of the building) was unfortunately printed upside down.
Allen’s Bloor Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Hynes, Feldman & Watson, also designers of Allen’s Downtown Theatre (later the Tivoli) and associate architects for Allen’s Danforth Theatre, now the Danforth Music Hall.
Loren Ruth Lerner and Mary F. Williamson’s book “Art and Architecture of Canada” calls the exterior style of the Bloor Theatre “somewhat Italian” and describes the interior as “…a modern development of Louis XVI style….”
This web page says that the Rich Theatre opened in 1923 in a building formerly occupied by an automobile dealership.
I wonder if the project listed in the January 6, 1919, issue of the trade journal Lumber ever got built:
Does anybody know if there were any other theaters operating in Montpelier during the 1920s?