A Town and Country Cinema opened as a 600-seat single-screener in the Town & Country Shopping Center in Southern Pines in 1966. Originally operated by Stewart & Everett Theatres, it was one of at least two theaters designed about this time for the chain by Charles H. Wheatley & Associates. S&E was then operating over 70 theatres in North Carolina and Virginia, the Sunrise in Southern Pines among them.
The June 6, 1977, issue of Boxoffice listed among new theater projects completed in 1976 a 325-seat Town & Country Cinema 2, at Southern Pines, for Stewart & Everett Theatres. This was apparently either a second screen added to (or carved from) the original Town and Country Cinema, or an entirely new twin built as a replacement for the 1966 single-screen house. Boxoffice does not specify. Old reports or ads from the area’s newspaper(s) could undoubtedly clear this up.
The January 22, 1968, issue of Boxoffice said that Chakeres Theatres' University Cinema in Morehead had opened on January 11th. The item gave the seating capacity as 750.
The Mills was probably called the Cozy prior to 1940. A December 9, 1939, Boxoffice item said that L.H. Mills was taking over the Cozy Theatre in Morehead. By 1943, Boxoffice is mentioning Lou Mills as operator of the Mills Theatre in Morehead.
Warren Schafer, operator of the Trail Theatre in Morehead, operated the Cozy for about two months in 1939 before selling it to Mills, then bought the Mills Theatre from Mills early in 1944. I don’t find the Cozy mentioned after 1939 or the Mills mentioned before 1942. They were probably the same theater. In 1948, Schafer sold both houses to Chakeres Theatres.
A July 15, 1939, Boxoffice item said that all three of the theaters in Morehead had escaped damage from recent flooding. Though none of the theater names were given in the item, the third theater must have been the Morehead College Theatre, which a 1935 Boxoffice item said was operated as a regular movie theater, open to the public, operated in the school’s auditorium by a professor.
This 1935 item also mentions a “…defunct Blue Eagle….” in Morehead, whose operator had unsuccessfully sued the college to prevent it from competing with has privately-owned theater. By the early 1940s Boxoffice was saying there were two theaters in Morehead, so the College operation, last mentioned by name in the magazine in 1938, must have shut down by then.
The most recent mention of the Mills I’ve found in Boxoffice is in the December 15, 1952, issue, when Chakeres Theatres announced plans for a new drive-in at Morehead. The Trail, a 400-seat house opened by Schafer in 1937, is mentioned as late as 1954, when CinemaScope was installed.
I found a reference to this theater as the Lillian in the February 22, 1941, issue of Boxoffice. The item said that Crescent had acquired the theater three years earlier. They were having the house remodeled. Plans were by the local architectural firm of Speight & Hibbs. A new facade and marquee were planned, so this may be when the name was changed.
In any case, the theater had been renamed the Roxy by 1946, when its destruction by fire was reported in the January 19 issue of Boxoffice. So far I’ve been unable to find anything in Boxoffice about the reconstruction, but I suspect that Speight & Hibbs did the design for that, too. From the photos it certainly resembles their other work of the period.
Photos of the Josephine Theatre appeared in the November 15, 1947, issue of Boxoffice. The architects were Noonan & Noonan (the only theater that firm ever designed, as far as I’ve been able to discover.) The style was a rather severe take on Art Moderne, not Art Deco.
The 1938 photo has vanished, but here’s one dated 1940. The Ritz in the photo burned in 1947.
The new, Art Moderne style Ritz, designed by the Clarksville, Tennessee, architectural firm of Speight & Hibbs, opened in 1948 as reported in Boxoffice of October 16 that year. The Ritz was operated by the Ruffin Amusement Company, also operators of the Rex Theatre in Hickman.
It looks to me like all the photos linked above depict the Dickson Theatre. The Roxy was an older theater, operating at least as early as 1939. It closed in 1952, a year after the Dickson Theatre opened.
The Dickson Theatre opened on July 11, 1951, according to the July 21 issue of Boxoffice. The new house was owned by Mrs. Helen Bruster (a couple of issues of Boxoffice use the spelling Brewster, apparently an error) according to an announcement in Boxoffice of August 19, 1950. The Dickson Theatre was designed by the Clarksville, Tennessee, architectural firm of Speight & Hibbs. Various seating capacities were given in various issues of Boxoffice, ranging from 750 to 950.
Mrs. Bruster also operated the older Roxy Theatre, from at least 1939, per mentions of it in various Boxoffice issues. The Roxy was last mentioned in the October 18, 1952, issue of Boxoffice, which said: “Helen Bruster announces the Roxy, Dickson, Tenn., has been closed permanently.”
Helen Bruster also opened the Dickson Drive-In at Dickson in 1955, according to Boxoffice of October 1 that year.
In 1932 there was a Gaiety Theatre in Dickson, mentioned in New England Film News of May 12. Perhaps an earlier name for the Roxy? A theater called the Plaza opened in Dickson in late 1966, and was still operating in 1977.
There is currently a multiplex in Dickson called the Roxy 8 Movie Theatre, so the name survives even if the old Roxy is history.
I’ve been unable to find out anything about the Aurora Theatre in Boxoffice, but between 1943 and 1947 there are a few references to Glen Caldwell being the operator of the Princess and Caldwell Theatres in Aurora. I wonder if he reopened the former Aurora under the name Caldwell when the Princess burned in 1943, then kept it open for a few years after the Princess was rebuilt? None of the Boxoffice items I’ve read are telling.
An item about the Clover Theatre, as yet unnamed, appeared in Boxoffice, August 17, 1940. The item gave the location as Cloverdale Road and Fairview Avenue. The new house for R.B. Wilby’s Alabama Theatres was designed by Montgomery architect William J. Okel. Okel designed a few other theaters but I’ve not yet tracked them down.
The Plaza Theatre was remodeled and redecorated at a cost of $25,000 in 1940, as described in an illustrated article in Boxoffice Magazine of August 17 that year. The architect for the project was Larry P. Larsen.
An article in the August 17, 1940, issue of Boxoffice has a paragraph mentioning the Rose Theatre and its owner-operator, F.R. Thompson. Mr. Thompson was celebrating his 59th birthday and had recently completed construction of a new house for himself and his wife. Quoth Boxoffice writer Rene Clayton: “Mr. Thompson, who is a very fine architect if we are to judge by the Rose which he designed and built practically single-handed, designed and built the new Thompson home as well.”
The Georgia Theatre must be the project mentioned in the August 17, 1940, issue of Boxoffice. Headed “625-Seat Negro Theatre Planned in Memphis,” the item gave the location as the corner of Georgia and Mississippi avenues. Designed by architect Raymond B. Spencer, the new house was slated to cost $35,000.
The June 15, 1940, issue of Boxoffice said that the new State in Logansport had opened on June 8. It was operated by the Alliance Theatre Corporation, also operators of the Roxy and Paramount at Logansport.
A photo of the auditorium of the State Theatre illustrated an advertisement for American Avion Theatre Chairs in the August 17, 1940, issue of Boxoffice. There were 1074 seats in the State. The architect of the theater was Irving M. Karlin, Chicago.
The Orpheum Theatre in Ottawa was rebuilt in 1937, several years after it had been virtually destroyed by a fire. Three walls of the original building remained standing, and the side walls were incorporated into the new theater by architect Irving M. Karlin. The surviving facade wall was demolished. Karlin wrote an article about the project which was published in the October 16, 1937, issue of Boxoffice. The new Orpheum was designed in the Moderne style.
The State Theatre (its original name) was opened in 1950, before November 4, when an article about it, written by decorator Haans Teichert, appeared in Boxoffice Magazine. Designed by Cleveland architect George Ebeling and decorated by Rex M. Davis of the Teichert Studios, the State Theatre was originally operated by the Cuyahoga Falls Amusement Company, headed by Moe Horowitz of the Washington circuit. The Loew’s circuit did not acquire the State until 1968, according to an item in Boxoffice, March 17, 1969.
George Ebeling designed numerous theaters in Ohio between the late 1930s and his sudden death in 1951, and was for a time a member of the advisory board of Boxoffice Magazine’s Modern Theatre Planning Institute. Among theaters he designed were the Lake Theatre in Painesville, the Yorktown Theatre in Cleveland, the Mapletown Theatre in Cleveland, and the Mentor Drive-In at Mentor, Ohio.
Albert A. Weis took over the Grand Opera House in 1910, according to an item in the New York Times of June 28 that year. The article said that Weis controlled a circuit of theaters in Texas, Mississippi, and adjoining states.
The December 10, 1938, issue of Boxoffice said that a permit had been granted for the installation of a marquee at the Bibb Theatre.
In its October 15 issue, Boxoffice had reported on an unnamed theater nearing completion on 3rd Street in Macon. It was to have 800 seats. I think it must have been the Bibb. The article implied that the new theater was being built in an existing building, saying “…workmen have nearly completed removal of two upper floors to make room for the balcony.”
The November 25, 1963, issue of Boxoffice announced that the the Bibb Theatre was to undergo a $150,000 remodeling. Reconfiguration of the auditorium and seating would reduce the capacity of the house to 550 seats. The plans for the remodeling were drawn by the Atlanta architectural firm of Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild & Paschal.
The June 7, 1941, issue of Boxoffice said that Fred G. Weis had recently opened the Roxy Theatre in Savannah. The item said that the Roxy was located on the site of the Arcadia Theatre, a Lucas & Jenkins house which Weis had taken over early in 1941.
Though the phrasing of the June 7 item made it sound as though the Roxy was new construction, a February 8 Boxoffice item about the takeover had said that Weis and his partners, operating as F&W Theatres, intended to remodel the Arcadia and perhaps give it a new name. As four months would have been little time for demolition and rebuilding, it’s most likely that the Roxy was in the same building as the Arcadia, which would thus be an aka.
The September 11, 1948, issue of Boxoffice ran an article about the intention of Fred G. Weis to rebuild the Savannah Theatre. It said that Weis, son of impresario Albert A. Weis, had been operating the Savannah since 1920. This item also named Robert E. Collins and Carl E. Helfrich as the architects for the project.
The Weslin must be the unnamed theater mentioned in a June 24, 1939, Boxoffice article that said: “William N. Skirball will build an 800-seat house in Massillon according to plans by Architect John Eberson of New York. Located on Lincoln Way, the theatre will have the newest type of equipment throughout.”
The February 18, 1939, issue of Boxoffice said that work had begun on a new theater for Schwartz and Shulman in Painesville. The architect was George Ebeling, of Cleveland, who designed many other theatres in Ohio. The Lake was listed as one of Ebeling’s designs in his obituary in Boxoffice of November 21, 1951.
A Town and Country Cinema opened as a 600-seat single-screener in the Town & Country Shopping Center in Southern Pines in 1966. Originally operated by Stewart & Everett Theatres, it was one of at least two theaters designed about this time for the chain by Charles H. Wheatley & Associates. S&E was then operating over 70 theatres in North Carolina and Virginia, the Sunrise in Southern Pines among them.
The June 6, 1977, issue of Boxoffice listed among new theater projects completed in 1976 a 325-seat Town & Country Cinema 2, at Southern Pines, for Stewart & Everett Theatres. This was apparently either a second screen added to (or carved from) the original Town and Country Cinema, or an entirely new twin built as a replacement for the 1966 single-screen house. Boxoffice does not specify. Old reports or ads from the area’s newspaper(s) could undoubtedly clear this up.
The January 22, 1968, issue of Boxoffice said that Chakeres Theatres' University Cinema in Morehead had opened on January 11th. The item gave the seating capacity as 750.
The Mills was probably called the Cozy prior to 1940. A December 9, 1939, Boxoffice item said that L.H. Mills was taking over the Cozy Theatre in Morehead. By 1943, Boxoffice is mentioning Lou Mills as operator of the Mills Theatre in Morehead.
Warren Schafer, operator of the Trail Theatre in Morehead, operated the Cozy for about two months in 1939 before selling it to Mills, then bought the Mills Theatre from Mills early in 1944. I don’t find the Cozy mentioned after 1939 or the Mills mentioned before 1942. They were probably the same theater. In 1948, Schafer sold both houses to Chakeres Theatres.
A July 15, 1939, Boxoffice item said that all three of the theaters in Morehead had escaped damage from recent flooding. Though none of the theater names were given in the item, the third theater must have been the Morehead College Theatre, which a 1935 Boxoffice item said was operated as a regular movie theater, open to the public, operated in the school’s auditorium by a professor.
This 1935 item also mentions a “…defunct Blue Eagle….” in Morehead, whose operator had unsuccessfully sued the college to prevent it from competing with has privately-owned theater. By the early 1940s Boxoffice was saying there were two theaters in Morehead, so the College operation, last mentioned by name in the magazine in 1938, must have shut down by then.
The most recent mention of the Mills I’ve found in Boxoffice is in the December 15, 1952, issue, when Chakeres Theatres announced plans for a new drive-in at Morehead. The Trail, a 400-seat house opened by Schafer in 1937, is mentioned as late as 1954, when CinemaScope was installed.
I found a reference to this theater as the Lillian in the February 22, 1941, issue of Boxoffice. The item said that Crescent had acquired the theater three years earlier. They were having the house remodeled. Plans were by the local architectural firm of Speight & Hibbs. A new facade and marquee were planned, so this may be when the name was changed.
In any case, the theater had been renamed the Roxy by 1946, when its destruction by fire was reported in the January 19 issue of Boxoffice. So far I’ve been unable to find anything in Boxoffice about the reconstruction, but I suspect that Speight & Hibbs did the design for that, too. From the photos it certainly resembles their other work of the period.
Photos of the Josephine Theatre appeared in the November 15, 1947, issue of Boxoffice. The architects were Noonan & Noonan (the only theater that firm ever designed, as far as I’ve been able to discover.) The style was a rather severe take on Art Moderne, not Art Deco.
The 1938 photo has vanished, but here’s one dated 1940. The Ritz in the photo burned in 1947.
The new, Art Moderne style Ritz, designed by the Clarksville, Tennessee, architectural firm of Speight & Hibbs, opened in 1948 as reported in Boxoffice of October 16 that year. The Ritz was operated by the Ruffin Amusement Company, also operators of the Rex Theatre in Hickman.
It looks to me like all the photos linked above depict the Dickson Theatre. The Roxy was an older theater, operating at least as early as 1939. It closed in 1952, a year after the Dickson Theatre opened.
The Dickson Theatre opened on July 11, 1951, according to the July 21 issue of Boxoffice. The new house was owned by Mrs. Helen Bruster (a couple of issues of Boxoffice use the spelling Brewster, apparently an error) according to an announcement in Boxoffice of August 19, 1950. The Dickson Theatre was designed by the Clarksville, Tennessee, architectural firm of Speight & Hibbs. Various seating capacities were given in various issues of Boxoffice, ranging from 750 to 950.
Mrs. Bruster also operated the older Roxy Theatre, from at least 1939, per mentions of it in various Boxoffice issues. The Roxy was last mentioned in the October 18, 1952, issue of Boxoffice, which said: “Helen Bruster announces the Roxy, Dickson, Tenn., has been closed permanently.”
Helen Bruster also opened the Dickson Drive-In at Dickson in 1955, according to Boxoffice of October 1 that year.
In 1932 there was a Gaiety Theatre in Dickson, mentioned in New England Film News of May 12. Perhaps an earlier name for the Roxy? A theater called the Plaza opened in Dickson in late 1966, and was still operating in 1977.
There is currently a multiplex in Dickson called the Roxy 8 Movie Theatre, so the name survives even if the old Roxy is history.
I’ve been unable to find out anything about the Aurora Theatre in Boxoffice, but between 1943 and 1947 there are a few references to Glen Caldwell being the operator of the Princess and Caldwell Theatres in Aurora. I wonder if he reopened the former Aurora under the name Caldwell when the Princess burned in 1943, then kept it open for a few years after the Princess was rebuilt? None of the Boxoffice items I’ve read are telling.
Architect Irving Karlin’s middle initial is M, not R.
Irving M. Karlin also designed the State Theatre at Logansport, Indiana, and the rebuilding of the Orpheum Theatre in Ottawa, Illinois.
An item about the Clover Theatre, as yet unnamed, appeared in Boxoffice, August 17, 1940. The item gave the location as Cloverdale Road and Fairview Avenue. The new house for R.B. Wilby’s Alabama Theatres was designed by Montgomery architect William J. Okel. Okel designed a few other theaters but I’ve not yet tracked them down.
Additional photographs of the Varsity illustrate an article about the recently-opened house in Boxoffice of August 17, 1940.
The Plaza Theatre was remodeled and redecorated at a cost of $25,000 in 1940, as described in an illustrated article in Boxoffice Magazine of August 17 that year. The architect for the project was Larry P. Larsen.
An article in the August 17, 1940, issue of Boxoffice has a paragraph mentioning the Rose Theatre and its owner-operator, F.R. Thompson. Mr. Thompson was celebrating his 59th birthday and had recently completed construction of a new house for himself and his wife. Quoth Boxoffice writer Rene Clayton: “Mr. Thompson, who is a very fine architect if we are to judge by the Rose which he designed and built practically single-handed, designed and built the new Thompson home as well.”
The Georgia Theatre must be the project mentioned in the August 17, 1940, issue of Boxoffice. Headed “625-Seat Negro Theatre Planned in Memphis,” the item gave the location as the corner of Georgia and Mississippi avenues. Designed by architect Raymond B. Spencer, the new house was slated to cost $35,000.
The June 15, 1940, issue of Boxoffice said that the new State in Logansport had opened on June 8. It was operated by the Alliance Theatre Corporation, also operators of the Roxy and Paramount at Logansport.
A photo of the auditorium of the State Theatre illustrated an advertisement for American Avion Theatre Chairs in the August 17, 1940, issue of Boxoffice. There were 1074 seats in the State. The architect of the theater was Irving M. Karlin, Chicago.
The Orpheum Theatre in Ottawa was rebuilt in 1937, several years after it had been virtually destroyed by a fire. Three walls of the original building remained standing, and the side walls were incorporated into the new theater by architect Irving M. Karlin. The surviving facade wall was demolished. Karlin wrote an article about the project which was published in the October 16, 1937, issue of Boxoffice. The new Orpheum was designed in the Moderne style.
The State Theatre (its original name) was opened in 1950, before November 4, when an article about it, written by decorator Haans Teichert, appeared in Boxoffice Magazine. Designed by Cleveland architect George Ebeling and decorated by Rex M. Davis of the Teichert Studios, the State Theatre was originally operated by the Cuyahoga Falls Amusement Company, headed by Moe Horowitz of the Washington circuit. The Loew’s circuit did not acquire the State until 1968, according to an item in Boxoffice, March 17, 1969.
George Ebeling designed numerous theaters in Ohio between the late 1930s and his sudden death in 1951, and was for a time a member of the advisory board of Boxoffice Magazine’s Modern Theatre Planning Institute. Among theaters he designed were the Lake Theatre in Painesville, the Yorktown Theatre in Cleveland, the Mapletown Theatre in Cleveland, and the Mentor Drive-In at Mentor, Ohio.
Albert A. Weis took over the Grand Opera House in 1910, according to an item in the New York Times of June 28 that year. The article said that Weis controlled a circuit of theaters in Texas, Mississippi, and adjoining states.
The December 10, 1938, issue of Boxoffice said that a permit had been granted for the installation of a marquee at the Bibb Theatre.
In its October 15 issue, Boxoffice had reported on an unnamed theater nearing completion on 3rd Street in Macon. It was to have 800 seats. I think it must have been the Bibb. The article implied that the new theater was being built in an existing building, saying “…workmen have nearly completed removal of two upper floors to make room for the balcony.”
The November 25, 1963, issue of Boxoffice announced that the the Bibb Theatre was to undergo a $150,000 remodeling. Reconfiguration of the auditorium and seating would reduce the capacity of the house to 550 seats. The plans for the remodeling were drawn by the Atlanta architectural firm of Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild & Paschal.
The June 7, 1941, issue of Boxoffice said that Fred G. Weis had recently opened the Roxy Theatre in Savannah. The item said that the Roxy was located on the site of the Arcadia Theatre, a Lucas & Jenkins house which Weis had taken over early in 1941.
Though the phrasing of the June 7 item made it sound as though the Roxy was new construction, a February 8 Boxoffice item about the takeover had said that Weis and his partners, operating as F&W Theatres, intended to remodel the Arcadia and perhaps give it a new name. As four months would have been little time for demolition and rebuilding, it’s most likely that the Roxy was in the same building as the Arcadia, which would thus be an aka.
The September 11, 1948, issue of Boxoffice ran an article about the intention of Fred G. Weis to rebuild the Savannah Theatre. It said that Weis, son of impresario Albert A. Weis, had been operating the Savannah since 1920. This item also named Robert E. Collins and Carl E. Helfrich as the architects for the project.
Photographs of the Serra Theatre appeared in Boxoffice, November 4, 1950. The 1000-seat house was built for Mike Naify’s Golden State circuit.
The Weslin must be the unnamed theater mentioned in a June 24, 1939, Boxoffice article that said: “William N. Skirball will build an 800-seat house in Massillon according to plans by Architect John Eberson of New York. Located on Lincoln Way, the theatre will have the newest type of equipment throughout.”
The February 18, 1939, issue of Boxoffice said that work had begun on a new theater for Schwartz and Shulman in Painesville. The architect was George Ebeling, of Cleveland, who designed many other theatres in Ohio. The Lake was listed as one of Ebeling’s designs in his obituary in Boxoffice of November 21, 1951.
Opened in 1947 by the Vermes Brothers, the Yorktown Theatre was one of numerous theaters designed by Cleveland architect George Ebeling.