The October 19, 1946, issue of Boxoffice magazine said that R.D. Ervin had recently opened his new Park Theatre at Walden. The opening had been postponed due to the danger of polio.
Other issues of Boxoffice, both earlier and later, say there was another theater in Walden. The June 25, 1938, issue says that the Walden Theatre at Walden had been renamed the Star. The April 26, 1947, issue says that R.D. Ervin had installed new projectors at the Star Theatre in Walden.
The June 24, 1944, issue of Boxoffice Magazine ran an article about pioneer New Orleans exhibitor Al Durning, who built the Happy Hour Theatre. Here’s an extract from the article, quoting Durning as he recalled the early days of movie exhibition in the Crescent City:[quote]“During the early part of the 20th century, all kind of moving picture theatres and airdomes sprang up over the city, at one time there being more than a hundred. Many types of projectors were used, the Edison predominating. St. Louis was said to be the only other city which compared as to the number of theatres.
“When I heard about the first real structural theatre built in Denver, I decided then and there to erect a first-class show house. So I promoted a company and we built the first suburban theatre building here and named it the Happy Hour. For years it was the pride and one of the show places of New Orleans. In spite of the competition from downtown nickelodeons, our price was ten cents. However, we packed them in daily and generally used the SRO sign over the weekend.”[/quote]Durning mentions a few of the earlier theaters in New Orleans, and says that during the summer, Charles Rock and Billie Reed would move their Vitascope projector from their theater at Exchange Alley and Canal Street, and set it up in the popular resort of West End on Lake Ponchartrain.
He mentions movies being shown at the old Grand Opera House on Canal Street, primarily a vaudeville theater. He names Messrs Scully and Streetly as the operators of the second motion picture house in the city, located at Canal and Basin, and credits them with starting the first film exchange in town as well. Streetly later opened the first airdome in the city, at Annunciation and Erato.
Charles Pearce then opened a movie house in a remodeled building at 932 Canal Street. This was later remodeled and renamed the Electric Theatre. Unfortunately he doesn’t give the dates these various houses opened, but all of them were in operation before he built the Happy Hour.
The April 16, 1955, issue of Boxoffice Magazine published the obituary of Tom Arthur. Mr. Arthur arrived in Mason City in 1904 and took over management oft he Wilson Theatre. After the house burned in 1911 and the Cecil was built on its site, he continued to manage the new theater until his death.
A photo of the recently updated auditorium of the State Theatre was published in Boxoffice Magazine, June 26, 1937.
Various issues of Boxoffice in the early 1950s say that the State as renamed the Band Box in 1951. Other issues say that the Band Box was located in the former Star Theatre.
I can’t be sure yet, but it’s possible that the Star was the opening name of the State, and that was renamed in the 1930s. The 1937 photo of the State shows a narrow, single-aisle auditorium with a high ceiling, such as might have been built in the early days of movie houses. I’ll do more digging and see if I can find anything else.
According to the obituary of John McKee Heffner, long time Mason City theater man, published in the April 7, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, the Strand Theatre had earlier been called the Princess Theatre.
The obituary of John McKee Heffner was published in the April 7, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. In 1906 Mr. Heffner had opened the first movie theater in Mason City, the Bijou, on South Federal Avenue. After the Bijou closed, he became the manager of the Palace, which had originally been called the Regent Theatre.
The State was in operation by 1936. An obituary published in the April 7, 1956, issue of Boxoffice said that the late Hans J. Petersen had managed the State Theatre at Harlowton for the Knutson circuit from 1936 to 1945.
The July 12, 1941, issue of Boxoffice Magazine carried the following item: “The new Grove at 1576 Bankhead Ave. has opened. Construction of the 618-seat house cost approximately $60,000. Wendell Welsh is manager.”
Also, Milledgeville had an earlier drive-in as well. Harry Hart noted in his Boxoffice Magazine column on June 10, 1950, that Martin Theatres had opened its 350-car Cadet Drive-In at Milledgeville on April 24.
The February 22, 1941, issue of Boxoffice Magazine has an article about Martin Theatres which mentions the Co-Ed at Milledgeville bing among the houses the circuit then had under construction.
The Starlite Drive-In, then under construction, was expected to be open by Thanksgiving Day, 1963, according to the November 25 issue of Boxoffice Magazine that year.
The list is on-line, but the UM web site is oddly set up so I can’t find the page the full list is on, only the introductory page. I’ve only seen the actual list in the Google cache of the page, which is a bunch of dismantled text, difficult to decipher. I’m not sure which theaters are already listed at Cinema Treasures, perhaps under later names, and which are missing. Four theaters on the list don’t even have names given. I’m still trying to puzzle it all out. Maybe somebody else will have more luck with it.
The American Theatre in Winnemucca is mentioned in the May 3, 1947, issue of Boxoffice, and in earlier issues. The Sage Theatre in Wnnemucca is mentioned in the November 26, 1949, issue and in later issues. If they had the same address, then the house was called the American first and renamed the Sage sometime between 1947 and 1949.
I’ve dug up information on three theaters in Brawley other than the Brawley itself. There was a Eureka Theatre, in operation by 1937, owned by Ben Aranda. There was an Azteca (or Aztec- it appears under both names in different issues of Boxoffice) opened by Aranda in 1937. Then there was another theater opened in 1937 called the Circle, which, like the Brawley, was operated by Fox West Coast. I don’t have addresses for any of them though.
The Brawley itself got a renovation in 1976, and reopened on May 26 with “Cabaret” as the first attraction, according to June 11 issue of Boxoffice that year. By then it was operated by Great Western Theatres, seating had been reduced to 650, and it was apparently the only house still open in Brawley.
The September 4, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine had this item: “The Azteca Film Corp. has a theatre under construction in Calexico which will be ready for business in about six weeks. Frank Ullman, El Centro exhibitor, will operate the house.”
The Valley Theatre was a Fox West Coast operation in 1940, when it suffered an estimated $5,000 damages from an earthquake that also damaged several other Imperial Valley houses, according to an item in the May 25, 1940, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. By 1945, Boxoffice was saying that the Valley Theatre was operated by independent exhibitor Frank Ullman.
From Boxoffice Magazine, March 1, 1952: “The Oregon premier of ‘Quo Vadis’ this week also marked the reopening as a first-run house of John Hamrick’s Liberty. The theatre is now known as the New Liberty.”
Deborah Kerr was among the guests appearing at the opening, which was broadcast on local radio.
The May 23, 1942, issue of Boxoffice magazine said: “Jimmy Edwards opened his new Santa Anita, near Arcadia, May 14. The 743-seater charges 40 cents admission and boasts a crying room and a parking lot accommodating 450 cars. The Edwards circuit, with this addition, numbers 20 houses.”
According to the finding aid for the Buechner & Orth papers at the University of Minnesota, the firm designed over a dozen theaters. So far, Cinema Treasures attributes only three of these, with separate listings for Charles Buechner and Henry Orth.
The Grand makes a few appearances in various issues of Boxoffice Magazine from 1938 to 1944. First, in the June 25, 1938, issue there is this brief item: “Hyman ‘Doc’ Barsky has assumed ownership and will reopen two dark houses —the Placentia, a 300-seater at Placentia, and the Grand, in Anaheim, a 600-seater —with both scheduled for renovation.” The item also mentions that Fox West Coast had been the lessee of the Grand.
Then from Boxoffice of January 21, 1939, comes this breaking news: “Closed for the last 12 years, the Grand Theatre will be reopened February 1 by Doc Barsky and Bob Sproul on a lease relinquished by Fox West Coast. Sproul, who operates the Brentwood Theatre in Santa Monica, will be the active manager at the Grand.”
It sounds as though Fox West Coast had been leasing the house for years only to keep it closed. But maybe the copy writer at Boxoffice mistakenly wrote “12 years” in place of “12 months.” Does anybody know if the Grand vanished from theater listings from 1927 through 1939?
Then, the July 29, 1939, issue of Boxoffice announces a shakeup at the Grand: “H.H. Barsky has purchased the Grand Theatre from Bob Sproul and has closed it temporarily for alterations and redecorating. He will open the house at a 15-cent admission scale.”
As the earlier reports suggest that Barsky and Sproul were in a partnership, this item must have meant that Barsky had bought Sproul’s share of the business. Perhaps they’d had a tiff.
But it looks as though Mr. Barsky soon had buyer’s remorse. The April 6, 1940, issue of Boxoffice reveals the next turn of events in the Grand saga: “J.E. Trott has purchased the Grand, a 950-seater, from H.H. Barsky.”
As the reported seating capacity had increased from 600 in 1938, Barsky and/or Sproul must have done extensive remodeling- or crammed in a lot of really small seats.
The Grand soon found itself with yet another new owner, and then another. The June 17, 1944, issue of Boxoffice reported that Morris Rabwin had purchased the Grand from A. Blanco. Meanwhile, according to the same report, A. Blanco had lately been palling round in Tijuana with none other than “Doc” Barsky. Boxoffice fails to provide further details about their relationship. I guess Bob Sproul was entirely out of the picture by then.
With its sale to Mr. Rabwin, the Grand vanishes from the pages of Boxoffice, as far as I’ve been able to discover. I can find no mentions of it as the Garden, either. Sic transit gloria.
The name change from Downey Theatre to Avenue Theatre took place in 1949. The April 16 issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Cummings circuit would spend $200,000 on remodeling its Victory and Meralta Theatres, and that the Victory would be renamed the Avenue.
With regard to ken mc’s posts of January this year, I do recall the United Artists being called the Alameda for a while around 1961-1962. I think it was after it closed again that the Alameda name was moved to the United Artists in East Los Angeles. I guess UA wanted to get their money’s worth from that expensive signage.
The October 19, 1946, issue of Boxoffice magazine said that R.D. Ervin had recently opened his new Park Theatre at Walden. The opening had been postponed due to the danger of polio.
Other issues of Boxoffice, both earlier and later, say there was another theater in Walden. The June 25, 1938, issue says that the Walden Theatre at Walden had been renamed the Star. The April 26, 1947, issue says that R.D. Ervin had installed new projectors at the Star Theatre in Walden.
The June 24, 1944, issue of Boxoffice Magazine ran an article about pioneer New Orleans exhibitor Al Durning, who built the Happy Hour Theatre. Here’s an extract from the article, quoting Durning as he recalled the early days of movie exhibition in the Crescent City:[quote]“During the early part of the 20th century, all kind of moving picture theatres and airdomes sprang up over the city, at one time there being more than a hundred. Many types of projectors were used, the Edison predominating. St. Louis was said to be the only other city which compared as to the number of theatres.
“When I heard about the first real structural theatre built in Denver, I decided then and there to erect a first-class show house. So I promoted a company and we built the first suburban theatre building here and named it the Happy Hour. For years it was the pride and one of the show places of New Orleans. In spite of the competition from downtown nickelodeons, our price was ten cents. However, we packed them in daily and generally used the SRO sign over the weekend.”[/quote]Durning mentions a few of the earlier theaters in New Orleans, and says that during the summer, Charles Rock and Billie Reed would move their Vitascope projector from their theater at Exchange Alley and Canal Street, and set it up in the popular resort of West End on Lake Ponchartrain.
He mentions movies being shown at the old Grand Opera House on Canal Street, primarily a vaudeville theater. He names Messrs Scully and Streetly as the operators of the second motion picture house in the city, located at Canal and Basin, and credits them with starting the first film exchange in town as well. Streetly later opened the first airdome in the city, at Annunciation and Erato.
Charles Pearce then opened a movie house in a remodeled building at 932 Canal Street. This was later remodeled and renamed the Electric Theatre. Unfortunately he doesn’t give the dates these various houses opened, but all of them were in operation before he built the Happy Hour.
The April 16, 1955, issue of Boxoffice Magazine published the obituary of Tom Arthur. Mr. Arthur arrived in Mason City in 1904 and took over management oft he Wilson Theatre. After the house burned in 1911 and the Cecil was built on its site, he continued to manage the new theater until his death.
A photo of the recently updated auditorium of the State Theatre was published in Boxoffice Magazine, June 26, 1937.
Various issues of Boxoffice in the early 1950s say that the State as renamed the Band Box in 1951. Other issues say that the Band Box was located in the former Star Theatre.
I can’t be sure yet, but it’s possible that the Star was the opening name of the State, and that was renamed in the 1930s. The 1937 photo of the State shows a narrow, single-aisle auditorium with a high ceiling, such as might have been built in the early days of movie houses. I’ll do more digging and see if I can find anything else.
According to the obituary of John McKee Heffner, long time Mason City theater man, published in the April 7, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, the Strand Theatre had earlier been called the Princess Theatre.
The obituary of John McKee Heffner was published in the April 7, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. In 1906 Mr. Heffner had opened the first movie theater in Mason City, the Bijou, on South Federal Avenue. After the Bijou closed, he became the manager of the Palace, which had originally been called the Regent Theatre.
The State was in operation by 1936. An obituary published in the April 7, 1956, issue of Boxoffice said that the late Hans J. Petersen had managed the State Theatre at Harlowton for the Knutson circuit from 1936 to 1945.
The July 12, 1941, issue of Boxoffice said that Martin planned to open the Co-Ed on July 21.
The July 12, 1941, issue of Boxoffice Magazine carried the following item: “The new Grove at 1576 Bankhead Ave. has opened. Construction of the 618-seat house cost approximately $60,000. Wendell Welsh is manager.”
Also, Milledgeville had an earlier drive-in as well. Harry Hart noted in his Boxoffice Magazine column on June 10, 1950, that Martin Theatres had opened its 350-car Cadet Drive-In at Milledgeville on April 24.
The February 22, 1941, issue of Boxoffice Magazine has an article about Martin Theatres which mentions the Co-Ed at Milledgeville bing among the houses the circuit then had under construction.
The Starlite Drive-In, then under construction, was expected to be open by Thanksgiving Day, 1963, according to the November 25 issue of Boxoffice Magazine that year.
The aka should be Alder Theatre, like the tree the street was probably named after, not Adler.
The list is on-line, but the UM web site is oddly set up so I can’t find the page the full list is on, only the introductory page. I’ve only seen the actual list in the Google cache of the page, which is a bunch of dismantled text, difficult to decipher. I’m not sure which theaters are already listed at Cinema Treasures, perhaps under later names, and which are missing. Four theaters on the list don’t even have names given. I’m still trying to puzzle it all out. Maybe somebody else will have more luck with it.
The American Theatre in Winnemucca is mentioned in the May 3, 1947, issue of Boxoffice, and in earlier issues. The Sage Theatre in Wnnemucca is mentioned in the November 26, 1949, issue and in later issues. If they had the same address, then the house was called the American first and renamed the Sage sometime between 1947 and 1949.
I’ve dug up information on three theaters in Brawley other than the Brawley itself. There was a Eureka Theatre, in operation by 1937, owned by Ben Aranda. There was an Azteca (or Aztec- it appears under both names in different issues of Boxoffice) opened by Aranda in 1937. Then there was another theater opened in 1937 called the Circle, which, like the Brawley, was operated by Fox West Coast. I don’t have addresses for any of them though.
The Brawley itself got a renovation in 1976, and reopened on May 26 with “Cabaret” as the first attraction, according to June 11 issue of Boxoffice that year. By then it was operated by Great Western Theatres, seating had been reduced to 650, and it was apparently the only house still open in Brawley.
The September 4, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine had this item: “The Azteca Film Corp. has a theatre under construction in Calexico which will be ready for business in about six weeks. Frank Ullman, El Centro exhibitor, will operate the house.”
The Valley Theatre was a Fox West Coast operation in 1940, when it suffered an estimated $5,000 damages from an earthquake that also damaged several other Imperial Valley houses, according to an item in the May 25, 1940, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. By 1945, Boxoffice was saying that the Valley Theatre was operated by independent exhibitor Frank Ullman.
From Boxoffice Magazine, March 1, 1952: “The Oregon premier of ‘Quo Vadis’ this week also marked the reopening as a first-run house of John Hamrick’s Liberty. The theatre is now known as the New Liberty.”
Deborah Kerr was among the guests appearing at the opening, which was broadcast on local radio.
The May 23, 1942, issue of Boxoffice magazine said: “Jimmy Edwards opened his new Santa Anita, near Arcadia, May 14. The 743-seater charges 40 cents admission and boasts a crying room and a parking lot accommodating 450 cars. The Edwards circuit, with this addition, numbers 20 houses.”
According to the finding aid for the Buechner & Orth papers at the University of Minnesota, the firm designed over a dozen theaters. So far, Cinema Treasures attributes only three of these, with separate listings for Charles Buechner and Henry Orth.
There probably was supposed to be a comma between the names, but the addition of “Street” appears to have been an error as well.
The Grand makes a few appearances in various issues of Boxoffice Magazine from 1938 to 1944. First, in the June 25, 1938, issue there is this brief item: “Hyman ‘Doc’ Barsky has assumed ownership and will reopen two dark houses —the Placentia, a 300-seater at Placentia, and the Grand, in Anaheim, a 600-seater —with both scheduled for renovation.” The item also mentions that Fox West Coast had been the lessee of the Grand.
Then from Boxoffice of January 21, 1939, comes this breaking news: “Closed for the last 12 years, the Grand Theatre will be reopened February 1 by Doc Barsky and Bob Sproul on a lease relinquished by Fox West Coast. Sproul, who operates the Brentwood Theatre in Santa Monica, will be the active manager at the Grand.”
It sounds as though Fox West Coast had been leasing the house for years only to keep it closed. But maybe the copy writer at Boxoffice mistakenly wrote “12 years” in place of “12 months.” Does anybody know if the Grand vanished from theater listings from 1927 through 1939?
Then, the July 29, 1939, issue of Boxoffice announces a shakeup at the Grand: “H.H. Barsky has purchased the Grand Theatre from Bob Sproul and has closed it temporarily for alterations and redecorating. He will open the house at a 15-cent admission scale.”
As the earlier reports suggest that Barsky and Sproul were in a partnership, this item must have meant that Barsky had bought Sproul’s share of the business. Perhaps they’d had a tiff.
But it looks as though Mr. Barsky soon had buyer’s remorse. The April 6, 1940, issue of Boxoffice reveals the next turn of events in the Grand saga: “J.E. Trott has purchased the Grand, a 950-seater, from H.H. Barsky.”
As the reported seating capacity had increased from 600 in 1938, Barsky and/or Sproul must have done extensive remodeling- or crammed in a lot of really small seats.
The Grand soon found itself with yet another new owner, and then another. The June 17, 1944, issue of Boxoffice reported that Morris Rabwin had purchased the Grand from A. Blanco. Meanwhile, according to the same report, A. Blanco had lately been palling round in Tijuana with none other than “Doc” Barsky. Boxoffice fails to provide further details about their relationship. I guess Bob Sproul was entirely out of the picture by then.
With its sale to Mr. Rabwin, the Grand vanishes from the pages of Boxoffice, as far as I’ve been able to discover. I can find no mentions of it as the Garden, either. Sic transit gloria.
The name change from Downey Theatre to Avenue Theatre took place in 1949. The April 16 issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Cummings circuit would spend $200,000 on remodeling its Victory and Meralta Theatres, and that the Victory would be renamed the Avenue.
With regard to ken mc’s posts of January this year, I do recall the United Artists being called the Alameda for a while around 1961-1962. I think it was after it closed again that the Alameda name was moved to the United Artists in East Los Angeles. I guess UA wanted to get their money’s worth from that expensive signage.