The remodeling of the Crystal Theatre to the Art Deco style was done in 1936. Architects for the remodeling were Otto A. Deichmann and Mark T. Jorgensen. A rendering of their design was published in the November 11, 1936, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, though the caption misspelled Jorgensen as Torgensen.
The Boller-designed Princess was a replacement for an older Princess Theater which was damaged beyond repair by a fire in March, 1943. Lead architect Robert Boller wrote an article about the reconstructed theater which was published in the July 21, 1945, issue of Boxoffice Magazine.
The original Princess Theatre’s building had been built as a National Guard Armory in 1900. In 1907, it was converted to an opera house, with the addition of a stage and balcony. The building had become dilapidated by 1922, when it was repaired and converted into a movie house by D.E. Pitton and J. Glenn Caldwell. Caldwell eventually became sole owner, and in 1939 he gave the Princess a complete modernization.
Following the fire, despite wartime restrictions and shortages of labor and materials, with considerable assistance from other businesses in Aurora Caldwell managed to get the Princess Theatre rebuilt and opened before the end of 1943.
From Boxoffice Magazine, February 3, 1951: “The remodeled Covell Theatre in Modesto was opened recently. Bert Henson, manager for Modesto Theatres, said the cost exceeded $50,000.”
When the house was still called the Princess, it was closed following a fire, reopening in mid-1944. The June 3, 1944, issue of
Boxoffice described extensive repairs and renovations to the theater. It also noted that William B. David was the vice president and general manager of the circuit that operated Modesto Theatres. David was apparently involved in the design of the repairs and renovation, but the magazine didn’t say he was the architect.
So far I’ve found no references in Boxoffice from when the house was called the National Theatre. That might have been the opening name, as is suggested by the Historic Modesto web site. Unless the house was called the Covell only briefly after opening, my guess would be that the organ installed in the Covell Theatre in 1920 was ordered before the building was completed and the theater named, so the Wurlitzer company recorded the sale under the name of the hotel project.
Most likely the house was operated for some time under lease by the National Theatres Syndicate, which was based in San Francisco and which was well-established throughout California by the mid-1920s. Many of their theaters bore the company name, especially in the Central Valley.
The Nevada Theatre was remodeled and renamed the Crest Theatre in 1948. The February 21, 1948, issue of Boxoffice Magazine had this to say:
“What used to be he Nevada Theatre here is being transformed into the swank new Crest under a $100,000 improvement program. Fox West Coast is turning it into a first run showcase.”
The article went on to say that the Nevada Theatre had been the Wigwam Theatre before another remodel a few years earlier. Fox West Coast owned the Nevada, but until a year before its transformation into the Crest it had been leased to T&D Jr. Enterprises.
I’m cross-posting this comment to the Nevada Theatre page, as they are the same theater. The Nevada Theatre page should probably be renamed Crest Theatre, as that was the final name, and the house was the Crest longer than it was the Nevada.
The Nevada Theatre was remodeled and renamed the Crest Theatre in 1948. The February 21, 1948, issue of Boxoffice Magazine had this to say:
“What used to be he Nevada Theatre here is being transformed into the swank new Crest under a $100,000 improvement program. Fox West Coast is turning it into a first run showcase.”
The article went on to say that the Nevada Theatre had been the Wigwam Theatre before another remodel a few years earlier. Fox West Coast owned the Nevada, but until a year before its transformation into the Crest it had been leased to T&D Jr. Enterprises.
My guess would be that the scan of the Nevada State Journal from which Ken got the 1943 opening date was a bit blurry, and was actually from 1948.
The July 18, 1942, issue of Boxoffice ran a line saying that the renovated Wigwam Theatre in Reno would reopen as the Nevada “next week.” This page should probably be renamed Crest Theatre, as that was apparently the final name, and the house was the Crest longer than it was the Nevada Theatre in any case.
The El-Jon Theatre opened on March 23, 1945. There were 472 seats. It was designed by Kansas City architect Al Hauetter, who also designed the NRHP-listed Burlington Opry in Burlington, Kansas. He gave the El-Jon Theater a simple, streamline moderne facade of ceramic tiles in shades of rose, cream, and granite red.
The walls of the auditorium were covered with acoustic tiles laid in a pattern of light coral and buff. A ceiling tray held indirect lighting as well as the outlets for the air conditioning. The seats had plush upholstery, and the aisles featured the same carpeting as was used in the lobby.
An unusual feature of the new house was a basement recreation room with a juke box, cold drink bar, and a dance floor. This was called the Fiesta Room, and was decorated in bright colors with a Mexican theme.
The El-Jon was featured in an article in Boxoffice Magazine, July 21, 1945. The house was built for Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Bills, whose Roxy Theatre in Brunswick had burned to the ground in 1943. The new building was built of fireproof masonry.
The August 24, 1946, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Park Theatre was under construction and expected to open in November that year. It was designed by San Francisco architect O.A. Deichmann (Otto Deichmann.) He also designed the Del Rio Theatre in Riverbank, California.
The March 22, 1947, issue of Boxoffice said: “Bob McNeil of Golden State gave a gala reception at his home last week following the opening of the Park Theatre at Menlo Park. Looks like the opening was a bit behind schedule.
The June 21, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said the the new Del Rio Theatre had opened recently. The owner was William Peters, who also owned the El Rey Theatre in Manteca, the Rio Theatre in Ripon, and the Lyric Theatre in Escalon.
The Del Rio had 750 seats, 135 of them loges. The architect was O.E. Deichmann of San Francisco, who also designed the Park Theatre in Menlo Park.
A later issue of Boxoffice says that the Lindsay Theatre was the one in Lindsay, so that’s cleared up. I’ve found references to the Rio Theatre in Merced as far back as 1940.
The January 8, 1949, issue of Boxoffice Magazine reported that the RKO Proctor’s Theatre had been reseated, reducing capacity to 2,688. Seats in some sections of the main floor had been staggered to improve sight lines, thus reducing the number of seats in alternate rows from 12 to 11. The ends of the 11-seat rows featured extra-wide standards. The theater’s side boxes had been removed at the same time, to enlarge the floor area for regular seating.
The January 8, 1949, issue of Boxoffice gives the seating capacity of the Shoals Theatre as 1,166, with 974 Ideal Slide-Back chairs on the main floor and 192 in the balcony. The standee area would accommodate about 150 additional patrons, the article said.
The U.A. Marketplace isn’t listed yet. Neither is the ex-AMC Old Town 8 multiplex that Laemmle recently closed. I think the U.A. opened in late 1986, because construction was underway when I was last in Pasadena in August that year. It closed in 2004. The AMC opened late in 1991. A Boxoffice article I’ve lost track of said it had about 2000 seats.
I saw something about an independent operator planning to reopen the 8-plex this year, but I’ve lost track of that too. If they do then something else is bound to close. The whole region from Glendale to Monrovia is saturated with theaters, and it will get worse when (or if) AMC’s 14 screen in Atlantic Times Square opens in Monterey Park.
According to Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of January 8, 1949, the Surf Theatre had recently opened. It was designed by Palm Beach architect Frederick G. Seelman, and was originally operated by Tellco Theatres. It was described as a masonry and steel building with a marble front, a triangular marquee, and a two story pylon bearing the name Surf in red and blue neon.
The auditorium ceiling was painted in pastel shade of lavender and rose, the proscenium was surrounded with detailed molding to suggest a giant picture frame, and there was a deep red stage curtain. Carpeting was green, gray, and red.
The July 17, 1948, issue of Boxoffice contained an announcement that Seelman was designing a theater of about 1000 seats in West Palm Beach for Tellco, but this item said that the theater was to be called the Town. I don’t know of this was the house that became the Surf, or if Seelman designed two theaters for Tellco at about the same time.
I can’t find any other references to a Town Theatre in West Palm Beach, so I’d guess it was the Surf. There are no other references to Frederick Seelman in Boxoffice, either, so this might have been the only theater he ever designed.
The April 26, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine ran an article about the recent remodeling of the Hillstreet Theatre, with several photographs. The remodeling was designed by the A.B. Heinsbergen Company.
In the 1940s and earlier, and probably at least as late as 1953, there was a second movie house in Lewistown, called the Broadway Theatre. The April 21, 1951, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Broadway Theatre in Lewistown had been redecorated and was reopening after having been closed for several years. The theater would be open only Saturday and Sundays.
The December 13, 1952, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that Don Campbell, manager of the Broadway and Judith Theatres, had announced that the Broadway would show only western movies and would be open only on Saturdays and Sundays. Campbell said that the house might go to seven-day operation later that winter, but I’ve found no later references to the Broadway Theatre.
But then, from 1953 to 1958 there are a few items in Boxoffice referring to a Fergus Theatre in Lewistown. Might this have been the Broadway Theatre, renamed?
The Circle Theatre was designed by the architectural firm Bennett & Straight. There was a photo of it in the February 11, 1939, issue of Boxoffice magazine.
The Crest Theatre opened on February 26, 1949. The opening program featured the Errol Flynn movie, “The Adventures of Don Juan.”
The architect of this remarkable Art Moderne theater was Julius Myerberg, who was also one of the theater’s owners. His brother Harry Myerberg was the head of the operating company, and for many years the manager of the house. Boxoffice Magazine gave a two-page spread to the Crest in its issue of November 5, 1949.
Among the Crest’s unusual features was a spacious, semi-circular television lounge on the second floor, with a 6'x8' screen set in the wall over the curving stairway leading up from the lobby. This lounge could accommodate 200 seated patrons. Near the bottom of this web page, Jerry Shargel, who grew up in the neighborhood, tells of seeing television for the first time in the Crest’s lounge, on the theater’s opening night.
The large, four-aisled auditorium of the Crest also had some unusual features. Passage between the auditorium and lobby was through several pairs of doors at the center of the back wall, where there was a broad standee area. The central third of the standee area was surmounted by a semi-circular canopy, with the projection booth above it, recessed to minimize the noise reaching the audience from the projectors.
Each side wall was divided into four sections, each gracefully curved, and between each section were vertical lighting coves which extended in troughs across the ceiling. The walls were covered in a forest green fabric, partly painted with decoration in an over-sized, abstract floral pattern, providing additional interest. The proscenium end of the house featured flaring side wings which concealed the lighting for the plush curtain, which was fuchsia.
The interior decoration of the Crest was done by the Paramount Decorating Company of Philadelphia. The Boxoffice article cites the seating capacity as 1700, but judging from the photo of the auditorium that seems a bit large. Still, the figure of 1000 cited by Cinema Treasures seems a bit small for this auditorium. Perhaps seating was reduced in the theater’s later years.
The December 15, 1975 issue of Boxoffice carried an announcement that the Crest would reopen on Christmas Day, after having been closed for eight months, and would be operated by Rome Theatres. However, the item noted that the theater was still owned by a company headed by Harry D. Myerberg.
The New Moon was a wartime theater, featured in an article published in the December 2, 1944, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. It was designed in a simplified Art Moderne style by Omaha architect H.A. Raapke, a member of the Modern Theatre Planning Institute’s board of architectural advisors.
Materials used in construction were confined largely to those not restricted by the War Production Board. Raapke chose to use a stone base surmounted by glazed brick in black and cream for the facade, and the entrance lobby was floored with asphalt tile in a herringbone pattern.
Pre-war carpet was found for the inner lobby and the auditorium’s aisles, and both inner and outer lobbies received wallboard paneling with an imitation walnut finish. The ceiling of the 552-seat auditorium featured three offsets concealing indirect lighting from fluorescent tubes, and the walls were paneled in an acoustic material. The auditorium’s decoration was mostly stenciled, some of it using the crescent moon shape which was the theater’s signature. The theater’s facade had a small central tower surmounted by a neon crescent moon.
The original owner-operator of the new Moon was Mr. W.B. Bradley. The town of Neligh had a population of 1,649 at the time the theater was built.
The November 5, 1949, issue of Boxoffice magazine devoted a page to the Cheswick Theatre. Owner-operator Joseph F. Mulone had done most of the labor of building the original Cheswick Theatre himself, because his financial backer had pulled out of the deal after construction had begun. It took Mulone three years of work to complete this fairly large house, which opened with 722 seats.
It turns out that Ted Rogvoy was the associate architect for the Paradise, and the lead architect was Arthur Froelich. Two articles in Boxoffice Magazine, from July 22, 1950, and from August 26, 1950, both name Froelich as the architect, and the earlier issue even has a photo of Froelich holding his rendering of the theater. Only the later article mentions Rogvoy as the associate architect, but misspells his name.
The Lakeport Theatre opened with about 600 seats, according to Boxoffice Magazine, but the number has been reduced. Some part of the orchestra seating was removed to make room for the stage. I’ve been unable to discover the current seating capacity, or what it will be when remodeling is complete, but I doubt it will end up much more than half the original 600.
I’ve also found several references in issues of Boxoffice from the 1950s which say that Robert Reese was the operator of the Lakeport. He was most likely Leo Reese’s son, but I’ve got no confirmation of that. There are a couple of more recent references on the Internet to a Margaret Reese being the operator of the Lakeport Auto Movies and the twin (later five-screen) adjacent to it, so the Reese family probably ran all the theaters in Lakeport from the 1920s until recently.
There are still many Reeses in Lake County, so maybe one of them will find this page and fill in the details for us. I’d especially like to know more about Leo Reese’s Orpheum Theatre, and about the Rio Theatre in Merced, which one issue of Boxoffice mentions him operating.
From Boxoffice, December 3, 1949: “The new Cedar Theatre will be opened November 25, according to John E. Keegan, manager for the Naify Theatre interests. Installation of projection equipment at the 630 seat house is scheduled for this week, Keegan said.”
Boxoffice of April 28, 1956, had this to say: “Vern Sandow will lease from T&D the Cedar Theatre at Nevada City. Sandow is installing a wide screen and will run his theatre seven nights a week.”
Then, from the February 17, 1958, issue of Boxoffice: “Vernon Sandow, owner of the Cedar Theatre, will cease operations March 1 because of financial loss.”
After that, I can’t find any more references to a theater in Nevada City.
The remodeling of the Crystal Theatre to the Art Deco style was done in 1936. Architects for the remodeling were Otto A. Deichmann and Mark T. Jorgensen. A rendering of their design was published in the November 11, 1936, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, though the caption misspelled Jorgensen as Torgensen.
The Boller-designed Princess was a replacement for an older Princess Theater which was damaged beyond repair by a fire in March, 1943. Lead architect Robert Boller wrote an article about the reconstructed theater which was published in the July 21, 1945, issue of Boxoffice Magazine.
The original Princess Theatre’s building had been built as a National Guard Armory in 1900. In 1907, it was converted to an opera house, with the addition of a stage and balcony. The building had become dilapidated by 1922, when it was repaired and converted into a movie house by D.E. Pitton and J. Glenn Caldwell. Caldwell eventually became sole owner, and in 1939 he gave the Princess a complete modernization.
Following the fire, despite wartime restrictions and shortages of labor and materials, with considerable assistance from other businesses in Aurora Caldwell managed to get the Princess Theatre rebuilt and opened before the end of 1943.
From Boxoffice Magazine, February 3, 1951: “The remodeled Covell Theatre in Modesto was opened recently. Bert Henson, manager for Modesto Theatres, said the cost exceeded $50,000.”
When the house was still called the Princess, it was closed following a fire, reopening in mid-1944. The June 3, 1944, issue of
Boxoffice described extensive repairs and renovations to the theater. It also noted that William B. David was the vice president and general manager of the circuit that operated Modesto Theatres. David was apparently involved in the design of the repairs and renovation, but the magazine didn’t say he was the architect.
So far I’ve found no references in Boxoffice from when the house was called the National Theatre. That might have been the opening name, as is suggested by the Historic Modesto web site. Unless the house was called the Covell only briefly after opening, my guess would be that the organ installed in the Covell Theatre in 1920 was ordered before the building was completed and the theater named, so the Wurlitzer company recorded the sale under the name of the hotel project.
Most likely the house was operated for some time under lease by the National Theatres Syndicate, which was based in San Francisco and which was well-established throughout California by the mid-1920s. Many of their theaters bore the company name, especially in the Central Valley.
The Nevada Theatre was remodeled and renamed the Crest Theatre in 1948. The February 21, 1948, issue of Boxoffice Magazine had this to say:
The article went on to say that the Nevada Theatre had been the Wigwam Theatre before another remodel a few years earlier. Fox West Coast owned the Nevada, but until a year before its transformation into the Crest it had been leased to T&D Jr. Enterprises.I’m cross-posting this comment to the Nevada Theatre page, as they are the same theater. The Nevada Theatre page should probably be renamed Crest Theatre, as that was the final name, and the house was the Crest longer than it was the Nevada.
The Nevada Theatre was remodeled and renamed the Crest Theatre in 1948. The February 21, 1948, issue of Boxoffice Magazine had this to say:
The article went on to say that the Nevada Theatre had been the Wigwam Theatre before another remodel a few years earlier. Fox West Coast owned the Nevada, but until a year before its transformation into the Crest it had been leased to T&D Jr. Enterprises.My guess would be that the scan of the Nevada State Journal from which Ken got the 1943 opening date was a bit blurry, and was actually from 1948.
The July 18, 1942, issue of Boxoffice ran a line saying that the renovated Wigwam Theatre in Reno would reopen as the Nevada “next week.” This page should probably be renamed Crest Theatre, as that was apparently the final name, and the house was the Crest longer than it was the Nevada Theatre in any case.
The El-Jon Theatre opened on March 23, 1945. There were 472 seats. It was designed by Kansas City architect Al Hauetter, who also designed the NRHP-listed Burlington Opry in Burlington, Kansas. He gave the El-Jon Theater a simple, streamline moderne facade of ceramic tiles in shades of rose, cream, and granite red.
The walls of the auditorium were covered with acoustic tiles laid in a pattern of light coral and buff. A ceiling tray held indirect lighting as well as the outlets for the air conditioning. The seats had plush upholstery, and the aisles featured the same carpeting as was used in the lobby.
An unusual feature of the new house was a basement recreation room with a juke box, cold drink bar, and a dance floor. This was called the Fiesta Room, and was decorated in bright colors with a Mexican theme.
The El-Jon was featured in an article in Boxoffice Magazine, July 21, 1945. The house was built for Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Bills, whose Roxy Theatre in Brunswick had burned to the ground in 1943. The new building was built of fireproof masonry.
I forgot to close my quotes. The last sentence in that comment wasn’t in the Boxoffice item.
The August 24, 1946, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Park Theatre was under construction and expected to open in November that year. It was designed by San Francisco architect O.A. Deichmann (Otto Deichmann.) He also designed the Del Rio Theatre in Riverbank, California.
The March 22, 1947, issue of Boxoffice said: “Bob McNeil of Golden State gave a gala reception at his home last week following the opening of the Park Theatre at Menlo Park. Looks like the opening was a bit behind schedule.
That’s supposed to be O.A. Deichmann.
The June 21, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said the the new Del Rio Theatre had opened recently. The owner was William Peters, who also owned the El Rey Theatre in Manteca, the Rio Theatre in Ripon, and the Lyric Theatre in Escalon.
The Del Rio had 750 seats, 135 of them loges. The architect was O.E. Deichmann of San Francisco, who also designed the Park Theatre in Menlo Park.
A later issue of Boxoffice says that the Lindsay Theatre was the one in Lindsay, so that’s cleared up. I’ve found references to the Rio Theatre in Merced as far back as 1940.
The January 8, 1949, issue of Boxoffice Magazine reported that the RKO Proctor’s Theatre had been reseated, reducing capacity to 2,688. Seats in some sections of the main floor had been staggered to improve sight lines, thus reducing the number of seats in alternate rows from 12 to 11. The ends of the 11-seat rows featured extra-wide standards. The theater’s side boxes had been removed at the same time, to enlarge the floor area for regular seating.
The January 8, 1949, issue of Boxoffice gives the seating capacity of the Shoals Theatre as 1,166, with 974 Ideal Slide-Back chairs on the main floor and 192 in the balcony. The standee area would accommodate about 150 additional patrons, the article said.
The U.A. Marketplace isn’t listed yet. Neither is the ex-AMC Old Town 8 multiplex that Laemmle recently closed. I think the U.A. opened in late 1986, because construction was underway when I was last in Pasadena in August that year. It closed in 2004. The AMC opened late in 1991. A Boxoffice article I’ve lost track of said it had about 2000 seats.
I saw something about an independent operator planning to reopen the 8-plex this year, but I’ve lost track of that too. If they do then something else is bound to close. The whole region from Glendale to Monrovia is saturated with theaters, and it will get worse when (or if) AMC’s 14 screen in Atlantic Times Square opens in Monterey Park.
According to Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of January 8, 1949, the Surf Theatre had recently opened. It was designed by Palm Beach architect Frederick G. Seelman, and was originally operated by Tellco Theatres. It was described as a masonry and steel building with a marble front, a triangular marquee, and a two story pylon bearing the name Surf in red and blue neon.
The auditorium ceiling was painted in pastel shade of lavender and rose, the proscenium was surrounded with detailed molding to suggest a giant picture frame, and there was a deep red stage curtain. Carpeting was green, gray, and red.
The July 17, 1948, issue of Boxoffice contained an announcement that Seelman was designing a theater of about 1000 seats in West Palm Beach for Tellco, but this item said that the theater was to be called the Town. I don’t know of this was the house that became the Surf, or if Seelman designed two theaters for Tellco at about the same time.
I can’t find any other references to a Town Theatre in West Palm Beach, so I’d guess it was the Surf. There are no other references to Frederick Seelman in Boxoffice, either, so this might have been the only theater he ever designed.
The April 26, 1947, issue of Boxoffice Magazine ran an article about the recent remodeling of the Hillstreet Theatre, with several photographs. The remodeling was designed by the A.B. Heinsbergen Company.
From Boxoffice Magazine, February 1, 1941: “Roy Starling, owner of the Grove, opened his new Urban Theatre in the Urbandale section last Thursday.”
In the 1940s and earlier, and probably at least as late as 1953, there was a second movie house in Lewistown, called the Broadway Theatre. The April 21, 1951, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Broadway Theatre in Lewistown had been redecorated and was reopening after having been closed for several years. The theater would be open only Saturday and Sundays.
The December 13, 1952, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that Don Campbell, manager of the Broadway and Judith Theatres, had announced that the Broadway would show only western movies and would be open only on Saturdays and Sundays. Campbell said that the house might go to seven-day operation later that winter, but I’ve found no later references to the Broadway Theatre.
But then, from 1953 to 1958 there are a few items in Boxoffice referring to a Fergus Theatre in Lewistown. Might this have been the Broadway Theatre, renamed?
The Circle Theatre was designed by the architectural firm Bennett & Straight. There was a photo of it in the February 11, 1939, issue of Boxoffice magazine.
The Crest Theatre opened on February 26, 1949. The opening program featured the Errol Flynn movie, “The Adventures of Don Juan.”
The architect of this remarkable Art Moderne theater was Julius Myerberg, who was also one of the theater’s owners. His brother Harry Myerberg was the head of the operating company, and for many years the manager of the house. Boxoffice Magazine gave a two-page spread to the Crest in its issue of November 5, 1949.
Among the Crest’s unusual features was a spacious, semi-circular television lounge on the second floor, with a 6'x8' screen set in the wall over the curving stairway leading up from the lobby. This lounge could accommodate 200 seated patrons. Near the bottom of this web page, Jerry Shargel, who grew up in the neighborhood, tells of seeing television for the first time in the Crest’s lounge, on the theater’s opening night.
The large, four-aisled auditorium of the Crest also had some unusual features. Passage between the auditorium and lobby was through several pairs of doors at the center of the back wall, where there was a broad standee area. The central third of the standee area was surmounted by a semi-circular canopy, with the projection booth above it, recessed to minimize the noise reaching the audience from the projectors.
Each side wall was divided into four sections, each gracefully curved, and between each section were vertical lighting coves which extended in troughs across the ceiling. The walls were covered in a forest green fabric, partly painted with decoration in an over-sized, abstract floral pattern, providing additional interest. The proscenium end of the house featured flaring side wings which concealed the lighting for the plush curtain, which was fuchsia.
The interior decoration of the Crest was done by the Paramount Decorating Company of Philadelphia. The Boxoffice article cites the seating capacity as 1700, but judging from the photo of the auditorium that seems a bit large. Still, the figure of 1000 cited by Cinema Treasures seems a bit small for this auditorium. Perhaps seating was reduced in the theater’s later years.
The December 15, 1975 issue of Boxoffice carried an announcement that the Crest would reopen on Christmas Day, after having been closed for eight months, and would be operated by Rome Theatres. However, the item noted that the theater was still owned by a company headed by Harry D. Myerberg.
The New Moon was a wartime theater, featured in an article published in the December 2, 1944, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. It was designed in a simplified Art Moderne style by Omaha architect H.A. Raapke, a member of the Modern Theatre Planning Institute’s board of architectural advisors.
Materials used in construction were confined largely to those not restricted by the War Production Board. Raapke chose to use a stone base surmounted by glazed brick in black and cream for the facade, and the entrance lobby was floored with asphalt tile in a herringbone pattern.
Pre-war carpet was found for the inner lobby and the auditorium’s aisles, and both inner and outer lobbies received wallboard paneling with an imitation walnut finish. The ceiling of the 552-seat auditorium featured three offsets concealing indirect lighting from fluorescent tubes, and the walls were paneled in an acoustic material. The auditorium’s decoration was mostly stenciled, some of it using the crescent moon shape which was the theater’s signature. The theater’s facade had a small central tower surmounted by a neon crescent moon.
The original owner-operator of the new Moon was Mr. W.B. Bradley. The town of Neligh had a population of 1,649 at the time the theater was built.
The November 5, 1949, issue of Boxoffice magazine devoted a page to the Cheswick Theatre. Owner-operator Joseph F. Mulone had done most of the labor of building the original Cheswick Theatre himself, because his financial backer had pulled out of the deal after construction had begun. It took Mulone three years of work to complete this fairly large house, which opened with 722 seats.
It turns out that Ted Rogvoy was the associate architect for the Paradise, and the lead architect was Arthur Froelich. Two articles in Boxoffice Magazine, from July 22, 1950, and from August 26, 1950, both name Froelich as the architect, and the earlier issue even has a photo of Froelich holding his rendering of the theater. Only the later article mentions Rogvoy as the associate architect, but misspells his name.
The Lakeport Theatre opened with about 600 seats, according to Boxoffice Magazine, but the number has been reduced. Some part of the orchestra seating was removed to make room for the stage. I’ve been unable to discover the current seating capacity, or what it will be when remodeling is complete, but I doubt it will end up much more than half the original 600.
I’ve also found several references in issues of Boxoffice from the 1950s which say that Robert Reese was the operator of the Lakeport. He was most likely Leo Reese’s son, but I’ve got no confirmation of that. There are a couple of more recent references on the Internet to a Margaret Reese being the operator of the Lakeport Auto Movies and the twin (later five-screen) adjacent to it, so the Reese family probably ran all the theaters in Lakeport from the 1920s until recently.
There are still many Reeses in Lake County, so maybe one of them will find this page and fill in the details for us. I’d especially like to know more about Leo Reese’s Orpheum Theatre, and about the Rio Theatre in Merced, which one issue of Boxoffice mentions him operating.
From Boxoffice, December 3, 1949: “The new Cedar Theatre will be opened November 25, according to John E. Keegan, manager for the Naify Theatre interests. Installation of projection equipment at the 630 seat house is scheduled for this week, Keegan said.”
Boxoffice of April 28, 1956, had this to say: “Vern Sandow will lease from T&D the Cedar Theatre at Nevada City. Sandow is installing a wide screen and will run his theatre seven nights a week.”
Then, from the February 17, 1958, issue of Boxoffice: “Vernon Sandow, owner of the Cedar Theatre, will cease operations March 1 because of financial loss.”
After that, I can’t find any more references to a theater in Nevada City.