When the State opened, it had a sister theater that was located between Chestnut Street and Fifth Avenue that was a small theater that ran westerns and other “B” pictures ans serials, and was named the Cameo Theater. It only lasted about 10 years before it was torn down.
Ken: The sad thing here is that the local newspaper between June 1896 when it first published until 1/1/1920 was quite inconsistent so far as it’s theater page was concerned so it’s difficult to follow the many little theaters that came and went. Example: I could only find one very small ad for the Edison, and as for this one … nothing. The Mahoning Valley Historical Society is in the process of building a data base of all the local theaters using their collection of city directories, but it will take some time before that list will be available, and our public library is in the same boat.
I wish that it would be possable to have a thread that was devoted strictly to newspaper theater pages for each city, for Youngstown in the 1930’s and 40’s had a number of small neighborhood theaters that came and went.
The Home Theater is just one of these small neighborhoods as well as the Bell Theater; the Wilson; and the Nixon Theater which was a small theater on Poland Avenue.
I agree Jack. Youngstown has more than it’s share of movies over the years, and the Mahoning Valley Historical Society is in the process of compiling a collection of them all. I never was in the Uptown so I don’t know what it was like, but I know that at one time the people who owned the Uptown also owned the Mahoning Theater just as the Cameo and State were early on coupled in the newspaper ads.
Was the Uptown a classic movie palace? I don’t think so when compared to the Warner or Palace, but for a neighborhood,it was above average.
Saddly here it is 2015, and the Uptown still stands empty. Sooner than later it will have to be demolished. Saddly the area that it is located in is drug infested and dangerous to travel in after dark, so even if it did reopen, it would not draw anough people to make it a viable enterprise. That was one of the reasons why the theater group that was using it left and now performs at one of the downtown theaters … there are 4 live theaters in the downtown area.
You’re absolutely right Joe. Back in 1963 A group bought the building to turn into a church and I had the opportunity to check out the projection booth, and while all the equipment was long gone, there were a bunch of old trailers and I was able to salvage them. All the seats had been removed, so it was just a shell. I never followed up to see if the church had ever opened.
Ken, could you please provide us with more info on this theater? Unfortunately the newspapers of the day didn’t run ads for all the nickelodeons that operated here. The address would suggest that it was located west of Hazel Street which places it in the same block as the Dome, Orpheum and Hippodrome.
This Palace Theatre is not to be confused with the Keith-Albee Theatre that was on Wick Avenue just off Central Square, although it’s address of 11 East Federal Street indicates that the first Palace could say that it was on Central Square.
Other than the newspaper ads of the day, little else is known about this theatre, but the same is true about most of the early local theaters here in Youngstown, so if anyone can add to our knowledge about this theater, we’d be very happy.
The correct address was 28 South Champion according to the 1909 Youngstown City Directory as furnished by the Youngstown Public Library from their City Directory and confirmed by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society from the same directory.
The December 22, 1912 Youngstown Vindicator ran a 2 page ad about the opening of the Dome Theatre and clearly stated in the ad that the architect for the Dome was the firm of Louis Boucherle & Son. They were located in the Stambaugh Building in Youngstown.
In the period between 1912 and 1918 there was another unrelated Palace Theater that was located at 11 East Federal Street that I will be posting and in order to prevent confusion between the two,I will be calling it “The First Palace”.
To JamesD … actually I did see a lot of movies there over the years, and when a group was trying to restore it in the 1980’s I helped, so I was very familiar with the Paramount. I also was well aware of building codes and knew that it would take millions to restore the theater.
Chris1982 I want to thank you for the theaters you contributed here, but we’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to the number of theaters that have come and gone over the years.
The very first theater in Youngstown opened in the 1850’s long before movies, and it also closed once the Opera House was built in the late 1800’s so I don’t know if it would qualify for adding here.
The first theater strangely enough would see another theater built on that site that we can and did include here, and it was the Liberty/Paramount Theater. The building that the first theater was in was torn down to build the Liberty/Paramount Theater.
For a city the size of Youngstown it had a larger number of theaters than I’ve been able to place here on Cinema Treasures. By reviewing the theater pages of The Vindicator over the years since it’s founding in 1869, you’d see what I mean.Some were live houses, many were movie houses, and some were both, and we thank the owners of this site for allowing us to preserve our city’s theater history.
The Rex Theatre was owned by the same group that owned the Dome Theater. Of interest is the fact that the Warner people had an interest in the Rex as well as the Dome.
Like many of the old theaters that sprang up between 1907 and 1920, the Lyric didn’t last many years, but in its day, it was popular, and ironicly one day, another theater would be built across the street that would be built by Youngstown’s theater men, the Warner Brothers and today known as DeYor Performing Arts Center/Power’s Auditorium, the home of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.
I’m not absolutely certain, but through the mid 1930’s and into the late 1940’s this theater was known as the Grand Burlesque, and the owners bought the Park Theater that was undergoing bad times financially, and moved burlesque over there, it was at that point that the Esquire Theatre began operation. By the late 1950’s the Esquire was gone, and in its place was a parking lot.
Actually this was the Princess Theater. It had three different names in its lifetime: Family Theater; Princess Theater; and Esquire Theatre.
One interesting fact about the Princess was that it’s stage was large enough that on one occassion they booked in an aqua show complete with a large tank of water.
In looking over the old newspaper ads the ads for this small theater were equal to those of the Park and Grand Opera House in size beween 1907 and 1920.
When the State opened, it had a sister theater that was located between Chestnut Street and Fifth Avenue that was a small theater that ran westerns and other “B” pictures ans serials, and was named the Cameo Theater. It only lasted about 10 years before it was torn down.
Ken: The sad thing here is that the local newspaper between June 1896 when it first published until 1/1/1920 was quite inconsistent so far as it’s theater page was concerned so it’s difficult to follow the many little theaters that came and went. Example: I could only find one very small ad for the Edison, and as for this one … nothing. The Mahoning Valley Historical Society is in the process of building a data base of all the local theaters using their collection of city directories, but it will take some time before that list will be available, and our public library is in the same boat.
I wish that it would be possable to have a thread that was devoted strictly to newspaper theater pages for each city, for Youngstown in the 1930’s and 40’s had a number of small neighborhood theaters that came and went.
The Home Theater is just one of these small neighborhoods as well as the Bell Theater; the Wilson; and the Nixon Theater which was a small theater on Poland Avenue.
I agree Jack. Youngstown has more than it’s share of movies over the years, and the Mahoning Valley Historical Society is in the process of compiling a collection of them all. I never was in the Uptown so I don’t know what it was like, but I know that at one time the people who owned the Uptown also owned the Mahoning Theater just as the Cameo and State were early on coupled in the newspaper ads.
Was the Uptown a classic movie palace? I don’t think so when compared to the Warner or Palace, but for a neighborhood,it was above average.
Saddly here it is 2015, and the Uptown still stands empty. Sooner than later it will have to be demolished. Saddly the area that it is located in is drug infested and dangerous to travel in after dark, so even if it did reopen, it would not draw anough people to make it a viable enterprise. That was one of the reasons why the theater group that was using it left and now performs at one of the downtown theaters … there are 4 live theaters in the downtown area.
You’re absolutely right Joe. Back in 1963 A group bought the building to turn into a church and I had the opportunity to check out the projection booth, and while all the equipment was long gone, there were a bunch of old trailers and I was able to salvage them. All the seats had been removed, so it was just a shell. I never followed up to see if the church had ever opened.
Ken, could you please provide us with more info on this theater? Unfortunately the newspapers of the day didn’t run ads for all the nickelodeons that operated here. The address would suggest that it was located west of Hazel Street which places it in the same block as the Dome, Orpheum and Hippodrome.
This Palace Theatre is not to be confused with the Keith-Albee Theatre that was on Wick Avenue just off Central Square, although it’s address of 11 East Federal Street indicates that the first Palace could say that it was on Central Square.
Other than the newspaper ads of the day, little else is known about this theatre, but the same is true about most of the early local theaters here in Youngstown, so if anyone can add to our knowledge about this theater, we’d be very happy.
The correct address was 28 South Champion according to the 1909 Youngstown City Directory as furnished by the Youngstown Public Library from their City Directory and confirmed by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society from the same directory.
The December 22, 1912 Youngstown Vindicator ran a 2 page ad about the opening of the Dome Theatre and clearly stated in the ad that the architect for the Dome was the firm of Louis Boucherle & Son. They were located in the Stambaugh Building in Youngstown.
In the period between 1912 and 1918 there was another unrelated Palace Theater that was located at 11 East Federal Street that I will be posting and in order to prevent confusion between the two,I will be calling it “The First Palace”.
To JamesD … actually I did see a lot of movies there over the years, and when a group was trying to restore it in the 1980’s I helped, so I was very familiar with the Paramount. I also was well aware of building codes and knew that it would take millions to restore the theater.
Chris1982 I want to thank you for the theaters you contributed here, but we’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to the number of theaters that have come and gone over the years. The very first theater in Youngstown opened in the 1850’s long before movies, and it also closed once the Opera House was built in the late 1800’s so I don’t know if it would qualify for adding here. The first theater strangely enough would see another theater built on that site that we can and did include here, and it was the Liberty/Paramount Theater. The building that the first theater was in was torn down to build the Liberty/Paramount Theater.
As you can see from the photo section, this theater went through several name changes over the years.
Afterthought:
For a city the size of Youngstown it had a larger number of theaters than I’ve been able to place here on Cinema Treasures. By reviewing the theater pages of The Vindicator over the years since it’s founding in 1869, you’d see what I mean.Some were live houses, many were movie houses, and some were both, and we thank the owners of this site for allowing us to preserve our city’s theater history.
This theatre was located at 277 West Federal Street.
Thanks to a 1916 Vindicator promotion I was able to locate the address for this theatre. It was 135 West Federal Street.
The Rex Theatre was owned by the same group that owned the Dome Theater. Of interest is the fact that the Warner people had an interest in the Rex as well as the Dome.
Like many of the old theaters that sprang up between 1907 and 1920, the Lyric didn’t last many years, but in its day, it was popular, and ironicly one day, another theater would be built across the street that would be built by Youngstown’s theater men, the Warner Brothers and today known as DeYor Performing Arts Center/Power’s Auditorium, the home of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.
1400 Block of Market Street
Note: The Market Street Theater/Youngstown Playhouse was in the 1400 block of Market Street near Williamson Avenue according to the Playhouse.
I’m not absolutely certain, but through the mid 1930’s and into the late 1940’s this theater was known as the Grand Burlesque, and the owners bought the Park Theater that was undergoing bad times financially, and moved burlesque over there, it was at that point that the Esquire Theatre began operation. By the late 1950’s the Esquire was gone, and in its place was a parking lot.
Actually this was the Princess Theater. It had three different names in its lifetime: Family Theater; Princess Theater; and Esquire Theatre.
One interesting fact about the Princess was that it’s stage was large enough that on one occassion they booked in an aqua show complete with a large tank of water.
In looking over the old newspaper ads the ads for this small theater were equal to those of the Park and Grand Opera House in size beween 1907 and 1920.
The Northside DRIVE-In was not far from the Belmont Theater on the North Side.
The Princess was demoilished in mid 1950 known as the Esquire which specialized in foreign films.