The original architect of the Balderson Theatre was Andrew Stuart Allaster(Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada.) The house underwent major alterations in 1930, with plans by Ottawa architect Cecil Burgess.
The NRHP registration form for this theater (PDF here) says that it was designed by Palm Beach architect Chester A. Cone, who also designed the Prince Theatre in Pahokee. The registration form also has information about several other movie theaters in the region. It also notes that this was the second location for the Dixie Crystal Theatre, the first house of its name having been opened in 1934.
The Harlem Theatre was most likely located on Harlem Academy Avenue, in the town of Harlem’s very small business district. Harlem is not an incorporated city, the Census Bureau classing it as a census designated place, and the Postal Service considers it a part of Clewiston.
It is possible (though not confirmed) that the building in this Google street view housed the Harlem Theatre. It has a bit of streamline modern detailing, a small theater-like entrance lobby, and no ground floor fenestration on the visible side wall. It’s about the right size for 300 seats. The cafe next door has the address 1009 Harlem Academy Avenue, and the theater-like building would probably be 1007.
This article about Harlem from the January 11, 2017 Fort Myers Florida Weekly indicates that the town had a movie theater in the 1960s and 1970s, but it doesn’t give the name or location. Most likely it was the Harlem. Eric Ledell Smith’s African American Theater Buildings lists three theaters for Clewiston as a whole in the 1940s and 1950s, the other two African American houses having been the Lincoln Theatre and the Queen Theatre, but I doubt the Harlem district could have supported three houses, so those two were probably elsewhere in Clewiston.
Clarence Castleman Bulger, architect of the Victoria Theatre, began his career in 1903 as the junior partner in the firm of C. W. Bulger & Son, after completing his BA degree at the University of Chicago. His father, Charles William Bulger, died in 1922.
Clarence Bulger was best known for designing churches, he and his father between them having completed more than 75 of them in at least 20 states. They also designed many impressive houses for well-to-do clients, and what is considered the first skyscraper in Texas, the 15-story Praetorian Building in Dallas, completed in 1909. Clarence Bulger died in 1956.
An article from the December 4, 2007 edition of The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, said that the building which had once housed the Rivoli Theatre in Colver was to be demolished the next week. The building, which was located on Reese Avenue, had been built in 1911 and had been vacant for fourteen years.
At one time the Rivoli had been operated by an Altoona-based chain called Rivoli & Hollywood Theatres, which ran houses called the Rivoli in Altoona, Beaverdale, Colver, Cresson, Ebensburg, and Portage, and houses called the Hollywood Theatre in Hastings and Johnstown.
The July 12, 1931 issue of Film Daily said that the Colver Theatre in Colver would be open only two days a week. The Colver first appears in the FDY in 1929. No theaters are listed for Colver in 1930. The Colver Theatre returns in 1931 and 1932 with 400 seats. It was listed as closed in 1933, and listed in 1934 with 348 seats. In 1935 it is gone and the Rivoli appears, with 350 seats. It seems most likely that the Colver and Rivoli were the same house, bought by Rivoli & Hollywood Theatres sometime in 1934 and re-branded with the chain’s favorite name.
From 1926 through 1928 the FDY lists a Strand Theatre at Colver, but gives no seating capacity. Still, it seems likely that this, too, was just an earlier name for the Rivoli.
The Mount Royal Theatre was built in 1913, and was active into 1945. The original Art Nouveau design was obliterated at some point, probably when it was remodeled and reopened as the Avon Theatre. This web page has a drawing of the original facade, which was designed by architect Joseph-Arthur Godin.
Theatre Plaza is now a live music venue. Here is their web site (it’s in French, and I can’t find an English version.) The web site has a number of photos of events at the house, and a lot of the original auditorium decor appears to be intact.
The house opened on February 17, 1922, under the direction of United Amusement, the company that also had the Strand (1912), the Regent (1916), the Rialto (1924), the Seville (1929), the Monkland (1930), and the Snowdon (1937.) Construction had begun in 1921 for Northern Amusement, but the project was transfered to United later that year.
United hired their favorite architect, Daniel Crighton, to enlarge the uncompleted theater building, and later hired theater decorator Emmanuel Briffa, a frequent Crighton collaborator, to handle the interiors.
Mike Rivest’s list of Montreal theaters says that La Scala opened on May 7, 1949, and operated into 1981. The house became an adult theater called Cinema X for part of 1982, then closed and reopened again on August 27, 1982, as an art house called L'autre Cinema, and operated under that name into 1987.
The Weaver Theatre in Mountain Home was mentioned in the July 5, 1919 issue of The Moving Picture World. It was one of many theaters that was part of the just-formed Northwest Exhibitors' Circuit, a booking and buying organization of independent theater owners.
The People’s theater was being mentioned in the Adams County Leader at least as early as 1918. The paper’s issue of Oct 9, 1936 reported that the People’s Theater’s floor had been rebuilt on slant instead of flat as before, and that work on a new front was to start the next week. The December 4 edition reported that new seats had been installed in the theater. Another complete renovation was undertaken in 1940, reported in the February 16 issue.
On March 18, 1960, owner-operators of the house Mr. and Mrs. Joe Hancock reported that they might have to shut the theater down due to lack of patronage. But the June 23, 1961 issue of the Leader said that California theater operators Mr. and Mrs. George R. Cheverton and their son Richard had bought the People’s Theatre and the Rio Theatre in Cambridge and would move to Idaho to operated them.
A Mr. and Mrs. Richard Holliday bought both theaters from the Chevertons in 1967, as reported in the September 28 Leader. The People’s was still in operation at least as late as May, 1973, when yet another change of ownership was reported in the May 18 Leader:
“Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Wallace are taking over management of the People’s theater, beginning May 21. Mr. and Mrs. Robert DesMarias have made some improvements at the theater during his vacation, and Mrs. DesMarias will leave for their home in Anchorage, Alaska May 23.”
That was the last mention of the theater I’ve been able to find.
Ah, but this is a hipster drive-in, so attending it is ironic. Going to Puente or Paramount would evoke the wrong kind of irony. Plus out there they might see someone getting pregnant in a back seat, which would remind them of their grandparents conceiving their parents. ((shudder))
The Center was mentioned in the January 19, 1946 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review as one of five houses operated by Earl Stout and his son D. B. Stout. The other four houses in the Stout circuit were the newly-opened Arly at Arlington, Kentucky; the Wick, at Wickliffe, Kentucky; the Uptown, Cairo, Illinois; and the recently opened City Theatre at Mound City, Illinois.
First listed in the FDY in 1938, the Lyndel Theatre had 250 seats. In the 1939 FDY it had jumped up to 650 seats. This Facebook post says the house was run by Morran Lyndel Fondaw into the 1960s.
This rather pricey (cheapest ticket bought in advance is twelve bucks to sit on the astroturf, parking not included) outdoor venue, located on a community college campus, has an official web site with a schedule and information about the pricey prices. They don’t say how much the snacks cost, but my guess would be… pricey.
The August 15, 1926 Detroit Free Press said that the new Colony Theatre, under construction on Mack Avenue at Balfour Road, would on completion temporarily be used as a meeting place for the newly established Roman Catholic parish of St. Clare of Montefalco. A history of the parish says the first Sunday mass was held in the theater on October 3, 1926. Weekday masses were held at another location.
The parish school was completed by September, 1927 and Sunday services were moved to its auditorium until a new sanctuary was completed. What I’ve been unable to discover is if movies were shown at the Colony on weekdays while it was still serving as a church on Sundays, but either way it must have been operating as a movie theater full time by September, 1927.
The building has come full circle, as it is now the home of a Baptist church.
The most recent Google street views show this entire area being rebuilt with enormous, boring apartment projects. I hope I never have to see it in person.
An item in Motion Picture Herald from 1931 (I can’t find the date) says that Ben Pitts had recently taken over the Dixie Theatre in Manassas.
There is conflicting information about the Dixie/Pitts' Theatre. The December 31, 1936 issue of The Manassas Journal (PDF here) advertises the Pitts Theatre, but a number of items about movies playing at the Dixie Theatre give the names and dates of the movies listed in the Pitts Theatre’s ad. As it seems unlikely that the same movies would be playing at two different theaters, what seems more likely is that the name Dixie remained in common use after the theater had been renamed Pitts. An ad published by Pitts Theatres in 1939 uses the name Pitts' for the Manassas house.
More troubling is a line in one article (upper right, front page) making reference to “… the square [the block] north of Center Street where the Pitts' Theatre is located….” The silent era Dixie Theatre was south of Center Street. Also giving the block north of Center Street as the location of Pitts' Theatre is the caption of a photo in the Arcadia Press book Manassas (Google books preview) saying “…the Olde Towne Inn opened in 1973 at the corner of Center and Main Streets, on the site of the old Pitts Theatre and Stonewall Jackson Hotel.” This is the block north of Center Street, and thus not the location of the silent era Dixie Theatre building, which is still standing.
It would appear then that a new theater was opened north of Center Street by 1936, and by that year was being advertised as Pitts' Theatre. However, the FDY continues to list the only house in Manassas as the Dixie through 1941, and the name Pitts (well, actually it first appears as “Titts”) doesn’t show up until 1942. The Pitts is then listed with only 200 seats until 1949, when it suddenly goes to 505 seats. The silent era Dixie building was never large enough for 505 seats, so this is more evidence that it has to have been the house north of Center Street, but I don’t know if this reflected a recent expansion or if the FDY was only belatedly catching up with a change made years earlier.
The Pinole 10 was about where the FedEx Office and Auto Zone stores are now. They are some distance east of the spot Google Maps is putting the pin icon. Views at Historic Aerials show that the theater had been demolished and construction started on the shopping center that replaced it by 2002.
The 1921 Fredericksburg city directory lists Pitts Leader Theatre at 915 Main Street. This web page says that Main Street was an aka for Caroline Street, so unless the lots have been renumbered since 1921 the Leader was just a few doors down from the site of the later Colonial Theatre. The only other theater listed in 1921 was the Opera House, corner of Main and Commerce (aka William) Street.
Like all the other theaters built for Century between 1964 and the early 1990s, Century’s Pinole 10 was designed by Vincent G. Raney. The Pinole 10 was very nearly identical to the Century 10 at Noor Avenue and Huntington Avenue in South San Francisco, which opened just a few months after the Pinole house.
The South San Francisco building is still standing, though it has been gutted for a bowling center project that was never completed. Still, Google’s satellite view of it still gives a good idea of what the Pinole multiplex looked like on the outside.
Red’s Showcase Twin Cinemas closed on February 28, 2007, according to this article from that day’s Curry Coastal Pilot. The article says that Thomas took over operation of the house in 1987, some time after the previous owners had twinned it.
I believe this theater was the house scheduled to open as the Pic Theatre on May 14, 1952. The May 13 issue of the Eureka daily newspaper, the Humboldt Times, reported that an early morning blast had occurred at the theatre, ripping a hole in the roof, damaging the marquee, and wrecking the ticket booth. Police suspected a deliberate act of sabotage, either a bomb or sticks of dynamite.
Owner of the Pic, Earl L. Boles, who also operated the Mecca Theatre, said that materials were being rushed to the site to repair the damage quickly so that the theater could open on schedule. The following day’s edition of the paper said that the damage had been estimated at $1,000, but that the 537-seat theater would open that night.
An article in the March 22, 1952 issue of Boxoffice said that operation of the downtown Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles had been taken over by United Paramount Theatres on March 18, at the end of a twenty year lease by Fanchon & Marco. United Paramount would undertake the remodeling job that began later that year.
F&M’s lease on the Hollywood Paramount continued, and though now under separate management, the day-and-date policy at the two houses would also continue. The first movie opened under the new regime was the Paramount release “Something to Live For,” on March 21.
This item from the June 27, 1919 issue of Pacific Builder and Engineer is most likely about the Dream Theatre:
“Snoqualmie, Wn-Archt E. W. Houghton, Seattle, is planning a conc. moving picture theatre for this pl. same to be 80x32 ft with timbered truss rf. Modern htg and vent plant will be installed.”
The dimensions of the building in street and satellite views do look to be about 32x80.
The original architect of the Balderson Theatre was Andrew Stuart Allaster(Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada.) The house underwent major alterations in 1930, with plans by Ottawa architect Cecil Burgess.
The NRHP registration form for this theater (PDF here) says that it was designed by Palm Beach architect Chester A. Cone, who also designed the Prince Theatre in Pahokee. The registration form also has information about several other movie theaters in the region. It also notes that this was the second location for the Dixie Crystal Theatre, the first house of its name having been opened in 1934.
The Harlem Theatre was most likely located on Harlem Academy Avenue, in the town of Harlem’s very small business district. Harlem is not an incorporated city, the Census Bureau classing it as a census designated place, and the Postal Service considers it a part of Clewiston.
It is possible (though not confirmed) that the building in this Google street view housed the Harlem Theatre. It has a bit of streamline modern detailing, a small theater-like entrance lobby, and no ground floor fenestration on the visible side wall. It’s about the right size for 300 seats. The cafe next door has the address 1009 Harlem Academy Avenue, and the theater-like building would probably be 1007.
This article about Harlem from the January 11, 2017 Fort Myers Florida Weekly indicates that the town had a movie theater in the 1960s and 1970s, but it doesn’t give the name or location. Most likely it was the Harlem. Eric Ledell Smith’s African American Theater Buildings lists three theaters for Clewiston as a whole in the 1940s and 1950s, the other two African American houses having been the Lincoln Theatre and the Queen Theatre, but I doubt the Harlem district could have supported three houses, so those two were probably elsewhere in Clewiston.
Clarence Castleman Bulger, architect of the Victoria Theatre, began his career in 1903 as the junior partner in the firm of C. W. Bulger & Son, after completing his BA degree at the University of Chicago. His father, Charles William Bulger, died in 1922.
Clarence Bulger was best known for designing churches, he and his father between them having completed more than 75 of them in at least 20 states. They also designed many impressive houses for well-to-do clients, and what is considered the first skyscraper in Texas, the 15-story Praetorian Building in Dallas, completed in 1909. Clarence Bulger died in 1956.
An article from the December 4, 2007 edition of The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, said that the building which had once housed the Rivoli Theatre in Colver was to be demolished the next week. The building, which was located on Reese Avenue, had been built in 1911 and had been vacant for fourteen years.
At one time the Rivoli had been operated by an Altoona-based chain called Rivoli & Hollywood Theatres, which ran houses called the Rivoli in Altoona, Beaverdale, Colver, Cresson, Ebensburg, and Portage, and houses called the Hollywood Theatre in Hastings and Johnstown.
The July 12, 1931 issue of Film Daily said that the Colver Theatre in Colver would be open only two days a week. The Colver first appears in the FDY in 1929. No theaters are listed for Colver in 1930. The Colver Theatre returns in 1931 and 1932 with 400 seats. It was listed as closed in 1933, and listed in 1934 with 348 seats. In 1935 it is gone and the Rivoli appears, with 350 seats. It seems most likely that the Colver and Rivoli were the same house, bought by Rivoli & Hollywood Theatres sometime in 1934 and re-branded with the chain’s favorite name.
From 1926 through 1928 the FDY lists a Strand Theatre at Colver, but gives no seating capacity. Still, it seems likely that this, too, was just an earlier name for the Rivoli.
The Mount Royal Theatre was built in 1913, and was active into 1945. The original Art Nouveau design was obliterated at some point, probably when it was remodeled and reopened as the Avon Theatre. This web page has a drawing of the original facade, which was designed by architect Joseph-Arthur Godin.
Golden Ticket reseated this house with recliners, and each of the two auditoriums now has 140 seats.
Theatre Plaza is now a live music venue. Here is their web site (it’s in French, and I can’t find an English version.) The web site has a number of photos of events at the house, and a lot of the original auditorium decor appears to be intact.
The house opened on February 17, 1922, under the direction of United Amusement, the company that also had the Strand (1912), the Regent (1916), the Rialto (1924), the Seville (1929), the Monkland (1930), and the Snowdon (1937.) Construction had begun in 1921 for Northern Amusement, but the project was transfered to United later that year.
United hired their favorite architect, Daniel Crighton, to enlarge the uncompleted theater building, and later hired theater decorator Emmanuel Briffa, a frequent Crighton collaborator, to handle the interiors.
Mike Rivest’s list of Montreal theaters says that La Scala opened on May 7, 1949, and operated into 1981. The house became an adult theater called Cinema X for part of 1982, then closed and reopened again on August 27, 1982, as an art house called L'autre Cinema, and operated under that name into 1987.
The Weaver Theatre in Mountain Home was mentioned in the July 5, 1919 issue of The Moving Picture World. It was one of many theaters that was part of the just-formed Northwest Exhibitors' Circuit, a booking and buying organization of independent theater owners.
The People’s theater was being mentioned in the Adams County Leader at least as early as 1918. The paper’s issue of Oct 9, 1936 reported that the People’s Theater’s floor had been rebuilt on slant instead of flat as before, and that work on a new front was to start the next week. The December 4 edition reported that new seats had been installed in the theater. Another complete renovation was undertaken in 1940, reported in the February 16 issue.
On March 18, 1960, owner-operators of the house Mr. and Mrs. Joe Hancock reported that they might have to shut the theater down due to lack of patronage. But the June 23, 1961 issue of the Leader said that California theater operators Mr. and Mrs. George R. Cheverton and their son Richard had bought the People’s Theatre and the Rio Theatre in Cambridge and would move to Idaho to operated them.
A Mr. and Mrs. Richard Holliday bought both theaters from the Chevertons in 1967, as reported in the September 28 Leader. The People’s was still in operation at least as late as May, 1973, when yet another change of ownership was reported in the May 18 Leader:
That was the last mention of the theater I’ve been able to find.It looks like there are rust streaks below the three vertical black panels, but the rest of it just looks like dirt.
Ah, but this is a hipster drive-in, so attending it is ironic. Going to Puente or Paramount would evoke the wrong kind of irony. Plus out there they might see someone getting pregnant in a back seat, which would remind them of their grandparents conceiving their parents. ((shudder))
The Center was mentioned in the January 19, 1946 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review as one of five houses operated by Earl Stout and his son D. B. Stout. The other four houses in the Stout circuit were the newly-opened Arly at Arlington, Kentucky; the Wick, at Wickliffe, Kentucky; the Uptown, Cairo, Illinois; and the recently opened City Theatre at Mound City, Illinois.
First listed in the FDY in 1938, the Lyndel Theatre had 250 seats. In the 1939 FDY it had jumped up to 650 seats. This Facebook post says the house was run by Morran Lyndel Fondaw into the 1960s.
This rather pricey (cheapest ticket bought in advance is twelve bucks to sit on the astroturf, parking not included) outdoor venue, located on a community college campus, has an official web site with a schedule and information about the pricey prices. They don’t say how much the snacks cost, but my guess would be… pricey.
The August 15, 1926 Detroit Free Press said that the new Colony Theatre, under construction on Mack Avenue at Balfour Road, would on completion temporarily be used as a meeting place for the newly established Roman Catholic parish of St. Clare of Montefalco. A history of the parish says the first Sunday mass was held in the theater on October 3, 1926. Weekday masses were held at another location.
The parish school was completed by September, 1927 and Sunday services were moved to its auditorium until a new sanctuary was completed. What I’ve been unable to discover is if movies were shown at the Colony on weekdays while it was still serving as a church on Sundays, but either way it must have been operating as a movie theater full time by September, 1927.
The building has come full circle, as it is now the home of a Baptist church.
The most recent Google street views show this entire area being rebuilt with enormous, boring apartment projects. I hope I never have to see it in person.
An item in Motion Picture Herald from 1931 (I can’t find the date) says that Ben Pitts had recently taken over the Dixie Theatre in Manassas.
There is conflicting information about the Dixie/Pitts' Theatre. The December 31, 1936 issue of The Manassas Journal (PDF here) advertises the Pitts Theatre, but a number of items about movies playing at the Dixie Theatre give the names and dates of the movies listed in the Pitts Theatre’s ad. As it seems unlikely that the same movies would be playing at two different theaters, what seems more likely is that the name Dixie remained in common use after the theater had been renamed Pitts. An ad published by Pitts Theatres in 1939 uses the name Pitts' for the Manassas house.
More troubling is a line in one article (upper right, front page) making reference to “… the square [the block] north of Center Street where the Pitts' Theatre is located….” The silent era Dixie Theatre was south of Center Street. Also giving the block north of Center Street as the location of Pitts' Theatre is the caption of a photo in the Arcadia Press book Manassas (Google books preview) saying “…the Olde Towne Inn opened in 1973 at the corner of Center and Main Streets, on the site of the old Pitts Theatre and Stonewall Jackson Hotel.” This is the block north of Center Street, and thus not the location of the silent era Dixie Theatre building, which is still standing.
It would appear then that a new theater was opened north of Center Street by 1936, and by that year was being advertised as Pitts' Theatre. However, the FDY continues to list the only house in Manassas as the Dixie through 1941, and the name Pitts (well, actually it first appears as “Titts”) doesn’t show up until 1942. The Pitts is then listed with only 200 seats until 1949, when it suddenly goes to 505 seats. The silent era Dixie building was never large enough for 505 seats, so this is more evidence that it has to have been the house north of Center Street, but I don’t know if this reflected a recent expansion or if the FDY was only belatedly catching up with a change made years earlier.
The Pinole 10 was about where the FedEx Office and Auto Zone stores are now. They are some distance east of the spot Google Maps is putting the pin icon. Views at Historic Aerials show that the theater had been demolished and construction started on the shopping center that replaced it by 2002.
The 1921 Fredericksburg city directory lists Pitts Leader Theatre at 915 Main Street. This web page says that Main Street was an aka for Caroline Street, so unless the lots have been renumbered since 1921 the Leader was just a few doors down from the site of the later Colonial Theatre. The only other theater listed in 1921 was the Opera House, corner of Main and Commerce (aka William) Street.
Like all the other theaters built for Century between 1964 and the early 1990s, Century’s Pinole 10 was designed by Vincent G. Raney. The Pinole 10 was very nearly identical to the Century 10 at Noor Avenue and Huntington Avenue in South San Francisco, which opened just a few months after the Pinole house.
The South San Francisco building is still standing, though it has been gutted for a bowling center project that was never completed. Still, Google’s satellite view of it still gives a good idea of what the Pinole multiplex looked like on the outside.
Red’s Showcase Twin Cinemas closed on February 28, 2007, according to this article from that day’s Curry Coastal Pilot. The article says that Thomas took over operation of the house in 1987, some time after the previous owners had twinned it.
I believe this theater was the house scheduled to open as the Pic Theatre on May 14, 1952. The May 13 issue of the Eureka daily newspaper, the Humboldt Times, reported that an early morning blast had occurred at the theatre, ripping a hole in the roof, damaging the marquee, and wrecking the ticket booth. Police suspected a deliberate act of sabotage, either a bomb or sticks of dynamite.
Owner of the Pic, Earl L. Boles, who also operated the Mecca Theatre, said that materials were being rushed to the site to repair the damage quickly so that the theater could open on schedule. The following day’s edition of the paper said that the damage had been estimated at $1,000, but that the 537-seat theater would open that night.
An article in the March 22, 1952 issue of Boxoffice said that operation of the downtown Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles had been taken over by United Paramount Theatres on March 18, at the end of a twenty year lease by Fanchon & Marco. United Paramount would undertake the remodeling job that began later that year.
F&M’s lease on the Hollywood Paramount continued, and though now under separate management, the day-and-date policy at the two houses would also continue. The first movie opened under the new regime was the Paramount release “Something to Live For,” on March 21.
This item from the June 27, 1919 issue of Pacific Builder and Engineer is most likely about the Dream Theatre:
The dimensions of the building in street and satellite views do look to be about 32x80.