The Daily News-Journal of May 5, 2013, had a history of this theater. The original address of Murfreesboro’s second Princess Theatre was 132 W. College Street, though the Pinnacle Bank building on the site today (the northeast corner of College and Maple Street) uses the address 114 W. College. The house was built in 1902 as Fox’s Opera House, part of the Sam Davis Building. Later it was called the Sam Davis Opera House.
In 1923, Tony Sudekum’s Crescent Amusement Company bought the opera house and had it extensively renovated, with plans by the company’s usual architects of the period, Marr & Holman. The old theater was showing its age by 1936, and Crescent closed it for the better part of the year and had the building gutted and almost completely rebuilt, reopening as the New Princess late that year. Although I’ve found no documentation, it is likely that Marr & Holman designed this rebuild as well.
The exact address of the first Princess Theatre was 118 N. Church Street. It operated from 1915 until 1923, when Crescent Amusement renovated the Sam Davis Opera House (originally Fox’s Opera House) at 132 W. College Street and moved the Princess name there. I don’t know if the original Princess was closed at that time or was kept open for a while under a different name.
The Victory Theatre had been opened by March 13, 1926, when that date’s issue of The Moving Picture World provided this information about it:
“The new theatre is called the Victory and is owned and operated by Frank Davis and Wilford Williams. It represents an investment of $60,000, which includes land and fixtures, etc. It is of fireproof construction, brick and concrete, and is 37 ½ ft. wide by 140 ft. long and has two small store rooms in the front. Has a seating capacity of 524, upholstered seats.
“Has a stage for road shows. Booth equipment consists of two latest Powers 6B improved Projectors with Powerlite Reflector Lamps and Roth Brothers Actodector Generator. The theatre is equipped with good heating and ventilating system which assure good ventilation and proper heating at all times. The acoustics of the theatre are very good. It has all the modern conveniences.
“The Architect is D. D. Spani, Rock Springs, Wyo. The booth equipment, and the chairs which are Heywood-Wakefield, were sold and installed by Utah Theatre Supply Co., Earl D. Smith, Mgr., Salt Lake City.”
Davis and Williams had been operating the New Kemmerer Theatre, built in 1910, since 1922. The Victory’s architect, Daniel D. Spani, had been practicing in Rock Springs since moving there from St. Louis in 1911.
The Google fetches a bit information about this theater, but only if you search using the spelling Orphium. As an October 24, 2015 article in the Xenia Gazette notes, the original owner, Henry Binder “…spelled Orphium with the ‘I’ so it would not be confused with the Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit.”
The Orphium was located at the corner of E. Main and Whiteman Street, and was in operation by 1912. It was still being advertised as the Orphium in the mid-1940s, but it’s possible that when Chakeres took over (which I believe was in the late 1940s) they converted to the orthodox spelling Orpheum. I haven’t seen any ads from that period, though.
This article from the Xenia Gazette of October 24, 2015, reveals that the Bijou/Xenia Theatre was on Greene Street. It was twinned following a fire in 1977 and closed in 1987. The building is now occupied by county offices.
Mr. Google says that the Greene County general offices are at 69 Greene Street. The extensively remodeled building looks like it has been expanded beyond its original footprint, but at least some parts of the walls of the original theater are likely still intact.
The article also says that the Bijou was built around 1917. The Bijou is listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but at 10 Green [sic] Street, so it likely did move into a new building around that time.
Prior to being taken over by Chakeres Theatres in January, 1936, this house was called the Pythian Theatre. From the newspaper ads I’ve seen the company always advertised the house as either the Logan Theatre or Chakeres Logan Theatre, never simply as the Chakeres Theatre.
An article in the June 14, 1976 issue of The Logan Daily News said that the Ruble Theatre building, by then converted into offices for a Savings & Loan Association, was on North Market Street. The February 23, 1960 issue of the News had reported on the sale of the building and the proposed conversion for a bank, with offices upstairs in space which had previously been the Ruble Hotel.
From the description of the project and its location I’d say there’s a very strong probability that the Rubble Theatre was in the building now occupied by the Century National Bank, at 61 N. Market Street.
The announcement that Chakeres Theatres had bought the lease on the Ruble Theatre was made on November 22, 1941. Though the Ruble Theatre was not listed in the FDY prior to 1927, it was being mentioned in the daily newspaper from nearby Athens, Ohio, the Athens Messenger at least as early as May, 1925.
Issues of Motion Picture Herald from 1943 have capsule movie reviews sent in by J. C. Baldwin, then manager of this house, but he called the house the Frances Theatre, not Francis. Boxoffice also used the spelling Frances in the one mention of the house I’ve found in its pages.
Mechanicsburg had a movie house called the Princess Theatre in operation at least as early as 1914 when it was listed in The American Motion Picture Directory. It was also located on Main Street, and might have the house that eventually became the Frances.
The town also enjoyed movies in the Opera House, located in the Town Hall, which The Moving Picture World of February 19, 1916, reported had begun showing movies regularly, with an occasional vaudeville act thrown in. The Opera House was located on North Main Street. Interestingly, the March 11 MPW said that the Opera House had been taken over by Philip Chakers [sic], so the Chakeres company’s interest in Mechanicsburg went way back.
The founders of the chain were brothers Philip, Louis, and Nicholas Chakeres, who entered the business when they took over the Princess Theatre in Springfield, Ohio, in 1911. This has me wondering if perhaps they had the Princess in Mechanicsburg (not too far from Springfield) as well, and took over the Opera House after it began showing movies to prevent a rival from getting a foothold in the town.
This item from the February 12, 1910 issue of The Economist was about this theater:
“William J. Van Keuren has finished plans for remodeling an addition to a two story hall, 48x122 feet, at 1611 to 1615 North Robey street [now Damen Avenue], to be converted into a theater for F.C. Smalley. The improvements will cost $10,000.”
The Edna Theatre could be this project noted in the May 21, 1910 issue of The Economist:
William F. Pagels has completed plans for a two story theater, with store, 35x125 feet, to be erected on North avenue, near Forty-first avenue. It will cost $20,000.“
Chicago’s numbered avenues were given names around 1913. The 4100 block has since begun at Karlov Avenue.
This item appeared in the “Building Permits” column of the June 25, 1910 issue of The Economist, and doesn’t match up with the information above:
“Chas Klappame, 1 story brick theater, 25x124, 5518 South Ashland av; architect, A. G. Ferree; builder, owner. 7000.”
The Boulevard Theatre is listed at 5522 S. Ashland in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but I don’t see the Schell Theatre listed, nor any theater at 5518 Ashland.
The brick-fronted building occupied by the First St. Peter M.B. Church of Chicago looks like it could have begun life as a theater, though it uses the address 5524 Ashland. Still, I suspect that it is in the old Boulevard Theatre building.
The April 2, 1910 issue of the Chicago business journal The Economist had an item about a theater project in Waukegan which was most likely this house:
“William R. Gibb has completed plans for a one story theater, 47.6x126.6 feet, to be erected for Samuel Fleckles, manager of the Laemmle Film Service of Chicago, at Waukegan. It will cost $20,000.”
Architect William R. Gibb is most remembered today as the designer of a large number of Chicago’s early elevated railroad stations.
The Lexington Theatre at 40th Avenue (now Pulaski Road) and Lexington Street in Chicago was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory twice, once with that address and once with the address 715 S. Crawford Avenue, which was another aka for Pulaski Road. Another Lexington Theatre was listed at 1168 E. 63rd Street.
It seems quite likely that the Lexington Theatre on Pulaski Road was the project noted in the June 25, 1910 issue of The Economist, which gave the address of the site as 3952-4-6-8 Lexington Street. The two-story brick theater and store building, 121x84 feet, was designed for P. Schiavire & Son by architect Alexander L. Levy.
The December 18, 1909 issue of The Economist said that architect A. E. Robinson had prepared plans for a two-story brick theater, 46x110, at 3916-3918 Lincoln Avenue for the Republic Theater Company.
I’m pretty sure this theater has been demolished. The building at this address is not deep enough to have held a theater, and looks quite modern in any case.
The Glee Theatre might have been the project noted in the November 13, 1909 issue of The Economist as a two-story theater for a Mr. Jacobs, 50x120, on Lincoln Avenue near Irving Park Boulevard. The architect was David Robertson.
The single-story brick theater, 36x150, to be built for J.C. Birk at 1316 E. 55th Street, had been designed by H. L. Newhouse, according to an item in the September 11, 1909 issue of The Economist.
The July 17, 1909 issue of The Economist said that a brick theater, 52x140, being built for Thomas Chamales at 6248-6252 Cottage Grove Avenue had been designed by Sidney Lovell.
This multiplex wasn’t built yet when Google’s camera car last went by. This page has a photo of the theater building, looking west from the 10th Street bridge just north/east of Main Street. Satellite View shows that the entire block of buildings on the north/east side of Arthur Street was demolished to make way for this project.
The Clayton Theatre, still in operation, was offered for sale in this ad in Boxoffice April 10, 1961:
“Clayton Theatre, priced for quick sale. 400 seats, first class Simplex equipment, almost new. Now in operation. In heart of oil field. Owner has other business. James M. Levitt. Clay City, Illinois.”
Clay City had a theater at least as early as 1914, when a house called the Palace was listed in The American Motion Picture Directory.
The March 18, 1921 issue of Pacific Builder and Engineer said that Walla Walla architect Charles B. Lambert had prepared plans for Brining’s theater at Dayton. The theater project was most likely promoted by John Brining, one of Dayton’s leading citizens of the period.
The Daily News-Journal of May 5, 2013, had a history of this theater. The original address of Murfreesboro’s second Princess Theatre was 132 W. College Street, though the Pinnacle Bank building on the site today (the northeast corner of College and Maple Street) uses the address 114 W. College. The house was built in 1902 as Fox’s Opera House, part of the Sam Davis Building. Later it was called the Sam Davis Opera House.
In 1923, Tony Sudekum’s Crescent Amusement Company bought the opera house and had it extensively renovated, with plans by the company’s usual architects of the period, Marr & Holman. The old theater was showing its age by 1936, and Crescent closed it for the better part of the year and had the building gutted and almost completely rebuilt, reopening as the New Princess late that year. Although I’ve found no documentation, it is likely that Marr & Holman designed this rebuild as well.
The exact address of the first Princess Theatre was 118 N. Church Street. It operated from 1915 until 1923, when Crescent Amusement renovated the Sam Davis Opera House (originally Fox’s Opera House) at 132 W. College Street and moved the Princess name there. I don’t know if the original Princess was closed at that time or was kept open for a while under a different name.
The Victory Theatre had been opened by March 13, 1926, when that date’s issue of The Moving Picture World provided this information about it:
Davis and Williams had been operating the New Kemmerer Theatre, built in 1910, since 1922. The Victory’s architect, Daniel D. Spani, had been practicing in Rock Springs since moving there from St. Louis in 1911.The Google fetches a bit information about this theater, but only if you search using the spelling Orphium. As an October 24, 2015 article in the Xenia Gazette notes, the original owner, Henry Binder “…spelled Orphium with the ‘I’ so it would not be confused with the Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit.”
The Orphium was located at the corner of E. Main and Whiteman Street, and was in operation by 1912. It was still being advertised as the Orphium in the mid-1940s, but it’s possible that when Chakeres took over (which I believe was in the late 1940s) they converted to the orthodox spelling Orpheum. I haven’t seen any ads from that period, though.
This article from the Xenia Gazette of October 24, 2015, reveals that the Bijou/Xenia Theatre was on Greene Street. It was twinned following a fire in 1977 and closed in 1987. The building is now occupied by county offices.
Mr. Google says that the Greene County general offices are at 69 Greene Street. The extensively remodeled building looks like it has been expanded beyond its original footprint, but at least some parts of the walls of the original theater are likely still intact.
The article also says that the Bijou was built around 1917. The Bijou is listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but at 10 Green [sic] Street, so it likely did move into a new building around that time.
The Kaymar Theatre was around the corner from the Markay, at 222 Broadway. The building now houses a Sherwin-Williams paint store.
This article from 2016 says the Markay Theatre originally opened on October 20, 1930.
Prior to being taken over by Chakeres Theatres in January, 1936, this house was called the Pythian Theatre. From the newspaper ads I’ve seen the company always advertised the house as either the Logan Theatre or Chakeres Logan Theatre, never simply as the Chakeres Theatre.
An article in the June 14, 1976 issue of The Logan Daily News said that the Ruble Theatre building, by then converted into offices for a Savings & Loan Association, was on North Market Street. The February 23, 1960 issue of the News had reported on the sale of the building and the proposed conversion for a bank, with offices upstairs in space which had previously been the Ruble Hotel.
From the description of the project and its location I’d say there’s a very strong probability that the Rubble Theatre was in the building now occupied by the Century National Bank, at 61 N. Market Street.
The announcement that Chakeres Theatres had bought the lease on the Ruble Theatre was made on November 22, 1941. Though the Ruble Theatre was not listed in the FDY prior to 1927, it was being mentioned in the daily newspaper from nearby Athens, Ohio, the Athens Messenger at least as early as May, 1925.
The Majestic Theatre, London, Ohio, was mentioned in the March 11, 1922 issue of Motion Picture News. Joseph Neiser was operating the house.
Motion Picture Herald of July 12, 1947, said that a fire had damaged the projection room at Chakeres' Majestic Theatre in London, Ohio.
Issues of Motion Picture Herald from 1943 have capsule movie reviews sent in by J. C. Baldwin, then manager of this house, but he called the house the Frances Theatre, not Francis. Boxoffice also used the spelling Frances in the one mention of the house I’ve found in its pages.
Mechanicsburg had a movie house called the Princess Theatre in operation at least as early as 1914 when it was listed in The American Motion Picture Directory. It was also located on Main Street, and might have the house that eventually became the Frances.
The town also enjoyed movies in the Opera House, located in the Town Hall, which The Moving Picture World of February 19, 1916, reported had begun showing movies regularly, with an occasional vaudeville act thrown in. The Opera House was located on North Main Street. Interestingly, the March 11 MPW said that the Opera House had been taken over by Philip Chakers [sic], so the Chakeres company’s interest in Mechanicsburg went way back.
The founders of the chain were brothers Philip, Louis, and Nicholas Chakeres, who entered the business when they took over the Princess Theatre in Springfield, Ohio, in 1911. This has me wondering if perhaps they had the Princess in Mechanicsburg (not too far from Springfield) as well, and took over the Opera House after it began showing movies to prevent a rival from getting a foothold in the town.
This item from the February 12, 1910 issue of The Economist was about this theater:
The Edna Theatre could be this project noted in the May 21, 1910 issue of The Economist:
Chicago’s numbered avenues were given names around 1913. The 4100 block has since begun at Karlov Avenue.This item appeared in the “Building Permits” column of the June 25, 1910 issue of The Economist, and doesn’t match up with the information above:
The Boulevard Theatre is listed at 5522 S. Ashland in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but I don’t see the Schell Theatre listed, nor any theater at 5518 Ashland.The brick-fronted building occupied by the First St. Peter M.B. Church of Chicago looks like it could have begun life as a theater, though it uses the address 5524 Ashland. Still, I suspect that it is in the old Boulevard Theatre building.
The April 2, 1910 issue of the Chicago business journal The Economist had an item about a theater project in Waukegan which was most likely this house:
Architect William R. Gibb is most remembered today as the designer of a large number of Chicago’s early elevated railroad stations.The Lexington Theatre at 40th Avenue (now Pulaski Road) and Lexington Street in Chicago was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory twice, once with that address and once with the address 715 S. Crawford Avenue, which was another aka for Pulaski Road. Another Lexington Theatre was listed at 1168 E. 63rd Street.
It seems quite likely that the Lexington Theatre on Pulaski Road was the project noted in the June 25, 1910 issue of The Economist, which gave the address of the site as 3952-4-6-8 Lexington Street. The two-story brick theater and store building, 121x84 feet, was designed for P. Schiavire & Son by architect Alexander L. Levy.
The December 18, 1909 issue of The Economist said that architect A. E. Robinson had prepared plans for a two-story brick theater, 46x110, at 3916-3918 Lincoln Avenue for the Republic Theater Company.
I’m pretty sure this theater has been demolished. The building at this address is not deep enough to have held a theater, and looks quite modern in any case.
The Glee Theatre might have been the project noted in the November 13, 1909 issue of The Economist as a two-story theater for a Mr. Jacobs, 50x120, on Lincoln Avenue near Irving Park Boulevard. The architect was David Robertson.
Though the building ended up only two stories high, this item from The Economist of September 25, 1909, is probably about the Imperial Theatre:
Architect George H. Grussing was quite active during this period, but doesn’t appear to be remembered now.The building in this photo is at 3910 W. 26th Street. The Paris Theatre was across the street at 3905.
The single-story brick theater, 36x150, to be built for J.C. Birk at 1316 E. 55th Street, had been designed by H. L. Newhouse, according to an item in the September 11, 1909 issue of The Economist.
The July 17, 1909 issue of The Economist said that a brick theater, 52x140, being built for Thomas Chamales at 6248-6252 Cottage Grove Avenue had been designed by Sidney Lovell.
This multiplex wasn’t built yet when Google’s camera car last went by. This page has a photo of the theater building, looking west from the 10th Street bridge just north/east of Main Street. Satellite View shows that the entire block of buildings on the north/east side of Arthur Street was demolished to make way for this project.
The Clayton Theatre, still in operation, was offered for sale in this ad in Boxoffice April 10, 1961:
Clay City had a theater at least as early as 1914, when a house called the Palace was listed in The American Motion Picture Directory.The March 18, 1921 issue of Pacific Builder and Engineer said that Walla Walla architect Charles B. Lambert had prepared plans for Brining’s theater at Dayton. The theater project was most likely promoted by John Brining, one of Dayton’s leading citizens of the period.