Harry Beeson’s West End Theatre was described in the 1909-1910 Cahn guide as a 1,800-seat, ground floor house with a stage 62 feet between side walls and 43 feet from the footlights to the back wall. The height to the rigging loft was 60 feet. There were six players in the orchestra.
A History of Uniontown: The County Seat of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, By James Hadden, published in 1913, says that the West End Theatre opened on October 20, 1903 with a play titled “The Sultan of Sulu.”
The Park Theatre was renovated in 1946 by the State Theater Company of Point Pleasant, as noted in a brief article headed “Theater Work Completed” in the July 11, 1946 issue of The Athens Messenger from Athens, Ohio. The article said that State had bought the house from the Alpine Theater Circuit several months previously and had begun renovations immediately, but work had been delayed by shortages of equipment and materials. Improvements included new sound and projection equipment and a new heating plant and air conditioning. The stage was also enlarged, and the outer lobby enclosed.
I just found this item in the August 20, 1936 issue of The Film Daily:
“Pomeroy, O. — Incorporators of the Meigs Theater Co., opening a new movie theater here Sept. 1, are Walter B. Urling, R. T. Jennings and George Davis.”
The July 29 issue of the same journal had said that the new theater in Pomeroy would be “…in the upper business block….” which is another indication that the Meigs was probably on 2nd Street.
The August 24 issue of Film Daily noted that the Alpine Theatre Company, which had plans to open a new theater in the Masonic Building at Middleport, was also reconditioning a theater in Pomeroy. It’s possible that the house in question was the Electric.
A house in Middleport called the Gem Theatre was mentioned in the September 30, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World. Then there is this item from the March 1, 1924 issue of the same journal:
:“MIDDLEPORT, O.— J. E. Lyons has plans by John Niskee, Huntington, W. Va., for one-story brick moving picture theatre, 113 by 36 feet.”
Middleport is mentioned again in the August 24, 1936 issue of The Film Daily:
“New Theater for Middleport
“Middleport, 0. — – Alpine Theater Co. has leased the Masonic Temple here for a theater, and work of remodeling will be started immediately. The same company is also re-conditioning a theater at Pomeroy.”
This undated photo from the Meigs County Library shows an early and quite attractive movie theater at left, but it is located on Mill Street. It’s name is not discernible Perhaps this was the Gem.
The Meigs Theatre and Electric Theatre were two different houses. The Electric was in an ordinary commercial building while the Meigs was in a converted church, and sat on a rise above the street with a long stairway and ramp leading up to the entrance. Here is a photo of the Meigs Theatre.
As the building at 236 Main is an ordinary commercial block I’m assuming it was the Electric Theatre. I’ve been unable to find an address for the Meigs Theatre, but I don’t see a rise such as it occupied anywhere along Main Street in Google street views so it might have been on 2nd Street, which is one short block above Main Street.
An April 5, 1913 item in The Moving Picture World said that the owners of the Star and Imperial Theatres had purchased a lot on Pearl Street for a motion picture theater. That project might have been the origin of the Plaza, or the Plaza might have been a later project noted in the August 13, 1921 issue of the same journal:
“MALONE, N. Y.— Marshall Construction Company, Syracuse, has contract to erect new Avalon Theatre on Pearl street for Grand Theatre Company, Inc. Structure to be completed by September 1.”
The April 5, 1913 issue of The Moving Picture World had this item mentioning the Imperial Theatre:
“Malone, N. Y.— Albert S. Hardy and J. A. Hogie, the proprietors of the Star and Imperial motion picture theaters in Malone, have purchased a lot on Pearl Street, Malone, and will erect a modern theater building.”
I wonder if the Pearl Street project was the house that was in operation prior to 1926 as the Plaza Theatre?
That notice has to be for their other theater in Lakeport. Paradise has no utilities and (very important for a business) no population. The entire town has been evacuated, and will remain so well into next year. Even when utilities have been restored to the handful of surviving buildings, they will accommodate only a small fraction of the displaced population. I’d be surprised if this theater opened by Thanksgiving of 2021. Due to the nature of the local economy, which very likely cannot be revived, it may never reopen.
The latest map of destroyed buildings does not yet show the status of the theater, but several buildings in commercial areas very nearby are shown as intact or moderately damaged. This includes a K-mart that was initially reported as destroyed, so it is looking more hopeful for the theater building, but not the business.
The town has virtually no surviving utility infrastructure, even the water system being shut down. Nobody will be living there for a long time to come. We aren’t even going to be allowed back in to sift through the ashes of our houses for two or three more weeks, after they’ve cleared the streets of burned out cars and downed utility lines.
Sadly, Ken, it wasn’t just the phone lines that were down. The theater has been destroyed by a fire that devastated the Town of Paradise on November 8th. I had to leave my house with no more than ten minutes notice myself, and there were fires in every part of town we passed through in the some four hours it took us to get out. I doubt that as much as ten percent of the town survives.
The San Carlino was a fairly old theater. It was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Biographies of opera singer Rosa Ponselle note that she gave some of her earliest public performances at the San Carlino, around 1914, when she was still a teenager. In an interview she described the San Carlino as “… a full-sized theater….nearly a thousand seats, counting the balcony and the boxes. It had a pretty large stage, and there was also an orchestra pit.” It was operated by a Mr. Richard T. Halliwell, who also had smaller theaters in Meriden and Ansonia.
The house had been renamed the Strand by 1915, when the July 10 issue of Motion Picture Newsnoted its recent closing. A notice of an open plumbing contract at the “Carlino” Theatre in New Haven ran in the October 2, 1909 issue of The Metal Worker, Plumber and Steam Fitter, so that might have been when the theater was built, though it might also have been only some repair work or remodeling going on. The house must have been in existence by 1909, though.
This page at GenDisasters features the text of an article from the April 26, 1915 issue of The New York Times about the destruction of this theater by fire the previous day. The house had been built in 1860.
It is likely that this was the house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory as the Grand Theatre, 184 Crown Street (the building most likely occupied a double lot, 182 and 184.) Twenty-two movie theaters were listed at New Haven.
The Leb Theatre was in operation by October 12, 1919, the date on which it was the site of a service commemorating the anniversary of a large fire that had destroyed much of the town the previous year.
The owner of the Leb Theatre in Cloquet was planning to build a new house, according to this brief item from the April 10, 1935 issue of The Film Daily: “Cloquet — W. W. Miller, proprietor of Leb Theater, will erect a new 375-seat house.”
This house was called called the Rialto Theatre until being renamed the Dewmar Theatre in March, 1949. This item is from the March 10, 1949 issue of The Daily Republic of Mitchell, South Dakota:
“De Smet Couple Buys Theater At W. Springs
“Wessington Springs, S. D.—(Special)—Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Grabinski of De Smet have purchased the Rialto theater of this city to take possession Saturday, March 12 Grabinski spent several days this week in the Twin Cities purchasing new equipment which he plans to install as early as possible. Before going, he spent some time here making plans for improvement which will include the rebuilding of the projectors and a complete new sound system. The theater has been renamed the Dewmar. Mr. and Mrs. Grabinski and four children plan to move here as soon as a residence can be secured.”
This house had some earlier aka’s, according to this paragraph from the NRHP registration form for the Alma Downtown Historic District:
“The Vermeulen Block, sometimes known as the Lee Mercantile Building, was constructed between 1891 and 1893. Henry J. Vermeulen purchased the lot from William Bahlke in 1890. The building originally housed Vermeulen’s General Store. In 1893 Vermeulen mortgaged the building with W. S. Turck and Company in order to build the eastern addition, which soon housed some of Alma’s early theaters. These include the Fishbeck Theatre, the Alma Vaudette, the Genesta Theatre and the Liberty Theatre.”
It also says the Liberty went out of business in the 1920s. The house was listed as the Vaudette in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
A clip from his 1947 obituary in the entry for Lloyd Elgin Scobell at Ancient Faces says that he was the “[o]wner operator Cozy Theater/aka ELBS Theater in Wagner.” There was a Cozy Theatre listed at Wagner in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but it was not the same house as the later Elbs. Mr. Scobell’s widow sold the Elbs Theatre in 1959, as noted in this item from the June 3 issue of The Daily Republic from Mitchell, South Dakota, which provides another fragment of the theater’s history:
“Mrs. Scobell was in the theater business here for 30 years, associated with her late husband, Lloyd, and after his death with his brother, Mark. Their first place of business was the Cozy, and later they purchased a brick building on Main St., and made a completely modern building, which they called The Elbs.”
The purchaser of the Elbs in 1959 was likely O. R. Eleeson, who had been running the house at the time of his death, which was noted in the April 10, 1961 issue of Boxoffice. His widow inherited the house, but I haven’t been able to discover if she kept it open, or for how long it continued in operation after that.
The NRHP registration form for the Wessington Opera House says that it opened on November 3, 1905. William Brimner was both architect and builder of the project.
Harry Beeson’s West End Theatre was described in the 1909-1910 Cahn guide as a 1,800-seat, ground floor house with a stage 62 feet between side walls and 43 feet from the footlights to the back wall. The height to the rigging loft was 60 feet. There were six players in the orchestra.
A History of Uniontown: The County Seat of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, By James Hadden, published in 1913, says that the West End Theatre opened on October 20, 1903 with a play titled “The Sultan of Sulu.”
The Park Theatre was renovated in 1946 by the State Theater Company of Point Pleasant, as noted in a brief article headed “Theater Work Completed” in the July 11, 1946 issue of The Athens Messenger from Athens, Ohio. The article said that State had bought the house from the Alpine Theater Circuit several months previously and had begun renovations immediately, but work had been delayed by shortages of equipment and materials. Improvements included new sound and projection equipment and a new heating plant and air conditioning. The stage was also enlarged, and the outer lobby enclosed.
I just found this item in the August 20, 1936 issue of The Film Daily:
The July 29 issue of the same journal had said that the new theater in Pomeroy would be “…in the upper business block….” which is another indication that the Meigs was probably on 2nd Street.The August 24 issue of Film Daily noted that the Alpine Theatre Company, which had plans to open a new theater in the Masonic Building at Middleport, was also reconditioning a theater in Pomeroy. It’s possible that the house in question was the Electric.
A house in Middleport called the Gem Theatre was mentioned in the September 30, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World. Then there is this item from the March 1, 1924 issue of the same journal:
Middleport is mentioned again in the August 24, 1936 issue of The Film Daily:This undated photo from the Meigs County Library shows an early and quite attractive movie theater at left, but it is located on Mill Street. It’s name is not discernible Perhaps this was the Gem.The Meigs Theatre and Electric Theatre were two different houses. The Electric was in an ordinary commercial building while the Meigs was in a converted church, and sat on a rise above the street with a long stairway and ramp leading up to the entrance. Here is a photo of the Meigs Theatre.
As the building at 236 Main is an ordinary commercial block I’m assuming it was the Electric Theatre. I’ve been unable to find an address for the Meigs Theatre, but I don’t see a rise such as it occupied anywhere along Main Street in Google street views so it might have been on 2nd Street, which is one short block above Main Street.
Official opening date was January 16, 1922.
The Grand Theatre was noted in issues of The New York Clipper in August, 1913, as a 760-seat house seeking road attractions.
An April 5, 1913 item in The Moving Picture World said that the owners of the Star and Imperial Theatres had purchased a lot on Pearl Street for a motion picture theater. That project might have been the origin of the Plaza, or the Plaza might have been a later project noted in the August 13, 1921 issue of the same journal:
The April 5, 1913 issue of The Moving Picture World had this item mentioning the Imperial Theatre:
I wonder if the Pearl Street project was the house that was in operation prior to 1926 as the Plaza Theatre?That notice has to be for their other theater in Lakeport. Paradise has no utilities and (very important for a business) no population. The entire town has been evacuated, and will remain so well into next year. Even when utilities have been restored to the handful of surviving buildings, they will accommodate only a small fraction of the displaced population. I’d be surprised if this theater opened by Thanksgiving of 2021. Due to the nature of the local economy, which very likely cannot be revived, it may never reopen.
The latest map of destroyed buildings does not yet show the status of the theater, but several buildings in commercial areas very nearby are shown as intact or moderately damaged. This includes a K-mart that was initially reported as destroyed, so it is looking more hopeful for the theater building, but not the business.
The town has virtually no surviving utility infrastructure, even the water system being shut down. Nobody will be living there for a long time to come. We aren’t even going to be allowed back in to sift through the ashes of our houses for two or three more weeks, after they’ve cleared the streets of burned out cars and downed utility lines.
I don’t think they got any closer than the mouth of the Columbia River.
Sadly, Ken, it wasn’t just the phone lines that were down. The theater has been destroyed by a fire that devastated the Town of Paradise on November 8th. I had to leave my house with no more than ten minutes notice myself, and there were fires in every part of town we passed through in the some four hours it took us to get out. I doubt that as much as ten percent of the town survives.
The Pequot Theatre, 86 Grand Avenue, was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Lawrence Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The San Carlino was a fairly old theater. It was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Biographies of opera singer Rosa Ponselle note that she gave some of her earliest public performances at the San Carlino, around 1914, when she was still a teenager. In an interview she described the San Carlino as “… a full-sized theater….nearly a thousand seats, counting the balcony and the boxes. It had a pretty large stage, and there was also an orchestra pit.” It was operated by a Mr. Richard T. Halliwell, who also had smaller theaters in Meriden and Ansonia.
The house had been renamed the Strand by 1915, when the July 10 issue of Motion Picture Newsnoted its recent closing. A notice of an open plumbing contract at the “Carlino” Theatre in New Haven ran in the October 2, 1909 issue of The Metal Worker, Plumber and Steam Fitter, so that might have been when the theater was built, though it might also have been only some repair work or remodeling going on. The house must have been in existence by 1909, though.
The Bronx Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory as the Bijou Dream Theatre, 26 Church Street, was probably this one.
This page at GenDisasters features the text of an article from the April 26, 1915 issue of The New York Times about the destruction of this theater by fire the previous day. The house had been built in 1860.
It is likely that this was the house listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory as the Grand Theatre, 184 Crown Street (the building most likely occupied a double lot, 182 and 184.) Twenty-two movie theaters were listed at New Haven.
There is a rather dull apartment block where the Apollo Theatre once stood, though the Spanish Colonial Revival style building next door has survived.
The Leb Theatre was in operation by October 12, 1919, the date on which it was the site of a service commemorating the anniversary of a large fire that had destroyed much of the town the previous year.
The owner of the Leb Theatre in Cloquet was planning to build a new house, according to this brief item from the April 10, 1935 issue of The Film Daily: “Cloquet — W. W. Miller, proprietor of Leb Theater, will erect a new 375-seat house.”
This house was called called the Rialto Theatre until being renamed the Dewmar Theatre in March, 1949. This item is from the March 10, 1949 issue of The Daily Republic of Mitchell, South Dakota:
This house had some earlier aka’s, according to this paragraph from the NRHP registration form for the Alma Downtown Historic District:
It also says the Liberty went out of business in the 1920s. The house was listed as the Vaudette in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.A clip from his 1947 obituary in the entry for Lloyd Elgin Scobell at Ancient Faces says that he was the “[o]wner operator Cozy Theater/aka ELBS Theater in Wagner.” There was a Cozy Theatre listed at Wagner in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but it was not the same house as the later Elbs. Mr. Scobell’s widow sold the Elbs Theatre in 1959, as noted in this item from the June 3 issue of The Daily Republic from Mitchell, South Dakota, which provides another fragment of the theater’s history:
The purchaser of the Elbs in 1959 was likely O. R. Eleeson, who had been running the house at the time of his death, which was noted in the April 10, 1961 issue of Boxoffice. His widow inherited the house, but I haven’t been able to discover if she kept it open, or for how long it continued in operation after that.The NRHP registration form for the Wessington Opera House says that it opened on November 3, 1905. William Brimner was both architect and builder of the project.