The records of the American Terra Cotta Company contain a number of projects combining theaters and stores and designed for a partnership called Kusel & Harris. So far all of them I’ve come across list the architect of the projects only as Harris.
I don’t know if it was the same Harris who was having the projects built or not (quite a few architects did go into the theater development business), but the architect in question was most likely Ralph C Harris, who is known to have designed a number of Chicago theaters in the 1910s.
One of the projects was for a store at Milwaukee Avenue and Wolfram Street, which was the location of the Round Up. This theater was thus probably of Ralph C. Harris’s design.
Records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Cosmopolitan Theatre was designed for Ascher Brothers by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham.) An item in the August 24, 1918, issue of The Economist said that Henry L. Newhouse was preparing plans for an addition to the Cosmopolitan Theatre.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Beach Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham. I believe that Bernham has sometimes been conflated with Daniel Burnham, a much better known Chicago architect of the period.)
DeniseGaskellSnuffin was right about the theater being between Vermont and Normandie, not on the corner of Vermont, though not midway between— it was much closer to Vermont. The Film Daily notice uploaded by Ron Pierce gives the location as Gardena and Berendo, which is two blocks west of Vermont.
I also now believe that Denise was correct in her first comment, when she said that the theater building became the location of the Gardena Department Store after closing. The LA. County Assessor’s office says that the department store building was built in 1938, which is when the theater was built. It is the second building west of Berendo Avenue. Denise’s friend who told her that the department store was a few businesses west of the theater might have been right at one time. I suspect that the department store relocated when the theater space became available.
If you take Google’s street view down the alley behind the building you can see to the left of the single rear door that the plaster is separating, in line with the top of the doorway, indicating that there could formerly have been a double exit door at that location. There is also an area at the other end of the rear which looks to have been bricked up, though it is difficult to make out due to layers of paint. That would have been the location of the second pair of rear exit doors. And again, the plaster appears to be separating in a line that would indicate the top of a doorway that has been bricked up.
As for the L.A. Times report from 1945 giving the address of the theater as 1002 Gardena Boulevard, I suspect that it was either a mistake, or the lots along Gardena Boulevard have since been renumered. The address of the department store is 1106 W. Gardena Boulevard. In any case, the building on the northeast corner of Gardena and Vermont is not even in the City of Gardena. That side of Vermont Avenue is in the City of Los Angeles.
So my conclusion is that the Gardena Theatre was in the building now occupied by the Gardena Department Store, 1106 W. Gardena Boulevard, just west of Berendo Avenue. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The address I found for the Colonial Theatre depicted in the photo above was 803 Superior Avenue. There’s a photo on page 100 of Rockefeller’s Cleveland, by Sharon E. Gregor (Google Books preview.) The caption says it was built in 1902 and opened in 1903 as a vaudeville house that later turned to legitimate theater.
The caption also says the Colonial was designed by the Detroit architectural firm of Mason, Reed, Hill & Painter, although the records of the American Terra Cotta and Ceramic Company just say Mason, Reed & Hill. Both apparently got the name wrong, as a history of Detroit architects says that the firm was Mason, Reed-Hill, & Painter, with George D. Mason, William Reed-Hill, and Walter S. Painter as principals.
Although have found the Colonial mentioned once in The Moving Picture World (the issue of January 3, 1914, when it was running the prestige picture “Traffic in Souls”) it spent most of its history as either a vaudeville or legitimate house. This history of the Colonial doesn’t mention movies at all, but says that the house mounted its last production in 1930, and was demolished in 1932.
I can’t find the May 9 Boxoffice with the State on the cover, and that link in my previous comment is dead, but this link (while it lasts) will bring up the first page of a three-page article about the house from the July 4, 1960, issue.
I’ve been burned by Boxoffice moving its archive so many times and having my links go dead that I’m reluctant to do this, but the double page spread about the Hellman Theatre in the magazine’s July 4, 1960 issue has a couple of nice photos I haven’t seen elsewhere, so I’ll take a chance: at Yumpu.com.
The Main Street Theatre was definitely at 1222-1224 Main Street, at the northwest corner of 13th (John Shea Drive on the Google map.) The theater and adjacent buildings were demolished and a McDonald’s restaurant is now on the site.
The theater was built around 1925, and was listed as the Main Street Theatre in the 1926 yearbook, though local sources say that it was originally known as the Winkler Theater. The building was still standing in 1980, but was gone by 1991.
junglejan2 is correct. We have the wrong address for the Mainstreet Theatre. An inventory of Lexington’s historic buildings made when it was still standing says that the Mainstreet (or Main Street, as it was styled in the Film Daily Yearbooks) was at the corner of 13th (John Shea Drive on the Google map) and Main. A NRHP registration form for Lexington’s historic district says that it was at 1222-1224 Main Street. That would put it almost four blocks from the Eagle building.
Two different permits were issued for this theater, both for Mr. B. T. Pitts. The first, permit #23923, was issued in 1936 for a theater designed by H. Carl Messerschmidt and the second, permit #24132, was issued in 1937 for a theater designed by Fred A. Bishop. I don’t know what prompted Mr. Pitts to change architects, or if any of Messerschmidt’s design was incorporated in Bishop’s later project.
A permit was issued for a theater to be built at 1414 Hull Street in 1924. Mrs. E. A. Thorpe commissioned the project, which was designed by architect Fred A. Bishop.
The New Theatre was taken over by Jake Wells in March, 1919. The New was one of ten Richmond houses Wells controlled during the late 1910s. A history of Jake Wells' theatrical enterprises gives the address of the New Theatre as 206 E. Broad Street, which would place it in the City Center District, not the Monroe Ward.
This project was announced in Boxoffice of August 4, 1970. It was one of four theaters planned in Iowa shopping centers being developed by developer Matthew Buckshaum. All three were to be operated by the Chicago-based L & M circuit. The Plaza Cinema I & II was the only twin among the three. The house was expected to be opened within eight months.
The August 24, 1970, issue of Boxoffice said that that the L & M Circuit was planning three new theaters in Iowa, all to be located in shopping centers that were being developed by Matthew Buckshaum.
The 400-seat, single screen Plaza Cinema in Keokuk’s Keosippi Plaza Shopping Center (now River City Mall) was to be located at the south end of the enclosed mall, adjacent to the entrance of a Montgomery Ward department store (now a Dollar General store.) A Christmas Day opening was planned.
The Plaza Cinema in Marshalltown was slated to be a single-screen house for the Chicago-based L & M Circuit when it was announced in Boxoffice of August 24, 1970. It was one of three projects L & M planned for locations in Iowa shopping centers being developed by Matthew Buckshaum.
The other projects were a single-screener in Keokuk and a twin in Muscatine. L & M hoped to have the Marshalltown house opened within a year of the announcement. The other two were slated to open earlier. L & M’s first twin theater had recently opened at Aurora, Illinois.
This twin was probably the house originally built for Highland Theatres. Construction on the project was about to begin, according to Boxoffice of August 24, 1970. The item didn’t give the name of the architect but, as Highland had recently opened the Campus West Twin, which had been designed for them by Mel Glatz & Associates, it’s likely the same firm designed the Foothills Twin.
I believe the Cooper Foundation took over Highland Theatres in 1975, but I’m not sure when Cooper-Highland was bought by Commonwealth Theatres, or when United Artists took over Commonwealth, but that seems a likely sequence of operators, unless Highland leased this house and the Campus West to UA at some earlier time. In the 1970s, Highland also operated the Aggie Theatre and two Fort Collins drive-in’s, the Starlite and the Sunset.
A short article about the Cinema 1&2, then under construction, appeared in the August 24, 1970, issue of Boxoffice. The project was designed by Gale Santocono, in conjunction with Spoakane architect William G. Fiedler.
The Plaza Theatre’s building now houses a thrift shop. It shows no indications of having ever been a theater or, for that matter, a post office. It’s an odd location for a movie house, the back street on which it is situated being mostly residential.
It’s unfortunate that we have no photos of the Glendora Theatre. Though architect John Cyril Bennett (his firm was, though 1923, billed as J. Cyril Bennett, Architect) was not known primarily for theater designs, he did design one of the region’s iconic movie houses, the Raymond Theatre in Pasadena, as well as the Pasadena Civic Auditorium (with Fitch Harrison Haskell, his partner in Bennett & Haskell, founded 1924) and collaborated with architect Elmer Grey on the design of the Pasadena Playhouse.
Construction on the Glendora (Mission) Theatre began around April 1, 1923. The town had had an earlier movie house, called the Glendora Theatre, which had been in operation by 1916, but I’ve been unable to discover what became of it. The second Glendora Theatre was closed in 1967 and was demolished in 1968.
The McDonald brothers, who sold the Beacon Theatre to H. E. Brookings in 1938, soon took over the hamburger stand their father had opened in nearby Monrovia in 1937, and it’s likely that the capital they got from selling the theater to Mr. Brookings helped them on their way to establishing their eponymous fast food chain.
The 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory lists the Auditorium in Boise, but without an address. Interestingly, it lists the Isis Theatre at 111 10th Street, so unless it was on North 10th it must have been the Majestic’s next door neighbor.
I’ve come across an item in the May 27, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which might or might not have to do with the Lyric Theatre, but does have something to do with its owner, Herman Kaiser. It says “Jack Mitchell has opened the old Kaiser theater at Boise and renamed it the Liberty.”
The Kaiser Theater was listed in the 1914 Gus Hill directory as a movie house with 408 seats, managed by Herman Kaiser. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists both the Lyric Theatre, Main Street, and the Kaiser Theatre, 7th and Main Streets, but the address we give for the Lyric, 625 W. Main, is in fact a building at the corner of 7th and Main, now occupied by Goldy’s Corner, a bakery and coffee shop.
I’m thinking that Mr. Kaiser might have renamed the Lyric after himself around this time, and the 1914 AMPD could have double listed the house under both its old an new names. Of course it’s also possible that Mr. Kaiser opened a second theater on one of the other three corners of the intersection.
The Chadwick Theatre opened on January 26, 1925. The house was one of several new theaters featured in a portfolio in the March 28 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review (scan at Internet Archive.)
Though the article failed to name the architect, it did say that the interiors were inspired by 16th century English architecture. With their beamed ceilings the auditorium and foyer did resemble the Tudor style more than anything else, though the screens for the $25,000 Wurlitzer Hope-Jones unit orchestra were sufficiently elaborate that they might have been more of a nod to the later Jacobean style.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company contain a number of projects combining theaters and stores and designed for a partnership called Kusel & Harris. So far all of them I’ve come across list the architect of the projects only as Harris.
I don’t know if it was the same Harris who was having the projects built or not (quite a few architects did go into the theater development business), but the architect in question was most likely Ralph C Harris, who is known to have designed a number of Chicago theaters in the 1910s.
One of the projects was for a store at Milwaukee Avenue and Wolfram Street, which was the location of the Round Up. This theater was thus probably of Ralph C. Harris’s design.
Records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Cosmopolitan Theatre was designed for Ascher Brothers by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham.) An item in the August 24, 1918, issue of The Economist said that Henry L. Newhouse was preparing plans for an addition to the Cosmopolitan Theatre.
The records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Beach Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham. I believe that Bernham has sometimes been conflated with Daniel Burnham, a much better known Chicago architect of the period.)
DeniseGaskellSnuffin was right about the theater being between Vermont and Normandie, not on the corner of Vermont, though not midway between— it was much closer to Vermont. The Film Daily notice uploaded by Ron Pierce gives the location as Gardena and Berendo, which is two blocks west of Vermont.
I also now believe that Denise was correct in her first comment, when she said that the theater building became the location of the Gardena Department Store after closing. The LA. County Assessor’s office says that the department store building was built in 1938, which is when the theater was built. It is the second building west of Berendo Avenue. Denise’s friend who told her that the department store was a few businesses west of the theater might have been right at one time. I suspect that the department store relocated when the theater space became available.
If you take Google’s street view down the alley behind the building you can see to the left of the single rear door that the plaster is separating, in line with the top of the doorway, indicating that there could formerly have been a double exit door at that location. There is also an area at the other end of the rear which looks to have been bricked up, though it is difficult to make out due to layers of paint. That would have been the location of the second pair of rear exit doors. And again, the plaster appears to be separating in a line that would indicate the top of a doorway that has been bricked up.
As for the L.A. Times report from 1945 giving the address of the theater as 1002 Gardena Boulevard, I suspect that it was either a mistake, or the lots along Gardena Boulevard have since been renumered. The address of the department store is 1106 W. Gardena Boulevard. In any case, the building on the northeast corner of Gardena and Vermont is not even in the City of Gardena. That side of Vermont Avenue is in the City of Los Angeles.
So my conclusion is that the Gardena Theatre was in the building now occupied by the Gardena Department Store, 1106 W. Gardena Boulevard, just west of Berendo Avenue. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The address I found for the Colonial Theatre depicted in the photo above was 803 Superior Avenue. There’s a photo on page 100 of Rockefeller’s Cleveland, by Sharon E. Gregor (Google Books preview.) The caption says it was built in 1902 and opened in 1903 as a vaudeville house that later turned to legitimate theater.
The caption also says the Colonial was designed by the Detroit architectural firm of Mason, Reed, Hill & Painter, although the records of the American Terra Cotta and Ceramic Company just say Mason, Reed & Hill. Both apparently got the name wrong, as a history of Detroit architects says that the firm was Mason, Reed-Hill, & Painter, with George D. Mason, William Reed-Hill, and Walter S. Painter as principals.
Although have found the Colonial mentioned once in The Moving Picture World (the issue of January 3, 1914, when it was running the prestige picture “Traffic in Souls”) it spent most of its history as either a vaudeville or legitimate house. This history of the Colonial doesn’t mention movies at all, but says that the house mounted its last production in 1930, and was demolished in 1932.
Becoming a drive-in projectionist at 18 must have been a dream job.
I can’t find the May 9 Boxoffice with the State on the cover, and that link in my previous comment is dead, but this link (while it lasts) will bring up the first page of a three-page article about the house from the July 4, 1960, issue.
I’ve been burned by Boxoffice moving its archive so many times and having my links go dead that I’m reluctant to do this, but the double page spread about the Hellman Theatre in the magazine’s July 4, 1960 issue has a couple of nice photos I haven’t seen elsewhere, so I’ll take a chance: at Yumpu.com.
The Main Street Theatre was definitely at 1222-1224 Main Street, at the northwest corner of 13th (John Shea Drive on the Google map.) The theater and adjacent buildings were demolished and a McDonald’s restaurant is now on the site.
The theater was built around 1925, and was listed as the Main Street Theatre in the 1926 yearbook, though local sources say that it was originally known as the Winkler Theater. The building was still standing in 1980, but was gone by 1991.
junglejan2 is correct. We have the wrong address for the Mainstreet Theatre. An inventory of Lexington’s historic buildings made when it was still standing says that the Mainstreet (or Main Street, as it was styled in the Film Daily Yearbooks) was at the corner of 13th (John Shea Drive on the Google map) and Main. A NRHP registration form for Lexington’s historic district says that it was at 1222-1224 Main Street. That would put it almost four blocks from the Eagle building.
Two different permits were issued for this theater, both for Mr. B. T. Pitts. The first, permit #23923, was issued in 1936 for a theater designed by H. Carl Messerschmidt and the second, permit #24132, was issued in 1937 for a theater designed by Fred A. Bishop. I don’t know what prompted Mr. Pitts to change architects, or if any of Messerschmidt’s design was incorporated in Bishop’s later project.
A permit to alter an existing building at 2820 W. Cary Street for use as a movie theater was issued in 1933.
A permit was issued for a theater to be built at 1414 Hull Street in 1924. Mrs. E. A. Thorpe commissioned the project, which was designed by architect Fred A. Bishop.
The New Theatre was taken over by Jake Wells in March, 1919. The New was one of ten Richmond houses Wells controlled during the late 1910s. A history of Jake Wells' theatrical enterprises gives the address of the New Theatre as 206 E. Broad Street, which would place it in the City Center District, not the Monroe Ward.
Thanks, Ron. I’ve always wondered what this theater looked like.
This project was announced in Boxoffice of August 4, 1970. It was one of four theaters planned in Iowa shopping centers being developed by developer Matthew Buckshaum. All three were to be operated by the Chicago-based L & M circuit. The Plaza Cinema I & II was the only twin among the three. The house was expected to be opened within eight months.
The August 24, 1970, issue of Boxoffice said that that the L & M Circuit was planning three new theaters in Iowa, all to be located in shopping centers that were being developed by Matthew Buckshaum.
The 400-seat, single screen Plaza Cinema in Keokuk’s Keosippi Plaza Shopping Center (now River City Mall) was to be located at the south end of the enclosed mall, adjacent to the entrance of a Montgomery Ward department store (now a Dollar General store.) A Christmas Day opening was planned.
The Plaza Cinema in Marshalltown was slated to be a single-screen house for the Chicago-based L & M Circuit when it was announced in Boxoffice of August 24, 1970. It was one of three projects L & M planned for locations in Iowa shopping centers being developed by Matthew Buckshaum.
The other projects were a single-screener in Keokuk and a twin in Muscatine. L & M hoped to have the Marshalltown house opened within a year of the announcement. The other two were slated to open earlier. L & M’s first twin theater had recently opened at Aurora, Illinois.
This twin was probably the house originally built for Highland Theatres. Construction on the project was about to begin, according to Boxoffice of August 24, 1970. The item didn’t give the name of the architect but, as Highland had recently opened the Campus West Twin, which had been designed for them by Mel Glatz & Associates, it’s likely the same firm designed the Foothills Twin.
I believe the Cooper Foundation took over Highland Theatres in 1975, but I’m not sure when Cooper-Highland was bought by Commonwealth Theatres, or when United Artists took over Commonwealth, but that seems a likely sequence of operators, unless Highland leased this house and the Campus West to UA at some earlier time. In the 1970s, Highland also operated the Aggie Theatre and two Fort Collins drive-in’s, the Starlite and the Sunset.
This August, 2012, Google street view shows the Sears Auto Center, which I believe had previously been the location of the Foothills Twin.
A short article about the Cinema 1&2, then under construction, appeared in the August 24, 1970, issue of Boxoffice. The project was designed by Gale Santocono, in conjunction with Spoakane architect William G. Fiedler.
The Plaza Theatre’s building now houses a thrift shop. It shows no indications of having ever been a theater or, for that matter, a post office. It’s an odd location for a movie house, the back street on which it is situated being mostly residential.
It’s unfortunate that we have no photos of the Glendora Theatre. Though architect John Cyril Bennett (his firm was, though 1923, billed as J. Cyril Bennett, Architect) was not known primarily for theater designs, he did design one of the region’s iconic movie houses, the Raymond Theatre in Pasadena, as well as the Pasadena Civic Auditorium (with Fitch Harrison Haskell, his partner in Bennett & Haskell, founded 1924) and collaborated with architect Elmer Grey on the design of the Pasadena Playhouse.
Construction on the Glendora (Mission) Theatre began around April 1, 1923. The town had had an earlier movie house, called the Glendora Theatre, which had been in operation by 1916, but I’ve been unable to discover what became of it. The second Glendora Theatre was closed in 1967 and was demolished in 1968.
The McDonald brothers, who sold the Beacon Theatre to H. E. Brookings in 1938, soon took over the hamburger stand their father had opened in nearby Monrovia in 1937, and it’s likely that the capital they got from selling the theater to Mr. Brookings helped them on their way to establishing their eponymous fast food chain.
The 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory lists the Auditorium in Boise, but without an address. Interestingly, it lists the Isis Theatre at 111 10th Street, so unless it was on North 10th it must have been the Majestic’s next door neighbor.
I’ve come across an item in the May 27, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which might or might not have to do with the Lyric Theatre, but does have something to do with its owner, Herman Kaiser. It says “Jack Mitchell has opened the old Kaiser theater at Boise and renamed it the Liberty.”
The Kaiser Theater was listed in the 1914 Gus Hill directory as a movie house with 408 seats, managed by Herman Kaiser. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists both the Lyric Theatre, Main Street, and the Kaiser Theatre, 7th and Main Streets, but the address we give for the Lyric, 625 W. Main, is in fact a building at the corner of 7th and Main, now occupied by Goldy’s Corner, a bakery and coffee shop.
I’m thinking that Mr. Kaiser might have renamed the Lyric after himself around this time, and the 1914 AMPD could have double listed the house under both its old an new names. Of course it’s also possible that Mr. Kaiser opened a second theater on one of the other three corners of the intersection.
The Chadwick Theatre opened on January 26, 1925. The house was one of several new theaters featured in a portfolio in the March 28 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review (scan at Internet Archive.)
Though the article failed to name the architect, it did say that the interiors were inspired by 16th century English architecture. With their beamed ceilings the auditorium and foyer did resemble the Tudor style more than anything else, though the screens for the $25,000 Wurlitzer Hope-Jones unit orchestra were sufficiently elaborate that they might have been more of a nod to the later Jacobean style.