Given the opening date and the March, 1925 appearance of the announcement of the project, cited in my previous comment, I think we can safely assume that Victor J. DeFoe was indeed the architect of the El Rey.
As the item in The Reel Journal mentions only De Foe, I don’t know if Walter A. Besecke was involved in this project or not. The firm of DeFoe & Besecke was formed in 1925, and a biographical sketch of DeFoe says that the pair designed several theaters from 1925 to 1928, the years the partnership lasted, so it does seem likely. The El Rey did bear a strong resemblance to the firm’s Madrid Theatre, opened in 1926.
In 1967, Commonwealth Theatres' reopened the State Theatre on July 19 following an extensive remodeling project that had taken three months to complete. The house sported new seating, carpeting and decor, as well as remodeled lobby, concession stand, and lounges, and a new front and marquee. Paramount’s feature “El Dorado” was the opening attraction.
Construction would soon begin on Commonwealth Theatres' new house at Warrensburg, Missouri, according to the August 7, 1967, issue of Boxoffice. The project was designed by the Kansas City firm Milton Costlow & Associates, and would feature decoration by Chicago’s Hans Teichert studios.
The October 10, 1967 opening means Associated Theatres missed thier target date. The August 7 issue of Boxoffice had reported that the twin was expected to open in early September.
I’m wondering if the giant box of popcorn displayed on the Calder Way side of the building is an artifact left over from the theater operation. The theater closed over ten years ago and the building was converted for retail use, and though it is currently occupied mostly by restaurants I doubt any of them serve boxes of popcorn.
Associated Theatres' 650-seat Plaza Theatre in Butler was expected to open in early September, according to a brief article in the August 7, 1967, issue of Boxoffice.
The Plaza was one of four projects the chain had underway. In Pittsburgh, Associated was about to embark on a remodeling of its downtown Gateway Theatre, and the 550-seat Fiesta Theatre, on 6th Street downtown, was set to open on August 22. A new twin theater, as yet unnamed, was also to open in early September at State College, Pennsylvania.
CinemaTour lists the Apollo at 229 W. Sixth Street, which is now the site of B&B’s Majestic Theatre. The Apollo’s building was demolished in 2005 to make way for the new theater.
What I have not yet been able to discover is whether the Apollo was one of Concorida’s other old theaters reopened and renamed. It could have been the Strand, for which I’ve been unable to find an address. The Strand was in operation prior to 1948, and suffered a major fire in the spring of that year and had to be rebuilt. It was still in operation at least as late as 1951. The Apollo was open at least as early as 1979.
Concordia also had a house called the White Way Theatre, opened in 1914 and operating into the 1950s, but it was on Washington Street. There was also an early house called the Lyric, but I haven’t been able to find much about it. I’ve found even less about a theaater opened in 1916 as the Iris, and possibly later renamed the Isis, though that might have been a typo. There was also an early house called the Photo Play, gone by the mid-1920s.
David and Noelle’s list of known Boller theaters has the Alamo listed only as a 1944 remodeling project. It doesn’t list Boller Brothers as the original architects in 1910.
The restaurant occupies only the ground floor of the former theater building, and perhaps not all of that. According to a listing at Trulia, the remainder of the building has been converted into 8 residential apartments. The Summit Theatre was built in 1913, and was listed in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Moving Picture Directory.
If the Spillane Theatre was indeed newly built around 1918, then it had a predecessor that was called the Roanoke Theatre earlier. The Roanoke Theatre was listed at 39th and Summit streets inthe 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory.
The Palace Theatre was listed at 932 Main Street in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory, but the house opened no later than 1909, as it was listed in that year’s city directory. The Palace was on the ground floor of the St. George Hotel, built in 1895.
A Murray Theatre was operating in this neighborhood at least as early as 1915, when it was listed in The American Motion Picture Direcotry, though at 3202 E. 27th. Newspaper ads from 1915 give the location as 27th and Walrond Avenue. The Murray was at 3206 27th by the time the 1919 city directory was printed.
2317 Independence Avenue is on the south side of Independence opposite the end of Olive Street. There is a modern building there now which uses that number for a nondescript storefront in between the LB7 Insurance Agency and the Holy Land Halal Market.
In 1886 a hostelry called the Bonaventure Hotel was built at 2307 Independence Avenue, and I suspect that the theater was either part of the hotel project or a later addition to it. It might be that the theater’s building can be partly seen at far left in this undated photo of the hotel.
The photo looks to have been taken in the 1930s, judging from the streamlined style of one of the cars parked along the street. The theater might have been closed by the time this photo was made, but the building looks like it has an open lobby-style entrance flanked by a storefront that could have a matching storefront on the unseen far side. I can’t make out any sort of marquee, though.
The Bonaventure Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory, and in the 1912 Kansas City city directory.
The Ashland Theatre is listed at 24th and Elmwood in the 1914-1915 American Moving Picture Directory. David & Noelle’s list of known Boller theaters has it listed as a 1946 remodeling project.
The October 27, 1915, issue of Western Contractor had a notice about a planned remodeling of a theater at 2400 Elmwood, but didn’t name the architect or give the name of the theater itself.
This article from 2015 says that the Lyric Theatre was upstairs, above what is now the Palace Restaurant and Bar. The Internest gives the address of the Palace as 735 S. Main Street. The building, at the northeast corner of Main and 8th Streets, is still standing. The Lyric’s last movie was shown in 1959. An upstairs theater stil operating in 1959 was quite a rarity.
davidcoppock: It looks like the trolley car was running on Line 28, the Stony Island route. From October 15, 1916, through June 29, 1951, it operated along 47th Street between Lake Park Avenue and Cottage Grove Avenue. The route ran from downtown to Stony Island Avenue and 94th Street.
Line 47 also ran on 47th Street. It provided local electric streetcar service along 47th between Lake Park Avenue and State Street from 1895, and was extended west to Kedzie Avenue in 1896. The route was converted to buses in 1951.
The State Theatre opened in a new building at the corner of Jefferson and Illinois Streets in 1912 as the Princess Theatre. The 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory lists it as the Palace Theatre. The builder and original operator, E. J. Degenhardt, had been one of the town’s barbers. He sold the business in 1924, but retained ownership of the building.
In 1926 the house was still listed in the FDY as the Palace Theatre, but by 1927 it had become the Strand Theatre. It was taken over and renamed the State by Alger Theatres by 1932, although last listed in the laggard FDY as the Strand in 1933. The July 2, 1932, issue of Motion Picture Herald said:
“ E. E. Alger of the State at Mendota, Ill., dug deep into his pockets to put that house in tip-top order with everything from projectors to ventilating equipment and seats.”
From 1926 through 1941 the house was listed with 450 seats. In the 1942 Yearbook it is listed with 700 seats, indicating that an expansion that had probably been completed before the end of 1941.
Konrad Schiecke’s book Historic Movie Theatres in Illinois says that the State Theatre closed in the 1980s.
It was actually 1942 when the Kee was lost to a fire that destroyed a big chunk of Kewanee’s business district. This is the item that was published in the April 15 issue of Motion Picture Daily:
“Two Houses Burned
“Kewanee, Ill., April 14. — The Rialto and Kee theatres were among the 70 buildings which were razed or damaged when fire swept through the heart of this city’s business district yesterday.”
The March 9, 1921, issue of The American Contractor said that the general contract had been let for the Peerless Theatre in Kewanee. The 68x150 foot building was to cost $150,000, and had been designed by Chicago architect Ralph C. Harris.
Plans for this theater were announced in the January 25, 1913, issue of Construction News. The theater was to be 30x125 feet and would cost $8,000. The project was designed by local architect R. C. Fletcher.
The January 11, 1913, issue of Construction News said that bids were being taken for the 800-seat Coronado Theatre to be built on Vincennes Avenue near 39th Street. D. S. Pentacost was the architect for the $25,000 project.
The Strand’s footprint is now part of the site of the Alameda Fire Department headquarters building. In the current Google Street view you can see a fire engine parked just about where the Strand’s 7-piece orchestra and the console of its Wurlitzer organ would probably have been.
Given the opening date and the March, 1925 appearance of the announcement of the project, cited in my previous comment, I think we can safely assume that Victor J. DeFoe was indeed the architect of the El Rey.
As the item in The Reel Journal mentions only De Foe, I don’t know if Walter A. Besecke was involved in this project or not. The firm of DeFoe & Besecke was formed in 1925, and a biographical sketch of DeFoe says that the pair designed several theaters from 1925 to 1928, the years the partnership lasted, so it does seem likely. The El Rey did bear a strong resemblance to the firm’s Madrid Theatre, opened in 1926.
In 1967, Commonwealth Theatres' reopened the State Theatre on July 19 following an extensive remodeling project that had taken three months to complete. The house sported new seating, carpeting and decor, as well as remodeled lobby, concession stand, and lounges, and a new front and marquee. Paramount’s feature “El Dorado” was the opening attraction.
Construction would soon begin on Commonwealth Theatres' new house at Warrensburg, Missouri, according to the August 7, 1967, issue of Boxoffice. The project was designed by the Kansas City firm Milton Costlow & Associates, and would feature decoration by Chicago’s Hans Teichert studios.
The October 10, 1967 opening means Associated Theatres missed thier target date. The August 7 issue of Boxoffice had reported that the twin was expected to open in early September.
I’m wondering if the giant box of popcorn displayed on the Calder Way side of the building is an artifact left over from the theater operation. The theater closed over ten years ago and the building was converted for retail use, and though it is currently occupied mostly by restaurants I doubt any of them serve boxes of popcorn.
Associated Theatres' 650-seat Plaza Theatre in Butler was expected to open in early September, according to a brief article in the August 7, 1967, issue of Boxoffice.
The Plaza was one of four projects the chain had underway. In Pittsburgh, Associated was about to embark on a remodeling of its downtown Gateway Theatre, and the 550-seat Fiesta Theatre, on 6th Street downtown, was set to open on August 22. A new twin theater, as yet unnamed, was also to open in early September at State College, Pennsylvania.
CinemaTour lists the Apollo at 229 W. Sixth Street, which is now the site of B&B’s Majestic Theatre. The Apollo’s building was demolished in 2005 to make way for the new theater.
What I have not yet been able to discover is whether the Apollo was one of Concorida’s other old theaters reopened and renamed. It could have been the Strand, for which I’ve been unable to find an address. The Strand was in operation prior to 1948, and suffered a major fire in the spring of that year and had to be rebuilt. It was still in operation at least as late as 1951. The Apollo was open at least as early as 1979.
Concordia also had a house called the White Way Theatre, opened in 1914 and operating into the 1950s, but it was on Washington Street. There was also an early house called the Lyric, but I haven’t been able to find much about it. I’ve found even less about a theaater opened in 1916 as the Iris, and possibly later renamed the Isis, though that might have been a typo. There was also an early house called the Photo Play, gone by the mid-1920s.
David and Noelle’s list of known Boller theaters has the Alamo listed only as a 1944 remodeling project. It doesn’t list Boller Brothers as the original architects in 1910.
The restaurant occupies only the ground floor of the former theater building, and perhaps not all of that. According to a listing at Trulia, the remainder of the building has been converted into 8 residential apartments. The Summit Theatre was built in 1913, and was listed in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Moving Picture Directory.
This house was still listed as the Star Theatre in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory.
If the Spillane Theatre was indeed newly built around 1918, then it had a predecessor that was called the Roanoke Theatre earlier. The Roanoke Theatre was listed at 39th and Summit streets inthe 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory.
The Palace Theatre was listed at 932 Main Street in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory, but the house opened no later than 1909, as it was listed in that year’s city directory. The Palace was on the ground floor of the St. George Hotel, built in 1895.
A Murray Theatre was operating in this neighborhood at least as early as 1915, when it was listed in The American Motion Picture Direcotry, though at 3202 E. 27th. Newspaper ads from 1915 give the location as 27th and Walrond Avenue. The Murray was at 3206 27th by the time the 1919 city directory was printed.
The Lyric Theatre is listed at 622 Main Street in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory.
2317 Independence Avenue is on the south side of Independence opposite the end of Olive Street. There is a modern building there now which uses that number for a nondescript storefront in between the LB7 Insurance Agency and the Holy Land Halal Market.
In 1886 a hostelry called the Bonaventure Hotel was built at 2307 Independence Avenue, and I suspect that the theater was either part of the hotel project or a later addition to it. It might be that the theater’s building can be partly seen at far left in this undated photo of the hotel.
The photo looks to have been taken in the 1930s, judging from the streamlined style of one of the cars parked along the street. The theater might have been closed by the time this photo was made, but the building looks like it has an open lobby-style entrance flanked by a storefront that could have a matching storefront on the unseen far side. I can’t make out any sort of marquee, though.
The Bonaventure Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory, and in the 1912 Kansas City city directory.
The Ashland Theatre is listed at 24th and Elmwood in the 1914-1915 American Moving Picture Directory. David & Noelle’s list of known Boller theaters has it listed as a 1946 remodeling project.
The October 27, 1915, issue of Western Contractor had a notice about a planned remodeling of a theater at 2400 Elmwood, but didn’t name the architect or give the name of the theater itself.
The New Centre Theatre is on David and Noelle’s list of known Boller theaters as a 1916 project.
This article from 2015 says that the Lyric Theatre was upstairs, above what is now the Palace Restaurant and Bar. The Internest gives the address of the Palace as 735 S. Main Street. The building, at the northeast corner of Main and 8th Streets, is still standing. The Lyric’s last movie was shown in 1959. An upstairs theater stil operating in 1959 was quite a rarity.
davidcoppock: It looks like the trolley car was running on Line 28, the Stony Island route. From October 15, 1916, through June 29, 1951, it operated along 47th Street between Lake Park Avenue and Cottage Grove Avenue. The route ran from downtown to Stony Island Avenue and 94th Street.
Line 47 also ran on 47th Street. It provided local electric streetcar service along 47th between Lake Park Avenue and State Street from 1895, and was extended west to Kedzie Avenue in 1896. The route was converted to buses in 1951.
The State Theatre opened in a new building at the corner of Jefferson and Illinois Streets in 1912 as the Princess Theatre. The 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory lists it as the Palace Theatre. The builder and original operator, E. J. Degenhardt, had been one of the town’s barbers. He sold the business in 1924, but retained ownership of the building.
In 1926 the house was still listed in the FDY as the Palace Theatre, but by 1927 it had become the Strand Theatre. It was taken over and renamed the State by Alger Theatres by 1932, although last listed in the laggard FDY as the Strand in 1933. The July 2, 1932, issue of Motion Picture Herald said:
From 1926 through 1941 the house was listed with 450 seats. In the 1942 Yearbook it is listed with 700 seats, indicating that an expansion that had probably been completed before the end of 1941.Konrad Schiecke’s book Historic Movie Theatres in Illinois says that the State Theatre closed in the 1980s.
It was actually 1942 when the Kee was lost to a fire that destroyed a big chunk of Kewanee’s business district. This is the item that was published in the April 15 issue of Motion Picture Daily:
In 1933 the Rialto was a Balaban & Katz house, noted in the October 6 issue of The Film Daily.
The March 9, 1921, issue of The American Contractor said that the general contract had been let for the Peerless Theatre in Kewanee. The 68x150 foot building was to cost $150,000, and had been designed by Chicago architect Ralph C. Harris.
Plans for this theater were announced in the January 25, 1913, issue of Construction News. The theater was to be 30x125 feet and would cost $8,000. The project was designed by local architect R. C. Fletcher.
The January 11, 1913, issue of Construction News said that bids were being taken for the 800-seat Coronado Theatre to be built on Vincennes Avenue near 39th Street. D. S. Pentacost was the architect for the $25,000 project.
The Strand’s footprint is now part of the site of the Alameda Fire Department headquarters building. In the current Google Street view you can see a fire engine parked just about where the Strand’s 7-piece orchestra and the console of its Wurlitzer organ would probably have been.