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.
Improvements to the Liberty Theatre were planned in 1918, according to this item from the May 18 issue of The Moving Picture World: “MURPHYSBORO, ILL. — Extensive improvements will be made to Liberty theater, costing about $15,000.”
The original Lyric was replaced by a new building in 1918, if this item from the May 18 issue of The Moving Picture World was correct:
“DOUGLAS, ARIZ. — James M. Nulla, manager Lyric theater, plans to erect new building on site of present structure. Also to build an airdome at Favenvo and 8th streets.”
Marcus Loew was oerating the Grand as early as 1918, as reported in the May 18 issue of The Moving Picture World:
“ATLANTA, GA. — Marcus Loew, of New
York, will expend $40,000 for improvements to Grand theater instead of erecting new structure as previously reported. Plans include remodeling gallery, erecting mezzanine floor, stage and marquee; installing $15,000 pipe organ, typhoon fan system, electric equipment, scenery, and hangings. E. A. Schiller is local manager.”
This article about the Hamblen Theatre appeared in The Moving Picture World of May 11, 1918:
“SAN FRANCISCO. — The new Hamblen theater, Park street and Encinal avenue, Alameda, was opened on the evening of April 15. This theater was constructed and will be operated by James Hamblen, formerly of Kansas City, Mo. As this is the first venture in the amusement field he has secured the services as manager of E. V. Clover, for several years connected with the Turner & Dahnken Circuit, and the opening of the house was conducted under the management of the latter.
“This new theater is of substantial brick construction, with a facade of plaster, relieved by a trimming of light-colored brick. It has a seating capacity of 1,500, this being divided about equally between the lower floor and the balcony. The office is on the lower floor, directly off the main entrance, and near the broad stairway leading to the balcony. At the other side of the theater is another stairway, but this leads directly to the street and is designed to be used as an exit. Off the foyer is a small rest room for women, a telephone booth and drinking fountains. The foyer, aisles and stairs are carpeted throughout.
“The entire mezzanine floor is given over to a ladies' rest room and a nursery where there is a maid in attendance. These rooms are very attractively furnished and show much thought on the part of the designer. Here are drinking fountains and free local telephones. The decorations here and throughout the house are of a quiet, but very effective order.
“The theater is equipped with a full stage and it is the plan to present vaudeville attractions each Sunday. The ventilating system is a feature of the house, the air being changed throughout once every twelve minutes. Music is rendered by a seven-piece orchestra, under the direction of Max Amsterdam, of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and a large Wurlitzer Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra presided over by Miss Irma Falvey. The projection equipment includes two late model Simplex machines installed by the Breck Photo Play Supply Company.
“The opening program included an address by Green Majors, mayor of Alameda, musical numbers by a soldier, a Fairbanks feature "Headin' South.” a Sunshine comedy, a Burton Holmes Travelogue and a Pathe News. The prices of admission are 15 cents for the lower floor and 10 cents for the balcony, with reserved loge seats at 25 cents. At matinees all seats are 10 cents. These prices include the war tax.“
The May 11, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Princess:
“Princess Theater Will Open in June.
“The interior stucco work for the new Princess theater, Cheyenne, arrived this past week and is being put in place. Manager Todd has issued a statement that the new theater will be ready by the first of June and sooner if possible.”
If, as the newspaper item dontaylor50 cited above said, the Princess was “prosperous” in March of 1918, perhaps the theater opened later in 1918 was the second of that name in Cheyenne.
This comment on our Irving Theatre page says that the Buena Vista Theatre was converted into a live theater venue and rental auditorium after closing as a movie house, but was abandoned when the Irving Arts Center was built (this would have been 1990.)
The comment says Buena Vista was across the street from the high school, and as of 2012 was slated to be demolished for a senior citizens condominium project. This project must have been The Villages on MacArthur, now open at 3443 N MacArthur Blvd, Irving, TX 75062.
Without further information, that’s probably as close as we’ll get to the Buena Vista Theatre’s actual address. The 10-acre Arts Center is located immediately south of the condominium.
The Moving Picture World of May 11, 1918, had this item about the California Theatre, though the project missed the theater’s projected opening date by about over months:
“Miller’s Theater to Open September 15.
“The new Miller theater, now being erected at Eighth and Main streets for Fred Miller and associates, is being rushed to completion in record time. Work was started on the theater on February 11. All the walls are in up to the mezzanine floor and the great concrete slab covering the entire mezzanine floor has been poured; also the two grand stairways on either side of the main entrance, which lead up a gentle incline known as a ‘ramp’ and the main ramp leading to the balcony are a mass of solid concrete reinforced by steel bars.
“To get ready for this operation and to bring the work up to its present condition, it has taken over 250,000 feet of lumber, 70 tons of steel bars, 800 tons of rock, 450 yards of
sand, 4,000 sacks of cement, 100 kegs of nails, three and a
half tons of wire and about fifty tons of miscellaneous materials. The new theater will be ready September 15.”
Having never been inside the California I was unaware that it had ramps. Architect A. B. Rosenthal must have been aware of the theaters designed by architect Henderson Ryan, who first used ramps for balcony access in Seattle’s Liberty Theatre in 1912, and patented a ramp system for theaters in 1916.
I’ve managed to dig up bit (a very little bit) more about Rosenthal. The 1926 Los Angeles city directory lists him as Rosenthal, Alex B., archt. 815 S. Hill rm 709, with his residence at 2401 6th. 815 S. Hill was the Hillstreet Building, the office block which was also occupied by the Junior Orpheum Circuit’s Hillstreet Theatre. Rosenthal’s office had been moved into the building in 1922, the year it was completed.
Alex B. Rosenthal was practicing architecture in Chicago at least as early as 1896 and at least as late as 1904. He opened an office in the Lankershim Building in Los Angeles in 1915.
I’ve seen sources saying that the Liberty opened in 1915, and others saying it was 1916. The book Screening Room: Family Pictures, by M. A. Lightman’s grandson Alan Lightman says 1916, which is more likely correct. However, it appears that Lightman did not control the Liberty continuously, as the April 6, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World carried this brief notice: “SHEFFIELD, ALA. — M. A. Lightman has taken over Liberty theater.”
Lightman had more than one iron in the fire around this time. In November 1918, Motion Picture News noted that he was President of the Criterion Film Service, a film exchange (distribution company) that had been opened in Atlanta in September.
This article from 2017 says that the Runyon Theatre went dark in December, 2016. It has since reopened as a bar and night club called the Spirit House Cabaret.
The recent opening of the Rialto Theatre at Pueblo was announced in the May 4, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World. In 2017, Spirit House Cabaret was planning an event to commemorate the theater’s 100th anniversary in March, 2018, so that might be the month in which the theater originally opened.
The Beacon Theatre was designed by architectural engineer Ira Jack Castles, according to the article on display. His Houston-based firm, Castles Design Group, founded in 1952, is still active.
The correct name of the architect of the Palace Theatre is Alfred M. Lublin. A Jewish architect who fled Germany when Hitler came to power, he arrived in the United States in 1936 after practicing in Paris for a couple of years.
After the war his Norfolk-based firm, Lublin, McGaughy & Associates, founded in 1943, established branch offices in Paris and Milan, which Lublin headed. He died at the age of 53 in an airliner crash in 1960, cutting short a very successful career.
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.
I just realized that the house opening on April 15, 1918, means that tomorrow would have been the Hamblen Theatre’s 100th anniversary.
This web page about the Neptune Theatre also has information about its architect, Henderson Ryan, and photos of some of his other works.
Improvements to the Liberty Theatre were planned in 1918, according to this item from the May 18 issue of The Moving Picture World: “MURPHYSBORO, ILL. — Extensive improvements will be made to Liberty theater, costing about $15,000.”
The original Lyric was replaced by a new building in 1918, if this item from the May 18 issue of The Moving Picture World was correct:
Marcus Loew was oerating the Grand as early as 1918, as reported in the May 18 issue of The Moving Picture World:
This article about the Hamblen Theatre appeared in The Moving Picture World of May 11, 1918:
The May 11, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Princess:
If, as the newspaper item dontaylor50 cited above said, the Princess was “prosperous” in March of 1918, perhaps the theater opened later in 1918 was the second of that name in Cheyenne.This comment on our Irving Theatre page says that the Buena Vista Theatre was converted into a live theater venue and rental auditorium after closing as a movie house, but was abandoned when the Irving Arts Center was built (this would have been 1990.)
The comment says Buena Vista was across the street from the high school, and as of 2012 was slated to be demolished for a senior citizens condominium project. This project must have been The Villages on MacArthur, now open at 3443 N MacArthur Blvd, Irving, TX 75062.
Without further information, that’s probably as close as we’ll get to the Buena Vista Theatre’s actual address. The 10-acre Arts Center is located immediately south of the condominium.
The Moving Picture World of May 11, 1918, had this item about the California Theatre, though the project missed the theater’s projected opening date by about over months:
Having never been inside the California I was unaware that it had ramps. Architect A. B. Rosenthal must have been aware of the theaters designed by architect Henderson Ryan, who first used ramps for balcony access in Seattle’s Liberty Theatre in 1912, and patented a ramp system for theaters in 1916.I’ve managed to dig up bit (a very little bit) more about Rosenthal. The 1926 Los Angeles city directory lists him as Rosenthal, Alex B., archt. 815 S. Hill rm 709, with his residence at 2401 6th. 815 S. Hill was the Hillstreet Building, the office block which was also occupied by the Junior Orpheum Circuit’s Hillstreet Theatre. Rosenthal’s office had been moved into the building in 1922, the year it was completed.
Alex B. Rosenthal was practicing architecture in Chicago at least as early as 1896 and at least as late as 1904. He opened an office in the Lankershim Building in Los Angeles in 1915.
I’ve seen sources saying that the Liberty opened in 1915, and others saying it was 1916. The book Screening Room: Family Pictures, by M. A. Lightman’s grandson Alan Lightman says 1916, which is more likely correct. However, it appears that Lightman did not control the Liberty continuously, as the April 6, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World carried this brief notice: “SHEFFIELD, ALA. — M. A. Lightman has taken over Liberty theater.”
Lightman had more than one iron in the fire around this time. In November 1918, Motion Picture News noted that he was President of the Criterion Film Service, a film exchange (distribution company) that had been opened in Atlanta in September.
This article from 2017 says that the Runyon Theatre went dark in December, 2016. It has since reopened as a bar and night club called the Spirit House Cabaret.
The recent opening of the Rialto Theatre at Pueblo was announced in the May 4, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World. In 2017, Spirit House Cabaret was planning an event to commemorate the theater’s 100th anniversary in March, 2018, so that might be the month in which the theater originally opened.
The Beacon Theatre was designed by architectural engineer Ira Jack Castles, according to the article on display. His Houston-based firm, Castles Design Group, founded in 1952, is still active.
The former Thorncliffe Market Place Mall is now called East York Town Centre, and is at 45 Overlea Boulevard.
The Bayne Theatre was demolished in November, 2015. Here is video posted at YouTube by the demolition company.
This article from The Virginian Pilot of December 18, 2015, has an early aerial photo of the Bayne.
The correct name of the architect of the Palace Theatre is Alfred M. Lublin. A Jewish architect who fled Germany when Hitler came to power, he arrived in the United States in 1936 after practicing in Paris for a couple of years.
After the war his Norfolk-based firm, Lublin, McGaughy & Associates, founded in 1943, established branch offices in Paris and Milan, which Lublin headed. He died at the age of 53 in an airliner crash in 1960, cutting short a very successful career.