The Strand was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Peoples and the Pearce.
The Peoples was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Pearce and the Strand.
The Pearce was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Peoples and the Strand.
The January 7, 1937 issue if Film Daily had this brief item about the Castle Theatre: “Kansas City— The Athens Theater Corp. has purchased the Castle Theater, Negro house, from Bracanto & Domnici. The competitive house, the Hollywood, just two blocks away, will be closed.” If the Hollywood was closed it later reopened, as it operated into 1945. The correct spelling of the opening owner’s surname was Brancato. Jasper Brancato later served several terms in the State legislature. I’ve been unable to find anything about a John Domnici or Donici.
The Marvel Theatre is mentioned in the February 11, 1921 issue of the Winters Express. Winters did not appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
“A new wide screen has been installed at the Winters Theatre according to Manager R. E. Degner” said an item datelined Winters, California in Boxoffice of December 25, 1954. Someone interviewed for an oral history of Winters I came across said that Rod Degner’s theater was across the street from the City Hall. As City Hall is on the SE corner of the intersection, the theater must have been under the footprint of the municipal parking lot now on the northeast corner. City Hall is at 318 1st, so the theater must have been approximately 319 1st.
The 1914 Sanborn map of Adams shows a 2 and ½ story building called Kennewa Hall at 73 Summer Street. However, it was not the building that now has the T & A tool Company sign on it. It was on the site of the building that is bang up against Victory Street and now houses the Cutting Edge Martial Arts studio. This is a two story building (the upper floor has an entrance on Victory Street), and I don’t know if it is what is left of the building that was there in 1914 or not, but it could be.
Google searches bring no results for a Kennewa Hall in Adams, though the misspelled Kenewa Hall brings up a Newspaper Archive result also from 1914, noting that someone was considering putting two stores in the basement of Kenewa Hall on Summer Street in Adams. Apparently the 1914 building was some sort of multi-use hall that was later converted for use as a movie theater.
The “Renovations” page of the theater’s web site says that the multi-purpose auditorium can now accommodate a maximum of 380 seats, which is a considerable reduction from the 960 it once provided as a movie house. Modern photos show that nothing remains of the theater’s 1937 interiors.
65 Park Street is a Colonial Revival building originally built in 1883 as a town hall to house local government offices, the District Court, the State Registrar of Deeds and an auditorium. The Registrar of Deeds still occupies the building, so its current use can be classified as State (or Government) Offices.
The structure originally had a peaked roof, but that and the original tower were destroyed by a 1949 fire. As peaked roofs are not a feature of Colonial Revival architecture, it was likely built in the Romanesque Revival style and the Colonial features added as part of the post-fire rebuilding. I’ve been unable to find a photo of the building dating from the era when it housed the theater.
The theater obviously must have occupied the auditorium, but I don’t know if that space is still intact. It might have been carved up for more office space. It was not unusual in the silent movie era for local governments to lease underutilized public auditoriums to theater operators to get a bit of extra revenue, but in later years the spaces were frequently just converted for other uses.
The most recent Sanborn map of Adams, from 1914, shows the Town Hall but doesn’t indicate a theater operating in the building. The moly movie house on the map was the old Atlas Theatre on the site of the later Adams Theatre. The Photoplay Theatre was in operation by 1921, when it was advertised in the January 11 issue of the local newspaper.
According to its official web site, the Adams Theater (using the “er” spelling of the T word) now operates under its original name as a performing arts center that is also equipped to show movies. The Adams opened on January 14, 1938 and operated as a movie house until 1967. The web site doesn’t mention the Topia Arts Center era, noting only that the current owners, Adams Theater LLC, took over the vacant property in May, 2021 and began presenting performances in the partly renovated space in 2023. Renovations and upgrades are ongoing, but the house is fairly active already.
The January 5, 1935 issue of Motion Picture Herald published a list of theaters then being operated by Paramount. Two houses at Conroe were on the list; the 250 seat Gem and the 400-seat Liberty. The Gem was at 104 Simonton Street, and the building was standing as late as January, 2019, but had been demolished, along with its neighbors, by May of 2022.
A walking tour of downtown Conroe (PDF of the brochure here) says that William Conroe opened the Gem Theatre at this location by 1917, and that during the later 1930s it operated for a while as an African-American house called the Star Theatre.
In the 1920s, the Gem must have operated under two akas, as the 1927 FDY lists a 250-seat house called the Rex and the 1928 and later editions list a 250-seat house called the Palace. The Palace was listed as a silent house in 1931 (Conroe does not appear in the 1930 edition at all) and in 1932 as both silent and closed. The Gem name first appears in the 1933 edition, the house having reopened (as noted in the original description) by June 3, 1932.
The 1926 FDY lists only a 300-seat house called the Majestic, which continues to be listed at Conroe through 1932. In 1933, a 300-seat Palace is listed along with the 250-seat Gem, and in 1934 comes the first listing of the 400-seat Liberty. This might have been an expansion of the Majestic. Other sources indicate that the Liberty was at the corner of Main and Collins Street (which now might have been renamed Metcalf St.), and the building was demolished in 2006, having by then been used as a warehouse for a furniture store for many years. One anomalous listing of a 300-seat house called the Dugan appears only in the 1929 FDY.
A history of Manchester published in 1961 (Internet Archive scan) says that the Playhouse Theatre operating in 1961 had opened as the Arcade Theatre (“The Arcade opened in the Village. It later became the Playhouse and has survived a number of openings and closings.”) The 300-seat Arcade is listed in the 1926 FDY, at Manchester. In fact an “M. P. Arcade” (the M. P. probably for Motion Picture) is listed, on Main Street, in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, and if that was the same place, the Playhouse had a very long history.
Also listed at Manchester in the 1926 FDY was a 200-seat house called the Equinox. Listed at Manchester Depot were two 300-seat houses, the Colonial and the Old Depot.
A history of Manchester through 1961 that I came across on Internet Archive says that “…the Community Theater… closed in May 1955 after a disastrous fire.”
Eau Claire was skipped by the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture directory, but the 1926 FDY lists a 200 seat Opera House in operation at Eau Claire, though a history of the town published in 1961 says that the Opera House, opened in 1900, had burned to the ground in 1930. The history’s only other mention of any sort of theater in the town is a reference to classes being held temporarily in the “Picture Show” following a fire that destroyed the town’s school in 1918. The fact that Picture Show is capitalized suggests that this might have been the name under which the house operated.
The only reference to movies in the book is this: “Also during the great depression came the era of the village free shows. A full length movie was shown at an outdoor location during the summer months.
Sponsored by local merchants, a new film was shown each week. These free shows were perhaps the most successfully attended social gatherings in the history of the village.”
Free shows sponsored by local merchants suggests that the indoor theater had been closed by then. The fact that the 1926 FDY lists only the Opera House also indicates that an earlier closing date was likely for this house at 6608 E. Main.
A 1995 newspaper item on the SF gate web site says the Novelty Theatre was built around 1910 and originally operated by George Roy, a partner in the San Bruno Lumber Company. However, a caption in Arcadia Publishing Company’s book about San Bruno says that the Novelty was built by Walter Ricci, who had earlier opened a bicycle shop in the town, though it gives no dates for either event.
Among the theater closings listed in the October 9, 1927 Film Daily was the Novelty, San Bruno, but I don’t know if this was the final closing or just a temporary closing.
Here is an item that is probably about this house, from the November 20, 1926 issue of Moving Picture World: “Contracts have been awarded by Ackerman & Harris, Phelan Building, for the erection of a moving picture house on San Bruno avenue, near Burrows street, San Francisco. The theatre will be known as ‘The Boulevard,’ seating capacity l,600.”
This item about the opening of the house appeared in Film Daily on July 20, 1927: “San Francisco- The Avenue, a new Ackerman and Harris house on San Bruno Ave. between Burrows and Bacon Sts. opens today. It cost $200,000.”
These are just two of several period sources noting that the Avenue was built for and originally operated by Ackerman & Harris, not the Levin Bros. circuit.
The Kilduff’s page for the Lyrics (old and new) has a few newspaper ads from 1939, and the house operated as the New Lyric Theatre at that time. Sadly, no pictures of the new building, only the old one.
Exhibitors Herald of October 4, 1924 had news of the organ replacement project then being undertaken at the Mars theatre: “La Fayette, Ind., House Reopened for Season
“After being closed for the past two months the Mars theatre, Lafayette Ind., has been reopened for the fall and winter season. The theatre will follow the same policy as last year, which calls for high class picture productions, interspersed with a number of notable legitimate stage productions which are now being booked.
“The stage and the dressing rooms beneath it are filled and cluttered with pipe organ paraphernalia, as work proceeds in tearing down one organ and installing another. The organ which has been in the theatre since it was opened has now been completely dismantled, and work is
proceeding rapidly on a new Wurlitzer organ, made especially for the theatre and which will be one of the largest organs in Indiana.”
The January 10, 1925 issue of Moving Picture World had this item about the Arc Theatre: “J. M. Smith, of Columbus, Ohio, an experienced exhibitor, has purchased the Arc Theatre from Martin M. Levitt, who has operated the house for the past nine years. The theatre, which was formerly on Main street, between Fourth and Fifth, Lafayette, Ind., came under the management of Mr. Levitt in April, 1916. In 1920 it was moved around the corner to its present location, which was remodeled for that purpose, with seating capacity of 500. The
house will be conducted under the management of William G. Outland. Policy of first-class pictures will prevail. Admission prices, it is
announced, will be five cents for children and ten cents for adults.”
Here is an item about the Orpheum from the January 6, 1917 issue of Motion Picture News: “INDIANA.—Lafayette: James L. Sheetz has purchased the Orpheum theatre, Lafayette, Indiana, from Charles Reichard and John Chamberlin. Mr. Sheetz will make extensive changes in the interior of the building. The seats will be rearranged, a new booth placed in the front of the house and a new lobby installed."
The Orpheum was still in operation as late as 1923, when the September 1 issue of Moving Picture World said that the house had been bought by Brooks Nixon.
The 1908-1909 Cahn guide lists the Grand Opera House at Lafayette as a ground floor theater with 1,400 seats, but does not provide a breakdown of their distribution. Plans to rename the house Dreyfus (the correct spelling) Theatre for owner Leopold Dreyfus were noted in the October 9, 1909 issue of the New York Dramatic Mirror. The Dreyfus Theatre was destroyed by a fire on the morning of April 10, 1914. The fire caused the death of firefighter Captain John Mitchell, 47.
Although movies had been shown intermittently at the house for several years, at the time of the fire a play was about to be mounted by the Purdue University drama society, who lost $1,400 in scenery to the blaze. Later in the month, a road show production of “Ben Hur” was to have been presented by the Klaw and Erlanger circuit.
Here is some history about the Lyric from the August 4, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World:
“Boes Buys Pioneer Picture Theater.
“Lafayette, Ind. — Lafayette’s pioneer motion picture house, the Lyric, was sold last week by William H. Johnson to J. W. Boes, who will take up the management of the place at once. Mr. Johnson intends to engage in the manufacture of metal paint and will start in business in
Lafayette with his brother-in-law, Charles Helveye.
“The Lyric theater was originally the Happy Half Hour theater and was established by Schuyler C. Lank about ten years ago. Edward W. Frank succeeded Mr. Lank as owner of the theater, and changed its name to the Lyric. Four years ago Mr. Johnson remodeled the house and made it one of the finest in this section of the state. It is now one of the most popular amusement places in the city.”
An April 14, 2017 article in the Lafayette Journal & Courier mentioned a nickelodeon operating at 632 Main Street as early as 1906, which must have been this house, though the article didn’t mention the name Happy Half Hour. It’s likely the author didn’t know the original name, although the article does later give this as the address of the Lyric.
The 1918 opening of the Luna was actually a re-opening, following extensive remodeling. A 2017 article in the Lafayette Journal & Courier indicates that the house had originally opened by 1915. The May 25, 1918 Moving Picture World published this extensive article about the project:
“LAFAYETTE, IND.—The opening of the new Luna theater, Thursday, April 25, marked an epoch in the history of the motion picture business in the city of Lafayette. Long before the doors of the pretty remodeled playhouse were thrown open an immense crowd had assembled in an effort to obtain advantageous positions before the ticket window. It was estimated that approximately 2,500 persons attended the affair.
“H. H. Johnson, manager of the Luna, and his corps of assistants were unusually busy in handling the throng, and did so without a hitch.
“The lobby of the new playhouse was a veritable bower of gorgeous flowers that had been sent by friends of the management. Mr. Johnson in turn distributed carnations to the women patrons.
“The beauty and comfort of the new theater was a matter of universal comment. The seating arrangements proved ideal under the test of service. The lighting arrangements are ideal, and the magnificent organ can be heard to splendid advantage.
“After being closed since November 1, the Luna has been transformed into one of the prettiest and most up-to-date motion picture theaters in the country. The cost of this transformation represents an expenditure of approximately $50,000.
“Mr. Johnson will have associated with him in the operation of the Luna as assistant manager, Chester Raub, who has served in that capacity for the last three years; Mrs. James L. Johnson, cashier; Carl W. Rumsey, operator for the past five years, will still be in charge of the operating room: Edward Kern, Walter Wolover, Milton Lorenz, and Donald McClurg as ushers, and Edward H. Bailey in charge of the sanitary department.”
An article in the April 14, 2017 issue of the Lafayette Journal &
Courier noted the Star Theatre as one of the downtown movie houses in operation by 1915.
The Strand was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Peoples and the Pearce.
The Peoples was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Pearce and the Strand.
The Pearce was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Peoples and the Strand.
The January 7, 1937 issue if Film Daily had this brief item about the Castle Theatre: “Kansas City— The Athens Theater Corp. has purchased the Castle Theater, Negro house, from Bracanto & Domnici. The competitive house, the Hollywood, just two blocks away, will be closed.” If the Hollywood was closed it later reopened, as it operated into 1945. The correct spelling of the opening owner’s surname was Brancato. Jasper Brancato later served several terms in the State legislature. I’ve been unable to find anything about a John Domnici or Donici.
The Marvel Theatre is mentioned in the February 11, 1921 issue of the Winters Express. Winters did not appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
“A new wide screen has been installed at the Winters Theatre according to Manager R. E. Degner” said an item datelined Winters, California in Boxoffice of December 25, 1954. Someone interviewed for an oral history of Winters I came across said that Rod Degner’s theater was across the street from the City Hall. As City Hall is on the SE corner of the intersection, the theater must have been under the footprint of the municipal parking lot now on the northeast corner. City Hall is at 318 1st, so the theater must have been approximately 319 1st.
The 1914 Sanborn map of Adams shows a 2 and ½ story building called Kennewa Hall at 73 Summer Street. However, it was not the building that now has the T & A tool Company sign on it. It was on the site of the building that is bang up against Victory Street and now houses the Cutting Edge Martial Arts studio. This is a two story building (the upper floor has an entrance on Victory Street), and I don’t know if it is what is left of the building that was there in 1914 or not, but it could be.
Google searches bring no results for a Kennewa Hall in Adams, though the misspelled Kenewa Hall brings up a Newspaper Archive result also from 1914, noting that someone was considering putting two stores in the basement of Kenewa Hall on Summer Street in Adams. Apparently the 1914 building was some sort of multi-use hall that was later converted for use as a movie theater.
The “Renovations” page of the theater’s web site says that the multi-purpose auditorium can now accommodate a maximum of 380 seats, which is a considerable reduction from the 960 it once provided as a movie house. Modern photos show that nothing remains of the theater’s 1937 interiors.
65 Park Street is a Colonial Revival building originally built in 1883 as a town hall to house local government offices, the District Court, the State Registrar of Deeds and an auditorium. The Registrar of Deeds still occupies the building, so its current use can be classified as State (or Government) Offices.
The structure originally had a peaked roof, but that and the original tower were destroyed by a 1949 fire. As peaked roofs are not a feature of Colonial Revival architecture, it was likely built in the Romanesque Revival style and the Colonial features added as part of the post-fire rebuilding. I’ve been unable to find a photo of the building dating from the era when it housed the theater.
The theater obviously must have occupied the auditorium, but I don’t know if that space is still intact. It might have been carved up for more office space. It was not unusual in the silent movie era for local governments to lease underutilized public auditoriums to theater operators to get a bit of extra revenue, but in later years the spaces were frequently just converted for other uses.
The most recent Sanborn map of Adams, from 1914, shows the Town Hall but doesn’t indicate a theater operating in the building. The moly movie house on the map was the old Atlas Theatre on the site of the later Adams Theatre. The Photoplay Theatre was in operation by 1921, when it was advertised in the January 11 issue of the local newspaper.
According to its official web site, the Adams Theater (using the “er” spelling of the T word) now operates under its original name as a performing arts center that is also equipped to show movies. The Adams opened on January 14, 1938 and operated as a movie house until 1967. The web site doesn’t mention the Topia Arts Center era, noting only that the current owners, Adams Theater LLC, took over the vacant property in May, 2021 and began presenting performances in the partly renovated space in 2023. Renovations and upgrades are ongoing, but the house is fairly active already.
The January 5, 1935 issue of Motion Picture Herald published a list of theaters then being operated by Paramount. Two houses at Conroe were on the list; the 250 seat Gem and the 400-seat Liberty. The Gem was at 104 Simonton Street, and the building was standing as late as January, 2019, but had been demolished, along with its neighbors, by May of 2022.
A walking tour of downtown Conroe (PDF of the brochure here) says that William Conroe opened the Gem Theatre at this location by 1917, and that during the later 1930s it operated for a while as an African-American house called the Star Theatre.
In the 1920s, the Gem must have operated under two akas, as the 1927 FDY lists a 250-seat house called the Rex and the 1928 and later editions list a 250-seat house called the Palace. The Palace was listed as a silent house in 1931 (Conroe does not appear in the 1930 edition at all) and in 1932 as both silent and closed. The Gem name first appears in the 1933 edition, the house having reopened (as noted in the original description) by June 3, 1932.
The 1926 FDY lists only a 300-seat house called the Majestic, which continues to be listed at Conroe through 1932. In 1933, a 300-seat Palace is listed along with the 250-seat Gem, and in 1934 comes the first listing of the 400-seat Liberty. This might have been an expansion of the Majestic. Other sources indicate that the Liberty was at the corner of Main and Collins Street (which now might have been renamed Metcalf St.), and the building was demolished in 2006, having by then been used as a warehouse for a furniture store for many years. One anomalous listing of a 300-seat house called the Dugan appears only in the 1929 FDY.
A history of Manchester published in 1961 (Internet Archive scan) says that the Playhouse Theatre operating in 1961 had opened as the Arcade Theatre (“The Arcade opened in the Village. It later became the Playhouse and has survived a number of openings and closings.”) The 300-seat Arcade is listed in the 1926 FDY, at Manchester. In fact an “M. P. Arcade” (the M. P. probably for Motion Picture) is listed, on Main Street, in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, and if that was the same place, the Playhouse had a very long history.
Also listed at Manchester in the 1926 FDY was a 200-seat house called the Equinox. Listed at Manchester Depot were two 300-seat houses, the Colonial and the Old Depot.
A history of Manchester through 1961 that I came across on Internet Archive says that “…the Community Theater… closed in May 1955 after a disastrous fire.”
Eau Claire was skipped by the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture directory, but the 1926 FDY lists a 200 seat Opera House in operation at Eau Claire, though a history of the town published in 1961 says that the Opera House, opened in 1900, had burned to the ground in 1930. The history’s only other mention of any sort of theater in the town is a reference to classes being held temporarily in the “Picture Show” following a fire that destroyed the town’s school in 1918. The fact that Picture Show is capitalized suggests that this might have been the name under which the house operated.
The only reference to movies in the book is this: “Also during the great depression came the era of the village free shows. A full length movie was shown at an outdoor location during the summer months. Sponsored by local merchants, a new film was shown each week. These free shows were perhaps the most successfully attended social gatherings in the history of the village.”
Free shows sponsored by local merchants suggests that the indoor theater had been closed by then. The fact that the 1926 FDY lists only the Opera House also indicates that an earlier closing date was likely for this house at 6608 E. Main.
A 1995 newspaper item on the SF gate web site says the Novelty Theatre was built around 1910 and originally operated by George Roy, a partner in the San Bruno Lumber Company. However, a caption in Arcadia Publishing Company’s book about San Bruno says that the Novelty was built by Walter Ricci, who had earlier opened a bicycle shop in the town, though it gives no dates for either event.
Among the theater closings listed in the October 9, 1927 Film Daily was the Novelty, San Bruno, but I don’t know if this was the final closing or just a temporary closing.
Here is an item that is probably about this house, from the November 20, 1926 issue of Moving Picture World: “Contracts have been awarded by Ackerman & Harris, Phelan Building, for the erection of a moving picture house on San Bruno avenue, near Burrows street, San Francisco. The theatre will be known as ‘The Boulevard,’ seating capacity l,600.”
This item about the opening of the house appeared in Film Daily on July 20, 1927: “San Francisco- The Avenue, a new Ackerman and Harris house on San Bruno Ave. between Burrows and Bacon Sts. opens today. It cost $200,000.”
These are just two of several period sources noting that the Avenue was built for and originally operated by Ackerman & Harris, not the Levin Bros. circuit.
A building was standing on this lot in a 1988 view at Historic Aerials, but is gone in the next view available, which is from 2005.
The Kilduff’s page for the Lyrics (old and new) has a few newspaper ads from 1939, and the house operated as the New Lyric Theatre at that time. Sadly, no pictures of the new building, only the old one.
Exhibitors Herald of October 4, 1924 had news of the organ replacement project then being undertaken at the Mars theatre: “La Fayette, Ind., House Reopened for Season
“After being closed for the past two months the Mars theatre, Lafayette Ind., has been reopened for the fall and winter season. The theatre will follow the same policy as last year, which calls for high class picture productions, interspersed with a number of notable legitimate stage productions which are now being booked.
“The stage and the dressing rooms beneath it are filled and cluttered with pipe organ paraphernalia, as work proceeds in tearing down one organ and installing another. The organ which has been in the theatre since it was opened has now been completely dismantled, and work is proceeding rapidly on a new Wurlitzer organ, made especially for the theatre and which will be one of the largest organs in Indiana.”
The January 10, 1925 issue of Moving Picture World had this item about the Arc Theatre: “J. M. Smith, of Columbus, Ohio, an experienced exhibitor, has purchased the Arc Theatre from Martin M. Levitt, who has operated the house for the past nine years. The theatre, which was formerly on Main street, between Fourth and Fifth, Lafayette, Ind., came under the management of Mr. Levitt in April, 1916. In 1920 it was moved around the corner to its present location, which was remodeled for that purpose, with seating capacity of 500. The house will be conducted under the management of William G. Outland. Policy of first-class pictures will prevail. Admission prices, it is announced, will be five cents for children and ten cents for adults.”
Here is an item about the Orpheum from the January 6, 1917 issue of Motion Picture News: “INDIANA.—Lafayette: James L. Sheetz has purchased the Orpheum theatre, Lafayette, Indiana, from Charles Reichard and John Chamberlin. Mr. Sheetz will make extensive changes in the interior of the building. The seats will be rearranged, a new booth placed in the front of the house and a new lobby installed."
The Orpheum was still in operation as late as 1923, when the September 1 issue of Moving Picture World said that the house had been bought by Brooks Nixon.
The 1908-1909 Cahn guide lists the Grand Opera House at Lafayette as a ground floor theater with 1,400 seats, but does not provide a breakdown of their distribution. Plans to rename the house Dreyfus (the correct spelling) Theatre for owner Leopold Dreyfus were noted in the October 9, 1909 issue of the New York Dramatic Mirror. The Dreyfus Theatre was destroyed by a fire on the morning of April 10, 1914. The fire caused the death of firefighter Captain John Mitchell, 47.
Although movies had been shown intermittently at the house for several years, at the time of the fire a play was about to be mounted by the Purdue University drama society, who lost $1,400 in scenery to the blaze. Later in the month, a road show production of “Ben Hur” was to have been presented by the Klaw and Erlanger circuit.
Here is some history about the Lyric from the August 4, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World:
An April 14, 2017 article in the Lafayette Journal & Courier mentioned a nickelodeon operating at 632 Main Street as early as 1906, which must have been this house, though the article didn’t mention the name Happy Half Hour. It’s likely the author didn’t know the original name, although the article does later give this as the address of the Lyric.The 1918 opening of the Luna was actually a re-opening, following extensive remodeling. A 2017 article in the Lafayette Journal & Courier indicates that the house had originally opened by 1915. The May 25, 1918 Moving Picture World published this extensive article about the project:
An article in the April 14, 2017 issue of the Lafayette Journal & Courier noted the Star Theatre as one of the downtown movie houses in operation by 1915.