Here is an item about the Monticello Theatre from the August 13, 1910, issue of The American Contractor:
“Theater & Office Building: 2 sty. 100x80. $55,000. Monticello av., Jersey City, N. J. Architects Hill & Stout, 1123 Broadway, New York city. Owner Ansbach Amusement Co., Jersey City. General Contractors Isaac A. Hopper & Son, 231 W. 125th St., New York city. Slag roofing let to the National Sheet Metal Roofing Co., 339 Grand St., Jersey City. Steam heat to Blake & Williams, 24 Barrow St., New York city. Plastering to Geo. A. Amos, 1123 Broadway, New York city.”
Architects Frederick P. Hill and Edmund C. Stout designed a number of significant buildings, though some of their best have not survived. Among the best knows survivors in Manhattan is a 1913 Gothic Revival style office block on Madison Avenue at 41st Street which has since been converted into the Library Hotel. As far as I’ve been able to discover, the Monticello was the only theater they designed.
The November 10, 1932, issue of The New York State Exhibitor said that Smalley’s Theatre in Norwich was scheduled to open that day. The subsequent issue of the semi-monthly journal, November 25, said that Smalley’s had been opened, though it didn’t confirm that the event had taken place on schedule.
An article in the St. Johnsville Enterprise and News of October 18, 1939 (PDF), says that William Smalley operated his 1913 movie theater at Mt. Upton in the Town Hall. I don’t know if that was the same building as the Opera house. Small settlements of that era frequently had only one public building other than their schoolhouse, and it would be used for all manner of public functions, and sometimes subleased to private individuals for other uses, such as showing movies.
I’ve been unable to find any other references to a Mount Upton Town Hall on the Internet. The writer of the 1939 article probably drew on Mr. Smalley’s own memories of his early career, and it’s possible that in 1913 the building was called the Town Hall and only later came to be known exclusively as the Opera House.
Here is a link to the photo of the former Opera house after it had been converted to a firehouse, to which adamghost made reference. The photo is followed by a comment from a member of the Hinman family claiming that the building is now her parents' garage, but that the upper floor has been removed due to damage.
This 2011 article from the San Luis Obispo Tribune has some information I know to be inaccurate (the Playhouse/ La Mode was not Atascadero’s first movie theater), and awkward writing makes it difficult to puzzle out in places, but it indicates that the Atascadero Playhouse on El Camino Real was the second theater of that name, and another article I came across suggests that the first, out on the east edge of town on Traffic Place, might also have shown movies for a while.
The linked article gives the location of the Playhouse that became La Mode Theatre as being “…next door to the Keetch Building and Ward’s garage….” both of which are still standing (though the garage is now a print shop) at 5660 and 5680 El Camino, respectively. That would put the theater’s site at 5670 El Camino Real. The parking lot at that location has, in the current Google street view, a sign offering it for sale through Peabody Commercial Real Estate.
The second Playhouse was built in 1924, and the first movie it ran was Roy del Ruth’s The Man Upstairs, released in 1926, which coincides with the installation of the organ noted in the previous comment by AndrewBarrett. I know of at least two earlier movie theaters in Atascadero, one of which might or might not have been the first Playhouse on Traffic Place. I’m still trying to track down more information.
Google has loads of photos (and some videos) from Stereo Live Dallas, many of them quite recent, and many apparently posted by DJs who have presented shows there. The original auditorium interior has been stripped and black-boxed, but the lobby has many original features intact. Judging from the size of the crowds in many photos it looks like business is thriving.
akow: Is the eyeglasses place you refer to the Visionworks at 912 S. Missouri, and the strip mall the building next door with an insurance office at 918 and three currently (in Google street view) vacant storefronts south of it?
Other Tribune articles indicate that the 1924-25 project was an expansion of the existing Pastime Theatre, with the addition of the three-story office and store building in front. this article notes that the Pastime’s original lobby was to be partly torn down, so it seems likely the rebuilding was not actually occasioned by a fire.
It is possible, though, that the original Pastime was completely rebuilt earlier in its history, or perhaps moved from another location. A February 20, 1938 Tribune article said that the Pastime would be celebrating its 26th anniversary on February 22, which would correspond to a 1912 opening. However, a February 17, 1929, ad for the Pastime said that the house would be celebrating its 21st anniversary on the 22nd. That would give the theater an opening date of February 22, 1908.
I see that the 1911 clipping Rivest links to notes that Chris Chacos had recently taken over management of the house (perhaps from one of his brothers?) and had “…made a number of improvements on the interior….” which indicates that the theater had indeed been in operation prior to the 1911 event. The item also notes that a subsequent closure for further improvements was planned. It’s possible that the 26th anniversary in 1938 indicated that the building was completely rebuilt in 1912, though that would leave the question of why this had not been noted in the 1929 21st anniversary ad.
The Embassy was built on the site of a silent era house called the Empire Theatre, which appeared at 739 Penn Street on a list of Readings movie theaters that was published in the January 1, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World.
The September 13, 1925, issue of The San Berardino County Sun reported that control of the Wyatt, Liberty, and Majestic Theatres in Redlands would be transfered from local operator Inland Theatres to Junior Theatres, an affiliate of West Coast Theatres. The Majestic would for a short time continue to be run by an independent local operator who had a lease that was soon to run out.
Address should be 108 E. Oley Street. Google has no street view, but Bing maps has one. There are still two overhead doors on the front, so perhaps it’s still a garage, though if so it isn’t listed on the Internet.
The February 5, 1911, issue of the Los Angeles Herald had an item about this theater in a page six article about current construction projects:
“Frank L. Stiff, plans for a moving picture theater to be built at 340 South Spring street for Quinn & McLean. It will have tile entrance, ornamental plaster front, composition roof, metal lath, plumbing and electric wiring. The cost will be about $3OOO.”
Although the item didn’t say so,this must have been a remodeling of the house that had opened in 1903 as Waldeck’s Casino. Not even in 1911 could $3,000 build an entirely new theater in downtown Los Angeles.
The promoters, Quinn & McLean, must have been John A. Quinn and G. H. McLean (or McLain, as his name sometimes appears) who had already operated or were still operating the Ideal, the Bijou, and the Banner Theatre.
A. M. Edelman was the original architect for the Casino Theatre, as noted in the August 9, 1903, issue of the Sunday Herald:
“Casino Theater company, 346 and 348 South Spring street, two-story brick theater and museum, $25,000; A. M. Edelman, architect; Earl T. Low, contractor.”
Google street view now has a view of the back of this building. Some of the brick looks quite old, and there have obviously been a lot of alterations done over the decades. Despite the L.A. County Assessor’s site saying that the building was built in 1930, I now think there was probably just an extensive rebuild of the original theater building at that time.
Bill Counter has researched the Arlin Theatre, saying it opened around 1911, when it was listed only under the name of a Mr. T. A. Russell. Then it was listed as the Columbia Theatre from 1912 until 1918, was the Jefferson Theatre in 1919 (I also found it listed under that name in the 1921 city directory) and was the Palace Theatre from 1922 to 1927. A 1928 directory has now become available, and it lists the house as the Home Theatre.
This house probably opened as the Franklin Theatre, whether it was listed or advertised by name or not. This item is from the July 9, 1910, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Brooklyn, N. Y. — Plans have been filed for the
erection of a first-class moving picture theater on the east side of Franklin avenue north of DeKalb, for the Abels-Gold Realty Company. This theater will be known as the Franklin.”
The Star was a very early theater, having been mentioned in the September 5, 1908, issue of The Billboard. According to Monessen: A Typical Steel Country Town, by Cassandra Vivian, William McShaffrey opened the Star some time after he had built the Monessen Opera House, which had opened on December 4, 1904. He also operated theaters in Monongahela, Charleroi, and Donora.
I had first thought that the Broadway Theatre had been designed by Pettigrew & Worley, but the house was featured in an add for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in the March 5, 1949, issue of Boxoffice, and the text attributed the Broadway to Pettigrew, Cook & Associates.
Digging a bit more I found that John Worley had gone into the army in 1941. After the war he returned to the partnership, which had originally been formed in 1937. It appears that while Worley was away, Pettigrew had teamed up with an architect named Walter W. Cook. So far this house is the only one I’ve found that Pettigrew and Cook designed. I’ve been unable to find anything else about Walter W. Cook, though there was an architect of that name who had been active in the 1920s, but not in Texas. Perhaps he came out of retirement for the duration of the war.
This house was in operation by 1915 as the Castle Theatre, noted in that year’s Report of the Chief of the Massachusetts District Police as being in good condition and operated by John D. Baird. By 1922 it had been renamed the Eagle Theatre and was operated by local theater magnate Michael J. Keegan, who had owned an earlier movie house called the Pastime Theatre, and by 1922 had also opened the Strand Theatre.
Sherrie_Roberts_Patching: My profile photo is a view of Broadway in Los Angeles in the late 1920s, not the Topeka Orpheum. I don’t have a larger version of it, and can’t remember where I originally got it, though it was probably from the USC Digital Archive.
The disappearance of issues of The Reel Journal from The Internet Archive apparently has something to do with the publishers of the successor magazine, Boxoffice Pro, attempting to remove the old magazines from the public domain. Unfortunately there are a lot of such dead links in comments at Cinema Treasures, and probably most of them can’t be fixed.
I don’t remember the specific picture in The Reel Journal that I linked to, but it’s possible that it was this one which Rivest 266 uploaded to our photo page in 2012.
Jack Tillmany’s list of San Fracisco theaters after 1906 has the Majestic at 365 Third Street in operation from 1911 to 1931, but the 1916 article Predator posted says that Henry F. Slater had been manager of the house for seven years, giving it an opening year no later than 1909.
The claim that this house was rebuilt from the Lyric/first Melba Theatre is mistaken. The New Melba was a new theater. A week before the New Melba opened, the original Melba, located a block away, was closed. It was converted into a furniture store.
If the State was indeed the same building as the Fotosho, then it was opened in 1910 by F. E. McVeigh as the Marco Theatre, according to the 1925 book Historical Sketches and Sidelights of Miami, Florida by Isidor Cohen (Google Books preview.)
114 Concord Street is now occupied by Vermillion Office Supply, and the single-story building has an arched parapet of reasonably theatrical appearance, but is rather small. 111 Concord is a slightly wider, two-story building now subdivided into offices. The parapet (indeed the entire facade) is a bit fancier than the one on the building at 114, and now has the name “Place de la Concorde” on it.
It is not obvious which building is older. However, the building at 111 has a slightly larger footprint, and is also tall enough to have had a balcony, and thus is most likely to have been able to accommodate 410 seats.
The theater opened at one or the other of these locations (my guess would be 111 Concord) in June, 1913. The Saturday, June 14, issue of the Abbeville Progress said that A. O. Landry had opened his new Victor Theatre on Sunday night (presumably the previous Sunday, June 8.) The article also said that the building was new construction.
A. O. Landry’s Victor Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 edition of Gus Hill’s theatrical directory as a ground floor house with 450 seats, playing road shows, vaudeville, and pictures. The stage was rather small, being but 22 feet deep and 37 feet wide, and a mere 20 feet high, reflecting the absence of a fly tower.
Mr. Landry provided capsule reviews of movies for the “What the Picture Did for Me” columns of various issues of Motography in 1917.
“Find a Grave” reveals that A. O. Landry’s father was named Victor, so the Victor Theatre was most likely named for him.
JohnnyC: They weren’t in operation at the same time. The claim on our page for the Melba Performing Arts Center that the New Melba Theatre which opened in 1938 was a rebuild of the old Melba is mistaken. The New Melba was on a different site. The June 9, 1938, issue of the Houston Herald featured an ad for a furniture store “…located in the old Melba Theatre Building.”
A good rule of thumb to follow at Cinema Treasures is that if dallasmovietheatres makes a claim that contradicts an earlier claim made somewhere on the site, it is probably the earlier claim that is wrong.
Here is an item about the Monticello Theatre from the August 13, 1910, issue of The American Contractor:
Architects Frederick P. Hill and Edmund C. Stout designed a number of significant buildings, though some of their best have not survived. Among the best knows survivors in Manhattan is a 1913 Gothic Revival style office block on Madison Avenue at 41st Street which has since been converted into the Library Hotel. As far as I’ve been able to discover, the Monticello was the only theater they designed.Definitely looks like the same place, so a 1910 opening, then. Robinson and Burns must have merely taken over operation of the house in 1914.
Google finally has a decent street view of the Jones Theatre.
The November 10, 1932, issue of The New York State Exhibitor said that Smalley’s Theatre in Norwich was scheduled to open that day. The subsequent issue of the semi-monthly journal, November 25, said that Smalley’s had been opened, though it didn’t confirm that the event had taken place on schedule.
An article in the St. Johnsville Enterprise and News of October 18, 1939 (PDF), says that William Smalley operated his 1913 movie theater at Mt. Upton in the Town Hall. I don’t know if that was the same building as the Opera house. Small settlements of that era frequently had only one public building other than their schoolhouse, and it would be used for all manner of public functions, and sometimes subleased to private individuals for other uses, such as showing movies.
I’ve been unable to find any other references to a Mount Upton Town Hall on the Internet. The writer of the 1939 article probably drew on Mr. Smalley’s own memories of his early career, and it’s possible that in 1913 the building was called the Town Hall and only later came to be known exclusively as the Opera House.
Here is a link to the photo of the former Opera house after it had been converted to a firehouse, to which adamghost made reference. The photo is followed by a comment from a member of the Hinman family claiming that the building is now her parents' garage, but that the upper floor has been removed due to damage.
This 2011 article from the San Luis Obispo Tribune has some information I know to be inaccurate (the Playhouse/ La Mode was not Atascadero’s first movie theater), and awkward writing makes it difficult to puzzle out in places, but it indicates that the Atascadero Playhouse on El Camino Real was the second theater of that name, and another article I came across suggests that the first, out on the east edge of town on Traffic Place, might also have shown movies for a while.
The linked article gives the location of the Playhouse that became La Mode Theatre as being “…next door to the Keetch Building and Ward’s garage….” both of which are still standing (though the garage is now a print shop) at 5660 and 5680 El Camino, respectively. That would put the theater’s site at 5670 El Camino Real. The parking lot at that location has, in the current Google street view, a sign offering it for sale through Peabody Commercial Real Estate.
The second Playhouse was built in 1924, and the first movie it ran was Roy del Ruth’s The Man Upstairs, released in 1926, which coincides with the installation of the organ noted in the previous comment by AndrewBarrett. I know of at least two earlier movie theaters in Atascadero, one of which might or might not have been the first Playhouse on Traffic Place. I’m still trying to track down more information.
Google has loads of photos (and some videos) from Stereo Live Dallas, many of them quite recent, and many apparently posted by DJs who have presented shows there. The original auditorium interior has been stripped and black-boxed, but the lobby has many original features intact. Judging from the size of the crowds in many photos it looks like business is thriving.
akow: Is the eyeglasses place you refer to the Visionworks at 912 S. Missouri, and the strip mall the building next door with an insurance office at 918 and three currently (in Google street view) vacant storefronts south of it?
Other Tribune articles indicate that the 1924-25 project was an expansion of the existing Pastime Theatre, with the addition of the three-story office and store building in front. this article notes that the Pastime’s original lobby was to be partly torn down, so it seems likely the rebuilding was not actually occasioned by a fire.
It is possible, though, that the original Pastime was completely rebuilt earlier in its history, or perhaps moved from another location. A February 20, 1938 Tribune article said that the Pastime would be celebrating its 26th anniversary on February 22, which would correspond to a 1912 opening. However, a February 17, 1929, ad for the Pastime said that the house would be celebrating its 21st anniversary on the 22nd. That would give the theater an opening date of February 22, 1908.
I see that the 1911 clipping Rivest links to notes that Chris Chacos had recently taken over management of the house (perhaps from one of his brothers?) and had “…made a number of improvements on the interior….” which indicates that the theater had indeed been in operation prior to the 1911 event. The item also notes that a subsequent closure for further improvements was planned. It’s possible that the 26th anniversary in 1938 indicated that the building was completely rebuilt in 1912, though that would leave the question of why this had not been noted in the 1929 21st anniversary ad.
The Embassy was built on the site of a silent era house called the Empire Theatre, which appeared at 739 Penn Street on a list of Readings movie theaters that was published in the January 1, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World.
The September 13, 1925, issue of The San Berardino County Sun reported that control of the Wyatt, Liberty, and Majestic Theatres in Redlands would be transfered from local operator Inland Theatres to Junior Theatres, an affiliate of West Coast Theatres. The Majestic would for a short time continue to be run by an independent local operator who had a lease that was soon to run out.
Address should be 108 E. Oley Street. Google has no street view, but Bing maps has one. There are still two overhead doors on the front, so perhaps it’s still a garage, though if so it isn’t listed on the Internet.
The February 5, 1911, issue of the Los Angeles Herald had an item about this theater in a page six article about current construction projects:
Although the item didn’t say so,this must have been a remodeling of the house that had opened in 1903 as Waldeck’s Casino. Not even in 1911 could $3,000 build an entirely new theater in downtown Los Angeles.The promoters, Quinn & McLean, must have been John A. Quinn and G. H. McLean (or McLain, as his name sometimes appears) who had already operated or were still operating the Ideal, the Bijou, and the Banner Theatre.
A. M. Edelman was the original architect for the Casino Theatre, as noted in the August 9, 1903, issue of the Sunday Herald:
Google street view now has a view of the back of this building. Some of the brick looks quite old, and there have obviously been a lot of alterations done over the decades. Despite the L.A. County Assessor’s site saying that the building was built in 1930, I now think there was probably just an extensive rebuild of the original theater building at that time.
Bill Counter has researched the Arlin Theatre, saying it opened around 1911, when it was listed only under the name of a Mr. T. A. Russell. Then it was listed as the Columbia Theatre from 1912 until 1918, was the Jefferson Theatre in 1919 (I also found it listed under that name in the 1921 city directory) and was the Palace Theatre from 1922 to 1927. A 1928 directory has now become available, and it lists the house as the Home Theatre.
This house probably opened as the Franklin Theatre, whether it was listed or advertised by name or not. This item is from the July 9, 1910, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The Star was a very early theater, having been mentioned in the September 5, 1908, issue of The Billboard. According to Monessen: A Typical Steel Country Town, by Cassandra Vivian, William McShaffrey opened the Star some time after he had built the Monessen Opera House, which had opened on December 4, 1904. He also operated theaters in Monongahela, Charleroi, and Donora.
I had first thought that the Broadway Theatre had been designed by Pettigrew & Worley, but the house was featured in an add for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in the March 5, 1949, issue of Boxoffice, and the text attributed the Broadway to Pettigrew, Cook & Associates.
Digging a bit more I found that John Worley had gone into the army in 1941. After the war he returned to the partnership, which had originally been formed in 1937. It appears that while Worley was away, Pettigrew had teamed up with an architect named Walter W. Cook. So far this house is the only one I’ve found that Pettigrew and Cook designed. I’ve been unable to find anything else about Walter W. Cook, though there was an architect of that name who had been active in the 1920s, but not in Texas. Perhaps he came out of retirement for the duration of the war.
This house was in operation by 1915 as the Castle Theatre, noted in that year’s Report of the Chief of the Massachusetts District Police as being in good condition and operated by John D. Baird. By 1922 it had been renamed the Eagle Theatre and was operated by local theater magnate Michael J. Keegan, who had owned an earlier movie house called the Pastime Theatre, and by 1922 had also opened the Strand Theatre.
Sherrie_Roberts_Patching: My profile photo is a view of Broadway in Los Angeles in the late 1920s, not the Topeka Orpheum. I don’t have a larger version of it, and can’t remember where I originally got it, though it was probably from the USC Digital Archive.
The disappearance of issues of The Reel Journal from The Internet Archive apparently has something to do with the publishers of the successor magazine, Boxoffice Pro, attempting to remove the old magazines from the public domain. Unfortunately there are a lot of such dead links in comments at Cinema Treasures, and probably most of them can’t be fixed.
I don’t remember the specific picture in The Reel Journal that I linked to, but it’s possible that it was this one which Rivest 266 uploaded to our photo page in 2012.
Jack Tillmany’s list of San Fracisco theaters after 1906 has the Majestic at 365 Third Street in operation from 1911 to 1931, but the 1916 article Predator posted says that Henry F. Slater had been manager of the house for seven years, giving it an opening year no later than 1909.
This article says that Guildford’s Picture Playhouse Arcade was designed by local architect Frederick J. Hodgson.
The claim that this house was rebuilt from the Lyric/first Melba Theatre is mistaken. The New Melba was a new theater. A week before the New Melba opened, the original Melba, located a block away, was closed. It was converted into a furniture store.
If the State was indeed the same building as the Fotosho, then it was opened in 1910 by F. E. McVeigh as the Marco Theatre, according to the 1925 book Historical Sketches and Sidelights of Miami, Florida by Isidor Cohen (Google Books preview.)
114 Concord Street is now occupied by Vermillion Office Supply, and the single-story building has an arched parapet of reasonably theatrical appearance, but is rather small. 111 Concord is a slightly wider, two-story building now subdivided into offices. The parapet (indeed the entire facade) is a bit fancier than the one on the building at 114, and now has the name “Place de la Concorde” on it.
It is not obvious which building is older. However, the building at 111 has a slightly larger footprint, and is also tall enough to have had a balcony, and thus is most likely to have been able to accommodate 410 seats.
The theater opened at one or the other of these locations (my guess would be 111 Concord) in June, 1913. The Saturday, June 14, issue of the Abbeville Progress said that A. O. Landry had opened his new Victor Theatre on Sunday night (presumably the previous Sunday, June 8.) The article also said that the building was new construction.
A. O. Landry’s Victor Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 edition of Gus Hill’s theatrical directory as a ground floor house with 450 seats, playing road shows, vaudeville, and pictures. The stage was rather small, being but 22 feet deep and 37 feet wide, and a mere 20 feet high, reflecting the absence of a fly tower.
Mr. Landry provided capsule reviews of movies for the “What the Picture Did for Me” columns of various issues of Motography in 1917.
“Find a Grave” reveals that A. O. Landry’s father was named Victor, so the Victor Theatre was most likely named for him.
JohnnyC: They weren’t in operation at the same time. The claim on our page for the Melba Performing Arts Center that the New Melba Theatre which opened in 1938 was a rebuild of the old Melba is mistaken. The New Melba was on a different site. The June 9, 1938, issue of the Houston Herald featured an ad for a furniture store “…located in the old Melba Theatre Building.”
A good rule of thumb to follow at Cinema Treasures is that if dallasmovietheatres makes a claim that contradicts an earlier claim made somewhere on the site, it is probably the earlier claim that is wrong.