A survey of Addison’s businesses published in 1935 (PDF here; page two, first column, paragraph six concerns the theater) indicates that the Merry Land Theatre was in the building next door to the old filling station that is still on the northeast corner of Main and Steer Streets. The narrow, free-standing theater building is also still there, though its ground floor door and windows are boarded up.
Here is an additional item about the Ritz from a later issue of Motion Picture News:
“The Farmington Entertainment Company, headed by Dr. C. A. Tatley, is taking bids on a new house for Farmington. J. Hal Lynch & Son, 412 Dolph building, St. Louis, Mo., has prepared the plans for the new theatre. It will be one story, 65 by 111 feet, and of reinforced concrete, brick and new construction.”
Though the entrance building of the Ritz Theatre had to be rebuilt following the 1964 fire, the auditorium has survived and the side of the building can be seen along South Washington Street, with the stage house extending along Harrison Street. It is occupied by a school of dance, the Ballet Arts Center, though the school uses a Jefferson Street address, with a new entrance cut into the building, facing the parking lot on that street.
The site of the theater’s former entrance and the adjacent storefront is now utilized for a music store and school called Music Makers, with multiple studios and a repair facility specializing in stringed instruments. Their web site features several photos of the theater in its heyday.
Plans for a new theater in Farmington were announced in the May 13, 1927, issue of Motion Picture News:
“The Farmington Entertainment Company of Farmington, Mo., of which Dr. C. A. Tetley is president, has had plans prepared by J. Hal Lynch & Son, 412 Dolph building, St. Louis, Mo., for a new theatre. Construction plans will be prepared at once, as preliminary sketches have been approved.”
The partnership of architects James Hallowell Lynch and his son, Hallowell H. H. Lynch, was active from 1917 until 1931. Their Farmington project must have consisted only of the theater auditorium, and alterations to accommodate the theater entrance in an existing building on Columbia Street, as historic photos show the Columbia Street buildings to have been of Victorian style.
A brief history of Harrisburg’s theaters published in the June 28, 1965, issue of the Eldorado Illinois Eldorado Daily Journal said that the Grand Theatre was originally built in 1914, opening on December 23 with 585 seats. It was remodeled and expanded to accommodate 900 seats in 1925.
Oscar L. Turner, Sr. was in the theater business in Harrisburg from September, 1908, when he and his brother W. T. Turner took over operation of the Star Theatre. S. M. Farrar’s connection with Turner began with the formation of the Colonial Amusement Company in 1912. Turner-Farrar Theatres was incorporated in 1945, the successor to several corporations Turner and/or Farrar had been involved with that had operated theaters in the region.
The rebuilt Orpheum of 1929 was actually the third Harrisburg house of that name. A history of Harrisburg’s theaters published in the June 28, 1965, issue of the Eldorado, Illinois Eldorado Daily Journal said that “[i]n 1911 the old church building housing the Orpheum was torn down and in its place was constructed a new Orpheum to seat 600 people.” The same article said that the original Orpheum had been opened by the Turner brothers in the converted church in December, 1908. It also notes that the Colonial Amusement Company expanded the second Orpheum to a seating capacity of 887 in 1917. The 1929 post-fire rebuilding is also mentioned.
This item is from the January 19, 1929, issue of Exhibitors Herald-World:
“New Theatre with Sound To Replace Fire Ruins
“(Special to the Herald-World)
“HARRISBURG, ILL., Jan. 15.— The Orpheum, which was ruined by fire several weeks ago, will be replaced by a modern picture house. The new theatre will be equipped with DeForest Phonefilm and will open in March.”
I’ve been unable to find anything else about the fire at the earlier Orpheum. The Orpheum was operated by the Colonial Amusement Company as early as 1912. Colonial was a precursor of Turner-Farrar Theatres, and Steve Farrar was manager of the chain’s Casino Theatre in El Dorado, Illinois, by 1916, as noted in the August 12 issue of The Moving Picture World that year. O. L. Turner was connected with the company from the time of its incorporation, which was noted in this item from the July 6, 1912, issue of the MPW:
“The newly incorporated Colonial Amusement Company of Harrisburg, Ill., will operate three theaters in that city in addition to the new Knell Theater, at Mt. Carmel, Ill., which has been leased. O. L. Turner will be in charge of the Mt. Carmel house.”
Harrisburg had a house called the Majestic Airdome as early as 1911, so it might have been one of the three houses there that Colonial controlled. I haven’t found the Grand theatre mentioned earlier than 1918, so the third house Colonial had at Harrisburg might have been another, as yet unidentified.
Here is a brief item describing the West End Lyric Theatre, from the November 14, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News:
“THEATRE DE LUXE IN ST. LOUIS
“THE West End Lyric Theatre, at Delmar and Euclid avenues,
St. Louis, is the dernier cri in motion picture houses. From
the embroidered cable net curtains that adorn the glass doors of the lobby back to the screen, the furnishings and equipment is characterized by elegance and good taste.
“The lobby is particularly pleasing; there are three Oriental rugs on the mosaic floor, a large Etruscan vase filled with ferns and living foliage, flanked on either side by smaller urns, and in the foreground a receptacle that is replenished daily with cut flowers.
“The house seats eleven hundred persons, and gives a program
of high class features. A five piece orchestra and a Victrola
furnish the music. Mrs. J. W. Cornelius is the manager.”
The Colonial Theatre in Waterbury was mentioned in the January 10, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News. Owner John Sheehan, who had been operating the house since its opening, had just leased the 400-seat house to George H. Beardsley of New York.
The complete destruction of the Fisk Theatre building by fire on January 5, 1951, was reported in the January 13 issue of Boxoffice. The fire was thought to have started in a grocery store next door. Though Charles Fisk said he planned to rebuild as soon as the rubble could be cleared from the site, he had carried only $10,000 of insurance on the house, so it is possible that he was unable to raise the money to rebuild. Fisk also owned the Butler Theatre, which was open at least as late as 1957. The small town also had a drive-in, so probably didn’t need another indoor theater.
This photo shows the Fisk Theatre and the adjacent building, as well as a building in the background which is still standing on the southeast corner of Dakota and Delaware Streets. The Fisk was very close to the corner, and its site in now under part of the footprint of the modern building occupied in Google street view by Butler Music. I think we can mark this theater as demolished.
Here is the current web site for the Elk Theatre. In the late 1930s and intot he 1950s this house was being operated as the Alpine Theatre. I haven’t been able to discover if it was originally built for the Alpine circuit or was one of the many older, small town theaters taken over by them.
Though the name of the new house was not given, an article in the October 10, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News said that the theater at Third And Harris Streets was one of four neighborhood movie theaters which had opened at Harrisburg in September that year. It was owned by C. E. Hanshaw, a newcomer to the theater business.
By 1925, the Rialto was being operated by Isaac Marcus, who had been in the theater business at Harrisburg for along time, having operated the Royal (later the Star) Theatre on North Third Street since at least the early 1910s. In late 1927 Marcus gave a five year lease on the Rialto and the National Theatre to Mr. and Mrs. George Krupa, theater operators from Lancaster. This deal was noted in the December 15 issue of The Evening News.
In 1914, 1205 N. 3rd Street was the address of a house called the Royal Theatre, which had been operated by Isaac Marcus for several years. According to an article in the October 10 issue of Motion Picture News, Marcus had just opened the new National Theatre at Sixth and Duaphin Street in September.
Marcus was still operating the Royal in 1927, when the December 15 issue of The Evening News noted that he had just leased two other theaters, the Rialto and the National, to Mr. and Mrs. George Krupa, theater operators from Lancaster. The article also said that it was possible that the Krupas would also lease the Royal at a later date.
The National was one of four new Harrisburg neighborhood theaters opened in September, 1914, according to an article in the October 10 issue of Motion Picture News. It was owned by Isaac Marcus, who had been operating the Royal Theatre (later the Star) on North Third Street for a number of years.
The Roxy was probably the house opened as the William Penn Theatre at Thompson and 13th Street in September, 1914. It was one of four neighborhood houses opened in Harrisburg that month, according to an article in the October 10 issue of Motion Picture News.
A January 14, 1926, article in the Harrisburg Telegraph said that the ground floor of the building, which had been converted into a garage at some point, was about the be renovated and restored to theatrical use, with a lodge hall to be installed on the upper floor.
The Grand Theatre was the largest of four neighborhood houses opened in Harrisburg in September, 1914, according to an article in the October 10, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News. Originally seating 1,200, the Grand was owned by J. M. Lenney, and was his second Harrisburg movie house, the first being Lenney’s Theatre at 5-7 S. 13th Street. The Grand was a reverse theater, with the screen at the entrance end of the auditorium.
Here is an article about the Theatre Louisiana and its operators, P. E. Coe and L. H. Grandjeau, from the October 24, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News.
The Retina Theatre is the subject of a brief (but sadly unillustrated) article in the November 7, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News. The article praises the theater (rather fulsomely) and its owner, John Gentner, of having rescued its neighborhood and the benighted denizens thereof from vice and crime. The tale sounds as though it could have been drawn from the plot of one of the “uplifting” movies of the day, meant to convince the church ladies that the movies weren’t a tool of the devil after all.
Here is an item that is probably about the Rialto, from the September 5, 1925, issue of Motion Picture News:
“High Class Theatre to Be Built in Bergen, N. J.
“West Bergen, N. J. is to have another high class theatre which will seat 1,500 persons. The theatre building will be erected at West Side and Communipaw avenues. The plans for this theatre have been drawn by George Flagg.”
We have the wrong address for the Hines Theatre. It was located on the north side of Walnut Street just east of Commerce Street. These four photos show some distinctive features of the area that are still there. The tower and chimney in the background of the upper left photos are on the back wall of the building that now houses the Ritz Theatre, at Walnut and Meridian Street.
The sign for First National Bank in the lower right photo still exists at the southwest corner of Commerce and Walnut, but now advertises a barbecue restaurant that replaced the bank’s drive-up teller area. Most notably, the ground floor of the building on the northeast corner of Walnut and Commerce survived the 1983 fire and now houses a lawyer’s office. Its distinctive corner column that can be seen in the vintage photo at lower right.
The address of the lawyer’s office is 124 W. Walnut, so the address of the Hines Theatre would have been a few numbers lower, perhaps 118 or 120 W. Walnut.
Prior to opening the Hines Theatre, Sherman J.Hines had operated at least two other theaters in Portland. The July 2, 1921, issue of Exhibitors Herald reported that Sherman Hines, operator of the Princess Theatre at Portland, had been arrested for snowing movies on Sunday.
The October 14, 1922, issue of The Moving Picture World said that “Sherman Hines has purchased Crystal Theatre, a moving picture house and assumed management.”
The Best Theatre at Indianapolis, operated by Charles Koch, was mentioned in the January 4, 1919, issue of Motion Picture News. Mr. Koch had just disposed of his interest in a house called the Apollo Theatre, located and South East Street and McCarty Street in the Fletcher Place district, to Max Patton.
There was a Strand Theatre operating in Atmore at least as early as 1924, when the April 26 issue of Exhibitors Herald published a capsule movie review by its manager, W.W. Lowery, Jr..
If the plans of the Martin Theatre company were carried out, the Strand was rebuilt in 1936, announced in this item in the September 18 issue of The Film Daily:
“Atmore, Ala. — Martin Theaters will start construction about Oct. 1 on a new house here seating 600 and at a cost of approximately $25,000. The house will be built on the site of the Strand.”
A survey of Addison’s businesses published in 1935 (PDF here; page two, first column, paragraph six concerns the theater) indicates that the Merry Land Theatre was in the building next door to the old filling station that is still on the northeast corner of Main and Steer Streets. The narrow, free-standing theater building is also still there, though its ground floor door and windows are boarded up.
According to the Ed Blank article 71dude linked to earlier, the Regent Square Theatre opened on December 15, 1936.
Here is an additional item about the Ritz from a later issue of Motion Picture News:
Though the entrance building of the Ritz Theatre had to be rebuilt following the 1964 fire, the auditorium has survived and the side of the building can be seen along South Washington Street, with the stage house extending along Harrison Street. It is occupied by a school of dance, the Ballet Arts Center, though the school uses a Jefferson Street address, with a new entrance cut into the building, facing the parking lot on that street.
The site of the theater’s former entrance and the adjacent storefront is now utilized for a music store and school called Music Makers, with multiple studios and a repair facility specializing in stringed instruments. Their web site features several photos of the theater in its heyday.
Plans for a new theater in Farmington were announced in the May 13, 1927, issue of Motion Picture News:
The partnership of architects James Hallowell Lynch and his son, Hallowell H. H. Lynch, was active from 1917 until 1931. Their Farmington project must have consisted only of the theater auditorium, and alterations to accommodate the theater entrance in an existing building on Columbia Street, as historic photos show the Columbia Street buildings to have been of Victorian style.A brief history of Harrisburg’s theaters published in the June 28, 1965, issue of the Eldorado Illinois Eldorado Daily Journal said that the Grand Theatre was originally built in 1914, opening on December 23 with 585 seats. It was remodeled and expanded to accommodate 900 seats in 1925.
Oscar L. Turner, Sr. was in the theater business in Harrisburg from September, 1908, when he and his brother W. T. Turner took over operation of the Star Theatre. S. M. Farrar’s connection with Turner began with the formation of the Colonial Amusement Company in 1912. Turner-Farrar Theatres was incorporated in 1945, the successor to several corporations Turner and/or Farrar had been involved with that had operated theaters in the region.
The rebuilt Orpheum of 1929 was actually the third Harrisburg house of that name. A history of Harrisburg’s theaters published in the June 28, 1965, issue of the Eldorado, Illinois Eldorado Daily Journal said that “[i]n 1911 the old church building housing the Orpheum was torn down and in its place was constructed a new Orpheum to seat 600 people.” The same article said that the original Orpheum had been opened by the Turner brothers in the converted church in December, 1908. It also notes that the Colonial Amusement Company expanded the second Orpheum to a seating capacity of 887 in 1917. The 1929 post-fire rebuilding is also mentioned.
The January 4, 1974, issue of the Harrisburg Daily Register said that “[t]he new Twin Cinema Theatre held its grand opening on Dec. 28….”
This item is from the January 19, 1929, issue of Exhibitors Herald-World:
I’ve been unable to find anything else about the fire at the earlier Orpheum. The Orpheum was operated by the Colonial Amusement Company as early as 1912. Colonial was a precursor of Turner-Farrar Theatres, and Steve Farrar was manager of the chain’s Casino Theatre in El Dorado, Illinois, by 1916, as noted in the August 12 issue of The Moving Picture World that year. O. L. Turner was connected with the company from the time of its incorporation, which was noted in this item from the July 6, 1912, issue of the MPW:Harrisburg had a house called the Majestic Airdome as early as 1911, so it might have been one of the three houses there that Colonial controlled. I haven’t found the Grand theatre mentioned earlier than 1918, so the third house Colonial had at Harrisburg might have been another, as yet unidentified.Here is a brief item describing the West End Lyric Theatre, from the November 14, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News:
The Colonial Theatre in Waterbury was mentioned in the January 10, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News. Owner John Sheehan, who had been operating the house since its opening, had just leased the 400-seat house to George H. Beardsley of New York.
The complete destruction of the Fisk Theatre building by fire on January 5, 1951, was reported in the January 13 issue of Boxoffice. The fire was thought to have started in a grocery store next door. Though Charles Fisk said he planned to rebuild as soon as the rubble could be cleared from the site, he had carried only $10,000 of insurance on the house, so it is possible that he was unable to raise the money to rebuild. Fisk also owned the Butler Theatre, which was open at least as late as 1957. The small town also had a drive-in, so probably didn’t need another indoor theater.
This photo shows the Fisk Theatre and the adjacent building, as well as a building in the background which is still standing on the southeast corner of Dakota and Delaware Streets. The Fisk was very close to the corner, and its site in now under part of the footprint of the modern building occupied in Google street view by Butler Music. I think we can mark this theater as demolished.
Here is the current web site for the Elk Theatre. In the late 1930s and intot he 1950s this house was being operated as the Alpine Theatre. I haven’t been able to discover if it was originally built for the Alpine circuit or was one of the many older, small town theaters taken over by them.
Though the name of the new house was not given, an article in the October 10, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News said that the theater at Third And Harris Streets was one of four neighborhood movie theaters which had opened at Harrisburg in September that year. It was owned by C. E. Hanshaw, a newcomer to the theater business.
By 1925, the Rialto was being operated by Isaac Marcus, who had been in the theater business at Harrisburg for along time, having operated the Royal (later the Star) Theatre on North Third Street since at least the early 1910s. In late 1927 Marcus gave a five year lease on the Rialto and the National Theatre to Mr. and Mrs. George Krupa, theater operators from Lancaster. This deal was noted in the December 15 issue of The Evening News.
In 1914, 1205 N. 3rd Street was the address of a house called the Royal Theatre, which had been operated by Isaac Marcus for several years. According to an article in the October 10 issue of Motion Picture News, Marcus had just opened the new National Theatre at Sixth and Duaphin Street in September.
Marcus was still operating the Royal in 1927, when the December 15 issue of The Evening News noted that he had just leased two other theaters, the Rialto and the National, to Mr. and Mrs. George Krupa, theater operators from Lancaster. The article also said that it was possible that the Krupas would also lease the Royal at a later date.
The National was one of four new Harrisburg neighborhood theaters opened in September, 1914, according to an article in the October 10 issue of Motion Picture News. It was owned by Isaac Marcus, who had been operating the Royal Theatre (later the Star) on North Third Street for a number of years.
The Roxy was probably the house opened as the William Penn Theatre at Thompson and 13th Street in September, 1914. It was one of four neighborhood houses opened in Harrisburg that month, according to an article in the October 10 issue of Motion Picture News.
A January 14, 1926, article in the Harrisburg Telegraph said that the ground floor of the building, which had been converted into a garage at some point, was about the be renovated and restored to theatrical use, with a lodge hall to be installed on the upper floor.
The Grand Theatre was the largest of four neighborhood houses opened in Harrisburg in September, 1914, according to an article in the October 10, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News. Originally seating 1,200, the Grand was owned by J. M. Lenney, and was his second Harrisburg movie house, the first being Lenney’s Theatre at 5-7 S. 13th Street. The Grand was a reverse theater, with the screen at the entrance end of the auditorium.
Here is an article about the Theatre Louisiana and its operators, P. E. Coe and L. H. Grandjeau, from the October 24, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News.
The Retina Theatre is the subject of a brief (but sadly unillustrated) article in the November 7, 1914, issue of Motion Picture News. The article praises the theater (rather fulsomely) and its owner, John Gentner, of having rescued its neighborhood and the benighted denizens thereof from vice and crime. The tale sounds as though it could have been drawn from the plot of one of the “uplifting” movies of the day, meant to convince the church ladies that the movies weren’t a tool of the devil after all.
Here is a link to the article Ron Pierce cited in the previous comment. (Click the + sign in the bar at the top of the page to zoom in.)
Here is an item that is probably about the Rialto, from the September 5, 1925, issue of Motion Picture News:
We have the wrong address for the Hines Theatre. It was located on the north side of Walnut Street just east of Commerce Street. These four photos show some distinctive features of the area that are still there. The tower and chimney in the background of the upper left photos are on the back wall of the building that now houses the Ritz Theatre, at Walnut and Meridian Street.
The sign for First National Bank in the lower right photo still exists at the southwest corner of Commerce and Walnut, but now advertises a barbecue restaurant that replaced the bank’s drive-up teller area. Most notably, the ground floor of the building on the northeast corner of Walnut and Commerce survived the 1983 fire and now houses a lawyer’s office. Its distinctive corner column that can be seen in the vintage photo at lower right.
The address of the lawyer’s office is 124 W. Walnut, so the address of the Hines Theatre would have been a few numbers lower, perhaps 118 or 120 W. Walnut.
Prior to opening the Hines Theatre, Sherman J.Hines had operated at least two other theaters in Portland. The July 2, 1921, issue of Exhibitors Herald reported that Sherman Hines, operator of the Princess Theatre at Portland, had been arrested for snowing movies on Sunday.
The October 14, 1922, issue of The Moving Picture World said that “Sherman Hines has purchased Crystal Theatre, a moving picture house and assumed management.”
The Best Theatre at Indianapolis, operated by Charles Koch, was mentioned in the January 4, 1919, issue of Motion Picture News. Mr. Koch had just disposed of his interest in a house called the Apollo Theatre, located and South East Street and McCarty Street in the Fletcher Place district, to Max Patton.
There was a Strand Theatre operating in Atmore at least as early as 1924, when the April 26 issue of Exhibitors Herald published a capsule movie review by its manager, W.W. Lowery, Jr..
If the plans of the Martin Theatre company were carried out, the Strand was rebuilt in 1936, announced in this item in the September 18 issue of The Film Daily: