A document prepared for the City of Benicia (very large PDF here) and containing a survey of historic resources says that the building at 918 First Street, currently occupied by the Benicia Antique Mall, was built as a theater in the late 1930s. The document doesn’t give the theaters name, but I think that’s the most likely location to have been the Victory Theatre.
If you look at the corner building from the side street, it actually has a pretty low roof, disguised on the First Street side by a false parapet, and would have been ill suited for a theater. The building at 918 has a higher roof, and extends back farther.
The Majestic was built by former Benicia mayor William Crooks, probably as an investment, and it is likely that a deal was made, possibly even before the project was underway, for a theater operator to lease it. The lessee might have been the operator of the Orpheum, or someone else, but either way it’s unlikely that Crooks would have been concerned about the fate of the Orpheum.
I’ve done some searches on the Peoples Theatre in Martinez but have found nothing. Many small nickelodeons came and went quickly in those days, so it might have been one of those.
A pair of small photos of the Majestic’s entrance and box office can be seen on this web page. The Majestic was built by former Benicia mayor William Crooks.
Advertisements for Typhoon brand ventilation systems published in issues of The Moving Picture World in early 1921 list the Novelty Theatre in Martinez as one of the houses in which the company’s equipment had been installed. A notice about the installation of the new ventilation system by contractor A. Gattuan had appeared in the July 31, 1920, issue of Domestic Engineering.
I found a reference to the Curry Theatre in the May 26, 1914, issue of Coast Banker (scan at Google Books.)
I also found this item in the January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“MARTINEZ, CAL. — New moving picture house in Curry street has been opened under the management of H. E. Case.”
As I can’t find a Curry Street anywhere in Martinez today, I’m wondering if Ferry Street was once called Curry Street, or if this item simply mistook the name of the theater for the name of the street. I also don’t know why they said it was a new moving picture house, unless this was a different theater, which seems unlikely. Given the MPW’s propensity for errors I think it’s possible that this is when the Curry, under new ownership, was renamed the Royal, and the magazine just got the story garbled. I’ve been unable to find any other references to H. E. Case.
The Royal was in operation at least as late as June 17, 1926, when it was mentioned, along with the Novelty Theatre, in that day’s issue of the Oakland Tribune.
AndrewBarrett: You will probably be interested in this item I ran across in the February 9, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The new Florence theater, soon to be opened in Pasadena under the management of D. B. Schumann, is installing a two-manual and piano-manual pipe organ built by the Seeburg-Smith factories at Chicago. This firm is practically a newcomer on the coast and especially in the South, although it is very well known in the East and throughout the Middle West. C. R. Dibble Company of Los Angeles made the sale, and is superintending the construction.”
Ah, now that the historic photo has been posted it looks like the building was extended upward to add a second floor sometime after the Orpheum closed, so it’s possible that it was erected specifically as a theater in 1913.
714 is the old, bay-windowed building adjacent to the Majestic Theatre. The building looks to have been built earlier than 1913, and so the National/Orpheum was probably a storefront conversion, closed and reconverted to retail space when the Majestic opened in 1920.
The building is currently occupied by Training Loft 714, a weight loss and “body transformation studio” (outside California aka, a gym.)
Comparing aerial views from 1965 and more recently at Historic Aerials, it is apparent that the Chief Theatre has been converted into the United Methodist Fellowship Hall, at 102 I Street. The old stone building of the original church as seen in the vintage photo is still standing at the corner of I and Elm. A new building, built sometime between 1999 and 2003, connects the old church with the fellowship hall, forming a courtyard on the I Street side of the complex.
The November 3, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World ran this brief item: “John Lyons, manager of the Orpheum at Dayton, O., will stick to a straight five-cent policy from now on, owing to the new war tax.”
If this house was called B. F. Keith’s Theatre, it must have been but briefly, after the Keith circuit took control of it in 1915 and before they took over the Colonial the following year. The name B. F. Keith’s Theatre belonged to the Colonial from 1916 to 1921. I’ve found an item in the November 3, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World which notes sequential personal appearances recently made by popular child star Violet McMillan at both Keith’s Theatre and the Strand in Dayton.
The Ideal Theatre was discussed in the November 3, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Dayton News Letter
“By Paul J. Gray. Alhambra Theater Building, Dayton, Ohio.
“Making Patrons for Ideal Theatre.
“DAYTON, OHIO. — John Seifert. who was with the Pathe. working from Cincinnati, and who made quite a success with that company, is now in Dayton to stay. He is managing the Ideal theater in this city as well as the East Majestic, a neighborhood house.
“Mr. Seifert controlled a chain of eight theaters on the Pacific coast before going to the Pathe people and is well known in the west. He has already started plans for the complete remodeling of the Ideal. Mr. Seifert converted a house known as a ‘filler for a program’ into a legitimate ‘Feature.’ inasmuch as the Standard Film one-reel picture, ‘The Zeppelin Raids over London,’ was advertised strong in the newspapers and did a big business while at the Ideal.
“George Wilson, of the Standard exchange in Cincinnati, says that bookings are coming in fast through the running of the picture at the Ideal with such remarkable success. This task is even harder when one stops to think that B. F. Keith’s theater, only two blocks away, was playing ‘The Retreat of the Germans’ to big houses as an extra feature with a vaudeville show.
“Mr. Seifert claims the East Majestic is also doing well under his management and he is to completely remodel this house also.”
So far I’ve been unable to identify the neighborhood house called the East Majestic Theatre.
Here is a bit of information about the operation of the Auditorium Theatre during the period before the fire that destroyed the house, from the April 1, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The New Auditorium is a ‘duplex’ theater. There are two 500 seat auditoriums, one above the other, the operating room of the lower being under the stage of the upper. The lower theater begins the day, and when the first two reels are finished they are sent upstairs and the show is started in the upper auditorium, thereafter the show continues for the day with the lower theater two laps ahead of the upper. There are three operators employed. The projectors are Power’s Six A’s. Projection is in charge of S. Howell, P. Willoughby and W. Stoker.
“The lobby of the New Auditorium is very spacious, is decorated in pale blue and is fitted up with wicker chairs, stand lamps and cozy corners — a beautiful, commodious rest room. The house is owned by the Auditorium Amusement Company, of which that wideawake, pleasant gentleman, Gill Burrows, is manager. We had an extended talk with Neighbor Burrows; also met Mr. Elmer Rauh, president and treasurer of the company.”
Papers in the Pretzinger Architectural Collection reveal that Albert Pretzinger’s firm did some work on the Strand Theatre in 1924. There is no indication of the nature of the work or its extent.
The records of Hugh J. Baker & Company of Indianapolis, fabricator of structural and reinforcing steel and concrete, indicate that they provided materials for the construction of the Liberty Theatre at Terre Haute in 1918.
Numerous sources indicate that the architect of Zaring’s Egyptian Theatre was Frank Baldwin Hunter, brother of Edgar Otis Hunter. Though Frank Hunter, who had studied art but had no formal architectural training, had apprenticed with Preston Rubush, he established his own practice in 1907, becoming quite successful as a residential architect. After designing numerous houses, he began designing commercial projects, including Zaring’s Egyptian and the Fountain Square Theatre.
The records of Hugh J. Baker & Company, fabricator of structural and reinforcing steel and concrete, list Vonnegut, Bohn & Meuller as the architects of the Apollo. The firm’s co-founder (with Arthur Bohn), Bernard Vonnegut, died in 1908, and his son, Kurt Vonnegut Sr., became a principal of the firm in 1910. O. N. Mueller joined the firm later. Vonnegut Sr. was the lead architect on most of the firms projects.
The records of Hugh J. Baker & Company, fabricator of structural and reinforcing steel and concrete, indicate that the Alhambra Theatre was built in 1913.
This post from the Historic Indianapolis web site has, along with some pictures of the Apollo Theatre, a photo of the Alhambra’s building shortly before it and its neighbors were demolished in 1990.
Gerald, as you are the most frequent contributor to pages for Providence theaters maybe you can solve this puzzle. I found this item in The Moving Picture World of October 21, 1922:
“Fred Lovett, manager of the Palace in the Olneyville section of Providence, believes in seeing every picture before booking it. The result has been that this house has been consistently making money, while similar houses who have booked on hearsay, have had a somewhat up and down career.”
As we don’t have a Palace Theatre listed in Olneyville, I’m puzzled. Are Cinema Treasures' listings missing a theater? Did the magazine get the location wrong, or the name? Is Palace a missing aka for one of the other theaters in the neighborhood? I don’t know what to make of it.
In addition to its location outside Providence’s main shopping and theater district, the Capitol had a design issue that probably contributed to the difficulty of operating it as a movie theater. The 1909-1910 Cahn guide describes The Imperial’s seating arrangement as 484 in the orchestra, 388 in the balcony, 40 in boxes, and a whopping 800 in the gallery.
As the stage, though 40 feet deep from footlights to back wall, was only 65 feet between side walls, the whole theater must have been fairly narrow, but the limited seating capacity of the orchestra suggests that the main floor was not very deep, either. The enormous gallery must have been high and steep, and considerably deeper than the main floor, and thus poorly suited for watching a screen set within the 35-foot wide proscenium. The lower seating capacity in the theater’s later years must have resulted from the closing of the gallery, or at least the greater part of it.
I haven’t been able to determine if the firm designed the Uptown Theatre itself, but the Schuster Building was designed by architects Nevin, Wischmeyer & Morgan (Hugh Nevin, Herman Wischmeyer and Frederick Morgan.)
After leaving the firm, Wischmeyer worked on the Louisville Scottish Rite Temple, photos of which can be found on the Internet, so he at least was certainly capable of creating the sort of restrained, elegant auditorium that both the Temple and the Uptown Theatre possess.
The Pima and Maricopa tribes developed the Talking Stick Entertainment District, and must have chosen the name for it. I would assume there is some tribal self-assertion in the choice.
For a couple hundred years the Indians were denigrated or ignored by the dominant culture, but now the tribes have learned how to work the system to their advantage, and we will have to pay attention to them for a change. They have the talking stick now.
Don’t comment unless you are holding the talking stick. It should really be a rule in all theaters (and a cellphone does not count as a talking stick.)
An article about George Bolling, Sr. in the October 13, 2017, issue of The Coalfield Progress says that his father, R. H. Bolling, built four theaters in the region. Another of these was the Coeburn Theatre, opened in 1947 at Coeburn, Virginia.
A document prepared for the City of Benicia (very large PDF here) and containing a survey of historic resources says that the building at 918 First Street, currently occupied by the Benicia Antique Mall, was built as a theater in the late 1930s. The document doesn’t give the theaters name, but I think that’s the most likely location to have been the Victory Theatre.
If you look at the corner building from the side street, it actually has a pretty low roof, disguised on the First Street side by a false parapet, and would have been ill suited for a theater. The building at 918 has a higher roof, and extends back farther.
The Majestic was built by former Benicia mayor William Crooks, probably as an investment, and it is likely that a deal was made, possibly even before the project was underway, for a theater operator to lease it. The lessee might have been the operator of the Orpheum, or someone else, but either way it’s unlikely that Crooks would have been concerned about the fate of the Orpheum.
I’ve done some searches on the Peoples Theatre in Martinez but have found nothing. Many small nickelodeons came and went quickly in those days, so it might have been one of those.
A pair of small photos of the Majestic’s entrance and box office can be seen on this web page. The Majestic was built by former Benicia mayor William Crooks.
Advertisements for Typhoon brand ventilation systems published in issues of The Moving Picture World in early 1921 list the Novelty Theatre in Martinez as one of the houses in which the company’s equipment had been installed. A notice about the installation of the new ventilation system by contractor A. Gattuan had appeared in the July 31, 1920, issue of Domestic Engineering.
I found a reference to the Curry Theatre in the May 26, 1914, issue of Coast Banker (scan at Google Books.)
I also found this item in the January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World:
As I can’t find a Curry Street anywhere in Martinez today, I’m wondering if Ferry Street was once called Curry Street, or if this item simply mistook the name of the theater for the name of the street. I also don’t know why they said it was a new moving picture house, unless this was a different theater, which seems unlikely. Given the MPW’s propensity for errors I think it’s possible that this is when the Curry, under new ownership, was renamed the Royal, and the magazine just got the story garbled. I’ve been unable to find any other references to H. E. Case.The Royal was in operation at least as late as June 17, 1926, when it was mentioned, along with the Novelty Theatre, in that day’s issue of the Oakland Tribune.
AndrewBarrett: You will probably be interested in this item I ran across in the February 9, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Ah, now that the historic photo has been posted it looks like the building was extended upward to add a second floor sometime after the Orpheum closed, so it’s possible that it was erected specifically as a theater in 1913.
714 is the old, bay-windowed building adjacent to the Majestic Theatre. The building looks to have been built earlier than 1913, and so the National/Orpheum was probably a storefront conversion, closed and reconverted to retail space when the Majestic opened in 1920.
The building is currently occupied by Training Loft 714, a weight loss and “body transformation studio” (outside California aka, a gym.)
Comparing aerial views from 1965 and more recently at Historic Aerials, it is apparent that the Chief Theatre has been converted into the United Methodist Fellowship Hall, at 102 I Street. The old stone building of the original church as seen in the vintage photo is still standing at the corner of I and Elm. A new building, built sometime between 1999 and 2003, connects the old church with the fellowship hall, forming a courtyard on the I Street side of the complex.
After being vacant for many years, the Park Theatre building was renovated for use as office space in 2014.
The November 3, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World ran this brief item: “John Lyons, manager of the Orpheum at Dayton, O., will stick to a straight five-cent policy from now on, owing to the new war tax.”
If this house was called B. F. Keith’s Theatre, it must have been but briefly, after the Keith circuit took control of it in 1915 and before they took over the Colonial the following year. The name B. F. Keith’s Theatre belonged to the Colonial from 1916 to 1921. I’ve found an item in the November 3, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World which notes sequential personal appearances recently made by popular child star Violet McMillan at both Keith’s Theatre and the Strand in Dayton.
The Ideal Theatre was discussed in the November 3, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World:
So far I’ve been unable to identify the neighborhood house called the East Majestic Theatre.Here is a bit of information about the operation of the Auditorium Theatre during the period before the fire that destroyed the house, from the April 1, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Papers in the Pretzinger Architectural Collection reveal that Albert Pretzinger’s firm did some work on the Strand Theatre in 1924. There is no indication of the nature of the work or its extent.
The records of Hugh J. Baker & Company of Indianapolis, fabricator of structural and reinforcing steel and concrete, indicate that they provided materials for the construction of the Liberty Theatre at Terre Haute in 1918.
Numerous sources indicate that the architect of Zaring’s Egyptian Theatre was Frank Baldwin Hunter, brother of Edgar Otis Hunter. Though Frank Hunter, who had studied art but had no formal architectural training, had apprenticed with Preston Rubush, he established his own practice in 1907, becoming quite successful as a residential architect. After designing numerous houses, he began designing commercial projects, including Zaring’s Egyptian and the Fountain Square Theatre.
The records of Hugh J. Baker & Company, fabricator of structural and reinforcing steel and concrete, list Vonnegut, Bohn & Meuller as the architects of the Apollo. The firm’s co-founder (with Arthur Bohn), Bernard Vonnegut, died in 1908, and his son, Kurt Vonnegut Sr., became a principal of the firm in 1910. O. N. Mueller joined the firm later. Vonnegut Sr. was the lead architect on most of the firms projects.
The records of Hugh J. Baker & Company, fabricator of structural and reinforcing steel and concrete, indicate that the Alhambra Theatre was built in 1913.
This post from the Historic Indianapolis web site has, along with some pictures of the Apollo Theatre, a photo of the Alhambra’s building shortly before it and its neighbors were demolished in 1990.
Gerald, as you are the most frequent contributor to pages for Providence theaters maybe you can solve this puzzle. I found this item in The Moving Picture World of October 21, 1922:
As we don’t have a Palace Theatre listed in Olneyville, I’m puzzled. Are Cinema Treasures' listings missing a theater? Did the magazine get the location wrong, or the name? Is Palace a missing aka for one of the other theaters in the neighborhood? I don’t know what to make of it.In addition to its location outside Providence’s main shopping and theater district, the Capitol had a design issue that probably contributed to the difficulty of operating it as a movie theater. The 1909-1910 Cahn guide describes The Imperial’s seating arrangement as 484 in the orchestra, 388 in the balcony, 40 in boxes, and a whopping 800 in the gallery.
As the stage, though 40 feet deep from footlights to back wall, was only 65 feet between side walls, the whole theater must have been fairly narrow, but the limited seating capacity of the orchestra suggests that the main floor was not very deep, either. The enormous gallery must have been high and steep, and considerably deeper than the main floor, and thus poorly suited for watching a screen set within the 35-foot wide proscenium. The lower seating capacity in the theater’s later years must have resulted from the closing of the gallery, or at least the greater part of it.
I haven’t been able to determine if the firm designed the Uptown Theatre itself, but the Schuster Building was designed by architects Nevin, Wischmeyer & Morgan (Hugh Nevin, Herman Wischmeyer and Frederick Morgan.)
After leaving the firm, Wischmeyer worked on the Louisville Scottish Rite Temple, photos of which can be found on the Internet, so he at least was certainly capable of creating the sort of restrained, elegant auditorium that both the Temple and the Uptown Theatre possess.
The Pima and Maricopa tribes developed the Talking Stick Entertainment District, and must have chosen the name for it. I would assume there is some tribal self-assertion in the choice.
For a couple hundred years the Indians were denigrated or ignored by the dominant culture, but now the tribes have learned how to work the system to their advantage, and we will have to pay attention to them for a change. They have the talking stick now.
Don’t comment unless you are holding the talking stick. It should really be a rule in all theaters (and a cellphone does not count as a talking stick.)
An article about George Bolling, Sr. in the October 13, 2017, issue of The Coalfield Progress says that his father, R. H. Bolling, built four theaters in the region. Another of these was the Coeburn Theatre, opened in 1947 at Coeburn, Virginia.