The Liberty Theatre building was not destroyed by the 2013 fire, though the roof was damaged beyond repair. A permit for the installation of new roof trusses was issued by the city in February, 2014. The city itself paid for emergency repairs to prevent the walls from collapsing. As NoReturn (second comment back) saw the building still standing in 2016, the repairs apparently succeeded. 114 N. 4th Avenue, #B, is currently the office of American Family Insurance, so I would guess the repaired building has been divided into space for at least two offices.
The two year delay in construction following the original announcement of the theater project in 1912 led to a change of architects. This item is from the February 12, 1914, issue of Engineering News:
“Pasco, Wash.—J. E. Doughty, Arch., Pasco, has prepared plans for the construction of the Pasco Playhouse, to be erected on Lewis and Clark Sts. The estimated cost is $300,000.”
The theater was of course between Lewis and Clark Streets, and I doubt if it cost anywhere near the $300,000 the item claimed, but despite the name “Pasco Playhouse” the item surely is about the Cord/Liberty.
Doughty’s involvement in the project is confirmed by this fairly detailed history of the Liberty Theatre written by Sarah LeCompte in 1984. LeCompte doesn’t mention the name Showbox Theatre, but does in the opening paragraph call it the Liberty-Playtime Theatre.
NeonMichael: If I saved a copy it is trapped on my old computer’s hard drive, but I believe the history you linked to is the same one. The Swan probably wouldn’t have shown up in the catalog until 1956, as it was built after the 1955 edition went to press.
However, it might not be in the 1956 catalog either, as about that time the catalog became less comprehensive, dropping its list of independent houses and listing only those that were part of chains. I don’t remember exactly which year they did that, but it was in the 1950s. If the “official” lists of that era were derived from the catalog, then a lot of independent theaters are probably missing.
An advertisement, and the caption of a photo, on the newspaper page rivest266 linked to say that the King Theatre was designed by architect Herbert C. Cayton.
Herbert Cohen Cayton appears to have been fairly well known in his day, but the only other buildings of his design to which I can find references on the Internet are a small craftsman bungalow and the 1934 design of Honolulu’s U.S. Immigration Station, done in collaboration with architect C.W. Dickey.
Loew’s Boston Common 19 was designed by the Rockwell Group. The firm’s founder, David Rockwell, also won the 2016 Tony award for best scenic design of a musical, for “She Loves Me.”
The Grand Theatre was a rebuild of the Grand Opera House which had suffered several fires over its career, the last in 1922. It had been leased since 1910 for vaudeville and pictures by the Soblosky brothers, operators of the Garrick Theatre. A bit of the Grand’s history can be found on this web page.
The Garrick Theatre was in operation prior to 1910 as a vaudeville house. It was owned and operated by the Sablosky family, who dominated the theater business in Norristown for decades.
An item in the April 25, 1950, issue of The Billboard noted that Dave Sablosky had announced his intention of closing the Garrick and Westmar Theatres. Upcoming pictures booked at the two houses would instead be shown at the Ridge Pike Drive-In at Conshohocken.
The January 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Colonial Theatre:
“Great credit is due the management of
the Colonial theater, Main and Arch streets, Norristown, Pa., for the admirable manner in which they handled the situation when several hundred feet of moving picture films in the operator’s booth caught fire and were entirely consumed. The audience was quieted and an exit made in a most orderly manner no one becoming excited and there was absolutely no sign of a panic.”
The March 14 issue of the same publication noted that the Colonial was one of two Norristown movie houses that had been fined for exhibiting a film that had not been approved by the State Board of Censors. Three other houses had been cited but charges against them were dismissed.
This web page from the Lexington History Museum says that the Orpheum opened in 1914 and closed in 1930, and confirms the location as the corner of Main and Limestone Streets. It was a nickelodeon seating about 400.
This web page has a brief history of the Ada Meade Theatre, named for Lexington-born stage actress Ada Meade Saffarans. The house opened as the Hippodrome in 1907. It originally seated 450.
In 1911 an adjacent building was converted into the 260-seat Hipp Annex theatre. In 1913 the Annex was closed and the original theater was rebuilt and expanded to 934 seats. It was renamed the Ada Meade Theatre, opening October 30, 1913.
By the 1920s the house had become a third-run movie theater. After changing hands a number of times, it finally became part of the Schine circuit in 1936. The Ada Meade was closed and demolished in 1954, its site becoming a parking lot.
The Notable Kentucky African Americans Database says this of the Lyric Theatre (about 1/3 of the way down this web page under the heading “Early African American Theaters in Lexington, KY”):
“In 1947, the American Theater Corporation in Indianapolis opened the Lyric Theatre at the corner of Third Street and Elm Tree Lane in Lexington. When the theater opened, it was billed as ‘the nation’s finest colored theater.’ There were movies and live entertainment from greats such as Big Maybelle, the Oreos, Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway, and many others. The Lyric Theater closed in 1963….”
The Orpheum Theatre was not at 404 W. Main Street, which was the location of the Blue Grass Theatre (1907-1910) and the Gem Theatre (1910-1913.) By 1914 404 W. Main had been converted to offices.
An item in the August 29, 1919, issue of the Pars, Kentucky Bourbon News reported that a fire had broken out in the projection booth of the Orpheum Theatre, Main and Limestone Streets, in Lexington. Fire damage was confined to the booth, though the theater suffered some water damage.
For many years the Orpheum was operated by a Mr. J. H. Stamper, Jr. who, as of 1921, also operated the Strand Theatre and the Star Theatre.
According to the Notable African Americans Database at the University of Kentucky (about halfway down this web page), the Blue Grass Theatre, opened in 1907, was in 1910 renamed the Gem Theatre by the new operators, John Clark and Chester Brady, two African American businessmen formerly of Cincinnati.
The original Gem closed sometime in 1913, and the name was moved to the former Lincoln Theatre at 415 W. Main Street. It operated at that location until 1916. The theater at 404 was converted to offices for an insurance company by 1914. The second Gem was no longer listed in the 1916-1917 city directory.
As I was mistaken about Roanoke having converted its street numbering system at some point (see lackey’s comment of July 15, 2012) the address of the Roanoke Theatre should be changed to 14 Campbell Avenue.
I think hdtv might be referring to the Metreon itself. The IMAX web site lists only 17 theaters with laser IMAX in the US and Canada, and 22 more in the rest of the world. I don’t think many of them have screens as big as the Metreon’s, though.
Either Annville had another theater, or the Allen operted under other names than just Hippodrome and Astor. The January 13, 1928, issue of The Film Daily reported that the Blue and White Theatre at Annville had been sold by C. Mauger to William Hissner. Later that year the July 21 issue of the same publication noted that William Hissner had sold the Strand Theatre at Annville to Stanley Goodwin.
The February 24, 1925, issue of the Lebanon Daily News reported that Mr. Mauger had provided his Blue and White Theatre as a location for an annual get together of the Annville Chamber of Commerce. If Hissler’s Annville Strand was the same house as the Blue and White, which seems likely, then the new owner, Goodwin, must have restored the original name, as the Blue and White Theatre is advertised in the Lebanon paper from 1924 through 1929. I’ve found no ads for a Strand at Annville. The paper has ads for a Hippodrome (or Hip) Theatre, but they might be for a house of that name in Lebanon itself, as here was a Hippodrome in operation there as early as 1913.
The Astor Theatre in Annville had RCA Photophone equipment installed in 1931, as noted in the March 31 issue of Motion Picture Times. I haven’t found any references to the Astor earlier than 1931, and no references to the Blue and White later than 1929, so it’s quite possible they were the same house.
The Day & Night Bank was at 116 Campbell Ave. West. I haven’t been able to find the address of the Federal Bakery, but the Princess must have been in one or the other of the storefronts adjacent to the bank.
The permit to build a new theater in Neosho in 1944 was probably expedited by the fact that there was a large military training facility, Camp Crowder, nearby. Towns with bases nearby were usually given priority. Camp Crowder had its own theater, but the Army was undoubtedly mindful of the impact that large numbers of soldiers on passes had on theaters in nearby towns. In most places even a permit to remodel an existing building into a theater was hard to come by.
The Emelin Theatre was equipped with a projection booth from the time of its opening in 1972. In its original configuration, as designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, the auditorium was a flexible space with 180 fixed and 200 moveable seats, and could be arranged as a conventional theater, a thrust stage theater, or an arena theater.
The firm founded in 1967 by Hugh Hardy, Malcolm Holzman, and Norman Pfeiffer designed many performing arts facilites, as well as the American Film Institute Theatre and headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The introduction to this theater should note that the Masque Theatre opened as a legitimate house in 1926 and was converted to a cinema as the Vagabond in 1950.
It’s a very odd name indeed, but even odder is that there was another theater of the same name, located in Detroit. I’ve never discovered the origin of the name (it’s probably just “come see” as in come see the movie), or if there was any connection between the two houses, but comme ci, comme ça.
The Liberty Theatre building was not destroyed by the 2013 fire, though the roof was damaged beyond repair. A permit for the installation of new roof trusses was issued by the city in February, 2014. The city itself paid for emergency repairs to prevent the walls from collapsing. As NoReturn (second comment back) saw the building still standing in 2016, the repairs apparently succeeded. 114 N. 4th Avenue, #B, is currently the office of American Family Insurance, so I would guess the repaired building has been divided into space for at least two offices.
The two year delay in construction following the original announcement of the theater project in 1912 led to a change of architects. This item is from the February 12, 1914, issue of Engineering News:
The theater was of course between Lewis and Clark Streets, and I doubt if it cost anywhere near the $300,000 the item claimed, but despite the name “Pasco Playhouse” the item surely is about the Cord/Liberty.Doughty’s involvement in the project is confirmed by this fairly detailed history of the Liberty Theatre written by Sarah LeCompte in 1984. LeCompte doesn’t mention the name Showbox Theatre, but does in the opening paragraph call it the Liberty-Playtime Theatre.
The Uptown Theatre is now the home of a church with the rather unchurch-like name Eastlake Tri-Cities. Here is the map from their web site.
NeonMichael: If I saved a copy it is trapped on my old computer’s hard drive, but I believe the history you linked to is the same one. The Swan probably wouldn’t have shown up in the catalog until 1956, as it was built after the 1955 edition went to press.
However, it might not be in the 1956 catalog either, as about that time the catalog became less comprehensive, dropping its list of independent houses and listing only those that were part of chains. I don’t remember exactly which year they did that, but it was in the 1950s. If the “official” lists of that era were derived from the catalog, then a lot of independent theaters are probably missing.
Might be listed as CKH Theatre, as on this web page, which gives a number (I haven’t tried it to see if it works.)
An advertisement, and the caption of a photo, on the newspaper page rivest266 linked to say that the King Theatre was designed by architect Herbert C. Cayton.
Herbert Cohen Cayton appears to have been fairly well known in his day, but the only other buildings of his design to which I can find references on the Internet are a small craftsman bungalow and the 1934 design of Honolulu’s U.S. Immigration Station, done in collaboration with architect C.W. Dickey.
Loew’s Boston Common 19 was designed by the Rockwell Group. The firm’s founder, David Rockwell, also won the 2016 Tony award for best scenic design of a musical, for “She Loves Me.”
There is no Main Street in Barberton today.
The Grand Theatre was a rebuild of the Grand Opera House which had suffered several fires over its career, the last in 1922. It had been leased since 1910 for vaudeville and pictures by the Soblosky brothers, operators of the Garrick Theatre. A bit of the Grand’s history can be found on this web page.
Thumbnails of two interior photos of the Garrick can be seen on this page at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
The Garrick Theatre was in operation prior to 1910 as a vaudeville house. It was owned and operated by the Sablosky family, who dominated the theater business in Norristown for decades.
An item in the April 25, 1950, issue of The Billboard noted that Dave Sablosky had announced his intention of closing the Garrick and Westmar Theatres. Upcoming pictures booked at the two houses would instead be shown at the Ridge Pike Drive-In at Conshohocken.
The January 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Colonial Theatre:
The March 14 issue of the same publication noted that the Colonial was one of two Norristown movie houses that had been fined for exhibiting a film that had not been approved by the State Board of Censors. Three other houses had been cited but charges against them were dismissed.This web page from the Lexington History Museum says that the Orpheum opened in 1914 and closed in 1930, and confirms the location as the corner of Main and Limestone Streets. It was a nickelodeon seating about 400.
This web page has a brief history of the Ada Meade Theatre, named for Lexington-born stage actress Ada Meade Saffarans. The house opened as the Hippodrome in 1907. It originally seated 450.
In 1911 an adjacent building was converted into the 260-seat Hipp Annex theatre. In 1913 the Annex was closed and the original theater was rebuilt and expanded to 934 seats. It was renamed the Ada Meade Theatre, opening October 30, 1913.
By the 1920s the house had become a third-run movie theater. After changing hands a number of times, it finally became part of the Schine circuit in 1936. The Ada Meade was closed and demolished in 1954, its site becoming a parking lot.
The Notable Kentucky African Americans Database says this of the Lyric Theatre (about 1/3 of the way down this web page under the heading “Early African American Theaters in Lexington, KY”):
The Orpheum Theatre was not at 404 W. Main Street, which was the location of the Blue Grass Theatre (1907-1910) and the Gem Theatre (1910-1913.) By 1914 404 W. Main had been converted to offices.
An item in the August 29, 1919, issue of the Pars, Kentucky Bourbon News reported that a fire had broken out in the projection booth of the Orpheum Theatre, Main and Limestone Streets, in Lexington. Fire damage was confined to the booth, though the theater suffered some water damage.
For many years the Orpheum was operated by a Mr. J. H. Stamper, Jr. who, as of 1921, also operated the Strand Theatre and the Star Theatre.
According to the Notable African Americans Database at the University of Kentucky (about halfway down this web page), the Blue Grass Theatre, opened in 1907, was in 1910 renamed the Gem Theatre by the new operators, John Clark and Chester Brady, two African American businessmen formerly of Cincinnati.
The original Gem closed sometime in 1913, and the name was moved to the former Lincoln Theatre at 415 W. Main Street. It operated at that location until 1916. The theater at 404 was converted to offices for an insurance company by 1914. The second Gem was no longer listed in the 1916-1917 city directory.
As I was mistaken about Roanoke having converted its street numbering system at some point (see lackey’s comment of July 15, 2012) the address of the Roanoke Theatre should be changed to 14 Campbell Avenue.
I think hdtv might be referring to the Metreon itself. The IMAX web site lists only 17 theaters with laser IMAX in the US and Canada, and 22 more in the rest of the world. I don’t think many of them have screens as big as the Metreon’s, though.
Either Annville had another theater, or the Allen operted under other names than just Hippodrome and Astor. The January 13, 1928, issue of The Film Daily reported that the Blue and White Theatre at Annville had been sold by C. Mauger to William Hissner. Later that year the July 21 issue of the same publication noted that William Hissner had sold the Strand Theatre at Annville to Stanley Goodwin.
The February 24, 1925, issue of the Lebanon Daily News reported that Mr. Mauger had provided his Blue and White Theatre as a location for an annual get together of the Annville Chamber of Commerce. If Hissler’s Annville Strand was the same house as the Blue and White, which seems likely, then the new owner, Goodwin, must have restored the original name, as the Blue and White Theatre is advertised in the Lebanon paper from 1924 through 1929. I’ve found no ads for a Strand at Annville. The paper has ads for a Hippodrome (or Hip) Theatre, but they might be for a house of that name in Lebanon itself, as here was a Hippodrome in operation there as early as 1913.
The Astor Theatre in Annville had RCA Photophone equipment installed in 1931, as noted in the March 31 issue of Motion Picture Times. I haven’t found any references to the Astor earlier than 1931, and no references to the Blue and White later than 1929, so it’s quite possible they were the same house.
The Day & Night Bank was at 116 Campbell Ave. West. I haven’t been able to find the address of the Federal Bakery, but the Princess must have been in one or the other of the storefronts adjacent to the bank.
The permit to build a new theater in Neosho in 1944 was probably expedited by the fact that there was a large military training facility, Camp Crowder, nearby. Towns with bases nearby were usually given priority. Camp Crowder had its own theater, but the Army was undoubtedly mindful of the impact that large numbers of soldiers on passes had on theaters in nearby towns. In most places even a permit to remodel an existing building into a theater was hard to come by.
Australian publisher Images Publishing Group has an entire book about theaters designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer (Google Books preview.)
The Emelin Theatre was equipped with a projection booth from the time of its opening in 1972. In its original configuration, as designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, the auditorium was a flexible space with 180 fixed and 200 moveable seats, and could be arranged as a conventional theater, a thrust stage theater, or an arena theater.
The firm founded in 1967 by Hugh Hardy, Malcolm Holzman, and Norman Pfeiffer designed many performing arts facilites, as well as the American Film Institute Theatre and headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The introduction to this theater should note that the Masque Theatre opened as a legitimate house in 1926 and was converted to a cinema as the Vagabond in 1950.
It’s a very odd name indeed, but even odder is that there was another theater of the same name, located in Detroit. I’ve never discovered the origin of the name (it’s probably just “come see” as in come see the movie), or if there was any connection between the two houses, but comme ci, comme ça.