The Matsonian Theatre was in a different building than the Isis. Articles in The Caldwell News prior to the opening of the new house called it the Isis Theatre, but an item in the Friday, February 14, 1930, issue of the paper, which also carried an article about the opening the previous Monday (Feb. 9) announced a contest to name the new theater. Another front page article said that the Isis Theatre’s former location in the Barnett Building was being remodeled to accommodate a Piggly Wiggly grocery store.
An item in a January issue of the paper had said that Mrs. C.W. Matson, who had taken over operation of the Isis Theatre, had leased a building formerly occupied by a Buick dealership and would remodel it as a new home for the theater. The opening of the new house also marked the debut of talking pictures in Caldwell.
This weblog post, which features some splendid photos of the terra cotta detail of the Clermont’s facade, says that the facade is to be the only part of the building saved. A seven-story building will replace the theater itself.
The article says that the house opened in 1909 as the Garibaldi Theatre, closed in 1911, and reopened as the Clermont, which it remained until closing in 1945.
Thanks, John. I was sure we had the wrong address for the theater.
The portion of the building that housed the theater entrance must have been that part that now has a storefront with red brick on it. 6162 is the most likely address.
The captioned version of the photo uploaded by wsasser says: “From 1945 to 1954, the Norview movie theater was one of the main attractions of Sewells Point Road.” Those years of operation suggest that the house never converted to CinemaScope.
I can’t read the name of the first movie on the marquee in the photo, but the second feature, West of Sonora, was released in March, 1948, according to IMDB. “B” westerns such as that had a short shelf life, so that’s probably the year the photo was taken.
The Avenue was being operated by Milwaukee movie theater pioneer Henry Trinz when it was mentioned in the November 4, 1916, issue of Motography, which described the house as a “Neighborhood theater, catering to a middle class.”
The Time Community Theatre’s web site has been reconfigured and our link is dead. This URL works.
The web site appears to be infrequently updated, and lists no events. People looking for event scheduling would do better to check the theater’s Facebook page.
The Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society’s brief entry for the Imperial Theatre says only that it had a Smith organ installed in 1924. The organ’s fate is unknown.
The September 1, 1917, issue of Motography had this brief item about the Imperial:
“Miss Myrtle Stedman has been appearing at various picture theaters along an itinerary that was mapped out for her some time ago. The Imperial Theater at Great Falls, Montana, is the last picture institution to show its patrons this celebrated actress in the flesh and on the screen for the same dime. Miss Stedman’s musical comedy experience make her an excellent entertainer on the stage as well as on celluloid.”
Thanks for the map, Ron. The L.A. library now has a directory for 1916, and it lists the Fairyland at 1126 W. 24th. As the lot next door on the map is 1128, 1126 must have been the same lot the 1922 theater is on. And as the County Assessor’s records say the building at 1122 was built in 1921, it must have been a replacement for the original Fairyland on the same site.
The original Fairyland was probably a storefront nickelodeon, opened in 1915 and demolished in 1920 or 1921. The rebuilt Fairyland was the house now listed at CT as the Velaslavasay Panorama.
A notice that Sidney E. Aftel and Edward Thal had formed a partnership was published in the March 6, 1913, issue of The Iron Trade Review. The pair had worked together at least once previously, though. The July 31, 1912, issue of The American Architect noted that they had designed a three-story Toledo building to be erected for The Jewish Educational League. Aftel and Thal had separate offices at that time. I can’t find any other pre-1913 collaborations. It’s likely that the Columbia Theatre was designed solely by Aftel.
I’ve heard nothing about the status of the hologram project at the Ritz, nor can I find anything new about it on the Internet. I suspect that the technology is not advancing as rapidly as its promoters hoped. It might be along time before the Ritz opens with its new format, if it ever does.
Here is an excerpt from an article by Christine U'Ren for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog:
“‘Miss Fan Bourke, who will be remembered by Mutual fans as a particularly attractive member of the Thanhouser stock company, has changed her vocation,’ wrote Mutual’s magazine Reel Life [Jan. 8, 1916]. ‘She is now running a "votes for women” motion picture theater, the Princess, in New Rochelle, N. Y.…’ Bourke managed the theater as a neighborhood concern with a focus on films suitable for families. With pianist ‘Miss Julia Miller, also a former Thanhouser actress,’ Bourke hosted special events and gave personal appearances—local patrons enjoyed comparing the onscreen Miss Bourke with the real-life version.
“‘The interest of suffragists was won by the theatre at election time. Miss Bourke had the lobby of her theatre hung in suffrage colors and banners.
“‘…in two months’ time she has worked the Princess up from a house about to be closed to one in which the 500 seats are filled every evening.‘”
The Thanhouser studio was located in New Rochelle. Ms. U'Ren’s article can be found at this link, though the excerpt quoted here is the only part pertaining to the Princess.
Since 1978, when the main floor of the Comerford Theatre was converted into a mini-mall, the Ritz has occupied only the former theater’s balcony, so the listed seating capacity of 1,600 is vastly overstated.
Michael Comrford had bought an interest in the Poli Theatres in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in 1924, but it was when he formed a partnership with Paramount-Publix in 1930 that the Poli was renamed the Ritz, following a renovation.
An article in the May 31, 2009, issue of the Scranton Times-Tribune says that the far more extensive remodeling (almost a complete rebuilding) creating the theater as it existed until 1978 didn’t take place until 1937. This project involved the removal of the Poli’s gallery, the rebuilding of the balcony, an enlargement of the stage, and the construction of the new Art Deco front of glazed tiles. The reopening of the house as the Comerford Theatre took place on September 16, 1937.
The sphinx stair decoration was in the Broadway entrance to the building. The building it was in is still standing, but the entrance was closed in 1929 and the space converted to a retail store. I have no idea what became of that sphinx.
The Story Theater’s website is unreachable with the current link. Try this one. No movies or other events are currently scheduled. That might be due to the winter weather, but I also suspect that the house has not yet been able to make the transition to digital equipment, a heavy investment for a house with an admission price of only $3.00.
The newspaper page rivest266 linked to features a courtesy ad placed by architect Roy A. Benjamin, which indicates that he designed this house for E. J. Sparks.
Here is the Indiana Memory Project’s postcard image of the Liberty Theatre, probably from the 1920s.
Page 71 of Terre Haute & Vigo County in Vintage Postcards, by Dorothy W. Jerse and John R. Becker (Google Books preview) has a photo of the Varieties Theatre (built 1907) and a drawing of the Liberty, which “…opened soon after World War I….” The book’s copyright is 2001 and it says that the structure was housing the Star-Tribune presses, so the demolition of the building took place in this century.
The Beverly was opened by GKC Theaters in December, 1995, as a 12 screen house. It was expanded to 18 screens in 1999. Carmike acquired the venue in 2005. The six-screen addition was demolished in 2012 so that construction on the replacement project could begin, but the original 12 screen theater was kept operating until mid-February, 2013.
The Park Theater has a Facebook page. The most recent event posted was a concert on April 20, 2012. The most recent update to the page is from December 8, 2016. This article says that the project will receive a $600,000 grant from the State of New York.
The Uptown Theatre was at 120 S. Merrill Avenue. It opened in 1930 as the Rex Theatre. Until that year, the building at 120-122 S. Merrill had supported a wood-framed second floor which housed the Glendive Opera House, a 200-seat venue that had spent its last years as a speakeasy. This page from the Glendive Ranger-Review web site has a brief history of the building. Unfortunately, the slide show that originally accompanied it is no longer displayed.
So far I’ve been unable to find any references to a Palace Theatre at Salamanca in the trade journals. It might have been a short-lived storefront house, or might have had a name change.
The January 6, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World mentions a small fire at the Palm Garden Theatre in Salamanca. And later that same year Salamanca had a house called the Strand Theatre, operated by Reverend H. E. Robbins, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. A letter from Robbins was published in the December 8, 1917, issue of Motography. The Strand was mentioned in the trades at least as late as 1923.
The Strand was remodeled in 1917, as noted in the July 14 issue of The American Contractor:
:“Theater, Store, Office & Hall (alt.): 100x112. Starr Lane & Centre St.. Jamaica Plain dist. Archt. E. R. B. Chapman, 44 Bromfleld St., Boston, & 119 Franklin St., Stoneham, Mass. Owner F. J. Horgan, Strand Theater, Jamaica Plain. Redrawing plans.”
Judging from mentions in trade journals and books of the period, E. R. B. Chapman was fairly busy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but he seems not to be remembered today.
The Matsonian Theatre was in a different building than the Isis. Articles in The Caldwell News prior to the opening of the new house called it the Isis Theatre, but an item in the Friday, February 14, 1930, issue of the paper, which also carried an article about the opening the previous Monday (Feb. 9) announced a contest to name the new theater. Another front page article said that the Isis Theatre’s former location in the Barnett Building was being remodeled to accommodate a Piggly Wiggly grocery store.
An item in a January issue of the paper had said that Mrs. C.W. Matson, who had taken over operation of the Isis Theatre, had leased a building formerly occupied by a Buick dealership and would remodel it as a new home for the theater. The opening of the new house also marked the debut of talking pictures in Caldwell.
This weblog post, which features some splendid photos of the terra cotta detail of the Clermont’s facade, says that the facade is to be the only part of the building saved. A seven-story building will replace the theater itself.
The article says that the house opened in 1909 as the Garibaldi Theatre, closed in 1911, and reopened as the Clermont, which it remained until closing in 1945.
Thanks, John. I was sure we had the wrong address for the theater.
The portion of the building that housed the theater entrance must have been that part that now has a storefront with red brick on it. 6162 is the most likely address.
The captioned version of the photo uploaded by wsasser says: “From 1945 to 1954, the Norview movie theater was one of the main attractions of Sewells Point Road.” Those years of operation suggest that the house never converted to CinemaScope.
I can’t read the name of the first movie on the marquee in the photo, but the second feature, West of Sonora, was released in March, 1948, according to IMDB. “B” westerns such as that had a short shelf life, so that’s probably the year the photo was taken.
The Avenue was being operated by Milwaukee movie theater pioneer Henry Trinz when it was mentioned in the November 4, 1916, issue of Motography, which described the house as a “Neighborhood theater, catering to a middle class.”
The principals of Wright, Porteous & Lowe were George Caleb Wright, his son William Caleb Wright, Alfred John Porteous, and C. Charles Lowe, Jr.
davidcoppock: Muncie is the county seat of Delaware County, Indiana.
The Time Community Theatre’s web site has been reconfigured and our link is dead. This URL works.
The web site appears to be infrequently updated, and lists no events. People looking for event scheduling would do better to check the theater’s Facebook page.
The Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society’s brief entry for the Imperial Theatre says only that it had a Smith organ installed in 1924. The organ’s fate is unknown.
The September 1, 1917, issue of Motography had this brief item about the Imperial:
Thanks for the map, Ron. The L.A. library now has a directory for 1916, and it lists the Fairyland at 1126 W. 24th. As the lot next door on the map is 1128, 1126 must have been the same lot the 1922 theater is on. And as the County Assessor’s records say the building at 1122 was built in 1921, it must have been a replacement for the original Fairyland on the same site.
The original Fairyland was probably a storefront nickelodeon, opened in 1915 and demolished in 1920 or 1921. The rebuilt Fairyland was the house now listed at CT as the Velaslavasay Panorama.
A notice that Sidney E. Aftel and Edward Thal had formed a partnership was published in the March 6, 1913, issue of The Iron Trade Review. The pair had worked together at least once previously, though. The July 31, 1912, issue of The American Architect noted that they had designed a three-story Toledo building to be erected for The Jewish Educational League. Aftel and Thal had separate offices at that time. I can’t find any other pre-1913 collaborations. It’s likely that the Columbia Theatre was designed solely by Aftel.
I’ve heard nothing about the status of the hologram project at the Ritz, nor can I find anything new about it on the Internet. I suspect that the technology is not advancing as rapidly as its promoters hoped. It might be along time before the Ritz opens with its new format, if it ever does.
Here is an excerpt from an article by Christine U'Ren for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog:
The Thanhouser studio was located in New Rochelle. Ms. U'Ren’s article can be found at this link, though the excerpt quoted here is the only part pertaining to the Princess.Since 1978, when the main floor of the Comerford Theatre was converted into a mini-mall, the Ritz has occupied only the former theater’s balcony, so the listed seating capacity of 1,600 is vastly overstated.
Michael Comrford had bought an interest in the Poli Theatres in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in 1924, but it was when he formed a partnership with Paramount-Publix in 1930 that the Poli was renamed the Ritz, following a renovation.
An article in the May 31, 2009, issue of the Scranton Times-Tribune says that the far more extensive remodeling (almost a complete rebuilding) creating the theater as it existed until 1978 didn’t take place until 1937. This project involved the removal of the Poli’s gallery, the rebuilding of the balcony, an enlargement of the stage, and the construction of the new Art Deco front of glazed tiles. The reopening of the house as the Comerford Theatre took place on September 16, 1937.
Here’s a handy link to the comment DavidZornig refers to.
That would be Harry Meginnis and Edward G. Schaumberg (firm’s mini-bio.)
The sphinx stair decoration was in the Broadway entrance to the building. The building it was in is still standing, but the entrance was closed in 1929 and the space converted to a retail store. I have no idea what became of that sphinx.
The Story Theater’s website is unreachable with the current link. Try this one. No movies or other events are currently scheduled. That might be due to the winter weather, but I also suspect that the house has not yet been able to make the transition to digital equipment, a heavy investment for a house with an admission price of only $3.00.
The newspaper page rivest266 linked to features a courtesy ad placed by architect Roy A. Benjamin, which indicates that he designed this house for E. J. Sparks.
Here is the Indiana Memory Project’s postcard image of the Liberty Theatre, probably from the 1920s.
Page 71 of Terre Haute & Vigo County in Vintage Postcards, by Dorothy W. Jerse and John R. Becker (Google Books preview) has a photo of the Varieties Theatre (built 1907) and a drawing of the Liberty, which “…opened soon after World War I….” The book’s copyright is 2001 and it says that the structure was housing the Star-Tribune presses, so the demolition of the building took place in this century.
The Beverly was opened by GKC Theaters in December, 1995, as a 12 screen house. It was expanded to 18 screens in 1999. Carmike acquired the venue in 2005. The six-screen addition was demolished in 2012 so that construction on the replacement project could begin, but the original 12 screen theater was kept operating until mid-February, 2013.
Linkrot repair: Artech Design Group’s page about the Majestic is now at this link.
The Park Theater has a Facebook page. The most recent event posted was a concert on April 20, 2012. The most recent update to the page is from December 8, 2016. This article says that the project will receive a $600,000 grant from the State of New York.
The Uptown Theatre was at 120 S. Merrill Avenue. It opened in 1930 as the Rex Theatre. Until that year, the building at 120-122 S. Merrill had supported a wood-framed second floor which housed the Glendive Opera House, a 200-seat venue that had spent its last years as a speakeasy. This page from the Glendive Ranger-Review web site has a brief history of the building. Unfortunately, the slide show that originally accompanied it is no longer displayed.
So far I’ve been unable to find any references to a Palace Theatre at Salamanca in the trade journals. It might have been a short-lived storefront house, or might have had a name change.
The January 6, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World mentions a small fire at the Palm Garden Theatre in Salamanca. And later that same year Salamanca had a house called the Strand Theatre, operated by Reverend H. E. Robbins, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. A letter from Robbins was published in the December 8, 1917, issue of Motography. The Strand was mentioned in the trades at least as late as 1923.
The Strand was remodeled in 1917, as noted in the July 14 issue of The American Contractor:
Judging from mentions in trade journals and books of the period, E. R. B. Chapman was fairly busy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but he seems not to be remembered today.