The DuBois Theatre was added to the venerable Commercial Hotel building in 1937. At some point the hostelry was renamed the General Pershing Hotel, and it appears that the theater shared the new name briefly before being renamed the Playhouse. So far nothing (ads, newspaper articles) has surface showing the Pershing Theatre name, so we don’t know the exact period when the name was used.
Here is an item about the Pastime Theatre from the May 12, 1923, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“A new organ has been installed in the
Pastime Theatre at Lewistown, Pa., it supplants the piano which Manager Ikeberney used during the fifteen years of his proprietorship.”
The NRHP Registration Form for the Liberty Theatre notes that the 1939 Streamline Modern remodeling replacing Osterman & Siebert’s original interior was designed by architect Bjarne Moe.
Thanks for the update, Nunzio. I’ve found the Regal mentioned in 1929, 1937, and 1946. The earliest mention of the State I’ve found was published in 1946, but concerned the arrival of a new assistant manager at the house in 1940.
A 1937 ad reveals that the Rowland and the Regal were then both operated by Warner Bros., and the 1946 item indicates that the State was a Warner house as well. As the State was not included in Warner’s 1937 ad, it might have been either built or taken over by the chain between 1937 and 1940.
I’ve also come across an item mentioning a movie house called the Doris Theatre operating in Wilkinsburg in 1916. The only earlier Wilkinsburg theaters I’ve found mentioned in the trade publications were the Rowland, 1911, and the Colonial, which was in operation by 1910.
This item from the February 12, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World concerns a change of ownership at the Starland Theatre:
“Meridian Co. Buys the Starland.
“ANDERSON, IND.—The Starland, the largest photoplay theater in Anderson, was purchased from E. E. Martin, of Cleveland, Ohio, by the Meridian Amusement Company, and the new management took charge on January 16th. The Meridian Theater of this city and the Fisher Opera House, at Danville, Ill., are also controlled by this company. The company is composed of Fort Wayne, Ind., and Anderson capital, including G. H. Heine, Judge W. J. Vesey, Arthur Beuke, W. J. Scheiman and F. G. Heine, of Fort Wayne, and J. G. Heller, of this city. Mr. Heller, who is an able manager, now has charge of both of the local theatres. The purchase price is named as $15,000. The seating capacity of the Starland is 547. Some new improvements are being made, including a change in the heating system and the Installation of glass storm fronts. The lobby poster display will be augmented by the installation of some permanent display attachments. The policy of the theatre will include Fox, Metro and Triangle pictures. The Meridian will use Paramount, World and Equitable and both houses will use Mutual Masterpictures. Both houses will open on Sundays, from 1:20 to 7:30 P. M.
“Elmer Howell, who managed , the Starland, will leave. He will be associated with an enterprise in another city in Indiana. The music will be in charge of J. Russell-Robinson Bros.-John C, and they will have charge of the music at both houses. The Meridian company has met with signal success since Mr. Heller has had charge of the company’s interests here and the new accession is no doubt partly due to Mr. Heller’s foresight and business acumen.”
This page about Anderson’s early movie theaters, from the Madison County Historical Society, says that the Meridian Theatre at 933 Meridian Street was one of several movie houses that opened during the period from 1912 to 1918. It also says that after the first world war, the Meridian Theatre moved to a new location at 1035 Meridian Street.
The first Meridian Theatre was in operation by 1916, when the February 12 issue of The Moving Picture World ran this item:
“Meridian Co. Buys the Starland.
“ANDERSON, IND.—The Starland, the largest photoplay theater in Anderson, was purchased from E. E. Martin, of Cleveland, Ohio, by the Meridian Amusement Company, and the new management took charge on January 16th. The Meridian Theater of this city and the Fisher Opera House, at Danville, Ill., are also controlled by this company. The company is composed of Fort Wayne, Ind., and Anderson capital, including G. H. Heine, Judge W. J. Vesey, Arthur Beuke, W. J. Scheiman and F. G. Heine, of Fort Wayne, and J. G. Heller, of this city. Mr. Heller, who is an able manager, now has charge of both of the local theatres.”
There is a bit more, but it mostly concerns the Starland Theatre, so I’ll post it to the Times Theatre (formerly the Starland) page.
The historic address of the Bijou Grand was 53 E. Main Street, but that number is now used for part of the Whiteside Building, a Victorian office and retail block with an ornate cast iron front, part of which can be seen at the left edge of the vintage photo of the Bijou Grand. The Whiteside’s historic address was 47 and 47 & ½ E. Main.
The modern address of the Bijou Grand is most likely 57 E. Main, most recently used for a restaurant called the Coffee Connection Cafe. The tiled pent roof seen in the old photo is now gone, but I suspect that this is the same building the Bijou Grand Theatre was in and it has been given a common front with the adjacent store building on the corner of Colville Street. Satellite view shows that, despite the unified front, the buildings have a masonry wall between them.
The Ghost sign David uploaded advertised the Tower Theatre “Corner of 8th and Broadway,” which was renamed the Newsreel Theatre in 1949 and kept that name until 1965. But I wonder if the sign might have originally been painted earlier to advertise the Globe when it was called the Newsreel (through most of the 1940s,) and the part of the sign giving the location was later repainted to reflect the change?
The globe decorating the Globe’s marquee was installed, along with the triangular marquee itself, during the period when the house was showing “news of the world,” but it probably suggested the new name of the theater when the newsreel operation was moved to the Tower in 1949.
I’m not sure if my memory is accurate at this late date, but I have a vague impression of having seen the globe on the marquee actually revolving. This probably would have been around 1950 or so, if I actually did see it. There are historic photos of the house in which the globe displays parts of the world other than the Americas. In this 1940s photo on display at the Globe Theatre page of Bill Counter’s “Downtown Los Angeles Movie Theatres” web site, the globe is showing Africa and the near east, with the Red Sea easily identifiable.
I don’t know how reliable this page is (it is mostly about Ardmore Army Air Field during WWII,) but here is something it says:
“Hershel Gilliam’s Roxy theater in Ardmore has fire. February 3, 1943. Fast Forward Note: The theater was rebuilt and renamed Globe theater by a contestant that submitted the name of the English theater where Shakespeare performed.”
In the current Google street view 7 E. Main Street is a freshly graded dirt lot between a parking lot and an old brick building. It looks like the Globe Theatre building was demolished not long before the picture was taken.
Jack Theakston’s comment notes that the side of the Sherman Theatre was along Water Street, so the address Paint Street and Water Street should fetch the right location on Google Maps.
Google Maps is unable to find this location whether one uses the old address of 19 Pruden Street or the modern address of 19 Chatham Hall Circle. I’ve adjusted the street view to the proper location, but the pin icon is quite some distance north of the theater’s actual site.
This web page has a photo tour of historic buildings on Chatham’s S. Main Street. The page doesn’t give the names of the theaters, but indicates only two buildings served as movie houses. The theater at 26 S. Main, according to the accompanying text, moved to a quonset style building on Pruden Street, which means it was probably the location of the Ritz Theatre.
The other former theater building, at 15 S. Main, is thus the most likely candidate to have been the Cyril Theatre. It is currently occupied by a restaurant. I’ve looked through all the pages on the photo tour and no other buildings except the Chatham Theatre on Pruden Street are listed as ever having been movie theaters.
This web page has a tour of historic buildings on Chatham’s Main Street, and notes that two of them— 15 S. Main and 26 S. Main— have served as movie theaters. The text for the building at 26 S. Main says:
“After this building’s completion in 1928, it served as a movie theatre, until the establishment moved to the large quonset steel building on Pruden Street. Then it was occupied by the A&P Grocery for many years. It is now owned by Henry Hurt and is the home of his Shadetree Rare Books.”
If the original Ritz/Chatham Theatre was replaced by a Chatham Theatre in a quonset style building, then it was most likely the house at 26 S. Main.
An advertisement for the Cozy Theatre in the May 10, 1918, issue of The Snyder Signal announced that the house would open that day with the five-reel feature The Avenging Trail, featuring Harold Lockwood.
However, issues of the paper from 1917 mention a house called the Cosy Theatre. I don’t know if it was the same house, reopened with a new spelling for the name in 1918 or not. In 1916, there were ads for a house called the Reel Theatre. I don’t find it mentioned later than 1916.
The Cozy was equipped to present stage productions as well as movies. The December 17, 1920, issue of the Signal said that the Hurton Players had been presenting “…some high class shows….” all week, and would be moving on to Colorado following their final performance at the Cozy on Saturday night.
The December 16, 1921, issue of the Signal noted that T. L. Lollar had purchased the Cozy that week and had moved his family to Snyder. The sale was also noted in the January 6, 1922, issue of The Film Daily. Lollar went on to operate several other theaters in Snyder. The web site of The Ritz Community Theater also notes that Lollar bought the Ritz “…around 1921 when it was known as the Cozy Theater.”
The Burley Theatre was probably opened before the end of 1945, or in early 1946 at the latest. This one-line item from the October 13, 1945, issue of Showmen’s Trade Review is probably about the Burley: “Phil Chakeres, Springfield, Ohio, has started work on his new theatre at Shelbyville, Ky.” Chakeres' other house in Shelbyville, the Shelby Theatre, had recently completed a $5,000 remodeling, according to the October 5 issue of The Film Daily.
I’ve found references to the Shelby Theatre from 1937, so the name change definitely predated 1945. The photos of the Shelby’s facade look like late-deco, early-streamlined style, so the 1934 name change claimed by Nancy Hill, cited in my earlier comment, seems a likely time for that facade to have been built. It would have been decidedly old fashioned by 1947, when Boxoffice said the house had opened following a fire in 1945.
I’ve been unable to find the Boxoffice item about the rebuilding that was cited by kencmcintyre in the first comment on this house, but a January 12, 1946, item in Showmen’s Trade Review mentions the fire:
“Word comes from Shelbyville, Ky., that the damage caused to the Shelby Theatre and adjoining buildings in the recent fire there, will
aggregate $75,000. The theatre was just a year
old.”
The claim of the house being a year old was surely an error, considering an item from the October 5 issue of The Film Daily, which said: “The Chakeres circuit has just completed remodeling of the Shelby Theater, Shelbyville, Ky., at a cost of 5,000….” The remodeling, along with the fact that Chakeres actually did have a new theater under construction in Shalbyville in the fall of 1945, probably contributed to the magazine’s confusion. The new Chakeres house was the Burley, a few doors up the block from the Shelby.
It would be interesting to know if this house was still in operation in 1916, when the September 16 issue of The Moving Picture World published this item about the likely fate of Shelbyville’s upper-floor theaters:
“May Close Second Story Theaters.
“Shelbyville, Ky.—From present indications it looks very much as though Brown’s theater, formerly operated by the late R. M. Brown, will shortly be closed. Following the recent death of Mr. Brown the executors, who had announced that the theater would be sold at public auction, leased the theater to Ivory Ethington for one year, with the privilege of seven additional years. At a meeting of the city council a few nights later a committee composed of City Attorney Barrickman and Councilmen B. A. Logan and W. A. McGrath, was appointed to prepare an ordinance which shall prevent the establishment or operation of moving picture theaters excepting on the first floor. The Brown theater is on the second floor and may have to take up quarters elsewhere.”
The same issue of the magazine mentioned a house at Shelbyville called the Music Hall, but with no details. The opera house might have been one or the other of those theaters.
Ivory Ethington, mentioned in the article, later operated the Bon Ton Theatre, later renamed the Shelby Theatre.
The August 21, 1915, issue of MPW also mentioned Brown’s Theatre, along with a new Shelbyville house called the Green Dragon Theatre. Shelbyville also once had houses called the Majestic Theatre and the Strand Theatre.
The correct address of the Shelby Theatre was 610 Main Street, according to an article in the July 10, 2013, issue of the Sentinel-News (page 13 of this PDF.) The article quotes local historian Nancy Hill:
“‘That’s when I started to realize that I’d lived here all my life and I suddenly wanted to know more about all the places I’d grown up with,’ she said. ‘Like the old Smith-McKinney drug store, where my family shopped and got our medicine, and like this building here,’ she said, pointing to a photo of an old building of 610 Main St. she had pulled out of her collection. ‘The original structure was the old public stable, it was built in 1903, and then in 1920 it was the BonTon Theater and in 1934, it was changed to the Shelby Theater,’ she said. ‘When I was growing up, that’s where I used to go to the movies.’”
“The theater went out in 1968, Hill said, and the last business to occupy the building was Computer Hawks, which moved after the fire where it suffered extensive smoke damage in March, and 612, 616 and 618 Main Street were destroyed.”
The building is currently occupied by a clothing store called The Tipsy Gypsy.
Google Maps shows 4759 Sunnyslope Dr. as a house in a rustic residential neighborhood, so it’s unlikely there’s a theater there. It’s just misinformation on the Internet, again.
Scroll down a bit on this web page to read a brief article about Owingsville’s Majestic Theatre. It was located at the corner of present day South Court Street and Slate Avenue, fronting on Court Street. It opened in 1922 and closed in 1982.
American Classic Images has two photos of the Majestic after it was converted into a furniture store: from 1985 and from 1986. A modern brick building with a gabled roof now sits on the theater’s site.
The Strand Theatre at Uniontown, Alabama, operated by J. N. Fendley, was mentioned in the January 18, 1941, issue of Showmen’s Trade Review. Mr. Fendley is also mentioned in the January 11, 1941, issue of Motion Picture Herald:
“Each day before ‘Boom Town’ started
at the Neely Theatre, in Uniontown, Ala., Manager J. N. Fendley arranged to have four aerial bombs fired in rapid succession to attract. Special wrappers with title imprint were used on cigarette packages purchased two weeks ahead, same stickers being used on parked cars in the vicinity. Box office was lettered for the occasion.”
The April 19, 1935, issue of The Film Daily mentions a Mr. Neely taking over operation of a theater in Uniontown:
“Uniontown, Ala. — Lester Neely,
who operates theaters in Marion, Greensboro and Oneonta, has taken over the house operated by J. W. Nunemacher here.”
Prior to the 1970 census, Uniontown had a population of less than 2,000, and was thus unlikely to have supported two theaters. Possibly the Strand was the same house that MPH called the Neely Theatre, and that it was also the same house Mr. Neely took over in 1935.
This web page about the Front Royal Historic District has this to say about the origin of the Murphy Theatre:
“The most prominent example of historic adaptive reuse is the former Front Royal Methodist Church at 131 East Main Street. Originally constructed as a church in 1879, the building was transformed into Murphy’s Theater in 1908-1909. The original arched, nave windows are still visible on what is now the second story of the brick building.”
An organization called the Murphy’s Theatre Project hopes to raise funds to purchase and renovate the theater. Here is their Facebook page.
The May 7, 1955, issue of Boxoffice reported that Louis Lampros had closed the Colonial Theatre in Farrell, and had taken over booth duties at the Capitol Theatre. His contract with the projectionists' union had expired and he had been unable to negotiate a new deal that would allow him to keep both houses open.
The DuBois Theatre was added to the venerable Commercial Hotel building in 1937. At some point the hostelry was renamed the General Pershing Hotel, and it appears that the theater shared the new name briefly before being renamed the Playhouse. So far nothing (ads, newspaper articles) has surface showing the Pershing Theatre name, so we don’t know the exact period when the name was used.
Here is an item about the Pastime Theatre from the May 12, 1923, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The NRHP Registration Form for the Liberty Theatre notes that the 1939 Streamline Modern remodeling replacing Osterman & Siebert’s original interior was designed by architect Bjarne Moe.
Thanks for the update, Nunzio. I’ve found the Regal mentioned in 1929, 1937, and 1946. The earliest mention of the State I’ve found was published in 1946, but concerned the arrival of a new assistant manager at the house in 1940.
A 1937 ad reveals that the Rowland and the Regal were then both operated by Warner Bros., and the 1946 item indicates that the State was a Warner house as well. As the State was not included in Warner’s 1937 ad, it might have been either built or taken over by the chain between 1937 and 1940.
I’ve also come across an item mentioning a movie house called the Doris Theatre operating in Wilkinsburg in 1916. The only earlier Wilkinsburg theaters I’ve found mentioned in the trade publications were the Rowland, 1911, and the Colonial, which was in operation by 1910.
This item from the February 12, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World concerns a change of ownership at the Starland Theatre:
This page about Anderson’s early movie theaters, from the Madison County Historical Society, says that the Meridian Theatre at 933 Meridian Street was one of several movie houses that opened during the period from 1912 to 1918. It also says that after the first world war, the Meridian Theatre moved to a new location at 1035 Meridian Street.
The first Meridian Theatre was in operation by 1916, when the February 12 issue of The Moving Picture World ran this item:
There is a bit more, but it mostly concerns the Starland Theatre, so I’ll post it to the Times Theatre (formerly the Starland) page.The Coffee Connection still shows up in Google’s street view, but it has closed and has been replaced by a locavore restaurant called Bacon and Eggs.
The historic address of the Bijou Grand was 53 E. Main Street, but that number is now used for part of the Whiteside Building, a Victorian office and retail block with an ornate cast iron front, part of which can be seen at the left edge of the vintage photo of the Bijou Grand. The Whiteside’s historic address was 47 and 47 & ½ E. Main.
The modern address of the Bijou Grand is most likely 57 E. Main, most recently used for a restaurant called the Coffee Connection Cafe. The tiled pent roof seen in the old photo is now gone, but I suspect that this is the same building the Bijou Grand Theatre was in and it has been given a common front with the adjacent store building on the corner of Colville Street. Satellite view shows that, despite the unified front, the buildings have a masonry wall between them.
The Ghost sign David uploaded advertised the Tower Theatre “Corner of 8th and Broadway,” which was renamed the Newsreel Theatre in 1949 and kept that name until 1965. But I wonder if the sign might have originally been painted earlier to advertise the Globe when it was called the Newsreel (through most of the 1940s,) and the part of the sign giving the location was later repainted to reflect the change?
The globe decorating the Globe’s marquee was installed, along with the triangular marquee itself, during the period when the house was showing “news of the world,” but it probably suggested the new name of the theater when the newsreel operation was moved to the Tower in 1949.
I’m not sure if my memory is accurate at this late date, but I have a vague impression of having seen the globe on the marquee actually revolving. This probably would have been around 1950 or so, if I actually did see it. There are historic photos of the house in which the globe displays parts of the world other than the Americas. In this 1940s photo on display at the Globe Theatre page of Bill Counter’s “Downtown Los Angeles Movie Theatres” web site, the globe is showing Africa and the near east, with the Red Sea easily identifiable.
I don’t know how reliable this page is (it is mostly about Ardmore Army Air Field during WWII,) but here is something it says:
In the current Google street view 7 E. Main Street is a freshly graded dirt lot between a parking lot and an old brick building. It looks like the Globe Theatre building was demolished not long before the picture was taken.Jack Theakston’s comment notes that the side of the Sherman Theatre was along Water Street, so the address Paint Street and Water Street should fetch the right location on Google Maps.
RE address: there is no 3rd Street in Chillicothe (it was displaced by Main Street.) The Orpheum was at the NE corner of Paint and 4th Street.
Google Maps is unable to find this location whether one uses the old address of 19 Pruden Street or the modern address of 19 Chatham Hall Circle. I’ve adjusted the street view to the proper location, but the pin icon is quite some distance north of the theater’s actual site.
This web page has a photo tour of historic buildings on Chatham’s S. Main Street. The page doesn’t give the names of the theaters, but indicates only two buildings served as movie houses. The theater at 26 S. Main, according to the accompanying text, moved to a quonset style building on Pruden Street, which means it was probably the location of the Ritz Theatre.
The other former theater building, at 15 S. Main, is thus the most likely candidate to have been the Cyril Theatre. It is currently occupied by a restaurant. I’ve looked through all the pages on the photo tour and no other buildings except the Chatham Theatre on Pruden Street are listed as ever having been movie theaters.
This web page has a tour of historic buildings on Chatham’s Main Street, and notes that two of them— 15 S. Main and 26 S. Main— have served as movie theaters. The text for the building at 26 S. Main says:
If the original Ritz/Chatham Theatre was replaced by a Chatham Theatre in a quonset style building, then it was most likely the house at 26 S. Main.An advertisement for the Cozy Theatre in the May 10, 1918, issue of The Snyder Signal announced that the house would open that day with the five-reel feature The Avenging Trail, featuring Harold Lockwood.
However, issues of the paper from 1917 mention a house called the Cosy Theatre. I don’t know if it was the same house, reopened with a new spelling for the name in 1918 or not. In 1916, there were ads for a house called the Reel Theatre. I don’t find it mentioned later than 1916.
The Cozy was equipped to present stage productions as well as movies. The December 17, 1920, issue of the Signal said that the Hurton Players had been presenting “…some high class shows….” all week, and would be moving on to Colorado following their final performance at the Cozy on Saturday night.
The December 16, 1921, issue of the Signal noted that T. L. Lollar had purchased the Cozy that week and had moved his family to Snyder. The sale was also noted in the January 6, 1922, issue of The Film Daily. Lollar went on to operate several other theaters in Snyder. The web site of The Ritz Community Theater also notes that Lollar bought the Ritz “…around 1921 when it was known as the Cozy Theater.”
The Burley Theatre was probably opened before the end of 1945, or in early 1946 at the latest. This one-line item from the October 13, 1945, issue of Showmen’s Trade Review is probably about the Burley: “Phil Chakeres, Springfield, Ohio, has started work on his new theatre at Shelbyville, Ky.” Chakeres' other house in Shelbyville, the Shelby Theatre, had recently completed a $5,000 remodeling, according to the October 5 issue of The Film Daily.
I’ve found references to the Shelby Theatre from 1937, so the name change definitely predated 1945. The photos of the Shelby’s facade look like late-deco, early-streamlined style, so the 1934 name change claimed by Nancy Hill, cited in my earlier comment, seems a likely time for that facade to have been built. It would have been decidedly old fashioned by 1947, when Boxoffice said the house had opened following a fire in 1945.
I’ve been unable to find the Boxoffice item about the rebuilding that was cited by kencmcintyre in the first comment on this house, but a January 12, 1946, item in Showmen’s Trade Review mentions the fire:
The claim of the house being a year old was surely an error, considering an item from the October 5 issue of The Film Daily, which said: “The Chakeres circuit has just completed remodeling of the Shelby Theater, Shelbyville, Ky., at a cost of 5,000….” The remodeling, along with the fact that Chakeres actually did have a new theater under construction in Shalbyville in the fall of 1945, probably contributed to the magazine’s confusion. The new Chakeres house was the Burley, a few doors up the block from the Shelby.It would be interesting to know if this house was still in operation in 1916, when the September 16 issue of The Moving Picture World published this item about the likely fate of Shelbyville’s upper-floor theaters:
The same issue of the magazine mentioned a house at Shelbyville called the Music Hall, but with no details. The opera house might have been one or the other of those theaters.Ivory Ethington, mentioned in the article, later operated the Bon Ton Theatre, later renamed the Shelby Theatre.
The August 21, 1915, issue of MPW also mentioned Brown’s Theatre, along with a new Shelbyville house called the Green Dragon Theatre. Shelbyville also once had houses called the Majestic Theatre and the Strand Theatre.
The correct address of the Shelby Theatre was 610 Main Street, according to an article in the July 10, 2013, issue of the Sentinel-News (page 13 of this PDF.) The article quotes local historian Nancy Hill:
The building is currently occupied by a clothing store called The Tipsy Gypsy.Google Maps shows 4759 Sunnyslope Dr. as a house in a rustic residential neighborhood, so it’s unlikely there’s a theater there. It’s just misinformation on the Internet, again.
Scroll down a bit on this web page to read a brief article about Owingsville’s Majestic Theatre. It was located at the corner of present day South Court Street and Slate Avenue, fronting on Court Street. It opened in 1922 and closed in 1982.
American Classic Images has two photos of the Majestic after it was converted into a furniture store: from 1985 and from 1986. A modern brick building with a gabled roof now sits on the theater’s site.
The Strand Theatre at Uniontown, Alabama, operated by J. N. Fendley, was mentioned in the January 18, 1941, issue of Showmen’s Trade Review. Mr. Fendley is also mentioned in the January 11, 1941, issue of Motion Picture Herald:
The April 19, 1935, issue of The Film Daily mentions a Mr. Neely taking over operation of a theater in Uniontown:Prior to the 1970 census, Uniontown had a population of less than 2,000, and was thus unlikely to have supported two theaters. Possibly the Strand was the same house that MPH called the Neely Theatre, and that it was also the same house Mr. Neely took over in 1935.This web page about the Front Royal Historic District has this to say about the origin of the Murphy Theatre:
An organization called the Murphy’s Theatre Project hopes to raise funds to purchase and renovate the theater. Here is their Facebook page.The May 7, 1955, issue of Boxoffice reported that Louis Lampros had closed the Colonial Theatre in Farrell, and had taken over booth duties at the Capitol Theatre. His contract with the projectionists' union had expired and he had been unable to negotiate a new deal that would allow him to keep both houses open.