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.
There was a house called the Colonial Theatre in Farrell at least as early as 1916, when it was mentioned in the July 1 issue of The Moving Picture World. Owner-manager J.C. Leslie planned extensive renovations, which would necessitate closing the house for the week of July 26. I’ve been unable to determine if the 1916 Colonial was on the same site as the later Colonial.
Other theaters operating in Farrell in 1916 included the Cymric and the Rex.
The recent opening of the Lane Court Theatre was noted in the December 9, 1916, issue of Motography:
“New Chicago House Opens
“Ascher Brothers' new Lane Court Theater in Chicago was opened to the public on Saturday, November 25, with much pomp and ceremony.
“In point of artistic decoration and novelty in construction there possibly is no other theater in Chicago resembling it.
“The arrangement throughout the house is what is generally conceded to be the most desirable. The interior of the theater is diamond shaped. The screen is placed in one corner of the building and the orchestra pit is sunk out of view, immediately under the screen. The walls are paneled and artistically finished in gold and tinted in delicate hues.
“In the center of the house there is an electrically lighted dome which will deflect a mellow light throughout the entire theater during performances, expelling much of the gloom and eyestrain now a commonly heard-of evil. Probably this will explain why a great many older people refrain from attending picture performances.
“The organ pipes are placed in two opposite corners with a large open compartment in back which will permit the organist to obtain some very beautiful musical effects. A Kimball organ has been installed, and an eight-piece orchestra will be a regular attraction. The ventilation of the theater is accomplished through a series of grates inserted into the walls near the floor.
“There will be a matinée each day, starting at 2:30 o'clock and lasting up to 5:00 o'clock; the evening performances will start at 6:30 o'clock and run until eleven. The admission prices will be: Children, five cents, adults, ten cents, and when special attractions are being shown the price will be raised to fifteen cents.”
I believe the current Google street view we show depicts the interior of the DeKalb County Courthouse, which is across the street from the theater’s site. If we give Google the exact address of the theater, 102 S. Cedar Street, it might reset the street view.
We still wouldn’t get a close view, as Google’s camera car didn’t go down Cedar Street, but we should be able to get a view down the block from Seventh Street of the Commercial Club Building, which once housed the entrance to the theater in its northernmost bay.
After studying the photos in the Roxy history to which deecee linked on February 10, 2011, I’m doubtful that the Imperial/Rainbow was in the Jacobs Building, even though that building now uses the address 307 Wilburn. The caption of the photo from The Tennessean of September 13, 1914, says that there was a movie theater in the new building pictured.
Counting the doors of the storefronts, it’s clear that 307 at that time had to have been in the Roxy’s building, not the Jacobs Building. It would have been the last storefront in the building, past the second decorative pediment. The first storefront, 301, was the drug store. The second, a barber shop, was at 303, and the third, which would have been the grocery store mentioned in the caption, was at 305. Beyond the second pediment was a storefront mostly covered with brick, so that must have been the theater, at 307, with its entrance under the second pediment.
At some point after the Roxy was built, the addresses on the block must have been reconfigured and the Jacobs building given the number 307. This means that the Imperial Theatre of 1914 and the Rainbow Theatre of 1928 must have occupied what later became the screen end of the Roxy’s auditorium. You can see the sealed-up entrance of the original theater about midway down the wall of the Roxy in the photo above, although the pediments were removed when the wall was raised to accommodate the Roxy’s balcony.
I’m not sure what originally occupied the Morris Jacobs Building, but the Roxy history page says that in the 1940s the former drug store space on the corner of Meridian Street became Morris Dry Goods. Maybe it was the same Morris, and he moved his store to the corner for better visibility.
The 1914 photo caption also says that the architect for the building was C.A. Ferguson. It also says that Crescent Amusement bought the building in 1936, and the Roxy was opened before the end of 1937.
DavePrice: A comment on this theater by deecee from August 10, 2009, gives 307 Wilburn as the address of a house called the Rainbow Theatre, listed in 1928. This is the address of the Morris Jacobs building, an historic structure which has recently been restored.
According to the final paragraph of this article, about the failed attempts to save the Von Lee Theatre, virtually nothing remains of the original building but the facade and the entrance. Other sources suggest that parts of three walls of the auditorium might have been saved, but for all practical purposes the three-story office building that now occupies most of the site is entirely new construction. Even the “Von Lee” sign mounted above the entrance canopy is only a replica of the original.
This brief video, made during demolition, shows the extent of the devastation. Though there are many Internet sources that tout the “adaptive reuse” of the theater, so little of it remains that I’d be inclined to mark the Von Lee as demolished. It will certainly never be a movie theater again.
Here’s an historic photograph (a smaller version of which also appears in the article I linked to) showing the narrow entrance. The theater was L shaped, and the top of the auditorium is hidden behind the Victorian house that once stood inside the L. Kerasotes built an addition to the theater on the site of the house in 1976. That, too, is now gone.
I’m not sure why we classify the style of the Von Lee as Art Deco. The entrance with its tile roofs looks as though the architect was making a stab at something Oriental, highly suitable to the noodle house that now occupies the ground floor front. I doubt that the reopening in 1949 (the building served as a grocery store through most of the 1930s and 1940s) led to an Art Deco interior being built. Most likely the re-theaterized interior was in the basic Streamline style of the era.
The Liberty Theatre was at 147 North Diamond Street, near Pitt Street. There was a very narrow entrance, now occupied by a branch of PNC Bank. I can’t tell if it’s the theater’s original building, extensively remodeled, or new construction. The auditorium had to have been behind the adjacent building.
The Liberty was in operation at least as early as 1926, and might have been a project that was noted in the August 21, 1920, issue of The American Contractor, which said that a 650-seat, one-story theater, 59x85 feet, was to be built at Diamond and Pitt Streets for the Alpha Motion Picture Company. The project had been designed by Sharon, PA, architectural firm Taylor & Hanna. The house was to be called “The Pitt”, but I don’t know if it ever actually operated under that name.
After doing a bit more digging, I now suspect that the Acme Theatre at 111 S.W. Center Street was built in 1916, and prior to that the Acme Theatre name was used in at least two other locations. One was in the Messenger Opera House block, from which H.R. Mason moved his operation in September, 1908, according to an item in the September 17 issue of the Goldsboro Daily Argus. A 1908 Sanborn Map shows the ground floor center bay of the Opera block, 152 S.E. Center, occupied by “Moving Pictures”.
The next location of the Acme is just a guess, but a 1913 Sanborn map available from Doc South’s “Going to the Show” site shows two buildings occupied by “Electric Theatres,” one being at 145 S.W. Center and the other at 121-123 W. Walnut Street. No other movie theaters appear on that map. According to the 1917-18 Goldsboro City Directory, 121 W. Walnut was the location of H.R. Mason’s Crystal Theatre, so I would guess that the house at 145 S.W. Center was, prior to 1916, the Acme.
111-113 S.W. Center were occupied by two small storefronts on the 1913 map, 111 being a confectionery and 113 a music store. On the 1918 map both lots are occupied by a much deeper single building housing the Acme (listed on the map only as “Moving Pictures”.)
Various issues of The Music Trade Review from 1916 note a new theater being built at Goldsboro by H.R. Mason, one item specifically calling it the Acme. The project was also noted in the April 15 issue of Motography. An advertisement in the August 17, 1916, issue of the Goldsboro Daily Argus read “The New Acme Opens Tonight 7:30 P.M.”
While the 1928 Goldsboro directory does not list the Acme Theatre, it does list the Mason Theatre, operated by H.W. Mason, at 137 S.W. Center Street. This house, which later became the Paramount Theatre, was most likely Mason’s replacement for the Acme.
In the 1928 Goldsboro city directory, 319 S. James is listed as the location of the Rex Auditorium Theatre, a moving picture house for black patrons, operated by J. K. Darden. This house was apparently the successor to the Rex Theatre on W. Chestnut Street, which was not listed in the 1928 directory.
The latter part of this PDF has an article about the history of Ephrara’s theaters, with information from an interview with Mary Lee, who started the Lee circuit with her husband John in 1936. The article says that the Marjo (they don’t hyphenate it) Theatre opened in 1940.
The Lees' first venture into the business was taking over an older theater called the Kam in 1936. They renamed the house the Capital (this is the spelling used in the article. “Capitol” is used far more frequently for theaters.)
The article is accompanied by a few photos, one of which depicts the Marjo, and two of which are of the Lee Theatre, which John and Mary opened in 1952.
The 1914-15 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory lists a theater at Ephrata called the Kaminski Opera House. I think it might have been the theater that was later called the Kam which the Lees renamed the Capital.
Unfortunately, the history on the Acme’s web site has some inaccuracies, and they are at least partly my fault. If you check the comment I made on this page on November 5, 2010 (the very fist comment on the Acme) you’ll see that the current operators of the Acme copied and pasted parts of their history from that comment. Part of their information probably also came from our original description of the Acme, contributed by Chuck sometime before November 5, 2010.
Our original description said that the Acme was the same theater as the Wayne, but from the later comments by vbridgers and NightHawk1 we were able to determine that the Acme was not the same house as the Wayne. The description has been corrected, and we now know that Wayne Theatre was the original name of the house that later became the Center Theatre and was last known as the Variety Theatre. The Acme was not listed in the 1928 Goldsboro directory, and probably closed around that time, when new, better equipped theaters were being opened.
The opening year is a bit problematic. Historic sources indicate that there was an Acme Theatre operating in Goldsboro at least as early as 1908, but I haven’t been able to determine if it was at 111 S.W. Center Street or somewhere else. In 1916, the house was either moved to a new building at 111 S.W. Center, or the old theater at that location was rebuilt and expanded. I’ve been checking the sources available to me and will post the information as soon as I can find something about it.
My apologies to everyone using the site for my part in perpetuating the earlier misinformation posted on this page. Cinema Treasures strives to provide accurate information, but when much of the information is crowdsourced, and is pieced together from diverse, often fragmented sources on the Internet, some errors are likely to creep in.
The “Motion Picture Supplement” of the 1921 Cahn guide lists the Acme Theatre, Goldsboro, as a 500-seat house showing “R.&P” (Road shows and Pictures.) The stage was 55 feet wide and 26 feet deep, with a height of 35 feet, which was on the small side for a road show house, but Goldsboro only had a population of 11,296, so it couldn’t be expected to have supported a larger theater, or a full time stage house.
There are multiple mentions of the Acme in moving picture trade journals of the period, including The Moving Picture World and Motography. For many years it was managed by H.R. Mason, who is mentioned in trade journals at least as early as 1908, as is the Acme itself. In 1918 Mason was also operating the Rex and Crystal Theatres in Goldsboro, as noted in an ad for Triangle Distributing Corporation’s moving picture service in the February 23 issue of Motography.
The March 26, 1912, issue of the Goldsboro Daily Argus ran an item noting that:
“Mr. H. R. Mason president of tho Great Southern Feature Film Company will personally present at the Acme Theatre Wednesday and Thursday this great feature picture that has brought forth undivided praise from the press and the pulpit of all Protestant denominations.”
The highly praised film that Mason presented was called A Victim of the Mormons, and a synopsis in the article reveals that it is about a nice Protestant girl who is sweet-talked by a Mormon preacher into going with him to Utah. Presumably she gets some sister wives out of the deal, but I guess the paper didn’t want to publish any spoilers.
I’ve found two earlier theater names in Keota. One of them might have been an aka for the Rex. A “Twenty Years Ago” feature in Boxoffice of November 20, 1948, says that “O. H. Smith has opened the Community Theatre at Keota. Recently the Rialto there, formerly operated by W. D. Tarkington, has been closed.”
This item from the April 7, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News notes the beginning of what turned out to be Mr. Tarkington’s brief career as an exhibitor in Keota::
“W. D. Tarkington is reported to be taking over the Miller Theatre at Keota, Oklahoma, and the Empress Theatre at McCurtain, Oklahoma, from Lester Miller.”
In the early 1950s the Rex was operated by someone with the surname Johnson, but I’ve been unable to discover their first name.
An Orpheum Theatre was operating in Cuba as early as 1916, when the May 20 issue of The Moving Picture World ran a brief notice that the house had suffered a small film fire that was extinguished by placing a galvanized box over the projection machine.
A house called the Colonial Theatre was in operation at Fort Wayne prior to 1916, when this notice appeared in the May 20 issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The Colonial Improvements.
“Ft. Wayne, Ind. — The Colonial was closed for two weeks while repairs were being made. Manager H. C. Heisler said that improvements would be made rapidly and that the patrons of the theater would not be kept away long.”
The May 20, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World ran this notice:
“Covington, Ind. — The Lyric, Covington’s newest moving picture theater, is open. The theater played to capacity business the first week, and much favorable comment was aroused because of the beautifully appointed interior of the picture house.”
Theodore Charles was operating a house called the Moon Theatre at Vincennes at least as early as 1916, when it was mentioned in the September 2 issue of Motion Picture News. CinemaTour lists the Moon Theatre at 505 Main Street. The Showplace 3, at the other end of the block, opened as the New Moon Theatre, and was later renamed the Moon Theatre, rather than the other way around.
The book Vincennes, 1930-1960, by Richard Day, Garry Hall, and William Hopper, says that the New Moon Theatre opened on December 14, 1939 (Google Books preview.) The book also indicates that the original Moon Theatre, which opened as a vaudeville house called the Red Mill in 1908, continued to operate as the Moon Theatre at least into 1941.
Numerous articles from local sources in 2015 and 2016 indicate that plans are afoot to renovate the New Moon Theatre building, though probably not for theatrical use. A new roof has stabilized the building, which had suffered water damage, and mold removal has been undertaken.
I’ve found conflicting information about the Princess Theatre.An article in the September 2, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World has this story:
“THE Princess, Troy, Ala., owned by Ramsay and Cranch, and managed by J. G. Cranch, was built in 1914, and soon became the amusement center of its locality. The theatre stands on a plot measuring thirty-two by ninety feet, and is described by the owners as being the ‘best naturally ventilated house in that part of the country,’ where ventilation is a prime consideration during the summer months. An indirect lighting system has been installed in the Princess to shed sufficient glow for finding the seats without interfering with the light on the screen.
“The Princess has a seating capacity of 280. A Power’s 6-A projector is the machine in use, with a Mirroide screen. The length of throw is seventy-five feet. A three piece orchestra and a Berry Wood electric piano furnishes the music for the exclusive showing of features. Usually about five shows, five and ten cents, with a ten cent admission at night, consist of the daily performances.
“The lobby is made to serve as an effective advertising adjunct, with a full display of posters in brass frames. The theatre is located in the business district.”
However, according to the nomination form of the Troy Downtown Historic District to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, the theater in the Masonic Temple operated under three names: it opened as the Royal Theatre on June 5, 1912, in 1915 it became the Walton Theatre, and at an unknown date it became the Princess Theatre, operating under that name for fourteen years.
This article from the Troy Messenger says that the Masonic Temple was built in 1892, and was designed by architect Enoch Crites.
A final bit of conflicting information about the theater itself is that a list of Wilby-Kincey houses published in the January 5, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald lists the Princess as a 350 seat house.
The July 9, 1921, issue of The Moving Picture World said that Joseph Shverha planned to enlarge and improve his theater at Lewistown:
“LEWISTOWN, PA.— Joseph M. Shverha has plans by John B. Harmon, 48 North Queen
street, Lancaster, for interior alterations and
an addition, 8 by 25 feet, to one-story moving
picture theatre, to cost $25,000.”
The July 9 issue of the same publication noted that Joseph Shverha, or the Rialto Theatre, Lewistown, was among the Pennsylvania exhibitors attending a recent convention in Minneapolis.
An item from the March 4, 1922, issue of The Moving Picture World was published rather late, if the item from The Joplin Globe suggesting that the Crane Theatre was already under construction in November, 1921, as cited in my previous comment, was correct:
“CARTHAGE, MO.— W. S. Crane has plans by A. C. Michaelis, 325 Miners Bank Building, Joplin, for four-story brick theatre, 100 by 150 feet, to be erected on East Third street, to cost $50,000.”
The Crane Theatre would have been one of the last projects designed by architect A. C. Michaelis, who was killed during the construction of Joplin Memorial Hall in 1923.
The opening date found by dallasmovietheaters is a strong indication that this brief item from The Moving Picture World of March 4, 1922, is about the Broadway Theatre:
“COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA. — Broadway Building Company has plans by J. C. Jenson, 305 West Broadway, for theater, to cost $130,000. Address R. B. Wallace, secretary.”
“Jenson” is probably misspelled, and the architect of the Broadway was most likely J. Chris Jensen, a Danish-American architect sufficiently well known in Iowa to warrant this Wikipedia 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.
There was a house called the Colonial Theatre in Farrell at least as early as 1916, when it was mentioned in the July 1 issue of The Moving Picture World. Owner-manager J.C. Leslie planned extensive renovations, which would necessitate closing the house for the week of July 26. I’ve been unable to determine if the 1916 Colonial was on the same site as the later Colonial.
Other theaters operating in Farrell in 1916 included the Cymric and the Rex.
The recent opening of the Lane Court Theatre was noted in the December 9, 1916, issue of Motography:
I believe the current Google street view we show depicts the interior of the DeKalb County Courthouse, which is across the street from the theater’s site. If we give Google the exact address of the theater, 102 S. Cedar Street, it might reset the street view.
We still wouldn’t get a close view, as Google’s camera car didn’t go down Cedar Street, but we should be able to get a view down the block from Seventh Street of the Commercial Club Building, which once housed the entrance to the theater in its northernmost bay.
rivest266: Your second ad, touting the renovations, must have been from 1948, the year You Gotta Stay Happy was released.
After studying the photos in the Roxy history to which deecee linked on February 10, 2011, I’m doubtful that the Imperial/Rainbow was in the Jacobs Building, even though that building now uses the address 307 Wilburn. The caption of the photo from The Tennessean of September 13, 1914, says that there was a movie theater in the new building pictured.
Counting the doors of the storefronts, it’s clear that 307 at that time had to have been in the Roxy’s building, not the Jacobs Building. It would have been the last storefront in the building, past the second decorative pediment. The first storefront, 301, was the drug store. The second, a barber shop, was at 303, and the third, which would have been the grocery store mentioned in the caption, was at 305. Beyond the second pediment was a storefront mostly covered with brick, so that must have been the theater, at 307, with its entrance under the second pediment.
At some point after the Roxy was built, the addresses on the block must have been reconfigured and the Jacobs building given the number 307. This means that the Imperial Theatre of 1914 and the Rainbow Theatre of 1928 must have occupied what later became the screen end of the Roxy’s auditorium. You can see the sealed-up entrance of the original theater about midway down the wall of the Roxy in the photo above, although the pediments were removed when the wall was raised to accommodate the Roxy’s balcony.
I’m not sure what originally occupied the Morris Jacobs Building, but the Roxy history page says that in the 1940s the former drug store space on the corner of Meridian Street became Morris Dry Goods. Maybe it was the same Morris, and he moved his store to the corner for better visibility.
The 1914 photo caption also says that the architect for the building was C.A. Ferguson. It also says that Crescent Amusement bought the building in 1936, and the Roxy was opened before the end of 1937.
DavePrice: A comment on this theater by deecee from August 10, 2009, gives 307 Wilburn as the address of a house called the Rainbow Theatre, listed in 1928. This is the address of the Morris Jacobs building, an historic structure which has recently been restored.
According to the final paragraph of this article, about the failed attempts to save the Von Lee Theatre, virtually nothing remains of the original building but the facade and the entrance. Other sources suggest that parts of three walls of the auditorium might have been saved, but for all practical purposes the three-story office building that now occupies most of the site is entirely new construction. Even the “Von Lee” sign mounted above the entrance canopy is only a replica of the original.
This brief video, made during demolition, shows the extent of the devastation. Though there are many Internet sources that tout the “adaptive reuse” of the theater, so little of it remains that I’d be inclined to mark the Von Lee as demolished. It will certainly never be a movie theater again.
Here’s an historic photograph (a smaller version of which also appears in the article I linked to) showing the narrow entrance. The theater was L shaped, and the top of the auditorium is hidden behind the Victorian house that once stood inside the L. Kerasotes built an addition to the theater on the site of the house in 1976. That, too, is now gone.
I’m not sure why we classify the style of the Von Lee as Art Deco. The entrance with its tile roofs looks as though the architect was making a stab at something Oriental, highly suitable to the noodle house that now occupies the ground floor front. I doubt that the reopening in 1949 (the building served as a grocery store through most of the 1930s and 1940s) led to an Art Deco interior being built. Most likely the re-theaterized interior was in the basic Streamline style of the era.
The Liberty Theatre was at 147 North Diamond Street, near Pitt Street. There was a very narrow entrance, now occupied by a branch of PNC Bank. I can’t tell if it’s the theater’s original building, extensively remodeled, or new construction. The auditorium had to have been behind the adjacent building.
The Liberty was in operation at least as early as 1926, and might have been a project that was noted in the August 21, 1920, issue of The American Contractor, which said that a 650-seat, one-story theater, 59x85 feet, was to be built at Diamond and Pitt Streets for the Alpha Motion Picture Company. The project had been designed by Sharon, PA, architectural firm Taylor & Hanna. The house was to be called “The Pitt”, but I don’t know if it ever actually operated under that name.
Open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. See their Facebook page for movie listings and times.
After doing a bit more digging, I now suspect that the Acme Theatre at 111 S.W. Center Street was built in 1916, and prior to that the Acme Theatre name was used in at least two other locations. One was in the Messenger Opera House block, from which H.R. Mason moved his operation in September, 1908, according to an item in the September 17 issue of the Goldsboro Daily Argus. A 1908 Sanborn Map shows the ground floor center bay of the Opera block, 152 S.E. Center, occupied by “Moving Pictures”.
The next location of the Acme is just a guess, but a 1913 Sanborn map available from Doc South’s “Going to the Show” site shows two buildings occupied by “Electric Theatres,” one being at 145 S.W. Center and the other at 121-123 W. Walnut Street. No other movie theaters appear on that map. According to the 1917-18 Goldsboro City Directory, 121 W. Walnut was the location of H.R. Mason’s Crystal Theatre, so I would guess that the house at 145 S.W. Center was, prior to 1916, the Acme.
111-113 S.W. Center were occupied by two small storefronts on the 1913 map, 111 being a confectionery and 113 a music store. On the 1918 map both lots are occupied by a much deeper single building housing the Acme (listed on the map only as “Moving Pictures”.)
Various issues of The Music Trade Review from 1916 note a new theater being built at Goldsboro by H.R. Mason, one item specifically calling it the Acme. The project was also noted in the April 15 issue of Motography. An advertisement in the August 17, 1916, issue of the Goldsboro Daily Argus read “The New Acme Opens Tonight 7:30 P.M.”
While the 1928 Goldsboro directory does not list the Acme Theatre, it does list the Mason Theatre, operated by H.W. Mason, at 137 S.W. Center Street. This house, which later became the Paramount Theatre, was most likely Mason’s replacement for the Acme.
In the 1928 Goldsboro city directory, 319 S. James is listed as the location of the Rex Auditorium Theatre, a moving picture house for black patrons, operated by J. K. Darden. This house was apparently the successor to the Rex Theatre on W. Chestnut Street, which was not listed in the 1928 directory.
The latter part of this PDF has an article about the history of Ephrara’s theaters, with information from an interview with Mary Lee, who started the Lee circuit with her husband John in 1936. The article says that the Marjo (they don’t hyphenate it) Theatre opened in 1940.
The Lees' first venture into the business was taking over an older theater called the Kam in 1936. They renamed the house the Capital (this is the spelling used in the article. “Capitol” is used far more frequently for theaters.)
The article is accompanied by a few photos, one of which depicts the Marjo, and two of which are of the Lee Theatre, which John and Mary opened in 1952.
The 1914-15 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory lists a theater at Ephrata called the Kaminski Opera House. I think it might have been the theater that was later called the Kam which the Lees renamed the Capital.
Unfortunately, the history on the Acme’s web site has some inaccuracies, and they are at least partly my fault. If you check the comment I made on this page on November 5, 2010 (the very fist comment on the Acme) you’ll see that the current operators of the Acme copied and pasted parts of their history from that comment. Part of their information probably also came from our original description of the Acme, contributed by Chuck sometime before November 5, 2010.
Our original description said that the Acme was the same theater as the Wayne, but from the later comments by vbridgers and NightHawk1 we were able to determine that the Acme was not the same house as the Wayne. The description has been corrected, and we now know that Wayne Theatre was the original name of the house that later became the Center Theatre and was last known as the Variety Theatre. The Acme was not listed in the 1928 Goldsboro directory, and probably closed around that time, when new, better equipped theaters were being opened.
The opening year is a bit problematic. Historic sources indicate that there was an Acme Theatre operating in Goldsboro at least as early as 1908, but I haven’t been able to determine if it was at 111 S.W. Center Street or somewhere else. In 1916, the house was either moved to a new building at 111 S.W. Center, or the old theater at that location was rebuilt and expanded. I’ve been checking the sources available to me and will post the information as soon as I can find something about it.
My apologies to everyone using the site for my part in perpetuating the earlier misinformation posted on this page. Cinema Treasures strives to provide accurate information, but when much of the information is crowdsourced, and is pieced together from diverse, often fragmented sources on the Internet, some errors are likely to creep in.
The “Motion Picture Supplement” of the 1921 Cahn guide lists the Acme Theatre, Goldsboro, as a 500-seat house showing “R.&P” (Road shows and Pictures.) The stage was 55 feet wide and 26 feet deep, with a height of 35 feet, which was on the small side for a road show house, but Goldsboro only had a population of 11,296, so it couldn’t be expected to have supported a larger theater, or a full time stage house.
There are multiple mentions of the Acme in moving picture trade journals of the period, including The Moving Picture World and Motography. For many years it was managed by H.R. Mason, who is mentioned in trade journals at least as early as 1908, as is the Acme itself. In 1918 Mason was also operating the Rex and Crystal Theatres in Goldsboro, as noted in an ad for Triangle Distributing Corporation’s moving picture service in the February 23 issue of Motography.
The March 26, 1912, issue of the Goldsboro Daily Argus ran an item noting that:
The highly praised film that Mason presented was called A Victim of the Mormons, and a synopsis in the article reveals that it is about a nice Protestant girl who is sweet-talked by a Mormon preacher into going with him to Utah. Presumably she gets some sister wives out of the deal, but I guess the paper didn’t want to publish any spoilers.I’ve found two earlier theater names in Keota. One of them might have been an aka for the Rex. A “Twenty Years Ago” feature in Boxoffice of November 20, 1948, says that “O. H. Smith has opened the Community Theatre at Keota. Recently the Rialto there, formerly operated by W. D. Tarkington, has been closed.”
This item from the April 7, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News notes the beginning of what turned out to be Mr. Tarkington’s brief career as an exhibitor in Keota::
In the early 1950s the Rex was operated by someone with the surname Johnson, but I’ve been unable to discover their first name.An Orpheum Theatre was operating in Cuba as early as 1916, when the May 20 issue of The Moving Picture World ran a brief notice that the house had suffered a small film fire that was extinguished by placing a galvanized box over the projection machine.
A house called the Colonial Theatre was in operation at Fort Wayne prior to 1916, when this notice appeared in the May 20 issue of The Moving Picture World:
The May 20, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World ran this notice:
A line near the end of this Facebook post says: “In 1960 the Strand Theatre on the SE corner of 6th and Main was razed.”
Theodore Charles was operating a house called the Moon Theatre at Vincennes at least as early as 1916, when it was mentioned in the September 2 issue of Motion Picture News. CinemaTour lists the Moon Theatre at 505 Main Street. The Showplace 3, at the other end of the block, opened as the New Moon Theatre, and was later renamed the Moon Theatre, rather than the other way around.
The book Vincennes, 1930-1960, by Richard Day, Garry Hall, and William Hopper, says that the New Moon Theatre opened on December 14, 1939 (Google Books preview.) The book also indicates that the original Moon Theatre, which opened as a vaudeville house called the Red Mill in 1908, continued to operate as the Moon Theatre at least into 1941.
Numerous articles from local sources in 2015 and 2016 indicate that plans are afoot to renovate the New Moon Theatre building, though probably not for theatrical use. A new roof has stabilized the building, which had suffered water damage, and mold removal has been undertaken.
I’ve found conflicting information about the Princess Theatre.An article in the September 2, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World has this story:
However, according to the nomination form of the Troy Downtown Historic District to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, the theater in the Masonic Temple operated under three names: it opened as the Royal Theatre on June 5, 1912, in 1915 it became the Walton Theatre, and at an unknown date it became the Princess Theatre, operating under that name for fourteen years.This article from the Troy Messenger says that the Masonic Temple was built in 1892, and was designed by architect Enoch Crites.
A final bit of conflicting information about the theater itself is that a list of Wilby-Kincey houses published in the January 5, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald lists the Princess as a 350 seat house.
The July 9, 1921, issue of The Moving Picture World said that Joseph Shverha planned to enlarge and improve his theater at Lewistown:
The July 9 issue of the same publication noted that Joseph Shverha, or the Rialto Theatre, Lewistown, was among the Pennsylvania exhibitors attending a recent convention in Minneapolis.An item from the March 4, 1922, issue of The Moving Picture World was published rather late, if the item from The Joplin Globe suggesting that the Crane Theatre was already under construction in November, 1921, as cited in my previous comment, was correct:
The Crane Theatre would have been one of the last projects designed by architect A. C. Michaelis, who was killed during the construction of Joplin Memorial Hall in 1923.The opening date found by dallasmovietheaters is a strong indication that this brief item from The Moving Picture World of March 4, 1922, is about the Broadway Theatre:
“Jenson” is probably misspelled, and the architect of the Broadway was most likely J. Chris Jensen, a Danish-American architect sufficiently well known in Iowa to warrant this Wikipedia page.