ThePossum: If you check my first comment on the Cinema Treasures page for the Hollywood Theatre you’ll find links to sources that document the history of the theater at 411 N. Liberty Street as having been the Elmont Theatre from 1912 until 1927, the Ideal Theatre from 1927 to 1934, and the Hollywood Theatre from 1934 until its destruction by fire in 1948.
I still suspect that the Broadway, listed at 429 Liberty in the 1926 theater list I posted earlier, was the predecessor of the Colonial, at 427 Liberty. The only thing I haven’t been able to discover is if the Broadway was simply remodeled to become the Colonial or if it was demolished and replaced by a new building for the Colonial.
This short-lived multiplex was dismantled in 2012 and converted into a warehouse store for Restaurant Equippers, a wholesale-retail restaurant supply company. See this article at philly.com.
Both Hoyts Pennsauken and Loews Cherry Hill opened on December 18, 1998, and Philly.com reported in an article posted on October 17, 2002, that Hoyts had been closed, so this house operated for less than four years. All the remaining American operations of Hoyts Cinemas, an Australian company, were taken over by Regal in 2004.
In 1955, the Liberty was the only movie house operating in Vermilion, according to an ad in the June 21 issue of The Lorain Journal. The house was operated by Zegiob Theaters Inc., a local chain also operating the Dreamland and Pearl Theatres in Loraine. The ad noted that, in recent years, the Liberty’s seating capacity had been doubled to 500.
An ad for Zegiob Theatres Inc., operators of the Dreamland and Pearl Theatres in Lorain and the Liberty Theatre in Vermilion, appeared in the June 21, 1955, issue of The Lorain Journal. It said that the Dreamland Theatre had been in operation since 1917 and had recently installed a wide screen, new projection equipment, and air conditioning.
A timeline of Lorain history said that the Dreamland suffered a major fire on August 18, 1947, and was reopened on April 7, 1948.
The Cleveland Architects Database (large pdf file here) lists an Ivanhoe Square Block and Theatre, 16341-7 Euclid Avenue, East Cleveland, as a 1926 project of architect Frank Wooster Bail. The storefronts in the three-story theater building as seen in Google street view run from 16345 to 16357, and I can’t explain the address discrepancy. This is the place, though, as we’ve got the vintage photo showing it.
This item from the February 20, 1915, issue of The American Contractor indicates that some contracts had been let for a movie theater at Madison and Ridgewood Avenues by that date:
“Motion Picture Theater & Store Bldg. (seating 756 & 2 stores): 1 sty. & bas. 52x133. $20M. Madison & Ridgewood avs. Archt. Henry Hradilek, 1001 Illuminating bldg. Owner J. H. Brown, care archt. Brk., stone trim, re. cone. Mas., re. cone. & cement work let to C. N. Griffen Co., 3111 Carnegie av. Struct, steel let to T. H. Brooks Co., 3104 Lakeside av. Ptg. let to Moskopp Bros. & Co., 5706 Broadway.”
I’ve been unable to find any other references to this project, nor have I found any mention of the U-No Theatre in the trade journals, though Cleveland Memory has an undated photo of it. I don’t think we can rule out a possible 1915 opening for this house, even though I haven’t been able to confirm that it did.
I don’t believe this has been linked yet. This post from Hidden City Philadelphia has several photos of the Logan showing the interior renovations as of 2012, most of them paired with vintage 1924 photos of the same scenes.
The text notes that Dr. Williamson bought the Logan in 2005. The church which had moved into the house in 1973 had moved out in 1992, and much damage had been done during the years the building was vacant. The Logan Theatre closed as a movie house in 1972.
The Rockland Theatre should be listed in the Logan-Fern Rock neighborhood, along with the nearby Logan and Broad Theatres (all of them in a three-block stretch of Broad Street) instead of Germantown, which is some distance west.
The original Logan Theatre probably opened in 1913, and the 1915 project that I mistook for evidence of a delay in construction was in fact an expansion of the already-operating house. This clarifying item comes from the January 23, 1915, issue of Motography:
“Plans have been completed by M. Haupt for alterations and the erection of a one-story addition, 50x150 feet, to the moving picture theater at 4817 North Broad street, Philadelphia, for the Logan Amusement Company.”
The Rockland Theatre opened in 1915, not 1914. Here is an item announcing the status of the project in the February 20, 1915, issue of The American Contractor:
“Theater & Stores: 1 sty. & bas. 50x175. $30M. Broad & Rockland sts. Archt. Albert F. Schenck, Real Estate Trust bldg. Owner Clarence Shilcock, Broad & Westmoreland sts. Brk. Up to roof. Bldr. Freund-Seidenback Co., Bulletin bldg. Ptg. let to Potteiger & Hainley, 1829 Filbert st. Rf. to McFarland-Meade Co., 46th & Woodland av. Plmg. & htg. to Gray & Dormer, 1729 Columbia av.”
As contracts for painting and roofing had been let at this time, the project was pretty close to completion, making an opening in the spring of 1915 very likely.
I believe that the remodeled building Frank Albrecht mentioned is indeed the former Hillcrest Theatre. It is currently occupied by businesses called Diamond Design Construction (probably offices, located at the rear of the building but with a narrow entrance at the street) and Tamara’s Spa Salon & Hair Studio. Their addresses are, respectively, 2503A and 2503 Peach Street, so the theater’s address was probably 2503.
2505 is a vacant lot, which judging from the fenestration in the building across it from the theater’s site was always there. The detail around the windows indicates that they are original to the building, and the building looks to have been built no later than the 1920s.
The former theater building has a side entrance near the rear onto the vacant lot, and it is at a lower level than the front entrances, indicating that the building floor sloped downward at one time. The entrance tot he construction company’s offices probably slopes downward. Entirely new construction would be unlikely to be built on two levels like that, so this probably is the old theater building remodeled.
Hurstpacman’s revelation that Mr. Guerrein’s residence was at 2509 Peach is confirmed by the notice in the February 20, 1915, issue of The American Contractor:
“Picture Theater: $6M. Peach st., nr. 25th. Private plans. Owner Leo. Guerrein, 2509 Peach st. Excavating. Brk. Gen. contr. let to Deutsch & Dudenhoefer.”
The notice in The Music Trade Review cited in my previous comment obviously mistook Mr. Guerrein’s personal address for the location of the theater project. “Private plans” indicates that no architect was involved on the project. It was most likely designed by a licensed engineer on the staff of the general contractor, Deutsch & Dudenhoefer.
Both Bell’s Opera House and the Orpheum Theatre at Hillsboro were mentioned in an item in the December 12, 1908, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Hillsboro, Ohio.—The Bell Opera House, which only opened with moving pictures on Thanksgiving, reports good business. Only high-class pictures are shown and highclass vaudeville.
“The Orpheum Theater has discarded the old style folding chairs and installed comfortable metal frame high back opera chairs.”
Here is a reminiscence about the Wabash Theatre written by former projectionist W.F. Werzner. The theater is presumably still intact and usable, as it was the venue for a variety and talent show, part of the annual Grayville Days event, as recently as September 3 last year, and for a town-wide church service the following Sunday.
The auditorium of the Avon Theatre has been demolished and its site is occupied by part of the multi-level parking garage that takes up the block from Broughton Lane to State Street and Drayton Street to Abercorn Street. The Savannah Taphouse occupies only the theater’s former entrance building, extending from Broughton Street to Broughton Lane. That is also the space once occupied by the Folly/Band Box Theatre, the small silent era house that the Avon’s entrance building replaced in 1944.
This post from The First News Junkies mentions that the Ritz is being converted into a hologram theater, but doesn’t give any details about the project. It does, however, have a nice photo of the News-View that I don’t recall having seen previously.
This post from the SFGate is about Dolby Laboratories' demonstration project at the Vine Theatre. I don’t know if Dolby is involved with the Ritz project. It isn’t the only company experimenting with holographic movies.
This Mashable post says that Seoul has four competing theaters presenting holographic versions of Korean pop music concerts, and another hologram theater is opening in Singapore. Their system isn’t very advanced, though. I would hope that Dolby’s experimental system is better, and is the sort of thing that will be going into the Ritz.
A couple of photos of the auditorium of the Oak Village Theatre can be seen on this page of Boxoffice, October 21, 1963 (click + sign in toobar at bottom to embiggen, scroll up two pages to read the beginning of the article.
Linkrot repair: The October 21, 1963, Boxoffice article about Wometco’s new Palm Springs Theatre can now be found online at this link (embiggen with + icon in toolbar at bottom, scroll down for second page with two additional photos.)
The conversion of the Amstar Stadium 14 into the Movie Tavern Brannon Crossing was designed by the Houston-based architecture and construction firm The Beck Group. Business Wire has a brief article about the project.
The Movie Tavern Juban Crossing is one of a number of projects designed for the chain by the Houston-based architecture and construction firm, The Beck Group.
One of the photos accompanying this article about Winston-Salem’s early movie theaters depicts the Pilot Theatre (click on third thumbnail.)
This article about Winston-Salem’s early movie theaters says that the Lyric opened in 1909 and became the Amuzu Theatre in 1910.
ThePossum: If you check my first comment on the Cinema Treasures page for the Hollywood Theatre you’ll find links to sources that document the history of the theater at 411 N. Liberty Street as having been the Elmont Theatre from 1912 until 1927, the Ideal Theatre from 1927 to 1934, and the Hollywood Theatre from 1934 until its destruction by fire in 1948.
I still suspect that the Broadway, listed at 429 Liberty in the 1926 theater list I posted earlier, was the predecessor of the Colonial, at 427 Liberty. The only thing I haven’t been able to discover is if the Broadway was simply remodeled to become the Colonial or if it was demolished and replaced by a new building for the Colonial.
This short-lived multiplex was dismantled in 2012 and converted into a warehouse store for Restaurant Equippers, a wholesale-retail restaurant supply company. See this article at philly.com.
Both Hoyts Pennsauken and Loews Cherry Hill opened on December 18, 1998, and Philly.com reported in an article posted on October 17, 2002, that Hoyts had been closed, so this house operated for less than four years. All the remaining American operations of Hoyts Cinemas, an Australian company, were taken over by Regal in 2004.
In 1955, the Liberty was the only movie house operating in Vermilion, according to an ad in the June 21 issue of The Lorain Journal. The house was operated by Zegiob Theaters Inc., a local chain also operating the Dreamland and Pearl Theatres in Loraine. The ad noted that, in recent years, the Liberty’s seating capacity had been doubled to 500.
An ad for Zegiob Theatres Inc., operators of the Dreamland and Pearl Theatres in Lorain and the Liberty Theatre in Vermilion, appeared in the June 21, 1955, issue of The Lorain Journal. It said that the Dreamland Theatre had been in operation since 1917 and had recently installed a wide screen, new projection equipment, and air conditioning.
A timeline of Lorain history said that the Dreamland suffered a major fire on August 18, 1947, and was reopened on April 7, 1948.
The Cleveland Architects Database (large pdf file here) lists an Ivanhoe Square Block and Theatre, 16341-7 Euclid Avenue, East Cleveland, as a 1926 project of architect Frank Wooster Bail. The storefronts in the three-story theater building as seen in Google street view run from 16345 to 16357, and I can’t explain the address discrepancy. This is the place, though, as we’ve got the vintage photo showing it.
This item from the February 20, 1915, issue of The American Contractor indicates that some contracts had been let for a movie theater at Madison and Ridgewood Avenues by that date:
I’ve been unable to find any other references to this project, nor have I found any mention of the U-No Theatre in the trade journals, though Cleveland Memory has an undated photo of it. I don’t think we can rule out a possible 1915 opening for this house, even though I haven’t been able to confirm that it did.I don’t believe this has been linked yet. This post from Hidden City Philadelphia has several photos of the Logan showing the interior renovations as of 2012, most of them paired with vintage 1924 photos of the same scenes.
The text notes that Dr. Williamson bought the Logan in 2005. The church which had moved into the house in 1973 had moved out in 1992, and much damage had been done during the years the building was vacant. The Logan Theatre closed as a movie house in 1972.
The Rockland Theatre should be listed in the Logan-Fern Rock neighborhood, along with the nearby Logan and Broad Theatres (all of them in a three-block stretch of Broad Street) instead of Germantown, which is some distance west.
The original Logan Theatre probably opened in 1913, and the 1915 project that I mistook for evidence of a delay in construction was in fact an expansion of the already-operating house. This clarifying item comes from the January 23, 1915, issue of Motography:
The Rockland Theatre opened in 1915, not 1914. Here is an item announcing the status of the project in the February 20, 1915, issue of The American Contractor:
As contracts for painting and roofing had been let at this time, the project was pretty close to completion, making an opening in the spring of 1915 very likely.I believe that the remodeled building Frank Albrecht mentioned is indeed the former Hillcrest Theatre. It is currently occupied by businesses called Diamond Design Construction (probably offices, located at the rear of the building but with a narrow entrance at the street) and Tamara’s Spa Salon & Hair Studio. Their addresses are, respectively, 2503A and 2503 Peach Street, so the theater’s address was probably 2503.
2505 is a vacant lot, which judging from the fenestration in the building across it from the theater’s site was always there. The detail around the windows indicates that they are original to the building, and the building looks to have been built no later than the 1920s.
The former theater building has a side entrance near the rear onto the vacant lot, and it is at a lower level than the front entrances, indicating that the building floor sloped downward at one time. The entrance tot he construction company’s offices probably slopes downward. Entirely new construction would be unlikely to be built on two levels like that, so this probably is the old theater building remodeled.
Hurstpacman’s revelation that Mr. Guerrein’s residence was at 2509 Peach is confirmed by the notice in the February 20, 1915, issue of The American Contractor:
The notice in The Music Trade Review cited in my previous comment obviously mistook Mr. Guerrein’s personal address for the location of the theater project. “Private plans” indicates that no architect was involved on the project. It was most likely designed by a licensed engineer on the staff of the general contractor, Deutsch & Dudenhoefer.Both Bell’s Opera House and the Orpheum Theatre at Hillsboro were mentioned in an item in the December 12, 1908, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Here is a reminiscence about the Wabash Theatre written by former projectionist W.F. Werzner. The theater is presumably still intact and usable, as it was the venue for a variety and talent show, part of the annual Grayville Days event, as recently as September 3 last year, and for a town-wide church service the following Sunday.
The auditorium of the Avon Theatre has been demolished and its site is occupied by part of the multi-level parking garage that takes up the block from Broughton Lane to State Street and Drayton Street to Abercorn Street. The Savannah Taphouse occupies only the theater’s former entrance building, extending from Broughton Street to Broughton Lane. That is also the space once occupied by the Folly/Band Box Theatre, the small silent era house that the Avon’s entrance building replaced in 1944.
Thanks, Chris. Here is the correct link.
This post from The First News Junkies mentions that the Ritz is being converted into a hologram theater, but doesn’t give any details about the project. It does, however, have a nice photo of the News-View that I don’t recall having seen previously.
This post from the SFGate is about Dolby Laboratories' demonstration project at the Vine Theatre. I don’t know if Dolby is involved with the Ritz project. It isn’t the only company experimenting with holographic movies.
This Mashable post says that Seoul has four competing theaters presenting holographic versions of Korean pop music concerts, and another hologram theater is opening in Singapore. Their system isn’t very advanced, though. I would hope that Dolby’s experimental system is better, and is the sort of thing that will be going into the Ritz.
The recent opening of C.F. Morris’s new Dixie Theatre in Holdenville was announced in the July 9, 1926, issue of The Film Daily.
The July 9, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that Sam Baker expected to open his new Bellaire Theatre the first week of August.
A two page article with photos of the Don Mills Theatre appeared in the October 21, 1963, issue of Boxoffice, and can be seen online at this link.
The entire Don Mills Center was demolished in 2005 and has been replaced by a denser, more urban shopping district.
A couple of photos of the auditorium of the Oak Village Theatre can be seen on this page of Boxoffice, October 21, 1963 (click + sign in toobar at bottom to embiggen, scroll up two pages to read the beginning of the article.
Linkrot repair: The October 21, 1963, Boxoffice article about Wometco’s new Palm Springs Theatre can now be found online at this link (embiggen with + icon in toolbar at bottom, scroll down for second page with two additional photos.)
The conversion of the Amstar Stadium 14 into the Movie Tavern Brannon Crossing was designed by the Houston-based architecture and construction firm The Beck Group. Business Wire has a brief article about the project.
The Movie Tavern Juban Crossing is one of a number of projects designed for the chain by the Houston-based architecture and construction firm, The Beck Group.