The February 7, 1903, issue of The News Journal of Wilmington said that construction would soon begin on William Dockstader’s new theater at 828-839 Market Street.
The plans for the project had been drawn by the noted Philadelphia architect George L. Lovatt. Lovatt is best known for the many Roman Catholic churches he designed, mostly in Pennsylvania.
If demolition was underway when they were taken, the photos must date from 1976. I see there is an ornate letter “R” on the decorative panel adjacent to the proscenium.
Buster: As far as I know, the Rowland was the only purpose-built theater in Wilkinsburg. The town might have had some earlier nickelodeon-style theaters in converted storefronts, but they’d have been long gone by the time the Rowland was demolished in 1976.
The March 29, 1952, issue of Boxoffice said that the 400-car drive-in under construction at Minden, Louisiana, by W.H. Cobb and Ruth Cheshire was expected to open about April 15.
Though William Cobb had been a partner with New Orleans theater magnate Joy Houck in the Joy Theatre on Pearl Street beginning in the early 1940s, Houck was not involved in the drive-in project. The June 30, 1951, issue of Boxoffice had reported that Cheshire and Cobb had purchased Houck’s interest in Minden’s walk-in Joy Theatre.
Presumably Cobb had Mr. Houck’s permission to also use his name on the new drive-in, as I can’t find any reports of a lawsuit growing out of that use, and the name remained Joy Drive-In until it closed.
Also it should be noted that the web page jimroy linked to says that Ruth Cheshire, who later remarried and became Ruth Lowe, bought out Cobb’s interest in the theaters and operated the drive-in until it closed. There is no mention of Fox Theatres ever having any interest in the theaters in Minden.
Minden’s theater history is a bit muddled and the sources have some conflicting (and probably some erroneous) information, but this web page says that the Rex Theatre on Pearl Street was the first house of that name in Minden, not the second, and that it was taken over by Joy Houck, remodeled, and renamed the Joy Theatre. The page says this happened in the 1940s, but the move of the Rex name had to have been in the 1930s. There are multiple sources indicating that the second Rex was operating by the later 1930s. I’m not sure when the first Rex became the Joy. The house might have been closed for some time before being remodeled and reopened.
Comparing various vintage photos with modern Google street views, I’m sure the page is correct that the Rex and the Joy were the same house, and I believe the correct address of the theaters is 114 Pearl Street (we have the Joy listed at 112, and the Rex at 116.) The vintage photo of the Rex at the top of this page shows that the theater was in a building adjacent to the building in which the historical museum is now located. Though many Internet sources say that the museum is in the Rex building, that is clearly not the case. The subsequent photo on the museum’s web page shows that the museum entrance is in the space that in the vintage photo is occupied by a dry cleaning establishment.
This web page has a ca.1951 photo of the joy and shows that there was a building to the right of it. That was the building at 112 Pearl, which ends at an alley and never had an adjacent building on that side. This web page has a photo of the Joy taken at the same time from a different angle, and the brick pier of the museum building can be dimly seen at left.
The museum’s own web site says that in the 1950s the Joy was next door to the building now occupied by the museum. The building has been remodeled, and the streamline modern front of the Joy replaced by a brick facade. I have no doubt that the Rex and the Joy were the same theater, and their address is 114 Pearl Street. Our pages for the two theaters should be combined.
Also, our vintage photo of the Rex displays advertising for the 1934 Shirley Temple movie Baby Take a Bow, so the Rex was still operating at this location at least that late.
I found one source, an elderly resident of Minden named Juanita Agan, who said in an article published (or more likely re-published) in the October 7, 2015, issue of the Minden Press-Herald that the Brownie was a different theater than the Rex. She recalls “ I remember it as the Scout Theatre, others remember further back when it was called the Brownie Theatre or later it was the Tower Theater.”
The Rex was in a building that was built in 1902 as the First Baptist Church. This Rex was not the first of the name, but the second. According to this web page Edgar Hand owned the original Rex Theatre on Pearl Street. In the early 1940s it was taken over by Joy Houck, remodeled and renamed the Joy Theatre, and Hand moved the Rex to its second location. The page is probably wrong about the time of the move, as there are several sources saying that the second Rex was in operation in the 1930s. The photo of the Rex on this page is dated 1937. A slightly later photo in John A. Agan’s book Lost Minden shows an updated theater, probably in 1939 or 1940, decorated for the local premier of Gone With the Wind (on page 17 of the Google Books preview.)
I’m not sure when the second Rex closed, but at some point it was demolished to provide parking space for the Minden Medical Center.
The address 203 N. Broadway is obsolete. At some point Minden reassigned addresses, and the site of the Rex is now in the 800 block, though I don’t know exactly where. It must have been in the vicinity of a low brick building called the Minden Medical Pavilion, which is apparently an annex to the medical center, but which has a Morrell Street address.
The Joy Theatre closed in 1964, according to an article about the closing of the Joy Drive-In in 1981, which can be found on the web page I linked to in my previous comment.
Though it duplicates some of the information on the page jimroy linked to, this web page has additional information and includes a scan of part of a newspaper article about the closing of the theater from July, 1981 (difficult to read because the scan is too small.) The final night of operation at the Joy Drive-In was August 2, 1981.
113 N. Broadway is the wrong address for the Tower Theatre. According to the caption of a photo on page 21 of Lost Minden, by John A. Agan (Google Books preview) the Tower Theatre was in what is now the 600 block of Main Street. However, comparing the vintage photo showing the Tower with modern street view it can be seen that the theater’s entrance was actually in the building now occupied by the Main Street Barber Shop, at 711 Main Street.
The entrance was quite narrow and the auditorium must have extended behind the adjacent City Drug Store. In satellite view the back of this building has an odd slope to its roof, and I suspect that it might have been partly demolished. I don’t see how it could have accommodated 600 seats if it hadn’t been bigger at one time. It’s possible that the building once extended all the way to Monroe Street.
There is a ca.1951 photo of the Joy Theatre on this web page, along with a few reminiscences by locals. The rest of the page is mostly about the Joy Drive-In.
Map web sites can’t find a Palton Street in Minden. This web page mentions the Cozy only briefly, even though it is titled “Cozy Theater and Me”, but does say that the theater “…was located behind the stores on back street.” Map sites can’t find Back Street, either, but Lost Minden, by John A. Agan (Google Books preview) says that Back Street was long the name of the street that is now called Broadway Street.
I don’t think the theater’s address would be 112 Broadway, though, as that’s an area where three streets come together and it doesn’t look as though there would have been room for stores with a theater behind them at that spot. Possibly Palton Street was an alley which has been removed.
It’s not unusual for a building housing both a theater and offices or other uses to have two architects. J.B. White was a well known local architect in Ardmore, and so would have been a logical choice to handle a major local project, but had probably never designed a theater.
Leonard H. Bailey was an Oklahoma City architect who had experience designing theaters, and was probably brought in by the owners to handle that portion of the project. White, being local, was most likely also the supervising architect who oversaw the construction.
The architect’s name as given in the 1922 Manufacturers Record item I cited in my previous comment (Bruce Mitchell) was surely erroneous. One of the area’s noted architects during the period when the Palms was built was Bruce P. Kitchell. He was a master of the Spanish Colonial Revival style, and designed at least one other West Palm Beach theater, the Stanley (later the Palace.) It was most likely Kitchell who designed the Palms.
The March 5, 1923, issue of Motion Picture News ran a long article about the Stanley Theatre. The house, which had opened on November 11, 1922, was designed in the Spanish style by architect Bruce P. Kitchell. Kitchell, who originally practiced in Newark, New Jersey, later moved to Palm Beach and was for a while an associate of Addison Mizner.
Here is a scan of the article from the Internet Archive. Scroll down to see three additional photos of the house on the subsequent page of the magazine.
terrywade: This page is devoted to the original Bay Theatre, demolished and replaced by the Majestic Bay Theatres which opened on the same site in 2000. Click on the “Majestic Bay Theatres” link in the “Nearby Theatres” field on the right hand side of this page to open the page dedicated to the new theaters.
The Little Book of Wexford, by Nicky Rossiter, says that the Abbey Cinema opened on January 18, 1947, and originally had 1,000 seats. Seating was reduced when the balcony was closed in 1976.
This weblog post by Annemarie O'Connor reminisces about the Abbey Cinema, and says that it closed in the early 1990s.
The Little Book of Wexford, by Nicky Rossiter, says that the Capitol Cinema opened on February 15, 1931. The building had previously been occupied by a furniture store. An article published in November, 2002, announcing that the premises of the Capitol Cinema were being renovated for a return to retail use noted that the theater had been closed for eighteen years, so it closed around 1984.
The Little Book of Wexford, by Nicky Rossiter, says that the Cinema Palace officially opened on December 7, 1914, in an existing building that had been altered for use as a cinema. It closed in 1970.
Here is a larger version of an image on this theater’s photo page, the Marr and Colton organ company’s 1928 ad illustrated with a couple of images of the Gennesee Theatre.
this page of the January 21, 1928, issue of Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World features three photos of the recently opened Chateau-Dodge Theatre.
The La Harte Theatre was mentioned in the April 24, 1948, issue of Showmen’s Trade Review. The owner was named Ed M. Hart. Anton was developed in 1924, and Ed Hart was the first assistant sales manager of the development company, later becoming its general manager. He also owned the local drug store.
The two storefronts that replaced the Colonial Theatre are currently occupied by a bail bondsman’s office and a tattoo parlor. Page 86 of George T. Henry, Mark W. Hunter’s book Cedar Rapids: Downtown and Beyond features a photo of the Colonial in its early days (Google Books preview.)
The mail deamon might be set to reject emails over a certain size, or with files attached. Try sending a plain request without the photos. The theater editor, Ken Roe, might have another address you could send the photos to, or might be able to reset the program to accept the files from your specific email address, though I’m not sure exactly how the system works. But it might be quicker if you could just upload them directly to the photo page yourself.
The February 7, 1903, issue of The News Journal of Wilmington said that construction would soon begin on William Dockstader’s new theater at 828-839 Market Street.
The plans for the project had been drawn by the noted Philadelphia architect George L. Lovatt. Lovatt is best known for the many Roman Catholic churches he designed, mostly in Pennsylvania.
If demolition was underway when they were taken, the photos must date from 1976. I see there is an ornate letter “R” on the decorative panel adjacent to the proscenium.
Buster: As far as I know, the Rowland was the only purpose-built theater in Wilkinsburg. The town might have had some earlier nickelodeon-style theaters in converted storefronts, but they’d have been long gone by the time the Rowland was demolished in 1976.
The March 29, 1952, issue of Boxoffice said that the 400-car drive-in under construction at Minden, Louisiana, by W.H. Cobb and Ruth Cheshire was expected to open about April 15.
Though William Cobb had been a partner with New Orleans theater magnate Joy Houck in the Joy Theatre on Pearl Street beginning in the early 1940s, Houck was not involved in the drive-in project. The June 30, 1951, issue of Boxoffice had reported that Cheshire and Cobb had purchased Houck’s interest in Minden’s walk-in Joy Theatre.
Presumably Cobb had Mr. Houck’s permission to also use his name on the new drive-in, as I can’t find any reports of a lawsuit growing out of that use, and the name remained Joy Drive-In until it closed.
Also it should be noted that the web page jimroy linked to says that Ruth Cheshire, who later remarried and became Ruth Lowe, bought out Cobb’s interest in the theaters and operated the drive-in until it closed. There is no mention of Fox Theatres ever having any interest in the theaters in Minden.
Minden’s theater history is a bit muddled and the sources have some conflicting (and probably some erroneous) information, but this web page says that the Rex Theatre on Pearl Street was the first house of that name in Minden, not the second, and that it was taken over by Joy Houck, remodeled, and renamed the Joy Theatre. The page says this happened in the 1940s, but the move of the Rex name had to have been in the 1930s. There are multiple sources indicating that the second Rex was operating by the later 1930s. I’m not sure when the first Rex became the Joy. The house might have been closed for some time before being remodeled and reopened.
Comparing various vintage photos with modern Google street views, I’m sure the page is correct that the Rex and the Joy were the same house, and I believe the correct address of the theaters is 114 Pearl Street (we have the Joy listed at 112, and the Rex at 116.) The vintage photo of the Rex at the top of this page shows that the theater was in a building adjacent to the building in which the historical museum is now located. Though many Internet sources say that the museum is in the Rex building, that is clearly not the case. The subsequent photo on the museum’s web page shows that the museum entrance is in the space that in the vintage photo is occupied by a dry cleaning establishment.
This web page has a ca.1951 photo of the joy and shows that there was a building to the right of it. That was the building at 112 Pearl, which ends at an alley and never had an adjacent building on that side. This web page has a photo of the Joy taken at the same time from a different angle, and the brick pier of the museum building can be dimly seen at left.
The museum’s own web site says that in the 1950s the Joy was next door to the building now occupied by the museum. The building has been remodeled, and the streamline modern front of the Joy replaced by a brick facade. I have no doubt that the Rex and the Joy were the same theater, and their address is 114 Pearl Street. Our pages for the two theaters should be combined.
Also, our vintage photo of the Rex displays advertising for the 1934 Shirley Temple movie Baby Take a Bow, so the Rex was still operating at this location at least that late.
I found one source, an elderly resident of Minden named Juanita Agan, who said in an article published (or more likely re-published) in the October 7, 2015, issue of the Minden Press-Herald that the Brownie was a different theater than the Rex. She recalls “ I remember it as the Scout Theatre, others remember further back when it was called the Brownie Theatre or later it was the Tower Theater.”
The Rex was in a building that was built in 1902 as the First Baptist Church. This Rex was not the first of the name, but the second. According to this web page Edgar Hand owned the original Rex Theatre on Pearl Street. In the early 1940s it was taken over by Joy Houck, remodeled and renamed the Joy Theatre, and Hand moved the Rex to its second location. The page is probably wrong about the time of the move, as there are several sources saying that the second Rex was in operation in the 1930s. The photo of the Rex on this page is dated 1937. A slightly later photo in John A. Agan’s book Lost Minden shows an updated theater, probably in 1939 or 1940, decorated for the local premier of Gone With the Wind (on page 17 of the Google Books preview.)
I’m not sure when the second Rex closed, but at some point it was demolished to provide parking space for the Minden Medical Center.
The address 203 N. Broadway is obsolete. At some point Minden reassigned addresses, and the site of the Rex is now in the 800 block, though I don’t know exactly where. It must have been in the vicinity of a low brick building called the Minden Medical Pavilion, which is apparently an annex to the medical center, but which has a Morrell Street address.
The Joy Theatre closed in 1964, according to an article about the closing of the Joy Drive-In in 1981, which can be found on the web page I linked to in my previous comment.
Though it duplicates some of the information on the page jimroy linked to, this web page has additional information and includes a scan of part of a newspaper article about the closing of the theater from July, 1981 (difficult to read because the scan is too small.) The final night of operation at the Joy Drive-In was August 2, 1981.
113 N. Broadway is the wrong address for the Tower Theatre. According to the caption of a photo on page 21 of Lost Minden, by John A. Agan (Google Books preview) the Tower Theatre was in what is now the 600 block of Main Street. However, comparing the vintage photo showing the Tower with modern street view it can be seen that the theater’s entrance was actually in the building now occupied by the Main Street Barber Shop, at 711 Main Street.
The entrance was quite narrow and the auditorium must have extended behind the adjacent City Drug Store. In satellite view the back of this building has an odd slope to its roof, and I suspect that it might have been partly demolished. I don’t see how it could have accommodated 600 seats if it hadn’t been bigger at one time. It’s possible that the building once extended all the way to Monroe Street.
There is a ca.1951 photo of the Joy Theatre on this web page, along with a few reminiscences by locals. The rest of the page is mostly about the Joy Drive-In.
Map web sites can’t find a Palton Street in Minden. This web page mentions the Cozy only briefly, even though it is titled “Cozy Theater and Me”, but does say that the theater “…was located behind the stores on back street.” Map sites can’t find Back Street, either, but Lost Minden, by John A. Agan (Google Books preview) says that Back Street was long the name of the street that is now called Broadway Street.
I don’t think the theater’s address would be 112 Broadway, though, as that’s an area where three streets come together and it doesn’t look as though there would have been room for stores with a theater behind them at that spot. Possibly Palton Street was an alley which has been removed.
The State Theatre’s entrance was on Beale Street, so its address should be 304 Beale.
It’s not unusual for a building housing both a theater and offices or other uses to have two architects. J.B. White was a well known local architect in Ardmore, and so would have been a logical choice to handle a major local project, but had probably never designed a theater.
Leonard H. Bailey was an Oklahoma City architect who had experience designing theaters, and was probably brought in by the owners to handle that portion of the project. White, being local, was most likely also the supervising architect who oversaw the construction.
The architect’s name as given in the 1922 Manufacturers Record item I cited in my previous comment (Bruce Mitchell) was surely erroneous. One of the area’s noted architects during the period when the Palms was built was Bruce P. Kitchell. He was a master of the Spanish Colonial Revival style, and designed at least one other West Palm Beach theater, the Stanley (later the Palace.) It was most likely Kitchell who designed the Palms.
The March 5, 1923, issue of Motion Picture News ran a long article about the Stanley Theatre. The house, which had opened on November 11, 1922, was designed in the Spanish style by architect Bruce P. Kitchell. Kitchell, who originally practiced in Newark, New Jersey, later moved to Palm Beach and was for a while an associate of Addison Mizner.
Here is a scan of the article from the Internet Archive. Scroll down to see three additional photos of the house on the subsequent page of the magazine.
terrywade: This page is devoted to the original Bay Theatre, demolished and replaced by the Majestic Bay Theatres which opened on the same site in 2000. Click on the “Majestic Bay Theatres” link in the “Nearby Theatres” field on the right hand side of this page to open the page dedicated to the new theaters.
The Little Book of Wexford, by Nicky Rossiter, says that the Abbey Cinema opened on January 18, 1947, and originally had 1,000 seats. Seating was reduced when the balcony was closed in 1976.
This weblog post by Annemarie O'Connor reminisces about the Abbey Cinema, and says that it closed in the early 1990s.
The Little Book of Wexford, by Nicky Rossiter, says that the Capitol Cinema opened on February 15, 1931. The building had previously been occupied by a furniture store. An article published in November, 2002, announcing that the premises of the Capitol Cinema were being renovated for a return to retail use noted that the theater had been closed for eighteen years, so it closed around 1984.
The Little Book of Wexford, by Nicky Rossiter, says that the Cinema Palace officially opened on December 7, 1914, in an existing building that had been altered for use as a cinema. It closed in 1970.
Here is a larger version of an image on this theater’s photo page, the Marr and Colton organ company’s 1928 ad illustrated with a couple of images of the Gennesee Theatre.
this page of the January 21, 1928, issue of Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World features three photos of the recently opened Chateau-Dodge Theatre.
The La Harte Theatre was mentioned in the April 24, 1948, issue of Showmen’s Trade Review. The owner was named Ed M. Hart. Anton was developed in 1924, and Ed Hart was the first assistant sales manager of the development company, later becoming its general manager. He also owned the local drug store.
The two storefronts that replaced the Colonial Theatre are currently occupied by a bail bondsman’s office and a tattoo parlor. Page 86 of George T. Henry, Mark W. Hunter’s book Cedar Rapids: Downtown and Beyond features a photo of the Colonial in its early days (Google Books preview.)
Replacing an earlier comment which suffered linkrot:
Hanns Teichert’s November 4, 1950, Boxoffice article about the State Theatre can be seen here.
The mail deamon might be set to reject emails over a certain size, or with files attached. Try sending a plain request without the photos. The theater editor, Ken Roe, might have another address you could send the photos to, or might be able to reset the program to accept the files from your specific email address, though I’m not sure exactly how the system works. But it might be quicker if you could just upload them directly to the photo page yourself.