In the January 10, 1935, issue of The Seminole Sentinel of Seminole, Texas, Dr. J. D. Burleson, dentist, advertised his location as “Palace Theatre Bldg. Lamesa.” The building in the photo has only one floor now, but might have had a second floor with offices that has since been removed.
The Palace was mentioned in the July 6, 1929, issue of Exhibitors Herald-World. RCA Photophone sound equipment had been installed. The house was in operation at least as late as 1973, when it was still advertising in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
The Palace Theatre, originally seating only 400, was expanded to accommodate 896 seats in 1950 when it was remodeled with a streamlined interior. The August 5 issue of Boxoffice had a brief article with two photos (lower part of left page.)
Soledad_Theatre_2: The theater your dad managed had to have been the second Soledad Theatre, located on Kidder Street, not this one (the first Soledad.) You’ll find a link to the second Soledad’s Cinema Treasures page in the “Nearby Theaters” field on the right side of this page. There is also a link to the page for the Rio Theatre.
You can upload digitized photos to Cinema Treasures. See the “Photos” section on the FAQ page for instructions.
I’m assuming that Gary, or someone else, has set the Google street view to the correct location of the (still standing) Greenfield Theatre. The building certainly looks like a former theater, with the wide entrance now closed up. As the flanking storefronts display the addresses 237 and 241, the theater must have been at 239 El Camino Real. The zip code is 93927.
The theater’s auditorium appears to have been fenestrated and divided into a couple of retail shops, entered from the side of the building. One is an ice cream parlor and the other sells drinking water. Ah, California.
At the top of this page we’re currently displaying a photo of the second Soledad Theatre on Kidder Street, not the Rio. The Rio was in the building at 325 Front Street, now housing a grocery store. Google street view has been set to the correct location, but the pin icon on the map is a block off.
Linkrot repair: The August 5, 1950, Boxoffice article about the construction techniques used in building the Soledad Theatre is now at this link (I hope. The web site to which the magazine has moved its online archive is cranky as hell.)
The January 3, 1932, issue of The Film Daily said that an Ultraphone sound system had recently been installed in the Sheridan Theatre at North Chicago.
The papers of the Minneapolis architectural firm Kees & Colburn, part of the Northwest Architectural Archives at the Elmer Anderson Library of the University of Minnesota, include a set of blueprints for the Blue Mouse Theatre, dated 1920. I don’t know if Kees & Colburn had any hand in designing the house, or if the firm just acted as supervising architects for the out-of-town designer, Harry Lawrie. I do know that Kees & Colburn’s style tended toward Classical/Beaux Arts rather than the Gothic look of the Blue Mouse.
I was unable to find this house with Cinema Treasures' internal search using just the name Loring. I think it’s because the words Loring and Theatre are run together in the page title. If you run them together in the search box, search finds the page, but it would be better to separate the words.
According to this page at Historic Detroit, the Miles Theatre was opened on May 15, 1910, ran its last show on Nov. 28, 1927, and was demolished around May, 1928, to make way for the Griswold Building, which is still standing.
The Miles Theatre was designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm Kees & Colburn (Franklin Kees and Serenus Colburn.)
The building occupied by the Grand Theatre in our vintage photo was still standing when Google’s camera car last passed by, but might be no longer. In the current street view it was occupied by a shop called Wild Eyes Pets and Exotics, 430 Chestnut Street, which has since moved to a new location.
The facade of old theater building was looking pretty rough when the street view was made, and it’s possible that it has since been demolished. It is also possible that the roughness was due to restoration work, as the roof looked pretty sound in the satellite view. We’ll probably have to wait until someone visits the location, or Google’s camera car returns and updates the view, before we know the fate of the Grand Theatre building.
Several of the buildings in this block look about the same in modern Google street view as they did in the vintage photo we have. The building the Bijou was in is now occupied by a quick print shop called Copy Magic, located at 428 Chestnut Street.
The January 28, 1950, issue of Boxoffice had a brief article saying that an antitrust suit had been filed against major film producers and distributors by “…Rose and Lewis Deutsch, owners of the Granada Theatre in Virginia, Minnesota, a 630-seat house built in 1936.”
The Deutsch’s had difficulty obtaining films on opening the theater in 1936 until they signed an agreement with the dominant regional exhibitor, Minnesota Amusement Company, which allowed them to get first run or second run product, but only if their partners got the biggest share of the revenues (this was a very common situation for independent theater operators to be in during that time.)
When the agreement ended in 1946, the Deutsch’s were again unable to get first run product. Their lawsuit claimed that, due to collusion between producers, distributors, and the Minnesota Amusement Company, the Deutsches had suffered $75,000 in business losses.
The Lewisburg Cinema 8 was designed by the Louisville architectural firm Keyes Architects & Associates. There are four photos of the project on this page of the firm’s web site.
The Pierce Point Cinema 10 was designed by Louisville architectural firm Keyes Architects & Associates. There are two small photos on this page of the firm’s web site.
A photo of the Keystone Cinemas at Bardstown appear on this page of the web site of Lee Brick & Block, the company that made the concrete masonry used in the building. There are also a couple of closeup photos.
The Shelbyville 8 was designed for Great Escape Theaters by the Louisville architectural firm Keyes Architects & Associates. There are a few photos on the firm’s web site.
The single-screen, 6,800 square foot Paradise Theatre in Mora, Minnesota, is among the projects listed in the theater section of the portfolio of the St.Paul architectural firm Vanney Associates. No other details are given about the project. Robert F. Vanney is the lead architect of the firm.
Originally a two-screen house, at some point the Cambridge Cinema got a three screen addition. The addition was designed by the St.Paul architectural firm Vanney Associates, headed by Robert F. Vanney.
A ten-screen multiplex at Owatonna is among the projects listed in the theater projects section of the portfolio of the St.Paul architectural firm Vanney Associates. No details are given about the project. Robert F. Vanney is the lead architect of the firm.
The Weast Theatre was the smallest of four houses listed at Peoria in the 1908-1909 Cahn Guide. The Weast was a ground floor house with 900 seats. It had a rather small stage, only 41 feet between the side walls and 26 feet from the footlights (which were 8 feet in front of the curtain) to the back wall.
A 1922 obituary of Peter A. Weast at Find a Grave says that the Weast Theatre presented “high class vaudeville” from about 1888-1908. The page has scans of a couple of vintage ads for the house, one of which includes a sketch of the facade. Although the ad gives the address of the house as 314 Fulton it is apparently the same house, as the biography says that it was “…located where the Lyceum Theatre on Fulton is.”
If this report from the September 1, 1909, issue of Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal is correct, then the Weast Theatre ceased to be a theater for a while:
“The Thatcher-Bererstorn Co. has opened a garage in the old Weast Theatre on Fulton street, Peoria, Ill. The company handle the White steamers, Cadillac gasoline cars and Wood electrics.”
The re-conversion of the building back into a theater took place the following year, as noted in this item from the November 15, 1910, issue of The Nickelodeon:
“Peoria is to have still another new theater. The old Weast theater on Fulton street has been leased by a syndicate of Peorians headed by Sandy McGill, and will be devoted to motion pictures and vaudeville. Associated with McGill are Wiley Bracket, Chas. Nathan and Felix Greenburg, proprietor of other theaters. Greenberg is to be manager.”
The December 3, 1910, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the old Weast Theatre in Peoria had been remodeled and converted into a moving picture theatre, though it didn’t mention the new name of the house.
Sam Rothenstein, operator of the Rialto Theatre in Evans City, was preparing to soon open the new Evans Theatre as its replacement, according to the February 26, 1949, issue of Boxoffice. The new house was being outfitted by Atlas Theatre Supply.
The February 26, 1949, issue of Boxoffice noted that the Baden Theatre was operated by Martin Rothenstein. Rothenstein’s father, Sam, was preparing to open the Evens Theatre at Evans City.
The February 26, 1949, issue of Boxoffice reported that F. R. Spangler, operator of the Capitol Theatre at Utica, had recently opened the new Delux Theatre. Spangler intended to continue operating the Capitol as well.
CinemaTour has a photo.
In the January 10, 1935, issue of The Seminole Sentinel of Seminole, Texas, Dr. J. D. Burleson, dentist, advertised his location as “Palace Theatre Bldg. Lamesa.” The building in the photo has only one floor now, but might have had a second floor with offices that has since been removed.
The Palace was mentioned in the July 6, 1929, issue of Exhibitors Herald-World. RCA Photophone sound equipment had been installed. The house was in operation at least as late as 1973, when it was still advertising in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
The Palace Theatre, originally seating only 400, was expanded to accommodate 896 seats in 1950 when it was remodeled with a streamlined interior. The August 5 issue of Boxoffice had a brief article with two photos (lower part of left page.)
Soledad_Theatre_2: The theater your dad managed had to have been the second Soledad Theatre, located on Kidder Street, not this one (the first Soledad.) You’ll find a link to the second Soledad’s Cinema Treasures page in the “Nearby Theaters” field on the right side of this page. There is also a link to the page for the Rio Theatre.
You can upload digitized photos to Cinema Treasures. See the “Photos” section on the FAQ page for instructions.
I’m assuming that Gary, or someone else, has set the Google street view to the correct location of the (still standing) Greenfield Theatre. The building certainly looks like a former theater, with the wide entrance now closed up. As the flanking storefronts display the addresses 237 and 241, the theater must have been at 239 El Camino Real. The zip code is 93927.
The theater’s auditorium appears to have been fenestrated and divided into a couple of retail shops, entered from the side of the building. One is an ice cream parlor and the other sells drinking water. Ah, California.
At the top of this page we’re currently displaying a photo of the second Soledad Theatre on Kidder Street, not the Rio. The Rio was in the building at 325 Front Street, now housing a grocery store. Google street view has been set to the correct location, but the pin icon on the map is a block off.
Yay, my link worked. And so nobody will have to hunt them down, this link should take you to the page with the final four paragraphs of the article.
Linkrot repair: The August 5, 1950, Boxoffice article about the construction techniques used in building the Soledad Theatre is now at this link (I hope. The web site to which the magazine has moved its online archive is cranky as hell.)
The January 3, 1932, issue of The Film Daily said that an Ultraphone sound system had recently been installed in the Sheridan Theatre at North Chicago.
The papers of the Minneapolis architectural firm Kees & Colburn, part of the Northwest Architectural Archives at the Elmer Anderson Library of the University of Minnesota, include a set of blueprints for the Blue Mouse Theatre, dated 1920. I don’t know if Kees & Colburn had any hand in designing the house, or if the firm just acted as supervising architects for the out-of-town designer, Harry Lawrie. I do know that Kees & Colburn’s style tended toward Classical/Beaux Arts rather than the Gothic look of the Blue Mouse.
I was unable to find this house with Cinema Treasures' internal search using just the name Loring. I think it’s because the words Loring and Theatre are run together in the page title. If you run them together in the search box, search finds the page, but it would be better to separate the words.
According to this page at Historic Detroit, the Miles Theatre was opened on May 15, 1910, ran its last show on Nov. 28, 1927, and was demolished around May, 1928, to make way for the Griswold Building, which is still standing.
The Miles Theatre was designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm Kees & Colburn (Franklin Kees and Serenus Colburn.)
The building occupied by the Grand Theatre in our vintage photo was still standing when Google’s camera car last passed by, but might be no longer. In the current street view it was occupied by a shop called Wild Eyes Pets and Exotics, 430 Chestnut Street, which has since moved to a new location.
The facade of old theater building was looking pretty rough when the street view was made, and it’s possible that it has since been demolished. It is also possible that the roughness was due to restoration work, as the roof looked pretty sound in the satellite view. We’ll probably have to wait until someone visits the location, or Google’s camera car returns and updates the view, before we know the fate of the Grand Theatre building.
Several of the buildings in this block look about the same in modern Google street view as they did in the vintage photo we have. The building the Bijou was in is now occupied by a quick print shop called Copy Magic, located at 428 Chestnut Street.
The January 28, 1950, issue of Boxoffice had a brief article saying that an antitrust suit had been filed against major film producers and distributors by “…Rose and Lewis Deutsch, owners of the Granada Theatre in Virginia, Minnesota, a 630-seat house built in 1936.”
The Deutsch’s had difficulty obtaining films on opening the theater in 1936 until they signed an agreement with the dominant regional exhibitor, Minnesota Amusement Company, which allowed them to get first run or second run product, but only if their partners got the biggest share of the revenues (this was a very common situation for independent theater operators to be in during that time.)
When the agreement ended in 1946, the Deutsch’s were again unable to get first run product. Their lawsuit claimed that, due to collusion between producers, distributors, and the Minnesota Amusement Company, the Deutsches had suffered $75,000 in business losses.
The Lewisburg Cinema 8 was designed by the Louisville architectural firm Keyes Architects & Associates. There are four photos of the project on this page of the firm’s web site.
The Pierce Point Cinema 10 was designed by Louisville architectural firm Keyes Architects & Associates. There are two small photos on this page of the firm’s web site.
A photo of the Keystone Cinemas at Bardstown appear on this page of the web site of Lee Brick & Block, the company that made the concrete masonry used in the building. There are also a couple of closeup photos.
The Shelbyville 8 was designed for Great Escape Theaters by the Louisville architectural firm Keyes Architects & Associates. There are a few photos on the firm’s web site.
The single-screen, 6,800 square foot Paradise Theatre in Mora, Minnesota, is among the projects listed in the theater section of the portfolio of the St.Paul architectural firm Vanney Associates. No other details are given about the project. Robert F. Vanney is the lead architect of the firm.
Originally a two-screen house, at some point the Cambridge Cinema got a three screen addition. The addition was designed by the St.Paul architectural firm Vanney Associates, headed by Robert F. Vanney.
A ten-screen multiplex at Owatonna is among the projects listed in the theater projects section of the portfolio of the St.Paul architectural firm Vanney Associates. No details are given about the project. Robert F. Vanney is the lead architect of the firm.
The Weast Theatre was the smallest of four houses listed at Peoria in the 1908-1909 Cahn Guide. The Weast was a ground floor house with 900 seats. It had a rather small stage, only 41 feet between the side walls and 26 feet from the footlights (which were 8 feet in front of the curtain) to the back wall.
A 1922 obituary of Peter A. Weast at Find a Grave says that the Weast Theatre presented “high class vaudeville” from about 1888-1908. The page has scans of a couple of vintage ads for the house, one of which includes a sketch of the facade. Although the ad gives the address of the house as 314 Fulton it is apparently the same house, as the biography says that it was “…located where the Lyceum Theatre on Fulton is.”
If this report from the September 1, 1909, issue of Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal is correct, then the Weast Theatre ceased to be a theater for a while:
The re-conversion of the building back into a theater took place the following year, as noted in this item from the November 15, 1910, issue of The Nickelodeon:The December 3, 1910, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the old Weast Theatre in Peoria had been remodeled and converted into a moving picture theatre, though it didn’t mention the new name of the house.Sam Rothenstein, operator of the Rialto Theatre in Evans City, was preparing to soon open the new Evans Theatre as its replacement, according to the February 26, 1949, issue of Boxoffice. The new house was being outfitted by Atlas Theatre Supply.
The February 26, 1949, issue of Boxoffice noted that the Baden Theatre was operated by Martin Rothenstein. Rothenstein’s father, Sam, was preparing to open the Evens Theatre at Evans City.
The February 26, 1949, issue of Boxoffice reported that F. R. Spangler, operator of the Capitol Theatre at Utica, had recently opened the new Delux Theatre. Spangler intended to continue operating the Capitol as well.