If you enter the address on this site, you can see the drive-in back in 1972 and the 1950s. It was set back from Firestone Boulevard, as I suspected. http://tinyurl.com/ddtd55
“Crossed Swords” was playing at the Rossmoor in March 1978, according to this LA Times ad. Click on the ad for a better view. http://tinyurl.com/d3j9p9
Here is part of an article in the Wellsboro Gazette dated 3/26/97:
Hollywood stars â€" both past and present â€" came to Wellsboro for the gala reopening of the Arcadia Theatre on Friday night, March 21. As darkness settled on the town of 4,000, a good percentage of that number gathered on the boulevards and outside the Main Street theater to witness the festivities. Brothers John and Jim Dunham arrived at the ribbon, a combination of white ribbon and black film, for the ribbon-cutting ceremony along with state Rep. Matthew E. Baker and Wellsboro Mayor R. Robert DeCamp.
“People wonder why did this happen,” said DeCamp. “It happened because of people like John and Jim Dunham.” The pair had the courage of their convictions to forge ahead with plans to rehabilitate the 75-year-old theater, said DeCamp. They also had the faith that if they completed this project, the people of Tioga County would utilize the first-run movie house. Baker clipped the ribbon, and the star-studded procession began. Classic cars and limousines pulled up to the curb to discharge their tuxedo-clad and sequin-decorated occupants.
The former theater has undergone a transformation since it was closed last October for a conversion to a four-screen complex. The walls are now covered with a dark green faux marble wallpaper decorated with scrollwork border along the top. Floors are covered with a rich green and red patterned covering. The walls have returned to some of their former glory with the decorative scrollwork rectangle in off-white contrasting against a dark green background with highlights of ruby red and gold.
This is part of a 1930 criminal case involving a hold-up at the Mar-Cal Theater:
In view of appellant’s contention that the evidence presented before the jury is insufficient to sustain the verdict rendered we will give a rather extended statement of such evidence. On the evening of April 8, 1929, between the hour of 6 and 7:30 the appellant, in company with one “Gazick,” now deceased, went to the auto rental place of Nicholas Macela at 1015 West Seventh Street, Los Angeles. Mr. Macela had only two automobiles on the lot at the time for rent, a Buick coupe and a Jordan coupe. After some discussion as to the relative speed of the two cars, during which appellant asked which car was the faster of the two, he rented the “Blue Boy Jordan Convertible Coupe,” which car he was told by the proprietor was the faster of the two. He paid the proprietor twenty-five dollars therefor. Appellant then signed his name as “J. J. Daley.” Mr. Gazick, who accompanied Davis, was described as being about five feet six inches in height and wearing a gray sweater and a cap. Appellant was dressed in a suit of dark clothes.
About 8:30 of the same evening Miss Schnauer, the cashier of the Mar-Cal Theater, at 6021 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, was held up while sitting in the box office of the theater. As she was rolling up some of the money that she had collected that evening a person described as about five feet six inches in height and who wore a gray sweater and a cap came into the box office. He pointed a gun at Miss Schnauer, who thereupon screamed and ran to the door of the theater, where she shouted to the door boy that someone was taking her money. One Alexander, a police officer, who was at that time sitting in the theater, heard her. He opened the front door of the theater and saw a man coming out of the box office with a gun in one hand and what looked to be money in the other hand. The officer fired a shot at the robber and then jumped back into the theater, where he remained for a period of thirty to sixty seconds. A man in the street pointed to a Jordan coupe which was parked near the theater, and as he pointed he said, “There they go.” Alexander then fired another shot, which went high. He then commandeered an automobile that was going in the same direction as the Jordan coupe, but after a little time lost sight of the latter on a side street leading off Hollywood Boulevard. The scream of the cashier attracted the attention of a man across the street, a Mr. Tate, who saw a man coming out of the lobby of the theater with a gun in his right hand and what resembled money in his left hand. The man fell down several times, stumbled and faltered, but proceeded to go and get into the Jordan coupe which was parked, as stated before, near the entrance of the theater. As Mr. Tate came across the street to the Jordan coupe, while the holdup man was getting into his car, he saw another man in the automobile. The two told him to go back where he had come from. The floor of the lobby of the theater was bloody and was strewn with money.
Four Star Theatre is a theatre and related property located on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The property is leased by its owners to United Artists Theatres of California, Inc., and subleased by United Artists to James and Artie Mitchell and corporations controlled by them. The sublease calls for rent of $48,000 per year, runs to August 30, 1977, is for the purpose of conducting a theatre, covers furniture, fixtures and equipment, and vests the right of possession in the sublessee.
The Mitchell group operates the theatre, catering to devotees of “X-rated” films. During the calendar year 1974, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department observed over 30 acts of public masturbation by patrons of the theatre. Employees of the Mitchell group were instructed to cause a warning of the presence of officers in the theatre to be flashed on the screen whenever their presence was known. While ushers sometimes patrolled the aisles, the patrol was sporadic at best except when police officers were known to be present.
Here is an excerpt from the lawsuit I mentioned back in December 2006:
Suffice it to say for the present that what the plaintiff is complaining of is that the Seville Theater was arbitrarily removed from one zone to another, and that by reason of such changed zoning she had been damaged because of her inability to secure first and second run pictures, ad theretofore, but was compelled to secure them in accordance with the new zoning. The Seville Theater was located at the extreme northeast corner of the city of Inglewood. Inglewood is bounded on the north and east by Los Angeles City. We may ignore a cemetery which forms a part of the cast boundary of Inglewood and lies between the boundaries of the two cities. Thus, the Seville Theater is at the point of a wedge extending about a mile and three-quarters into the side of Los Angeles City. The Seville is located in residential territory. There is nothing to distinguish the territory in the city of Los Angeles from that in the city of Inglewood other than the street marking the boundary between the two municipalities.The plaintiff and her husband, who was her business partner, selected the location of the Seville Theater, which was built for them and purchased by them in February of 1924 because of its favorable position with relation to zoning. The Seville Theater was able to secure motion pictures at the same time — that is, first or second run — as in the downtown theaters in Inglewood, the Inglewood Theater, and later the Granada Theater, which was opened in the fall of 1924, the former 1.83 miles away and the latter 1.73 miles away from the Seville, but separated from each other by only a block. The nearest theater in Los Angeles City was the Rivoli, 2.95 miles distant from the Seville. Subsequently another theater, the Carlton, was opened in the fall of 1924 in Los Angeles 2.30 miles distant from the Seville, and .65 miles south of the Rivoli, both being located on Western avenue. By the zoning system in force at the time the Seville was built, it was enabled to secure first run pictures before the Rivoli or any other theater between the Seville and the larger downtown theaters in Los Angeles, some 10 miles distant. Later the Mesa Theater was built in Los Angeles City at the corner of Slauson avenue and Crenshaw boulevard, distant .75 miles from the Seville, and opened April 15, 1926. The Mesa seated 1,700 and the Seville 786, the Rivoli between 900 and 1,000, the Granada 1,000, and the Carlton about 1,200. Thus, after the Seville was opened, theaters having four times its seating capacity were opened in that vicinity. When the Mesa Theater was building, the zoning committee of the producers and exhibitors decided that the Mesa and Seville Theaters were competing theaters and put them in the same zone so that they could compete on equal terms. This arrangement was protested by plaintiff’s husband, who was managing the Seville Theater, but his protest was overruled.
It looks like this theater was built in the early 1950s, according to this suit:
This action was commenced in 1956 when Exton Drive-In, Inc. (Exton) filed a complaint in assumpsit against The Home Indemnity Co. (Home) seeking damages under a performance bond in which Home and W. Arnold Blythe (Blythe) had bound themselves jointly and severally to Exton in the sum of $52,000. The bond was conditioned on the full and prompt performance by Blythe of a contract between him and Exton for the grading and paving of a site for an out-door motion picture theater. Exton alleged that this contract had not been fully and promptly performed and claimed damages in the amount of $42,500, being the profits allegedly lost because of delay in performance plus the estimated cost of remedying the defects in performance. Because the bond was a joint undertaking of Blythe as principal and Home as surety, Home impleaded Blythe as an additional defendant asserting joint and several liability. In his answer to the third party complaint, Blythe denied that he had breached the contract and brought a counterclaim against Exton for the unpaid balance of the contract price and for payment for certain additional work he had performed, allegedly at the request of Exton.
The case came on for trial before a judge sitting without a jury in May, 1960. Not until June, 1967, over seven years after the trial was completed did the judge enter his decision in this case. This decision was in the form of a verdict in favor of defendants Home and Blythe on plaintiff’s original complaint and a verdict for Blythe on his counterclaim against Exton in the sum of $ 13,692.49; there were no findings of fact or conclusions of law. Exton filed numerous exceptions to this decision, which were overruled by the court en banc in June, 1968. This appeal followed. Not until April 18, 1969, seventeen days before this appeal was argued, did the trial judge file an opinion explaining the overruling of Exton’s exceptions.
It looks like this group is using the theater for live performances. The status and function should be changed accordingly. http://www.ferndale-rep.org/
This is from the Indiana (PA) Gazette in November 1979:
PUNXSUTAWNEY – The Jefferson Theater will go under the auctioneer’s gavel in a public auction to be held here at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15. The public auction will be held on the premises of the Jefferson Theater Building with Col. Larry Reed, of DuBois, as auctioneer. To be put up for sale at the auction will be the building itself and the contents of the former movie theater facility.
The Jefferson theater building is owned by a Pittsburgh entertainment chain. The movie house, located on North Findley Street in Punxsutawney, has been closed since Oct. 6, 1978, when the last regularly scheduled feature was shown. Since that time only one movie has been shown every six months to enable the owners to retain the theater zoning designation for the building.
A May 1961 article in the Elyria (OH) Chronicle Telegram reported that the theater had been purchased by the Black Muslims to use as a mosque. It had previously been a Christian church.
If you enter the address on this site, you can see the drive-in back in 1972 and the 1950s. It was set back from Firestone Boulevard, as I suspected.
http://tinyurl.com/ddtd55
“Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox” was playing at the drive-in back in March 1976, per this LA Times ad:
http://tinyurl.com/d8sb6c
“Crossed Swords” was playing at the Rossmoor in March 1978, according to this LA Times ad. Click on the ad for a better view.
http://tinyurl.com/d3j9p9
Here is an opening day ad from drive-ins.com:
http://tinyurl.com/dzqfrb
Let’s hope not.
You can see aerial views from a few different decades by entering the theater address on this site:
View link
Here is a December 1975 ad from the Oxnard Press Courier:
http://tinyurl.com/dkskja
Here is a 1959 photo from the USC archive:
http://tinyurl.com/czqqq2
Here is part of an article in the Wellsboro Gazette dated 3/26/97:
Hollywood stars â€" both past and present â€" came to Wellsboro for the gala reopening of the Arcadia Theatre on Friday night, March 21. As darkness settled on the town of 4,000, a good percentage of that number gathered on the boulevards and outside the Main Street theater to witness the festivities. Brothers John and Jim Dunham arrived at the ribbon, a combination of white ribbon and black film, for the ribbon-cutting ceremony along with state Rep. Matthew E. Baker and Wellsboro Mayor R. Robert DeCamp.
“People wonder why did this happen,” said DeCamp. “It happened because of people like John and Jim Dunham.” The pair had the courage of their convictions to forge ahead with plans to rehabilitate the 75-year-old theater, said DeCamp. They also had the faith that if they completed this project, the people of Tioga County would utilize the first-run movie house. Baker clipped the ribbon, and the star-studded procession began. Classic cars and limousines pulled up to the curb to discharge their tuxedo-clad and sequin-decorated occupants.
The former theater has undergone a transformation since it was closed last October for a conversion to a four-screen complex. The walls are now covered with a dark green faux marble wallpaper decorated with scrollwork border along the top. Floors are covered with a rich green and red patterned covering. The walls have returned to some of their former glory with the decorative scrollwork rectangle in off-white contrasting against a dark green background with highlights of ruby red and gold.
Photo on this real estate ad:
http://tinyurl.com/cn89us
Interesting looking building. I can see why the style is listed as unknown.
Here is an item on the closing:
http://tinyurl.com/c6a486
This is one of the earlier versions of the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/cfx5vf
“I, Mobster” was playing at the Rosecrans in March 1959. Click on the ad for a better view:
http://tinyurl.com/cr8u4t
This is part of a 1930 criminal case involving a hold-up at the Mar-Cal Theater:
In view of appellant’s contention that the evidence presented before the jury is insufficient to sustain the verdict rendered we will give a rather extended statement of such evidence. On the evening of April 8, 1929, between the hour of 6 and 7:30 the appellant, in company with one “Gazick,” now deceased, went to the auto rental place of Nicholas Macela at 1015 West Seventh Street, Los Angeles. Mr. Macela had only two automobiles on the lot at the time for rent, a Buick coupe and a Jordan coupe. After some discussion as to the relative speed of the two cars, during which appellant asked which car was the faster of the two, he rented the “Blue Boy Jordan Convertible Coupe,” which car he was told by the proprietor was the faster of the two. He paid the proprietor twenty-five dollars therefor. Appellant then signed his name as “J. J. Daley.” Mr. Gazick, who accompanied Davis, was described as being about five feet six inches in height and wearing a gray sweater and a cap. Appellant was dressed in a suit of dark clothes.
About 8:30 of the same evening Miss Schnauer, the cashier of the Mar-Cal Theater, at 6021 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, was held up while sitting in the box office of the theater. As she was rolling up some of the money that she had collected that evening a person described as about five feet six inches in height and who wore a gray sweater and a cap came into the box office. He pointed a gun at Miss Schnauer, who thereupon screamed and ran to the door of the theater, where she shouted to the door boy that someone was taking her money. One Alexander, a police officer, who was at that time sitting in the theater, heard her. He opened the front door of the theater and saw a man coming out of the box office with a gun in one hand and what looked to be money in the other hand. The officer fired a shot at the robber and then jumped back into the theater, where he remained for a period of thirty to sixty seconds. A man in the street pointed to a Jordan coupe which was parked near the theater, and as he pointed he said, “There they go.” Alexander then fired another shot, which went high. He then commandeered an automobile that was going in the same direction as the Jordan coupe, but after a little time lost sight of the latter on a side street leading off Hollywood Boulevard. The scream of the cashier attracted the attention of a man across the street, a Mr. Tate, who saw a man coming out of the lobby of the theater with a gun in his right hand and what resembled money in his left hand. The man fell down several times, stumbled and faltered, but proceeded to go and get into the Jordan coupe which was parked, as stated before, near the entrance of the theater. As Mr. Tate came across the street to the Jordan coupe, while the holdup man was getting into his car, he saw another man in the automobile. The two told him to go back where he had come from. The floor of the lobby of the theater was bloody and was strewn with money.
Here is part of the injunction from 1976:
Four Star Theatre is a theatre and related property located on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The property is leased by its owners to United Artists Theatres of California, Inc., and subleased by United Artists to James and Artie Mitchell and corporations controlled by them. The sublease calls for rent of $48,000 per year, runs to August 30, 1977, is for the purpose of conducting a theatre, covers furniture, fixtures and equipment, and vests the right of possession in the sublessee.
The Mitchell group operates the theatre, catering to devotees of “X-rated” films. During the calendar year 1974, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department observed over 30 acts of public masturbation by patrons of the theatre. Employees of the Mitchell group were instructed to cause a warning of the presence of officers in the theatre to be flashed on the screen whenever their presence was known. While ushers sometimes patrolled the aisles, the patrol was sporadic at best except when police officers were known to be present.
Here is an excerpt from the lawsuit I mentioned back in December 2006:
Suffice it to say for the present that what the plaintiff is complaining of is that the Seville Theater was arbitrarily removed from one zone to another, and that by reason of such changed zoning she had been damaged because of her inability to secure first and second run pictures, ad theretofore, but was compelled to secure them in accordance with the new zoning. The Seville Theater was located at the extreme northeast corner of the city of Inglewood. Inglewood is bounded on the north and east by Los Angeles City. We may ignore a cemetery which forms a part of the cast boundary of Inglewood and lies between the boundaries of the two cities. Thus, the Seville Theater is at the point of a wedge extending about a mile and three-quarters into the side of Los Angeles City. The Seville is located in residential territory. There is nothing to distinguish the territory in the city of Los Angeles from that in the city of Inglewood other than the street marking the boundary between the two municipalities.The plaintiff and her husband, who was her business partner, selected the location of the Seville Theater, which was built for them and purchased by them in February of 1924 because of its favorable position with relation to zoning. The Seville Theater was able to secure motion pictures at the same time — that is, first or second run — as in the downtown theaters in Inglewood, the Inglewood Theater, and later the Granada Theater, which was opened in the fall of 1924, the former 1.83 miles away and the latter 1.73 miles away from the Seville, but separated from each other by only a block. The nearest theater in Los Angeles City was the Rivoli, 2.95 miles distant from the Seville. Subsequently another theater, the Carlton, was opened in the fall of 1924 in Los Angeles 2.30 miles distant from the Seville, and .65 miles south of the Rivoli, both being located on Western avenue. By the zoning system in force at the time the Seville was built, it was enabled to secure first run pictures before the Rivoli or any other theater between the Seville and the larger downtown theaters in Los Angeles, some 10 miles distant. Later the Mesa Theater was built in Los Angeles City at the corner of Slauson avenue and Crenshaw boulevard, distant .75 miles from the Seville, and opened April 15, 1926. The Mesa seated 1,700 and the Seville 786, the Rivoli between 900 and 1,000, the Granada 1,000, and the Carlton about 1,200. Thus, after the Seville was opened, theaters having four times its seating capacity were opened in that vicinity. When the Mesa Theater was building, the zoning committee of the producers and exhibitors decided that the Mesa and Seville Theaters were competing theaters and put them in the same zone so that they could compete on equal terms. This arrangement was protested by plaintiff’s husband, who was managing the Seville Theater, but his protest was overruled.
Here is a larger view of the photo posted on 8/18/05:
http://tinyurl.com/cgdkgy
It looks like this theater was built in the early 1950s, according to this suit:
This action was commenced in 1956 when Exton Drive-In, Inc. (Exton) filed a complaint in assumpsit against The Home Indemnity Co. (Home) seeking damages under a performance bond in which Home and W. Arnold Blythe (Blythe) had bound themselves jointly and severally to Exton in the sum of $52,000. The bond was conditioned on the full and prompt performance by Blythe of a contract between him and Exton for the grading and paving of a site for an out-door motion picture theater. Exton alleged that this contract had not been fully and promptly performed and claimed damages in the amount of $42,500, being the profits allegedly lost because of delay in performance plus the estimated cost of remedying the defects in performance. Because the bond was a joint undertaking of Blythe as principal and Home as surety, Home impleaded Blythe as an additional defendant asserting joint and several liability. In his answer to the third party complaint, Blythe denied that he had breached the contract and brought a counterclaim against Exton for the unpaid balance of the contract price and for payment for certain additional work he had performed, allegedly at the request of Exton.
The case came on for trial before a judge sitting without a jury in May, 1960. Not until June, 1967, over seven years after the trial was completed did the judge enter his decision in this case. This decision was in the form of a verdict in favor of defendants Home and Blythe on plaintiff’s original complaint and a verdict for Blythe on his counterclaim against Exton in the sum of $ 13,692.49; there were no findings of fact or conclusions of law. Exton filed numerous exceptions to this decision, which were overruled by the court en banc in June, 1968. This appeal followed. Not until April 18, 1969, seventeen days before this appeal was argued, did the trial judge file an opinion explaining the overruling of Exton’s exceptions.
If you enter the address on this site and click on the 1952 image, you will see the drive-in:
http://tinyurl.com/ddtd55
It looks like this group is using the theater for live performances. The status and function should be changed accordingly.
http://www.ferndale-rep.org/
Here is a 1917 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ddjbnv
This is from the Indiana (PA) Gazette in November 1979:
PUNXSUTAWNEY – The Jefferson Theater will go under the auctioneer’s gavel in a public auction to be held here at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15. The public auction will be held on the premises of the Jefferson Theater Building with Col. Larry Reed, of DuBois, as auctioneer. To be put up for sale at the auction will be the building itself and the contents of the former movie theater facility.
The Jefferson theater building is owned by a Pittsburgh entertainment chain. The movie house, located on North Findley Street in Punxsutawney, has been closed since Oct. 6, 1978, when the last regularly scheduled feature was shown. Since that time only one movie has been shown every six months to enable the owners to retain the theater zoning designation for the building.
A May 1961 article in the Elyria (OH) Chronicle Telegram reported that the theater had been purchased by the Black Muslims to use as a mosque. It had previously been a Christian church.
I have to go, so if you want to add the Dreamland please do so.