Comparing the vintage photo of the theater with the current Google street view, it’s clear that the Wigton Theatre was at the northeast corner of N. Detroit Street (IN-9) and E. Michigan Street. The building there now houses the store of a charitable organization called the Clothes & Food Basket of LaGrange County. It’s at 201 N. Detroit Street. The building is clad in a modern skin (probably aluminum and probably dating from the 1960s) even on its back wall, but I suspect that it is the old theater building.
An architect field needs to be created on this page listing A. Lowther Forrest, Ewald Blanke, and John Zink. Forrest’s involvement in the project was noted in the April 22, 1916, issue of Motography. The owner of the project was Vincent A. Valentine, and the size of the building was originally 32 x 90 feet.
This web page has a photo of this theater. It is undated and no theater name is visible.
This article about the Palace Theatre says that the Lomison Opera House was built circa 1879 and became the Keaggy Theatre in 1895. It also says that Michael Manos took over the house in 1917, but the January 22, 1916, article cited in my previous comment indicates that the Manos brothers had taken a lease on the Keaggy by then. The March 4, 1916, issue of Motography also noted the Manos project, saying that architect Nelson would be taking bids for it about April 1. It’s possible that the name was not changed to Strand Theatre until 1917, though.
This house was called the New Carnegie Theatre before being renamed the Louisa Theatre. The “Images of America” series book Carnegie, by Sandy Henry (Google Books preview) has a photo of the New Carnegie from the 1940s, and another showing the Louisa Theatre in flames. An article in the February 21, 1953, issue of Boxoffice mentioned that the Louisa Theatre had been 80% destroyed by a fire on the previous December 21.
The “Louisa Theatre Building” was mentioned in the May 30, 1953, issue of The Billboard. A new operator had taken over the Grand Theatre and also planned to renovate the Louisa building and install 3-D equipment. I’ve been unable to discover if the project was carried out. If it was, perhaps the name New Carnegie Theatre was restored to it.
I’ve found the New Carnegie Theatre mentioned in high school yearbooks from the area as early as 1930, but the building looked as though it probably dated from the 1920s. It was operated by Dr. Charles E. Herman. His wife (or perhaps widow) Louise B. Herman incorporated the New Carnegie Theatre Company on July 8, 1948, and the name must have been changed to Louisa Theatre some time after that.
What remains of the building today (I’m not sure how much that is, but the current structure is considerably shorter than it originally was) is occupied by Freedom Fellowship Church of Pittsburgh, so I would presume that the auditorium is still there, at least in part, and is used for religious services.
The March 3, 1932, issue of the Pittston Gazette reported that the Grand Theatre in Carnegie had been gutted by fire early that morning, with damage estimated at more than $25,000.
An ad in the January 1, 1941, issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offered New Year’s greetings to the community from the New Carnegie Theatre, the New Grand Theatre, the Liberty Theatre, and the Dixie Family Theatre.
This item appeared in the January, 1916, issue of The Classical Journal, an academic journal which is still being published:
“LaGrange.—Professor Miller’s Dido, the Phoenician Queen was presented with great success at the Wigton Theater by Latin students of the LaGrange High School, on November 12. Miss Marion Nelson appeared in the title r61e. Dale LeCount took the part of Aeneas.”
A James M. Wigton was listed as the manager of the La Grange Opera House in the 1912-1913 edition of the Cahn-Leighton guide. The Wigton Opera House in La Grange was soon to open, according to an item in the September 18, 1915, issue of The Music Trade Review. It’s possible that the theater was new in 1915, or it might be that Mr. Wigton had taken over the Opera House he had been managing in 1912 and renamed it for himself. Either way, it’s probable that the Wigton Opera House of 1915 was the same house as the later Wigton Theatre.
This item is from the March 13, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News:
“Arthur Hirsch and Louis Geller opened their new Mosholu Theatre in uptown New York on Monday evening of this week and practically the entire T. O. C. C. and local exchange representatives were on hand to offer congratulations to the owners on the realization of this attractive neighborhood house which is of single floor design and has a seating capacity of about 1000.”
Samuel Goldwyn Co. acquired the rights to Oklahoma and re-released it in both Todd-AO and 35mm formats in 1982.
Tri-Star ran nationwide sneak previews of Manhattan Murder Mystery the weekend prior to its release on Wednesday, August 18, 1993. A weekend ad for the theater running the preview might have an announcement about the event.
This item under the heading “Washington” from the August 18, 1917, issue of Motography notes a name change for this house:
“The Palace Theater at Vancouver will change its name to the American. The manager’s name will be John P. Kiggins. Some improvements and decorations will be made.”
Plans for the Saxe Bros. house that became the Jeffris Theatre were in the works as early as April, 1922, when the project was reported in various construction trade journals. Later, both Saxe Bros. and the architects, Martin Tullgren & Sons, were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed as a result of the partial collapse of the building during construction in 1923.
There were two houses called the Lyric Theatre in Janesville, both operated by James Zanias. These lines from a 1998 book, City on the Rock River : chapters in Janesville’s history, cover the Lyric’s brief history:
“In 1908, James Zanias opened the Lyric Theater at 113 W. Milwaukee St.; around 1915, it moved to 210 W. Milwaukee St., where the Royal nickelodeon had been housed
from 1909 to around 1913. The Lyric closed sometime before 1920.”
I suppose it’s possible that RKO had some kind of deal with Wometco for exclusive early run rights to the studio’s product in the region. RKO had quite a few prestigious theaters in major cities, but I don’t think the circuit as a whole was ever very large. Certainly nothing like Fox or Loew’s or Paramount, or even United Artists.
I don’t know how this has not already been linked, as the article was published on September 9, 1999, but Cameo Role, from the Miami New Times, gives a history of the theater from its opening through the halcyon days when it was one of the region’s leading live music venues in the 1980s and 1990s. Unfortunately, the 9-photo slide show (click on the image at the top of the article) consists mostly of small pictures from the Cameo’s 1980s punk rock era, with only four shots with the theater itself, and those only showing the marquee.
Linkrot repair: The small photo showing part of the marquee of the Normandy Theatre in Boxoffice of March 8, 1976, is now here.
The NRHP registration form for the north Shore Historic District refers to this house as “(formerly the RKO Movie Theater, Albert Anis, 1947)” but I’ve been unable to find anything in the theater trade publications connecting the Normandy to RKO.
The NRHP registration form for the North Shore Historic District (PDF here), which includes the Surf Theatre, says that the house was designed by architect Robert E. Collins, who also designed Herman Weingarten’s Cameo Theatre.
bsneed45: Are you sure it was the Isis, at 505 State Street, which became the Shelby Theatre, and not the State Theatre, which was next door at 503 State Street? A document from the Library of Virginia (online here) lists correspondence from the State Theatre in 1958, and from the Shelby Theatre in 1958-1962. That sounds as though there might have been a name change in 1958.
John Houze: I don’t know if you’ve seen this one or not, but your grandfather was also in a group photo of five theater men that was published in the December 13, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World (scan at Google Books.) I’ve seen many photos of theater managers from that period and most of them look like the sort of toughs you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark alley, but your grandfather was a notable exception to the rule. I’ll bet many of the young ladies of Oshkosh went to the Lyric just to get a look at him. He was quite a handsome fellow.
The Garrick was one of a large number of theaters taken over by the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville circuit and renamed Empress in the early 1910s. Most Sullivan & Considine houses were equipped to show movies, and the San Diego operation was no exception. The 1911 San Diego directory has a listing for a Mr. F. Earl Nelson, giving his profession as moving picture operator (projectionist) at the Empress Theatre.
Among the acts that appeared on vaudeville bills at the Empress were Fred Karno’s London Comedians, with headliners Charles Chaplin and Stan Laurel. The troupe appeared at the San Diego Empress at least three times from 1911 to 1913, the last only a few weeks before Chaplin left the company to join Mack Sennett’s Keystone Film Company.
Thanks, csmindspring. As Steve McQueen’s movie was released in October, 1968, and I believe it opened nationwide, and the Regency was a first-run house, the theater must have opened in late 1968. Exorcist was released in December, 1973, so the twinning must have taken place in early 1974. Living int he west I never got to attend any of ABC’s Ultravision theaters, but I’ll bet they were very impressive.
The NRHP Registration Form for the Bristol Commercial Historic District says that the Columbia Theatre was designed by architect Thomas S. Brown, who practiced in Bristol from 1911 to 1915.
The NRHP Registration Form for the Bristol Commercial Historic District, which includes the Paramount, attributes the design of the theater to an Atlanta firm called McDonald & Company.
The Colonial was one of four theaters in Watertown that had paid a $5.00 Public Building License Fee for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921, according to the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Insurance to the Governor of South Dakota published that year. The other three houses were the Lyric, Metropolitan and Foto Play.
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers notes that the firm worked on the Colonial Theatre in 1930. There’s no indication of the extent of this project.
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers indicate that the firm did work for the State Theatre in Watertown twice, first in 1937 and again in 1941.
Comparing the vintage photo of the theater with the current Google street view, it’s clear that the Wigton Theatre was at the northeast corner of N. Detroit Street (IN-9) and E. Michigan Street. The building there now houses the store of a charitable organization called the Clothes & Food Basket of LaGrange County. It’s at 201 N. Detroit Street. The building is clad in a modern skin (probably aluminum and probably dating from the 1960s) even on its back wall, but I suspect that it is the old theater building.
An architect field needs to be created on this page listing A. Lowther Forrest, Ewald Blanke, and John Zink. Forrest’s involvement in the project was noted in the April 22, 1916, issue of Motography. The owner of the project was Vincent A. Valentine, and the size of the building was originally 32 x 90 feet.
This web page has a photo of this theater. It is undated and no theater name is visible.
This article about the Palace Theatre says that the Lomison Opera House was built circa 1879 and became the Keaggy Theatre in 1895. It also says that Michael Manos took over the house in 1917, but the January 22, 1916, article cited in my previous comment indicates that the Manos brothers had taken a lease on the Keaggy by then. The March 4, 1916, issue of Motography also noted the Manos project, saying that architect Nelson would be taking bids for it about April 1. It’s possible that the name was not changed to Strand Theatre until 1917, though.
This house was called the New Carnegie Theatre before being renamed the Louisa Theatre. The “Images of America” series book Carnegie, by Sandy Henry (Google Books preview) has a photo of the New Carnegie from the 1940s, and another showing the Louisa Theatre in flames. An article in the February 21, 1953, issue of Boxoffice mentioned that the Louisa Theatre had been 80% destroyed by a fire on the previous December 21.
The “Louisa Theatre Building” was mentioned in the May 30, 1953, issue of The Billboard. A new operator had taken over the Grand Theatre and also planned to renovate the Louisa building and install 3-D equipment. I’ve been unable to discover if the project was carried out. If it was, perhaps the name New Carnegie Theatre was restored to it.
I’ve found the New Carnegie Theatre mentioned in high school yearbooks from the area as early as 1930, but the building looked as though it probably dated from the 1920s. It was operated by Dr. Charles E. Herman. His wife (or perhaps widow) Louise B. Herman incorporated the New Carnegie Theatre Company on July 8, 1948, and the name must have been changed to Louisa Theatre some time after that.
What remains of the building today (I’m not sure how much that is, but the current structure is considerably shorter than it originally was) is occupied by Freedom Fellowship Church of Pittsburgh, so I would presume that the auditorium is still there, at least in part, and is used for religious services.
The March 3, 1932, issue of the Pittston Gazette reported that the Grand Theatre in Carnegie had been gutted by fire early that morning, with damage estimated at more than $25,000.
An ad in the January 1, 1941, issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offered New Year’s greetings to the community from the New Carnegie Theatre, the New Grand Theatre, the Liberty Theatre, and the Dixie Family Theatre.
This item appeared in the January, 1916, issue of The Classical Journal, an academic journal which is still being published:
A James M. Wigton was listed as the manager of the La Grange Opera House in the 1912-1913 edition of the Cahn-Leighton guide. The Wigton Opera House in La Grange was soon to open, according to an item in the September 18, 1915, issue of The Music Trade Review. It’s possible that the theater was new in 1915, or it might be that Mr. Wigton had taken over the Opera House he had been managing in 1912 and renamed it for himself. Either way, it’s probable that the Wigton Opera House of 1915 was the same house as the later Wigton Theatre.This item is from the March 13, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News:
Samuel Goldwyn Co. acquired the rights to Oklahoma and re-released it in both Todd-AO and 35mm formats in 1982.
Tri-Star ran nationwide sneak previews of Manhattan Murder Mystery the weekend prior to its release on Wednesday, August 18, 1993. A weekend ad for the theater running the preview might have an announcement about the event.
This item under the heading “Washington” from the August 18, 1917, issue of Motography notes a name change for this house:
Plans for the Saxe Bros. house that became the Jeffris Theatre were in the works as early as April, 1922, when the project was reported in various construction trade journals. Later, both Saxe Bros. and the architects, Martin Tullgren & Sons, were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed as a result of the partial collapse of the building during construction in 1923.
There were two houses called the Lyric Theatre in Janesville, both operated by James Zanias. These lines from a 1998 book, City on the Rock River : chapters in Janesville’s history, cover the Lyric’s brief history:
Ah, I didn’t notice the comment saying that Wometco didn’t take over until 1961.
I suppose it’s possible that RKO had some kind of deal with Wometco for exclusive early run rights to the studio’s product in the region. RKO had quite a few prestigious theaters in major cities, but I don’t think the circuit as a whole was ever very large. Certainly nothing like Fox or Loew’s or Paramount, or even United Artists.
I don’t know how this has not already been linked, as the article was published on September 9, 1999, but Cameo Role, from the Miami New Times, gives a history of the theater from its opening through the halcyon days when it was one of the region’s leading live music venues in the 1980s and 1990s. Unfortunately, the 9-photo slide show (click on the image at the top of the article) consists mostly of small pictures from the Cameo’s 1980s punk rock era, with only four shots with the theater itself, and those only showing the marquee.
Linkrot repair: The small photo showing part of the marquee of the Normandy Theatre in Boxoffice of March 8, 1976, is now here.
The NRHP registration form for the north Shore Historic District refers to this house as “(formerly the RKO Movie Theater, Albert Anis, 1947)” but I’ve been unable to find anything in the theater trade publications connecting the Normandy to RKO.
The NRHP registration form for the North Shore Historic District (PDF here), which includes the Surf Theatre, says that the house was designed by architect Robert E. Collins, who also designed Herman Weingarten’s Cameo Theatre.
bsneed45: Are you sure it was the Isis, at 505 State Street, which became the Shelby Theatre, and not the State Theatre, which was next door at 503 State Street? A document from the Library of Virginia (online here) lists correspondence from the State Theatre in 1958, and from the Shelby Theatre in 1958-1962. That sounds as though there might have been a name change in 1958.
John Houze: I don’t know if you’ve seen this one or not, but your grandfather was also in a group photo of five theater men that was published in the December 13, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World (scan at Google Books.) I’ve seen many photos of theater managers from that period and most of them look like the sort of toughs you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark alley, but your grandfather was a notable exception to the rule. I’ll bet many of the young ladies of Oshkosh went to the Lyric just to get a look at him. He was quite a handsome fellow.
The Garrick was one of a large number of theaters taken over by the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville circuit and renamed Empress in the early 1910s. Most Sullivan & Considine houses were equipped to show movies, and the San Diego operation was no exception. The 1911 San Diego directory has a listing for a Mr. F. Earl Nelson, giving his profession as moving picture operator (projectionist) at the Empress Theatre.
Among the acts that appeared on vaudeville bills at the Empress were Fred Karno’s London Comedians, with headliners Charles Chaplin and Stan Laurel. The troupe appeared at the San Diego Empress at least three times from 1911 to 1913, the last only a few weeks before Chaplin left the company to join Mack Sennett’s Keystone Film Company.
Thanks, csmindspring. As Steve McQueen’s movie was released in October, 1968, and I believe it opened nationwide, and the Regency was a first-run house, the theater must have opened in late 1968. Exorcist was released in December, 1973, so the twinning must have taken place in early 1974. Living int he west I never got to attend any of ABC’s Ultravision theaters, but I’ll bet they were very impressive.
The NRHP Registration Form for the Bristol Commercial Historic District says that the Columbia Theatre was designed by architect Thomas S. Brown, who practiced in Bristol from 1911 to 1915.
The NRHP Registration Form for the Bristol Commercial Historic District, which includes the Paramount, attributes the design of the theater to an Atlanta firm called McDonald & Company.
The Colonial was one of four theaters in Watertown that had paid a $5.00 Public Building License Fee for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921, according to the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Insurance to the Governor of South Dakota published that year. The other three houses were the Lyric, Metropolitan and Foto Play.
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers notes that the firm worked on the Colonial Theatre in 1930. There’s no indication of the extent of this project.
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers indicate that the firm did work for the State Theatre in Watertown twice, first in 1937 and again in 1941.