The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers list two projects for the Plaza Theatre in Watertown, one being dated 1948-49 (maybe the original construction) and the other dated 1954 (perhaps alterations to accommodate a CinemaScope screen.)
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers indicates that the firm did work on the Lyric Theatre in Watertown in 1931, 1935, and 1937. The extent of the projects is not given.
The Lyric was mentioned in the March 30, 1918, issue of Motography. It was then being operated by a firm called McCarthy Brothers, who also had the Rialto and Lyric Theatres in Aberdeen and had just purchased the Grand Theatre in Grand forks.
The nearest movie theater to Racine is in the outlying village of Sturtevant, and the next nearest is in Kenosha. It does seem odd that a city of almost 80,000 would be entirely without a movie theater of its own while Sturtevant, with only about 6,000 people, would have a large, modern multiplex.
My guess would be that Sturtevant has been very aggressive at attracting businesses, probably through large tax subsidies. If Racine wants a movie theater it will probably have to cough up a hefty subsidy itself to convince an exhibitor to compete with the Marcus Theatres venue in Sturtevant. Marcus itself probably won’t want to open another multiplex so close to the one it already runs.
Neal Cassady’s autobiographical book The First Third mentions the Zaza Theatre several times. Several books about Cassady give the address of the Zaza as 1727 Larimer, right next door to the barber shop where Cassady’s father worked. On page 65 of Cassady’s book he says that the Zaza was later renamed the Kiva Theatre (Google Books preview.)
Confirmation of the name change can be found in an item in the November 28, 1942, issue of The Billboard headed “Tab Show For Denver” (scan at Google Books) which says that the 400-seat Zaza Theatre had been renamed the Kiva and reopened with a new policy of tab shows (tabloid shows, which were live performances of excerpts from popular musicals, the shows usually lasting no more than an hour) and movies.
It’s possible that the name Zaza (or Zazza) was added to the Jazz Theatre after the original Zaza became the Kiva. I think we must be dealing with two different theaters, though, the Zaza at 1727 Larimer and the Jazz at 1751 Larimer.
Here are some additional links to photos of the Springfield Cinemas 3 and its predecessors:
Maclay Architects, designers of the rebuilding project after the 2008 fire, have this page featuring several photos of the neo-vintage decor of the entrance and lobby, and some photos of the reconfigured auditoriums (as the Springfield Theater, the house had only two screens.)
This page from Film-Tech Cinema Systems has several photos of the Springfield Theater as it looked around the time of the premier of The Simpsons Movie in 2007.
The web site of photographer William Lashua has four pages of photos of Springfield taken between 1940 and 1970 by his father, Bernie Lashua. Among them are several photos of this house as the Avon Theatre and later as the Ellis Theatre (you have to hunt them down among the thumbnails, but they aren’t too hard to find for a practiced eye.) The collection includes several interior shots. There are also a few photos showing the now-demolished Ideal Theatre. Access the collection from this web page.
I haven’t yet discovered the name under which this house operated prior to closing in 1931, but it might be found in a FDY from the period.
Linkrot repair: The photos of the Avon Theatre in Boxoffice of September 19, 1936, to which Gerald DeLuca linked earlier, can now be found at this link.
The article says that the theater that became the Avon had been closed since 1931, but doesn’t give the name under which it had operated previously. After extensive renovations it reopened as the Avon on August 14, 1936. Both the Avon and the nearby Ideal Theatre were operated by Joseph Mathieu.
The Cinema Data Project has a page for the Avon, but it doesn’t mention the theater’s earlier history or earlier name.
Linkrot repair: The Heywood-Wakefield ad with the photo of the Regent’s remodeled auditorium, from the September 19, 1936, issue of Boxoffice, can now be seen at this link.
I’ve seen sources saying that the Loma Theatre was on the est side of the Plaza, the south side of the Plaza, and the west side of the Plaza. I think west side must be correct, though. A 1956 newspaper report about the fire that destroyed the theater and three other buildings said that it was on the same block as the Park Hotel, and other sources indicate that the Park Hotel was on the location now occupied by the Post Office, which is at the west end of the Plaza.
Granola’s link is the official web site of the State Theatre. This page of the web site says the house was rebuilt as a quonset hut in 1948, which I would take to mean that the new State Theatre that was opened that year was on the same site as the old house that opened in 1927 as the Scenic.
The Roxy must have been operating by the late 1930s. This line is from the obituary of a one-time employee, Dorothy Schlomer:
“While a junior in high school, Dorothy held a job at J.C. Penney’s and she also worked as an usher at the Rose Theater and later at the Roxy Theater, receiving 50 cents a night. She graduated from Colfax High School in 1937.”
(Full obituary at Spokesman-Review web site.) It goes on to say that Dorothy married in December, 1938 and soon moved away from Colfax, so her job at the Roxy must have been no later than 1938, and no later than 1937 and perhaps as early as 1936 if she worked there while in high school. The architectural details of the building are certainly characteristic of the 1930s.
The house that later became the Ritz opened as the Hollywood Theatre in 1923 or 1924. It was located at 1921 Hollywood Boulevard. According to A Guide to Historic Hollywood: A Tour Through Place and Time, by Joan Mickelson (Google Books preview) it was renamed the Ritz in 1935. This was after a new Hollywood Theatre (later the Hollywood Cinema) was opened on Harrison Street. The Ritz operated at least into the 1940s. It has been demolished.
Prior to 1933 this house was called the College Theatre. The name change was noted in the “Theater Changes” column of the January 31 issue of The Film Daily that year.
The Capitol Theatre’s short-lived predecessor was called the Marvell Theatre. The October 4, 1937, issue of The Film Daily announced that the Marvell had recently opened. It was in operation only a little over half a year, and was destroyed by an arson fire on April 8, 1938. The Capitol was most likely built in the Marvell Theatre’s shell.
A brief announcement about the Flint Theatre appeared in the “Theaters Planned” column of The Film Daily for September 9, 1938. The $75,000, 780-seat house at North Saginaw and Tilden Streets was being designed for operator Walter O. Johnson by architect George J. Bachmann.
An early Real Photo postcard of the Gala Theatre can be seen on this web page.
The “Theaters Planned” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that a 640-seat theater at Garrett for Alex C. Kalafat was being designed by architect E. J. Frederic. The address given was 519 S. Randolph Street, but this page from the Eckhart Public Library says that the 638-seat Gala Theatre was opened by the Kalafat brothers in 1939, so it was probably the same project despite the address discrepancy.
The original architects of the Vista Theatre were Wetherell & Harrison. The “Theaters Under Construction” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Vista was expected to be completed by October 1. The 650-seat project had been budgeted at $40,000.
The “Theaters Under Construction” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Plaza Theatre in Helena was expected to be completed on October 1. Builder George B. Miller was also to be the operator of the house. The architect of the 450-seat project was E. T. Walker.
The “New Theatre Openings” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Capitol Theatre in Marvell had opened on July 15. The 300-seat house, designed by architect R. L. Swim, had cost a modest $7,500. W. W. Davis was the first manager.
The “New Theatre Openings” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Drew Theatre in Monticello had opened on August 9. The seating capacity was given as 900, the cost of the project was $50,000, and the architect was H. Ray Burks.
The “Theatres Under Construction” column of the August 27, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the new Bijou Theatre being built in Houma had been designed by the architectural firm of Overstreet & Town (Noah Webster Overstreet and A. Hays Town.) The house was to have 1,112 seats and the projected date of completion was September 1. The project had cost $85,000.
An article on Portland’s movie theaters that ran in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World included this information about the Majestic:
“Edwin James, owner of the Majestic, built in 1911, has stayed with the same house and the same location perhaps longer than any other exhibitor in Portland. Coming from Seattle in 1910, Mr. James opened the Majestic, seating 350, in a storeroom on Fifth and Washington streets and after nine months opened the present Majestic with 1,050 seats at an expense of $62,000. The Peoples Amusement Company then controlled most of the theaters in the city and also the Amalgamated Film Exchange. They had a monopoly on the film service and the Majestic was compelled to add musical attractions to what films it could get to meet (he competition. The Majestic first introduced features to Portland, the initiating film being "The Fall of Troy,” two reels. A rental of $150 per week was paid for the picture and was considered a big price at that time. The Majestic installed a theater organ, one of the few on the Pacific Coast at the time and the Star across the street also put in an organ, the two theaters starting organ music on the same day.“
This page from the Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society has information about two organs in this theater, but the first of these was installed in 1918, so they are missing the information about the organ that was installed prior to 1916. The Majestic’s 1918 organ and the 1928 organ (installed for United Artists) were both Wurlitzers.
The Lyric Opera House was one of three theaters listed for Terrell in the 1913-1914 Cahn guide, all three of which listed E. T. Christman as manager. The National Theatre ran pictures and vaudeville, but no details were given for the Airdome Theatre except that it operated during the summer. The Opera House was a ground floor theater with 600 seats, 200 of which were in the balcony.
The 1909-1910 guide lists a theater called the Childress Opera House in Terrell. Though the description does not exactly match that of the Lyric in 1914, it is close enough that they could have been the same house. The Childress was the only theater listed at Terrell in 1909. It was also listed in the September 5, 1908, issue of The Billboard.
The Lyric Theatre was mentioned in the March 4, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. Operators Gwynn & Byar were planning to expend about $2,200 for remodeling the house.
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers list two projects for the Plaza Theatre in Watertown, one being dated 1948-49 (maybe the original construction) and the other dated 1954 (perhaps alterations to accommodate a CinemaScope screen.)
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers indicates that the firm did work on the Lyric Theatre in Watertown in 1931, 1935, and 1937. The extent of the projects is not given.
The Lyric was mentioned in the March 30, 1918, issue of Motography. It was then being operated by a firm called McCarthy Brothers, who also had the Rialto and Lyric Theatres in Aberdeen and had just purchased the Grand Theatre in Grand forks.
The nearest movie theater to Racine is in the outlying village of Sturtevant, and the next nearest is in Kenosha. It does seem odd that a city of almost 80,000 would be entirely without a movie theater of its own while Sturtevant, with only about 6,000 people, would have a large, modern multiplex.
My guess would be that Sturtevant has been very aggressive at attracting businesses, probably through large tax subsidies. If Racine wants a movie theater it will probably have to cough up a hefty subsidy itself to convince an exhibitor to compete with the Marcus Theatres venue in Sturtevant. Marcus itself probably won’t want to open another multiplex so close to the one it already runs.
Neal Cassady’s autobiographical book The First Third mentions the Zaza Theatre several times. Several books about Cassady give the address of the Zaza as 1727 Larimer, right next door to the barber shop where Cassady’s father worked. On page 65 of Cassady’s book he says that the Zaza was later renamed the Kiva Theatre (Google Books preview.)
Confirmation of the name change can be found in an item in the November 28, 1942, issue of The Billboard headed “Tab Show For Denver” (scan at Google Books) which says that the 400-seat Zaza Theatre had been renamed the Kiva and reopened with a new policy of tab shows (tabloid shows, which were live performances of excerpts from popular musicals, the shows usually lasting no more than an hour) and movies.
It’s possible that the name Zaza (or Zazza) was added to the Jazz Theatre after the original Zaza became the Kiva. I think we must be dealing with two different theaters, though, the Zaza at 1727 Larimer and the Jazz at 1751 Larimer.
Here are some additional links to photos of the Springfield Cinemas 3 and its predecessors:
Maclay Architects, designers of the rebuilding project after the 2008 fire, have this page featuring several photos of the neo-vintage decor of the entrance and lobby, and some photos of the reconfigured auditoriums (as the Springfield Theater, the house had only two screens.)
This page from Film-Tech Cinema Systems has several photos of the Springfield Theater as it looked around the time of the premier of The Simpsons Movie in 2007.
The web site of photographer William Lashua has four pages of photos of Springfield taken between 1940 and 1970 by his father, Bernie Lashua. Among them are several photos of this house as the Avon Theatre and later as the Ellis Theatre (you have to hunt them down among the thumbnails, but they aren’t too hard to find for a practiced eye.) The collection includes several interior shots. There are also a few photos showing the now-demolished Ideal Theatre. Access the collection from this web page.
I haven’t yet discovered the name under which this house operated prior to closing in 1931, but it might be found in a FDY from the period.
Linkrot repair: The photos of the Avon Theatre in Boxoffice of September 19, 1936, to which Gerald DeLuca linked earlier, can now be found at this link.
The article says that the theater that became the Avon had been closed since 1931, but doesn’t give the name under which it had operated previously. After extensive renovations it reopened as the Avon on August 14, 1936. Both the Avon and the nearby Ideal Theatre were operated by Joseph Mathieu.
The Cinema Data Project has a page for the Avon, but it doesn’t mention the theater’s earlier history or earlier name.
Linkrot repair: The Heywood-Wakefield ad with the photo of the Regent’s remodeled auditorium, from the September 19, 1936, issue of Boxoffice, can now be seen at this link.
I’ve seen sources saying that the Loma Theatre was on the est side of the Plaza, the south side of the Plaza, and the west side of the Plaza. I think west side must be correct, though. A 1956 newspaper report about the fire that destroyed the theater and three other buildings said that it was on the same block as the Park Hotel, and other sources indicate that the Park Hotel was on the location now occupied by the Post Office, which is at the west end of the Plaza.
Granola’s link is the official web site of the State Theatre. This page of the web site says the house was rebuilt as a quonset hut in 1948, which I would take to mean that the new State Theatre that was opened that year was on the same site as the old house that opened in 1927 as the Scenic.
Linkrot repair: Roosevelt Theatre photos from Boxoffice of August 5, 1950.
The Roxy must have been operating by the late 1930s. This line is from the obituary of a one-time employee, Dorothy Schlomer:
(Full obituary at Spokesman-Review web site.) It goes on to say that Dorothy married in December, 1938 and soon moved away from Colfax, so her job at the Roxy must have been no later than 1938, and no later than 1937 and perhaps as early as 1936 if she worked there while in high school. The architectural details of the building are certainly characteristic of the 1930s.The house that later became the Ritz opened as the Hollywood Theatre in 1923 or 1924. It was located at 1921 Hollywood Boulevard. According to A Guide to Historic Hollywood: A Tour Through Place and Time, by Joan Mickelson (Google Books preview) it was renamed the Ritz in 1935. This was after a new Hollywood Theatre (later the Hollywood Cinema) was opened on Harrison Street. The Ritz operated at least into the 1940s. It has been demolished.
The Playhouse in Centralia was listed as a new theater in the “Theater Changes” column of the March 2, 1933, issue of The Film Daily.
Prior to 1933 this house was called the College Theatre. The name change was noted in the “Theater Changes” column of the January 31 issue of The Film Daily that year.
The Folly and Royal Theatres at Pauls Valley, both operaed by L. E. Brewer, were mentioned in the January 27, 1933, issue of The Film Daily.
The Capitol Theatre’s short-lived predecessor was called the Marvell Theatre. The October 4, 1937, issue of The Film Daily announced that the Marvell had recently opened. It was in operation only a little over half a year, and was destroyed by an arson fire on April 8, 1938. The Capitol was most likely built in the Marvell Theatre’s shell.
A brief announcement about the Flint Theatre appeared in the “Theaters Planned” column of The Film Daily for September 9, 1938. The $75,000, 780-seat house at North Saginaw and Tilden Streets was being designed for operator Walter O. Johnson by architect George J. Bachmann.
An early Real Photo postcard of the Gala Theatre can be seen on this web page.
The “Theaters Planned” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that a 640-seat theater at Garrett for Alex C. Kalafat was being designed by architect E. J. Frederic. The address given was 519 S. Randolph Street, but this page from the Eckhart Public Library says that the 638-seat Gala Theatre was opened by the Kalafat brothers in 1939, so it was probably the same project despite the address discrepancy.
The original architects of the Vista Theatre were Wetherell & Harrison. The “Theaters Under Construction” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Vista was expected to be completed by October 1. The 650-seat project had been budgeted at $40,000.
The “Theaters Under Construction” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Plaza Theatre in Helena was expected to be completed on October 1. Builder George B. Miller was also to be the operator of the house. The architect of the 450-seat project was E. T. Walker.
The “New Theatre Openings” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Capitol Theatre in Marvell had opened on July 15. The 300-seat house, designed by architect R. L. Swim, had cost a modest $7,500. W. W. Davis was the first manager.
The “New Theatre Openings” column of the September 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Drew Theatre in Monticello had opened on August 9. The seating capacity was given as 900, the cost of the project was $50,000, and the architect was H. Ray Burks.
The “Theatres Under Construction” column of the August 27, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the new Bijou Theatre being built in Houma had been designed by the architectural firm of Overstreet & Town (Noah Webster Overstreet and A. Hays Town.) The house was to have 1,112 seats and the projected date of completion was September 1. The project had cost $85,000.
An article on Portland’s movie theaters that ran in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World included this information about the Majestic:
This page from the Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society has information about two organs in this theater, but the first of these was installed in 1918, so they are missing the information about the organ that was installed prior to 1916. The Majestic’s 1918 organ and the 1928 organ (installed for United Artists) were both Wurlitzers.The Lyric Opera House was one of three theaters listed for Terrell in the 1913-1914 Cahn guide, all three of which listed E. T. Christman as manager. The National Theatre ran pictures and vaudeville, but no details were given for the Airdome Theatre except that it operated during the summer. The Opera House was a ground floor theater with 600 seats, 200 of which were in the balcony.
The 1909-1910 guide lists a theater called the Childress Opera House in Terrell. Though the description does not exactly match that of the Lyric in 1914, it is close enough that they could have been the same house. The Childress was the only theater listed at Terrell in 1909. It was also listed in the September 5, 1908, issue of The Billboard.
The Lyric Theatre was mentioned in the March 4, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. Operators Gwynn & Byar were planning to expend about $2,200 for remodeling the house.