It’s money, Mikeoaklandpark, and the value of publicity. AEG in particular doesn’t like to leave so much as a penny on the table. They cash in on selling naming rights to companies that know every event advertisement, every review, every social media post that mentions the venue with their name on it is an advertisement for them and their products. Companies will bid each other up, and the one willing to pay the most gets its name on the venue.
Old time showmen like Marcus Lowe and William Fox built famous brands out of their own names, but modern promoters have realized they can make even more money by charging other companies for five-year piggyback rides. I believe five years is the most common term of a naming rights contract, so the names are apt to change that often unless the current contact holder is willing to pay for another five years, usually at a higher price. If some other company is willing to pay more, then it’s goodbye Best Buy Theatre and hello PlayStation Theatre.
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, by Lawrence Wright, says that when Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s family moved to Helena when he was two years old, his father became the manager of the Family Theatre, then still a vaudeville house.
A couple of the photos on tis web page show the Rialto Theatre in Scarbro. It looks like the theater was on the second floor with stores below. The building also looks to be older than the company store next door, which was built in 1937.
The company store is still standing, but the theater has been demolished. The theater fronted on Plum Orchard Lake Road at the corner of Scarbro Road.
Google Maps has no street view, but Bing Maps has a bird’s eye view.
I use HTML because I’m accustomed to it, but Cinema Treasures also supports Markdown code, which is much simpler. To italicize with Markdown simply put an asterisk * at the beginning of the first word you want italicized and another asterisk at the end of the last word you want italicized (or an asterisk at the beginning and end of a single word if that’s the only one you want in italics.) You can also use underscores _ the same way. Doubling either asterisks ** or underscores gives you bold type instead of italics. You can also use Markdown to make text hyperlinks, as described in this official post.
When it was Best Buy Theatre it was owned and/or operated by AEG Worldwide, one of the companies controlled by secretive billionaire Philip Anschutz. They haven’t updated their web site with the new name, so I don’t know if they still own it, or if they are just a bit slovenly about keeping their web site up to date.
Does the name “PlayStation Theater” (there’s no space between the words) sound to anyone else like it would be a 1970s storefront porn house? To be sure, if selling naming rights helps historic theaters to survive then I’m all for it, but oy, what a name this is.
The New Janus Theatre was in operation at least as early as 1916, when the June 17 issue of the Macon Daily Chronicle-Herald of Macon, Missouri, reported that the theater’s projection machine had been stolen the previous Thursday night. A few nights later the thief returned and stole the replacement machine that theater operators Jones and Spaulding had rented. This time he was apprehended, according to the June 22 issue of the La Plata Home Press. Howard Davison was arrested with the head of the second machine in his luggage as he awaited a train to Kansas City, where he had sold the first machine for $47.
In the current Google street view the modern plaster on the building is seen to be cracking along the lines of an old arch. The arch probably marks the location of the entrance to the Apollo Theatre when it opened in 1914.
An announcement about the project that would become the Dyckman Theatre appeared in the March 1, 1913, issue of The American Contractor:
“Theater (seating capacity 1,800): 1 sty. 150x150. $100,000. 207th st. & Sherman av. Archts. Von Beren & La Velle [sic], 507 Fifth av. Owner G. L. Lawrence, 2228 Broadway. Architects will take bids about March 4. Brick, terra cotta, slag roofing, struct. & orn. iron, marble, tiling, gas & electric fixtures.”
The short-lived partnership of architects Frederic Von Beren and Paul B. LaVelle was dissolved in December, 1913.
According the Cezar Del Valle’s The Brooklyn Theatre Index the original architect of the Sumner Theatre was Paul B. LaVelle. In addition to Lamb’s 1917 remodeling, a remodeling of the interior in 1930 was designed by architect A. J. Benline.
According to his 1961 obituary, Nikitas Dipson began operating the Family Theatre at Batavia in 1914. He had earlier operated the Lyric Theatre and another movie house in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. In the 1920s he operated a chain of fifty movie theaters, and provided booking services for 200. In the late 1920s he leased twenty-five of his houses to Warner Brothers.
The obituary can be read in this PDF of page 12 of the May 5, 1961, edition of the Jamestown (N.Y.) Post-Journal.
seasickseagull: If you click on the “Street View” link under the photo above, then rotate the resulting view, you will see that Engine 28 is still housed in the firehouse across Lovejoy Street from the former theater.
I certainly wouldn’t have recognized this plain, boxy building as a former theater. This Facebook page has one of the renderings I linked to in my previous comment, which depicts one of the six prototype theaters that architect William Reisman designed for GCC in the 1960s.
The member who posted it says that this particular design looked most like the Capital Plaza, and one commenter downthread says “…that pretty much looks like it.” There are dozens of comments from people who attended the theater or worked at it, and I’ve found none who say that it didn’t look like the drawing, so I think we can assume that the Capital Plaza’s design was indeed based on that particular William Reisman prototype.
The Family Theatre was advertised at Third and Harris as early as February, 1916. There were at least two earlier houses called the Family Theatre in Harrisburg. One operated on Third near Locust Street at least as early as 1892, and the October 26, 1912, issue of the Harrisburg Daily Independent said that the new Family Theatre on Market Street would open that evening.
A May 9, 1915, item in The Courier described the Family Theatre as “…a large airy room having thirteen exits.” The Market Street house that opened in 1912 had seated only 250, so thirteen exits would have been more likely in the larger, 900-seat Third Street house. That could be an indication that the Third and Harris Family was open by 1915.
Here is the text that accompanied this photo as it appeared in the August 5, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“In the year 1914 P. G. Redding and J. H. Stroud opened the Wonderland theater in Windom, Minn. It was erected at a cost of $15,000, and is 35 feet wide by 115 feet long. Fireproof material has been used in constructing the Wonderland, and it complies with the law in respect to wiring, aisles, exits, etc. There is an eighteen foot ceiling, and the interior is decorated in perfect harmony.
“The seating capacity is 600, and there is plenty of room between the rows of chairs. The Wonderland under the able management of Redding & Stroud has been a profitable investment since it was opened. The management is booking big features as well as running the regular program material. Among the big productions that have been shown at the Wonderland are ‘The Birth of a Nation,’ and ‘The Battle Cry of Peace.’ The accompanying illustration shows the house in gala dress for the presentation of the last named picture. The Wonderland is advertised extensively.”
Here is the rather lengthy article about the Walbrook Theatre that appeared in the August 5, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The Walbrook Theater, Baltimore, Md.
“Magnificent Photoplay House a Credit to the Industry— Constructed of Fireproof Material, and Is Equipped with Everything Modern.
“ONE of the most substantial and up-to-date suburban theaters of Baltimore, Md., is the Walbrook theater, which is located in the pretty suburb of that name at North avenue and Rosedale street, on the northwest corner. This theater was built by the Walbrook Amusement Company, which is being financed by many, of the Walbrook people, and was opened to the public on Monday, May 29, 1916.
“The officers of the company are: Harrison L. Stires, president; Oscar Teschner, vice president; Otis J. Tall, treasurer; Clarence H. Koonze, secretary; Christopher Wattenscheidt, counselor, with Marion S. Pearce and Phillip J. Scheck, directors.
“The building has been constructed so as to be absolutely fireproof throughout. The exterior is of Colonial brick with metal cornices, a slag roof, and a marquee has been placed over the triple arched doorways of mahogany of the main entrance on North avenue. The building measures 48x121 feet, and the lot on which it stands is 150 feet deep. Exits have been placed on all four sides and heavy metal fireproof doors protect the rear and side exits. The chairs were installed by Heywood Bros. and Wakefield Company. Ground was broken for the construction of this theater in December, 1915.
“The lobby measures 10x45 feet. The walls are of old ivory, while the wainscoting is of Marvelo marble. The
box office, which has a verdi-antique base and is paneled with heavy plate glass on three sides, is located in the center of the inner wall between two large mahogany doors paneled with glass which lead into the auditorium. Directly at each end of the lobby, large doors open upon spacious staircases of ornamental cast iron with slate treads which lead to the mezzanine floor, where private rest rooms for women and men, beautifully arranged, are located; and thence to the balcony. The seating capacity of the balcony is 200 and the first row is arranged as boxes, which may be engaged for parties of three or four.
“The operator’s booth is located directly over the mezzanine floor and back of the balcony. It is equipped with the latest mechanical devices, including two Simplex, motor driven, projection machines, a motor generator and a rewinder. The ventilation of this booth is done by a large rotary exhaust fan. Fireproof protections of the latest design have been taken. The throw of the projection machine to the gold fibre screen, measuring 15xl8 ½ feet, is 110 feet.
“Situated in the ceiling, under the balcony, as you enter the auditorium, is located a dome, finished in old ivory, which emits a beautiful diffused glow from the cove lighting system with which it is equipped. The floor is bowled so that the screen can be plainly observed from every seat. There are two four-foot aisles. There is a row of eleven seats in the center and on each side of this row is a four foot aisle, and next to the walls on both sides is a row of six seats. These seats, which measure 19x20 inches, like the woodwork, are done in French grey. The ceiling is 30 feet high. The walls are done in old ivory, with large panels of Rose du Barry silk, topped by flower festoons. Below this a wainscoting of old leather dado. A large chandelier having an old metal effect of antique bronze is suspended from a heavy beamed and paneled ceiling with enriched cornices and mouldings. The orchestra pit measures 9x14 feet and has room enough for a baby grand piano and six musicians. A heavy, maroon colored carpet covers the floors. The seating capacity, including the balcony, is about 1,400.
“A low-pressure steam heating system is used. Three large radiators have been placed in recess panels on each side of the main auditorium and one small radiator is located in each rear exit. Other radiators have been placed throughout the building, so that a uniform temperature is produced.
“Both natural and artificial ventilating systems have been installed. There are ten ceiling ventilators. Large, rotary, ball-bearing fans have been placed in a vent house situated on the roof, which can be used to force the air either in or out of the theater.
“The performances are continuous from 2 p. m. to 11 p. m., but the regular stated periods for the schedule are from 2 to 5 p. m. and from 7 to 11 p. m. As yet no manager has been appointed for the theater, but this end of the work will be done by the directors and officers of the amusement company.”
Worthpoint displays a real photo postcard of the Navarro Theatre. The theater was showing the Mary Pickford movie Lena and the Geese, which IMDb says was released on July 17, 1912. The Navarro, being a neighborhood house, probably got the film somewhat later. The single-story building featured an ornate, arched theater entrance flanked by two storefronts.
The Wonderland closed at this location in very early January, 1910. The December 28, 1909, issue of the Newport News Daily Press said that the operators of the Wonderland Theatre had taken over the Leath Company’s unexpired lease on the Academy of Music and would move to that house on January 3.
The Wonderland company intended to move its operation to an entirely new theater, then under construction at Washington Avenue and 31st Street, later in 1910. I suspect that the new house was the later Downtown Theatre, which opened as the Olympic Theatre on October 17, 1910.
After its stint as a motion picture and vaudeville house the Academy of Music returned to its original policy as a live theater, and was listed in the 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide. I haven’t discovered what became of the original Star/Wonderland building after the theater moved out.
The Palace Theater was built and long operated by R. J. Cooper, who had previously operated the Opera House, which opened around 1901. Cooper was still running the Palace in 1954, when the April 17 issue of Boxoffice reported that he had reopened the house following the installation of a new Miracle Mirror screen and a new projection system.
This web page from The American WideScreen Museum web site has information about the Miracle Mirror screen, from a promotional booklet about CinemaScope published in 1953.
This page at Water Winter Wonderland has a vintage photo of the Roxy as it looked after Ted Rogvoy’s ca.1948 remodeling job, though the photo was taken after the theater had closed and fallen into disrepair.
The 1950 Boxoffice article about Rogvoy’s remodeling of the Roxy and two other Detroit houses has before and after photos of the Roxy on this page, though the text about the Roxy is on this page.
CareyVigor: For at least part of the 1930s and 1940s the Martha Washington was owned by the Manteufel family. A Florian Manteufel was the manager in 1942. It might have been him that you met. Manteufel is a German surname, but many German surnames- mine, for one example- are used by both Germans and Jews.
But the waitress must have gotten her stories garbled. Paramount Pictures was founded in 1914 by Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson, so someone arriving in the 1930s couldn’t have been a founder.
Also, IMDb says that Kim Novak was married twice, first to the English actor Richard Johnson, from March, 1965, to May, 1966, and then to a Dr. Robert Malloy, from March, 1976, to present. Of course it’s possible that she had an earlier marriage that was kept secret by the studio, and remains secret, but it would have to have been over before she signed with Columbia Pictures in 1954, at the age of 21. Not a very big window of opportunity for a secret marriage.
Jessey Lasky was associated with Paramount from very early in its history, but I don’t know if he is related to the Jacob Lasky who built the Lasky Theatre, but it seems doubtful, as Jesse Lasky was a native of San Francisco.
The Cine Encanto was featured in the “Better Theatres” section of the September 18, 1937, issue of Motion Picture Herald, but the magazine got the name wrong, labeling it Cine Elcanto (scan at Internet Arcnive.) There are two photos of the cavernous, strikingly modern interior. The architect was Francisco J. Serrano.
The 1937 ad Broan linked to must depict the results of a renovation of the Buckingham. The photo shows some detailing along the auditorium’s back wall and adjacent to the ceiling vault, but not enough to determine what the original interior style might have been. More of the original design might have survived at the screen end of the auditorium, at least until wide screens came along in the 1950s.
I’ve come across a couple of references to burlesque shows running at the Broadway Strand in 1928. That may be why I’ve found no references to the house in movie industry trade journals after 1927. The theater probably closed as a burlesque house.
Two decent photos of the Broadway Strand can be found on this page at Water Winter Wonderland.
It now appears that this house opened as the Broadway Theatre in 1913 and the name was changed to Broadway-Strand Theatre in 1915, per the article linked by rivest266. It was also probably 1915 when a Wurlitzer Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra was installed in the Broadway-Strand. The instrument was featured in an ad for the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company that appeared in the August 14, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World (scan at Google Books.)
It’s money, Mikeoaklandpark, and the value of publicity. AEG in particular doesn’t like to leave so much as a penny on the table. They cash in on selling naming rights to companies that know every event advertisement, every review, every social media post that mentions the venue with their name on it is an advertisement for them and their products. Companies will bid each other up, and the one willing to pay the most gets its name on the venue.
Old time showmen like Marcus Lowe and William Fox built famous brands out of their own names, but modern promoters have realized they can make even more money by charging other companies for five-year piggyback rides. I believe five years is the most common term of a naming rights contract, so the names are apt to change that often unless the current contact holder is willing to pay for another five years, usually at a higher price. If some other company is willing to pay more, then it’s goodbye Best Buy Theatre and hello PlayStation Theatre.
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, by Lawrence Wright, says that when Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s family moved to Helena when he was two years old, his father became the manager of the Family Theatre, then still a vaudeville house.
A couple of the photos on tis web page show the Rialto Theatre in Scarbro. It looks like the theater was on the second floor with stores below. The building also looks to be older than the company store next door, which was built in 1937.
The company store is still standing, but the theater has been demolished. The theater fronted on Plum Orchard Lake Road at the corner of Scarbro Road.
Google Maps has no street view, but Bing Maps has a bird’s eye view.
I use HTML because I’m accustomed to it, but Cinema Treasures also supports Markdown code, which is much simpler. To italicize with Markdown simply put an asterisk * at the beginning of the first word you want italicized and another asterisk at the end of the last word you want italicized (or an asterisk at the beginning and end of a single word if that’s the only one you want in italics.) You can also use underscores _ the same way. Doubling either asterisks ** or underscores gives you bold type instead of italics. You can also use Markdown to make text hyperlinks, as described in this official post.
When it was Best Buy Theatre it was owned and/or operated by AEG Worldwide, one of the companies controlled by secretive billionaire Philip Anschutz. They haven’t updated their web site with the new name, so I don’t know if they still own it, or if they are just a bit slovenly about keeping their web site up to date.
Does the name “PlayStation Theater” (there’s no space between the words) sound to anyone else like it would be a 1970s storefront porn house? To be sure, if selling naming rights helps historic theaters to survive then I’m all for it, but oy, what a name this is.
The New Janus Theatre was in operation at least as early as 1916, when the June 17 issue of the Macon Daily Chronicle-Herald of Macon, Missouri, reported that the theater’s projection machine had been stolen the previous Thursday night. A few nights later the thief returned and stole the replacement machine that theater operators Jones and Spaulding had rented. This time he was apprehended, according to the June 22 issue of the La Plata Home Press. Howard Davison was arrested with the head of the second machine in his luggage as he awaited a train to Kansas City, where he had sold the first machine for $47.
In the current Google street view the modern plaster on the building is seen to be cracking along the lines of an old arch. The arch probably marks the location of the entrance to the Apollo Theatre when it opened in 1914.
Clarence J. Smale was the architect of the Congress Theatre.
An announcement about the project that would become the Dyckman Theatre appeared in the March 1, 1913, issue of The American Contractor:
The short-lived partnership of architects Frederic Von Beren and Paul B. LaVelle was dissolved in December, 1913.According the Cezar Del Valle’s The Brooklyn Theatre Index the original architect of the Sumner Theatre was Paul B. LaVelle. In addition to Lamb’s 1917 remodeling, a remodeling of the interior in 1930 was designed by architect A. J. Benline.
According to his 1961 obituary, Nikitas Dipson began operating the Family Theatre at Batavia in 1914. He had earlier operated the Lyric Theatre and another movie house in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. In the 1920s he operated a chain of fifty movie theaters, and provided booking services for 200. In the late 1920s he leased twenty-five of his houses to Warner Brothers.
The obituary can be read in this PDF of page 12 of the May 5, 1961, edition of the Jamestown (N.Y.) Post-Journal.
seasickseagull: If you click on the “Street View” link under the photo above, then rotate the resulting view, you will see that Engine 28 is still housed in the firehouse across Lovejoy Street from the former theater.
I certainly wouldn’t have recognized this plain, boxy building as a former theater. This Facebook page has one of the renderings I linked to in my previous comment, which depicts one of the six prototype theaters that architect William Reisman designed for GCC in the 1960s.
The member who posted it says that this particular design looked most like the Capital Plaza, and one commenter downthread says “…that pretty much looks like it.” There are dozens of comments from people who attended the theater or worked at it, and I’ve found none who say that it didn’t look like the drawing, so I think we can assume that the Capital Plaza’s design was indeed based on that particular William Reisman prototype.
The Family Theatre was advertised at Third and Harris as early as February, 1916. There were at least two earlier houses called the Family Theatre in Harrisburg. One operated on Third near Locust Street at least as early as 1892, and the October 26, 1912, issue of the Harrisburg Daily Independent said that the new Family Theatre on Market Street would open that evening.
A May 9, 1915, item in The Courier described the Family Theatre as “…a large airy room having thirteen exits.” The Market Street house that opened in 1912 had seated only 250, so thirteen exits would have been more likely in the larger, 900-seat Third Street house. That could be an indication that the Third and Harris Family was open by 1915.
Here is the text that accompanied this photo as it appeared in the August 5, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Here is the rather lengthy article about the Walbrook Theatre that appeared in the August 5, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Worthpoint displays a real photo postcard of the Navarro Theatre. The theater was showing the Mary Pickford movie Lena and the Geese, which IMDb says was released on July 17, 1912. The Navarro, being a neighborhood house, probably got the film somewhat later. The single-story building featured an ornate, arched theater entrance flanked by two storefronts.
The Wonderland closed at this location in very early January, 1910. The December 28, 1909, issue of the Newport News Daily Press said that the operators of the Wonderland Theatre had taken over the Leath Company’s unexpired lease on the Academy of Music and would move to that house on January 3.
The Wonderland company intended to move its operation to an entirely new theater, then under construction at Washington Avenue and 31st Street, later in 1910. I suspect that the new house was the later Downtown Theatre, which opened as the Olympic Theatre on October 17, 1910.
After its stint as a motion picture and vaudeville house the Academy of Music returned to its original policy as a live theater, and was listed in the 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide. I haven’t discovered what became of the original Star/Wonderland building after the theater moved out.
The Palace Theater was built and long operated by R. J. Cooper, who had previously operated the Opera House, which opened around 1901. Cooper was still running the Palace in 1954, when the April 17 issue of Boxoffice reported that he had reopened the house following the installation of a new Miracle Mirror screen and a new projection system.
This web page from The American WideScreen Museum web site has information about the Miracle Mirror screen, from a promotional booklet about CinemaScope published in 1953.
This page at Water Winter Wonderland has a vintage photo of the Roxy as it looked after Ted Rogvoy’s ca.1948 remodeling job, though the photo was taken after the theater had closed and fallen into disrepair.
The 1950 Boxoffice article about Rogvoy’s remodeling of the Roxy and two other Detroit houses has before and after photos of the Roxy on this page, though the text about the Roxy is on this page.
CareyVigor: For at least part of the 1930s and 1940s the Martha Washington was owned by the Manteufel family. A Florian Manteufel was the manager in 1942. It might have been him that you met. Manteufel is a German surname, but many German surnames- mine, for one example- are used by both Germans and Jews.
But the waitress must have gotten her stories garbled. Paramount Pictures was founded in 1914 by Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson, so someone arriving in the 1930s couldn’t have been a founder.
Also, IMDb says that Kim Novak was married twice, first to the English actor Richard Johnson, from March, 1965, to May, 1966, and then to a Dr. Robert Malloy, from March, 1976, to present. Of course it’s possible that she had an earlier marriage that was kept secret by the studio, and remains secret, but it would have to have been over before she signed with Columbia Pictures in 1954, at the age of 21. Not a very big window of opportunity for a secret marriage.
Jessey Lasky was associated with Paramount from very early in its history, but I don’t know if he is related to the Jacob Lasky who built the Lasky Theatre, but it seems doubtful, as Jesse Lasky was a native of San Francisco.
The Cine Encanto was featured in the “Better Theatres” section of the September 18, 1937, issue of Motion Picture Herald, but the magazine got the name wrong, labeling it Cine Elcanto (scan at Internet Arcnive.) There are two photos of the cavernous, strikingly modern interior. The architect was Francisco J. Serrano.
The 1937 ad Broan linked to must depict the results of a renovation of the Buckingham. The photo shows some detailing along the auditorium’s back wall and adjacent to the ceiling vault, but not enough to determine what the original interior style might have been. More of the original design might have survived at the screen end of the auditorium, at least until wide screens came along in the 1950s.
I’ve come across a couple of references to burlesque shows running at the Broadway Strand in 1928. That may be why I’ve found no references to the house in movie industry trade journals after 1927. The theater probably closed as a burlesque house.
Two decent photos of the Broadway Strand can be found on this page at Water Winter Wonderland.
It now appears that this house opened as the Broadway Theatre in 1913 and the name was changed to Broadway-Strand Theatre in 1915, per the article linked by rivest266. It was also probably 1915 when a Wurlitzer Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra was installed in the Broadway-Strand. The instrument was featured in an ad for the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company that appeared in the August 14, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World (scan at Google Books.)