We do need a better picture. The Majestic was in the building to the left of the YMCA. The picture shows just a bit of the original marquee. The building was probably remodeled in later years.
Though miamiguy says the Kentucky Theatre was demolished, from his description of what happened it sounds like it was only dismantled and converted to retail use. The building at 224 W. Main Street looks like it dates from the 1910s or 1920s. Unless the auditorium was behind the building, where there is now a huge parking garage, the building it occupied still exists.
A house called the Kozy Theatre opened in Ludington on July 1, 1914, according to Motography, but it was located on James Street:
“July 1 the Kozy, a new motion picture theater opened in the Zeif building on James street, Ludington. Rudolph Zeber and R. R. Cunningham being the proprietors of the new show house.”
I don’t know when the Kozy moved to its Ludington Avenue location, but it was probably long before the 1942 rebuilding. In addition to the changes noted in the article LouisRugani cited above, the June 4 issue of the paper said that the rebuilt house had a greater pitch to the floor to improve sight lines, and the seating capacity had been increased. The rebuilding had taken eight weeks. The house reopened as the Center Theatre on Saturday, June 6, 1942.
There was a Strand Theatre operating in Norfolk at least as early as 1916, when it was mentioned in The Moving Picture World in both January and February.
The only mention of the Victoria Theatre I’ve found in any theater publications of the period is in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide, which gave no details but said the house was showing vaudeville and pictures.
The June 10, 1911, issue of Engineering Record listed bids that had been received for the construction of the Victoria Theatre in Norfolk. The architect was C. K. Howell of Richmond.
There was an earlier movie house called the New Dixie Theatre across the street from this one. It was listed at 220 Hay Street in the 1909-1910 city directory, operated by S. A. Lambert, who must have been the Steve Lambert who operated the Dixie Theatre at 225 Hay Street until 1919.
According to DocSouth’s “Going to the Show” the theater at 225 Hay Street became the 300-seat Rose Theatre in 1919 and kept that name until 1926.
DocSouth also has a page for the Princess Theatre. Though no address is given for it, it appears in 1927, when it had 333 seats, and operated until at least 1930, when it seated 350. I think there’s a very good chance that Princess is another aka for the Dixie/Rose/Cameo.
Prior to an expansion in 1920, the Rivoli was called the Wilson Theatre. Here is an item about the project from the May 1, 1920, issue of The American Contractor:
“Theater (Wilson, int. alt. & side add.): $400,000. 1 sty. 85x145. 418 E. Balto st. Archt. E. G. Blanke, 213 Calvert st. Mech. engr. not selected. Owner Wilson Theater Co., H. W. Wonders, on prem. Plmg. let to Herr Bros., Lexington bldg. Elec. wiring let to Kingsbury S. Macmuiss Elec. Co., 213 N. Cal st. Not started.”
The Wilson Theatre was in operation prior to 1912, when the January issue of the trade union publication Typographical Journal ran this item:
“For two seasons the Wilson theater, on East Baltimore street, was on the unfair list of the federation of labor. This season the new management employs union performers, union stage employes and union orchestra, and deserves the patronage of all union laboring men and their families. This theater is one of the prettiest and coziest little theaters in Baltimore and the price of admission is always the same, and the courtesy shown the public is much better than at some of the other houses.”
The Wilson Theatre was mentioned quite a few times in The Moving Picture World around 1916, when its manager, Guy L. Wonders, was President of the Maryland Exhibitors League.
The October 7, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item:
“New Theater Proposed.
“Baltimore. Md. — Plans were filed with building inspector J. J. Byrne, by Louis Helldorfer, on Friday, September 15th, for a moving picture theater to be located at 2239-43 East Fayette street. Mr. Helldorfer states that he expects the structure to cost in the neighborhood of $10,000 when it is completed.”
Plans being filed on September 15 means the small house could have been completed before the end of 1916, and was probably open by early 1917 at the latest.
The new Masonic Lodge in Farmington was dedicated on October 9, 1901, according to the November 1 issue of Masonic publication The American Tyler. I haven’t found the Princess Theatre mentioned in early trade publications, but it was listed in the 1921 Cahn guide with 500 seats.
The February 19, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World mentions houses in Farmington called the Lyric and the Strand, both operated by Jesse Chance, Jr., and in 1913 there was a house called the Dreamland. Any of those might have been earlier names for the Princess.
The February 9, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Hippodrome in Peoria was set to begin its vaudeville season, and shows would include three reels of movies at each performance. The Princess Theatre, under the same management, had just discontinued vaudeville.
cobeal: If you look on the “Photos” page for this theater (click the link above the photo displayed on this page) you’ll find an interior photo and a scan of a newspaper article about the opening of the house. The newspaper spelled the owner’s name Goshay. As he was interviewed and photographed for the article that is probably the correct spelling.
The article notes that the Acorn Theatre had a Lamella roof, so it was definitely not a quonset hut, but the method created a similar barrel vaulted structure, as can be seen in the interior photo on our Photos page.
There is no date on the article, but the text says the Acorn was scheduled to open on March 10. As it was listed in the 1955-1956 Theatre Catalog, which would have been published prior to the end of 1955, and, according to the article, when the Acorn opened it was equipped for movies made in both CinemaScope and VistaVision processes, it must have opened 1955. CinemaScope first appeared in 1953, but VistaVision, developed by Fox rival Paramount Pictures, premiered at Radio City Music Hall on October 14, 1954. Thus the March 10 opening of the Acorn had to have been in 1955.
JoJo_M: This comment by rebaanders of the Capitol Theater Foundation says “We are fortunate to have the original blue prints from Carl A Nelson.” (Carl A. Nelson was the original construction company.) I’d advise using the contact information on the theater’s official web site. If anybody knows where the blueprints are now it’s likely to be someone from the Foundation.
This excerpt from an article in the January 21, 1932, issue of The Daily Star, Long Island City, suggests that the Arion Theatre was actually built around 1915:
“The tearing down this week of the New Columbia Theater, Grand avenue and Sixty-ninth lane, Maspeth, removed another landmark of the days when the section was a sleepy little village.
“The little theater was marked for demolition following protests by the Maspeth Civic and Improvement Association, and other local organisations that it was a fire menace. It had been closed for six years.
“Old-time residents recalled today how it was built sixteen years ago, shortly after the construction of the Arion Theater near the Atateka Democratic Club. Maspeth felt quite proud of its two theaters, although both would fit comfortably in the present Maspeth Theater and leave some space over”
The Maspeth News column of the November 4, 1922, issue of The Newtown Register had this item:
“Mr. Robert Kunze is making extensive alterations to his moving picture theatre located on the ground floor of the Arion building.”
Another newspaper item of the period says that the Arion Theatre was next door to the Arion Building. There was also a place called Arion Hall, and one item referred to Robert Kunze as the proprietor of the Arion Hall and Moving Picture Theatre.
As Somerset no longer uses one and two-digit addresses, the Park Theatre was probably at modern 107 E. Main, although there’s no guarantee that the last digits of new addresses would match up perfectly with the old addresses. This is one of the places we could really use a Sanborn map, or at least some old photos.
The name “Piera” in the last line of the first paragraph of the introduction should be Pereira. De Rosa and Pereira were in partnership from about 1917 to about 1921. I’m pretty sure this was Percival Pereira, who had worked in Thomas Lamb’s office until 1915, then had a brief association with C. Howard Crane, who opened a New York branch office that year.
The May, 1919, issue of The Bridgemen’s Magazine had this item:
“New York.—Theater—B. S. Moss Co., 729 Seventh avenue, soon lets contract building 2-story, 137x161ft. brick and steel, concrete foundation, on 181st street and Broadway. About $475,000. De Rosa & Pereira, 110 W. Fortieth street, architects.”
The De Rosa in the firm of De Rosa & Pereira was Eugene De Rosa of New York City. It’s very likely that his partner was Percival Pereira. The October, 1919, issue of The Bridgemen’s Magazine had this item:
“Store and theater. S. Bloom plans brick and terra cotta, 215-223 W. Forty-second street. P. B. [sic] Pereira and E. De Rosa, 150 Nassau street, architects.”
Percival Pereira’s middle name was Raymond. He had worked in Thomas Lamb’s office until 1915. At that time, according to this thumbnail biography from Historic Detroit, he became an associate of Detroit architect C. Howard Crane, who had opened a New York branch office. It’s not clear how long Pereira was associated with Crane, but Pereira did design projects in Detroit in the 1920s. De Rosa & Pereira were listed in the 1921 Year Book of the New York Society of Architects with offices at 110 W. 40th Street.
As this house opened in 1922, this item from the “New Theatres” column of the December 3, 1921, issue of Exhibitors Trade Review is probably about the Blue Bird Theatre:
“EAST PEORIA, ILL.— Frederick [sic] J. Klein, architect, has completed plans for a 500-seat theatre for William H. Schlem and work will be started immediately on construction under supervision of K. C. Snelling.”
The correct spelling of the architect’s first name is Frederic.
An article about the State Theatre in the December 3, 1921, issue of Exhibitor’s Trade Review had this interesting information about the movie screen in the new house:
“The new Loew State Theatre which opened in Los Angeles Nov. 12 has a screen 24 by 44 feet. It is twice the size of any other screen in use in that city and pictures are furnished for it by what is said to be the largest projection booth in the world. It will be interesting to note how the public takes to this mammoth picture sheet.”
Somerset no longer uses one and two digit addresses, so the modern address of the Governor Theatre’s site was most likely 110 E. Main Street. There is a modern bank on the site now, so the Governor has been demolished.
Andrew: This is a bit late, but I just came across an item from the September 4, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World that mentions a Mr. Pascoe in Somerset:
“The Somerset Opera House, Somerset, Pa., recently leased by C. B. Pascoe, has been remodeled and redecorated in a pleasing manner. Mr. Pascoe, who is a well-known exhibitor and operates a chain of houses in West Virginia, has opened his newly acquired theater and is offering a high-,class program of features daily.”
The March 11, 1922, issue of The American Contractor also mentions Pascoe in connection with a theater project in Somerset:
“Somerset. Pa.—Theater (M. P.: newGrand): $100,000. 3 sty. 57x179. Archt. E. H. Walker. Owner C. B. Pascoe. mgr., Grand Theater. Brk. walls, granite trim. Archt. builds, awards sep. contrs., will take bids on sep. contrs. & materials abt. Apr.”
The comment by Mark Ware says that the Grand and Park Theatres were across the street from the Governor. The Park was rather small, so the Grand is more likely to have had an organ.
A book about the Park Hill neighborhood is reviewed on this web page and it mentions that the Crest opened as the Tower Theatre in 1949, and after its days as the Crest Theatre was converted into a Korean Presbyterian church.
The building was listed on LoopNet about a year ago, but now appears to be off the market. It might currently be vacant, but in Google street view the building looks to be in very good shape. It is an L-shaped theater with a fairly large auditorium running parallel to the street behind a row of storefronts.
The NRHP nomination form for the Lawrence Warehouse in Sacramento lists a number of other buildings designed by its architect, Clarence Cecil Cuff, and the Diepenbrock Theatre was among them.
We do need a better picture. The Majestic was in the building to the left of the YMCA. The picture shows just a bit of the original marquee. The building was probably remodeled in later years.
Though miamiguy says the Kentucky Theatre was demolished, from his description of what happened it sounds like it was only dismantled and converted to retail use. The building at 224 W. Main Street looks like it dates from the 1910s or 1920s. Unless the auditorium was behind the building, where there is now a huge parking garage, the building it occupied still exists.
A house called the Kozy Theatre opened in Ludington on July 1, 1914, according to Motography, but it was located on James Street:
I don’t know when the Kozy moved to its Ludington Avenue location, but it was probably long before the 1942 rebuilding. In addition to the changes noted in the article LouisRugani cited above, the June 4 issue of the paper said that the rebuilt house had a greater pitch to the floor to improve sight lines, and the seating capacity had been increased. The rebuilding had taken eight weeks. The house reopened as the Center Theatre on Saturday, June 6, 1942.The Alhambra Theatre can be marked as demolished. A liquor store and its parking lot now occupy the site of this theater.
There was a Strand Theatre operating in Norfolk at least as early as 1916, when it was mentioned in The Moving Picture World in both January and February.
The only mention of the Victoria Theatre I’ve found in any theater publications of the period is in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide, which gave no details but said the house was showing vaudeville and pictures.
The June 10, 1911, issue of Engineering Record listed bids that had been received for the construction of the Victoria Theatre in Norfolk. The architect was C. K. Howell of Richmond.
There was an earlier movie house called the New Dixie Theatre across the street from this one. It was listed at 220 Hay Street in the 1909-1910 city directory, operated by S. A. Lambert, who must have been the Steve Lambert who operated the Dixie Theatre at 225 Hay Street until 1919.
According to DocSouth’s “Going to the Show” the theater at 225 Hay Street became the 300-seat Rose Theatre in 1919 and kept that name until 1926.
DocSouth also has a page for the Princess Theatre. Though no address is given for it, it appears in 1927, when it had 333 seats, and operated until at least 1930, when it seated 350. I think there’s a very good chance that Princess is another aka for the Dixie/Rose/Cameo.
Prior to an expansion in 1920, the Rivoli was called the Wilson Theatre. Here is an item about the project from the May 1, 1920, issue of The American Contractor:
The Wilson Theatre was in operation prior to 1912, when the January issue of the trade union publication Typographical Journal ran this item:The Wilson Theatre was mentioned quite a few times in The Moving Picture World around 1916, when its manager, Guy L. Wonders, was President of the Maryland Exhibitors League.The October 7, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item:
Plans being filed on September 15 means the small house could have been completed before the end of 1916, and was probably open by early 1917 at the latest.The new Masonic Lodge in Farmington was dedicated on October 9, 1901, according to the November 1 issue of Masonic publication The American Tyler. I haven’t found the Princess Theatre mentioned in early trade publications, but it was listed in the 1921 Cahn guide with 500 seats.
The February 19, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World mentions houses in Farmington called the Lyric and the Strand, both operated by Jesse Chance, Jr., and in 1913 there was a house called the Dreamland. Any of those might have been earlier names for the Princess.
The February 9, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Hippodrome in Peoria was set to begin its vaudeville season, and shows would include three reels of movies at each performance. The Princess Theatre, under the same management, had just discontinued vaudeville.
cobeal: If you look on the “Photos” page for this theater (click the link above the photo displayed on this page) you’ll find an interior photo and a scan of a newspaper article about the opening of the house. The newspaper spelled the owner’s name Goshay. As he was interviewed and photographed for the article that is probably the correct spelling.
The article notes that the Acorn Theatre had a Lamella roof, so it was definitely not a quonset hut, but the method created a similar barrel vaulted structure, as can be seen in the interior photo on our Photos page.
There is no date on the article, but the text says the Acorn was scheduled to open on March 10. As it was listed in the 1955-1956 Theatre Catalog, which would have been published prior to the end of 1955, and, according to the article, when the Acorn opened it was equipped for movies made in both CinemaScope and VistaVision processes, it must have opened 1955. CinemaScope first appeared in 1953, but VistaVision, developed by Fox rival Paramount Pictures, premiered at Radio City Music Hall on October 14, 1954. Thus the March 10 opening of the Acorn had to have been in 1955.
JoJo_M: This comment by rebaanders of the Capitol Theater Foundation says “We are fortunate to have the original blue prints from Carl A Nelson.” (Carl A. Nelson was the original construction company.) I’d advise using the contact information on the theater’s official web site. If anybody knows where the blueprints are now it’s likely to be someone from the Foundation.
This excerpt from an article in the January 21, 1932, issue of The Daily Star, Long Island City, suggests that the Arion Theatre was actually built around 1915:
The Maspeth News column of the November 4, 1922, issue of The Newtown Register had this item:Another newspaper item of the period says that the Arion Theatre was next door to the Arion Building. There was also a place called Arion Hall, and one item referred to Robert Kunze as the proprietor of the Arion Hall and Moving Picture Theatre.I found the Park Theatre at Somerset mentioned in the September 23, 1932, issue of The Bedford Gazette from Bedford, Pennsylvania.
Linkrot repair: The photos of the remodeled Community Theatre in the October 22, 1955, issue of Boxoffice are now at this link.
As Somerset no longer uses one and two-digit addresses, the Park Theatre was probably at modern 107 E. Main, although there’s no guarantee that the last digits of new addresses would match up perfectly with the old addresses. This is one of the places we could really use a Sanborn map, or at least some old photos.
The name “Piera” in the last line of the first paragraph of the introduction should be Pereira. De Rosa and Pereira were in partnership from about 1917 to about 1921. I’m pretty sure this was Percival Pereira, who had worked in Thomas Lamb’s office until 1915, then had a brief association with C. Howard Crane, who opened a New York branch office that year.
The May, 1919, issue of The Bridgemen’s Magazine had this item:
The De Rosa in the firm of De Rosa & Pereira was Eugene De Rosa of New York City. It’s very likely that his partner was Percival Pereira. The October, 1919, issue of The Bridgemen’s Magazine had this item:
Percival Pereira’s middle name was Raymond. He had worked in Thomas Lamb’s office until 1915. At that time, according to this thumbnail biography from Historic Detroit, he became an associate of Detroit architect C. Howard Crane, who had opened a New York branch office. It’s not clear how long Pereira was associated with Crane, but Pereira did design projects in Detroit in the 1920s. De Rosa & Pereira were listed in the 1921 Year Book of the New York Society of Architects with offices at 110 W. 40th Street.As this house opened in 1922, this item from the “New Theatres” column of the December 3, 1921, issue of Exhibitors Trade Review is probably about the Blue Bird Theatre:
The correct spelling of the architect’s first name is Frederic.An article about the State Theatre in the December 3, 1921, issue of Exhibitor’s Trade Review had this interesting information about the movie screen in the new house:
Somerset no longer uses one and two digit addresses, so the modern address of the Governor Theatre’s site was most likely 110 E. Main Street. There is a modern bank on the site now, so the Governor has been demolished.
Andrew: This is a bit late, but I just came across an item from the September 4, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World that mentions a Mr. Pascoe in Somerset:
The March 11, 1922, issue of The American Contractor also mentions Pascoe in connection with a theater project in Somerset:The comment by Mark Ware says that the Grand and Park Theatres were across the street from the Governor. The Park was rather small, so the Grand is more likely to have had an organ.A book about the Park Hill neighborhood is reviewed on this web page and it mentions that the Crest opened as the Tower Theatre in 1949, and after its days as the Crest Theatre was converted into a Korean Presbyterian church.
The building was listed on LoopNet about a year ago, but now appears to be off the market. It might currently be vacant, but in Google street view the building looks to be in very good shape. It is an L-shaped theater with a fairly large auditorium running parallel to the street behind a row of storefronts.
The NRHP nomination form for the Lawrence Warehouse in Sacramento lists a number of other buildings designed by its architect, Clarence Cecil Cuff, and the Diepenbrock Theatre was among them.
Linkrot repair: The 1911 photo of the National Theatre is now at this link.