The description says the current owner is the Wassche family. Since only three families have operated the theater over its lifetime, according to the description, that leaves only one family unidentified. If I come across it I will let you know.
A gas station now occupies the theater’s former location. This is an item from Boxoffice magazine in January 1960:
Keith Musser moved from the Bloomfield to the Birmingham, and Alan Teicher, assistant at the Palms, was upped to manager of the Bloomfield. No replacement was made at the Palms, supervisor Gil Green reports.
CLEVELAND-The Palace Theater will revert to a continuous, popular price policy Wednesday January 20, with the discontinuation, for the time being at least, of the roadshow policy that has been in effect since November 14, 1956, with the first area Cinerama presentation. “Goliath and the Barbarians”, an AIP picture distributed here by Imperial Pictures, has been chosen to bring the Palace back to a mass rather than a class house. The reason for the reversion was the paucity of available roadshow quality pictures, according to Sam Schultz of Selected Theaters, which will buy and book the house for owners Samuel Silk and Will Halpern of New York.
There may be an aka for the Hardin, or alternatively the Dyers had two theaters in Hardin in January 1960. The item is from Boxoffice magazine.
HARDIN, ILL.-The Town Hall, dark since December 6, was reopened January 9 under the management of Ira Dyer, who has also been managing the Ace Theater at Pleasant Hill, Ill. since last November. He leased the Town Hall from Mrs. George Varble.
Bud Schmidt of the State at Spokane, Wash. used the “girls only” gimmick to get a running start with “Yellowstone Kelly”. Billing it as the “Kookie Matinee”, Schmidt had 350 avid fans of Edd “Kookie” Byrnes waiting at the box office when it opened at 10 a.m. The promotion was carried out with the city’s top-rated teenage radio station.
I wasn’t able to come up with any businesses at 4608 St. John Road, not ones that advertise anyway. Except for some graffiti on the front, the building still looks impressive.
Looking at the Google photo, it doesn’t appear that there is any effort being made to re-use this theater. There is a nice looking church next door, so that neighborhood can’t be that bad. Someone owns the building and is content to let it sit unused, I suppose.
BALTIMORE-The Rex Theater, neighborhood subsequent-run house, has been closed. Its future remains indefinite at present, according to manager Fred Perry, who also operates the Perry Center Theater. At the latter house, he features a late show every night billed as the Owl Show and starting at midnight.
Riverside seems to have improved in the ten years since I first went there, at least in the downtown area. We had lunch in the old fruit company building that is now the Spaghetti Factory. Once the Fox is a performing arts center, I think you will see some real gentrification in that area. It was pretty shabby looking in the late 1990s, like Old Town Pasadena was in the early to mid 1980s.
PHILADELPHIA-Rugoff & Becker, New York circuit, has taken over the management and operation of the World Theater here. The World is owned by Pathe Cinemas and is a first run downtown house specializing in foreign and special domestic films.
Continuing his theater expansion, Paul Marcelli, who served as a projectionist at the Leeds Drive-In in 1958, took over the Communnity in Catskill. He previously acquired the Leeds, then the Vanderbilt in Greenville, the latter from Mrs. Harry Lemont. Marcelli reportedly did good opening business at the Community with “A Summer Place”. That 1200-seater was under the management of Brandt Theaters for about nine years.
Here is part of an LA Times article dated 2/22/54:
A $2200 robbery of a theater at 3741 S. La Brea Ave. early yesterday turned out to be a sort of “open house”, police reported. David Draper, assistant manager of the theater, said he was approached by a bandit who shovied a pistol in his ribs and forced him to go into the office and open the safe. The robber took $1500, then ordered Draper to open the box office so he could steal the receipts.
The bandit then tied Draper with a length of rope. At that point, a couple of patrons of the theater were shown to the manager’s office by an usher. They wanted to lodge a complaint. The bandit asked them to please come in, accentuating his request with a motion of his pistol. They complied.
Then the second of the bandit pair, who had been standing watch in the lobby, came in and said there was a newspaperboy out front who was “looking around too much”. At pistol point he herded Frank Rocatto, 12, into the office to join the others.
The bandits ended up taking the manager only as far as the rear door of the theater, where they left him and escaped.
Here is part of an LA Times article dated 9/20/73:
BUENA PARK-The Pussycat Theater resumed showing sex films Wednesday night after vice officers made their 14th arrest and seizure of films there this year. The latest raid was launched Tuesday night during the showing of “Beyond the Commission’s Report on Obscenity and Pornography”.
Officers seized a print of the film, advertising posters and schedules of its showing. They also arrested the manager, Edward Lee Bailey, 28, of Los Angeles.
Here is part of an LA Times article dated 3/24/76:
PASADENA-An obscenity case against a theater owner here was declared a mistrial after a jury of four men and eight women reported they were deadlocked after three days of deliberation. The jury foreman said the jury had voted 10 to 2 to acquit Harold Eugene Wenzler, owner of the Oaks Theater, 85 N, Fair Oaks Avenue, charged with showing an obscene film there last August.
The jury viewed the film confiscated by vice officers when Wenzler was arrested. It contained four silent bland and white and color sequences all showing nude or semi-nude women. Much of the testimony in the trial centered on the last black and white sequence, in which a nude woman moved erotically on a bed.
During Wenzler’s latest trial, vice officers arrested Ross H. Raines, 50, projectionist at the Oaks Theater, and charged him with showing an obscene film. Raines is scheduled to enter a plea Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Judge Irving I. Schreckinger of the Bronx Criminal Court spent most of yesterday afternoon in a midtown Manhattan screening room viewing two allegedly obscene films, “Infidelity, American-Style” and “Housewives on Call.” The films had been seized by the police at the Square Theater in the Bronx on Dec. 9.
HUMBOLDT, TENN.-Construction has begun on a new theater here for Chickasaw Amusement Co. (Ruffin Brothers). It will play first run pictures. The Rex, owned by the same firm and which recently was remodeled, will show second run product.
The description says the current owner is the Wassche family. Since only three families have operated the theater over its lifetime, according to the description, that leaves only one family unidentified. If I come across it I will let you know.
Roy Rasmussen was the owner of the Comet in the early 1960s, according to an item in Boxoffice magazine at that time.
Bill Schulte owned and operated the Algonac in 1960, along with the Mariner in Marine City, according to a report in Boxoffice magazine at that time.
A gas station now occupies the theater’s former location. This is an item from Boxoffice magazine in January 1960:
Keith Musser moved from the Bloomfield to the Birmingham, and Alan Teicher, assistant at the Palms, was upped to manager of the Bloomfield. No replacement was made at the Palms, supervisor Gil Green reports.
From Boxoffice magazine, January 1960:
CLEVELAND-The Palace Theater will revert to a continuous, popular price policy Wednesday January 20, with the discontinuation, for the time being at least, of the roadshow policy that has been in effect since November 14, 1956, with the first area Cinerama presentation. “Goliath and the Barbarians”, an AIP picture distributed here by Imperial Pictures, has been chosen to bring the Palace back to a mass rather than a class house. The reason for the reversion was the paucity of available roadshow quality pictures, according to Sam Schultz of Selected Theaters, which will buy and book the house for owners Samuel Silk and Will Halpern of New York.
There may be an aka for the Hardin, or alternatively the Dyers had two theaters in Hardin in January 1960. The item is from Boxoffice magazine.
HARDIN, ILL.-The Town Hall, dark since December 6, was reopened January 9 under the management of Ira Dyer, who has also been managing the Ace Theater at Pleasant Hill, Ill. since last November. He leased the Town Hall from Mrs. George Varble.
From Boxoffice magazine, January 1960:
Bud Schmidt of the State at Spokane, Wash. used the “girls only” gimmick to get a running start with “Yellowstone Kelly”. Billing it as the “Kookie Matinee”, Schmidt had 350 avid fans of Edd “Kookie” Byrnes waiting at the box office when it opened at 10 a.m. The promotion was carried out with the city’s top-rated teenage radio station.
I wasn’t able to come up with any businesses at 4608 St. John Road, not ones that advertise anyway. Except for some graffiti on the front, the building still looks impressive.
There is a vintage photo on this site:
http://tinyurl.com/8j6rxc
Looking at the Google photo, it doesn’t appear that there is any effort being made to re-use this theater. There is a nice looking church next door, so that neighborhood can’t be that bad. Someone owns the building and is content to let it sit unused, I suppose.
From Boxoffice magazine, January 1960:
BALTIMORE-The Rex Theater, neighborhood subsequent-run house, has been closed. Its future remains indefinite at present, according to manager Fred Perry, who also operates the Perry Center Theater. At the latter house, he features a late show every night billed as the Owl Show and starting at midnight.
The new link from 7/16 works fine. As he pointed out, the link in the related sites is defunct.
Riverside seems to have improved in the ten years since I first went there, at least in the downtown area. We had lunch in the old fruit company building that is now the Spaghetti Factory. Once the Fox is a performing arts center, I think you will see some real gentrification in that area. It was pretty shabby looking in the late 1990s, like Old Town Pasadena was in the early to mid 1980s.
From Boxoffice magazine, January 1960:
The Riviera Theater, Manayunk, has discontinued its weekend vaudeville stage shows, as they failed to bring in any extra business.
From Boxoffice magazine, January 1960:
PHILADELPHIA-Rugoff & Becker, New York circuit, has taken over the management and operation of the World Theater here. The World is owned by Pathe Cinemas and is a first run downtown house specializing in foreign and special domestic films.
This is from Boxoffice magazine, January 1960:
Continuing his theater expansion, Paul Marcelli, who served as a projectionist at the Leeds Drive-In in 1958, took over the Communnity in Catskill. He previously acquired the Leeds, then the Vanderbilt in Greenville, the latter from Mrs. Harry Lemont. Marcelli reportedly did good opening business at the Community with “A Summer Place”. That 1200-seater was under the management of Brandt Theaters for about nine years.
Here is an expanded view of the photo at the top of the page:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics08/00023563.jpg
Here are two photos from the LA Library, dated 1929 and 1970, respectively:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics08/00023562.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics08/00023561.jpg
Here are some photos taken yesterday:
http://tinyurl.com/6sg38b
http://tinyurl.com/894856
http://tinyurl.com/7db4cp
http://tinyurl.com/8msdt4
Here is part of an LA Times article dated 2/22/54:
A $2200 robbery of a theater at 3741 S. La Brea Ave. early yesterday turned out to be a sort of “open house”, police reported. David Draper, assistant manager of the theater, said he was approached by a bandit who shovied a pistol in his ribs and forced him to go into the office and open the safe. The robber took $1500, then ordered Draper to open the box office so he could steal the receipts.
The bandit then tied Draper with a length of rope. At that point, a couple of patrons of the theater were shown to the manager’s office by an usher. They wanted to lodge a complaint. The bandit asked them to please come in, accentuating his request with a motion of his pistol. They complied.
Then the second of the bandit pair, who had been standing watch in the lobby, came in and said there was a newspaperboy out front who was “looking around too much”. At pistol point he herded Frank Rocatto, 12, into the office to join the others.
The bandits ended up taking the manager only as far as the rear door of the theater, where they left him and escaped.
Here is part of an LA Times article dated 9/20/73:
BUENA PARK-The Pussycat Theater resumed showing sex films Wednesday night after vice officers made their 14th arrest and seizure of films there this year. The latest raid was launched Tuesday night during the showing of “Beyond the Commission’s Report on Obscenity and Pornography”.
Officers seized a print of the film, advertising posters and schedules of its showing. They also arrested the manager, Edward Lee Bailey, 28, of Los Angeles.
Here is part of an LA Times article dated 3/24/76:
PASADENA-An obscenity case against a theater owner here was declared a mistrial after a jury of four men and eight women reported they were deadlocked after three days of deliberation. The jury foreman said the jury had voted 10 to 2 to acquit Harold Eugene Wenzler, owner of the Oaks Theater, 85 N, Fair Oaks Avenue, charged with showing an obscene film there last August.
The jury viewed the film confiscated by vice officers when Wenzler was arrested. It contained four silent bland and white and color sequences all showing nude or semi-nude women. Much of the testimony in the trial centered on the last black and white sequence, in which a nude woman moved erotically on a bed.
During Wenzler’s latest trial, vice officers arrested Ross H. Raines, 50, projectionist at the Oaks Theater, and charged him with showing an obscene film. Raines is scheduled to enter a plea Wednesday at 9 a.m.
From the NYT on January 27, 1968:
JUDGE VIEWS FILMS IN OBSCENITY CASE
Judge Irving I. Schreckinger of the Bronx Criminal Court spent most of yesterday afternoon in a midtown Manhattan screening room viewing two allegedly obscene films, “Infidelity, American-Style” and “Housewives on Call.” The films had been seized by the police at the Square Theater in the Bronx on Dec. 9.
Here is the Steinmart site. Function should be retail.
http://tinyurl.com/95pge3
From Boxoffice magazine, May 1941:
HUMBOLDT, TENN.-Construction has begun on a new theater here for Chickasaw Amusement Co. (Ruffin Brothers). It will play first run pictures. The Rex, owned by the same firm and which recently was remodeled, will show second run product.