Last known 70mm to run here was double bill of Poseidon Adventure and Tora Tora Tora, both in 70mm, in June 1973. Debut of screens #2 and #3 was 6-24-77. Projected screen image on #1 was reduced to match #2 and #3, the smaller screens. Closed Sunday 9-22-84 – – the three double features were: #1 Gremlins/Police Academy; #2 The Natural/The Woman in Red, #3: Revenge of the Nerds/Porky’s. Demolished in Nov. 1985. Demolition permit issued 9-30-85, with “finish date” of 1-6-86. “2001” played at least 3 times in 70mm, “Zhivago” and “Grand Prix” also had 70mm showings in 1970 and 1971. The last “winter” season was the winter of 1972-73; after that the France Ave Drive In operated only during the regular season.
Re the 1965 article, Scuderi and Minasian/Esquire Theatres were also known as Hallmark Releasing, which hit boxoffice paydirt in 1971-72 with “Together” and “Last House on the Left.”
The first Jerry Lewis Cinema opened in Wayne NJ in March 1970 and East Meadow NY Long Island was the 2nd, opening in May 1970. So the Yankton theatre was probably sometime later. The formation of the company was announced in Sept. 1969 – six months after that, the first theatre opened.
Mr. Hewitt’s comment about the Alpha booth being on the back wall of the auditorium and a person standing up in the back row could block the projector: this is the sign of an early Jerry Lewis theatre – they had “upstairs booth” plans and “downstairs booth” plans and the upstairs plans were developed later. This per company newsletters sent to Lewis exhibitors. I bring up Lewis with Kokomo since I have come across mentions here and there that there was a Lewis theatre in Kokomo but have never confirmed it. The second comment about Alpha being located not in the mall, but in another strip mall behind the mall, gives me the second clue that this may have been the Jerry Lewis theatre, if Kokomo indeed ever had one. The JL theatres were often in oddball locations, behind some other building, and often you could not see it from the street. “Go around to the back” was probably something people were told time and time again whenever they couldn’t find the JL theatre. (I also have a company newsletter that says they had hired a construction company to build all their theatres, and they seem to have had a ready-to-go set of plans that were probably not deviated from very often)
Re the Joe Vogel comment (Markland 5 plex page http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/18563 ) about Cinecom, that seems to be right but according to an item I found in Independent Film Journal of 6-24-71, Cinecom was planning to add a 3rd and 4th screen, of 350 seats each, and they were called “Cinema III and IV” in a large article that mentioned many theatre projects across the country at the time. Perhaps screens #3 and #4 were never done? Were they a split of the first two screens? At any rate, it looks like more investigation needs to be done with the late 60s-early 70s period of Kokomo theatre exhibition. Seems there a few theatres that may be mixed up and need to be sorted out?
Excerpt from Joe Vogel comment:
The August 18, 1969, issue of Boxoffice referred to the house as the Markland Twin Cinemas I & II, and said they were operated by the Cinecom Theatres Midwest States, Inc. division.
I’ve been unable to find anything about this theater between then and 1991, when the November issue of Boxoffice said that construction had begun to add two screens at the Markland 3 in Kokomo, and that the house would be renamed the Markland 5.
Interesting to note this was an UltraVision theatre. That was mostly a Wilby-Kincey ABC feature. Plitt bought the ABC theatres in two waves. The first was the Northern theatres in early 1974; the southern ones were later. Your speculation of around 1978 sounds right to me. Also curious to see the opening feature was “Love Story” which was 6 months old at the time. The 1938 “Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was later distributed by Michael Myerberg and it had some playdates again as kiddie matinees in later years. I remember seeing an IB Technicolor print of it.
Mr. NooNE. Will you state your full name, address, and business affiliation for the record?
Mr. BERMAN. My name is Isadore Berman. I live in Los Angeles. I have been an exhibitor since 1930. I am in partnership with my brother, Jack Y. Berman. Prior to the year 1948 we operated 14 theaters. Since that time we have closed 6 of these 14 theaters. We now operate 8 conventional theaters and 3 drive-ins.
Mr. NOONE. They are all in the Los Angeles exchange district?
Mr. BERMAN. Yes, sir.
Mr. NOONE. Do you have some testimony with relation to zoning which you wish to offer to the committee?
Mr. BERMAN. Yes, sir. The system of zoning as set down by the distributors has been gerrymandered around so that the only purpose, as I see it, is to help them get increased film rentals. I have a case here of the picture Quo Vadis. I received a letter from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, dated August 19, 1952, in which they asked me, or they offered me the opportunity of bidding competitively for the picture Quo Vadis on our Vern Theater.
Senator SMATHERS. May I interrupt right there to try to get somethinf on the record? ‘Vhen you say “they” offered you, who offered you.
Mr. BERMAN. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Senator SMATHERS. Who represented Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer?
Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Aspell, resident manager.
Senator SMATHERS. Where is he located?
Mr. BERMAN. He is located in Los Angeles.
Senator SMATHERS. Mr. Aspell contacted you about it?
Mr. BERMAN. Yes. The availability for this run would be September 10, 1952. The bid letter was due in the office of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on August 25.
Well, I submitted a bid for this run before the proper time, and I didn’t hear again until September 3, which is exactly 1 week before the picture was to play, if I did win the picture.
Mr. NooNE. What run were you bidding on, first run?
Mr. BERMAN. No, a subsequent run. The Vern Theater is located in the Boyle Heights section, which is a neighborhood out on the east part of town, sort of isolated.
The remodeling caused the theatre to be closed between June 5, 1949 and Oct. 13, 1949. When it was reopened, the grosses dropped. The Hansons provided this correspondence to the U.S. Senate subcommittee on small business in 1953: “Before renovation the Nubel Theater was doing an average gross of $3,200 per week. We then spent $180,000 on remodeling and added 92 seats, and then opened to a gross of $2,800 per week. Since that time the average gross has steadily decreased until at the end of the first quarter of 1953 our average gross was $2,043 per week. Certainly an extra 92 seats does not justify an increase in film rental in view of a 36-percent decrease in the average weekly gross.”
Acquired by the South-Lyn small chain, Wayne and Albert Hanson, in Oct. 1947. Also acquired Nubel (l/k/a Holiday) at same time. Circle Theatre was closed by South-Lyn on July 23, 1950
There was another theatre in Elma – the Dawn Theatre, operating as of 1953 by Charlie Jones, who was an officer in the Allied States organization for IA and NE exhibitors. References to Jones and correspondence from him were featured in the 1953 and 1956 U.S. Senate hearings on motion picture distribution.
After Allen, the following owners had trouble with zoning and distribution practices as well, and testified at the U.S. Senate hearings of 1953. Taking over circa 1946, the new owners were Albert Hanson and son Wayne Hanson, South-Lyn Theatres. They also had the Arden and Lynwood Theatres (both acquired March 4, 1947) and closed the Lynwood in July 1950. The Circle and Nubel theatres in Bellflower were acquired Oct. 1, 1947. The Circle was closed July 23, 1950; the Nubel was remodeled in 1949.
The 1953 U.S. Senate hearings on film distribution practices had a lot of information and testimony from South-Lyn circuit owners Albert and Wayne Hanson. The Arden and the Lynwood were both acquired by the Hansons March 4, 1947. Due to losses they closed the Lynwood on July 16, 1950 and Circle Theatre (Bellflower) the following week. They acquired the Nubel Theatre in Oct. 1947 in Bellflower and closed it for remodeling between June 5, 1949 to Oct. 13, 1949. They also operated the Compton Theatre in Compton and a Vogue Theatre in South Gate. Son Wayne Hanson testified that the grosses at the Nubel dropped by about one-third after spending $180,000 for remodeling and their theatres had steady losses for most of 1950-1953. Their top complaint was the high rental fees demanded by distributors when their theatres were on a 4th or 5th run, yet they were paying film rental as if they were on a 2nd run after downtown. They argued that the film rental extracted from each run should have been lowered commensurately.
There was another theatre in Northwood, run by Charlie Jones. It was running in the 1950s at least…he also had the Dawn Theatre in Elma, IA. The 2010 Albert Lea tribune article said this new theatre was put into a building that had never been a theatre, so the Jones theatre must have been another building. (I see photos of it are shown here – from the mid-1950s)
Leo Wolcott was the owner; there were 3 items in the 9-26-53 Motion Picture Herald. The theatre was closed one day to install Wolcott’s own invention of a new wide screen, using satin as the screen surface. The articles said he spent $35.03 on the project. He contended that since the industry couldn’t decide on a standard screen, he would just make his own: “Leo’s theory
is that the merry-go-round on screens has run the gamut of ground glass to silver screen to gold fibre to beaded screens to white plastic, and is now back to silver screen again. Leo figures he can afford to junk the satin screen when and if the industry settles on something.” The same edition of MPH said Wolcott raised his admission prices to 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children, and adult admission for Saturday matinees would be 40 cents. Wolcott’s problems as an exhibitor, as well as others in Iowa, was discussed at the 1953 U. S. Senate hearings regarding motion picture distribution practices. It was said that Wolcott would not book pictures from Warner Bros. or RKO, and that a WB salesman had not visited him in several years. RKO complained he would take only shorts, B westerns and old features. Wolcott only bought shorts from WB. He refused to pay the percentages these distributors wanted for current features.
CJ1949
commented about
Cinema 7on
Nov 11, 2019 at 10:00 pm
It was still the Vogue as of the spring of 1953. The owner, Homer I. Tegtmeier, testified at the U.S. Senate hearings on small business when that committee was investigating complaints from small, independent theatre owners. He also operated a theatre in Watsonville. He had a lot of complaints about Universal, and was a leader of a group of Northern California exhibitors.
In 1953 the operator of the Centre was Homer I. Tegtmeier, who also operated the Vogue Theatre in Salinas. Tegtmeier was one of many exhibitors who testified at the 1953 hearings of the U.S. Senate Small Business Committee that was investigating the trade practices of motion picture exhibitors. Another round of hearings was done in 1956 as well.
The Nubel Theatre and the theatre operations of Al Hanson and son Wayne Hanson are documented in the U.S. Senate hearings of 1953. Libraries that have government documents might have the book, which is the record of the Select Committee on Small Business, 83rd Congress. Many exhibitors testified at these hearings about motion picture distribution trade practices. Wayne Hanson testified that the remodeling in 1948 cost $180,000 and 92 seats were added. The Hansons had recently acquired the theatre then. He said the grosses started dropping after the remodeling. It was a later run house and most of the exhibitors testifying at these hearings operated late run theatres or small town theatres, and were complaining that the US Justice Dept was not enforcing the decrees. They said distributors had found ways to get around the decrees by making product scarce, selling nearly all film on percentage, and favoring large circuits. They also complained about bidding, which many of them said was only a ruse to get higher rental fees. Hanson said that for late runs he still had to pay rental fees that compared to theatres in the area that had much earlier runs. There were also complaints about distributors grouping theatres into zones that were not competitive with each other, yet doing this to force artificial bidding wars.
There were at least two Jerry Lewis theatres in NC: Siler City and Mt Airy. Siler City opened in Oct 71. Hollywood Reporter of 10-28-71 reported “a 350 seat Jerry Lewis Cinema opened Friday in the Park Shopping Center in Siler City [they misspelled it Silver] NC. Area Director is Mini Theatres of Raleigh, the franchise owner-operator is C & L Development Co.” Earlier, the Siler City-Chatham News had a photo of the construction in its 9-16-71 edition. The caption said this would be the first indoor theatre the city had had in almost 10 years, after the fire that destroyed the Elder Theatre. Said the Siler City location was “one of the first of the chain in North Carolina.”
The Mount Airy News of 10-1-71 said that JBJ Enterprises Inc is constructing a theatre on “US 52 Bypass, adjacent to the City View Motel. The structure is tentatively scheduled to open by Jan. 1. Seating to be 350, a parking lot for 130 cars.” JBJ “is headed by Joe Johnson Sr. and Joe Keyes. The property is being developed to their specifications by E.D. Bray Jr. and Gary Pruett. Jerome Samet of Mount Airy is contractor for the construction work.” It went on to say the operators were going to have a 15-year lease and this would be the 4th theatre in the area, with 1 hardtop and 2 drive ins currently operating.
Neither of these have a listing on Cinema Treasures under their respective cities.
Re the ‘other’ chains. The Glenn Ford one was with Agnes Moorhead and Debbie Reynolds – have not seen Andy Devine mentioned with this but it’s possible he was an investor.
An article in the 8-23-95 Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper said the theatre “had closed” and plans were at the time, to demolish it for a hotel. UA was the last operator. UA officials and neighboring storekeepers were interviewed and didn’t have much good to say about the theatre or the ‘safety’ of the area. A restaurant manager said “when the theatre had to hire a cop…” he knew the end was near. The original operators were also quoted, and said the Lewis franchise fee was 8% of revenue. That figure squares with Lewis' written testimony to the US Senate in early 1970.
From a newspaper article of 4-14-98 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton MA: one of those “what was happening 25 years ago and 50 years ago” history features … this would have been April 1973: “Northampton movie aficionados, take heart. The Jerry Lewis Cinema may be dead, but "The Talkie,” under an alias and new management, is rising from the grave. Two recent college graduates, Stephen Brown and Dennis Curran, plan to have what was formerly “The Talkie” open as “The Globe” by the middle of next month. Scheduled for showing are old movies at cut-rate prices."
An article in the March 18, 2001 edition of the Herald-News in Dayton, TN said the theatre would be closing that week. The theatre’s owner at the time was Delbert Crowe, who told the newspaper he couldn’t find a buyer and business had gone down to a trickle of people each night. The article said the original owner was Bill Matherly who had been operating the drive-in but also bought a Jerry Lewis franchise “in February 1973.” The opening attraction of the Jerry Lewis Cinema was “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t”, which the newspaper’s 2001 article said “was sold out for weeks.”
Most contemporary writers do a poor job of explaining the Lewis franchising story and get it all screwed up. This article was no exception. Suffice it to say the theatre changed its name probably soon after it was opened. The franchising company, Network Cinema Corporation, filed for bankruptcy in June 1973. The article infers that the name change occurred around this time, but there is also a murky aside made that the theatre closed and then reopened again, with nothing said about the length of time it may have been closed.
The name Richland Park was the name of the shopping center it was in.
An item in the 1-31-72 issue of Boxoffice said it was 350 seats and opened 1-14-72 with “Kotch” and the night before, a sneak for local officials was held. Operator’s name was Rosendahl.
The theatre looks to be intact on the exterior. Even the showcases are there. On the east side of the town, at least a couple miles from the downtown. An odd location, and back quite a ways from the street, which is not a main thoroughfare. Many Lewis theatres were strangely located, difficult to see, behind buildings, off main roads, and so on. 3 photos attached, taken Aug. 2019.
Kobs, and Bloomington are correct for first owner and location. According to building permit records, some work was done in 1959 and it said Paul Mans was the owner at that time. More work done in 1966-67 and the name change to Studio 97 occurred in Aug. 1967. Opened in Sept. 1950 and closed July 20, 1986. Demolished a few months later. Engler tried running repertory double bills around 1984-86; mostly a second run theatre in later years.
Last known 70mm to run here was double bill of Poseidon Adventure and Tora Tora Tora, both in 70mm, in June 1973. Debut of screens #2 and #3 was 6-24-77. Projected screen image on #1 was reduced to match #2 and #3, the smaller screens. Closed Sunday 9-22-84 – – the three double features were: #1 Gremlins/Police Academy; #2 The Natural/The Woman in Red, #3: Revenge of the Nerds/Porky’s. Demolished in Nov. 1985. Demolition permit issued 9-30-85, with “finish date” of 1-6-86. “2001” played at least 3 times in 70mm, “Zhivago” and “Grand Prix” also had 70mm showings in 1970 and 1971. The last “winter” season was the winter of 1972-73; after that the France Ave Drive In operated only during the regular season.
Re the 1965 article, Scuderi and Minasian/Esquire Theatres were also known as Hallmark Releasing, which hit boxoffice paydirt in 1971-72 with “Together” and “Last House on the Left.”
The first Jerry Lewis Cinema opened in Wayne NJ in March 1970 and East Meadow NY Long Island was the 2nd, opening in May 1970. So the Yankton theatre was probably sometime later. The formation of the company was announced in Sept. 1969 – six months after that, the first theatre opened.
Mr. Hewitt’s comment about the Alpha booth being on the back wall of the auditorium and a person standing up in the back row could block the projector: this is the sign of an early Jerry Lewis theatre – they had “upstairs booth” plans and “downstairs booth” plans and the upstairs plans were developed later. This per company newsletters sent to Lewis exhibitors. I bring up Lewis with Kokomo since I have come across mentions here and there that there was a Lewis theatre in Kokomo but have never confirmed it. The second comment about Alpha being located not in the mall, but in another strip mall behind the mall, gives me the second clue that this may have been the Jerry Lewis theatre, if Kokomo indeed ever had one. The JL theatres were often in oddball locations, behind some other building, and often you could not see it from the street. “Go around to the back” was probably something people were told time and time again whenever they couldn’t find the JL theatre. (I also have a company newsletter that says they had hired a construction company to build all their theatres, and they seem to have had a ready-to-go set of plans that were probably not deviated from very often)
Re the Joe Vogel comment (Markland 5 plex page http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/18563 ) about Cinecom, that seems to be right but according to an item I found in Independent Film Journal of 6-24-71, Cinecom was planning to add a 3rd and 4th screen, of 350 seats each, and they were called “Cinema III and IV” in a large article that mentioned many theatre projects across the country at the time. Perhaps screens #3 and #4 were never done? Were they a split of the first two screens? At any rate, it looks like more investigation needs to be done with the late 60s-early 70s period of Kokomo theatre exhibition. Seems there a few theatres that may be mixed up and need to be sorted out?
Excerpt from Joe Vogel comment:
The August 18, 1969, issue of Boxoffice referred to the house as the Markland Twin Cinemas I & II, and said they were operated by the Cinecom Theatres Midwest States, Inc. division.
I’ve been unable to find anything about this theater between then and 1991, when the November issue of Boxoffice said that construction had begun to add two screens at the Markland 3 in Kokomo, and that the house would be renamed the Markland 5.
Interesting to note this was an UltraVision theatre. That was mostly a Wilby-Kincey ABC feature. Plitt bought the ABC theatres in two waves. The first was the Northern theatres in early 1974; the southern ones were later. Your speculation of around 1978 sounds right to me. Also curious to see the opening feature was “Love Story” which was 6 months old at the time. The 1938 “Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was later distributed by Michael Myerberg and it had some playdates again as kiddie matinees in later years. I remember seeing an IB Technicolor print of it.
From 1953 U.S. Senate hearing:
Mr. NooNE. Will you state your full name, address, and business affiliation for the record?
Mr. BERMAN. My name is Isadore Berman. I live in Los Angeles. I have been an exhibitor since 1930. I am in partnership with my brother, Jack Y. Berman. Prior to the year 1948 we operated 14 theaters. Since that time we have closed 6 of these 14 theaters. We now operate 8 conventional theaters and 3 drive-ins.
Mr. NOONE. They are all in the Los Angeles exchange district?
Mr. BERMAN. Yes, sir.
Mr. NOONE. Do you have some testimony with relation to zoning which you wish to offer to the committee?
Mr. BERMAN. Yes, sir. The system of zoning as set down by the distributors has been gerrymandered around so that the only purpose, as I see it, is to help them get increased film rentals. I have a case here of the picture Quo Vadis. I received a letter from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, dated August 19, 1952, in which they asked me, or they offered me the opportunity of bidding competitively for the picture Quo Vadis on our Vern Theater.
Senator SMATHERS. May I interrupt right there to try to get somethinf on the record? ‘Vhen you say “they” offered you, who offered you.
Mr. BERMAN. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Senator SMATHERS. Who represented Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer?
Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Aspell, resident manager.
Senator SMATHERS. Where is he located?
Mr. BERMAN. He is located in Los Angeles.
Senator SMATHERS. Mr. Aspell contacted you about it?
Mr. BERMAN. Yes. The availability for this run would be September 10, 1952. The bid letter was due in the office of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on August 25.
Well, I submitted a bid for this run before the proper time, and I didn’t hear again until September 3, which is exactly 1 week before the picture was to play, if I did win the picture.
Mr. NooNE. What run were you bidding on, first run?
Mr. BERMAN. No, a subsequent run. The Vern Theater is located in the Boyle Heights section, which is a neighborhood out on the east part of town, sort of isolated.
The remodeling caused the theatre to be closed between June 5, 1949 and Oct. 13, 1949. When it was reopened, the grosses dropped. The Hansons provided this correspondence to the U.S. Senate subcommittee on small business in 1953: “Before renovation the Nubel Theater was doing an average gross of $3,200 per week. We then spent $180,000 on remodeling and added 92 seats, and then opened to a gross of $2,800 per week. Since that time the average gross has steadily decreased until at the end of the first quarter of 1953 our average gross was $2,043 per week. Certainly an extra 92 seats does not justify an increase in film rental in view of a 36-percent decrease in the average weekly gross.”
Acquired by the South-Lyn small chain, Wayne and Albert Hanson, in Oct. 1947. Also acquired Nubel (l/k/a Holiday) at same time. Circle Theatre was closed by South-Lyn on July 23, 1950
There was another theatre in Elma – the Dawn Theatre, operating as of 1953 by Charlie Jones, who was an officer in the Allied States organization for IA and NE exhibitors. References to Jones and correspondence from him were featured in the 1953 and 1956 U.S. Senate hearings on motion picture distribution.
After Allen, the following owners had trouble with zoning and distribution practices as well, and testified at the U.S. Senate hearings of 1953. Taking over circa 1946, the new owners were Albert Hanson and son Wayne Hanson, South-Lyn Theatres. They also had the Arden and Lynwood Theatres (both acquired March 4, 1947) and closed the Lynwood in July 1950. The Circle and Nubel theatres in Bellflower were acquired Oct. 1, 1947. The Circle was closed July 23, 1950; the Nubel was remodeled in 1949.
The 1953 U.S. Senate hearings on film distribution practices had a lot of information and testimony from South-Lyn circuit owners Albert and Wayne Hanson. The Arden and the Lynwood were both acquired by the Hansons March 4, 1947. Due to losses they closed the Lynwood on July 16, 1950 and Circle Theatre (Bellflower) the following week. They acquired the Nubel Theatre in Oct. 1947 in Bellflower and closed it for remodeling between June 5, 1949 to Oct. 13, 1949. They also operated the Compton Theatre in Compton and a Vogue Theatre in South Gate. Son Wayne Hanson testified that the grosses at the Nubel dropped by about one-third after spending $180,000 for remodeling and their theatres had steady losses for most of 1950-1953. Their top complaint was the high rental fees demanded by distributors when their theatres were on a 4th or 5th run, yet they were paying film rental as if they were on a 2nd run after downtown. They argued that the film rental extracted from each run should have been lowered commensurately.
There was another theatre in Northwood, run by Charlie Jones. It was running in the 1950s at least…he also had the Dawn Theatre in Elma, IA. The 2010 Albert Lea tribune article said this new theatre was put into a building that had never been a theatre, so the Jones theatre must have been another building. (I see photos of it are shown here – from the mid-1950s)
Leo Wolcott was the owner; there were 3 items in the 9-26-53 Motion Picture Herald. The theatre was closed one day to install Wolcott’s own invention of a new wide screen, using satin as the screen surface. The articles said he spent $35.03 on the project. He contended that since the industry couldn’t decide on a standard screen, he would just make his own: “Leo’s theory is that the merry-go-round on screens has run the gamut of ground glass to silver screen to gold fibre to beaded screens to white plastic, and is now back to silver screen again. Leo figures he can afford to junk the satin screen when and if the industry settles on something.” The same edition of MPH said Wolcott raised his admission prices to 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children, and adult admission for Saturday matinees would be 40 cents. Wolcott’s problems as an exhibitor, as well as others in Iowa, was discussed at the 1953 U. S. Senate hearings regarding motion picture distribution practices. It was said that Wolcott would not book pictures from Warner Bros. or RKO, and that a WB salesman had not visited him in several years. RKO complained he would take only shorts, B westerns and old features. Wolcott only bought shorts from WB. He refused to pay the percentages these distributors wanted for current features.
It was still the Vogue as of the spring of 1953. The owner, Homer I. Tegtmeier, testified at the U.S. Senate hearings on small business when that committee was investigating complaints from small, independent theatre owners. He also operated a theatre in Watsonville. He had a lot of complaints about Universal, and was a leader of a group of Northern California exhibitors.
Tegtmeier said the theatre was built in 1939.
In 1953 the operator of the Centre was Homer I. Tegtmeier, who also operated the Vogue Theatre in Salinas. Tegtmeier was one of many exhibitors who testified at the 1953 hearings of the U.S. Senate Small Business Committee that was investigating the trade practices of motion picture exhibitors. Another round of hearings was done in 1956 as well.
The Nubel Theatre and the theatre operations of Al Hanson and son Wayne Hanson are documented in the U.S. Senate hearings of 1953. Libraries that have government documents might have the book, which is the record of the Select Committee on Small Business, 83rd Congress. Many exhibitors testified at these hearings about motion picture distribution trade practices. Wayne Hanson testified that the remodeling in 1948 cost $180,000 and 92 seats were added. The Hansons had recently acquired the theatre then. He said the grosses started dropping after the remodeling. It was a later run house and most of the exhibitors testifying at these hearings operated late run theatres or small town theatres, and were complaining that the US Justice Dept was not enforcing the decrees. They said distributors had found ways to get around the decrees by making product scarce, selling nearly all film on percentage, and favoring large circuits. They also complained about bidding, which many of them said was only a ruse to get higher rental fees. Hanson said that for late runs he still had to pay rental fees that compared to theatres in the area that had much earlier runs. There were also complaints about distributors grouping theatres into zones that were not competitive with each other, yet doing this to force artificial bidding wars.
There were at least two Jerry Lewis theatres in NC: Siler City and Mt Airy. Siler City opened in Oct 71. Hollywood Reporter of 10-28-71 reported “a 350 seat Jerry Lewis Cinema opened Friday in the Park Shopping Center in Siler City [they misspelled it Silver] NC. Area Director is Mini Theatres of Raleigh, the franchise owner-operator is C & L Development Co.” Earlier, the Siler City-Chatham News had a photo of the construction in its 9-16-71 edition. The caption said this would be the first indoor theatre the city had had in almost 10 years, after the fire that destroyed the Elder Theatre. Said the Siler City location was “one of the first of the chain in North Carolina.”
The Mount Airy News of 10-1-71 said that JBJ Enterprises Inc is constructing a theatre on “US 52 Bypass, adjacent to the City View Motel. The structure is tentatively scheduled to open by Jan. 1. Seating to be 350, a parking lot for 130 cars.” JBJ “is headed by Joe Johnson Sr. and Joe Keyes. The property is being developed to their specifications by E.D. Bray Jr. and Gary Pruett. Jerome Samet of Mount Airy is contractor for the construction work.” It went on to say the operators were going to have a 15-year lease and this would be the 4th theatre in the area, with 1 hardtop and 2 drive ins currently operating.
Neither of these have a listing on Cinema Treasures under their respective cities.
Re the ‘other’ chains. The Glenn Ford one was with Agnes Moorhead and Debbie Reynolds – have not seen Andy Devine mentioned with this but it’s possible he was an investor.
An article in the 8-23-95 Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper said the theatre “had closed” and plans were at the time, to demolish it for a hotel. UA was the last operator. UA officials and neighboring storekeepers were interviewed and didn’t have much good to say about the theatre or the ‘safety’ of the area. A restaurant manager said “when the theatre had to hire a cop…” he knew the end was near. The original operators were also quoted, and said the Lewis franchise fee was 8% of revenue. That figure squares with Lewis' written testimony to the US Senate in early 1970.
From a newspaper article of 4-14-98 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton MA: one of those “what was happening 25 years ago and 50 years ago” history features … this would have been April 1973: “Northampton movie aficionados, take heart. The Jerry Lewis Cinema may be dead, but "The Talkie,” under an alias and new management, is rising from the grave. Two recent college graduates, Stephen Brown and Dennis Curran, plan to have what was formerly “The Talkie” open as “The Globe” by the middle of next month. Scheduled for showing are old movies at cut-rate prices."
Good article in the Providence Journal of 10-25-98 about theatres in this area and how they were surviving.
An article in the March 18, 2001 edition of the Herald-News in Dayton, TN said the theatre would be closing that week. The theatre’s owner at the time was Delbert Crowe, who told the newspaper he couldn’t find a buyer and business had gone down to a trickle of people each night. The article said the original owner was Bill Matherly who had been operating the drive-in but also bought a Jerry Lewis franchise “in February 1973.” The opening attraction of the Jerry Lewis Cinema was “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t”, which the newspaper’s 2001 article said “was sold out for weeks.”
Most contemporary writers do a poor job of explaining the Lewis franchising story and get it all screwed up. This article was no exception. Suffice it to say the theatre changed its name probably soon after it was opened. The franchising company, Network Cinema Corporation, filed for bankruptcy in June 1973. The article infers that the name change occurred around this time, but there is also a murky aside made that the theatre closed and then reopened again, with nothing said about the length of time it may have been closed.
The name Richland Park was the name of the shopping center it was in.
An item in the 1-31-72 issue of Boxoffice said it was 350 seats and opened 1-14-72 with “Kotch” and the night before, a sneak for local officials was held. Operator’s name was Rosendahl.
The theatre looks to be intact on the exterior. Even the showcases are there. On the east side of the town, at least a couple miles from the downtown. An odd location, and back quite a ways from the street, which is not a main thoroughfare. Many Lewis theatres were strangely located, difficult to see, behind buildings, off main roads, and so on. 3 photos attached, taken Aug. 2019.
Kobs, and Bloomington are correct for first owner and location. According to building permit records, some work was done in 1959 and it said Paul Mans was the owner at that time. More work done in 1966-67 and the name change to Studio 97 occurred in Aug. 1967. Opened in Sept. 1950 and closed July 20, 1986. Demolished a few months later. Engler tried running repertory double bills around 1984-86; mostly a second run theatre in later years.