If you check Google’s street view of this theater you can see that the auditorium is in a Quonset structure attached to the back of what looks like an older commercial building. As for the sequence of events, the fire that destroyed the Liberty Theatre was reported in the August 21, 1948 issue of Boxoffice. The item said that the town would not be without movies for long though, as the new theater being built there by Vern Powell was expected to open within the next two months.
An item in the June 15, 1948 issue of Boxoffice reported that ground had been broken in Mabton for a new, 400-seat house that was expected to open on July 15. The owner’s name was mistakenly given as Dowell rather than Powell, and the July 15 opening date was hilariously overoptimistic, but the item does show that the new theater was planned quite some time before the August fire.
Incidentally, the Mabton Theatre, not the Liberty, is listed in the 1945 FDY, though it was listed as closed. Perhaps it was renamed Liberty after reopening. In 1945 it had 230 seats, as opposed to the 364 listed for the Mabton Theatre in the 1951 year book.
The April, 1909 issue of The Nickelodeon had this item: “Winston-Salem, N. C.—The Lyric, a new picture theater, has been opened on Fourth street by M. E. Samreth, of Roanoke, Va.”
The recent opening of the new Royal Theatre at Salina, Kansas, was noted in the January 4, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World, so the house might actually have opened in late 1912.
The February 9, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World had this item about the proposed Strand Tehatre: “The Strand Theatre is to be the name of a new moving picture house to be opened in Salina, Kan., by Herbert Thacher, the middle of March. This is one of the best towns in Kansas for moving pictures, and for that reason a good house will be erected. The seating capacity will be about 1,100.”
A slightly longer item about the project had been run in the December 4, 1915 issue of the same journal:
“H THACHER BUILDING A FINE HOUSE IN SALINA ΚΑΝ
“Hail to Herbert Thacher, who is going to give Salina, Kan. a touch of real high life in the moving picture business. Mr Thacher is having plans made for a fine playhouse at Salina which will be opened March 1. It will be one of the best in the state and in the West. It will have a seating capacity of 1,000, artistic decorations, everything of the best, from projection equipment to rugs; will be built of reinforced concrete and the whole will cost around 100,000. Mr. Thacher knows Salina through and through, and he knows the town wants something like what he is going to give it. He lives there. His brother ‘Bill’ runs the Royal theater there, and Mr. Thacher himself was formerly a partner in that enterprise. Latterly, Mr. Thacher has been traveling for the Universal Film & Supply Kansas City and has been accomplishing some very substantial good for the industry through his co-operative work with the exhibitors. The new theater will be on Main street in the heart of the city.”
The Air Dome is the only theater we have listed at Santa Fe and Ash Street, but this item appeared in the July 9, 1910 issue of Moving Picture World: “Salina, Kan.—The National Moving Picture Theater, at the corner of Santa Fe avenue and Ash street, owned by Thacher Bros., was badly damaged by fire.” If the 1911 map doesn’t show any other theaters at that intersection, it might be that the Air Dome was a cheap replacement for the lost National.
The only theater listed at Salina in the 1898 Cahn guide is the Salina Opera House, an upstairs auditorium seating 800. News of the New Theatre’s impending demise appeared in the August 8, 1925 issue of Exhibitor’s Daily Review, which said that the New Theatre, one of the oldest buildings in Salina, would soon be replaced by a seven-story hotel. Apparently the hotel project fell through and the office block was built instead.
A May, 1914 Sanborn map of De Pere reveals a small moving picture theater about the middle of the 100 block of South Broadway. The Sanborn has the address of 647 for that lot, but the even-numbered side of the block shows some addresses in the 600 range and some in the 100 range. The town was apparently in the process of renumbering its lots, and hadn’t gotten to the theater’s lot yet. But directly across the street from the theater was a store with the number 118, so the theater was probably 119. The building was too small for 300 seats, but there was plenty of room for expansion.
As for the name, it might have been called the Majestic even than. De Pere was skipped by the 1914-1915 AMPD, but the July 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon has an item about the opening of a new theater at De Pere called the Dreamland and said that its manager, J. A. Speaker, was also the manager of the Majestic. So we have evidence that De Pere had a Majestic Theatre as early as 1910, and that the building at 119 S. Broadway was occupied by a movie theater as early as May, 1914. I’ll keep looking for confirmation, but I suspect it’s very likely the case that the Majestic was here by 1914 and probably even earlier.
While M. J. Walsh was the original owner of this theater, he was not the architect. According to the June 4, 1910 issue of The American Contractor, plans for M. J. Walsh’s new theater on Kensington Avenue near Allegheny had been completed by architect Peter Kuhn, and bids for construction were being received by the owner.
The August 19, 1916 issue of The American Contractor had a notice about a theater project, to be built at the southeast corner of Broadway and Carman Street. Carman Street was wiped out by the redevelopment of the site, but it must have been this theater, owned by the Broadway Realty Company. The original architects were the firm of Custer & Seltzer (Walter L. Custer and Charles William Seltzer.) The house probably opened in 1917, but I think we must be missing an aka, as neither a Broadway nor a Midway Theatre is listed in the 1926 or 1929 FDYs.
Here is the first paragraph from an article about the centennial of the Park Theatre. It was published in the April 7, 2022 issue of the Winchendon Courier: “JAFFREY, New Hampshire (April 4, 2022) On May 1, 1922, an Italian immigrant named Romolo Vanni opened a business in Jaffrey, New Hampshire that would make a profound and long-lasting impression on a little mill town. The business was a moving picture theatre. He called it The Park Theatre to memorialize its facing across Main Street to Jaffrey’s downtown park common. Immediately it was a hit with people queuing up around the block to see Hollywood silent movies and occasional traveling vaudeville shows. For over half a century, it provided entertainment for the Monadnock Region and north-central Massachusetts.”
The May 28, 1941 issue of The Exhibitor had this item “Romulo Vianno’s Park, East Jaffrey, N. H., last week opened after almost two
months remodelling by Capitol Theatre Supply.”
Here is a bit more information about the Crystal’s licensing troubles in 1916, from the May 6 Issue of Moving Picture World that year: “Theater Loses License. Minneapolis, Minn. — Because Miss Constance Madison of the Humane Society said J. Barnet’s theater, the Crystal, had become a rendezvous for minors and disorderly characters, the city council has tied up the application for a renewal of the license. The Crystal has been operating all night and it also was claimed it worked to the detriment of the curfew law.”
The New Franklin Theatre was slated to open on May 22, 1916, according to this brief article in the May 6 issue of Moving Picture World that year:
“Minneapolis, Minn. May 22 will see the opening of the largest one-floor house west of Chicago, the New Franklin theater, 1021 Franklin avenue. The theater will seat 1,000. It is being erected by C. E. Marrs, real estate dealer, at a cost of $40,000. F. H. Coyle, a new figure in the moving picture business, will manage the house.
“Fourteen huge drop lights will be used in the theater proper and the lobby will blaze with ornamental side lights and 161 ceiling lamps. The entire interior will be decorated in a soft rose tint as a predominating color note. There will be four aisles. The building is so constructed that if desired a balcony may be put in later. The offices will be on the second floor. The lobby may be entered through five sets of revolving doors.
“Particular attention is being paid to the projection room, which will be one of the finest equipped and largest in the country. Two 6A machines have been purchased. The screen is 100 feet from the machine.
“Mr. Coyle has obtained advertising for the house in the shape of a neat folder bearing a picture of the theater on the front.”
The May 6, 1916 issue of Moving Picture world noted the name change of this house from Isis to U.S.A.: “Sioux City, Ia. — The U. S. A. theater is the new name Hammitt Brothers have be- stowed upon the Isis, which they recently purchased. They make the significant announcement that cheap vaudeville will be a thing of the past and that they aim to make it a high-class moving picture theater.”
Here is an item from the May 6, 1916 issue ofMoving Picture World: “Atlantic, Ia.— Will Frost, proprietor of the Unique theater, has taken over the Garden theater from Chris Geannacopoulos and will operate both houses, at least for a while. The only change is that the programs have been switched.”
This item datelined Emporia, Kansas, from the July 11, 1914 issue of The American Contractor was probably about the Electric Theatre: “Picture Show (rem): 1 sty. $4M. Archt. H.W. Brinkman. Owner P.J. Concannon. Work just starting. Owner will buy materials & constr. by day labor. Painting, plastering, carp. work.” Henry William Brinkman established his architectural practice at Emporia in 1907 and remained active until 1948. He gained a reputation as one of the leading ecclesiastical architects in the region.
The Majestic Music Hall was in operation by late 1909. The May 10, 1911 issue of Contract Record, a Canadian construction journal, said that the Majestic had been designed by architect Walter S. Painter, who had soon after become chief architect for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Walter Scott Painter designed a number of theaters in Canada and the United States.
The Lyric Theatre at Greenfield was mentioned in the September 4, 1920 issue of The Billboard. One of the three movie houses listed at Greenfield in the 1914-1915 AMPD was on Washington street (the other two were on Jefferson) and was called the Electric Theatre. This might have been the Lyric under an earlier name, but the AMPD gave no street number for it.
The Lyric was open at least as late as 1956. The November 7 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor reported that the Lyric had been closed due to the failure of the owner, a Mrs. Gray, to make repairs required by the State. The November 21 issue of the same journal said that Pearl Gray had sold the Lyric to a Mr. Charles Weller. I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Weller repaired and reopened the house or not. As the Rand theatre was still in operation and a new Drive-In had recently opened (on June 3, according to the June 9, 1956 issue of Boxoffice it might be that the Lyric was no longer economically viable.
The original Crawford Theatre, aka Crawford Grand Opera House, was listed at 201-205 S. Topeka Avenue in 1910. It opened on February 1, 1887. When the New Crawford Theatre opened in 1911 the Opera House was renamed the Lyceum Theatre, but it only operated for about two years before the building was destroyed by a fire.
A book about Wichita published in 1910 lists eight theaters, including the Yale, 504 E. Douglas Avenue, featuring vaudeville and moving pictures. The house had 350 seats. The Yale is also mentioned in the October, 1911 issue of Motography and in the August 21, 1915 issue ofMoving Picture World.
This classified ad appeared in the December 21, 1917 issue of The Standard from Lykens, Pennsylvania: “FOR SALE- Moving Picture theatre and equipment including new building, Powers 6. A. much asbestos booth, 250 opera chairs, piano, complete electric lighting outfit, scenery, drums, all used very little, and will sacrifice. ROYAL THEATRE HALIFAX, PA. C. M. RICHTER”
Although the Royal Theater and Halifax are listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, I haven’t found either mentioned in trade journals of the period, and neither appear in the 1926 or 1929 FDY’s.
This page is currently pathetic. Although the associated photo page has almost nothing but images of the original 1928 theater, the description is a single paragraph about the single-screen mini-cinema that was installed in the building some years after the original theater was closed. Multiple sources I’ve come across indicate that the Cinema Cartier has been operating as a multiplex for more than a decade now, this English translation of the theater’s French Wikipedia page saying that two new screening rooms were added in 2012, and that these were doubled to six in 2014. The current number appears to be eight, though I couldn’t swear to it. What is clear is that the official web site shows as many as eleven shows scheduled in a day, which certainly wouldn’t be happening with only one screen, or probably not even with six.
In any case, when the description is updated a bit of information is available in the Wikipedia article, including the fact that the house was operated by Famous Players for some time, until it was leased by independent operator Roland Smith in 1972, and that the original architects were Wilfrid Lacroix and Jean-Charles Drouin. The Cartier, though it has not operated continuously the entire time, is now nearly a century old, and was for almost six decades one of Quebec City’s leading cinemas. It deserves a better page than this.
This news supposedly about the then-Brock Theatre (which later became the Capitol) appearing in the September 3, 1921 issue ofMoving Picture World turned out to be mistaken, and ought to have named the New Theatre, which had not been called the Brock for about a decade:
“Announcement is made that Peter Gorman and Harry W. Doran, of Ottawa, Ontario, have sub-leased the Brock Theatre at Brockville for a term of three years, the owner of which, Mr. John M. McLennan, passed away recently in his 63d year, after a lengthy illness. It is understood that Messrs. Gorman and Doran will take over the theatre in the early fall with Mr. Doran acting as resident manager.
“The Brock Theatre is the only moving picture theatre in Brockville, a city of 12,000 people. It was recently renovated and remodeled.”
This correction of the error appeared on a later page of the same issue of MPW: “Harry Doran, of Ottawa, Ontario, has sub-leased the New Theatre at Brockville, Ontario, for a term of three years and not the Brock Theatre there, as previously reported. The New Theatre will be reopened shortly under a policy that will include the presentation of road shows in addition to moving pictures.”
Summerside’s Capitol Theatre had a very long life. A CBC news item from October 9, 2000 said that longtime theater owner Emery Perry would close the house on Thanksgiving weekend (the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday was on Monday, October 9 that year, so that must have been the last day of operation.) The item said that the theater had been open for nearly a century. One source says it opened around 1911 as the Happyland Theatre, and was renamed Capitol Theatre in 1922. It was located on Water Street, but I’ve been unable to pin down an address.
When the City of Summerside purchased the Regent Theatre building and three adjacent structures for a planned redevelopment project in 2020, the CBC posted this article on its web site.
It says the the Regent is believed to have been closed for the first time in the 1950s, after which the building was occupied by a series of other businesses, but in 1973 it was bought by the owner of the Capitol Theatre, renovated and reopened as a cinema which operated until about 1980. After that it housed a restaurant and night club also called the Regent, then a bar, but by the time the city bought it it had been vacant for some time.
The historic address of the Regent was 12 Summer Street, which was on the west side of that thoroughfare just a few doors north of Water Street. The site is now under the footprint of a large multi-use project that was under construction in the most recent satellite view at Google maps, though the theater can currently still be seen in the street view, which has not been updated since 2018.
A brief history of Hill City (PDF here), after retelling the story of a rivalry that developed between the northern and southern sections of town, says that reconciliation began when “Mr. and Mrs. John Welty constructed The Midway, a theater/stage presentation venue atop the topographical dividing line in 1920….” The Welty’s remained in the theater business at Hill City for decades, and opened the Riverside Drive-In there in 1953.
If you check Google’s street view of this theater you can see that the auditorium is in a Quonset structure attached to the back of what looks like an older commercial building. As for the sequence of events, the fire that destroyed the Liberty Theatre was reported in the August 21, 1948 issue of Boxoffice. The item said that the town would not be without movies for long though, as the new theater being built there by Vern Powell was expected to open within the next two months.
An item in the June 15, 1948 issue of Boxoffice reported that ground had been broken in Mabton for a new, 400-seat house that was expected to open on July 15. The owner’s name was mistakenly given as Dowell rather than Powell, and the July 15 opening date was hilariously overoptimistic, but the item does show that the new theater was planned quite some time before the August fire.
Incidentally, the Mabton Theatre, not the Liberty, is listed in the 1945 FDY, though it was listed as closed. Perhaps it was renamed Liberty after reopening. In 1945 it had 230 seats, as opposed to the 364 listed for the Mabton Theatre in the 1951 year book.
The April, 1909 issue of The Nickelodeon had this item: “Winston-Salem, N. C.—The Lyric, a new picture theater, has been opened on Fourth street by M. E. Samreth, of Roanoke, Va.”
The recent opening of the new Royal Theatre at Salina, Kansas, was noted in the January 4, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World, so the house might actually have opened in late 1912.
The February 9, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World had this item about the proposed Strand Tehatre: “The Strand Theatre is to be the name of a new moving picture house to be opened in Salina, Kan., by Herbert Thacher, the middle of March. This is one of the best towns in Kansas for moving pictures, and for that reason a good house will be erected. The seating capacity will be about 1,100.”
A slightly longer item about the project had been run in the December 4, 1915 issue of the same journal:
“H THACHER BUILDING A FINE HOUSE IN SALINA ΚΑΝ
“Hail to Herbert Thacher, who is going to give Salina, Kan. a touch of real high life in the moving picture business. Mr Thacher is having plans made for a fine playhouse at Salina which will be opened March 1. It will be one of the best in the state and in the West. It will have a seating capacity of 1,000, artistic decorations, everything of the best, from projection equipment to rugs; will be built of reinforced concrete and the whole will cost around 100,000. Mr. Thacher knows Salina through and through, and he knows the town wants something like what he is going to give it. He lives there. His brother ‘Bill’ runs the Royal theater there, and Mr. Thacher himself was formerly a partner in that enterprise. Latterly, Mr. Thacher has been traveling for the Universal Film & Supply Kansas City and has been accomplishing some very substantial good for the industry through his co-operative work with the exhibitors. The new theater will be on Main street in the heart of the city.”
The Air Dome is the only theater we have listed at Santa Fe and Ash Street, but this item appeared in the July 9, 1910 issue of Moving Picture World: “Salina, Kan.—The National Moving Picture Theater, at the corner of Santa Fe avenue and Ash street, owned by Thacher Bros., was badly damaged by fire.” If the 1911 map doesn’t show any other theaters at that intersection, it might be that the Air Dome was a cheap replacement for the lost National.
The only theater listed at Salina in the 1898 Cahn guide is the Salina Opera House, an upstairs auditorium seating 800. News of the New Theatre’s impending demise appeared in the August 8, 1925 issue of Exhibitor’s Daily Review, which said that the New Theatre, one of the oldest buildings in Salina, would soon be replaced by a seven-story hotel. Apparently the hotel project fell through and the office block was built instead.
A May, 1914 Sanborn map of De Pere reveals a small moving picture theater about the middle of the 100 block of South Broadway. The Sanborn has the address of 647 for that lot, but the even-numbered side of the block shows some addresses in the 600 range and some in the 100 range. The town was apparently in the process of renumbering its lots, and hadn’t gotten to the theater’s lot yet. But directly across the street from the theater was a store with the number 118, so the theater was probably 119. The building was too small for 300 seats, but there was plenty of room for expansion.
As for the name, it might have been called the Majestic even than. De Pere was skipped by the 1914-1915 AMPD, but the July 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon has an item about the opening of a new theater at De Pere called the Dreamland and said that its manager, J. A. Speaker, was also the manager of the Majestic. So we have evidence that De Pere had a Majestic Theatre as early as 1910, and that the building at 119 S. Broadway was occupied by a movie theater as early as May, 1914. I’ll keep looking for confirmation, but I suspect it’s very likely the case that the Majestic was here by 1914 and probably even earlier.
While M. J. Walsh was the original owner of this theater, he was not the architect. According to the June 4, 1910 issue of The American Contractor, plans for M. J. Walsh’s new theater on Kensington Avenue near Allegheny had been completed by architect Peter Kuhn, and bids for construction were being received by the owner.
The August 19, 1916 issue of The American Contractor had a notice about a theater project, to be built at the southeast corner of Broadway and Carman Street. Carman Street was wiped out by the redevelopment of the site, but it must have been this theater, owned by the Broadway Realty Company. The original architects were the firm of Custer & Seltzer (Walter L. Custer and Charles William Seltzer.) The house probably opened in 1917, but I think we must be missing an aka, as neither a Broadway nor a Midway Theatre is listed in the 1926 or 1929 FDYs.
Here is the first paragraph from an article about the centennial of the Park Theatre. It was published in the April 7, 2022 issue of the Winchendon Courier: “JAFFREY, New Hampshire (April 4, 2022) On May 1, 1922, an Italian immigrant named Romolo Vanni opened a business in Jaffrey, New Hampshire that would make a profound and long-lasting impression on a little mill town. The business was a moving picture theatre. He called it The Park Theatre to memorialize its facing across Main Street to Jaffrey’s downtown park common. Immediately it was a hit with people queuing up around the block to see Hollywood silent movies and occasional traveling vaudeville shows. For over half a century, it provided entertainment for the Monadnock Region and north-central Massachusetts.”
The May 28, 1941 issue of The Exhibitor had this item “Romulo Vianno’s Park, East Jaffrey, N. H., last week opened after almost two months remodelling by Capitol Theatre Supply.”
Here is a bit more information about the Crystal’s licensing troubles in 1916, from the May 6 Issue of Moving Picture World that year: “Theater Loses License. Minneapolis, Minn. — Because Miss Constance Madison of the Humane Society said J. Barnet’s theater, the Crystal, had become a rendezvous for minors and disorderly characters, the city council has tied up the application for a renewal of the license. The Crystal has been operating all night and it also was claimed it worked to the detriment of the curfew law.”
The New Franklin Theatre was slated to open on May 22, 1916, according to this brief article in the May 6 issue of Moving Picture World that year:
“Minneapolis, Minn. May 22 will see the opening of the largest one-floor house west of Chicago, the New Franklin theater, 1021 Franklin avenue. The theater will seat 1,000. It is being erected by C. E. Marrs, real estate dealer, at a cost of $40,000. F. H. Coyle, a new figure in the moving picture business, will manage the house.
“Fourteen huge drop lights will be used in the theater proper and the lobby will blaze with ornamental side lights and 161 ceiling lamps. The entire interior will be decorated in a soft rose tint as a predominating color note. There will be four aisles. The building is so constructed that if desired a balcony may be put in later. The offices will be on the second floor. The lobby may be entered through five sets of revolving doors.
“Particular attention is being paid to the projection room, which will be one of the finest equipped and largest in the country. Two 6A machines have been purchased. The screen is 100 feet from the machine.
“Mr. Coyle has obtained advertising for the house in the shape of a neat folder bearing a picture of the theater on the front.”
The May 6, 1916 issue of Moving Picture world noted the name change of this house from Isis to U.S.A.: “Sioux City, Ia. — The U. S. A. theater is the new name Hammitt Brothers have be- stowed upon the Isis, which they recently purchased. They make the significant announcement that cheap vaudeville will be a thing of the past and that they aim to make it a high-class moving picture theater.”
Here is an item from the May 6, 1916 issue ofMoving Picture World: “Atlantic, Ia.— Will Frost, proprietor of the Unique theater, has taken over the Garden theater from Chris Geannacopoulos and will operate both houses, at least for a while. The only change is that the programs have been switched.”
This item datelined Emporia, Kansas, from the July 11, 1914 issue of The American Contractor was probably about the Electric Theatre: “Picture Show (rem): 1 sty. $4M. Archt. H.W. Brinkman. Owner P.J. Concannon. Work just starting. Owner will buy materials & constr. by day labor. Painting, plastering, carp. work.” Henry William Brinkman established his architectural practice at Emporia in 1907 and remained active until 1948. He gained a reputation as one of the leading ecclesiastical architects in the region.
The Majestic Music Hall was in operation by late 1909. The May 10, 1911 issue of Contract Record, a Canadian construction journal, said that the Majestic had been designed by architect Walter S. Painter, who had soon after become chief architect for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Walter Scott Painter designed a number of theaters in Canada and the United States.
The Lyric Theatre at Greenfield was mentioned in the September 4, 1920 issue of The Billboard. One of the three movie houses listed at Greenfield in the 1914-1915 AMPD was on Washington street (the other two were on Jefferson) and was called the Electric Theatre. This might have been the Lyric under an earlier name, but the AMPD gave no street number for it.
The Lyric was open at least as late as 1956. The November 7 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor reported that the Lyric had been closed due to the failure of the owner, a Mrs. Gray, to make repairs required by the State. The November 21 issue of the same journal said that Pearl Gray had sold the Lyric to a Mr. Charles Weller. I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Weller repaired and reopened the house or not. As the Rand theatre was still in operation and a new Drive-In had recently opened (on June 3, according to the June 9, 1956 issue of Boxoffice it might be that the Lyric was no longer economically viable.
The original Crawford Theatre, aka Crawford Grand Opera House, was listed at 201-205 S. Topeka Avenue in 1910. It opened on February 1, 1887. When the New Crawford Theatre opened in 1911 the Opera House was renamed the Lyceum Theatre, but it only operated for about two years before the building was destroyed by a fire.
A book about Wichita published in 1910 lists eight theaters, including the Yale, 504 E. Douglas Avenue, featuring vaudeville and moving pictures. The house had 350 seats. The Yale is also mentioned in the October, 1911 issue of Motography and in the August 21, 1915 issue ofMoving Picture World.
This classified ad appeared in the December 21, 1917 issue of The Standard from Lykens, Pennsylvania: “FOR SALE- Moving Picture theatre and equipment including new building, Powers 6. A. much asbestos booth, 250 opera chairs, piano, complete electric lighting outfit, scenery, drums, all used very little, and will sacrifice. ROYAL THEATRE HALIFAX, PA. C. M. RICHTER”
Although the Royal Theater and Halifax are listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, I haven’t found either mentioned in trade journals of the period, and neither appear in the 1926 or 1929 FDY’s.
This page is currently pathetic. Although the associated photo page has almost nothing but images of the original 1928 theater, the description is a single paragraph about the single-screen mini-cinema that was installed in the building some years after the original theater was closed. Multiple sources I’ve come across indicate that the Cinema Cartier has been operating as a multiplex for more than a decade now, this English translation of the theater’s French Wikipedia page saying that two new screening rooms were added in 2012, and that these were doubled to six in 2014. The current number appears to be eight, though I couldn’t swear to it. What is clear is that the official web site shows as many as eleven shows scheduled in a day, which certainly wouldn’t be happening with only one screen, or probably not even with six.
In any case, when the description is updated a bit of information is available in the Wikipedia article, including the fact that the house was operated by Famous Players for some time, until it was leased by independent operator Roland Smith in 1972, and that the original architects were Wilfrid Lacroix and Jean-Charles Drouin. The Cartier, though it has not operated continuously the entire time, is now nearly a century old, and was for almost six decades one of Quebec City’s leading cinemas. It deserves a better page than this.
This news supposedly about the then-Brock Theatre (which later became the Capitol) appearing in the September 3, 1921 issue ofMoving Picture World turned out to be mistaken, and ought to have named the New Theatre, which had not been called the Brock for about a decade:
“Announcement is made that Peter Gorman and Harry W. Doran, of Ottawa, Ontario, have sub-leased the Brock Theatre at Brockville for a term of three years, the owner of which, Mr. John M. McLennan, passed away recently in his 63d year, after a lengthy illness. It is understood that Messrs. Gorman and Doran will take over the theatre in the early fall with Mr. Doran acting as resident manager.
“The Brock Theatre is the only moving picture theatre in Brockville, a city of 12,000 people. It was recently renovated and remodeled.”
This correction of the error appeared on a later page of the same issue of MPW: “Harry Doran, of Ottawa, Ontario, has sub-leased the New Theatre at Brockville, Ontario, for a term of three years and not the Brock Theatre there, as previously reported. The New Theatre will be reopened shortly under a policy that will include the presentation of road shows in addition to moving pictures.”
Summerside’s Capitol Theatre had a very long life. A CBC news item from October 9, 2000 said that longtime theater owner Emery Perry would close the house on Thanksgiving weekend (the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday was on Monday, October 9 that year, so that must have been the last day of operation.) The item said that the theater had been open for nearly a century. One source says it opened around 1911 as the Happyland Theatre, and was renamed Capitol Theatre in 1922. It was located on Water Street, but I’ve been unable to pin down an address.
When the City of Summerside purchased the Regent Theatre building and three adjacent structures for a planned redevelopment project in 2020, the CBC posted this article on its web site.
It says the the Regent is believed to have been closed for the first time in the 1950s, after which the building was occupied by a series of other businesses, but in 1973 it was bought by the owner of the Capitol Theatre, renovated and reopened as a cinema which operated until about 1980. After that it housed a restaurant and night club also called the Regent, then a bar, but by the time the city bought it it had been vacant for some time.
The historic address of the Regent was 12 Summer Street, which was on the west side of that thoroughfare just a few doors north of Water Street. The site is now under the footprint of a large multi-use project that was under construction in the most recent satellite view at Google maps, though the theater can currently still be seen in the street view, which has not been updated since 2018.
A brief history of Hill City (PDF here), after retelling the story of a rivalry that developed between the northern and southern sections of town, says that reconciliation began when “Mr. and Mrs. John Welty constructed The Midway, a theater/stage presentation venue atop the topographical dividing line in 1920….” The Welty’s remained in the theater business at Hill City for decades, and opened the Riverside Drive-In there in 1953.