An item in the June, 1938, issue of The Architect & Engineer of California said that Frederick W. Quandt had drawn the plans for a theater being built at Sonora, California, for the Harvey Amusement Company.
The opening of the State Theatre in Tulare was reported in the October 21, 1938 issue of The Film Daily. Originally planned for Golden State Theatres, the project was taken over by the T&D Jr. circuit before completion. The State was designed by the firm of Jorgensen & Deichmann.
The “Theaters Planned” column of The Film Daily for May 21, 1938, said that the Time Theatre in Mattoon would be designed by architect Paul Leaman, but I’ve been unable to find any other references to an architect of that name, so it might be a typo. I’ve found a single reference to a Decatur, Illinois, architect named Paul Lehman, but it is from 1965.
The Met is still in use by West Virginia Public Theatre. They presented their production of Mary Poppins November 29-December 21, 2004. Their summer season begins July 8, but no production has yet been announced.
The theater’s web site says that the Dryden Theatre was built in 1951 with funds donated to Eastman House by George and Ellen Dryden. Ellen Dryden was George Eastman’s niece.
The October 23, 1954, Boxoffice article about the Buffalo Autoscope Drive-In that I linked to in an earlier comment has been moved. Here are current links:
Here is an item from the January 24, 1933, issue of The Film Daily:
“Asheville, N. C— William A. Byers, manager of the Plaza, has resigned to assume management of the new $85,000 Bolling theater in Norton, Va. Byers is part owner of the Boiling and of one other house in Bolling, both controlled by the Boiling Theater Corp.”
The Bolling Theatre most likely opened right around the time the item was published. The line “…other house in Bolling….” was obviously meant to read “other house in Norton.” This was probably the Norton Theatre, which the January 17, 1941, issue of the Daily reported had burned on Christmas Eve, 1940, and was to be rebuilt. In 1920 Norton had a house called the Strand.
A 250-seat Elba Theatre was listed at Elba, Alabama, in the 1927 FDY. In 1915, Elba had a house called the Photoplay, and in 1924 it had a Strand Theatre. I think the Elba Theatre listed in 1927 might have been either enlarged or moved to a new building later. The modern building of the Elba is about twice as wide as the building the 260-seat Claire Theatre was in. The Elba’s facade looks to date from the 1930s.
The Elba Theatre is undergoing gradual renovation and has already presented a few movies. In 2015, their goal is to have one movie a month, according to Their Facebook page.
Recent photos show that the interior of the auditorium has been stripped to the bare brick walls, but the stage is still there and folding chairs are in use. The floor was flattened during the period the building was used for retail stores and has not been re-sloped, but the ceiling looks high enough that stadium seating could be installed.
The November 1, 1947, issue of The Film Daily said: “Walter Brackin has opened his new Claire theatre in Elba, Ala., with a seating capacity of 250.”
The 1958 FDY lists the Claire and Elba Theatres as Brackin houses, but then the FDY was notoriously unreliable at updating its circuit listings. The Claire was apparently closed by then. This line is from an article about Covenant Community Church of Elba in the October 22, 2008, issue of The Elba Clipper:
“The coffeehouse is housed in a building constructed in the late 1940’s for the ‘Claire Theater,’ which operated until around 1952. Other businesses used the space, but after the town flood of 1990, the building remained empty and full of debris. After nearly twenty years of neglect, the building was donated to Covenant Community Church.”
I am wondering if the ‘New Theatre’ of ca.1937 was not actually a new location for the Elba Theatre? The Elba was listed in the 1927 FDY with 250 seats, but the building it is in now is twice the width of the Claire’s building, so must have had more seats than the Claire.
Walter Brackin got in trouble with the film distributors in 1938, according to this item from the September 3 issue of Motion Picture Herald:
“IN COURTS
“Four Companies Ask Injunction
“The Peoples Theaters of Alabama, Inc. and Walter J. Brackin, operating a motion picture house at Elba, Ala., were named in a petition filed at Montgomery in U. S. district court by four film producing or film distributing companies this week. The petitioners sought an order to restrain by injunction the defendants from using copyrighted films without licenses from the plaintiffs, and also sought damages for several alleged infringements of copyright laws.
“The complaint charged the Elba Theatre at Elba with showing films for longer periods than contracted for, and urged damages of not less than $250 for each violation. The petitioners were: RKO Pictures, Inc.; the 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation and 20th Century-Fox Distributing Corporation; Paramount Pictures, Inc., and the Paramount Pictures Distributing Company, Inc.; Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., and the Vitaphone and Vitagraph Company. None of the companies signing the petition are incorporated in Alabama.”
The January 17, 1941, issue of The Film Daily reported a fire at the Elba Theatre:
“Elba, Ala. — Fire on Jan. 7 caused considerable damage to the local Elba Theater. House plans to reopen at an early date, Manager Dozier Roberts states.”
Here is an item from the March 5, 1921, issue of The American Contractor:
“Stores (4) & Theatre (1,200 seat.): $150,000. 90x135. N. E. Mack & Beniteau av. Archt. Bldg. Service Bureau, 1336 Brush st. Owner Harmony Theatre Corp., F. DeVos, 11221 Mack av. Carp, to Thulin & Frahn, 1336 Brush st.”
The lead architect of the Building Service Bureau was Ernest C. Thulin.
Here is an item about the Artcraft Theatre from the March 5, 1921, issue of The American Contractor:
“Contract is Awarded. Franklin, Ind.—Theatre (M. P.) & Office Bldg.: $75,000. 2 sty. 25x30. Archt. Roy C. Bryant. Owner The Artcraft Theatre Corp., D. O. Newlin. secy. Gen. contr. let to Roy C. Bryant. Excav.”
Architect/builder Roy C. Bryant also designed the Masonic Lodge in Franklin, now the Johnson County Museum of History, which is listed on the NRHP.
The building at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Newport that we have taken to be the theater was not the theater. The Lakewood Theatre was at the northwest corner of Jefferson and Lakewood, on a lot now occupied by a small vacant building that once housed a tire store. The final report of Detroit’s Historic Designation Advisory Board for the proposed Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District (PDF here) says that the Lakewood Theatre was demolished in 1958.
The report also says that the Gothic-Art Deco building at Jefferson and Newport was the Vanity Ballroom, built in 1929 and designed by theater architect Charles N. Agree, which accounts for its theatrical look. The ballroom entrance must have been at the north end of the building on Newport Street, where the bare frame of a small marquee can still be seen.
I’ve also been able to discover who was the most likely architect of the Lakewood Theatre, though the name was so garbled in the magazine item I cited in my first comment. It must have been Ernest C. Thulin, who designed quite a few buildings in this neighborhood during that period. He designed at least two other movie theaters as well; the Harmony in Detroit and the Grosse Pointe Park in the suburb of that name. Thulin was the lead architect for a firm called the Building Service Bureau.
The last photo in this weblog post depicts the entrance of the Lincoln Theatre around 1950. The Lincoln Theatre in Schenectady is mentioned in the March 18, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. It was then operated by John D. Walker and F. Y. Bergmaier. Larry Hart’s “Tales of Old Dorp” column in the October 11, 1999, issue of the Schenectady Daily Gazette said that the Lincoln Theatre had opened around September, 1914.
This web page about F. F. Proctor says that he opened the very first Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady in April, 1912. This article from the September 18, 1994, issue of The Sunday Gazette gives the exact opening date as April 8.
The article describes the Proctor as having originally had its entrance on the towpath of the Erie Canal, which was soon to be filled in and rebuilt as Erie Boulevard. The theater entrance was later moved into the arcade that opened from the corner of Erie Boulevard and State Street. Originally called Proctor’s Arcade, it was renamed the State Arcade when the second Proctor’s Arcade was built, which was three years after the State Theatre joined the original Proctor’s in the original arcade. To the right of the article here’s a photo of the arcade entrance with the name Proctor’s Theatre on its marquee.
The section of This web page headed “The Grog Shop At The Crossroads of History” has a couple of photos from around 1950 that show what must have been the old entrance to Proctor’s Theatre, but with a marquee for the Erie, which means the original entrance on Erie Boulevard must have been reopened at some point, though the Gazette article doesn’t mention that. The Erie marquee can be seen just past the Wedgewood Building, which is still standing and in which the Grog Shop is located.
The July 28, 1932, issue of The Film Daily had this news about the Erie Theatre:
“William M. Shirley, president and
general manager of the Farrash Theaters Corp., of Schenectady, yesterday, said that the Erie, in Schenectady, destroyed by fire May 19, will be rebuilt and re-opened Oct. 1. The house will seat 1,300 and have RCA sound. Guy A. Graves will manage the theater. The State, another Farrash house, closed since July 4, will re-open Labor Day.”
Later that year, the Farrash Theatre Company entered a deal with the RKO circuit in which RKO would take over management of the four Farrash houses in Schenectady; The State, the Strand, the Erie, and the Van Curler. RKO already operated the Plaza Theatre and Proctor’s Theatre. I haven’t discovered how long RKO remained in control of the four Farrash houses.
Mark D. Kalischer, architect for an extensive remodeling of the Harper Theatre in the 1930s, wrote an article about the house for the January 7, 1939, issue of Boxoffice, which has three photos of the Harper in its Streamline Modern configuration:
The “Theater Openings” column of the May 21, 1938, issue of The Film Daily said that the Lake Theatre in Barberton had opened on May 6.
The Will Rogers Theatre opened on February 8, 1938, according to the March 21 issue of The Film Daily.
The May 21, 1938, issue of The Film Daily gave the opening date of the Rodgers Theatre as February 17.
The Uptown Theatre can be partly seen in this photo of a 1961 parade.
This item from the “Theater Construction” column of the May 31, 1938, issue of The Film Daily must have been about the Uptown Theatre:
An item in the June, 1938, issue of The Architect & Engineer of California said that Frederick W. Quandt had drawn the plans for a theater being built at Sonora, California, for the Harvey Amusement Company.The opening of the State Theatre in Tulare was reported in the October 21, 1938 issue of The Film Daily. Originally planned for Golden State Theatres, the project was taken over by the T&D Jr. circuit before completion. The State was designed by the firm of Jorgensen & Deichmann.
The “Theaters Planned” column of The Film Daily for May 21, 1938, said that the Time Theatre in Mattoon would be designed by architect Paul Leaman, but I’ve been unable to find any other references to an architect of that name, so it might be a typo. I’ve found a single reference to a Decatur, Illinois, architect named Paul Lehman, but it is from 1965.
The Met is still in use by West Virginia Public Theatre. They presented their production of Mary Poppins November 29-December 21, 2004. Their summer season begins July 8, but no production has yet been announced.
Hank: I’ve never come across any photos of the Monte Vista, but I’ll put it on my list of things to keep an eye out for.
The theater’s web site says that the Dryden Theatre was built in 1951 with funds donated to Eastman House by George and Ellen Dryden. Ellen Dryden was George Eastman’s niece.
The October 23, 1954, Boxoffice article about the Buffalo Autoscope Drive-In that I linked to in an earlier comment has been moved. Here are current links:
First page
Second page
Third page
Here is an item from the January 24, 1933, issue of The Film Daily:
The Bolling Theatre most likely opened right around the time the item was published. The line “…other house in Bolling….” was obviously meant to read “other house in Norton.” This was probably the Norton Theatre, which the January 17, 1941, issue of the Daily reported had burned on Christmas Eve, 1940, and was to be rebuilt. In 1920 Norton had a house called the Strand.A 250-seat Elba Theatre was listed at Elba, Alabama, in the 1927 FDY. In 1915, Elba had a house called the Photoplay, and in 1924 it had a Strand Theatre. I think the Elba Theatre listed in 1927 might have been either enlarged or moved to a new building later. The modern building of the Elba is about twice as wide as the building the 260-seat Claire Theatre was in. The Elba’s facade looks to date from the 1930s.
The Elba Theatre is undergoing gradual renovation and has already presented a few movies. In 2015, their goal is to have one movie a month, according to Their Facebook page.
Recent photos show that the interior of the auditorium has been stripped to the bare brick walls, but the stage is still there and folding chairs are in use. The floor was flattened during the period the building was used for retail stores and has not been re-sloped, but the ceiling looks high enough that stadium seating could be installed.
The November 1, 1947, issue of The Film Daily said: “Walter Brackin has opened his new Claire theatre in Elba, Ala., with a seating capacity of 250.”
The 1958 FDY lists the Claire and Elba Theatres as Brackin houses, but then the FDY was notoriously unreliable at updating its circuit listings. The Claire was apparently closed by then. This line is from an article about Covenant Community Church of Elba in the October 22, 2008, issue of The Elba Clipper:
I am wondering if the ‘New Theatre’ of ca.1937 was not actually a new location for the Elba Theatre? The Elba was listed in the 1927 FDY with 250 seats, but the building it is in now is twice the width of the Claire’s building, so must have had more seats than the Claire.Walter Brackin got in trouble with the film distributors in 1938, according to this item from the September 3 issue of Motion Picture Herald:
The January 17, 1941, issue of The Film Daily reported a fire at the Elba Theatre:The Grosse Pointe Park Theatre was designed by Ernest C. Thulin of the Detroit firm Building Service Bureau.
Here is an item from the March 5, 1921, issue of The American Contractor:
The lead architect of the Building Service Bureau was Ernest C. Thulin.Here is an item about the Artcraft Theatre from the March 5, 1921, issue of The American Contractor:
Architect/builder Roy C. Bryant also designed the Masonic Lodge in Franklin, now the Johnson County Museum of History, which is listed on the NRHP.The building at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Newport that we have taken to be the theater was not the theater. The Lakewood Theatre was at the northwest corner of Jefferson and Lakewood, on a lot now occupied by a small vacant building that once housed a tire store. The final report of Detroit’s Historic Designation Advisory Board for the proposed Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District (PDF here) says that the Lakewood Theatre was demolished in 1958.
The report also says that the Gothic-Art Deco building at Jefferson and Newport was the Vanity Ballroom, built in 1929 and designed by theater architect Charles N. Agree, which accounts for its theatrical look. The ballroom entrance must have been at the north end of the building on Newport Street, where the bare frame of a small marquee can still be seen.
I’ve also been able to discover who was the most likely architect of the Lakewood Theatre, though the name was so garbled in the magazine item I cited in my first comment. It must have been Ernest C. Thulin, who designed quite a few buildings in this neighborhood during that period. He designed at least two other movie theaters as well; the Harmony in Detroit and the Grosse Pointe Park in the suburb of that name. Thulin was the lead architect for a firm called the Building Service Bureau.
This item is from the October 19, 1932, issue of The Film Daily:
The October 13, 1932, issue of The Film Daily noted that the Lakeside Theatre in Duluth, a new house, had opened in September.
The last photo in this weblog post depicts the entrance of the Lincoln Theatre around 1950. The Lincoln Theatre in Schenectady is mentioned in the March 18, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. It was then operated by John D. Walker and F. Y. Bergmaier. Larry Hart’s “Tales of Old Dorp” column in the October 11, 1999, issue of the Schenectady Daily Gazette said that the Lincoln Theatre had opened around September, 1914.
Here is a photo of the Colony’s entrance building after it was damaged by the fire that led to its demolition.
This web page about F. F. Proctor says that he opened the very first Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady in April, 1912. This article from the September 18, 1994, issue of The Sunday Gazette gives the exact opening date as April 8.
The article describes the Proctor as having originally had its entrance on the towpath of the Erie Canal, which was soon to be filled in and rebuilt as Erie Boulevard. The theater entrance was later moved into the arcade that opened from the corner of Erie Boulevard and State Street. Originally called Proctor’s Arcade, it was renamed the State Arcade when the second Proctor’s Arcade was built, which was three years after the State Theatre joined the original Proctor’s in the original arcade. To the right of the article here’s a photo of the arcade entrance with the name Proctor’s Theatre on its marquee.
The section of This web page headed “The Grog Shop At The Crossroads of History” has a couple of photos from around 1950 that show what must have been the old entrance to Proctor’s Theatre, but with a marquee for the Erie, which means the original entrance on Erie Boulevard must have been reopened at some point, though the Gazette article doesn’t mention that. The Erie marquee can be seen just past the Wedgewood Building, which is still standing and in which the Grog Shop is located.
The July 28, 1932, issue of The Film Daily had this news about the Erie Theatre:
Later that year, the Farrash Theatre Company entered a deal with the RKO circuit in which RKO would take over management of the four Farrash houses in Schenectady; The State, the Strand, the Erie, and the Van Curler. RKO already operated the Plaza Theatre and Proctor’s Theatre. I haven’t discovered how long RKO remained in control of the four Farrash houses.Mark D. Kalischer, architect for an extensive remodeling of the Harper Theatre in the 1930s, wrote an article about the house for the January 7, 1939, issue of Boxoffice, which has three photos of the Harper in its Streamline Modern configuration:
First page
Second page
In addition, another article in the same issue features a couple of small photos of the Harper’s remodeled rest rooms:
First page
Second page (no photos, but additional text for those who only get the magazine for the articles.)