The second to last photo on this web page shows the entrance to the Moore Opera House sometime after the introduction of talking pictures. The marquee advertises “Vitaphone Presentations.”
Thanks for the correction, link0612. I wasn’t aware that the two companies used different coloring styles.
Gerald DeLuca’s link to the 1948 Boxoffice article about the opening of the Rex is dead. The article is now at this location. It has no photos, unfortunately.
The text above a picture of the Orpheum about halfway down this web page says that the house opened on May 1, 1913.
In its early years, the Orpheum was operated by Jack Marks, who also operated Clarksburg’s first movie house, the Star Theatre, and later opened Moore’s Opera House. From 1922 until closing, the Orpheum was operated by Claude Robinson, of Robinson’s Grand Theatre.
After giving up the Orpheum, Marks took over an early house on West Main Street, originally called the Odeon and later the Bijou, and renamed it Marks' Orpheum, which he operated until his death in 1952, so Clarksburg had two houses with the Orpheum name from 1922 until 1929. Marks also built the Ritz Theatre in 1927.
The last photo on the page I linked to shows the Ritz, directly across Pike Street from the Monongahela Power Company Building which has a parapet identical to the Orpheum’s in the earlier photo. As the photo dates from the late 1940s or early 1950s, I believe the power company building must have been the Orpheum building remodeled, in which case the theater was not demolished in 1929, but merely dismantled and the power company offices built in its shell.
The page for the Concord Theatre at the Cinema Data Project has excerpts from a 1974 newspaper article about the theater, including several quotes from long-time operator Theresa Cantin.
Also, click this hyperlink to reach Paul Brogan’s 2014 article about the Concord. There’s also a slide show with five photos.
This page of the Ogunquit Playhouse website says that the first performances were presented in 1934 in the building on Shore Road,which had previously been a garage. The Ogunquit Playhouse moved into its present home on Route 1 in 1937. As the MGM report that Ron cited says that the Ogunquit Square Theatre opened in 1939, the old playhouse must have been dark for a couple of years before being converted for movies. (This page also has the photo robboehm referred to in the previous comment.)
The news that the Ogunquit Square started life as a legitimate theater, coupled with the satellite view of the building at Google Maps and the Bird’s Eye view at Bing Maps (much clearer than Google’s satellite) convinces me that the entire theater building is still standing. There is a tall structure at the back of the building which I thought looked like a former fly tower, but as I had thought the theater had opened as a movie house only I concluded that it might be a later addition, or even part of an entirely new building built on the theater’s site. Now that the theater’s origin as a legitimate house is known, it’s clear that it’s all still there, but converted to other uses.
The Ogunquit Square Theatre page from the Cinema Data Project gives the location as “Water St., Shore Rd.” I’m guessing that means the street name was changed (the only other thing it could mean is that the theater was at the corner of Water St. and Shore Rd., and there is no Water Street in Ogunquit today.)
There’s no address of 5 Shore Road today, either, The description cited by Cinema Data says the theater was in a one-story brick building. I think it might be the building that is now occupied by a retail shop called the Barrel Stave (15 Shore Rd.) and two other shops with higher addresses, though that building currently has no resemblance to a theater. The theater building might or might not be gone.
The Magnet Theatre building suffered a fire in March, 1977, according to this page from the Claremont Firefighters Association. There are no details, and the two photos were taken from down the block, but it looks to have been a significant fire and it probably led to the demolition of the building.
The March 12, 1921, issue of The American Contractor said that architect G. O. Garnsey of Chicago had drawn the plans for a theater that was being built at Lapeer by George F. Smith.
There does not appear to be a Park Street in Richford. The Cinema Data Project says that the Park Theatre was on River Street.
This photo of the Park Theatre is undated, but the posters out front look like they might be for the 1921 film The Cheater Reformed.
The building was unusual for a theater, featuring a large gabled end facing the street, the peak of the gable dropping into a short hip. The theater entrance was in a flat-roofed addition on one side, with a fan light above the marquee that sheltered two pairs of double doors. The building was covered in narrow clapboards.
While it’s possible that the building has been remodeled into something unrecognizable, there is no building like it to be seen in Google street view today, so I suspect that the Park has most likely been demolished (perhaps burned, as it appears to have been a wood framed structure.)
Film historian Mary Mallory, writing at Larry Harnisch’s weblog The Daily Mirror, has posted as part of her “Hollywood Heights” series a long (and very interesting) article about art director and costume designer Max Rée in which she mentions in passing that he was responsible (apparently sometime around 1930) for upgrading and redecorating the Mason Theatre.
Rée, who trained as an architect, was one of the movie set designers who had considerable influence on architecture and design in general during the period. Photos of the Mason’s interior from the 1930s must show Rée’s work.
Unfortunately many of the links posted in earlier comments on this theater have gone dead, but fortunately many of the photos they displayed have been preserved at Bill Counter’s Historic Los Angeles Theatres web site, and can be found on his Mason Theatre page.
DavidDymond is thinking of the King Square Cinema (singular) which was called the Odeon from 1966 to 1984. It was the King Square Cinema from 1984 until closing in 1996. The Paramount, renamed Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 in 1979, must have been renamed Kings Square Cinemas after the other house closed.
I wonder if this might have been the same house later known as the Washington Theatre and Airdome? It was mentioned in the October 12, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World, which said: “BELLEVILLE, ILL- Arthur Esberg has taken over the management of Washington Theatre and Airdome.” Belleville also once had an airdome called the Lyric.
The December, 1909, issue of The Reporter, a trade publication for the granite and marble industries, said that following the annual meeting of the Hardwick Granite Manufacturers Association, the crowd was entertained with movies and music at the Idle Hour Theatre, courtesy of the owner of the house, George H. Bailey.
This walking tour of Waterbury says that the Opera House, which later became the town’s first movie theater, was on the site now occupied by the American Legion post. The original building, built around 1890, burned down on December 27, 1985. The Legion post is at modern address 16 Stowe Street, so lots must have been renumbered at some point.
The Opera House in Waterbuty, Vermont, is on a list of theaters belonging to the American Motion Picture League that was published in the December 20, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World.
The tour page also says that in the 1930s and 1940s the town’s second movie house was in the Minard Block, now occupied by the Stowe Street Emporium, at 23 Stowe. It’s almost directly across the street from the Legion Post, so I would guess that lots on that side of the street didn’t get renumbered. The page doesn’t give the second theater’s name (it doesn’t mention the name Rialto either) but the house must have been listed in the FDY during that period.
I see that although the Garden is closed it still has a page on the Reynolds Theatres web site. The Palace in Elmwood is still operating. The Town Theatre in Chillicothe is still open, but is no longer operated by Reynolds Theatres. The Optimist Club in Chillicothe bought the Town and reopened it with digital equipment. Perhaps the Optimists or some other service club(s) in Canton could take a leaf from the Chillicothe Optimists and do the same thing with the Garden Theatre.
This house is now billed both on its own web site and on various movie listing sites as the Optimist Town Theatre. The name on the marquee has not been changed, but there is a decorative piece on the facade above the marquee bearing the Optimist International logo.
Both sides of the block are lined with tall, modern buildings, so the Regent has been demolished.
Architect J. Harry Randall practiced in his native St. Louis during the 1890s. Around 1901 he moved to Seattle, where he remained for a few years. By 1909 he had established his practice in Oklahoma City. There’s a hint that he might have moved to California by 1921, but I haven’t been able to find anything definite about that.
Architect J.Harry Randall practiced in St. Louis during the late 19th century. Around 1901-1904 he was working in Seattle, and by 1909 had established himself in Oklahoma City.
The news that J. Harry Randall had prepared plans for a $20,000 vaudeville theater at Oklahoma City for W. F. Burnell appeared in the August 7, 1909, issue of The Engineering Record. The house was in operation prior to October 17 that year, when the Oklahoma City Daily Pointer ran an article about various legal troubles Mr. Burnell had run into in connection with the Princess, Colonial, and Dixie Theatres, all three of which properties Burnell owned.
The Historic Toronto post robboehm referred to says that the St. Clair Theatre opened in 1921 and had been designed for the Allen circuit by the architectural firm of Hynes, Feldman & Watson. Design work began in 1919. James Patrick Hynes and Albert Edward Watson were the firm’s principals when this theater was completed. Isadore Feldman died suddenly of pneumonia in January, 1919, at the age of 32, though his name was retained as part of the firm’s name for some time thereafter.
I never saw the Colonial Theatre, nor have I seen photos of its interior, but it was a legitimate house built in the early 20th century and I’ve never come across any good-sized theaters with stages from that era that didn’t have boxes. It’s very unlikely that the Colonial would have been an exception to the rule. Boxes were typically the highest-priced seats in a house, as a lot of well-to-do customers preferred them.
Boxes were sometimes removed from old theaters that were extensively modernized for movies in the 1930s or later, and during the silent movie era the pair of boxes nearest the stage would in some cases have to be removed to accommodate pipes and an organ screen if a pipe organ was installed, but I don’t think the Colonial was ever extensively remodeled, so it probably kept at least some of its boxes even if it got an organ.
Joe Vogel
commented about
Fox 4on
Jun 16, 2015 at 10:29 am
The site of the Fox 4 is now under the overpass which carries traffic from westbound 19th street to the southbound lanes of the Marsha Sharp Freeway. The ramp overpass was still under construction when some of the current Google street view shots were taken, so it’s pretty recent. Historic Aerials has views from 2012, 2004, and 1995. The theater and an adjacent motel closer to Quaker Avenue were both still standing in the 1995 view, but they are gone in the 2004 view.
Historic Aerials has changed its format for links and only provides for linking to Twitter now, so I don’t know if this link will work or not, but lets try it.
The second to last photo on this web page shows the entrance to the Moore Opera House sometime after the introduction of talking pictures. The marquee advertises “Vitaphone Presentations.”
At this link is a clearer version of the early postcard photo of the Orpheum I linked to in the previous comment (click photo to enlarge.)
Thanks for the correction, link0612. I wasn’t aware that the two companies used different coloring styles.
Gerald DeLuca’s link to the 1948 Boxoffice article about the opening of the Rex is dead. The article is now at this location. It has no photos, unfortunately.
The text above a picture of the Orpheum about halfway down this web page says that the house opened on May 1, 1913.
In its early years, the Orpheum was operated by Jack Marks, who also operated Clarksburg’s first movie house, the Star Theatre, and later opened Moore’s Opera House. From 1922 until closing, the Orpheum was operated by Claude Robinson, of Robinson’s Grand Theatre.
After giving up the Orpheum, Marks took over an early house on West Main Street, originally called the Odeon and later the Bijou, and renamed it Marks' Orpheum, which he operated until his death in 1952, so Clarksburg had two houses with the Orpheum name from 1922 until 1929. Marks also built the Ritz Theatre in 1927.
The last photo on the page I linked to shows the Ritz, directly across Pike Street from the Monongahela Power Company Building which has a parapet identical to the Orpheum’s in the earlier photo. As the photo dates from the late 1940s or early 1950s, I believe the power company building must have been the Orpheum building remodeled, in which case the theater was not demolished in 1929, but merely dismantled and the power company offices built in its shell.
The page for the Concord Theatre at the Cinema Data Project has excerpts from a 1974 newspaper article about the theater, including several quotes from long-time operator Theresa Cantin.
Also, click this hyperlink to reach Paul Brogan’s 2014 article about the Concord. There’s also a slide show with five photos.
This page of the Ogunquit Playhouse website says that the first performances were presented in 1934 in the building on Shore Road,which had previously been a garage. The Ogunquit Playhouse moved into its present home on Route 1 in 1937. As the MGM report that Ron cited says that the Ogunquit Square Theatre opened in 1939, the old playhouse must have been dark for a couple of years before being converted for movies. (This page also has the photo robboehm referred to in the previous comment.)
The news that the Ogunquit Square started life as a legitimate theater, coupled with the satellite view of the building at Google Maps and the Bird’s Eye view at Bing Maps (much clearer than Google’s satellite) convinces me that the entire theater building is still standing. There is a tall structure at the back of the building which I thought looked like a former fly tower, but as I had thought the theater had opened as a movie house only I concluded that it might be a later addition, or even part of an entirely new building built on the theater’s site. Now that the theater’s origin as a legitimate house is known, it’s clear that it’s all still there, but converted to other uses.
If this house didn’t open until 1969 then it could not have been one of the projects Warren G. Sargent designed for Roth Theatres in 1954.
The Ogunquit Square Theatre page from the Cinema Data Project gives the location as “Water St., Shore Rd.” I’m guessing that means the street name was changed (the only other thing it could mean is that the theater was at the corner of Water St. and Shore Rd., and there is no Water Street in Ogunquit today.)
There’s no address of 5 Shore Road today, either, The description cited by Cinema Data says the theater was in a one-story brick building. I think it might be the building that is now occupied by a retail shop called the Barrel Stave (15 Shore Rd.) and two other shops with higher addresses, though that building currently has no resemblance to a theater. The theater building might or might not be gone.
The Magnet Theatre building suffered a fire in March, 1977, according to this page from the Claremont Firefighters Association. There are no details, and the two photos were taken from down the block, but it looks to have been a significant fire and it probably led to the demolition of the building.
Architect George O. Garnsey was born in 1840, so he was in his eighties when he designed the Lyric Theatre. He died in 1923.
The March 12, 1921, issue of The American Contractor said that architect G. O. Garnsey of Chicago had drawn the plans for a theater that was being built at Lapeer by George F. Smith.
There does not appear to be a Park Street in Richford. The Cinema Data Project says that the Park Theatre was on River Street.
This photo of the Park Theatre is undated, but the posters out front look like they might be for the 1921 film The Cheater Reformed.
The building was unusual for a theater, featuring a large gabled end facing the street, the peak of the gable dropping into a short hip. The theater entrance was in a flat-roofed addition on one side, with a fan light above the marquee that sheltered two pairs of double doors. The building was covered in narrow clapboards.
While it’s possible that the building has been remodeled into something unrecognizable, there is no building like it to be seen in Google street view today, so I suspect that the Park has most likely been demolished (perhaps burned, as it appears to have been a wood framed structure.)
Film historian Mary Mallory, writing at Larry Harnisch’s weblog The Daily Mirror, has posted as part of her “Hollywood Heights” series a long (and very interesting) article about art director and costume designer Max Rée in which she mentions in passing that he was responsible (apparently sometime around 1930) for upgrading and redecorating the Mason Theatre.
Rée, who trained as an architect, was one of the movie set designers who had considerable influence on architecture and design in general during the period. Photos of the Mason’s interior from the 1930s must show Rée’s work.
Unfortunately many of the links posted in earlier comments on this theater have gone dead, but fortunately many of the photos they displayed have been preserved at Bill Counter’s Historic Los Angeles Theatres web site, and can be found on his Mason Theatre page.
Thanks, Chris. I must have misspelled Washington when I searched for the theater.
DavidDymond is thinking of the King Square Cinema (singular) which was called the Odeon from 1966 to 1984. It was the King Square Cinema from 1984 until closing in 1996. The Paramount, renamed Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 in 1979, must have been renamed Kings Square Cinemas after the other house closed.
I wonder if this might have been the same house later known as the Washington Theatre and Airdome? It was mentioned in the October 12, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World, which said: “BELLEVILLE, ILL- Arthur Esberg has taken over the management of Washington Theatre and Airdome.” Belleville also once had an airdome called the Lyric.
The December, 1909, issue of The Reporter, a trade publication for the granite and marble industries, said that following the annual meeting of the Hardwick Granite Manufacturers Association, the crowd was entertained with movies and music at the Idle Hour Theatre, courtesy of the owner of the house, George H. Bailey.
This walking tour of Waterbury says that the Opera House, which later became the town’s first movie theater, was on the site now occupied by the American Legion post. The original building, built around 1890, burned down on December 27, 1985. The Legion post is at modern address 16 Stowe Street, so lots must have been renumbered at some point.
The Opera House in Waterbuty, Vermont, is on a list of theaters belonging to the American Motion Picture League that was published in the December 20, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World.
The tour page also says that in the 1930s and 1940s the town’s second movie house was in the Minard Block, now occupied by the Stowe Street Emporium, at 23 Stowe. It’s almost directly across the street from the Legion Post, so I would guess that lots on that side of the street didn’t get renumbered. The page doesn’t give the second theater’s name (it doesn’t mention the name Rialto either) but the house must have been listed in the FDY during that period.
I see that although the Garden is closed it still has a page on the Reynolds Theatres web site. The Palace in Elmwood is still operating. The Town Theatre in Chillicothe is still open, but is no longer operated by Reynolds Theatres. The Optimist Club in Chillicothe bought the Town and reopened it with digital equipment. Perhaps the Optimists or some other service club(s) in Canton could take a leaf from the Chillicothe Optimists and do the same thing with the Garden Theatre.
This house is now billed both on its own web site and on various movie listing sites as the Optimist Town Theatre. The name on the marquee has not been changed, but there is a decorative piece on the facade above the marquee bearing the Optimist International logo.
Both sides of the block are lined with tall, modern buildings, so the Regent has been demolished.
Architect J. Harry Randall practiced in his native St. Louis during the 1890s. Around 1901 he moved to Seattle, where he remained for a few years. By 1909 he had established his practice in Oklahoma City. There’s a hint that he might have moved to California by 1921, but I haven’t been able to find anything definite about that.
Architect J.Harry Randall practiced in St. Louis during the late 19th century. Around 1901-1904 he was working in Seattle, and by 1909 had established himself in Oklahoma City.
The news that J. Harry Randall had prepared plans for a $20,000 vaudeville theater at Oklahoma City for W. F. Burnell appeared in the August 7, 1909, issue of The Engineering Record. The house was in operation prior to October 17 that year, when the Oklahoma City Daily Pointer ran an article about various legal troubles Mr. Burnell had run into in connection with the Princess, Colonial, and Dixie Theatres, all three of which properties Burnell owned.
The Historic Toronto post robboehm referred to says that the St. Clair Theatre opened in 1921 and had been designed for the Allen circuit by the architectural firm of Hynes, Feldman & Watson. Design work began in 1919. James Patrick Hynes and Albert Edward Watson were the firm’s principals when this theater was completed. Isadore Feldman died suddenly of pneumonia in January, 1919, at the age of 32, though his name was retained as part of the firm’s name for some time thereafter.
I never saw the Colonial Theatre, nor have I seen photos of its interior, but it was a legitimate house built in the early 20th century and I’ve never come across any good-sized theaters with stages from that era that didn’t have boxes. It’s very unlikely that the Colonial would have been an exception to the rule. Boxes were typically the highest-priced seats in a house, as a lot of well-to-do customers preferred them.
Boxes were sometimes removed from old theaters that were extensively modernized for movies in the 1930s or later, and during the silent movie era the pair of boxes nearest the stage would in some cases have to be removed to accommodate pipes and an organ screen if a pipe organ was installed, but I don’t think the Colonial was ever extensively remodeled, so it probably kept at least some of its boxes even if it got an organ.
The site of the Fox 4 is now under the overpass which carries traffic from westbound 19th street to the southbound lanes of the Marsha Sharp Freeway. The ramp overpass was still under construction when some of the current Google street view shots were taken, so it’s pretty recent. Historic Aerials has views from 2012, 2004, and 1995. The theater and an adjacent motel closer to Quaker Avenue were both still standing in the 1995 view, but they are gone in the 2004 view.
Historic Aerials has changed its format for links and only provides for linking to Twitter now, so I don’t know if this link will work or not, but lets try it.