The July 29, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World noted the opening of the Robinhood Theatre:
“The Robin Hood, Grand Haven’s newest motion picture theater, opened for business July 1. It is equipped with a $4,000 Barcola [sic] orchestra and the theater is one of the prettiest in Western Michigan. The lighting system is indirect, and there is good ventilation. The building is fireproof.”
The Bartola orchestra was one of several instruments of its kind that appeared around 1913-1914, designed specifically for use in movie theaters to provide both music and sound effects to accompany silent films.
In my previous comment I left out the year when Butterfield transferred the Grand to Schlossman Theatres. It was 1931, so Butterfield operated the house about three years, then Schlossman for thirty years, then Butterfield for another five years, then Loeks operated it for about thirty years.
davefox: Click on the “Photos” button above the photo currently displayed on this page. On the page it fetches, click on the “Add New Photo” button at the bottom of the page. On the page that fetches click on the “Choose” button and then select the file you want to upload from its folder in your computer. When you select the photo’s file name you should see the file name appear in the box adjacent to the “Choose” button. You may add a title and description for your photo, but that is optional. Select the license you want to publish under from the drop-down menu, then click the “Upload Photo” button. Repeat the process for each photo you want to upload.
An inventory of buildings in Grand Haven says that the Robinhood Theatre was opened by Nathaniel Robbins in July, 1916, and closed in 1957. When the building was demolished in 1970 its site became a pedestrian passage to the parking area behind the block.
Google Maps has chosen to trap out street view inside a store and will not move farther than the sidewalk in front of its building. Instead of fruitlessly clicking on our Street View link for this page, see this bird’s eye view of the theater’s site from Bing Maps.
“Contract Awarded for Wichita House
Wichita, Kan. — Blaser-Volhner Construction Co. has been awarded the contract for the construction of a theater at North Market St. to be erected by the Stockman-Hartman Theater Co. according to plans drawn by Boller Bros, of Kansas City.”
Over the next few weeks, brief items about the project were published in which the projected cost of the house went from $75,000 to $125,000 and finally $150,000. A brief notice in the April 29 issue said that the Nomar had opened.
The house was equipped for sound, which might have been responsible for part of the escalating costs, though the Daily’s final estimate was a bit exaggerated if the item about the opening which appeared in The Motion Picture News of April 20 was correct:
“A capacity crowd attended the formal opening of the new Nomar Theatre, Wichita, Kans., last Wednesday night. The theatre, which is owned by the Stockman-Hartman Theatre Company, has a seating capacity of 800 and has a sound picture policy. The cost of the house was $125,000.”
In 1931, Hartman sold the Nomar to the Hughes-Franklin circuit. The house had become part of C. C. McCollister’s local chain of theaters by January, 1935.
A document listing historic buildings in Grand Haven (very large pdf file) says that the Grand Theatre opened on January 23, 1928.
Initially operated under lease by the Butterfield circuit, it was transferred to Schlossman Theatres, who operated the house until 1961 when it returned to Butterfield control. It became part of the Jack Loeks circuit in 1966, then was taken by a local independent operator from 1996 until closing in 1999. Originally seating over 800, the capacity was reduced to 520 in 1971, at which time the balcony was closed.
Lisa Maria DiChiera’s paper The Theater Designs of C. Howard Crane lists the Grand as his project #1015.
The Crescent Theatre in Grand Haven opened at Christmas, 1928, according to this article about the Crescent’s owner and manager, Margaret R. Vanden Berg, which appeared in the May 25, 1929, issue of Motion Picture News.
This 2012 weblog article about the King Theatre says that it was opened in 1930 by Milton and Sara Mansfield, who had operated the Strand and Rivola Theatres since their arrival in Belle Plaine in 1927. The Strand was closed when the King opened, and the Rivola was closed the following year. The King Theatre has been operated by members of the Mansfield family since opening.
Manager George Hake of the Lyric Theatre, Belmond, Iowa, had a capsule review of the movie Over the Hill published in the December 30, 1922, issue of Exhibitors Herald.
The history page of the official web site says the Capitol now has 370 seats. The performing arts center met its projected opening date of June 1, 2012. Plans for the project were by Metzger Johnson Architects of Burlington, Iowa, and Galesburg, Illinois, though as of this year the firm is now part of Klingner Architectural Group.
W.C. Quimby took over the Palace in 1923, as noted in this item from the September 15 issue of Exhibitors Herald:
“W. C. Quimby Taking Over Ft. Wayne House
(Special to Exhibitors Herald)
“FORT WAYNE, IND., Sept. 5.— Negotiations for the transfer of the Palace theatre in this city, one of the most beautiful playhouses in the middle west, are nearing completion, it has been learned, and new owners are expected to take control soon. W. C. Quimby, owner of three houses in Fort Wayne, it has become known, is buying fifty per cent of the stock of the holding company, and is leasing the remainder for a period of twenty years.
“The deal is said to involve a consideration of $500,000. The theatre has been the leading vaudeville house in Fort Wayne for many years and is at present playing stock. The future policy of the playhouse has not been determined.”
Clyde Quimby had some sort of deal with RKO. The 1933 Fort Wayne directory lists this house as the RKO Palace Theatre.
The December 2, 1911, issue of The Billboard said: “The elegant new Burns Theatre at Colorado Springs will soon be finished and it is reported there will be a large delegation of Denver people who will attend the opening performance.”
Lindamay: This photo gallery of Elmira theaters from stargazette.com includes a shot of the entrance of the Regent in 1958 (thumbnail #6.) That’s the only photo from the 1950s I’ve been able to find.
The July 30, 1910, issue of The Film Index had this item about the Majestic Theatre:
“The Majestic Motion Picture Place, of Pottsville, Pa., which is conceded to be one of the most modern in the country, opened July 9. Besides having the best pictures obtainable, the management has installed an $850 Matchless Cunningham Player.”
The current operators of the Majestic could install a new Matchless Cunningham Piano, too, but I don’t think there’s a player model anymore.
Like the Winter Garden Theatre, the Mozart Theatre was designed by the local architectural firm of Freeburg & Fidler. George C. Freeburg and A. Howard Fidler formed their partnership in 1910, when Freeburg had been practicing for about four years and Fidler for less than a year.
Neither had extensive training in architecture. Freeburg had worked as a carpenter, mason, and painter before apprenticing in the offices of local architects, and Fidler had taken a course in architecture at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, a preparatory school, and also took a correspondence course. Nevertheless, their firm soon became one of the most successful in the region, with Freeburg being the principal designer and Fidler acting primarily as a supervising architect.
Unfortunately, the partnership ended with the premature death of Freeburg in November, 1916, at the age of thirty. Fidler then formed the firm of Phillips, Fidler & Beck with the established Warren, New York, architect Edward A. Phillips and the recent Cornell graduate Ellis W. Beck.
Freeburg & Fidler designed two theater projects for Dunkirk, New York, in 1915, but I haven’t been able to discover which theaters they were, or if they were ever completed. The successor firm of Phillips, Fidler & Beck designed a theater for a site at Main and Portage Streets in Westfield, New York, in 1917, but I’ve been unable to find out anything about it. It might have been a predecessor of the Grand Theatre, built at that intersection in 1941.
The July 3, 1910, issue of The Film Index said that the Empire Theatre of New London, Connecticut, would close for two weeks for repairs. It didn’t reveal the nature of the repairs.
The Rialto no longer has its stand-alone web site, but now has this Facebook page (which, oddly, still sports a link to the now-unrelated web page.) The Facebook page features some recent photographs of the ongoing restoration work. Earlier this year the Vitrolite on the facade was being repaired.
We list the Rex as demolished. Has that happened quite recently? Google has no nearby street view of this location, but there’s a good bird’s eye view at Bing Maps. The building looks like a theater, but there are gaping holes in its roof, so it might have been demolished since the view was recorded. If it hasn’t been demolished yet it probably soon will be.
A permit for a theater at Sunbury was issued in March, 1919, and noted in the Department Reports of Pennsylvania that year. No details about the project were given except that it was being built by the “Gen. Amusement Co.” (probably a company set up for the specific purpose of building the house) and designed by architect W. H. Lee. Given that he Rialto was built around 1920, it was probably this project.
A building permit for a moving picture theater at Clifton Heights was issued to a J. A. Simmons in 1920, but there is evidence that the Clifton Theatre was in operation prior to 1914. It is possible that the permit was for an expansion or rebuilding of the Clifton, or it might have been for a different theater that we do not have listed.
The pre-1920 existence of the Clifton Theatre is indicated by an article in Film Bulletin of November 13, 1934, about a church-led boycott of all movies that had been going on for five months, leading to the bankruptcy of several independent theater operators in the region:
“Perhaps the most pathetic situation is the case of Jim Dick, of the Clifton Theatre, Clifton Heights. For more than 20 years Dick had been supporting himself and family from earnings of the little Clifton Heights theatre. A bank crash took his savings but he continued to eke out a slender existence from the theatre. Along came the Ban cutting his receipts almost in half, causing him to lose his theatre and leaving him and a family of seven destitute.”
A general conflagration in the early morning hours of December 4, 1919, destroyed several buildings in Fayette City, including the original Bell Theatre, as reported in that day’s edition of Monongahela’s The Daily Republican. A list of building permits issued for theaters in Pennsylvania in 1920 included a house at Fayette City for Joseph Bell and William Amaismaier. J. C. Brenton was the architect for the rebuilding project.
The July 29, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World noted the opening of the Robinhood Theatre:
The Bartola orchestra was one of several instruments of its kind that appeared around 1913-1914, designed specifically for use in movie theaters to provide both music and sound effects to accompany silent films.In my previous comment I left out the year when Butterfield transferred the Grand to Schlossman Theatres. It was 1931, so Butterfield operated the house about three years, then Schlossman for thirty years, then Butterfield for another five years, then Loeks operated it for about thirty years.
The Strand Theatre of Lowell, Michigan, is mentioned in the October 14, 1922, issue of Exhibitors Herald.
davefox: Click on the “Photos” button above the photo currently displayed on this page. On the page it fetches, click on the “Add New Photo” button at the bottom of the page. On the page that fetches click on the “Choose” button and then select the file you want to upload from its folder in your computer. When you select the photo’s file name you should see the file name appear in the box adjacent to the “Choose” button. You may add a title and description for your photo, but that is optional. Select the license you want to publish under from the drop-down menu, then click the “Upload Photo” button. Repeat the process for each photo you want to upload.
An inventory of buildings in Grand Haven says that the Robinhood Theatre was opened by Nathaniel Robbins in July, 1916, and closed in 1957. When the building was demolished in 1970 its site became a pedestrian passage to the parking area behind the block.
Google Maps has chosen to trap out street view inside a store and will not move farther than the sidewalk in front of its building. Instead of fruitlessly clicking on our Street View link for this page, see this bird’s eye view of the theater’s site from Bing Maps.
The Film Daily, January 23, 1929:
Over the next few weeks, brief items about the project were published in which the projected cost of the house went from $75,000 to $125,000 and finally $150,000. A brief notice in the April 29 issue said that the Nomar had opened.The house was equipped for sound, which might have been responsible for part of the escalating costs, though the Daily’s final estimate was a bit exaggerated if the item about the opening which appeared in The Motion Picture News of April 20 was correct:
In 1931, Hartman sold the Nomar to the Hughes-Franklin circuit. The house had become part of C. C. McCollister’s local chain of theaters by January, 1935.A document listing historic buildings in Grand Haven (very large pdf file) says that the Grand Theatre opened on January 23, 1928.
Initially operated under lease by the Butterfield circuit, it was transferred to Schlossman Theatres, who operated the house until 1961 when it returned to Butterfield control. It became part of the Jack Loeks circuit in 1966, then was taken by a local independent operator from 1996 until closing in 1999. Originally seating over 800, the capacity was reduced to 520 in 1971, at which time the balcony was closed.
Lisa Maria DiChiera’s paper The Theater Designs of C. Howard Crane lists the Grand as his project #1015.
The Crescent Theatre in Grand Haven opened at Christmas, 1928, according to this article about the Crescent’s owner and manager, Margaret R. Vanden Berg, which appeared in the May 25, 1929, issue of Motion Picture News.
The Gem suffered a fire in late 1928, and was then remodeled, according to this item from The Film Daily of January 23, 1929:
This 2012 weblog article about the King Theatre says that it was opened in 1930 by Milton and Sara Mansfield, who had operated the Strand and Rivola Theatres since their arrival in Belle Plaine in 1927. The Strand was closed when the King opened, and the Rivola was closed the following year. The King Theatre has been operated by members of the Mansfield family since opening.
Manager George Hake of the Lyric Theatre, Belmond, Iowa, had a capsule review of the movie Over the Hill published in the December 30, 1922, issue of Exhibitors Herald.
The official web site isn’t working anymore. Another theater with nothing but a Facebook page.
The history page of the official web site says the Capitol now has 370 seats. The performing arts center met its projected opening date of June 1, 2012. Plans for the project were by Metzger Johnson Architects of Burlington, Iowa, and Galesburg, Illinois, though as of this year the firm is now part of Klingner Architectural Group.
I’m not a subscriber, either, but I see the photos. It might be an issue with your browser. Try this individual photo.
W.C. Quimby took over the Palace in 1923, as noted in this item from the September 15 issue of Exhibitors Herald:
Clyde Quimby had some sort of deal with RKO. The 1933 Fort Wayne directory lists this house as the RKO Palace Theatre.The December 2, 1911, issue of The Billboard said: “The elegant new Burns Theatre at Colorado Springs will soon be finished and it is reported there will be a large delegation of Denver people who will attend the opening performance.”
Lindamay: This photo gallery of Elmira theaters from stargazette.com includes a shot of the entrance of the Regent in 1958 (thumbnail #6.) That’s the only photo from the 1950s I’ve been able to find.
The July 30, 1910, issue of The Film Index had this item about the Majestic Theatre:
The current operators of the Majestic could install a new Matchless Cunningham Piano, too, but I don’t think there’s a player model anymore.Like the Winter Garden Theatre, the Mozart Theatre was designed by the local architectural firm of Freeburg & Fidler. George C. Freeburg and A. Howard Fidler formed their partnership in 1910, when Freeburg had been practicing for about four years and Fidler for less than a year.
Neither had extensive training in architecture. Freeburg had worked as a carpenter, mason, and painter before apprenticing in the offices of local architects, and Fidler had taken a course in architecture at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, a preparatory school, and also took a correspondence course. Nevertheless, their firm soon became one of the most successful in the region, with Freeburg being the principal designer and Fidler acting primarily as a supervising architect.
Unfortunately, the partnership ended with the premature death of Freeburg in November, 1916, at the age of thirty. Fidler then formed the firm of Phillips, Fidler & Beck with the established Warren, New York, architect Edward A. Phillips and the recent Cornell graduate Ellis W. Beck.
Freeburg & Fidler designed two theater projects for Dunkirk, New York, in 1915, but I haven’t been able to discover which theaters they were, or if they were ever completed. The successor firm of Phillips, Fidler & Beck designed a theater for a site at Main and Portage Streets in Westfield, New York, in 1917, but I’ve been unable to find out anything about it. It might have been a predecessor of the Grand Theatre, built at that intersection in 1941.
The July 3, 1910, issue of The Film Index said that the Empire Theatre of New London, Connecticut, would close for two weeks for repairs. It didn’t reveal the nature of the repairs.
The Rialto no longer has its stand-alone web site, but now has this Facebook page (which, oddly, still sports a link to the now-unrelated web page.) The Facebook page features some recent photographs of the ongoing restoration work. Earlier this year the Vitrolite on the facade was being repaired.
We list the Rex as demolished. Has that happened quite recently? Google has no nearby street view of this location, but there’s a good bird’s eye view at Bing Maps. The building looks like a theater, but there are gaping holes in its roof, so it might have been demolished since the view was recorded. If it hasn’t been demolished yet it probably soon will be.
A permit for a theater at Sunbury was issued in March, 1919, and noted in the Department Reports of Pennsylvania that year. No details about the project were given except that it was being built by the “Gen. Amusement Co.” (probably a company set up for the specific purpose of building the house) and designed by architect W. H. Lee. Given that he Rialto was built around 1920, it was probably this project.
A building permit for a moving picture theater at Clifton Heights was issued to a J. A. Simmons in 1920, but there is evidence that the Clifton Theatre was in operation prior to 1914. It is possible that the permit was for an expansion or rebuilding of the Clifton, or it might have been for a different theater that we do not have listed.
The pre-1920 existence of the Clifton Theatre is indicated by an article in Film Bulletin of November 13, 1934, about a church-led boycott of all movies that had been going on for five months, leading to the bankruptcy of several independent theater operators in the region:
A general conflagration in the early morning hours of December 4, 1919, destroyed several buildings in Fayette City, including the original Bell Theatre, as reported in that day’s edition of Monongahela’s The Daily Republican. A list of building permits issued for theaters in Pennsylvania in 1920 included a house at Fayette City for Joseph Bell and William Amaismaier. J. C. Brenton was the architect for the rebuilding project.