The December 21, 1941, issue of the Las Cruces Sun-News mentioned Guy Frazer as the architect of the new State Theatre, which was scheduled to open Christmas Day. This must have been Guy L. Frazer of the El Paso, Texas, firm Frazer & Benner.
The January 1, 1940, issue of the Clovis News-Journal said that the formal opening of the new State Theatre would take place at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, January 3.
The 1924 ad must have been for the reopening of the Schenley as a movie house under new management. An item in the June 28, 1958, issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said that the theater “…was acquired in 1924 by the forerunners of the present Stanley-Warner Corporation.”
The historical sketch of Pittsburgh’s first Nixon Theatre on this web page gives the address as 417-425 Sixth Avenue, and says that it was designed by Chicago architect Benjamin H. Marshall.
Carl: As far as I’ve been able to discover, there were only two big theaters with stages operating in Sedalia in the 1920s. If your wife’s grandmother was a professional dancer, she probably would have appeared at either the Lona/Liberty Theatre, or at the Sedalia Theatre, an older house opened in 1905 (not yet listed at Cinema Treasures.)
On the other hand, if she was an amateur performer she might have appeared at one of the small movie houses in town, of which there were several, most of them operating for no more than a few years, some for only a few months. Some of them are sure to have had had small stages, and all had at least a piano for music, and would have hosted such events as local talent shows, and probably presented local singers on a fairly regular basis. Live music was a big part of the shows at movie theaters before talking pictures came along.
The two big houses undoubtedly presented some local talent as well, but probably not on a regular basis. One example of the use of local talent (dancers, as it happens) is noted in an item from trade publication The Reel Journal of January 30, 1926. It was about the publicity campaign for the MGM production The Merry Widow, which was being handled by a Mr. Bishop. In Sedalia, he came up with a clever stunt:
“Bishop arranged a contest with the Sedalia Republican, the feature of which was to find out why blonde widows re-marry quicker than brunettes, and saw to it that when the picture came there would be a prologue presentation for it, given gratis by two professional dancing teachers, who were well repaid for their work by the advertising they received.”
This major movie (a “blockbuster” of its day) would undoubtedly have appeared at either the Sedalia or the Liberty. A prologue was usually a good-sized production, requiring several dancers, and the two dancing teachers putting it on might have had their better students performing in it. If it went over well, the same arrangement might have been made with theater operators for similar presentations to accompany other movies.
David and Noelle Soren’s list of known Boller theatres includes an unnamed drive-in at Sedalia designed in 1948. Unless two drive-ins in Sedalia began construction that year it must have been this one that was designed by Boller Brothers.
The 1960s aluminum false front has been peeled off of the Fox Theatre and replaced with a retro-style front that might more closely resemble the original Streamlined style of the building. The building has been converted into the Fox Theater Event Center, though the photo gallery at their web site shows that the historic interior of the building has been entirely lost. It’s pretty much just the shell of the theater, and a marquee with the name Fox on it.
CinemaTour has a photo of the renovated front. CinemaTour claims that the Fox was also known as the Sedalia, but the Sedalia Theatre was a different house, at Third and Massachusetts, which opened in 1905 and faded away in the 1930s, and was finally destroyed by a fire in 1977. I’m pretty sure the Fox was always called the Fox, but the Sedalia was called the Fox Sedalia in the early 1930s, around the same time the Liberty was called the Fox Liberty.
Information about the Lona Theatre is a bit sparse on the Internet, but it is clear that this was at least the second house of that name in Sedalia. A nostalgia piece in the January 1, 1942, issue of The Sedalia Democrat says that on December 30, 1917, the Lona Theatre, at 412 S. Ohio Avenue, was showing a William S. Hart movie. I’ve found references to the Lona Theatre in The Moving Picture World as far back as 1914.
An article from the December 18, 2013, Democrat says that the new Lona Theatre was formally opened on August 12, 1920, with 1,500 seats. I’ve been unable to discover what became of the first Lona Theatre when the new house opened. The building at its address has the name “Story’s Central” and the date 1882 on its parapet, so the earlier Lona Theatre was a storefront movie house.
The new Lona Theatre, though suited for vaudeville and legitimate productions, was also equipped for movies from the beginning, and the August 16, 1920, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the house had opened with the feature film One Hour Before Dawn as part of the program.
The house had been renamed Liberty Theatre by no later than January, 1926. Later that year the Liberty and the local Sedalia and Strand Theatres became part of a Kansas City-based chain called American Theatres. In 1928 and 1929, when sound was installed, the house was advertised as the New Liberty Theatre.
At least as early as mid-1930 and as late as July, 1933, the house was being advertised as the Fox Liberty Theatre. Later in the decade it was simply the Liberty again, but apparently it remained a Fox Midwest house until 1940. On September 15, 1940, after the opening of the new Fox Theatre, the New Liberty Theatre advertised that it had returned to local control. By the next year it had reverted to being called simply the Liberty Theatre once again.
A review of local events of 1954 in the January 14, 1955, issue of The Sedalia Democrat notes that the Community Players theater group had moved into the Liberty Theatre in November. I’ve found no evidence that it ever operated as a movie house again.
The Lona Theatre was obviously designed by an architect with classical training, but nobody seems to know who it was. The renovation as a performing arts house in the 1980s was handled by local architect Neal Reyburn.
The Warner Theatre might have operated in two different locations, or it was rebuilt in 1946. The January 10, 1947, issue of The Film Daily ran this item:
“Warner Opens in Salem, Ky.
“Salem, Ky. — The new Warner Theater here, built and owned by L. Conyer, has opened. The new modern streamlined 350-seater cost approximately $25,000.”
David and Noelle Soren’s piece about the Ute Theatre on their “Favorite Boller Theatres” page says that the Rialto, which dated to 1911, was razed for the construction of the Ute, which opened on June 12, 1935. Noelle’s research is usually pretty thorough. But I suppose it’s possible that the side walls of the Rialto were left standing. It’s costly to take down side walls in the middle of a block of old buildings as it can damage adjacent structures if it isn’t done carefully.
Oops. Chosen was probably a typo on the page I was citing, and it was J. T. Ghosen to whom Gordon Phillips sold the Royal in 1929. I should have noticed that. That will teach me not to delay breakfast until so late in the morning (well, probably not.)
The third thumbnail from the bottom in the right column on this web page shows the Steuben Theatre in 1939. This was the year it became a Warner house. It had a nice Streamline Modern marquee and glass tile front.
The October 24, 1923, issue of the Hornell, New York Evening Tribune said that excavation had begun for the foundations of a theater to be built adjacent to the Bath National Bank in Bath. The bank is now called Five Star Bank, and is still standing at 44 Liberty Street. The building just north of it has the name Babcock on its parapet. The theater entrance was to have been in the middle bay of the building, so the address was most likely 48 Liberty Street.
The article said that Bath had been without a theater since the Park Theatre had burned down the previous year. The new house was to be operated by Associated Theatres, a circuit based in Rochester. This Facebook pagehas a photo showing part of the marquee of the Babcock Theatre advertising the 1939 film Union Pacific.
The April 3, 1940, issue of The Film Daily reported that Warner Brothers had dropped the Majestic Theatre in Hornell when their lease ran out, and operation of the house had reverted to the local owners, Mr. and Mrs. Fred F. Peters. The chain had leased the Steuben and Strand Theatres in Hornell in 1939, according to the April 10 issue of the Daily. The July 7, 1942, issue said that the Majestic had been acquired by Nikitas Dipson.
Scroll down this web page to find a photo of the Majestic, and another of an early storefront theater called the Lyric. Both houses were in operation in 1916.
The Ozark was probably the unnamed theater in this brief item in the May 29, 1930, issue of The Sedalia Democrat:
“GHOSEN WILL BUILD THEATRE ”
J. Thomas Ghosen, of 1022 West Sixteenth street, has contracted to construct a $15,000 theatre at Eldon, Mo., and began work Monday. The plans and specifications were drawn by Leroy H. Parrish, of Jefferson City, Mo.“
Ghosen operated several theaters in central Missouri from the 1920s into the 1950s, some independently and some in partnership with the Commonwealth circuit.
The Uptown Theatre was destroyed by a fire in 1946 and replaced with anew house the following year. The January 10, 1947, issue of the The Film Daily ran this item:
“In Clinton, Mo., Frank Woodruff & Son, general contractors, are pushing construction of the new Uptown theater being erected by J. T. Goshen, of Sedalia, Mo. as a replacement for his theater destroyed by fire July 11… . New house will be a 700-seater.”
(The correct name of the owner was John T. Ghosen, not Goshen.) The May 16, 1947, issue of the Daily had this follow-up item:
“Clinton — F. W. Woodruff & Son, general contractors for the new theater being erected here for J. T. Goshen, who also operates the Uptown Theater in Sedalia, Mo., are receiving bids from sub-contractors for various kinds of work. The house, designed by Robert O. Boller, will cost upwards of $40,000. It will replace a theater destroyed by fire several months ago.”
The July 3 issue of the Daily said that “Aug. 15 has been set as the date for opening of J. T. Ghosen’s new theatre in Clinton, Mo.”
One thing I am wondering is if the Uptown was rebuilt at the same location, or if perhaps the new theater Ghosen had built to replace it was actually the Crest Theatre, which we have listed as the Heartland Community Theatre,opened in 1947? It would have been unusual for a town as small as Clinton to have two new 600+-seat theaters opened in one year as late as 1947, especially since the Lee Theatre was still in operation.
The October 15, 1948, issue of The Sedalia Weekly Democrat said that the contract had been let for grading at the site of the Sedalia Drive-In Theatre, which was expected to open the following spring. Uptown Theatre owner J. T. Ghosen was interested in the project. Ghosen operated a number of theaters in central Missouri on his own, but also operated several in partnership with the Commonwealth circuit.
The April 18, 1947, issue of The Film Daily reported that improvements were in store at the Lee Theatre:
“The Lee Theater, Clinton, Mo., a unit of the Commonwealth circuit, is being completely renovated and modernized. In addition to a complete repainting job, new carpeting and draperies will be installed, and new upholstered seats and RCA sound system provided. The walls are to be given acoustical treatment. A new refrigerated drinking system is to be part of the improvements. The house has also been provided with all-aluminum frames in the lobby and a Manley popcorn machine and large new lounges. Some $20,000 is being spent on the house.”
The July 11, 1947, issue of the Daily claimed a considerably larger seating capacity for the Lee Theatre than we have listed, but this was probably a typo:
“New Heywood-Wakefield chairs have been installed in the 1,777-seat Lee Theater, Clinton, Mo., of which C. W. Dickgrafe is manager. … It is a unit of the Commonwealth Amusement Corp., Kansas City.”
Being reseated in 1947 means that the house must have been at least twenty years old, and there was indeed a Lee Theatre in Clinton in 1928, when the October 28 issue of The Film Daily said that its owner, Lee Jones, had just purchased the Auditorium Theatre, also located in Clinton.
The Lee Theatre building, without its equipment, was offered for sale by Mrs. Lee Jones in an ad in the September 23, 1962, issue of the Kansas City Star.
The July 11, 1947, issue of The Film Daily noted the opening of this house:
“Clinton Dedicated
“Port Clinton, O. — Clinton Theater, 1,200 seats, recently completed at a cost of $225,000, was officially dedicated to Associated Theaters, Inc., of Cleveland.”
The September 1, 1932, issue of The Sedalia Democrat said that a beauty contest was to be held at the New Royal Theatre in Versailles, sponsored by theater owner J. T. Ghosen, who also owned the Star Theatre in Sedalia.
An earlier Royal Theatre in Versailles was mentioned in the July 1, 1929, issue of The Film Daily. It had just been sold to a Mr. Chosen by Gordon Phillips.
The January 8, 1938, issue of The Film Daily reported that the Royal Theatre in Versailles, Missouri, had been transferred to Glen W. Dickinson.
J. T. Ghosen operated an earlier theater in Sedalia called the Star, at 116 W.Second Street. It suffered a fire in 1930, as reported in the October 22 edition of The Sedalia Democrat. The article said that Ghosen operated “…several other small theatres through Central Missouri.” The Star was repaired and reopened, as it was mentioned again in a September 1, 1932, Democrat article about an event at Ghosen’s New Royal Theatre in Versailles, Missouri.
I, too, suspect that the Rialto’s auditorium was demolished for the highway. In a 1960 image at Historic Aerials it looks like the highway was then under construction. This 1938 aerial is blurry, but it does look as though there is a structure attached to the back of the building.
As I noted in an earlier comment, architect Lewis A. Smith was commissioned to design the Santa Maria Theatre for Sol Lesser’s recently-founded Principal Theatres circuit in early 1927. However, as completed the house was designed by the architectural firm of Balch & Stanbury for the West Coast circuit, in which William Fox had recently gained a controlling interest. A photo of part of the lobby of the Santa Maria Theatre can be seen at upper right on this page of the December 28, 1929, issue of Motion Picture News, which featured a portfolio of Balch & Stanbury’s theater designs.
The August 12, 1927, issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor noted a project in Santa Maria for West Coast Theatres that was to be designed by architect Carl Jules Weyl. As the Santa Maria opened as a West Coast house, it is likely that the chain had taken over Lesser’s project, which was to have been at S. Broadway and Church Street, the location of this house.
I don’t know if anything survived from Smith’s or Weyl’s designs after Balch & Stanbury took over the project. I also don’t know what ended Lewis Smith’s career. It has previously been erroneously reported that he died in 1926, but his page at the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, which once included the error, has since been corrected to say that he died in 1958. From the late 1910s through 1927 Smith was one of the most prolific theater architects in Los Angeles, but he appears to have left the profession suddenly at that time, and I’ve found no evidence that he practiced architecture after 1927. A number of his commissions from 1927 ended up in the hands of Balch & Stanbury, and the Santa Maria Theatre was one of them.
The December 21, 1941, issue of the Las Cruces Sun-News mentioned Guy Frazer as the architect of the new State Theatre, which was scheduled to open Christmas Day. This must have been Guy L. Frazer of the El Paso, Texas, firm Frazer & Benner.
The January 1, 1940, issue of the Clovis News-Journal said that the formal opening of the new State Theatre would take place at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, January 3.
The 1924 ad must have been for the reopening of the Schenley as a movie house under new management. An item in the June 28, 1958, issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said that the theater “…was acquired in 1924 by the forerunners of the present Stanley-Warner Corporation.”
The historical sketch of Pittsburgh’s first Nixon Theatre on this web page gives the address as 417-425 Sixth Avenue, and says that it was designed by Chicago architect Benjamin H. Marshall.
Carl: As far as I’ve been able to discover, there were only two big theaters with stages operating in Sedalia in the 1920s. If your wife’s grandmother was a professional dancer, she probably would have appeared at either the Lona/Liberty Theatre, or at the Sedalia Theatre, an older house opened in 1905 (not yet listed at Cinema Treasures.)
On the other hand, if she was an amateur performer she might have appeared at one of the small movie houses in town, of which there were several, most of them operating for no more than a few years, some for only a few months. Some of them are sure to have had had small stages, and all had at least a piano for music, and would have hosted such events as local talent shows, and probably presented local singers on a fairly regular basis. Live music was a big part of the shows at movie theaters before talking pictures came along.
The two big houses undoubtedly presented some local talent as well, but probably not on a regular basis. One example of the use of local talent (dancers, as it happens) is noted in an item from trade publication The Reel Journal of January 30, 1926. It was about the publicity campaign for the MGM production The Merry Widow, which was being handled by a Mr. Bishop. In Sedalia, he came up with a clever stunt:
This major movie (a “blockbuster” of its day) would undoubtedly have appeared at either the Sedalia or the Liberty. A prologue was usually a good-sized production, requiring several dancers, and the two dancing teachers putting it on might have had their better students performing in it. If it went over well, the same arrangement might have been made with theater operators for similar presentations to accompany other movies.David and Noelle Soren’s list of known Boller theatres includes an unnamed drive-in at Sedalia designed in 1948. Unless two drive-ins in Sedalia began construction that year it must have been this one that was designed by Boller Brothers.
The 1960s aluminum false front has been peeled off of the Fox Theatre and replaced with a retro-style front that might more closely resemble the original Streamlined style of the building. The building has been converted into the Fox Theater Event Center, though the photo gallery at their web site shows that the historic interior of the building has been entirely lost. It’s pretty much just the shell of the theater, and a marquee with the name Fox on it.
CinemaTour has a photo of the renovated front. CinemaTour claims that the Fox was also known as the Sedalia, but the Sedalia Theatre was a different house, at Third and Massachusetts, which opened in 1905 and faded away in the 1930s, and was finally destroyed by a fire in 1977. I’m pretty sure the Fox was always called the Fox, but the Sedalia was called the Fox Sedalia in the early 1930s, around the same time the Liberty was called the Fox Liberty.
Information about the Lona Theatre is a bit sparse on the Internet, but it is clear that this was at least the second house of that name in Sedalia. A nostalgia piece in the January 1, 1942, issue of The Sedalia Democrat says that on December 30, 1917, the Lona Theatre, at 412 S. Ohio Avenue, was showing a William S. Hart movie. I’ve found references to the Lona Theatre in The Moving Picture World as far back as 1914.
An article from the December 18, 2013, Democrat says that the new Lona Theatre was formally opened on August 12, 1920, with 1,500 seats. I’ve been unable to discover what became of the first Lona Theatre when the new house opened. The building at its address has the name “Story’s Central” and the date 1882 on its parapet, so the earlier Lona Theatre was a storefront movie house.
The new Lona Theatre, though suited for vaudeville and legitimate productions, was also equipped for movies from the beginning, and the August 16, 1920, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the house had opened with the feature film One Hour Before Dawn as part of the program.
The house had been renamed Liberty Theatre by no later than January, 1926. Later that year the Liberty and the local Sedalia and Strand Theatres became part of a Kansas City-based chain called American Theatres. In 1928 and 1929, when sound was installed, the house was advertised as the New Liberty Theatre.
At least as early as mid-1930 and as late as July, 1933, the house was being advertised as the Fox Liberty Theatre. Later in the decade it was simply the Liberty again, but apparently it remained a Fox Midwest house until 1940. On September 15, 1940, after the opening of the new Fox Theatre, the New Liberty Theatre advertised that it had returned to local control. By the next year it had reverted to being called simply the Liberty Theatre once again.
A review of local events of 1954 in the January 14, 1955, issue of The Sedalia Democrat notes that the Community Players theater group had moved into the Liberty Theatre in November. I’ve found no evidence that it ever operated as a movie house again.
The Lona Theatre was obviously designed by an architect with classical training, but nobody seems to know who it was. The renovation as a performing arts house in the 1980s was handled by local architect Neal Reyburn.
The Thursday, September 5, 1940, issue of The Sedalia Democrat said that the new Fox Theatre would open Friday evening at 7:30.
The Warner Theatre might have operated in two different locations, or it was rebuilt in 1946. The January 10, 1947, issue of The Film Daily ran this item:
David and Noelle Soren’s piece about the Ute Theatre on their “Favorite Boller Theatres” page says that the Rialto, which dated to 1911, was razed for the construction of the Ute, which opened on June 12, 1935. Noelle’s research is usually pretty thorough. But I suppose it’s possible that the side walls of the Rialto were left standing. It’s costly to take down side walls in the middle of a block of old buildings as it can damage adjacent structures if it isn’t done carefully.
Oops. Chosen was probably a typo on the page I was citing, and it was J. T. Ghosen to whom Gordon Phillips sold the Royal in 1929. I should have noticed that. That will teach me not to delay breakfast until so late in the morning (well, probably not.)
The third thumbnail from the bottom in the right column on this web page shows the Steuben Theatre in 1939. This was the year it became a Warner house. It had a nice Streamline Modern marquee and glass tile front.
The October 24, 1923, issue of the Hornell, New York Evening Tribune said that excavation had begun for the foundations of a theater to be built adjacent to the Bath National Bank in Bath. The bank is now called Five Star Bank, and is still standing at 44 Liberty Street. The building just north of it has the name Babcock on its parapet. The theater entrance was to have been in the middle bay of the building, so the address was most likely 48 Liberty Street.
The article said that Bath had been without a theater since the Park Theatre had burned down the previous year. The new house was to be operated by Associated Theatres, a circuit based in Rochester. This Facebook pagehas a photo showing part of the marquee of the Babcock Theatre advertising the 1939 film Union Pacific.
The April 3, 1940, issue of The Film Daily reported that Warner Brothers had dropped the Majestic Theatre in Hornell when their lease ran out, and operation of the house had reverted to the local owners, Mr. and Mrs. Fred F. Peters. The chain had leased the Steuben and Strand Theatres in Hornell in 1939, according to the April 10 issue of the Daily. The July 7, 1942, issue said that the Majestic had been acquired by Nikitas Dipson.
Scroll down this web page to find a photo of the Majestic, and another of an early storefront theater called the Lyric. Both houses were in operation in 1916.
Scroll down this web page to see a 1939 photo of the Strand’s auditorium.
The Ozark was probably the unnamed theater in this brief item in the May 29, 1930, issue of The Sedalia Democrat:
Ghosen operated several theaters in central Missouri from the 1920s into the 1950s, some independently and some in partnership with the Commonwealth circuit.The Uptown Theatre was destroyed by a fire in 1946 and replaced with anew house the following year. The January 10, 1947, issue of the The Film Daily ran this item:
(The correct name of the owner was John T. Ghosen, not Goshen.) The May 16, 1947, issue of the Daily had this follow-up item:The July 3 issue of the Daily said that “Aug. 15 has been set as the date for opening of J. T. Ghosen’s new theatre in Clinton, Mo.”One thing I am wondering is if the Uptown was rebuilt at the same location, or if perhaps the new theater Ghosen had built to replace it was actually the Crest Theatre, which we have listed as the Heartland Community Theatre,opened in 1947? It would have been unusual for a town as small as Clinton to have two new 600+-seat theaters opened in one year as late as 1947, especially since the Lee Theatre was still in operation.
The October 15, 1948, issue of The Sedalia Weekly Democrat said that the contract had been let for grading at the site of the Sedalia Drive-In Theatre, which was expected to open the following spring. Uptown Theatre owner J. T. Ghosen was interested in the project. Ghosen operated a number of theaters in central Missouri on his own, but also operated several in partnership with the Commonwealth circuit.
The April 18, 1947, issue of The Film Daily reported that improvements were in store at the Lee Theatre:
The July 11, 1947, issue of the Daily claimed a considerably larger seating capacity for the Lee Theatre than we have listed, but this was probably a typo:Being reseated in 1947 means that the house must have been at least twenty years old, and there was indeed a Lee Theatre in Clinton in 1928, when the October 28 issue of The Film Daily said that its owner, Lee Jones, had just purchased the Auditorium Theatre, also located in Clinton.The Lee Theatre building, without its equipment, was offered for sale by Mrs. Lee Jones in an ad in the September 23, 1962, issue of the Kansas City Star.
The July 11, 1947, issue of The Film Daily noted the opening of this house:
The September 1, 1932, issue of The Sedalia Democrat said that a beauty contest was to be held at the New Royal Theatre in Versailles, sponsored by theater owner J. T. Ghosen, who also owned the Star Theatre in Sedalia.
An earlier Royal Theatre in Versailles was mentioned in the July 1, 1929, issue of The Film Daily. It had just been sold to a Mr. Chosen by Gordon Phillips.
The January 8, 1938, issue of The Film Daily reported that the Royal Theatre in Versailles, Missouri, had been transferred to Glen W. Dickinson.
J. T. Ghosen operated an earlier theater in Sedalia called the Star, at 116 W.Second Street. It suffered a fire in 1930, as reported in the October 22 edition of The Sedalia Democrat. The article said that Ghosen operated “…several other small theatres through Central Missouri.” The Star was repaired and reopened, as it was mentioned again in a September 1, 1932, Democrat article about an event at Ghosen’s New Royal Theatre in Versailles, Missouri.
I, too, suspect that the Rialto’s auditorium was demolished for the highway. In a 1960 image at Historic Aerials it looks like the highway was then under construction. This 1938 aerial is blurry, but it does look as though there is a structure attached to the back of the building.
As I noted in an earlier comment, architect Lewis A. Smith was commissioned to design the Santa Maria Theatre for Sol Lesser’s recently-founded Principal Theatres circuit in early 1927. However, as completed the house was designed by the architectural firm of Balch & Stanbury for the West Coast circuit, in which William Fox had recently gained a controlling interest. A photo of part of the lobby of the Santa Maria Theatre can be seen at upper right on this page of the December 28, 1929, issue of Motion Picture News, which featured a portfolio of Balch & Stanbury’s theater designs.
The August 12, 1927, issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor noted a project in Santa Maria for West Coast Theatres that was to be designed by architect Carl Jules Weyl. As the Santa Maria opened as a West Coast house, it is likely that the chain had taken over Lesser’s project, which was to have been at S. Broadway and Church Street, the location of this house.
I don’t know if anything survived from Smith’s or Weyl’s designs after Balch & Stanbury took over the project. I also don’t know what ended Lewis Smith’s career. It has previously been erroneously reported that he died in 1926, but his page at the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, which once included the error, has since been corrected to say that he died in 1958. From the late 1910s through 1927 Smith was one of the most prolific theater architects in Los Angeles, but he appears to have left the profession suddenly at that time, and I’ve found no evidence that he practiced architecture after 1927. A number of his commissions from 1927 ended up in the hands of Balch & Stanbury, and the Santa Maria Theatre was one of them.