MOVIE ROBBED OF $2,375; Queens Theatre Official Bound by 3 After Income Tax Ruse
Three hold-up men, two of them brandishing pistols, took $2,375 from Loew’s Valencia Theatre in Jamaica. Queens, yesterday and left the assistant manager, Henry Shamp of 212-08 Seventy-fifth Street, Bayside, Queens, tied up with twine on the floor of his office.
The NYT had the theater in the wrong borough in this July 1951 article:
2 BANDITS ROB THEATRE; Brooklyn Telegraph Office Also Held Up by Lone Raider
Two armed men held up the manager of the Palestine Theatre, 11 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, yesterday afternoon, bound and gagged him and got $377 from the office safe.
I was close to six feet tall when I was 14. While waiting for my grandmother’s bus to arrive at the station in Philly one day, I paid a dollar and saw a couple of adult films at a grind house on Market Street. Not parentally approved activity.
A would-be bandit’s flesh was willing last night but his spirit quailed before an unrelenting cashier at the Tivoli Theatre, Eighth Avenue and Fiftieth Street. He told his intended victim before he fled: “If you’ll forget about this, I will.”
This is an April 1951 photo of a St. Louis theater from Life Magazine. The theater is unidentified, but the marquee matches the photos of the Fox as seen above. http://tinyurl.com/5c9jwe
Here is part of an article from the Hartford Courant dated 9/12/64:
Theater Demolition Resumes After Collapse into Store
NEW BRITAIN (Special) — The job of removing huge wooden trusses 70 feet above the stage of the Embassy Theater while avoiding any further collapse of the weakened walls got under way at about 6 p.m. Friday.
This is part of a story from the LA Times, dated 9/8/43;
GENTLEMEN BANDITS GET $2100 IN THEATER HOLD-UP
Two gentlemanly bandits, who shook hands with their victim after robbing him of $2100, last night held up the Los Angeles Theater, 615 S. Broadway.
Two holdup men accosted manager Edward Clark as he was entering his office and while one simulated a gun in his pocket followed Clark into the room. There they forced him to open the safe and withdraw a cash box, from which they scooped $600 in silver and $1500 in bills.
Another envelope containing $1200 earmarked for returning war veterans was taken by the bandits and then returned. They shook hands with Clark, and left.
Two San Quentin escapees were sought by police yesterday in connection with two daylight hold-ups within a couple of hours, which involved an estimated $5,000 cash loot.
The pair have been identified sa the ones who held up the Ravenna Theater at 233 N. Vermont Ave. Tuesday evening and escaped with $130 after threatening with a shotgun John Bish, assistant manager, and Frances Lavelle, cashier.
George Rae, 38, was held in City Jail yesterday on a charge that he robbed the Warners Downtown Theater, where he once was employed as s doorman. He was surprised by police as he tried to flee with approximately $60 in cash.
Rae was caught walking out of the theater shortly after he pointed a gun at Lou Schirmeister, 45, theater manager, and demanded some money. Schirmeister noticed the man loitering in the lobby and tipped off an usher to notify police.
This sounds like a bad B-movie script, but it’s a real story in the LA Times, dated July 2, 1952. I’ve condensed it somewhat.
Minutes after a red-haired girl robbed a Grauman’s Chinese Theater cashier of $55.91 last night, she was arrested a mile away and confessed, police say. “You can’t live on love alone”, police say she explained.
The say she confessed not only to the theater hold-up but also to the hold-up last Friday of a candy store on Wilshire Boulevard, netting $6, and to the attempted hold-up of another candy store two blocks from the theater yesterday afternoon.
The girl’s sweetheart, a 20 year-old Frenchman, here on a visitor’s visa, was arrested about the same time she was arrested but half a mile away. Each was booked on suspicion of robbery.
The girl talked freely, saying romance between the two blossomed when she was a salesclerk and he a stock boy and elevator operator in a downtown department store. Both left their jobs about two weeks ago.
At the theater, the girl walked up to the cashier, handed her a paper bag and said, “Put all the money in the bag. There’s a man down the street with a gun, making me do this.” When the cashier tried to temporize, the redhead became excited and snapped,“Don’t pick up the phone or call police. Put the money in the bag.”
She was arrested by cruising police who saw her walking on Hollywood Boulevard. She was still carrying the paper bag containing the money. Police quoted her as saying, “I was hungry. I have been days without food or a place to go. I decided I would pull the robberies to try to get some money for a place to sleep and something to eat.”
There’s only one theater listed in Ventnor, but I saw a few movies in the late seventies at a shopping mall twin cinema there. If you took the Black Horse Pike and turned right before crossing the bridge, just after the Two Guys store, there was a shopping center about two miles down the road. I think there was a Jamesway there. I saw Airplane, Oh God, and maybe three other films there. No idea if the movie theaters are still there.
Here is a part of a 9/21/05 article from the Arlington Daily Herald:
The Lake in the Hills multiplex on Randall Road will soon get a new landlord, but even the most die-hard movie fans will be hard- pressed to see the difference. Kerasotes ShowPlace Theaters, the eighth-largest theater company in the country, is selling 17 of its theaters throughout Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Missouri to a California trust.
The 12-screen Lake in the Hills theater, 311 N. Randall Road, is the only one in the Chicago area to be sold.
Tony Kerasotes, chief executive officer of the family-owned business, said the company is basically refinancing its properties by selling them to Realty Income Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Escondido, Calif., under a 20-year lease agreement. Kerasotes will lease back the theaters.
“The public will not know the difference,” he said.
The $200 million deal is expected to close by the end of the month.
Here is part of an August 2007 article from the News Herald:
About 60 people listened to an auctioneer sell the Port Theatre in Port St. Joe earlier this month. It was the final curtain for the historic building until its next reincarnation, but no one is saying what production that might be.
Apalachicola businessman Harry Arnold purchased the theater for $505,000 after a back-and-forth bidding spree against one other bidder. Port St. Joe businessman David Warriner was believed to be the other bidder. The structure has stood at 314 Reid Ave. in downtown Port St. Joe for 69 years, a literal shell of its former self for decades.
Although the theater fronts Reid Avenue, the manager’s apartment on the second floor of the building looks out over U.S. 98 and St. Joseph Bay. Wade and Paula Clark purchased the old building in 1995, holding auctions in the space for 11 years until they closed the doors in January and moved to Tennessee.
Built of brick and steel in 1938, the art deco-style theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 2003. The theater’s new owner would not comment after the auction as to what might be in store for the historic building.
Here is part of a March 27, 2008 article from the Lincoln Journal Star:
The name Douglas Theatres has been synonymous with movies in Lincoln for more than 50 years. But that’s going to change next month.
Marcus Corp. of Milwaukee announced Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire most of Douglas' assets for $40.5 million. The sale is expected to close next month.
The sale includes the Grand, East Park, Edgewood and SouthPointe theaters in Lincoln as well as the Omaha theaters 20 Grand and Village Pointe and the Twin Creek theaters in Bellevue. The seven theaters have 83 screens combined. Douglas has about 500 full- and part-time employees.
Here is part of a December 1992 article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The scheduled coming feature attraction at the condemned Granada Theater building this week might be called “Coming Down.” That’s because Don Bellon, owner of Bellon Wrecking and Salvage Co., which has the contract to raze the long-vacant building at 4519 Gravois Avenue, said last week that demolition of the landmark could begin as early as this week. By mid-week, workers were removing the building’s ornate trim.
Bellon was issued a permit late last week to raze the theater building. He also has clearance from the air pollution control office of the city’s building division. That permit was needed because of asbestos in the building.
The building’s owner, Mark Wenner, a lawyer who lives in Ladue, is to appear today before City Judge Christopher Smith to report on the progress of razing the building, which was condemned in November 1991. Last September, Smith found Wenner guilty of eight of 13 violations cited in the condemnation order.
Alderman Jack Garvey, D-14th Ward, who has criticized the condition of the building, said, “It’s sad. There is a lot of memories and history there. But when you neglect a building like that, and it threatens safety, then you have to take it down. Buildings with a 15-foot hole in the roof are a problem.”
Here is part of an 8/19/99 article from the Detroit News:
INKSTER — Demolition crews tore down the triple-X Melody Theater Wednesday to the honking of horns and cheers and applause of several dozen residents and officials.
The adult theater — which police raided numerous times to arrest customers on indecency charges — was an embarrassment to residents and a headache for elected officials since its most recent owners took over in 1977. Signs outside the Michigan Avenue theater advertised 25-cent peep booths.
Here is part of an 11/4/99 article from the South Bend Tribune:
One of North Judson’s most identifiable landmarks met the wrecking ball Wednesday, as the historic Gayble Theatre on Lane Street was bulldozed to the ground. The theater, with its unique gothic facade, was one of the first movie theaters to have “refrigerated air,” the forerunner to air conditioning.
The theater was operated until the late 1970s by John Woytinek, but it had not been in use recently. In the ‘30s and '40s, the theater often showed double features on the weekend. For example, a two-week August run in the '30s included Edward G. Robinson in “The Amazing Dr. Clutterhouse,” and teen-ager Jackie Cooper and Maureen O'Connor in “Boy of the Streets.” Another twin bill was Joe Penner in “Go Chase Yourself” and George O'Brien in the western feature “Border G-Man.” The building was badly deteriorated and needed to be razed. Plans for the site are up in the air.
Here is part of a Chicago Tribune article from November 2004:
Having declared the fire-ravaged Fiesta Palace structurally unsound, Waukegan is demolishing the former theater, with plans to save a few historical artifacts, officials said. Preservationists had asked city officials to consider salvaging the building’s red brick facade, but the city moved quickly to clear the site after the fire Oct. 27.
The building at 202 N. Genesee St., across from the newly renovated Genesee Theatre, opened in 1916 as Academy Theatre. It was converted into Fiesta Palace, a dance hall, and had been closed for two years, officials said. The city bought the building for $850,000 last year with hopes of renovating it.
Margaret Martin, a board member of the Waukegan Historical Society, said she was disappointed the city didn’t work harder to save the building. “I understand the safety concerns created by a fire-damaged building, but I’m dismayed at the rush to demolish such an important part of Waukegan’s past and future,” Martin said.
This is part of a January 19, 1936 LA Times article. The theater is unidentified, but the reasonable assumption is that it’s the Brawley.
STOLEN CAR USED IN RAID ON THEATER
The Ford coupe stolen on Thursday by two roughly dressed men who kidnaped Carl Gelvin from the rear of his home and left him tied to a fence post in a lonely spot between Castaic and Peru, was used Friday night in a theater hold-up in Brawley, the Sheriff’s office was advised last night.
Two men held up the theater at the point of revolvers and escaped with an undetermined amount of money in the coupe. The car was later seen in Holtville and Imperial.
From the NYT, dated 5/5/53:
MOVIE ROBBED OF $2,375; Queens Theatre Official Bound by 3 After Income Tax Ruse
Three hold-up men, two of them brandishing pistols, took $2,375 from Loew’s Valencia Theatre in Jamaica. Queens, yesterday and left the assistant manager, Henry Shamp of 212-08 Seventy-fifth Street, Bayside, Queens, tied up with twine on the floor of his office.
The NYT had the theater in the wrong borough in this July 1951 article:
2 BANDITS ROB THEATRE; Brooklyn Telegraph Office Also Held Up by Lone Raider
Two armed men held up the manager of the Palestine Theatre, 11 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, yesterday afternoon, bound and gagged him and got $377 from the office safe.
I was close to six feet tall when I was 14. While waiting for my grandmother’s bus to arrive at the station in Philly one day, I paid a dollar and saw a couple of adult films at a grind house on Market Street. Not parentally approved activity.
Weak-kneed thief, from the NYT on 9/3/59:
Hold-Up Try Is Foiled By Unyielding Cashier
A would-be bandit’s flesh was willing last night but his spirit quailed before an unrelenting cashier at the Tivoli Theatre, Eighth Avenue and Fiftieth Street. He told his intended victim before he fled: “If you’ll forget about this, I will.”
I don’t think it was summer vacation. They look kind of cold.
Here is a March 1950 photo from Life, again at the Academy Awards:
http://tinyurl.com/6g3jtz
This is an April 1951 photo of a St. Louis theater from Life Magazine. The theater is unidentified, but the marquee matches the photos of the Fox as seen above.
http://tinyurl.com/5c9jwe
Here is an April 1953 Life Magazine photo of Gene Mori, then owner of the Landis:
http://tinyurl.com/6b7aoy
Here is a 1942 Life photo. The lights were dimmed to save energy during the war:
http://tinyurl.com/57uzn8
Here is part of an article from the Hartford Courant dated 9/12/64:
Theater Demolition Resumes After Collapse into Store
NEW BRITAIN (Special) — The job of removing huge wooden trusses 70 feet above the stage of the Embassy Theater while avoiding any further collapse of the weakened walls got under way at about 6 p.m. Friday.
This is part of a story from the LA Times, dated 9/8/43;
GENTLEMEN BANDITS GET $2100 IN THEATER HOLD-UP
Two gentlemanly bandits, who shook hands with their victim after robbing him of $2100, last night held up the Los Angeles Theater, 615 S. Broadway.
Two holdup men accosted manager Edward Clark as he was entering his office and while one simulated a gun in his pocket followed Clark into the room. There they forced him to open the safe and withdraw a cash box, from which they scooped $600 in silver and $1500 in bills.
Another envelope containing $1200 earmarked for returning war veterans was taken by the bandits and then returned. They shook hands with Clark, and left.
Here is part of an LA Times story dated 9/20/51:
Two San Quentin escapees were sought by police yesterday in connection with two daylight hold-ups within a couple of hours, which involved an estimated $5,000 cash loot.
The pair have been identified sa the ones who held up the Ravenna Theater at 233 N. Vermont Ave. Tuesday evening and escaped with $130 after threatening with a shotgun John Bish, assistant manager, and Frances Lavelle, cashier.
Here is part of a 4/10/54 story in the LA Times:
FORMER DOORMAN ARRESTED AFTER THEATER HOLD-UP
George Rae, 38, was held in City Jail yesterday on a charge that he robbed the Warners Downtown Theater, where he once was employed as s doorman. He was surprised by police as he tried to flee with approximately $60 in cash.
Rae was caught walking out of the theater shortly after he pointed a gun at Lou Schirmeister, 45, theater manager, and demanded some money. Schirmeister noticed the man loitering in the lobby and tipped off an usher to notify police.
This sounds like a bad B-movie script, but it’s a real story in the LA Times, dated July 2, 1952. I’ve condensed it somewhat.
Minutes after a red-haired girl robbed a Grauman’s Chinese Theater cashier of $55.91 last night, she was arrested a mile away and confessed, police say. “You can’t live on love alone”, police say she explained.
The say she confessed not only to the theater hold-up but also to the hold-up last Friday of a candy store on Wilshire Boulevard, netting $6, and to the attempted hold-up of another candy store two blocks from the theater yesterday afternoon.
The girl’s sweetheart, a 20 year-old Frenchman, here on a visitor’s visa, was arrested about the same time she was arrested but half a mile away. Each was booked on suspicion of robbery.
The girl talked freely, saying romance between the two blossomed when she was a salesclerk and he a stock boy and elevator operator in a downtown department store. Both left their jobs about two weeks ago.
At the theater, the girl walked up to the cashier, handed her a paper bag and said, “Put all the money in the bag. There’s a man down the street with a gun, making me do this.” When the cashier tried to temporize, the redhead became excited and snapped,“Don’t pick up the phone or call police. Put the money in the bag.”
She was arrested by cruising police who saw her walking on Hollywood Boulevard. She was still carrying the paper bag containing the money. Police quoted her as saying, “I was hungry. I have been days without food or a place to go. I decided I would pull the robberies to try to get some money for a place to sleep and something to eat.”
Here is an October 1953 photo from Life Magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/5cbpmg
There’s only one theater listed in Ventnor, but I saw a few movies in the late seventies at a shopping mall twin cinema there. If you took the Black Horse Pike and turned right before crossing the bridge, just after the Two Guys store, there was a shopping center about two miles down the road. I think there was a Jamesway there. I saw Airplane, Oh God, and maybe three other films there. No idea if the movie theaters are still there.
Here is a part of a 9/21/05 article from the Arlington Daily Herald:
The Lake in the Hills multiplex on Randall Road will soon get a new landlord, but even the most die-hard movie fans will be hard- pressed to see the difference. Kerasotes ShowPlace Theaters, the eighth-largest theater company in the country, is selling 17 of its theaters throughout Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Missouri to a California trust.
The 12-screen Lake in the Hills theater, 311 N. Randall Road, is the only one in the Chicago area to be sold.
Tony Kerasotes, chief executive officer of the family-owned business, said the company is basically refinancing its properties by selling them to Realty Income Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Escondido, Calif., under a 20-year lease agreement. Kerasotes will lease back the theaters.
“The public will not know the difference,” he said.
The $200 million deal is expected to close by the end of the month.
Here is part of an August 2007 article from the News Herald:
About 60 people listened to an auctioneer sell the Port Theatre in Port St. Joe earlier this month. It was the final curtain for the historic building until its next reincarnation, but no one is saying what production that might be.
Apalachicola businessman Harry Arnold purchased the theater for $505,000 after a back-and-forth bidding spree against one other bidder. Port St. Joe businessman David Warriner was believed to be the other bidder. The structure has stood at 314 Reid Ave. in downtown Port St. Joe for 69 years, a literal shell of its former self for decades.
Although the theater fronts Reid Avenue, the manager’s apartment on the second floor of the building looks out over U.S. 98 and St. Joseph Bay. Wade and Paula Clark purchased the old building in 1995, holding auctions in the space for 11 years until they closed the doors in January and moved to Tennessee.
Built of brick and steel in 1938, the art deco-style theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 2003. The theater’s new owner would not comment after the auction as to what might be in store for the historic building.
Here is part of a March 27, 2008 article from the Lincoln Journal Star:
The name Douglas Theatres has been synonymous with movies in Lincoln for more than 50 years. But that’s going to change next month.
Marcus Corp. of Milwaukee announced Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire most of Douglas' assets for $40.5 million. The sale is expected to close next month.
The sale includes the Grand, East Park, Edgewood and SouthPointe theaters in Lincoln as well as the Omaha theaters 20 Grand and Village Pointe and the Twin Creek theaters in Bellevue. The seven theaters have 83 screens combined. Douglas has about 500 full- and part-time employees.
Here is part of a December 1992 article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The scheduled coming feature attraction at the condemned Granada Theater building this week might be called “Coming Down.” That’s because Don Bellon, owner of Bellon Wrecking and Salvage Co., which has the contract to raze the long-vacant building at 4519 Gravois Avenue, said last week that demolition of the landmark could begin as early as this week. By mid-week, workers were removing the building’s ornate trim.
Bellon was issued a permit late last week to raze the theater building. He also has clearance from the air pollution control office of the city’s building division. That permit was needed because of asbestos in the building.
The building’s owner, Mark Wenner, a lawyer who lives in Ladue, is to appear today before City Judge Christopher Smith to report on the progress of razing the building, which was condemned in November 1991. Last September, Smith found Wenner guilty of eight of 13 violations cited in the condemnation order.
Alderman Jack Garvey, D-14th Ward, who has criticized the condition of the building, said, “It’s sad. There is a lot of memories and history there. But when you neglect a building like that, and it threatens safety, then you have to take it down. Buildings with a 15-foot hole in the roof are a problem.”
Here is part of an 8/19/99 article from the Detroit News:
INKSTER — Demolition crews tore down the triple-X Melody Theater Wednesday to the honking of horns and cheers and applause of several dozen residents and officials.
The adult theater — which police raided numerous times to arrest customers on indecency charges — was an embarrassment to residents and a headache for elected officials since its most recent owners took over in 1977. Signs outside the Michigan Avenue theater advertised 25-cent peep booths.
Here is part of an 11/4/99 article from the South Bend Tribune:
One of North Judson’s most identifiable landmarks met the wrecking ball Wednesday, as the historic Gayble Theatre on Lane Street was bulldozed to the ground. The theater, with its unique gothic facade, was one of the first movie theaters to have “refrigerated air,” the forerunner to air conditioning.
The theater was operated until the late 1970s by John Woytinek, but it had not been in use recently. In the ‘30s and '40s, the theater often showed double features on the weekend. For example, a two-week August run in the '30s included Edward G. Robinson in “The Amazing Dr. Clutterhouse,” and teen-ager Jackie Cooper and Maureen O'Connor in “Boy of the Streets.” Another twin bill was Joe Penner in “Go Chase Yourself” and George O'Brien in the western feature “Border G-Man.” The building was badly deteriorated and needed to be razed. Plans for the site are up in the air.
Here is part of a Chicago Tribune article from November 2004:
Having declared the fire-ravaged Fiesta Palace structurally unsound, Waukegan is demolishing the former theater, with plans to save a few historical artifacts, officials said. Preservationists had asked city officials to consider salvaging the building’s red brick facade, but the city moved quickly to clear the site after the fire Oct. 27.
The building at 202 N. Genesee St., across from the newly renovated Genesee Theatre, opened in 1916 as Academy Theatre. It was converted into Fiesta Palace, a dance hall, and had been closed for two years, officials said. The city bought the building for $850,000 last year with hopes of renovating it.
Margaret Martin, a board member of the Waukegan Historical Society, said she was disappointed the city didn’t work harder to save the building. “I understand the safety concerns created by a fire-damaged building, but I’m dismayed at the rush to demolish such an important part of Waukegan’s past and future,” Martin said.
There’s a Proquest option on the LAPL database, but it looks like it only goes back about ten years.
This is part of a January 19, 1936 LA Times article. The theater is unidentified, but the reasonable assumption is that it’s the Brawley.
STOLEN CAR USED IN RAID ON THEATER
The Ford coupe stolen on Thursday by two roughly dressed men who kidnaped Carl Gelvin from the rear of his home and left him tied to a fence post in a lonely spot between Castaic and Peru, was used Friday night in a theater hold-up in Brawley, the Sheriff’s office was advised last night.
Two men held up the theater at the point of revolvers and escaped with an undetermined amount of money in the coupe. The car was later seen in Holtville and Imperial.