The Hollywood Theatre in Gretna was completely rebuilt in 1933 after the original house was destroyed by a fire. New Orleans architects Favrot & Livaudais designed the new theater, according to the September 23, 1933, issue of Motion Picture Herald.
Some of the news media reporting on the collapse of the Benton Theatre building earlier today might be checking Cinema Treasures for information, as a couple are using the 1931 opening date we give. It’s wrong, though. An advertisement by the Kansas City Real Estate Board in the August 22, 1926, issue of the Kansas City Star touted real property in the city as an investment, and said:
“[t]he Benton Theater building at Benton and Independence Boulevards was built in 1911 by C. O. Jones. Since then it has paid for itself twice over in rental revenue and was sold this year for three times the original cost.”
David and Noelle’s list of known Boller Brothers theater designs does list the Benton Theatre as a 1931 project for the firm, but that had to have been a remodeling job. The house was mentioned several times in the trade publications during the 1910s and 1920s. I haven’t been able to discover the original architect of the Benton Theatre. Noelle Soren’s research was sufficiently thorough that, had the 1911 Benton been designed by Carl Boller, it’s very likely that she would have discovered the fact.
I don’t know when the Benton Theatre became a church, but it will be a church no longer after today. According to this post at northeastnews.net, the building partly collapsed this morning, and what is left will probably be demolished soon. A vacation bible school was in session at the time of the collapse, but all 44 children and 20 staff members escaped the disaster.
A city official said that the structure was not on the city’s dangerous buildings list, as Kansas City lacks the staff for random building inspections, and only investigates the condition of structures if and when complaints are filed.
An illustrated Two page article about the D&R Theatre in Aberdeen appeared in the June 29, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. Plans for the recent remodeling were by architect Bjarne Moe.
The Janes Theatre was designed by its original owner, Fred H. Witters, with some critical structural elements planned by the Saginaw architectural firm of Cowles & Mutscheller. A three-page article about the project, with several photos, appears in the June 29, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald.
Chris: the earlier Adelphi Theatre is listed here as the Clark Theater.
An ad for Pittco Store Fronts (a division of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.) in the June 29, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald featured photos of the Adelphi’s entrance before and after the remodeling designed by Mark D. Kalischer.
After acquiring the house from Smalley’s Theatres in 1934, the Schine circuit had this theater completely remodeled and renamed it the State Theatre. Two photos of the State illustrate this article in the June 1, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. The plans for the project were by architect Peter M. Hulsken.
A three-page article about Detroit’s Tower Theatre appeared in the June 1, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. A scan is available from The Internet Archive.
A photo of the lobby of the Grand Theatre in Terre Haute appears on this page of the May 4, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. The lobby had recently been redesigned in a modern style featuring Carrera Glass, Pittsburgh Glass Company’s competitor to the better-known Vitrolite brand of glass tiles.
The Banner Theatre originally opened around 1910. In 1934 the house was bought by Abe Gumbiner who had it remodeled in a Streamline Modern style, with plans by architect Mark D. Kalischer. Two pages about the project, with before and after photos, appeared in the May 4, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald.
The Alhambra Theatre had been converted into a fruit store before it was reopened as the Harris Family Theatre in the 1930s. The Alhambra is on the left side of Penn Avenue in this 1928 photo. If the building still exists it must be the one occupied by the Rent-A-Center midway between Centre and Sheridan Avenues.
The May 4, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald featured this full page of before and after photos of the Harris Family Theatre. The Art Deco-style renovation was designed for the Harris Amusement Company by architect Victor A. Rigaumont.
The Alhambra Theatre was in operation by 1915, when it was mentioned in the August 4 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The Buflo Theatre was still in operation at least as late as October 8, 1959, when it was showing Face of a Fugitive starring Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Green.
The October 8, 1940, issue of Motion Picture Daily has an item that must be about the Pix Theatre:
“A new 350-seat house is being built at Buffalo, Mo., by Shields Wilson, operator of the Camden at Camdenton, Mo. Buffalo also has the Nu Buflo, operated by C. C. Rhodes of Warsaw, Mo.”
The 1915 ad linked by kencmcintyre says that the Marlowe Hippodrome Theatre was at 63rd Street and Stewart Avenue. The Hippodrome at 63rd and Ashland (or Marshfield) was a different house. I found a 1915 reference to a business at 1621 63rd in the Hippodrome Building, which would put it pretty close to the corner of Marshfield.
The West Englewood/Ogden must have been the proposed theater in this item from The American Contractor of October 4, 1919:
“ $600,000. Marshfield av., S., 6301-11. Brk. Theater: Owners Ascher Bros., Consumers bldg. Mas. Reidenour & Erickson, 535 E. 47th. Archt. H. L. Newhouse.”
6301-11 Marshfield would be at the southeast corner of Marshfield and 63rd. Items in the same journal later that year indicate that contracts had been let and construction was underway before the end of 1919. An item in the August 28, 1920, issue of the Forest Park Review said that Ascher Bros. new Englewood Theatre at 63rd and Marshfield was expected to open by January 1, so by that time the project would have taken more than a year to complete.
I’m not sure if the old Hippodrome was just extensively rebuilt or was demolished for Ascher Bros. West Englewood Theatre. One possibility would be that Ascher Bros. acquired several lots along Marshfield Avenue behind the Hippodrome and built an entirely new auditorium there, cutting a new lobby through the existing building to 63rd Street.
Ascher Bros. had opened the Columbus Theatre on Ashland just off 63rd in 1915, but it was only half the size of the Ogden. Most likely they found business too brisk for the smaller house and built this theater to replace it. The Columbus was closed in 1926.
In 1927, the West Englewood Theatre was one of three south side houses that Ascher Bros. sold to the National Theatres Corporation, according to an item in the March 1 issue of Suburbanite Economist. The others were the Colony, at 50th and Kedzie, and the Highland, at 70th and Ashland.
A biographical sketch of George J. Schade says that “[a]fter leaving the coal business in 1914, Schade opened and managed the Schade Theater, located on West Market St. in Sandusky.” The house most likely opened before the end of 1915. The July 24, 1915, issue of The American Contractor ran this item:
“Sandusky, O.—Motion Picture Theater & Commercial Bldg.: 2 sty. & bas. 44x188. $30M. Archt. H. C. Hunt, 411 Columbus av. Owner Geo. J. Schade, 922 Tiffin st. Gen. contr. let to Geo. Feick & Co., 420 Decatur st.”
Schade operated the theater until 1930, when it was leased to Warner Bros. The site at 207 W. Market Street is now part of a parking lot.
The San Toy Theatre in Reading had an M.P. Möller theater organ, Opus 3087, installed in late 1920. The January 3, 1921, issue of the Reading Times said that the recently-installed organ was attracting many new patrons to the house. The first organist for the San Toy was Harry Baird. In 1927, the instrument was being played by Mabel Stoudt according to the November 10 issue of the Times.
The May-June 2006 issue of a Reading Area Community College publication, the Front Street Journal, had a feature article about Front Street which said that the San Toy Theatre opened in August, 1914, and closed in 1933. The theater was designed in an Oriental style.
An article in the May 2, 1913, issue of the Reading Times said that Frank Hill had opened the Lyric Theatre at 806-810 Penn Street in 1910.
The June 29, 1914, issue of the paper said that the Moller organ just installed in the Lyric would be dedicated on July 4. It was a three manual instrument with 850 pipes, and had taken four weeks to install. It was the same style of organ that had been installed in the Vitagraph and Strand Theatres in New York City and the Stanley Theatre in Philadelphia.
An item about the Times Theatre in the “Theater Changes” section of the April 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily says that the house (under construction at the time) was owned by the Crystal Amusement Company. I’ve found references to the company in trade publications of the 1910s and 1920s, too, and there was a Crystal Theatre operating in Braddock at least as early as 1908, when it was frequently mentioned in The Billboard and Variety. At least as early as 1910, the company also operated a movie house called the Family Theatre.
There were quite a few theaters in Braddock in the 1910s and 1920s. I’ve found references to a house called the American, operating at 1616 Braddock Avenue in 1916, a Knickerbocker Theatre operating in 1917, and theaters called the Braddock, the Grand, and the Colonial operating around 1922-1923, along with the Crystal and Family, both still open at that date.
I haven’t been able to discover a definite address for the Crystal Theatre itself, but the company was located at 860 Braddock Avenue according to an item in The American Contractor of June 17, 1922, and the offices might have been the theater building. Aside from the American, which I found mentioned only once, I have no idea where any of the others were. The 1922 Contractor item was about the contract being let for a new theater at 640-646 Braddock Avenue for the Crystal Amusement Company. If that project was completed it might have been the Braddock, Grand, or Colonial.
The April 3, 1920, issue of The American Contractor had this item about alterations being made to the Colonial Theatre:
“Theater (colonial, alt. & ext.): $150.000. 203 Bleeker St., Utica, N. Y. Archt. E. C. Horn & Son, 1476 Broadway, N. Y. C. Owner Wilmer & Vincent Theater Co., Walter W. Vincent, pres., 1415 Broadway, N. Y. C. Archt. will take bids on gen. contr. Finishing plans.”
E. C. Horn & Sons did quite a bit of work for the Wilmer & Vincent circuit during this period.
The April 3, 1920, issue of The American Contractor said that the contract had been let for the Liberty Theatre:
“Theater: 1 sty. & balcony. 60x120. Cor. 5th av. & 8th St., New Kensington, Pa. Archt. Harry S. Bair, Vandergrift bldg., Pittsburgh. Owner Liberty Theater Co., New Kensington. Gen. contr. let to T. C. Danner, New Kensington.”
A document prepared for the nomination of the New Kensington Downtown Historic District to the NRHP says that the Liberty Theatre opened on May 2, 1921.
The Hollywood Theatre in Gretna was completely rebuilt in 1933 after the original house was destroyed by a fire. New Orleans architects Favrot & Livaudais designed the new theater, according to the September 23, 1933, issue of Motion Picture Herald.
Some of the news media reporting on the collapse of the Benton Theatre building earlier today might be checking Cinema Treasures for information, as a couple are using the 1931 opening date we give. It’s wrong, though. An advertisement by the Kansas City Real Estate Board in the August 22, 1926, issue of the Kansas City Star touted real property in the city as an investment, and said:
David and Noelle’s list of known Boller Brothers theater designs does list the Benton Theatre as a 1931 project for the firm, but that had to have been a remodeling job. The house was mentioned several times in the trade publications during the 1910s and 1920s. I haven’t been able to discover the original architect of the Benton Theatre. Noelle Soren’s research was sufficiently thorough that, had the 1911 Benton been designed by Carl Boller, it’s very likely that she would have discovered the fact.I don’t know when the Benton Theatre became a church, but it will be a church no longer after today. According to this post at northeastnews.net, the building partly collapsed this morning, and what is left will probably be demolished soon. A vacation bible school was in session at the time of the collapse, but all 44 children and 20 staff members escaped the disaster.
A city official said that the structure was not on the city’s dangerous buildings list, as Kansas City lacks the staff for random building inspections, and only investigates the condition of structures if and when complaints are filed.
An illustrated Two page article about the D&R Theatre in Aberdeen appeared in the June 29, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. Plans for the recent remodeling were by architect Bjarne Moe.
The Janes Theatre was designed by its original owner, Fred H. Witters, with some critical structural elements planned by the Saginaw architectural firm of Cowles & Mutscheller. A three-page article about the project, with several photos, appears in the June 29, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald.
Chris: the earlier Adelphi Theatre is listed here as the Clark Theater.
An ad for Pittco Store Fronts (a division of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.) in the June 29, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald featured photos of the Adelphi’s entrance before and after the remodeling designed by Mark D. Kalischer.
After acquiring the house from Smalley’s Theatres in 1934, the Schine circuit had this theater completely remodeled and renamed it the State Theatre. Two photos of the State illustrate this article in the June 1, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. The plans for the project were by architect Peter M. Hulsken.
Three photos of the Trans-Lux Theatre illustrate this article in the June 1, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald.
A three-page article about Detroit’s Tower Theatre appeared in the June 1, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. A scan is available from The Internet Archive.
A photo of the lobby of the Grand Theatre in Terre Haute appears on this page of the May 4, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. The lobby had recently been redesigned in a modern style featuring Carrera Glass, Pittsburgh Glass Company’s competitor to the better-known Vitrolite brand of glass tiles.
The Banner Theatre originally opened around 1910. In 1934 the house was bought by Abe Gumbiner who had it remodeled in a Streamline Modern style, with plans by architect Mark D. Kalischer. Two pages about the project, with before and after photos, appeared in the May 4, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald.
The Alhambra Theatre had been converted into a fruit store before it was reopened as the Harris Family Theatre in the 1930s. The Alhambra is on the left side of Penn Avenue in this 1928 photo. If the building still exists it must be the one occupied by the Rent-A-Center midway between Centre and Sheridan Avenues.
The May 4, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald featured this full page of before and after photos of the Harris Family Theatre. The Art Deco-style renovation was designed for the Harris Amusement Company by architect Victor A. Rigaumont.
The Alhambra Theatre was in operation by 1915, when it was mentioned in the August 4 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The Buflo Theatre was still in operation at least as late as October 8, 1959, when it was showing Face of a Fugitive starring Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Green.
The October 8, 1940, issue of Motion Picture Daily has an item that must be about the Pix Theatre:
Internet says the County Courier News is at 206 W. Main Street.
The 1915 ad linked by kencmcintyre says that the Marlowe Hippodrome Theatre was at 63rd Street and Stewart Avenue. The Hippodrome at 63rd and Ashland (or Marshfield) was a different house. I found a 1915 reference to a business at 1621 63rd in the Hippodrome Building, which would put it pretty close to the corner of Marshfield.
The West Englewood/Ogden must have been the proposed theater in this item from The American Contractor of October 4, 1919:
6301-11 Marshfield would be at the southeast corner of Marshfield and 63rd. Items in the same journal later that year indicate that contracts had been let and construction was underway before the end of 1919. An item in the August 28, 1920, issue of the Forest Park Review said that Ascher Bros. new Englewood Theatre at 63rd and Marshfield was expected to open by January 1, so by that time the project would have taken more than a year to complete.I’m not sure if the old Hippodrome was just extensively rebuilt or was demolished for Ascher Bros. West Englewood Theatre. One possibility would be that Ascher Bros. acquired several lots along Marshfield Avenue behind the Hippodrome and built an entirely new auditorium there, cutting a new lobby through the existing building to 63rd Street.
Ascher Bros. had opened the Columbus Theatre on Ashland just off 63rd in 1915, but it was only half the size of the Ogden. Most likely they found business too brisk for the smaller house and built this theater to replace it. The Columbus was closed in 1926.
In 1927, the West Englewood Theatre was one of three south side houses that Ascher Bros. sold to the National Theatres Corporation, according to an item in the March 1 issue of Suburbanite Economist. The others were the Colony, at 50th and Kedzie, and the Highland, at 70th and Ashland.
Thomas Lamb was the architect of the Youngstown Palace.
A biographical sketch of George J. Schade says that “[a]fter leaving the coal business in 1914, Schade opened and managed the Schade Theater, located on West Market St. in Sandusky.” The house most likely opened before the end of 1915. The July 24, 1915, issue of The American Contractor ran this item:
Schade operated the theater until 1930, when it was leased to Warner Bros. The site at 207 W. Market Street is now part of a parking lot.The 1912 photo currently displayed above probably belongs to this theater.
The San Toy Theatre in Reading had an M.P. Möller theater organ, Opus 3087, installed in late 1920. The January 3, 1921, issue of the Reading Times said that the recently-installed organ was attracting many new patrons to the house. The first organist for the San Toy was Harry Baird. In 1927, the instrument was being played by Mabel Stoudt according to the November 10 issue of the Times.
The May-June 2006 issue of a Reading Area Community College publication, the Front Street Journal, had a feature article about Front Street which said that the San Toy Theatre opened in August, 1914, and closed in 1933. The theater was designed in an Oriental style.
An article in the May 2, 1913, issue of the Reading Times said that Frank Hill had opened the Lyric Theatre at 806-810 Penn Street in 1910.
The June 29, 1914, issue of the paper said that the Moller organ just installed in the Lyric would be dedicated on July 4. It was a three manual instrument with 850 pipes, and had taken four weeks to install. It was the same style of organ that had been installed in the Vitagraph and Strand Theatres in New York City and the Stanley Theatre in Philadelphia.
An item about the Times Theatre in the “Theater Changes” section of the April 9, 1938, issue of The Film Daily says that the house (under construction at the time) was owned by the Crystal Amusement Company. I’ve found references to the company in trade publications of the 1910s and 1920s, too, and there was a Crystal Theatre operating in Braddock at least as early as 1908, when it was frequently mentioned in The Billboard and Variety. At least as early as 1910, the company also operated a movie house called the Family Theatre.
There were quite a few theaters in Braddock in the 1910s and 1920s. I’ve found references to a house called the American, operating at 1616 Braddock Avenue in 1916, a Knickerbocker Theatre operating in 1917, and theaters called the Braddock, the Grand, and the Colonial operating around 1922-1923, along with the Crystal and Family, both still open at that date.
I haven’t been able to discover a definite address for the Crystal Theatre itself, but the company was located at 860 Braddock Avenue according to an item in The American Contractor of June 17, 1922, and the offices might have been the theater building. Aside from the American, which I found mentioned only once, I have no idea where any of the others were. The 1922 Contractor item was about the contract being let for a new theater at 640-646 Braddock Avenue for the Crystal Amusement Company. If that project was completed it might have been the Braddock, Grand, or Colonial.
The 1963 photo of the Belmar Theatre’s marquee can now be seen at this link.
The April 3, 1920, issue of The American Contractor had this item about alterations being made to the Colonial Theatre:
E. C. Horn & Sons did quite a bit of work for the Wilmer & Vincent circuit during this period.The April 3, 1920, issue of The American Contractor said that the contract had been let for the Liberty Theatre:
A document prepared for the nomination of the New Kensington Downtown Historic District to the NRHP says that the Liberty Theatre opened on May 2, 1921.