The January 4, 1941, issue of Showman’s Trade Review reported that James and Peter Bikos, operators of the Roxy Theatre, were contemplating a new theater to be built at Broadway and 39th Avenue. I don’t believe the project was carried out, but later that year V. U. Young began construction on the Ridge Theatre, located around the corner from the Roxy.
Additional research has revealed that James and Peter Bikos were cousins, not brothers, but Peter Bikos' brothers Dan and Nick also operated theaters in Gary.
The Roosevelt Theatre was operated by the Nick Bikos Theatre Company. Nick Bikos was involved in movie exhibition it Gary at least as early as 1919 and was operating the Roosevelt at least as early as 1932.
The Tolleston Theatre was one of several Gary houses operated by the Nick Bikos Theatre Company. Other houses in the local chain included the Roosevelt, Indiana, and Fifth Avenue Theatres.
Historic Evansville says that Marble Hall was built in the early 1850s, and before it became the Ohio Theatre it had also operated as a movie house called the Riverside Theatorium. This house was mentioned in the January 14, 1911, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The Riverside Theatorium, although a small house, is known as the house with the ‘Mirror Screen’ and is running first-class independent films. Mr. W. Huddy, the proprietor of the Theatorium, has started to renovate his house, and his plans are to follow the advice of our Construction Page by using somber colors. Mr. Huddy hopes to secure a lease on the next building and, if successful, he will double his seating capacity”
The house was also mentioned in the March 8, 1910, issue of the Goshen Democrat:
“PREVENT PANIC AT THEATER
“Doorkeepers Pacify Crowd When Department Answers False Alarm.
“Evansville, Ind., March 4—Cool headedness on the part of the doorkeepers prevented a panic in the Riverside Theatorium when the fire department was summoned on a false alarm that the picture machine in the Theatorium had exploded. One hundred persons were in the Theatorium at the time.”
The Historic Evansville page indicates that the Riverside Theatorium was operating in 1909, and that Marble Hall was remodeled into a theater in 1912. I would imagine that the Theatorium originally operated in the original hall, which was most likely upstairs, and that the 1912 remodeling moved it to the ground floor.
The page credits Manson Gilbert as the architect. I don’t think that F. Manson Gilbert was around when the building was built in the 1850s, so he must have been the one who designed the 1912 remodeling. This might also have been when the building lost the third floor that is seen in the earlier photos of it.
The May 17, 1919, issue of Electrical Review said that the New Majestic Theatre in Evansville was to undergo a remodeling that would cost between $50,000 and $75,000. The Evansville architectural firm Harry E. Boyle & Co. was providing the plans.
I noticed a “Contact” link at the bottom of each page of the IHS web site, but my e-mail isn’t working right now and won’t be until I get a new computer set up, so I can’t contact them. Even if I could, I’m not sure they’d fix errors. I contacted the Los Angeles Public Library about several errors in their photo collection several years ago, and the errors are still there.
More institutions should have Flickr accounts like the Library of Congress does. The LOC has gotten a lot of useful information from people posting comments on their photos at Flickr.
David you’re right. I hadn’t noticed the back of that building, which does look like an old stage house. Its modern address is 1116 Prospect, though. If that’s the Sanders Theatre building, the lots on the block must have been renumbered since the old directories were published.
DavidAE: For those who don’t know HTML, Cinema Treasures now supports Markdown Code, for which you need only square brackets and parentheses to embed a link in your text. Scroll down to the LINKS section of the page to see the example code. All you will need at Cinema Treasures are inline-style links, so all you have to do is put the text you want to become the link in square brackets, and then paste your copied URL between parentheses immediately following the closing bracket.
Here is the Markdown code output for the three links you posted:
Lost Memory’s photo link has gone missing, but I think this is probably the same photo. The description with the photo mistakenly gives the location and history of the other Strand Theatre (the Capitol Theatre,) but the photo has to depict this house at 1330 E. Washington. The Capitol Theatre building was very different.
It looks to me like the entrance to the Fountain Square Theatre is at 1111 Prospect Street, not 1105 Shelby Street. The latter appears to be the address of the attached office building.
Here is the official web site. It says “[c]losed and gutted in the late 1950’s the former theatre space housed a Woolworth five and dime store, then years later a thrift shop.” The current interior is more a reinterpretation than a restoration, although the page also says that some original architectural features remain intact on the mezzanine level. The photo gallery includes one shot of the original interior, and it was quite different from what is there now.
The photo we are currently displaying depicts the Fountain Square Theatre at 1105 Prospect Street. The Sanders Theatre must have been across the street. On its site (1106-1110 Prospect) there is an old-looking brick commercial building that has “2001 A.D.” carved in its parapet, so the theater might have been demolished, unless the date denotes an extensive renovation of the building.
Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory lists the Sanders Theatre at 1106-08 Prospect Street. The 1916 directory lists it as the Quality Theater, Fred W. Sanders, Proprietor.
In 1916, The Indianapolis Star was listing two houses called the Palms Theatre. In addition to the one on North Illinois Street there was one at 30th Street and Highland Place.
The Gayety was one of six theaters operating in Indianapolis according to Hyman’s Handbook of Indianapolis, published in 1907. The Gayety was one of the town’s two burlesque houses.
I see a building at 2530 (bicycle shop) and a building at 2544-46, but there’s a parking lot in between them. Unless the addresses have been shifted, the Daisy Theatre has been demolished.
The Daisy Theatre was listed in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
Polk’s 1919 and 1922 Indianapolis City Directories list the Emerald Theatre at 441-43 Blake Street. Most of Blake Street has been swallowed up by the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University-Perdue University. The Emerald Theatre was advertised as being at Blake and W. Washington Streets in issues of The Indianapolis Star in 1915.
Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory lists the Crystal Theatre at 119-21 N. Illinois Avenue. The theater might have moved to a new building at some point, unless the lots were renumbered or there was an error in the directory.
I should have noted in my previous comment that the Ridge Theatre and was renamed the Glen Theatre in 1968.
The January 4, 1941, issue of Showman’s Trade Review reported that James and Peter Bikos, operators of the Roxy Theatre, were contemplating a new theater to be built at Broadway and 39th Avenue. I don’t believe the project was carried out, but later that year V. U. Young began construction on the Ridge Theatre, located around the corner from the Roxy.
Additional research has revealed that James and Peter Bikos were cousins, not brothers, but Peter Bikos' brothers Dan and Nick also operated theaters in Gary.
The Roosevelt Theatre was operated by the Nick Bikos Theatre Company. Nick Bikos was involved in movie exhibition it Gary at least as early as 1919 and was operating the Roosevelt at least as early as 1932.
The correct spelling of the theater’s name is Tolleston, which is the district of Gary in which it was located.
The Tolleston Theatre was one of several Gary houses operated by the Nick Bikos Theatre Company. Other houses in the local chain included the Roosevelt, Indiana, and Fifth Avenue Theatres.
The February 18, 1956, issue of Boxoffice said that the Roxy Theatre was being converted into retail space.
The Roxy was one of several Gary theaters operated by the Bikos brothers.
Historic Evansville says that Marble Hall was built in the early 1850s, and before it became the Ohio Theatre it had also operated as a movie house called the Riverside Theatorium. This house was mentioned in the January 14, 1911, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The house was also mentioned in the March 8, 1910, issue of the Goshen Democrat:The Historic Evansville page indicates that the Riverside Theatorium was operating in 1909, and that Marble Hall was remodeled into a theater in 1912. I would imagine that the Theatorium originally operated in the original hall, which was most likely upstairs, and that the 1912 remodeling moved it to the ground floor.The page credits Manson Gilbert as the architect. I don’t think that F. Manson Gilbert was around when the building was built in the 1850s, so he must have been the one who designed the 1912 remodeling. This might also have been when the building lost the third floor that is seen in the earlier photos of it.
The May 17, 1919, issue of Electrical Review said that the New Majestic Theatre in Evansville was to undergo a remodeling that would cost between $50,000 and $75,000. The Evansville architectural firm Harry E. Boyle & Co. was providing the plans.
I noticed a “Contact” link at the bottom of each page of the IHS web site, but my e-mail isn’t working right now and won’t be until I get a new computer set up, so I can’t contact them. Even if I could, I’m not sure they’d fix errors. I contacted the Los Angeles Public Library about several errors in their photo collection several years ago, and the errors are still there.
More institutions should have Flickr accounts like the Library of Congress does. The LOC has gotten a lot of useful information from people posting comments on their photos at Flickr.
David you’re right. I hadn’t noticed the back of that building, which does look like an old stage house. Its modern address is 1116 Prospect, though. If that’s the Sanders Theatre building, the lots on the block must have been renumbered since the old directories were published.
DavidAE: For those who don’t know HTML, Cinema Treasures now supports Markdown Code, for which you need only square brackets and parentheses to embed a link in your text. Scroll down to the LINKS section of the page to see the example code. All you will need at Cinema Treasures are inline-style links, so all you have to do is put the text you want to become the link in square brackets, and then paste your copied URL between parentheses immediately following the closing bracket.
Here is the Markdown code output for the three links you posted:
Link one
Link two
Link three
Lost Memory’s photo link has gone missing, but I think this is probably the same photo. The description with the photo mistakenly gives the location and history of the other Strand Theatre (the Capitol Theatre,) but the photo has to depict this house at 1330 E. Washington. The Capitol Theatre building was very different.
It looks to me like the entrance to the Fountain Square Theatre is at 1111 Prospect Street, not 1105 Shelby Street. The latter appears to be the address of the attached office building.
Here is the official web site. It says “[c]losed and gutted in the late 1950’s the former theatre space housed a Woolworth five and dime store, then years later a thrift shop.” The current interior is more a reinterpretation than a restoration, although the page also says that some original architectural features remain intact on the mezzanine level. The photo gallery includes one shot of the original interior, and it was quite different from what is there now.
The photo we are currently displaying depicts the Fountain Square Theatre at 1105 Prospect Street. The Sanders Theatre must have been across the street. On its site (1106-1110 Prospect) there is an old-looking brick commercial building that has “2001 A.D.” carved in its parapet, so the theater might have been demolished, unless the date denotes an extensive renovation of the building.
Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory lists the Sanders Theatre at 1106-08 Prospect Street. The 1916 directory lists it as the Quality Theater, Fred W. Sanders, Proprietor.
In 1916, The Indianapolis Star was listing two houses called the Palms Theatre. In addition to the one on North Illinois Street there was one at 30th Street and Highland Place.
The house at 136 N. Illinois Street was listed as the Palms Theatre in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
The Gayety was one of six theaters operating in Indianapolis according to Hyman’s Handbook of Indianapolis, published in 1907. The Gayety was one of the town’s two burlesque houses.
I see a building at 2530 (bicycle shop) and a building at 2544-46, but there’s a parking lot in between them. Unless the addresses have been shifted, the Daisy Theatre has been demolished.
The Daisy Theatre was listed in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
Polk’s 1919 and 1922 Indianapolis City Directories list the Emerald Theatre at 441-43 Blake Street. Most of Blake Street has been swallowed up by the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University-Perdue University. The Emerald Theatre was advertised as being at Blake and W. Washington Streets in issues of The Indianapolis Star in 1915.
Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory lists the Crystal Theatre at 119-21 N. Illinois Avenue. The theater might have moved to a new building at some point, unless the lots were renumbered or there was an error in the directory.
The Columbia Theatre was listed at 535 N. Senate Avenue in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
The Washington Theatre at 521 Indiana Avenue was listed in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
Not surprisingly, English’s Opera House was on this list of theaters designed by J. B. McElfatrick & Son, published in 1892.
The Annex Theater at 118 S. Illinois Street is listed in the 1909 Indianapolis city directory.
A Pekin house called the Capitol Theatre was mentioned in the September 8, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World.