The Rocky Horror Wiki lists Don Pancho’s Art Theatre as the eighth known house to launch a weekly midnight showing of that now-classic movie. Don Pancho’s run of The Rocky Horror Picture Show began in March, 1977. Let’s do the time warp again.
The correct address of the Park Theatre’s building is 511 S. Jefferson Street. Google currently says that the dessert shop that occupied the premises for some time, Delish on Jefferson, has been permanently closed. The upper floors of the building are occupied by the Knights of Pythias Lodge, but Google says that is also closed, though only temporarily.
Comparing current Google satellite view and historic aerial photos, going back to 1967 during the theater’s second period, the Current building occupies the same footprint as the historic structure, but it is now three stories tall. This was its original height, but after the 1960 fire it was rebuilt with only two stories. While the current top floor of the building was never part of the theater, I’m sure the shell of the old building is still there, however greatly altered by its conversion for office space.
This cinema has been permanently closed. Owners of the property have applied for a zoning change and a permit to convert the structure to apartments and retail space.
While the front building which housed the Colonial Theatre’s entrance is still standing, the auditorium section was entirely demolished in 1983. There are press photos of the event available on ebay from the Historic Images Company. The auditorium’s site is occupied by a fairly sensitively designed five story office and retail building which harmonizes well with the historic front structure but is clearly built of modern materials.
Boxoffice of March 8, 1965 said that the new theater in Winston-Salem’s Parkway Shopping Center, promoted by the Schneider-Merl interests, was being designed by the Charlotte, NC architectural firm Charles Morrison Grier & Associates.
The May 31, 1971 issue of Boxoffice had two brief articles about three projects planned by the rapidly expanding Schneider-Merl chain. They were twin houses at Boone and Durham, and a single-screener in Roanoke Rapids. All three projects were designed by Statesville architect Tom Hutchins. The groundbreaking for the Boone twin was scheduled for June 1.
A November 8, 1913 item in Moving Picture World said that construction had begun on Sylvester Poli’s new theater at Main and Gold streets in Hartford. The architect for the project was Ferdinand Von Beren of Brown & Von Beren, New Haven. Von Beren designed a number of early projects for Poli. It wasn’t until later that Poli began hiring Thomas Lamb. It’s possible that Lamb designed some later alterations for the Palace, but the original architect was Von Beren.
The Novelty Theatre at 809 Main Street was one of the two movie houses listed at Winfield in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The rival Jewel Theatre was at 1007 Main Street, where the Fox Theatre would be built in 1950.
A press release from early 2022 says that part of the Fox Theatre’s site was occupied by an old movie house called the Zimm Theatre, which was demolished along with an adjacent building to make way for the Fox in 1950. The Zimm was owned by an Oscar Zimmerman by early 1921, but the address 1007 Main Street was listed as the location of the Jewel Theatre in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Bijou Theatre at Mayville is mentioned in the April 1, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World. Given that the numbers 19 and 27 in the upper corners of the Delchar’s façade probably show the year of construction, it might be that the Bijou was a different house. It could of course be that the façade was simply new construction on an existing theater.
In either case, an unnamed movie theater at Mayville was mentioned in the May 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. This might have been a different house, as no theaters were listed for the town in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The February 5, 1921 issue of The Billboard had this notice about the Colonial Theatre in Reidsville:
“The Colonial Theater, Reidsville, N. C., owned and managed by Messrs, Womack and Miller, opened its season January 11 with the ‘Oh, Daddy’ Company. Charles F. King the manager of the Colonial.”
The Colonial had been renamed the Broadway by 1923, when it was mentioned in the March 10 issue of Moving Picture World. The Broadway must have been open as late as 1962, as the poster on display in the vintage photo of it is for the Elvis Presley movie released that year, “Kid Galahad”. It might be that it was the last movie shown at the house.
The earliest mention of the Fox Theatre I’ve been able to find in the trade journals is in the November 4, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. The house was then owned by Neal Robinson and Tom Barrow. As late as the November 1, 1947 issue of Motion Picture Herald, Neal Robinson and Tom Barrow were noted as owners of the Crestview Theatre in Crestview. So far I’ve been unable to discover if the Fox was a newly built replacement for Robinson and Barrow’s Crestview or if the house was merely renamed, perhaps after a remodeling.
The November 23, 1955 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor said that “Neal Robinson reported that because of the decline in attendance he will close the sub-run Eglin, Crestview, Fla., which he reopened only recently.” Robinson would continue to operate the Fox Theatre in Crestview, as well as three houses in other Florida towns.
The rather small entrance building of the Manos Theatre is still standing, but historic aerial photos show, conclusively, that the much larger auditorium behind it was demolished sometime between 1982 and 1993.
The first appearance of the Levon Theatre in the FDY is the 1941 edition. However, it might have been open the previous year under the name New Theatre. The Roanoke Rapids Herald was advertising the New Theatre in May, 1940, and the it shared space in the ad with a house called the Levon Theatre at Enfield, N.C..
Weldon appears to have had at least one movie house from 1916 on. The 1926 through 1932 FDY’s list only a 350-seat house called the Opera House, which was also mentioned in the April 13, 1916 issue of Motography, when it was being remodeled and having new equipment installed. In the 1932 FDY it was listed as closed.
In 1933, the Opera House vanishes from the FDY and is replaced by a 400-seat house called the Legion Theatre. The Legion remains in 1934 and 1935, but in 1936 the Opera House is back, now with 400 seats, and its rival is a 200-seat house called the Rialto (the Rialto is also advertised in the February 6, 1936 edition of the Herald, though the Opera House isn’t.) These FDY listings continue through 1938. I don’t have a 1939 FDY, but the 1940 edition lists the Opera House and a 200-seat Weldon Theatre. The 1941 edition lists the 300-seat Levon and the 400-seat Opera House, while the 200-seat Weldon is listed as closed.
I haven’t checked the next few years, but the 1947 FDY lists four houses at Weldon: The 400-seat Center, the 400-seat Opera house, the 300-seat Levon and the now 290-seat Weldon. I find it hard to believe that all four of these houses were operating at once in tiny Weldon. The 1949 FDY lists only three, those being the now-700-seat Center, the Levon, now listed with 275 seats (though it had burned in early 1948, so perhaps the owners had taken over the old Weldon’s location and moved the name there?) and a new drive-in called the Starlite. I haven’t checked later FDYs, but the Center was mentioned in Boxoffice a couple of times in 1963.
Anyway, it looks like the Levon opened around late 1939 or early 1940 as the New Theatre, became the Levon by 1941, and burned down in early 1948, though the name might have survived a bit longer, perhaps at another location.
The October 6, 1951 issue of Boxoffice had an item saying “[t]he former Tolleston Theatre building at 2323 West 11th Street will be completely remodeled inside and out at a cost of $32,000. The front will be rebuilt and changes made in the interior.” It’s odd that the item says nothing about whether the building would be used as a theater again.
A house called the Tolleston Theatre was in operation prior to 1919, when its reopening was noted in the January 10 issue of Moving Picture World. The Tolleston was mentioned again in the March 3, 1923 issue of the same publication.
The newspaper article robboehm uploaded to the photo page says that the Royal Theatre opened on September 29, 1919.
We have four theaters listed for Rigby: The Royal, the Orpheum, the Gem/Main, and the Iris. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists the Orpheum and a house called the Lulu, located on Main Street. Unless Lulu was an aka for the Iris, it must have been the fifth theater mentioned in the newspaper article. The three operating at the same time must have been the Royal, Orpheum and Iris in the late 1910s.
The building is occupied, apparently as office space, by a community service organization called Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance, which deals with housing related issues.
A July 7, 2013 article in the Winston-Salem Journal said that the New Liberty Theatre opened on September 11, 1911. Here is a quote from their opening day advertisement: “We are going to book only the best talent to be had in Vaudeville, and promise the mothers and other good people of the city that they may come to this theater without hesitancy; there will be nothing permitted to cause you to regret you came.”
In the 1923 city directory, 411 N. Liberty is listed as the address of the Ideal Theatre. A July 7, 2013 article in the Winston-Salem Journal said that the Ideal had opened in 1912 as the Elmont Theatre. The article doesn’t give the years of the name changes, but the house was still listed as the Elmont in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Rocky Horror Wiki lists Don Pancho’s Art Theatre as the eighth known house to launch a weekly midnight showing of that now-classic movie. Don Pancho’s run of The Rocky Horror Picture Show began in March, 1977. Let’s do the time warp again.
The correct address of the Park Theatre’s building is 511 S. Jefferson Street. Google currently says that the dessert shop that occupied the premises for some time, Delish on Jefferson, has been permanently closed. The upper floors of the building are occupied by the Knights of Pythias Lodge, but Google says that is also closed, though only temporarily.
Comparing current Google satellite view and historic aerial photos, going back to 1967 during the theater’s second period, the Current building occupies the same footprint as the historic structure, but it is now three stories tall. This was its original height, but after the 1960 fire it was rebuilt with only two stories. While the current top floor of the building was never part of the theater, I’m sure the shell of the old building is still there, however greatly altered by its conversion for office space.
This cinema has been permanently closed. Owners of the property have applied for a zoning change and a permit to convert the structure to apartments and retail space.
Thanks for the update, stereo3d. Here is a clickable link to the October 23, 1954 issue of Boxoffice.
Also we have the current address wrong. Google Street view shows 225 Market above the entrance.
While the front building which housed the Colonial Theatre’s entrance is still standing, the auditorium section was entirely demolished in 1983. There are press photos of the event available on ebay from the Historic Images Company. The auditorium’s site is occupied by a fairly sensitively designed five story office and retail building which harmonizes well with the historic front structure but is clearly built of modern materials.
Boxoffice of March 8, 1965 said that the new theater in Winston-Salem’s Parkway Shopping Center, promoted by the Schneider-Merl interests, was being designed by the Charlotte, NC architectural firm Charles Morrison Grier & Associates.
The May 31, 1971 issue of Boxoffice had two brief articles about three projects planned by the rapidly expanding Schneider-Merl chain. They were twin houses at Boone and Durham, and a single-screener in Roanoke Rapids. All three projects were designed by Statesville architect Tom Hutchins. The groundbreaking for the Boone twin was scheduled for June 1.
Hal: According to this web site, yes, the Village East, then known as the Gayety, did play the role of Minsky’s in that film.
A November 8, 1913 item in Moving Picture World said that construction had begun on Sylvester Poli’s new theater at Main and Gold streets in Hartford. The architect for the project was Ferdinand Von Beren of Brown & Von Beren, New Haven. Von Beren designed a number of early projects for Poli. It wasn’t until later that Poli began hiring Thomas Lamb. It’s possible that Lamb designed some later alterations for the Palace, but the original architect was Von Beren.
The Novelty Theatre at 809 Main Street was one of the two movie houses listed at Winfield in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The rival Jewel Theatre was at 1007 Main Street, where the Fox Theatre would be built in 1950.
A press release from early 2022 says that part of the Fox Theatre’s site was occupied by an old movie house called the Zimm Theatre, which was demolished along with an adjacent building to make way for the Fox in 1950. The Zimm was owned by an Oscar Zimmerman by early 1921, but the address 1007 Main Street was listed as the location of the Jewel Theatre in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Bijou Theatre at Mayville is mentioned in the April 1, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World. Given that the numbers 19 and 27 in the upper corners of the Delchar’s façade probably show the year of construction, it might be that the Bijou was a different house. It could of course be that the façade was simply new construction on an existing theater.
In either case, an unnamed movie theater at Mayville was mentioned in the May 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. This might have been a different house, as no theaters were listed for the town in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The February 5, 1921 issue of The Billboard had this notice about the Colonial Theatre in Reidsville:
The Colonial had been renamed the Broadway by 1923, when it was mentioned in the March 10 issue of Moving Picture World. The Broadway must have been open as late as 1962, as the poster on display in the vintage photo of it is for the Elvis Presley movie released that year, “Kid Galahad”. It might be that it was the last movie shown at the house.The earliest mention of the Fox Theatre I’ve been able to find in the trade journals is in the November 4, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. The house was then owned by Neal Robinson and Tom Barrow. As late as the November 1, 1947 issue of Motion Picture Herald, Neal Robinson and Tom Barrow were noted as owners of the Crestview Theatre in Crestview. So far I’ve been unable to discover if the Fox was a newly built replacement for Robinson and Barrow’s Crestview or if the house was merely renamed, perhaps after a remodeling.
The November 23, 1955 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor said that “Neal Robinson reported that because of the decline in attendance he will close the sub-run Eglin, Crestview, Fla., which he reopened only recently.” Robinson would continue to operate the Fox Theatre in Crestview, as well as three houses in other Florida towns.
The rather small entrance building of the Manos Theatre is still standing, but historic aerial photos show, conclusively, that the much larger auditorium behind it was demolished sometime between 1982 and 1993.
The first appearance of the Levon Theatre in the FDY is the 1941 edition. However, it might have been open the previous year under the name New Theatre. The Roanoke Rapids Herald was advertising the New Theatre in May, 1940, and the it shared space in the ad with a house called the Levon Theatre at Enfield, N.C..
Weldon appears to have had at least one movie house from 1916 on. The 1926 through 1932 FDY’s list only a 350-seat house called the Opera House, which was also mentioned in the April 13, 1916 issue of Motography, when it was being remodeled and having new equipment installed. In the 1932 FDY it was listed as closed.
In 1933, the Opera House vanishes from the FDY and is replaced by a 400-seat house called the Legion Theatre. The Legion remains in 1934 and 1935, but in 1936 the Opera House is back, now with 400 seats, and its rival is a 200-seat house called the Rialto (the Rialto is also advertised in the February 6, 1936 edition of the Herald, though the Opera House isn’t.) These FDY listings continue through 1938. I don’t have a 1939 FDY, but the 1940 edition lists the Opera House and a 200-seat Weldon Theatre. The 1941 edition lists the 300-seat Levon and the 400-seat Opera House, while the 200-seat Weldon is listed as closed.
I haven’t checked the next few years, but the 1947 FDY lists four houses at Weldon: The 400-seat Center, the 400-seat Opera house, the 300-seat Levon and the now 290-seat Weldon. I find it hard to believe that all four of these houses were operating at once in tiny Weldon. The 1949 FDY lists only three, those being the now-700-seat Center, the Levon, now listed with 275 seats (though it had burned in early 1948, so perhaps the owners had taken over the old Weldon’s location and moved the name there?) and a new drive-in called the Starlite. I haven’t checked later FDYs, but the Center was mentioned in Boxoffice a couple of times in 1963.
Anyway, it looks like the Levon opened around late 1939 or early 1940 as the New Theatre, became the Levon by 1941, and burned down in early 1948, though the name might have survived a bit longer, perhaps at another location.
The October 6, 1951 issue of Boxoffice had an item saying “[t]he former Tolleston Theatre building at 2323 West 11th Street will be completely remodeled inside and out at a cost of $32,000. The front will be rebuilt and changes made in the interior.” It’s odd that the item says nothing about whether the building would be used as a theater again.
A house called the Tolleston Theatre was in operation prior to 1919, when its reopening was noted in the January 10 issue of Moving Picture World. The Tolleston was mentioned again in the March 3, 1923 issue of the same publication.
The newspaper article robboehm uploaded to the photo page says that the Royal Theatre opened on September 29, 1919.
We have four theaters listed for Rigby: The Royal, the Orpheum, the Gem/Main, and the Iris. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists the Orpheum and a house called the Lulu, located on Main Street. Unless Lulu was an aka for the Iris, it must have been the fifth theater mentioned in the newspaper article. The three operating at the same time must have been the Royal, Orpheum and Iris in the late 1910s.
The building is occupied, apparently as office space, by a community service organization called Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance, which deals with housing related issues.
A July 7, 2013 article in the Winston-Salem Journal said that the New Liberty Theatre opened on September 11, 1911. Here is a quote from their opening day advertisement: “We are going to book only the best talent to be had in Vaudeville, and promise the mothers and other good people of the city that they may come to this theater without hesitancy; there will be nothing permitted to cause you to regret you came.”
In the 1923 city directory, 411 N. Liberty is listed as the address of the Ideal Theatre. A July 7, 2013 article in the Winston-Salem Journal said that the Ideal had opened in 1912 as the Elmont Theatre. The article doesn’t give the years of the name changes, but the house was still listed as the Elmont in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The March 12, 1926 issue of the Newberry Observer noted that the Imperial Theatre was owned by the Piedmont Amusement Company.