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 Home Theatre was one of three houses listed at Portage in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, the other two being the Crystal Theatre on DeWitt Street and the Empire Theatre, no location given. By 1916 Portage had houses called the Gem and the Majestic, though the latter was slated to close that year.
I don’t see this house (or any other theater in Lake Orion) listed in the 1926 or 1929 Film Daily Year Books. It isn’t in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory either. It might have had a fairly short life. A July 9, 1938 Boxofficeitem noted the recent opening of the 350-seat Lake Theatre in a remodeled store building, and added “[t]his will be the first theatre Orion has had in several years.”
Whitney Point’s fire station is on the same site it occupied when it housed the Point Theatre upstairs, but it does not appear to be the historic building. The modern, 2-storey structure looks like it was probably built in the 1960s. The modern address is 2665 Main Street, though the historic address on a 1907 Sanborn map, which provided the evidence of the location, was 533 Main. The original building housed the fire station and a retail store on the ground floor, with the City Hall and Opera House occupying the upper floors.
The November 2, 1921 issue of Motion Picture News mentions this house under two of its earlier names: “H. M. Schwartzwalder has redecorated and renovated the old Cayuga theatre in Auburn, N. Y. and has reopened it under the name of the Universal.”
Comparing the vintage photo of the Owego Theatre with modern Google street view, it is clear that it was between the building now occupied by Honey Hollow Treasures, at 101 W. State Street, and the building now occupied by the Hole In the Wall Café, at 105 W. State. Street view doesn’t reveal the name of the business now at 103 W. State, and it’s impossible to say if it is the same building in the vintage photo or newer construction (though I suspect it is newer), but 103 W. was undoubtedly the address of the Owego.
The BP gas station and mini-mart on the site of the Lona Theatre in the photo lately uploaded by Sarah B is at 129 W. State, though that might not have been the exact address of the theater itself. We don’t yet have a page for the Lona. The Lona Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland now has a comment saying that in 1976 the Lona was still in operation, but going by the name Family Theatre. The Lona was in operation by 1957, and may have been a replacement for the Owego Theatre. It’s difficult to imagine tiny Mancelona supporting two theaters at once at that late date.
The Crescent Theatre was rebuilt in 1916. The August 5 issue of Moving Picture World carried a notice that the old house had been razed and construction begun on the new building for operator P. H. Hoppen. The Crescent was still listed in the 1929 FDY with 500 seats.
The June 14, 1948 issue of The Exhibitor said that “H. J. Pueschner opened the new Randolph, Randolph, Wis.” A May 12 item had said that the new theater lately opened at Randolph had 350 seats.
The Doctoral thesis of Alexandra Heather Gibb, Beyond the Decline: Revaluing Montreal’s Movie Palaces, indicates that the Théâtre Lune Rousse was designed by Montreal architect Joseph-Raoul Gariépy.
The historical marker at the Strand Theatre says that it occupies the site of the Foree Hotel, which burned in 1925. Manning & Wink bought the site that year, so the Strand Theater the chain had been operating in 1916 must have been at a different location. The new Strand probably opened in 1926, as it makes its first appearance in the FDY in the 1927 edition.
This item about the Orpheum appeared in the January 4, 1919 issue of Moving Picture World:
“Orpheum Holds a Potato Matinee.
“A potato matinee, the admission for which was one potato, was given by the management of the Orpheum Theatre at Elkhart, Ind., on Saturday, December 21. All of the tubers—and there were several bushels collected—were turned over to Miss Bessie Owens, city welfare worker, for distribution among the poor of the city at Christmas time. ‘The Midnight Patrol,’ a Select film, was the attraction.”
Although the Orpheum is not listed in the 1926 FDY, it does appear in the 1929 edition and is still listed in the 1951 edition. CinemaTour gives the Orpheum the aka Cinema I. Another web page says that, in the 1980s, all the theaters in Elkhart, including Cinema I, were owned by a Bill Miller, who was murdered by a disgruntled employee at the Concord Theatre in 1987, after which the theaters were all sold to the GKC (Kerasotes) chain, which closed all but the Encore within a few years.
CinemaTour also gives an opening year of 1913 for the Orpheum, though it isn’t one of the three theaters listed at Elkhart in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Directory’s listings were often incomplete.
Through most of its history this house was styled the LaMax Theatre, though sometimes the name appears in print as the La Max or Lamax. I’ve only seen it styled New LaMax in a few trade journal items in the early 1940s. I suspect that the name of the theater was derived from the surnames of the original owners, Robert Lacy and the McCoy brothers (who were probably both known as Mac), so La for Lacy and Max for the two Macs.
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.
The Home Theatre was one of three houses listed at Portage in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, the other two being the Crystal Theatre on DeWitt Street and the Empire Theatre, no location given. By 1916 Portage had houses called the Gem and the Majestic, though the latter was slated to close that year.
I don’t see this house (or any other theater in Lake Orion) listed in the 1926 or 1929 Film Daily Year Books. It isn’t in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory either. It might have had a fairly short life. A July 9, 1938 Boxofficeitem noted the recent opening of the 350-seat Lake Theatre in a remodeled store building, and added “[t]his will be the first theatre Orion has had in several years.”
Whitney Point’s fire station is on the same site it occupied when it housed the Point Theatre upstairs, but it does not appear to be the historic building. The modern, 2-storey structure looks like it was probably built in the 1960s. The modern address is 2665 Main Street, though the historic address on a 1907 Sanborn map, which provided the evidence of the location, was 533 Main. The original building housed the fire station and a retail store on the ground floor, with the City Hall and Opera House occupying the upper floors.
The November 2, 1921 issue of Motion Picture News mentions this house under two of its earlier names: “H. M. Schwartzwalder has redecorated and renovated the old Cayuga theatre in Auburn, N. Y. and has reopened it under the name of the Universal.”
Leon H. Lempert, Sr. was the architect of the Burtis Opera House.
Comparing the vintage photo of the Owego Theatre with modern Google street view, it is clear that it was between the building now occupied by Honey Hollow Treasures, at 101 W. State Street, and the building now occupied by the Hole In the Wall Café, at 105 W. State. Street view doesn’t reveal the name of the business now at 103 W. State, and it’s impossible to say if it is the same building in the vintage photo or newer construction (though I suspect it is newer), but 103 W. was undoubtedly the address of the Owego.
The BP gas station and mini-mart on the site of the Lona Theatre in the photo lately uploaded by Sarah B is at 129 W. State, though that might not have been the exact address of the theater itself. We don’t yet have a page for the Lona. The Lona Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland now has a comment saying that in 1976 the Lona was still in operation, but going by the name Family Theatre. The Lona was in operation by 1957, and may have been a replacement for the Owego Theatre. It’s difficult to imagine tiny Mancelona supporting two theaters at once at that late date.
The Crescent Theatre was rebuilt in 1916. The August 5 issue of Moving Picture World carried a notice that the old house had been razed and construction begun on the new building for operator P. H. Hoppen. The Crescent was still listed in the 1929 FDY with 500 seats.
The only mention of Williamston I’ve been able to find in the trade journals is this item from the January 3, 1942 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review:
A City Data Forum comment says that the Williamston Theatre was located at 104 East Main Street.The June 14, 1948 issue of The Exhibitor said that “H. J. Pueschner opened the new Randolph, Randolph, Wis.” A May 12 item had said that the new theater lately opened at Randolph had 350 seats.
The Doctoral thesis of Alexandra Heather Gibb, Beyond the Decline: Revaluing Montreal’s Movie Palaces, indicates that the Théâtre Lune Rousse was designed by Montreal architect Joseph-Raoul Gariépy.
The historical marker at the Strand Theatre says that it occupies the site of the Foree Hotel, which burned in 1925. Manning & Wink bought the site that year, so the Strand Theater the chain had been operating in 1916 must have been at a different location. The new Strand probably opened in 1926, as it makes its first appearance in the FDY in the 1927 edition.
This item about the Orpheum appeared in the January 4, 1919 issue of Moving Picture World:
Although the Orpheum is not listed in the 1926 FDY, it does appear in the 1929 edition and is still listed in the 1951 edition. CinemaTour gives the Orpheum the aka Cinema I. Another web page says that, in the 1980s, all the theaters in Elkhart, including Cinema I, were owned by a Bill Miller, who was murdered by a disgruntled employee at the Concord Theatre in 1987, after which the theaters were all sold to the GKC (Kerasotes) chain, which closed all but the Encore within a few years.CinemaTour also gives an opening year of 1913 for the Orpheum, though it isn’t one of the three theaters listed at Elkhart in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Directory’s listings were often incomplete.
Through most of its history this house was styled the LaMax Theatre, though sometimes the name appears in print as the La Max or Lamax. I’ve only seen it styled New LaMax in a few trade journal items in the early 1940s. I suspect that the name of the theater was derived from the surnames of the original owners, Robert Lacy and the McCoy brothers (who were probably both known as Mac), so La for Lacy and Max for the two Macs.