It looks like the Fredro Theatre was renamed the King Theatre sometime in 1939. A 400-seat Fredro Theatre is one of five houses listed on Chene Street in the 1939 FDY, and in 1940 a 400-seat King Theatre is listed but the Fredro isn’t. The other four theaters on Chene Street were unchanged from 1939 to 1940.
I wonder if gremlins got into somebody’s keyboard along the way, and the “Flin, Cla” that the NRHP document (cited in the very first comment on this theater by LostMemory) names as one of the architects or builders of the Colonial Theatre is actually Fuller Claflin? Claflin did design at least one theater in Harrisburg- the Lyceum (later the Orpheum), built in 1903 and reportedly demolished in 1925 to make way for the State Theatre. I’m skeptical that anyone has ever borne the odd name Cla Flin.
This house has the same address as the Tedro Theatre already listed. Our page says the Tedro closed after one year. The information probably comes from this page at Water Winter Wonderland.
I don’t know if the name Tedro was just a mistake, or if the house did operate under that name in 1922 and later was renamed Fredro, but that doesn’t seem very likely. A guidebook to Detroit published in 1916 mentions a Fredro Theatre, then located at the corner of Chene and Kirby Streets. What seems most likely is that the house was always the Fredro Theatre, both before and after it moved down the block. The neighborhood was predominantly Polish, and the guidebook says that the theater served a Polish audience. Fredro is a Polish surname. Tedro (or Teddro) is also a surname, but, as near as I can determine, it is of Estonian origin.
In any case the name Fredro Theatre appears in multiple FDY’s, and is mentioned in the trade papers at least twice, so that is certainly the name it should be listed under. I’ve found no other sources giving the name Tedro Theatre.
I wouldn’t know what to do about the duplicate listing in this case, as the Tedro page is earlier but this one has accurate information.
An October, 1913, newspaper item refereed to the Orpheus as Ellensburg’s “new movie theater.” It wasn’t open for long before it was renamed the Colonial, then.
Also, a correction to my previous comment: The Ellensburg theater was at the Southeast corner of Third and Pine, not the southwest corner. The Ellensburg was the house that in its last days became the Midstate Theatre, which Clarence Farrell dismantled in 1946.
I don’t know if it was the same Orpheum Theatre or not, but the April 29, 1908, issue of the Ellensburg Capital said “The Orpheum Theater opened last Wednesday evening with a motion picture program, changing three times a week, and the attendance has been heavy. The pictures are of good quality and are well presented.”
It seems likely that the house at 418 N. Pine would have been either a new location for this theater, or a re-opening of the house under new ownership. The Capital of February 9, 1909, reported that “The Orpheum has just hung up a handsome new electric sign.”
The theater appears to have been doing well a year later, when the February 11, 1910, issue of the Capital said “The Orpheum has an automatic piano stationed in the lobby of the theater which does not fail to let the people know there is such an institution doing business in town.”
By April of 1910, a theater called the Isis had opened, and by late 1912 it had been joined by a theater called the Queen. The Ellensburg Theatre, primarily used for live performances, might have been showing movies occasionally as well. It was probably too much competition for the Orpheum to withstand.
Our current description conflates two theaters, an error probably derived from this article published in the local newspaper in 2005. The Audion was never the Ellensburg Theatre, which was located in the Lloyd Building at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Pine Street, and was demolished in 1953.
The Audion was a house that was called the Orpheus Theatre until it was bought, remodeled and renamed the Colonial Theatre by J. E. Ferrell in late 1913. The Colonial Theatre opened on New Year’s Eve, according to this ad that Ferrell placed in the January 8, 1914, issue of the Ellensburg Capital.
This article about the opening of the Audion Theatre on Thursday, November 28, 1935, appeared in the Ellensburg Daily Record the following Monday. It doesn’t mention the house having previously been the Colonial Theatre, but this article from the April 26, 1979, Daily Record does. In 1979, the theater had been disused for more than three decades, having been closed in the mid-1940s when theaters in Ellensburg were consolidated under a single operator (my previous comment cites Boxoffice of July 20, 1946, which says that Clarence Farrell intended to use the Audion as a standby theatre. It might never have reopened.) The house might not have been dismantled until 1957, though, when classified ads in the newspaper offered seats from the Audion Theatre for sale.
The history of this theater is puzzling. It opened as the Majestic in 1907, but by 1915 206-210 8th Street was listed in the city directory as the address of the Orpheum Theatre, and 313-317 8th Street is listed as the location of the Majestic Theatre. Orpheum vaudeville moved to the Sherman (previously Empress) Theatre in 1922, and that house was renamed the Orpheum Theatre.
Local impresarios Elbert and Getchell then took over the house at 210 8th and renamed it the Iowa Theatre. The Iowa was operated as a legitimate house, and closed after one year. The first photo on this web page shows the theater at 210 8th Street with the name Majestic on it, and from the dress and hair styles of the women and a fragment of a parked car it is clear that the photo was taken in the early to mid-1920s, so the house must have returned to its original name after the Iowa closed. I don’t know what became of the other Majestic at 317 8th Street.
From listings in various issues of The Billboard it is clear that there were houses called the Majestic and the Orpheum operating in Des Moines at the same time as early as 1908, but as no addresses are listed for either theater at that time there’s no telling which name then belonged to this house. It might have been renamed Orpheum fairly soon after opening, or it might have been called the Majestic for several years, in which case there was then another Orpheum somewhere in Des Moines.
The March 7, 1909, issue of The Improvement Bulletin said that W. H. McElfatrick had designed the new Gaiety Theatre that was to be erected in Minneapolis.
From sometime in 1925 through the first part of 1926, the Lumberg Theatre was called the Ritz Theatre. This web page features a December 19, 1925, ad for the Ritz.
The Wednesday, August 18, 1926, issue of the Niagara Falls Gazette said that the Lumberg Theatre would reopen under its old name the following Sunday as the exclusive home of first-run Paramount films in Niagara Falls. Atlas had closed the house for several weeks to renovate and to upgrade the theater’s mechanical systems.
The June 29, 1928, issue of the Gazette reported that the Lumberg Theatre and an adjoining store building had been razed and would be replaced by a new store for the S. S. Kresge company. The article noted that A. M. Atlas had taken over operation of the Lumberg Theatre in 1925, and had recently disposed of the building. It also noted that the adjacent store building had housed the city’s first storefront movie theater early in the century. It didn’t give that theater’s name, but it had been operated by Benjamin Goodman, who had previously run a restaurant in the space.
A “25 years ago” feature in the July 9, 1941, issue of the Niagara Falls Gazette reveals that the 1916 opening of the Lumberg Theatre cited in my first comment was indeed a reopening after an expansion. “The theater owners had purchased the adjoining store of George B.Clark which permitted the doubling of the auditorium capacity” the article said.
There was also a Lumberg Theatre in Utica. The Lumberg Theatre in Niagara Falls might have had at least one other location besides the one listed in Billboard in 1910, or perhaps the original theater was rebuilt or expanded. This item is from The Moving Picture World of July 15, 1916:
“Barney Lumberg of the Lumberg theater, Utica, and his brother, Harris Lumberg, were Buffalo callers. The Lumberg theater at Niagara Falls will be opened shortly.”
This could have been the 800-seat house listed in the 1927 FDY. Still later there might have been a third location, or a new theater with another name owned by the Lumbergs. This item is from the May 21, 1921 issue of The American Contractor:
“Theater & Stores: $500,000. 1 & 2 sty. 99x208. 3rd St., bet. Niagara & Ferry sts., Niagara Falls. Archt. I. M. Lewis, 503 Congress bldg., Detroit, Mich. Owner H. Lumberg. 36 Falls st., Niagara Falls. Brk. Sketches.”
Cinema Treasures does not currently have a theater listed on 3rd Street between Niagara Street and Ferry Avenue. Google satellite view doesn’t show any buildings fitting the project’s description on that block, either, so if the place was built it has probably been partly or completely demolished.
If the Columbia was the only theater the Bertotti family owned, then the newer house was probably this project built in 1921, noted in an item from the May 21 issue of The American Contractor that year:
“Theater & Storerooms (2): 1 sty. 48 x 100. Clinton, Ind. Archt. Thomas & Allen, 25 ½ S. 5th St., terrace, Terre Haute. Owner Joe Bertotti, Clinton. Brk., stone trim, wood n. constr., flat rf., wood rf. trusses. Owner taking bids.”
The May 27, 1954, edition of the Central City Messenger said that “Dave Cohen is busy remodeling the old Empress Theater building….” In the June 3 issue an electronics store advertised its new location in the former Empress Theatre building. The October 21 issue said that the third floor of the building was being converted into a studio for a radio station that would begin broadcasting as soon as the FCC granted it a license.
The earliest reference by name to the Empress Theatre I’ve found is from August, 1921. The June 18 issue of The American Contractor that year noted a theater to be built at Central City, but it was only two stories tall. I suppose the plans might have been changed or a third floor added later. It would help if we could find a photo of the Empress to see if it matched the proposed building, which was to be 70 x 110 feet with brick walls and stone trim. It was designed by Joseph & Joseph for the Selba Amusement Company.
The Mikadow Theatre was opened in 1916. The March 16 edition of the Manitowoc Herald reported that “Stanley Kadow, who designed the new Mikadow theatre here, and attended the opening, has returned to Milwaukee.” He also did some remodeling on the house a few years later, as noted in this item from the May 21, 1921, issue of The American Contractor:
Theater (rem.; M. P.): 1 sty. Washington St., Manitowoc, Wis. Archt. Stanley F. Kadow. 1006 Railway Exch. bldg., Milwaukee. Owner Mikado Theater. J. M. Kadow, 1110 Washington St.. Manitowoc. Brk. Owner taking bids.“
The fact that the owner’s name was Kadow probably explains why the house ended up with the name Mikadow instead of just Mikado. Architect Stanley F. Kadow must have been related to theater owner John M. Kadow. Stanley Kadow was quite well known, and at least three theaters were among the many projects he designed in Milwaukee.
Here is an item from the April 23, 1921, issue of The American Contractor which must be about the State Theatre:
“Theatre (M. P.) $60,000. 2 sty. 83 X 120. Brown & River sts., Rhinelander, Wis. Archt. Oppenhamer & Obel, Wausau. Owner Peter Rouman, Rhinelander. Brk. Archt. & owner taking bids to close April 30th.”
The cross street is Rives, not River, of course. William Oppenhamer and Irving A. Obel also designed the Grand Theatre in Wausau.
An item datelined Columbus, Wisconsin, in the September 23, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World says: “Architect F. M. Andree, Cowker building, is preparing plans for a one-sty moving picture theater, 40 by 90 feet, to cost $8,000.”
I think the “M” was probably a typo (“Cowker” certainly was), and the architect was Frank W. Andree, who had offices in the Cawker Building in Milwaukee at least as early as 1910.
This page at Roots Web has what appears to be extracts from an old diary. For the date January 27, 1916, it says: “Mary Pickford at the Star Theatre Monday night in Mistress Nell.”
By 1942, the ads for the State Theatre were carrying the slogan “The Friendly Theatre” and saying that it had lately been remodeled to be the most modern theater in the region.
The April 15, 1954, issue of the Cuba, New York Patriot and Free Press carried an ad in which Mr. Anderson offered the State Theatre for sale (PDF here.) The house was apparently not in operation at the time, as the ad said only that it was “ready to start at once.”
An ad for the State in the March 4, 1954, issue of the same newspaper had touted a “gala parade of hits” for that month, so the house couldn’t have been closed for very long when it was offered for sale. I’ve been unable to discover if anyone ever bought and reopened the house.
The twin towers of the Tulare Theatre still had their Moorish grillwork when this photo from the Huntington Digital Library’s Southern California Edison Company collection was taken by photographer G. Haven Bishop on October 6, 1936.
An article in the New Philadelphia Times Reporter, dated August 18, 2013, and headed “New landscape at Mount Union” contains this line: “The most noticeable to students and community members alike is the construction of the as-yet-unnamed health and medical science building, which runs parallel to a busy section of South Union Avenue, where the Mount Union Theater once stood.”
Apparently, Mount Union University has demolished the Mt. Union Theatre- another shameless act of destruction by an institution of higher learning and lower behavior.
The April 24, 1937, issue of The Film Daily said that Harry Schiller’s new Grand Theatre would open on May 5. The 800-seat house was the first new theater built in Nebraska in two years.
The Dreamland Theatre had been renamed the Rialto by 1928, when operator L.J. Bennett was mentioned in the April 7 issue of The Film Daily. A booklet published for Pekin’s sesquicentennial says that the Rialto Theatre was destroyed by a fire in the 1950s.
It looks like the Fredro Theatre was renamed the King Theatre sometime in 1939. A 400-seat Fredro Theatre is one of five houses listed on Chene Street in the 1939 FDY, and in 1940 a 400-seat King Theatre is listed but the Fredro isn’t. The other four theaters on Chene Street were unchanged from 1939 to 1940.
I wonder if gremlins got into somebody’s keyboard along the way, and the “Flin, Cla” that the NRHP document (cited in the very first comment on this theater by LostMemory) names as one of the architects or builders of the Colonial Theatre is actually Fuller Claflin? Claflin did design at least one theater in Harrisburg- the Lyceum (later the Orpheum), built in 1903 and reportedly demolished in 1925 to make way for the State Theatre. I’m skeptical that anyone has ever borne the odd name Cla Flin.
This house has the same address as the Tedro Theatre already listed. Our page says the Tedro closed after one year. The information probably comes from this page at Water Winter Wonderland.
I don’t know if the name Tedro was just a mistake, or if the house did operate under that name in 1922 and later was renamed Fredro, but that doesn’t seem very likely. A guidebook to Detroit published in 1916 mentions a Fredro Theatre, then located at the corner of Chene and Kirby Streets. What seems most likely is that the house was always the Fredro Theatre, both before and after it moved down the block. The neighborhood was predominantly Polish, and the guidebook says that the theater served a Polish audience. Fredro is a Polish surname. Tedro (or Teddro) is also a surname, but, as near as I can determine, it is of Estonian origin.
In any case the name Fredro Theatre appears in multiple FDY’s, and is mentioned in the trade papers at least twice, so that is certainly the name it should be listed under. I’ve found no other sources giving the name Tedro Theatre.
I wouldn’t know what to do about the duplicate listing in this case, as the Tedro page is earlier but this one has accurate information.
An October, 1913, newspaper item refereed to the Orpheus as Ellensburg’s “new movie theater.” It wasn’t open for long before it was renamed the Colonial, then.
Also, a correction to my previous comment: The Ellensburg theater was at the Southeast corner of Third and Pine, not the southwest corner. The Ellensburg was the house that in its last days became the Midstate Theatre, which Clarence Farrell dismantled in 1946.
I don’t know if it was the same Orpheum Theatre or not, but the April 29, 1908, issue of the Ellensburg Capital said “The Orpheum Theater opened last Wednesday evening with a motion picture program, changing three times a week, and the attendance has been heavy. The pictures are of good quality and are well presented.”
It seems likely that the house at 418 N. Pine would have been either a new location for this theater, or a re-opening of the house under new ownership. The Capital of February 9, 1909, reported that “The Orpheum has just hung up a handsome new electric sign.”
The theater appears to have been doing well a year later, when the February 11, 1910, issue of the Capital said “The Orpheum has an automatic piano stationed in the lobby of the theater which does not fail to let the people know there is such an institution doing business in town.”
By April of 1910, a theater called the Isis had opened, and by late 1912 it had been joined by a theater called the Queen. The Ellensburg Theatre, primarily used for live performances, might have been showing movies occasionally as well. It was probably too much competition for the Orpheum to withstand.
Our current description conflates two theaters, an error probably derived from this article published in the local newspaper in 2005. The Audion was never the Ellensburg Theatre, which was located in the Lloyd Building at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Pine Street, and was demolished in 1953.
The Audion was a house that was called the Orpheus Theatre until it was bought, remodeled and renamed the Colonial Theatre by J. E. Ferrell in late 1913. The Colonial Theatre opened on New Year’s Eve, according to this ad that Ferrell placed in the January 8, 1914, issue of the Ellensburg Capital.
This article about the opening of the Audion Theatre on Thursday, November 28, 1935, appeared in the Ellensburg Daily Record the following Monday. It doesn’t mention the house having previously been the Colonial Theatre, but this article from the April 26, 1979, Daily Record does. In 1979, the theater had been disused for more than three decades, having been closed in the mid-1940s when theaters in Ellensburg were consolidated under a single operator (my previous comment cites Boxoffice of July 20, 1946, which says that Clarence Farrell intended to use the Audion as a standby theatre. It might never have reopened.) The house might not have been dismantled until 1957, though, when classified ads in the newspaper offered seats from the Audion Theatre for sale.
The history of this theater is puzzling. It opened as the Majestic in 1907, but by 1915 206-210 8th Street was listed in the city directory as the address of the Orpheum Theatre, and 313-317 8th Street is listed as the location of the Majestic Theatre. Orpheum vaudeville moved to the Sherman (previously Empress) Theatre in 1922, and that house was renamed the Orpheum Theatre.
Local impresarios Elbert and Getchell then took over the house at 210 8th and renamed it the Iowa Theatre. The Iowa was operated as a legitimate house, and closed after one year. The first photo on this web page shows the theater at 210 8th Street with the name Majestic on it, and from the dress and hair styles of the women and a fragment of a parked car it is clear that the photo was taken in the early to mid-1920s, so the house must have returned to its original name after the Iowa closed. I don’t know what became of the other Majestic at 317 8th Street.
From listings in various issues of The Billboard it is clear that there were houses called the Majestic and the Orpheum operating in Des Moines at the same time as early as 1908, but as no addresses are listed for either theater at that time there’s no telling which name then belonged to this house. It might have been renamed Orpheum fairly soon after opening, or it might have been called the Majestic for several years, in which case there was then another Orpheum somewhere in Des Moines.
The March 7, 1909, issue of The Improvement Bulletin said that W. H. McElfatrick had designed the new Gaiety Theatre that was to be erected in Minneapolis.
From sometime in 1925 through the first part of 1926, the Lumberg Theatre was called the Ritz Theatre. This web page features a December 19, 1925, ad for the Ritz.
The Wednesday, August 18, 1926, issue of the Niagara Falls Gazette said that the Lumberg Theatre would reopen under its old name the following Sunday as the exclusive home of first-run Paramount films in Niagara Falls. Atlas had closed the house for several weeks to renovate and to upgrade the theater’s mechanical systems.
The June 29, 1928, issue of the Gazette reported that the Lumberg Theatre and an adjoining store building had been razed and would be replaced by a new store for the S. S. Kresge company. The article noted that A. M. Atlas had taken over operation of the Lumberg Theatre in 1925, and had recently disposed of the building. It also noted that the adjacent store building had housed the city’s first storefront movie theater early in the century. It didn’t give that theater’s name, but it had been operated by Benjamin Goodman, who had previously run a restaurant in the space.
A “25 years ago” feature in the July 9, 1941, issue of the Niagara Falls Gazette reveals that the 1916 opening of the Lumberg Theatre cited in my first comment was indeed a reopening after an expansion. “The theater owners had purchased the adjoining store of George B.Clark which permitted the doubling of the auditorium capacity” the article said.
There was also a Lumberg Theatre in Utica. The Lumberg Theatre in Niagara Falls might have had at least one other location besides the one listed in Billboard in 1910, or perhaps the original theater was rebuilt or expanded. This item is from The Moving Picture World of July 15, 1916:
This could have been the 800-seat house listed in the 1927 FDY. Still later there might have been a third location, or a new theater with another name owned by the Lumbergs. This item is from the May 21, 1921 issue of The American Contractor:Cinema Treasures does not currently have a theater listed on 3rd Street between Niagara Street and Ferry Avenue. Google satellite view doesn’t show any buildings fitting the project’s description on that block, either, so if the place was built it has probably been partly or completely demolished.If the Columbia was the only theater the Bertotti family owned, then the newer house was probably this project built in 1921, noted in an item from the May 21 issue of The American Contractor that year:
The May 27, 1954, edition of the Central City Messenger said that “Dave Cohen is busy remodeling the old Empress Theater building….” In the June 3 issue an electronics store advertised its new location in the former Empress Theatre building. The October 21 issue said that the third floor of the building was being converted into a studio for a radio station that would begin broadcasting as soon as the FCC granted it a license.
The earliest reference by name to the Empress Theatre I’ve found is from August, 1921. The June 18 issue of The American Contractor that year noted a theater to be built at Central City, but it was only two stories tall. I suppose the plans might have been changed or a third floor added later. It would help if we could find a photo of the Empress to see if it matched the proposed building, which was to be 70 x 110 feet with brick walls and stone trim. It was designed by Joseph & Joseph for the Selba Amusement Company.
The Mikadow Theatre was opened in 1916. The March 16 edition of the Manitowoc Herald reported that “Stanley Kadow, who designed the new Mikadow theatre here, and attended the opening, has returned to Milwaukee.” He also did some remodeling on the house a few years later, as noted in this item from the May 21, 1921, issue of The American Contractor:
The fact that the owner’s name was Kadow probably explains why the house ended up with the name Mikadow instead of just Mikado. Architect Stanley F. Kadow must have been related to theater owner John M. Kadow. Stanley Kadow was quite well known, and at least three theaters were among the many projects he designed in Milwaukee.Here is an item from the April 23, 1921, issue of The American Contractor which must be about the State Theatre:
The cross street is Rives, not River, of course. William Oppenhamer and Irving A. Obel also designed the Grand Theatre in Wausau.Ken, this must be the same Frank Andree you identified as architect of the State Theatre in Milwaukee.
An item datelined Columbus, Wisconsin, in the September 23, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World says: “Architect F. M. Andree, Cowker building, is preparing plans for a one-sty moving picture theater, 40 by 90 feet, to cost $8,000.”
I think the “M” was probably a typo (“Cowker” certainly was), and the architect was Frank W. Andree, who had offices in the Cawker Building in Milwaukee at least as early as 1910.
This page at Roots Web has what appears to be extracts from an old diary. For the date January 27, 1916, it says: “Mary Pickford at the Star Theatre Monday night in Mistress Nell.”
By 1942, the ads for the State Theatre were carrying the slogan “The Friendly Theatre” and saying that it had lately been remodeled to be the most modern theater in the region.
Mr. W. E. Anderson of Mt. Jewett, Pennsylvania, was operating the State in the early 1950s. The October 23, 1952, issue of The Bolivar Breeze had said that on October 19 Mr. Anderson had reopened his State Theatre at Friendship. It had been closed since the previous July 1. It would be open six nights a week, with a matinée on Sunday.
The April 15, 1954, issue of the Cuba, New York Patriot and Free Press carried an ad in which Mr. Anderson offered the State Theatre for sale (PDF here.) The house was apparently not in operation at the time, as the ad said only that it was “ready to start at once.”
An ad for the State in the March 4, 1954, issue of the same newspaper had touted a “gala parade of hits” for that month, so the house couldn’t have been closed for very long when it was offered for sale. I’ve been unable to discover if anyone ever bought and reopened the house.
The twin towers of the Tulare Theatre still had their Moorish grillwork when this photo from the Huntington Digital Library’s Southern California Edison Company collection was taken by photographer G. Haven Bishop on October 6, 1936.
Here is a photo of the Fox Theatre in Hanford taken October 5, 1936, by photographer G. Haven Bishop for the Southern California Edison Company.
From the Huntington Digital Library, here is G. Haven Bishop’s 1938 photo of Rennie’s Theatre.
Here is a zoomable version of the photo Nathan linked to.
An article in the New Philadelphia Times Reporter, dated August 18, 2013, and headed “New landscape at Mount Union” contains this line: “The most noticeable to students and community members alike is the construction of the as-yet-unnamed health and medical science building, which runs parallel to a busy section of South Union Avenue, where the Mount Union Theater once stood.”
Apparently, Mount Union University has demolished the Mt. Union Theatre- another shameless act of destruction by an institution of higher learning and lower behavior.
The April 24, 1937, issue of The Film Daily said that Harry Schiller’s new Grand Theatre would open on May 5. The 800-seat house was the first new theater built in Nebraska in two years.
The Dreamland Theatre had been renamed the Rialto by 1928, when operator L.J. Bennett was mentioned in the April 7 issue of The Film Daily. A booklet published for Pekin’s sesquicentennial says that the Rialto Theatre was destroyed by a fire in the 1950s.