I’m glad to help. If a print of the movie was still around in the late 1950s, and in condition to be screened, someone must have been taking care of it. The nitrate film stock that was used in the 1920s was very unstable, and had to be carefully preserved. If somebody was looking after it for more than thirty years, chances are they continued to do so. The Grocery Boy might still exist in someone’s private collection.
An item in the February 19, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had information about the Ashland Theatre:
“Ashland to Seat 2,000.
“R. Stedman, manager of the Ashland theater, 24th and Elmwood, Kansas City, is remodeling his theater from a seating capacity of 1,000 to one that will hold 2,000 people. When this is completed, Mr. Stedman will have practically the largest capacity of any of the residence district theaters. The Apollo, when its new balcony is done, will also be among the largest, but the seating capacity will not quite equal that of the Ashland.”
The McDonald’s that occupies one side of the Sugg Theatre’s site is at 2027 S. 4th Street, so the Sugg’s address was probably 2027 or 2029.
The January 2, 1940, issue of The Film Daily ran this brief item about the destruction of the theater:
“Chichasha Theater Burns
“Chickasha, Okla. — This city’s largest theater, the Washita, owned by Consolidated Theaters, Inc., Griffith subsidiary, was destroyed by a $50,000 fire.”
The June 7, 1913, issue of Exhibitors' Times ran this one-page item about the Theatre Edouard VII, then under construction, with a rendering of the auditorium.
ejellise: The only reference I can find in the trade publications to a movie made by William Leucht is this item from the March 21, 1925, issue of Exhibitor’s Trade Review:
“Exhibitor Becomes Producer
“St. Joseph, Mo., March 11.— Having made a 3-reel home talent comedy last year, which played to S. R. O. business, William Leucht, manager of the Savoy Theatre, is now building a small plant for the developing, printing and finishing of motion pictures. ‘It’s a good business getter,’ he says.”
I don’t know what became of Mr. Leucht’s movie production business, but he was still operating the Savoy Theatre as late as 1929. The “home talent comedy” mentioned in the item might have been The Grocery Boy, which would mean the year of its production was 1924. If he made additional movies later, it might have been one of them, of course. A movie of that title is not listed in any of the online databases, nor in any of the trade publications of the 1920s that are available online, so it is likely among the more than 80% of silent movies that have been lost.
Does anyone know of a theater operating in this neighborhood before the construction of the World Trade Center? The theater would have opened in 1927 at the southwest corner of Cortlandt and West Streets. The project was mentioned in the July 13, 1927, issue of The Film Daily. If it did get built it might not have operated for very long.
The Belmont was a very early neighborhood house, dating back to around 1915. In 1925, there were plans afoot to remodel and expand it, but I don’t know if the project was carried out or not. In Google’s satellite views the building doesn’t look large enough to have accommodated the 1,800 seats that this item from the February 7, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal said it was to have:
“$60,000 Remodeling for K. C. Belmont
“Owners Will Increase Capacity of House to 1,800.
“Plans have been announced for the complete remodeling of the Belmont Theatre, St. John and Oakley Avenues, this city, by the owner, Ed Grogger. The cost of the improvement will be approximately $60,000.
“The remodeled structure will be of terra-cotta facing St. John Avenue on a 75-foot frontage, 125 feet deep. A balcony is to be built in to seat 600, which enlarges the capacity of the house from 1,100 to 1,800. A large and elaborately equipped stage is to be added. Construction work is to start immediately.
“The new building will transcribe a story of Oklahoma oil, according to the owners. Just lately their interests have brought in three producing wells in Wagner County, Okla., and all are big producers.
“Ed Grogger built the Belmont Theatre ten years ago and has been in the same location continuously since that date.”
I don’t seen any evidence of a “large and elaborately equipped stage” (there’s only a modest structure that looks almost like a lean-to) nor the high roof and emergency exits that a 600-seat balcony would require, so maybe Mr. Grogger’s Oklahoma oil wells didn’t produce as well as he had expected them to, and he couldn’t afford to carry out his ambitious expansion plans.
There is a page for Edward Leodore Mayberry Jr., at the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, and it has an interesting bit of information. It lists the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara among his works. Mayberry was the engineer on that 1924 project designed by architect George Washington Smith.
The Lobero was (and is) a live theater, but the movie theater trade publication Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World was so impressed by the house that it ran an illustrated article about it in the “Better Theatres” section of its issue of September 1, 1928, suggesting that the Lobero be used as a model for suburban movie theaters.
A brief biography of Mayberry’s partner, Llewellyn Adelbert Parker, can be seen on this web page, and it says that their firm (which operated from 1907 to 1918) engineered the Majestic Theatre (presumably Hamburger’s Majestic on Broadway) and the Panorama Theatre. The Panorama was the Main Street building that Adolph Ramish converted into the Adolphus Theatre, later renamed the Hippodrome.
Wes till need to change the street name to Whittier Boulevard.
The Euclid Theatre was built in 1912-1913 by L. A. Flower. The November 16, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer said that Flower had received a permit to build a two-story brick moving picture theater and lodge building, 36x100 feet, at 3029 Stephenson Avenue (the address given for the Euclid Theatre in the 1914 city directory.)
The December 12, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer confirms the site of the theater designed by Train & Williams as the northwest corner of 47th Place and Moneta Avenue (South Broadway.)
The December 14, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer said that a brick moving picture theater and garage was to be built on the south side of 7th Street between Garland and Hartford Streets. As the L.A. County Assessor’s office says that he Playhouse building was built in 1913, it must have been this project. The building was designed by the firm of Mayberry & Parker, architectural engineers, with offices in the Pacific Electric Building.
This house was built in 1913. The December 2, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer had an item saying that a permit had been issued for construction of a one-story brick theater at 6010 Moneta Street. The plans were by architects Miller & Hart, presumably not a major firm, given their address on West 28th Street.
I believe that George B. Campbell, designer of the Starland Theatre, was an in-house architect for the Huntington Land & Improvement Company. Campbell’s office address was 744 Pacific Electric Building, and I’ve found that the seventh floor of the PE Building was also the location of the Huntington Land & Improvement Company’s offices.
Alterations were to be made to the Garrick Theatre in 1913, according to the March 15 issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer. Lawrence A. Valk was the architect for the project, the extent of which was not specified.
Barman and Robinson were listed as the owners of the theater, and their address was given as 5th and Los Angeles Streets. It’s likely that they were also the owners of the Globe Theatre, which was at that intersection.
The June, 1916, issue of a magazine called American Globe ran the following item:
“NEW GARRICK THEATER NOW THE HOME OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN
“The New Garrick Theater on Broadway at Eighth street has been taken over by a Los Angeles Syndicate. A new picture machine has been installed and a nine piece orchestra, as well as organist, was added. M. Jean de Chauvenet, famous royal player and composer, is organist. Charlie Chaplin has moved again. He is now at home at the New Garrick Theater. The renovating of the house as well as a new ventilating system has added materially to the comfort of crowded houses. Recently there was a line more than half a block long waiting the enter the New Garrick, which is an indication of better times.”
The house that would become the Victoria Theatre was the subject of an item in the March 15, 1913, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer. The item said that plans and specifications for a brick store, office, and theater building, 57x140 feet, to be built at the southwest corner of Pico Boulevard and Berendo Street, had been filed on March 7. Frank L. Stiff was the architect.
In 1913, the Adolphus Theatre was extensively altered with the addition of a 700-seat, steel and concrete cantilevered balcony. The April 12 issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer said that the project was being designed by architect Otto Jansson, which was probably a misspelling. The 1910 Yearbook of the Los Angeles Architecture Club spells his name Janssen. As he was then treasurer of the club, its spelling was probably right.
The Olympus Theatre, which was in operation by 1914, was most likely the project which the April 26, 1913, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer described as “…a 2-story brick theater building for M. Minkus at 2014 E. First St., plans by George E. Lubin.” The item went on to note that contracts for the project had been let. Other items noted that the new theater was to have about 800 seats, and the building would be 50x148 feet.
The May 3, 1913, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer said that architect A. C. Martin was preparing plans for a 1-story, 50x150 foot brick building to house a moving picture theater and two stores, to be built on the south side of Adams Boulevard between Harvard Boulevard and La Salle Avenue. That has to have been the Adams Theatre.
As recently as 2010, a live music venue called the Moneta Theatre was in operation in Sweetwater. It was at 105 Morris Street East, which is the storefront in the middle of this block-long building. It is currently the location of Ole Glory Antiques. I haven’t found any early documentation that was the actual location of the original Moneta Theatre, but CinemaTour uses that address for it, and a couple of items in The Advocate & Democrat, the local newspaper, referred to the modern music venue as the “…historic Moneta Theatre in downtown Sweetwater.”
The Moneta Theatre was in operation by 1917, when it was offered for sale in this ad from the October 6 issue of The Moving Picture World:
“EXCELLENT INVESTMENT— Theater seating 220, two machines, rectifier, large five-piece Wurlitzer orchestrion. In town 3,000; no competition; three large industries; also Tennessee Military Institute. High class trade, good patronage from neighboring towns and country. Reference, any citizen. Lowest price, $2,250.00. Moneta Theater, Sweetwater, Tenn.”
The later Gay Theatre was located on the west side of the short block of Main Street north of Morris Street, so it was very near the Moneta’s location.
The theater that got the Reproduco was probably not called the Booth Theatre. It was probably called either the Moneta Theatre or the Gay Theatre. Items in trade journals in 1926 and 1927 say that a Greeneville-based company called Booth Enterprises operated the Moneta Theatre in Sweetwater. The trades name several theaters operated by Booth Entrprises, but none of them are called the Booth Theatre. Reproduco probably had the name of the company rather than the name of the theater on its paperwork for this sale.
A September 4, 1926, item in Motion Picture News said that Booth Enterprises planned to build new theaters in Greenville, Newport, and Sweetwater. The new Greenville house, the Palace, did get built and opened in 1927. I haven’t found anything else about the other two projects, but a Sweetwater tourist brochure (PDF here) says that a movie house called the Gay Theatre was built in Sweetwater in 1929, and operated until the Cherokee Theatre was built at another site in 1953. The Gay Theatre might have been the Booth Enterprises house.
The brochure says that the Gay Theatre was on part of the site now occupied by the Sweetwater branch of Regions Bank. The bank is at 401 N. Main Street. The theater might not have had that exact address, but the block is only about 200 feet long so it would have been very close to that number.
A tourist brochure (PDF here) says that the Cherokee Theatre was built in 1953. It replaced an earlier house called the Gay Theatre, which had opened in 1929 at another location.
The brochure doesn’t mention it, but as late as 1927, Sweetwater had a movie house called the Moneta Theatre, which dated back to the 1910s.
Chances are that there was no house called the Booth Theatre in Greeneville, or in Sweetwater. A company called Booth Enterprises operated theaters in Greeneville and other eastern Tennessee towns in the 1920s, and I suspect that Reproduco was using the company’s name, not the names of individual theaters, on its paperwork for the transactions. I’ve come across the names of several theaters operated by Booth Enterprises and none of them were called the Booth Theatre.
In 1926, Booth Enterprises were operating the Princess and Liberty Theatres in Greenville. In 1927 they demolished the Liberty and built the Palace Theatre on its site. They were planning to build a new theater on Main Street, after which the Princess, also on Main Street, would be redecorated, but I don’t know if the new Main Street house was ever built. The Princess was still operating in 1936 when it was taken over by Tony Sudekum’s Crescent Amusement Co., but it was being operated by Parrott & Hendron Amusement Co. by then, and I don’t know if Booth Enterprises existed any more in 1936.
The Reproduco might have been sent to the new Palace Theatre, or it might have been sent to the Princess, or, if Booth’s new theater on Main Street did eventually get built it might have been sent there. There is also the possibility that the Princess was remodeled and renamed the Capitol after Crescent took it over. The Film Daily Yearbooks might offer some clue.
Here is an item from the September 4, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News:
“Booth Ent. Acquires Three More in Tennessee
“E. M. Booth, president of Booth Enterprises, Greenville, Tenn., has announced that plans are being materialized for the building of new theatres in Greenville, Newport and Sweetwater, Tenn. Booth Enterprises already have theatres at these points and have recently taken over the Grand at Lenoir City and the Moneta at Sweetwater. Other houses in the chain are the Princess and Liberty at Greenville, Lyric at Jonesboro, Gay at Newport and Jefferson at Jefferson City.
In 1927, The Film Daily ran this item in its issue of July 20:
"Booth Firm Building Two
“Greeneville, Tenn.— Construction is well under way on the Palace, located on the site of the old Liberty and scheduled to open about August
“The building is being erected for the Booth Enterprises. Its opening will not effect plans for the theater to be erected on Main St., which will also be under Booth management. After the opening of the latter house, the Princess, also on Main St., will be redecorated. E. A. Booth of Greeneville is president of the company which controls besides the theaters in Greeneville, five other Tennessee theaters: the Lyric, Jonesboro; Gay, Newport; Jefferson, Jefferson City; Grand, Lenoir; and Moneta at Sweetwater.”
The recent opening of the Palace Theatre in Greenville was noted in the September 12, 1927, issue of The Film Daily.
The April 11, 1941, issue of The Film Daily had this item about the Zephyr Theatre:
“Abington, Va. — Fire completely
destroyed the 18-months-old Zephyr Theater recently. House was owned and operated by the Lincoln Theater Co. of Marion, and was built at a cost of some $55,000.”
The Zephyr must have opened in late 1939, and was probably rebuilt and reopened before the end of 1941, though I haven’t found any confirmation in the trade publications.
A ca.1955 photo of Main Street on page 13 of Abingdon, Virginia, by Donna Akers Warmuth and Donna Gayle Akers (Google Books preview) shows the marquee of the Zephyr Theatre on the building now occupied by Zephyr Antiques, which is at 270 W. Main Street.
I’m glad to help. If a print of the movie was still around in the late 1950s, and in condition to be screened, someone must have been taking care of it. The nitrate film stock that was used in the 1920s was very unstable, and had to be carefully preserved. If somebody was looking after it for more than thirty years, chances are they continued to do so. The Grocery Boy might still exist in someone’s private collection.
An item in the February 19, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had information about the Ashland Theatre:
The McDonald’s that occupies one side of the Sugg Theatre’s site is at 2027 S. 4th Street, so the Sugg’s address was probably 2027 or 2029.
The January 2, 1940, issue of The Film Daily ran this brief item about the destruction of the theater:
The June 7, 1913, issue of Exhibitors' Times ran this one-page item about the Theatre Edouard VII, then under construction, with a rendering of the auditorium.
ejellise: The only reference I can find in the trade publications to a movie made by William Leucht is this item from the March 21, 1925, issue of Exhibitor’s Trade Review:
I don’t know what became of Mr. Leucht’s movie production business, but he was still operating the Savoy Theatre as late as 1929. The “home talent comedy” mentioned in the item might have been The Grocery Boy, which would mean the year of its production was 1924. If he made additional movies later, it might have been one of them, of course. A movie of that title is not listed in any of the online databases, nor in any of the trade publications of the 1920s that are available online, so it is likely among the more than 80% of silent movies that have been lost.Does anyone know of a theater operating in this neighborhood before the construction of the World Trade Center? The theater would have opened in 1927 at the southwest corner of Cortlandt and West Streets. The project was mentioned in the July 13, 1927, issue of The Film Daily. If it did get built it might not have operated for very long.
The Belmont was a very early neighborhood house, dating back to around 1915. In 1925, there were plans afoot to remodel and expand it, but I don’t know if the project was carried out or not. In Google’s satellite views the building doesn’t look large enough to have accommodated the 1,800 seats that this item from the February 7, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal said it was to have:
I don’t seen any evidence of a “large and elaborately equipped stage” (there’s only a modest structure that looks almost like a lean-to) nor the high roof and emergency exits that a 600-seat balcony would require, so maybe Mr. Grogger’s Oklahoma oil wells didn’t produce as well as he had expected them to, and he couldn’t afford to carry out his ambitious expansion plans.There is a page for Edward Leodore Mayberry Jr., at the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, and it has an interesting bit of information. It lists the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara among his works. Mayberry was the engineer on that 1924 project designed by architect George Washington Smith.
The Lobero was (and is) a live theater, but the movie theater trade publication Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World was so impressed by the house that it ran an illustrated article about it in the “Better Theatres” section of its issue of September 1, 1928, suggesting that the Lobero be used as a model for suburban movie theaters.
A brief biography of Mayberry’s partner, Llewellyn Adelbert Parker, can be seen on this web page, and it says that their firm (which operated from 1907 to 1918) engineered the Majestic Theatre (presumably Hamburger’s Majestic on Broadway) and the Panorama Theatre. The Panorama was the Main Street building that Adolph Ramish converted into the Adolphus Theatre, later renamed the Hippodrome.
Wes till need to change the street name to Whittier Boulevard.
The Euclid Theatre was built in 1912-1913 by L. A. Flower. The November 16, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer said that Flower had received a permit to build a two-story brick moving picture theater and lodge building, 36x100 feet, at 3029 Stephenson Avenue (the address given for the Euclid Theatre in the 1914 city directory.)
The December 12, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer confirms the site of the theater designed by Train & Williams as the northwest corner of 47th Place and Moneta Avenue (South Broadway.)
The December 14, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer said that a brick moving picture theater and garage was to be built on the south side of 7th Street between Garland and Hartford Streets. As the L.A. County Assessor’s office says that he Playhouse building was built in 1913, it must have been this project. The building was designed by the firm of Mayberry & Parker, architectural engineers, with offices in the Pacific Electric Building.
This house was built in 1913. The December 2, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer had an item saying that a permit had been issued for construction of a one-story brick theater at 6010 Moneta Street. The plans were by architects Miller & Hart, presumably not a major firm, given their address on West 28th Street.
I believe that George B. Campbell, designer of the Starland Theatre, was an in-house architect for the Huntington Land & Improvement Company. Campbell’s office address was 744 Pacific Electric Building, and I’ve found that the seventh floor of the PE Building was also the location of the Huntington Land & Improvement Company’s offices.
Alterations were to be made to the Garrick Theatre in 1913, according to the March 15 issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer. Lawrence A. Valk was the architect for the project, the extent of which was not specified.
Barman and Robinson were listed as the owners of the theater, and their address was given as 5th and Los Angeles Streets. It’s likely that they were also the owners of the Globe Theatre, which was at that intersection.
The June, 1916, issue of a magazine called American Globe ran the following item:
The house that would become the Victoria Theatre was the subject of an item in the March 15, 1913, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer. The item said that plans and specifications for a brick store, office, and theater building, 57x140 feet, to be built at the southwest corner of Pico Boulevard and Berendo Street, had been filed on March 7. Frank L. Stiff was the architect.
In 1913, the Adolphus Theatre was extensively altered with the addition of a 700-seat, steel and concrete cantilevered balcony. The April 12 issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer said that the project was being designed by architect Otto Jansson, which was probably a misspelling. The 1910 Yearbook of the Los Angeles Architecture Club spells his name Janssen. As he was then treasurer of the club, its spelling was probably right.
The Olympus Theatre, which was in operation by 1914, was most likely the project which the April 26, 1913, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer described as “…a 2-story brick theater building for M. Minkus at 2014 E. First St., plans by George E. Lubin.” The item went on to note that contracts for the project had been let. Other items noted that the new theater was to have about 800 seats, and the building would be 50x148 feet.
The May 3, 1913, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer said that architect A. C. Martin was preparing plans for a 1-story, 50x150 foot brick building to house a moving picture theater and two stores, to be built on the south side of Adams Boulevard between Harvard Boulevard and La Salle Avenue. That has to have been the Adams Theatre.
As recently as 2010, a live music venue called the Moneta Theatre was in operation in Sweetwater. It was at 105 Morris Street East, which is the storefront in the middle of this block-long building. It is currently the location of Ole Glory Antiques. I haven’t found any early documentation that was the actual location of the original Moneta Theatre, but CinemaTour uses that address for it, and a couple of items in The Advocate & Democrat, the local newspaper, referred to the modern music venue as the “…historic Moneta Theatre in downtown Sweetwater.”
The Moneta Theatre was in operation by 1917, when it was offered for sale in this ad from the October 6 issue of The Moving Picture World:
The later Gay Theatre was located on the west side of the short block of Main Street north of Morris Street, so it was very near the Moneta’s location.The theater that got the Reproduco was probably not called the Booth Theatre. It was probably called either the Moneta Theatre or the Gay Theatre. Items in trade journals in 1926 and 1927 say that a Greeneville-based company called Booth Enterprises operated the Moneta Theatre in Sweetwater. The trades name several theaters operated by Booth Entrprises, but none of them are called the Booth Theatre. Reproduco probably had the name of the company rather than the name of the theater on its paperwork for this sale.
A September 4, 1926, item in Motion Picture News said that Booth Enterprises planned to build new theaters in Greenville, Newport, and Sweetwater. The new Greenville house, the Palace, did get built and opened in 1927. I haven’t found anything else about the other two projects, but a Sweetwater tourist brochure (PDF here) says that a movie house called the Gay Theatre was built in Sweetwater in 1929, and operated until the Cherokee Theatre was built at another site in 1953. The Gay Theatre might have been the Booth Enterprises house.
The brochure says that the Gay Theatre was on part of the site now occupied by the Sweetwater branch of Regions Bank. The bank is at 401 N. Main Street. The theater might not have had that exact address, but the block is only about 200 feet long so it would have been very close to that number.
A tourist brochure (PDF here) says that the Cherokee Theatre was built in 1953. It replaced an earlier house called the Gay Theatre, which had opened in 1929 at another location.
The brochure doesn’t mention it, but as late as 1927, Sweetwater had a movie house called the Moneta Theatre, which dated back to the 1910s.
Chances are that there was no house called the Booth Theatre in Greeneville, or in Sweetwater. A company called Booth Enterprises operated theaters in Greeneville and other eastern Tennessee towns in the 1920s, and I suspect that Reproduco was using the company’s name, not the names of individual theaters, on its paperwork for the transactions. I’ve come across the names of several theaters operated by Booth Enterprises and none of them were called the Booth Theatre.
In 1926, Booth Enterprises were operating the Princess and Liberty Theatres in Greenville. In 1927 they demolished the Liberty and built the Palace Theatre on its site. They were planning to build a new theater on Main Street, after which the Princess, also on Main Street, would be redecorated, but I don’t know if the new Main Street house was ever built. The Princess was still operating in 1936 when it was taken over by Tony Sudekum’s Crescent Amusement Co., but it was being operated by Parrott & Hendron Amusement Co. by then, and I don’t know if Booth Enterprises existed any more in 1936.
The Reproduco might have been sent to the new Palace Theatre, or it might have been sent to the Princess, or, if Booth’s new theater on Main Street did eventually get built it might have been sent there. There is also the possibility that the Princess was remodeled and renamed the Capitol after Crescent took it over. The Film Daily Yearbooks might offer some clue.
Here is an item from the September 4, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News:
In 1927, The Film Daily ran this item in its issue of July 20:The recent opening of the Palace Theatre in Greenville was noted in the September 12, 1927, issue of The Film Daily.The April 11, 1941, issue of The Film Daily had this item about the Zephyr Theatre:
The Zephyr must have opened in late 1939, and was probably rebuilt and reopened before the end of 1941, though I haven’t found any confirmation in the trade publications.A ca.1955 photo of Main Street on page 13 of Abingdon, Virginia, by Donna Akers Warmuth and Donna Gayle Akers (Google Books preview) shows the marquee of the Zephyr Theatre on the building now occupied by Zephyr Antiques, which is at 270 W. Main Street.