In 1913 when most neighborhood movie houses were simply converted stores with folding chairs to accommodate patrons and the price of admission was five cents, the newly opened 800-seat Tiffin theater on North avenue just east of Karlov, was regarded as one of the finest outlying movie theaters in the entire city.
This week, beginning Friday, Jan. 19, the Tiffin
theater is celebrating its 60th anniversary and is turning the clock back many, many years by offering moviegoers a rare bargain, an admission price of just 60 cents for a double feature.
Two excellent films, “Butterflies are Free” and “The
Burglar,” will be shown during the anniversary week
beginning Friday and continuing through Thursday,
Jan. 25.
Partners in the building of the Tiffin theater 60 years
ago were William J. Clark, realtor and attorney; George
Kappus, a Northwest Side druggist and Vincent T. Lynch, who served as manager of the theater.
Right from the start business boomed and movie goers flocked by the hundreds to the “showplace of the Northwest Side.”
It was soon apparent that the building was too small to
adequately serve the growing numbers of movie fans, so
owners Clark, Kappus and Lynch made plans for a
bigger theater.
A new partner, Joseph joined the group and they acquired property at the corner of North Karlov, just west of the original theater building.
Taking their cue from the grandiose movie palaces then
being constructed in the Loop, the partners built the
present Tiffin theater with seating for more than 2,200
patrons.
It was a beautiful building, tastefully decorated and furnished and from the day it was opened in 1923, business flourished.
This was in the heyday of the movie industry. Radio
was in its infancy and television was yet far in the
future. No one had heard of x-rated movies and all theaters offered film fare for the entire family.
Looking back over the years, owner Jack Clark, son
of William J., one of the original partners in the enterprise, said “The Tiffin, since the day it opened in 1913 has continued to operate through wars, the
big depression, recessions, inflation, the advent of radio and television and lastly, x-rated movies and has survived it all. The reason the Tiffin survived when many others went down the drain has been our policy of offering the best in family movie entertainment at the lowest possible prices. Also, we never gave in to the current fad of showing
pornographic, x-rated movies. Our patrons feel they
can come to the Tiffin and not be offended by the movies on our screen.”
Asked why the preponderance of films made in the
past few years have been x-rated movies, Clark, who has
served as president of the Motion Picture Theater
Owners association of Illinois in the entire city, said “If people said the lives of the saints should be filmed, that’s what the movie producers would film – if
that’s where the money was.”
Since that isn’t likely, that part of the movie-going
public with no desire to see pornographic films will continue to attend the Tiffin theater where Clark is doing his best to maintain the 60-year-old policy of showing the best available movie films suited to family entertainment.
SCORE INJURED IN EXPLOSION IN THEATER – (February 7, 1931 – AP) – Panic In Audience of 2000 At Los Angeles Averted By Actor; Screen Star’s Honor ………Thirty persons were injured, several seriously, and a panic in a theater audience of more than 2,000 was averted when an explosion in a power main in front of the Orpheum theater shook the building late last night. So terrific was the blast that several persons standing in front of the theater were lifted into the air and others were hurled against store windows. A portion of the street was torn up and windows smashed. A brilliant first night audience, augmented by the presence of more than 1,000 motion picture players, packed the theatre for the premiere of ‘Cimarron’. Many film stars were on the stage making personal appearances when the explosion shocked the theater. Robert McWade, veteran stage and screen actor, averted a panic. “Don’t get excited folks,” McWade cried. “That was just part of the celebration in my honor.” The audience laughed and grew calm. The show goers filed out in an orderly manner later, when squads of police and firemen took charge of the situation. The blast was due to an accumulation of gas in the power main, according to H. E. Walker, member of the fire prevention bureau, attending the performance.
THEATER BOMBING BAFFLES SEATTLE
Police Investigate Mysterious Blast Which Rocks
City’s Business Area.
(May 12, 1928) — (A.P.)—
A theater bombing which left as clue only a sheet iron stage door riddled with scrap iron slugs and the conflicting stories of a half dozen witnesses turned into a mystery today to police who were investigating.
The bomb, manufactured with a motion picture film can and dynamite and loaded with rusty scrap iron, exploded
in the alley between the Colonial and Capitol theaters here last night while both show houses were filled. It was the sixth theater bombing here since the first of the year.
The detonation, which shattered windows in the alley and rocked the business district, alarmed theatre visitors and crowds in adjacent streets and caused a near panic in the audience of the Colonial theater.
This house was the apparent object of the bombers.
The only arrest made since the inception of the bombing campaign, was that of Thomas J. Woodhouse, a former amateur boxing champion who was taken April 23, charged with the bombing of the Embassy theater and released in $4,000 bail.
Labor disputes were given by the police and owners of the theaters as reasons for the bombings.
The SENATE Theatre ceiling collapse happened at 2:25 p.m. on Thursday, July 8, 1948. An adjoining building’s wall had given way and fell upon the SENATE’S roof. Fifty patrons were in the balcony at the time, some of whom assisted in rescue. One woman was said to be completely covered in brick and mortar, according to patron James Robins who had been seated nearby.
The MYRTLE closed the same year that its original builder and longtime owner died. Jacob E. Stocker passed on at 76 on November 16, 1950. He had also been a director of Allied Theatres of Michigan, and was survived by a daughter, Mildred Toplin of Washington and a son, Seymour, of Detroit, and is buried at Cloverhill Park Cemetery in Detroit.
In the mid-1950s, the MYRTLE was being used by a pattern shop. Late in October 2010, a Karen O'Donoghue purchased the MYRTLE theatre building at public auction for $500.
Kenosha closes the curtain on historic theater
Dustin Block , Special to The Daily Reporter
Kenosha is tearing down one of its historic movie houses over the objections of the building’s owners.
Kathryn Hanneman and John Gee, owners of the Roosevelt Theatre since 2000, pleaded with city officials to spare the building. They want to turn the movie house into a studio for shooting commercials and television pilots. But after eight years, they’ve made no progress.
Worse, say city officials, the owners let the building deteriorate to a condition beyond repair.
“It’s a building that is in a serious state if disrepair,†said Jim Schultz, Kenosha’s director of Neighborhood Services and Inspections. “It’s a public nuisance and a public safety issue.â€
But Hanneman said the city is rushing to destroy a historic property. She claims the building is made of concrete and steel girders thicker than skyscrapers, and could easily stand for years to come.
“I think it speaks to their lack of vision,†Hanneman said. “Projects like this are done all of the time. They really don’t have any reason to bring it down.â€
The single-screen Roosevelt Theatre, the longest continuously screening theater in Kenosha, opened Christmas Day in 1927 and showed movies for 55 years. It was designed by architect Einar Dahl and revised by architect Charles Augustine. Capacity was originally 1,000 seats but was reduced to 764 seats in the 1970s.
Along with the movie theater, there was a bowling alley in the basement. The interior of the building is all but gone, Schultz said. The bowling alley was removed years ago, and the original organ was dismantled in the 1950s to make room for air conditioning.
The Kenosha City Council voted 14-1 on Aug. 4 to raze the building. The council approved a $37,000 contract with Champion Environmental Services Inc., Gilberts, Ill., to remove asbestos from the theater before demolition. Asbestos removal is scheduled to being in two weeks. Demolition would begin in six weeks.
Hanneman and Gee owe $150,000 in liens and back taxes on the property. They said they do not have the money to make even basic repairs to the theater. They were working with an anonymous donor to receive $500,000 for the theater, but the money was tied up in estate proceedings, Hanneman said.
Gee, an entertainment promoter from Milwaukee, said Kenosha overestimated how much it would cost to “button up†the building until money is found for restoration. His plan was to either fix the exterior and sell the theater to a developer or create a recording and television studio.
But that plan received little support from city officials, said Gee, noting that public money was available to help the Kenosha Theatre and the Rhode Opera House in the city’s downtown. When he asked for city support for the Roosevelt Theatre, he was turned away.
“We wanted a property that supports itself, not one that’s supported by the city,†he said, adding that, in retrospect, he and Hanneman didn’t have the experience needed to complete the project. “That was the weakness in our plan. We didn’t have a real estate professional in our group.â€
Schultz said the city does not support tearing down historic buildings. But in the case of the Roosevelt Theatre, he said, restoration would cost more than $1 million.
“Really there’s no choice in the matter,†he said. “The owner doesn’t have the resources to make the minimum necessary repairs.â€
The 12,500 square-foot theater is in central Kenosha about a mile from the city’s downtown, which includes two historic theaters, one in use and the other undergoing a $24 million restoration. The Roosevelt has not been used as a theater for more than 20 years.
There are no plans to redevelop the site, Schultz said.
Tina, you may be aware that the large 1927 vertical sign read “Dahl’s Roosevelt”. I believe the “Dahl’s” was blanked out shortly afterward but at least one photo with that configuration does exist, as do some others without it.
The owners have until spring to correct minor exterior repairs including paint touch-up and tuckpointing.
A couple of items for the record: the architecture is Gothic, a rather rare style amongst movie palaces; and the theatre had already been renamed the Uptown in the 1940s, long before its closure near New Years Day of 1959. Its manager then was a Mr. Gross or Groce, and at the Uptown’s closure he was immediately appointed to manage the Kenosha Theatre in Kenosha and when the Kenosha closed on April 21, 1963 he took over the Lake Theatre (formerly the Gateway, now the Rhode Opera House) three blocks north, all Standard Theatres chain houses.
There was a Preservation Racine tour of the Uptown in the fall of 1981 and restoration talk was flowing even then. Around that time some rock concerts were held in the auditorium, but patrons had to use a rear exit door as the lobbies were then occupied by the Avenue Frame Shop. That, by the way, was a longtime business (gone now) that attracted many “customers” who ostensibly were interested in picture-framing but who were actually there as curiosity-seekers to see what they could of the vestibules and lobbies.
Please check into the Roosevelt Theatre in Kenosha WI, which has just come up for sale through Bear Realty www.bearrealty.com (262) 694-2327. There are flanking storefronts and upper floors to provide extra income. The street is busy, and is WI Highway 50. Thanks!
I recall that there were a few unconnected voices of preservation raised in the mid-1970s, terming the closed and endangered Venetian a landmark though it never was officially designated as such.
But the local daily newspaper (the Journal Times) demanded its demolition in editorials and denounced the Venetian’s value as a landmark, showing as its “proof” of that denial a photo of the plain brick stagehouse at the rear of the theatre.
After demolition, the land was vacant for a quarter of a century.
The Roosevelt Theatre Building with its attached storefronts and second-floor offices and parking lots is now totally vacant and for sale through Bear Realty of Kenosha WI. Roosevelt Road itself was recently streetscaped, resurfaced and upgraded to Wisconsin Highway 50. The City is installing a large parking lot next door.
It was originally the Butterfly Theatre (named for its distinctive butterfly-winged ornamentation flanking the proscenium), and was built by the Klinkert Brewery of Racine during Prohibition and operated by local exhibitor Michael Lencioni. It was renamed ‘Hollywood Theatre’ in the 1930s. The final double-feature film program at the Hollywood Theatre was on the night of April 30, 1952. Thereafter the theatre was vacant for a time and was then rented for church services. It was still intact until 1960, when the local Polish Legion of American Veterans post acquired the Hollywood, leveled the floor and walls, and hung a false ceiling, which still remains above it. The Hollywood’s two-manual pipe organ is now in the B'nai Brith Temple in Library Park downtown.
The Vogue Theatre opened in September 1923 and was operated by local barkeep Walter Schlager. It hosted second-run films and live acts into the 1930s. A random search turned up an appearance by Patsy Montana. There was a two-manual Wicks organ. Local exhibitor Bill Exton (who also operated the Roosevelt and Hollywood Theaters) leased the Vogue, which was part of Milwaukee’s Standard Theatres chain in the 1940s. The last regular double-feature program there was on the night of Monday, December 15, 1951, with the outside temperature at fifteen below zero.
Shortly before demolition in 1953.
This is longtime manager Bill Exton.
LIFE Magazine essay on the KENOSHA Theatre, 1938 (Bernard Hoffman photo).
(Community Publications, January 17, 1973)
Tiffin launches 60th anniversary fete
In 1913 when most neighborhood movie houses were simply converted stores with folding chairs to accommodate patrons and the price of admission was five cents, the newly opened 800-seat Tiffin theater on North avenue just east of Karlov, was regarded as one of the finest outlying movie theaters in the entire city. This week, beginning Friday, Jan. 19, the Tiffin theater is celebrating its 60th anniversary and is turning the clock back many, many years by offering moviegoers a rare bargain, an admission price of just 60 cents for a double feature. Two excellent films, “Butterflies are Free” and “The Burglar,” will be shown during the anniversary week beginning Friday and continuing through Thursday, Jan. 25. Partners in the building of the Tiffin theater 60 years ago were William J. Clark, realtor and attorney; George Kappus, a Northwest Side druggist and Vincent T. Lynch, who served as manager of the theater. Right from the start business boomed and movie goers flocked by the hundreds to the “showplace of the Northwest Side.” It was soon apparent that the building was too small to adequately serve the growing numbers of movie fans, so owners Clark, Kappus and Lynch made plans for a bigger theater. A new partner, Joseph joined the group and they acquired property at the corner of North Karlov, just west of the original theater building. Taking their cue from the grandiose movie palaces then being constructed in the Loop, the partners built the present Tiffin theater with seating for more than 2,200 patrons. It was a beautiful building, tastefully decorated and furnished and from the day it was opened in 1923, business flourished. This was in the heyday of the movie industry. Radio was in its infancy and television was yet far in the future. No one had heard of x-rated movies and all theaters offered film fare for the entire family. Looking back over the years, owner Jack Clark, son of William J., one of the original partners in the enterprise, said “The Tiffin, since the day it opened in 1913 has continued to operate through wars, the big depression, recessions, inflation, the advent of radio and television and lastly, x-rated movies and has survived it all. The reason the Tiffin survived when many others went down the drain has been our policy of offering the best in family movie entertainment at the lowest possible prices. Also, we never gave in to the current fad of showing pornographic, x-rated movies. Our patrons feel they can come to the Tiffin and not be offended by the movies on our screen.” Asked why the preponderance of films made in the past few years have been x-rated movies, Clark, who has served as president of the Motion Picture Theater Owners association of Illinois in the entire city, said “If people said the lives of the saints should be filmed, that’s what the movie producers would film – if that’s where the money was.” Since that isn’t likely, that part of the movie-going public with no desire to see pornographic films will continue to attend the Tiffin theater where Clark is doing his best to maintain the 60-year-old policy of showing the best available movie films suited to family entertainment.
SCORE INJURED IN EXPLOSION IN THEATER – (February 7, 1931 – AP) – Panic In Audience of 2000 At Los Angeles Averted By Actor; Screen Star’s Honor ………Thirty persons were injured, several seriously, and a panic in a theater audience of more than 2,000 was averted when an explosion in a power main in front of the Orpheum theater shook the building late last night. So terrific was the blast that several persons standing in front of the theater were lifted into the air and others were hurled against store windows. A portion of the street was torn up and windows smashed. A brilliant first night audience, augmented by the presence of more than 1,000 motion picture players, packed the theatre for the premiere of ‘Cimarron’. Many film stars were on the stage making personal appearances when the explosion shocked the theater. Robert McWade, veteran stage and screen actor, averted a panic. “Don’t get excited folks,” McWade cried. “That was just part of the celebration in my honor.” The audience laughed and grew calm. The show goers filed out in an orderly manner later, when squads of police and firemen took charge of the situation. The blast was due to an accumulation of gas in the power main, according to H. E. Walker, member of the fire prevention bureau, attending the performance.
THEATER BOMBING BAFFLES SEATTLE Police Investigate Mysterious Blast Which Rocks City’s Business Area. (May 12, 1928) — (A.P.)— A theater bombing which left as clue only a sheet iron stage door riddled with scrap iron slugs and the conflicting stories of a half dozen witnesses turned into a mystery today to police who were investigating. The bomb, manufactured with a motion picture film can and dynamite and loaded with rusty scrap iron, exploded in the alley between the Colonial and Capitol theaters here last night while both show houses were filled. It was the sixth theater bombing here since the first of the year. The detonation, which shattered windows in the alley and rocked the business district, alarmed theatre visitors and crowds in adjacent streets and caused a near panic in the audience of the Colonial theater. This house was the apparent object of the bombers. The only arrest made since the inception of the bombing campaign, was that of Thomas J. Woodhouse, a former amateur boxing champion who was taken April 23, charged with the bombing of the Embassy theater and released in $4,000 bail. Labor disputes were given by the police and owners of the theaters as reasons for the bombings.
The SENATE Theatre ceiling collapse happened at 2:25 p.m. on Thursday, July 8, 1948. An adjoining building’s wall had given way and fell upon the SENATE’S roof. Fifty patrons were in the balcony at the time, some of whom assisted in rescue. One woman was said to be completely covered in brick and mortar, according to patron James Robins who had been seated nearby.
The MYRTLE closed the same year that its original builder and longtime owner died. Jacob E. Stocker passed on at 76 on November 16, 1950. He had also been a director of Allied Theatres of Michigan, and was survived by a daughter, Mildred Toplin of Washington and a son, Seymour, of Detroit, and is buried at Cloverhill Park Cemetery in Detroit.
In the mid-1950s, the MYRTLE was being used by a pattern shop. Late in October 2010, a Karen O'Donoghue purchased the MYRTLE theatre building at public auction for $500.
Click here to see the ROOSEVELT Theatre as it looked in the mid-1930s:
Kenosha closes the curtain on historic theater
Dustin Block , Special to The Daily Reporter
Kenosha is tearing down one of its historic movie houses over the objections of the building’s owners.
Kathryn Hanneman and John Gee, owners of the Roosevelt Theatre since 2000, pleaded with city officials to spare the building. They want to turn the movie house into a studio for shooting commercials and television pilots. But after eight years, they’ve made no progress.
Worse, say city officials, the owners let the building deteriorate to a condition beyond repair.
“It’s a building that is in a serious state if disrepair,†said Jim Schultz, Kenosha’s director of Neighborhood Services and Inspections. “It’s a public nuisance and a public safety issue.â€
But Hanneman said the city is rushing to destroy a historic property. She claims the building is made of concrete and steel girders thicker than skyscrapers, and could easily stand for years to come.
“I think it speaks to their lack of vision,†Hanneman said. “Projects like this are done all of the time. They really don’t have any reason to bring it down.â€
The single-screen Roosevelt Theatre, the longest continuously screening theater in Kenosha, opened Christmas Day in 1927 and showed movies for 55 years. It was designed by architect Einar Dahl and revised by architect Charles Augustine. Capacity was originally 1,000 seats but was reduced to 764 seats in the 1970s.
Along with the movie theater, there was a bowling alley in the basement. The interior of the building is all but gone, Schultz said. The bowling alley was removed years ago, and the original organ was dismantled in the 1950s to make room for air conditioning.
The Kenosha City Council voted 14-1 on Aug. 4 to raze the building. The council approved a $37,000 contract with Champion Environmental Services Inc., Gilberts, Ill., to remove asbestos from the theater before demolition. Asbestos removal is scheduled to being in two weeks. Demolition would begin in six weeks.
Hanneman and Gee owe $150,000 in liens and back taxes on the property. They said they do not have the money to make even basic repairs to the theater. They were working with an anonymous donor to receive $500,000 for the theater, but the money was tied up in estate proceedings, Hanneman said.
Gee, an entertainment promoter from Milwaukee, said Kenosha overestimated how much it would cost to “button up†the building until money is found for restoration. His plan was to either fix the exterior and sell the theater to a developer or create a recording and television studio.
But that plan received little support from city officials, said Gee, noting that public money was available to help the Kenosha Theatre and the Rhode Opera House in the city’s downtown. When he asked for city support for the Roosevelt Theatre, he was turned away.
“We wanted a property that supports itself, not one that’s supported by the city,†he said, adding that, in retrospect, he and Hanneman didn’t have the experience needed to complete the project. “That was the weakness in our plan. We didn’t have a real estate professional in our group.â€
Schultz said the city does not support tearing down historic buildings. But in the case of the Roosevelt Theatre, he said, restoration would cost more than $1 million.
“Really there’s no choice in the matter,†he said. “The owner doesn’t have the resources to make the minimum necessary repairs.â€
The 12,500 square-foot theater is in central Kenosha about a mile from the city’s downtown, which includes two historic theaters, one in use and the other undergoing a $24 million restoration. The Roosevelt has not been used as a theater for more than 20 years.
There are no plans to redevelop the site, Schultz said.
The Vaudette Theatre opened on Thursday, January 27, 1938 with the feature film “Back in Circulation”.
Tina, you may be aware that the large 1927 vertical sign read “Dahl’s Roosevelt”. I believe the “Dahl’s” was blanked out shortly afterward but at least one photo with that configuration does exist, as do some others without it.
The owners have until spring to correct minor exterior repairs including paint touch-up and tuckpointing.
A couple of items for the record: the architecture is Gothic, a rather rare style amongst movie palaces; and the theatre had already been renamed the Uptown in the 1940s, long before its closure near New Years Day of 1959. Its manager then was a Mr. Gross or Groce, and at the Uptown’s closure he was immediately appointed to manage the Kenosha Theatre in Kenosha and when the Kenosha closed on April 21, 1963 he took over the Lake Theatre (formerly the Gateway, now the Rhode Opera House) three blocks north, all Standard Theatres chain houses.
There was a Preservation Racine tour of the Uptown in the fall of 1981 and restoration talk was flowing even then. Around that time some rock concerts were held in the auditorium, but patrons had to use a rear exit door as the lobbies were then occupied by the Avenue Frame Shop. That, by the way, was a longtime business (gone now) that attracted many “customers” who ostensibly were interested in picture-framing but who were actually there as curiosity-seekers to see what they could of the vestibules and lobbies.
The Capitol’s organ was relocated to a newer minimalist-styled playhouse built by a local amateur live-theater group on Northwestern Avenue.
That’s correct; it was indeed the Bharat Cinema by June of 1977, and before that it was the Roberto Clemente Theatre. Thanks.
Please check into the Roosevelt Theatre in Kenosha WI, which has just come up for sale through Bear Realty www.bearrealty.com (262) 694-2327. There are flanking storefronts and upper floors to provide extra income. The street is busy, and is WI Highway 50. Thanks!
I recall that there were a few unconnected voices of preservation raised in the mid-1970s, terming the closed and endangered Venetian a landmark though it never was officially designated as such.
But the local daily newspaper (the Journal Times) demanded its demolition in editorials and denounced the Venetian’s value as a landmark, showing as its “proof” of that denial a photo of the plain brick stagehouse at the rear of the theatre.
After demolition, the land was vacant for a quarter of a century.
The Roosevelt Theatre Building with its attached storefronts and second-floor offices and parking lots is now totally vacant and for sale through Bear Realty of Kenosha WI. Roosevelt Road itself was recently streetscaped, resurfaced and upgraded to Wisconsin Highway 50. The City is installing a large parking lot next door.
It was originally the Butterfly Theatre (named for its distinctive butterfly-winged ornamentation flanking the proscenium), and was built by the Klinkert Brewery of Racine during Prohibition and operated by local exhibitor Michael Lencioni. It was renamed ‘Hollywood Theatre’ in the 1930s. The final double-feature film program at the Hollywood Theatre was on the night of April 30, 1952. Thereafter the theatre was vacant for a time and was then rented for church services. It was still intact until 1960, when the local Polish Legion of American Veterans post acquired the Hollywood, leveled the floor and walls, and hung a false ceiling, which still remains above it. The Hollywood’s two-manual pipe organ is now in the B'nai Brith Temple in Library Park downtown.
The Vogue Theatre opened in September 1923 and was operated by local barkeep Walter Schlager. It hosted second-run films and live acts into the 1930s. A random search turned up an appearance by Patsy Montana. There was a two-manual Wicks organ. Local exhibitor Bill Exton (who also operated the Roosevelt and Hollywood Theaters) leased the Vogue, which was part of Milwaukee’s Standard Theatres chain in the 1940s. The last regular double-feature program there was on the night of Monday, December 15, 1951, with the outside temperature at fifteen below zero.