An earlier Photoplay Theatre was located on South Main Street and opened in 1910 or 1911. Here is it’s (sparse) page at Utah Theatres. One or the other of the Photoplays was mentioned in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The Photoplay theater is one of the smaller houses of Salt Lake that has enjoyed continued prosperity for several years. It was built by some ranchers and later sold to Mrs. McGrath, its present manager.”
Because the article says it had been in operation for several years, I suspect that it was the first house of that name. I’ve found no other trade journal references to a Photoplay Theatre in Salt Lake City.
Bing’s map quirk is especially odd considering that Main Street runs north and south, not east and west. But I’ve found that it works with any directional indicator- N., S., E., or W. Only the plain Main Street goes to the wrong location.
When I searched the address on Bing Maps, plain Main Street fetched up in a residential neighborhood in West Seneca. Adding E. to it put it in the right place. Google Maps does go to the downtown Buffalo location with or without the E.
The address of the Telenews Theatre was 525 E. Main Street.
This PDF from rjbuffalo.com gives the theater at 525 Main Street, Buffalo, a whole string of aka’s. It opened as the Vendome Theatre in 1909. On February 4, 1912, it became the Happy Hour Theatre, and retained that name until ca.1931, when it was renamed the Embassy Theatre. On April 17, 1942, it became the Telenews Theatre, but was renamed the Vogue Theatre in May, 1946. Two years later it returned to the name Telenews, but was renamed the Guild Theatre by 1950.
The document notes that the Vendome was apparently a conversion of an existing building and the theater was designed by architect F.A. Baynes; that it extended through the block to Washington Street; and that at the time the document was written it housed a Chinese restaurant, which is apparently still there. Google Street View shows the Washington Street end of the building, as Main Street has been converted into a transit mall and the camera car didn’t travel along this block of it.
The document also carries a cryptic note saying “Not to be confused with the Empire at 261 Main, the Empire at 1514 Main, or the Empire at 164–170 Pearl.” This is odd, as Empire Theatre is not listed among the aka’s for the house.
The June 9, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News ran an item that is probably about the Strand Theatre:
“VALLEJO, SOLANO CO., CAL.— Theatre and stores, 2 story and base, reinforced concrete, 35,000. Architect, B. J. Joseph, New Call Bldg.. S. F. Owner, Albert Bernheim. The building will be erected on Georgia street west of Marin, and will cover a large ground area. Besides the theatre the first floor will contain a number of stores. Upper floor will be arranged for offices. Interior of the theatre will be finished in ornamental plaster. Pine trim will be used. There will be steam heat and vacuum cleaning. Special electric work and sheet metal work is called for in the theatre. Patent store fronts are specified. Exterior of the building will be faced with cement plaster. Plans are complete and figures are being taken.”
I’ve come across enough period references to the architect of this theater to be convinced that his name is indeed J. Flood Walker. One item is this from the March 17, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News:
“SANTA ANA, ORANGE CO., CAL.—
"Theatre. 1 story and base, brick. $25,000. Architect. J. Flood Walker. 303 East 4th street, Santa Ana. Owners, West End Improvement Association. The building will be erected at the corner of 4th and Birch streets and will cover a large ground area. There will be two stores besides the theatre. Interior will be finished in pine and ornamental plaster. There will be a special ventilating system, special electric work and metal window sash and frames. Exterior of the building will be faced with pressed brick. Plans are now being prepared.”
Here is an item from the February 17, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News about the alteration of the Chutes Theatre that took place that year, when it was converted into a movie house:
“THEATRE ALTERATION — Concrete
and steel. Cost not stated. San Francisco. Architect, J. R. Miller, Lick Bldg-, S. F. Owners, Realty and Rebuilding Co. The old Chutes Theatre will be moved to the rear of the present stores on Fillmore street between Turk and Eddy streets and a new entrance and other alterations made to conform with the law. Plans are complete and work will be started shortly.”
This brief biography of architect Bjarne H. Moe, from the Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, says that he was the architect for a remodeling of the Capitol Theatre in Walla Walla in 1938.
hanksykes said earlier that the Park Hall Theatre was built in 1913 by builders Moorman & John. The January 4, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an item saying that builders Moorman and John, of Oakley, Ohio, had commissioned architect Edward Sloctemyer to design a theater for them, which was to be built on Madison Road near Gilmore Avenue. No theater name was given, but it must have been the Park Hall/Ambassador.
The January 4, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Sequoia Theatre. The house had opened on November 22, 1910, with 600 seats. It was exclusively a movie house, and the building was 36 feet wide by 130 feet deep, with a lobby 20 feet deep. The operator of the Sequoia was Isidor F. Morris.
On this web page, Cezar Del Valle says that the Bijou Dream was at 106 Main Street East. The first theater in Rochester to be devoted exclusively to movies, it opened in 1906, and closed on February 28, 1913. The space was converted into a cigar store.
The Majestic Theatre’s web site says that their house opened in August, 1913. Here is an item about an unnamed theater to be built in Corvallis, from the January 21, 1913, issue of Building and Industrial News:
“THEATRE— 2 story, and base, brick and concrete, $30,000. Corvallis. Ore. Architect, George Post, Salem. Owner, M. Porter. The building will contain a main auditorium seating in the neighborhood of 900 people. Construction will be of reinforced concrete with exterior walls of pressed brick and terra cotta. A central heating system will be installed. Interior will be finished in metal and ornamental plaster. Floors will be of concrete. Stage equipment will be let under a separate contract. Plans are now being prepared.”
The description fits the Majestic quite well, as does the timing. Salem architect George M. Post is not to be confused with the better known New York architect George B. Post.
The July 13, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Globe Theatre:
“$55,000 MOVING PICTURE HOUSE FOR
SAN PEDRO.
“Luke Kelley will erect on his property at Pablos [sic] Verdes and Sixth Street, San Pedro, Cal., for the Globe Amusement Company, a $55,000 moving picture theater to be known as the Globe Theater No. 5. This house will have large rooms over the auditorium, and will be one of the most beautiful structures in San Pedro. The architect is A. Lawrence Valk.”
A follow-up item appeared in the issue of July 20:
“San Pedro, Cal. — A. Lawrence Valk has completed plans for a $20,000 two-story brick moving picture theater building to be built on the corner of 6th and Palos Verdes Sts., for Luke Kelly.”
The September 7 issue had an item about the Globe Amusement Company itself:
“Announcement that the Globe Amusement Company has acquired another motion picture theater, making six in all, was made this week. The new house is the Starland Theater, located on the $1,000,000 Frazer pier at Ocean Park. It is one of the finest motion picture houses in California. J. M. Boland, former owner of the house, is to be retained as resident manager. The Globe Amusement Company is planning to build or acquire and to operate, 15 houses in and around Los Angeles. No. 1 is at Fifth and Los Angeles Streets, No. 2 at Central Avenue and Jefferson Street, No. 3 at Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park road, No. 4 at 18th and Main Streets and No. 5 at Sixth and Palos Verdes Street. All except the last named, which is in San Pedro, are in Los Angeles proper.”
Architect Arthur Lawrence Valk began practicing in New York City around 1885, as junior partner in has father’s firm, L. B. Valk & Son. His father, Lawrence B. Valk, was best known for his church designs, some of which were built as far afield as Louisiana, Ohio, and Michigan. By 1904, the Valks had moved to Los Angeles. There the firm continued to specialize in churches, but by 1913 Arthur Valk had become well enough known for his work on movie theaters to have been called a “motion picture specialist” by trade journal Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer.
Among his other movie houses were the Argus Theatre (later the Strand) in Santa Barbara, and the Sunbeam Theatre in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles. As he also designed the Globe Theatre # 2 (later the Florence Mills Theatre), it’s possible that he designed other projects for the Globe Amusement Company, perhaps including the Globe # 1 at Fifth and Los Angeles Streets and the Globe # 3 (Holly Theatre) in Echo Park. If the Globe # 4 at 18th and Main is listed at Cinema Treasures under another name, I can’t find it.
The address of the Lovejoy Theatre that was listed in city directories in the 1920s was 1002 Lovejoy Street, which is still the address on the Cricket Wireless building today.
This document (a Microsoft Word file) about some of Buffalo’s silent era theaters quotes the minutes of the common council meeting of March 1, 1909, containing this information about the first Lovejoy Theatre:
“Christian Mumenthaler and one, to build frame nickelodeon, 25x100x15 feet high, front of lot, northwest corner of Lovejoy and Davey streets.”
It also says that the architect of the Lovejoy Theatre was P.L. Cimini. It also lists him as the architect of the nearby Avon Theatre.
In addition, it says that the first Lovejoy Theater was demolished in the late 1940s, which I originally misread (or mis-remebered) as simply 1940.
This .doc file (opens with Microsoft Word) lists some silent era theaters in Buffalo. It says that the first Lovejoy Theatre (originally called the Lovejoy Palace Theatre) was built in 1909 at the northwest corner of Lovejoy and Davey. The address was given as 1198 Lovejoy. It was in a newly-constructed wood framed building 25 x 100 feet.
In 1919, the Lovejoy Theatre was listed at 1202 Lovejoy, which is the modern address of the lot on the northwest corner of Lovejoy and Davey, so it looks as though there was only one Lovejoy Theatre before the one converted into a pool was built, but its address was changed sometime between 1909 and 1914 (for some reason, in the 1924 directory it was listed at 1196 Lovejoy, but the next year it was back at 1202.) My guess would be that it might have been remodeled or even substantially rebuilt around 1919, giving rise to the idea that there were three theaters called the Lovejoy.
The document says that the original Lovejoy Theatre was demolished in 1940 to make way for the Nu-Way Supermarket. The building now on the site is probably the one built in 1940, small though it is. Supermarkets were a lot smaller in those days than they are now. The building currently houses the office of Cricket Wireless.
Though Film Daily was still listing the Lovejoy at 1202 in 1950, if this document is correct the theater probably moved to the new building at 1171 Lovejoy sometime in the 1930s. The Streamline Modern lines of the building certainly look more pre-war than post-war. Film Daily still listing the house at the old address long after it had moved would no surprise to anyone familiar with that publication’s perennial failure to keep information up-to-date.
The Portola Theatre rated several lines in a July 15, 1916, article about San Francisco’s movie theaters in The Moving Picture World:
“The Portola theater on Market street, near Fourth, is one of the most interesting houses in the city. When first opened it was devoted to vaudeville and moving pictures, but has been showing the latter exclusively for several years. Under the able direction of Eugene Roth it was been made a great success with its never varying policy in regard to prices and the selection of attractions. It has a seating capacity of 1,100 and has shown many of the greatest films produced, at ten and twenty cents. So marked has been the success of this house that a company known as the Market Street Realty Company has been formed to erect a moving picture theater at Fourth and Market streets with a seating capacity of about 3,000, this house to be one of the finest in America. This company has taken over the Portola theater, as well as the Market Street theater, two blocks further up the street. This latter house, which has been conducted since its erection by Hallahan & Getz, has a seating capacity of 1,100, so that when the new theater is ready Mr. Roth will have charge of three houses within two blocks, with a total of about 5,200 seats.”
The proposed theater at Market and Fourth opened in November, 1917, as the California Theatre, and was later known as the State Theatre.
There were two Market Street houses called the Unique Theatre, one before the fire and one after. The pre-fire house was the one operated by the Graumans and located on the north side of Market between Mason and Taylor. The house at 757 Market, which was on the south side of the street opposite the end of Grant Avenue, was built after the fire and was not operated by the Graumans. Here is a paragraph from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World that mentions the second Unique Theatre:
“Probably the second house to be opened on Market street [after the fire] was the Gold Palace of I. H. Lichtenstein, about opposite Sixth street. This, however, did not prove to be a success. Then came the Unique theater on Market opposite Grant avenue. This house occupied the entire building in which it was located and was the first one that was not merely a converted store. It is still conducted by the same company that originally built it, in conjunction with the Odeon theater a few doors below, under the direct management of Joe Huff. Both of these places have been kept thoroughly abreast of the times in the matter of equipment and furnishings and a little over a year ago changed from a five-cent to a ten-cent policy. Paramount pictures are now being shown, together with Chaplins, of which a feature are made. These houses have a combined seating capacity of about 700.”
If the Unique and the Odeon had a combined seating capacity of about 700, we’ve overestimated the capacity of the Unique, unless it was later enlarged (which doesn’t seem likely if it “…occupied the entire building in which it was located….”)
An article about San Francisco’s movie theaters in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this paragraph about the Silver Palace Theatre:
“The first moving picture house to be opened on Market street following the fire of 1906 was the Silver Palace, just above Third, with a seating capacity of about 400. This house, which was conducted by the late Benjamin Michaels and Harry M. Lichtenstein, was fitted up at a heavy expense and at the time was considered quite a wonderful place. It is still being operated and is now under the management of N. K. Herzog, who also has charge of the Pastime theater in the same block. Both of these houses make a daily change of program and charge an admission of five cents.”
Here is an item about renovations from the March 25, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The announcement is made that the Rialto theater, on the site of the old American on Market street, will be opened early in April, when improvements costing in excess of $70,000 will have been completed.”
An article about San Francisco’s movie theaters in the July 15 issue of the same publication had a slightly longer item about the Rialto:
“The latest and one of the largest houses to enter the downtown field is the Rialto theater on Market street, above Seventh. This theater occupies the site of the old American and is conducted by the Western Theater Company, under the management of Howard J. Sheehan. It has a seating capacity of 1,600 and is showing a Metro program, with an International Film Service serial and news pictorial at ten, twenty and thirty cents.”
The photos show two different buildings. The Stockton theaters page has three listings for houses at 21 Sutter, two with one of the photos and one with the other photos.
The round-cornered building is listed as the Aliskey Theatre, with the aka’s Empire, Unique, Forrest, and Garrick, with the address 21 N. Sutter.
The same photo then accompanies the listing for the Garrick Theatre, with the aka’s Strand and Hippodrome, but with the address 21 S. Sutter instead of 21 N. Sutter.
The building with VAUDEVILLE on the marquee is then listed as the Hippodrome with the aka’s Unique and Garrick, and with the address 21 S. Sutter in the heading and 21 N. Sutter in the text.
The VAUDEVILLE building is mid-block, next to an alley, so the address 21 makes sense, but the theater entrance in the round-cornered building is very close to the corner, so I would expect it to have either a higher or a lower number. I think that’s the building the Stockton theaters page misidentified. The address was probably misidentified, and the theater names might have been as well. Too bad the scan is so blurry that the theater’s name is unreadable.
I’m pretty sure the address 21 N. Sutter is correct for the VAUDEVILLE building. It was probably almost directly across the street from the old Kress store which is still standing at 20 N. Sutter. The building now on the site looks to have been built in the 1920s. The alley was probably closed off to accommodate that building’s extra width.
I’m still trying to figure out where the round-cornered building was, and what theater(s) occupied it.
The Bender Theatre opened on Christmas Day, 1912, according to an item in an early 1913 issue of Variety. Originally operating as a stock house, the 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide lists it as playing vaudeville with movies.
Austin Bender, operator of the theater, was sued by the city for showing movies on Sunday. The documentation of the suit gives the address of the theater as 325 Bleecker Street. A newspaper article from the period says that the Bender Theatre was on Bleecker Street at the foot of Academy Street, and that’s just about where 325 is, so the address probably hasn’t changed since that time.
The Gayety Theatre mentioned by WAJWAJ three comments back was a different house, listed here as the Shubert Theatre. The November 20 opening of the Imperial Theatre was noted in the November 25, 1911, issue of Variety.
Will, I haven’t found any period references to a Central Coliseum or Coliseum Theatre in DC, but as this house didn’t become the Central until 1922 it was probably unrelated to the 1916 house.
The November 25, 1911, issue of Variety said that the Lumberg Theatre in Utica would open on Monday, November 27. The two-a-day vaudeville house would be booked by the Loew agency.
The Lumberg was one of six Utica theaters listed in the 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide. It had 1,446 seats, and was operated by brothers Barney and Harris Lumberg. Vaudeville was presented the first three days of the week and burlesque the last three days. The Lumberg had a fairly large stage for a vaudeville house, being 70 feet between side walls and 33 feet from the footlights to the back wall, with a proscenium 36 feet wide. The Lumberg had three Wilmer & Vincent houses as competition; the Majestic, the Orpheum, and the Shubert. Two other houses, the Hippodrome and the Bender, played vaudeville with movies.
The Lumberg Theatre was being altered in 1916. The June 10 issue of The American Contractor said that architect Leon Lempert had prepared the plans for the $4,000 project. The project also got a brief mention in the July 8 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The latest mention I’ve found of the Luberg Theatre in Utica is from 1919. The earliest occurrence I’ve found of the name Gaiety Theatre in Utica is from early 1922. The Gaiety was then being run as a vaudeville and movie house by Wilmer & Vincent.
This house opened on November 24, 1907, as the New Sun Theatre. It was built by Gus Sun. Sun had arrived in Springfield in October, 1904, as head of a troupe of minstrels, and later that month opened the Little Orpheum Theatre in the Fisher Building. This was the beginning of the Sun Circuit, which would grow to an extensive chain. Sun maintained his headquarters in Springfield, though the circuit had a booking office in New York City.
Before the New Sun Theatre was built, Gus Sun had formed a partnership with O. G. Murray, a broker from Richmond, Indiana. By 1908, the firm of Sun & Murray controlled ten vaudeville houses in Ohio and Indiana, and the circuit would eventually grow to some 275 houses.
When Sun’s Regent Theatre opened in 1920, it became the chain’s flagship house. I haven’t found the year the New Sun was renamed the Band Box, but it was probably around the time the Regent opened.
An earlier Photoplay Theatre was located on South Main Street and opened in 1910 or 1911. Here is it’s (sparse) page at Utah Theatres. One or the other of the Photoplays was mentioned in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Because the article says it had been in operation for several years, I suspect that it was the first house of that name. I’ve found no other trade journal references to a Photoplay Theatre in Salt Lake City.Bing’s map quirk is especially odd considering that Main Street runs north and south, not east and west. But I’ve found that it works with any directional indicator- N., S., E., or W. Only the plain Main Street goes to the wrong location.
When I searched the address on Bing Maps, plain Main Street fetched up in a residential neighborhood in West Seneca. Adding E. to it put it in the right place. Google Maps does go to the downtown Buffalo location with or without the E.
The address of the Telenews Theatre was 525 E. Main Street.
This PDF from rjbuffalo.com gives the theater at 525 Main Street, Buffalo, a whole string of aka’s. It opened as the Vendome Theatre in 1909. On February 4, 1912, it became the Happy Hour Theatre, and retained that name until ca.1931, when it was renamed the Embassy Theatre. On April 17, 1942, it became the Telenews Theatre, but was renamed the Vogue Theatre in May, 1946. Two years later it returned to the name Telenews, but was renamed the Guild Theatre by 1950.
The document notes that the Vendome was apparently a conversion of an existing building and the theater was designed by architect F.A. Baynes; that it extended through the block to Washington Street; and that at the time the document was written it housed a Chinese restaurant, which is apparently still there. Google Street View shows the Washington Street end of the building, as Main Street has been converted into a transit mall and the camera car didn’t travel along this block of it.
The document also carries a cryptic note saying “Not to be confused with the Empire at 261 Main, the Empire at 1514 Main, or the Empire at 164–170 Pearl.” This is odd, as Empire Theatre is not listed among the aka’s for the house.
The June 9, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News ran an item that is probably about the Strand Theatre:
I’ve come across enough period references to the architect of this theater to be convinced that his name is indeed J. Flood Walker. One item is this from the March 17, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News:
Here is an item from the February 17, 1915, issue of Building and Engineering News about the alteration of the Chutes Theatre that took place that year, when it was converted into a movie house:
This brief biography of architect Bjarne H. Moe, from the Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, says that he was the architect for a remodeling of the Capitol Theatre in Walla Walla in 1938.
hanksykes said earlier that the Park Hall Theatre was built in 1913 by builders Moorman & John. The January 4, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an item saying that builders Moorman and John, of Oakley, Ohio, had commissioned architect Edward Sloctemyer to design a theater for them, which was to be built on Madison Road near Gilmore Avenue. No theater name was given, but it must have been the Park Hall/Ambassador.
The January 4, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Sequoia Theatre. The house had opened on November 22, 1910, with 600 seats. It was exclusively a movie house, and the building was 36 feet wide by 130 feet deep, with a lobby 20 feet deep. The operator of the Sequoia was Isidor F. Morris.
On this web page, Cezar Del Valle says that the Bijou Dream was at 106 Main Street East. The first theater in Rochester to be devoted exclusively to movies, it opened in 1906, and closed on February 28, 1913. The space was converted into a cigar store.
The Majestic Theatre’s web site says that their house opened in August, 1913. Here is an item about an unnamed theater to be built in Corvallis, from the January 21, 1913, issue of Building and Industrial News:
The description fits the Majestic quite well, as does the timing. Salem architect George M. Post is not to be confused with the better known New York architect George B. Post.The July 13, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Globe Theatre:
A follow-up item appeared in the issue of July 20:The September 7 issue had an item about the Globe Amusement Company itself:Architect Arthur Lawrence Valk began practicing in New York City around 1885, as junior partner in has father’s firm, L. B. Valk & Son. His father, Lawrence B. Valk, was best known for his church designs, some of which were built as far afield as Louisiana, Ohio, and Michigan. By 1904, the Valks had moved to Los Angeles. There the firm continued to specialize in churches, but by 1913 Arthur Valk had become well enough known for his work on movie theaters to have been called a “motion picture specialist” by trade journal Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer.Among his other movie houses were the Argus Theatre (later the Strand) in Santa Barbara, and the Sunbeam Theatre in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles. As he also designed the Globe Theatre # 2 (later the Florence Mills Theatre), it’s possible that he designed other projects for the Globe Amusement Company, perhaps including the Globe # 1 at Fifth and Los Angeles Streets and the Globe # 3 (Holly Theatre) in Echo Park. If the Globe # 4 at 18th and Main is listed at Cinema Treasures under another name, I can’t find it.
The address of the Lovejoy Theatre that was listed in city directories in the 1920s was 1002 Lovejoy Street, which is still the address on the Cricket Wireless building today.
This document (a Microsoft Word file) about some of Buffalo’s silent era theaters quotes the minutes of the common council meeting of March 1, 1909, containing this information about the first Lovejoy Theatre:
It also says that the architect of the Lovejoy Theatre was P.L. Cimini. It also lists him as the architect of the nearby Avon Theatre.In addition, it says that the first Lovejoy Theater was demolished in the late 1940s, which I originally misread (or mis-remebered) as simply 1940.
This .doc file (opens with Microsoft Word) lists some silent era theaters in Buffalo. It says that the first Lovejoy Theatre (originally called the Lovejoy Palace Theatre) was built in 1909 at the northwest corner of Lovejoy and Davey. The address was given as 1198 Lovejoy. It was in a newly-constructed wood framed building 25 x 100 feet.
In 1919, the Lovejoy Theatre was listed at 1202 Lovejoy, which is the modern address of the lot on the northwest corner of Lovejoy and Davey, so it looks as though there was only one Lovejoy Theatre before the one converted into a pool was built, but its address was changed sometime between 1909 and 1914 (for some reason, in the 1924 directory it was listed at 1196 Lovejoy, but the next year it was back at 1202.) My guess would be that it might have been remodeled or even substantially rebuilt around 1919, giving rise to the idea that there were three theaters called the Lovejoy.
The document says that the original Lovejoy Theatre was demolished in 1940 to make way for the Nu-Way Supermarket. The building now on the site is probably the one built in 1940, small though it is. Supermarkets were a lot smaller in those days than they are now. The building currently houses the office of Cricket Wireless.
Though Film Daily was still listing the Lovejoy at 1202 in 1950, if this document is correct the theater probably moved to the new building at 1171 Lovejoy sometime in the 1930s. The Streamline Modern lines of the building certainly look more pre-war than post-war. Film Daily still listing the house at the old address long after it had moved would no surprise to anyone familiar with that publication’s perennial failure to keep information up-to-date.
The Portola Theatre rated several lines in a July 15, 1916, article about San Francisco’s movie theaters in The Moving Picture World:
The proposed theater at Market and Fourth opened in November, 1917, as the California Theatre, and was later known as the State Theatre.There were two Market Street houses called the Unique Theatre, one before the fire and one after. The pre-fire house was the one operated by the Graumans and located on the north side of Market between Mason and Taylor. The house at 757 Market, which was on the south side of the street opposite the end of Grant Avenue, was built after the fire and was not operated by the Graumans. Here is a paragraph from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World that mentions the second Unique Theatre:
If the Unique and the Odeon had a combined seating capacity of about 700, we’ve overestimated the capacity of the Unique, unless it was later enlarged (which doesn’t seem likely if it “…occupied the entire building in which it was located….”)An article about San Francisco’s movie theaters in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this paragraph about the Silver Palace Theatre:
Here is an item about renovations from the March 25, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
An article about San Francisco’s movie theaters in the July 15 issue of the same publication had a slightly longer item about the Rialto:The photos show two different buildings. The Stockton theaters page has three listings for houses at 21 Sutter, two with one of the photos and one with the other photos.
The round-cornered building is listed as the Aliskey Theatre, with the aka’s Empire, Unique, Forrest, and Garrick, with the address 21 N. Sutter.
The same photo then accompanies the listing for the Garrick Theatre, with the aka’s Strand and Hippodrome, but with the address 21 S. Sutter instead of 21 N. Sutter.
The building with VAUDEVILLE on the marquee is then listed as the Hippodrome with the aka’s Unique and Garrick, and with the address 21 S. Sutter in the heading and 21 N. Sutter in the text.
The VAUDEVILLE building is mid-block, next to an alley, so the address 21 makes sense, but the theater entrance in the round-cornered building is very close to the corner, so I would expect it to have either a higher or a lower number. I think that’s the building the Stockton theaters page misidentified. The address was probably misidentified, and the theater names might have been as well. Too bad the scan is so blurry that the theater’s name is unreadable.
I’m pretty sure the address 21 N. Sutter is correct for the VAUDEVILLE building. It was probably almost directly across the street from the old Kress store which is still standing at 20 N. Sutter. The building now on the site looks to have been built in the 1920s. The alley was probably closed off to accommodate that building’s extra width.
I’m still trying to figure out where the round-cornered building was, and what theater(s) occupied it.
The Bender Theatre opened on Christmas Day, 1912, according to an item in an early 1913 issue of Variety. Originally operating as a stock house, the 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide lists it as playing vaudeville with movies.
Austin Bender, operator of the theater, was sued by the city for showing movies on Sunday. The documentation of the suit gives the address of the theater as 325 Bleecker Street. A newspaper article from the period says that the Bender Theatre was on Bleecker Street at the foot of Academy Street, and that’s just about where 325 is, so the address probably hasn’t changed since that time.
The Gayety Theatre mentioned by WAJWAJ three comments back was a different house, listed here as the Shubert Theatre. The November 20 opening of the Imperial Theatre was noted in the November 25, 1911, issue of Variety.
Will, I haven’t found any period references to a Central Coliseum or Coliseum Theatre in DC, but as this house didn’t become the Central until 1922 it was probably unrelated to the 1916 house.
Here is an informative article about the Gayety Theatre by John DeFerrari. There are several photos of the Gayety and nearby theaters and restaurants.
The November 25, 1911, issue of Variety said that the Lumberg Theatre in Utica would open on Monday, November 27. The two-a-day vaudeville house would be booked by the Loew agency.
The Lumberg was one of six Utica theaters listed in the 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide. It had 1,446 seats, and was operated by brothers Barney and Harris Lumberg. Vaudeville was presented the first three days of the week and burlesque the last three days. The Lumberg had a fairly large stage for a vaudeville house, being 70 feet between side walls and 33 feet from the footlights to the back wall, with a proscenium 36 feet wide. The Lumberg had three Wilmer & Vincent houses as competition; the Majestic, the Orpheum, and the Shubert. Two other houses, the Hippodrome and the Bender, played vaudeville with movies.
The Lumberg Theatre was being altered in 1916. The June 10 issue of The American Contractor said that architect Leon Lempert had prepared the plans for the $4,000 project. The project also got a brief mention in the July 8 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The latest mention I’ve found of the Luberg Theatre in Utica is from 1919. The earliest occurrence I’ve found of the name Gaiety Theatre in Utica is from early 1922. The Gaiety was then being run as a vaudeville and movie house by Wilmer & Vincent.
This house opened on November 24, 1907, as the New Sun Theatre. It was built by Gus Sun. Sun had arrived in Springfield in October, 1904, as head of a troupe of minstrels, and later that month opened the Little Orpheum Theatre in the Fisher Building. This was the beginning of the Sun Circuit, which would grow to an extensive chain. Sun maintained his headquarters in Springfield, though the circuit had a booking office in New York City.
Before the New Sun Theatre was built, Gus Sun had formed a partnership with O. G. Murray, a broker from Richmond, Indiana. By 1908, the firm of Sun & Murray controlled ten vaudeville houses in Ohio and Indiana, and the circuit would eventually grow to some 275 houses.
When Sun’s Regent Theatre opened in 1920, it became the chain’s flagship house. I haven’t found the year the New Sun was renamed the Band Box, but it was probably around the time the Regent opened.