The web site Jazz Age Chicago, to which I linked in a comment on January 25, 2010, has vanished from the Internet. Fortunately, the site’s article on the Star and Garter Theatre has been preserved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. It can be read at this link.
An architect named George H. Dieringer had his office in the Southern Theater Building, Wheeling, according to items in issues of The American Contractor in 1913. I’ve been unable to find references to the theater itself, though, and I don’t know if the Southern Theater Building of 1913 housed this theater or an earlier one of the same name.
The building in Adam’s photos does look old enough to have been around in 1913, though it also looks as though it might have been an ordinary commercial and office block that was altered to accommodate a theater at some point. It also seems unlikely that a busy architect would have had his office in this outlying neighborhood instead of downtown.
This photo of Baker Street circa 1930 includes the Rialto Theatre. Click on the image to enlarge, then follow instructions to zoom in. The Rialto is on the far corner of the intersection on the right.
Here is another photo showing the Princess/Ellis Theatre late in its history, during the 1960s, when it had become Mt. Zion Church.
From the same time period, the back of the theater, with the name Princess Theatre still painted on the stage house. Everything around it had already been demolished for an urban undo-all project, and the theater building would soon fall victim to the same folly.
The photo of the Egyptian-styled theater that kenmcintyre linked to earlier has gone missing. This is its current location, but the California State Library doesn’t provide permalinks so it will probably vanish again. It turns out to be, as GaryParks surmised, a sort of architectural sampler. It was a model theater produced around 1915 by the Epco Theatre Supply Company (EPCO = Electrical Products Corporation, so it probably displayed something like theater lighting equipment.)
Gary is right about the S. Charles Lee drawing being for the Hollywood Egyptian. The drawing was mislabled by the S. C. Lee Collection as being a house in Long Beach. Lee probably had nothing to do with this theater, so only Baume and Davies should be credited as the architects.
The photo information with the Long Beach Digital Archives' copy of the picture of the Oriental Theatre discussed in earlier comments gives the correct address of 5384 Long Beach Boulevard. That means that Oriental Theatre and Murray’s Theatre (the name on the side of the stage house) are aka’s for the La Shell. It was the L.A.Public Library that got the Oriental’s address wrong, as I’d suspected (although their digital copy is bigger and a bit clearer than the copy Long Beach shows.) Our listing for the Oriental Theatre is redundant and should be deleted.
Thanks for letting us know about the archive, DebraLea.
The January 21, 1927, issue of Motion Picture News had this item pertaining to the Schultz Opera House and two other Zanesville theaters:
“The Shultz Opera House, Zanesville, Ohio, is to become one of a chain of three houses which will be operated by the Imperial Theatres Co., recently incorporated at Columbus, Ohio. According to announcement by Manager Sam K. Lind. approximately $70,000 will be spent for improvements which will include a new organ. The Shultz was the first house in the city to play legitimate attractions, having recently gone into vaudeville and pictures. The new organization will also operate the Imperial and Quimby theatres in Zanesville.”
On June 17, 1928, The Film Daily reported that the three houses owned by Imperial Theatres had been taken over by Caldwell Brown, operator of Zanesville’s three other theaters. The names of the houses were unchanged from 1927, except that the Schultz Opera House had become the Schultz Theatre.
In 1933, the Caldwell Brown circuit got into financial trouble, and the July 15 issue of The Film Daily reported that the company’s Weller Theatre would be transfered to the Shea circuit. The other three houses Brown was operating would be part of a new company formed by Brown and Sam Lind. The three theaters were the Liberty, the Imperial, and the a house called the Columbia Theatre.
This raises the possibility that by 1933 either the Schultz Theatre or the first Imperial Theatre on Main Street had been renamed the Columbia. If it was the house on Main Street, then this theater had probably been renamed the Imperial by that time. This house was renamed the Imperial at some point in the 1930s, in any case, and prior to 1933 would be as good a time as any. A local source (newspaper announcement or the address in a city directory, for example) will have to confirm the change, though.
A 1905 book called Past and Present of the City of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio, by J. Hope Sutor, says that the Weller Theatre was designed by Columbus, Ohio, architect Frederick Elliot in association with local architect Harry C. Meyer. The opening date was April 27, 1903. The opening night featured the operatic musical “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, produced on Broadway in 1902 by F. C. Whitney. The book doesn’t specify, but this was probably the Whitney Opera Company’s own road show version of the production.
The Weller Theatre was decorated by artist Alfred Ronchetti, a recent immigrant from Switzerland who, in 1904, returned to Zanesville to establish himself as the town’s leading decorator.
By 1928, the Weller Theatre was controlled by Caldwell Brown, who also had the Liberty and Grand Theatres. The July 17, 1928, issue of The Film Daily reported that Brown had acquired control of the Imperial Theatres Company, operating the Imperial, Quimby, and Shultz Theatres in Zanesville.
The Shea circuit took over operation of the Weller Theatre in 1933. The announcement of the transfer of the house from the Caldwell Brown circuit to M. A. Shea appeared in the July 28 issue of The Film Daily.
The August 8 issue of The Film Daily ran this announcement about Shea’s plans for the Weller Theatre:
“Zanesville, O. — M. A. Shea, lessee of the Weller, has retained Harry Holbrook, Columbus theatrical architect, to draft remodeling plans for the house, which will open with pictures and vaudeville early in September.”
The April 25, 1941, issue of The Film Daily reported that Shea Theatres, operators of the Weller Theatre, had taken over Zanesville’s other four movie houses: The Quimby, the Imperial, the New Liberty, and the Grand.
The building appears to still have some of the gear with which that ornate Art Nouveau front of 1907 or 1908 was attached to the structure. Though the theater front is gone, that single window on the second floor also remains as a testament to the alterations the facade underwent when the theater was installed.
The earliest instance of the name Casino Theatre being used at Zanesville that I’ve found in trade publications is in the September 26, 1908, issue of The Billboard. Prior to that, Clyde Quimby is noted as the manager of a movie house called the Pictorium. I don’t know if Pictorium was an earlier name for the Casino or not. Interestingly, some earlier issues of the magazine from 1908 also list a Grand Theatre in operation at Zanesville. It was a movie house managed by J. G. Harlan.
A photo of the interior of the Casino Theatre appears in an ad for the Rudolph Wurlizer Comapny on this page of The Moving Picture World along with a letter from W.C. Quimby, dated September 11, 1911, praising the Wurlitzer PianOrchestra which he had recently installed in the house.
The building at this address looks quite old. The three-story front is shallow, and the lower building behind it does look as though it could have been the auditorium. I think the Grand Theatre’s building is still standing, though the theater has undoubtedly long since been dismantled.
The Bailey Theatre in Tallulah was part of a retail project called Bloom’s Arcade, built in 1930 by Abe and Mertie Bloom. The entire project, including the theater, was designed by Jackson, Mississippi, architect N. W. Overstreet. The operator of the house was Robert Lee Bailey, of Bunkie, Louisiana, who operated a regional chain of movie theaters.
By the late 1940s, the Bailey Theatres appear to have been taken over by the Southern Amusement Company. That company is listed as the operators on several projects for alterations to theaters designed by architect John M. Gabriel during the period 1947-1956. These projects appear on this partial list of Gabriel’s works. The Tallulah house was among them, but there’s no indication of how extensive the alterations were. Judging from the photo above, N. W. Overstreet’s 1930 facade, with its bits of oddly pre-Columbian decorative detail, remained intact.
R. L. Bailey’s Bailey Theatre at Bunkie, Louisiana, was mentioned in three issues of Motion Picture News, October through December, 1929. A history of Bloom’s Arcade in Tallulah, Louisiana, which also had a Bailey Theatre, says that Robert Lee Bailey Sr. operated a regional chain of movie theaters from his headquarters in Bunkie.
Quite a few of Mr. Bailey’s theaters, including the house at Bunkie, were altered over the years to plans by architect John M. Gabriel, noted on this partial list of his works. As near as I can determine, Gabriel’s office was in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The Opelousas Little Theatre web site makes no mention of the Delta Theatre. In fact the house, now called the Delta Grand Theatre, has its own web site. The correct address is 120 S. Market Street.
The web site includes a brief history section with an ad published at the time of the Delta’s reopening as a CinemaScope house in 1955. The ad says that the Delta originally opened on April 1, 1934.
Perhaps not, Stephen. A Delta Theatre at Opelousas was mentioned in the January 28, 1936, issue of The Film Daily. The January 7 issue mentioned a Harold Bailey as a recent visitor to film row in New Orleans. Though it didn’t give the name of his theater, I think we can guess what it was.
The Princess Theatre was mentioned in the January 6, 1917, issue of Motography, which said it was the only theater in Opelousas at that time, though in 1911 The Moving Picture World had mentioned a house called the Bon Ami Theatre there.
A house called the Rex Theatre was in operation at Opelousas in 1941 and 1951, the years in which alterations were planned for it by architect John M. Gabriel according to this partial list of his works. The Rex was a Southern Amusement Company house. Interestingly, Gabriel also designed alterations for the Delta Theatre a couple of times. He is already credited by Cinema Treasures with two theaters.
The web site Jazz Age Chicago, to which I linked in a comment on January 25, 2010, has vanished from the Internet. Fortunately, the site’s article on the Star and Garter Theatre has been preserved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. It can be read at this link.
Adam Martin has photos of the Southern Theatre at CinemaTour.
An architect named George H. Dieringer had his office in the Southern Theater Building, Wheeling, according to items in issues of The American Contractor in 1913. I’ve been unable to find references to the theater itself, though, and I don’t know if the Southern Theater Building of 1913 housed this theater or an earlier one of the same name.
The building in Adam’s photos does look old enough to have been around in 1913, though it also looks as though it might have been an ordinary commercial and office block that was altered to accommodate a theater at some point. It also seems unlikely that a busy architect would have had his office in this outlying neighborhood instead of downtown.
In late 1909, the National Theatre was being advertised in San Francisco newspapers as a Sullivan & Considine vaudeville house.
Here is a photo of the Victory Theatre dated 1909.
Here is a photo of downtown Dinuba with the Strand Theatre as it appeared in the 1920s.
Here is a photo of the New Alcazar Theatre dated 1907.
Here is a photo of the Optic Theatre in Whitter dated 1909.
This photo of Baker Street circa 1930 includes the Rialto Theatre. Click on the image to enlarge, then follow instructions to zoom in. The Rialto is on the far corner of the intersection on the right.
Here is a photo of the Tivoli Theatre dated 1917.
Here is a 1925 photo of Market Street with the Pompeii Theatre at the left.
Here is another photo showing the Princess/Ellis Theatre late in its history, during the 1960s, when it had become Mt. Zion Church.
From the same time period, the back of the theater, with the name Princess Theatre still painted on the stage house. Everything around it had already been demolished for an urban undo-all project, and the theater building would soon fall victim to the same folly.
Here is a photo of Theatre Visalia from the 1920s.
Here is a 1907 postcard photo showing the Orpheum Theatre and its neighbor, the Princess, later to be called the Ellis Theatre.
Here is a 1907 postcard photo showing the Princess Theatre and its neighbor, the Orpheum, later to be called the Garrick Theatre.
Oh, and this house was listed as the Fox Egyptian Theatre, at 234 E. 4th Street, in the 1935 Long Beach city directory.
The photo of the Egyptian-styled theater that kenmcintyre linked to earlier has gone missing. This is its current location, but the California State Library doesn’t provide permalinks so it will probably vanish again. It turns out to be, as GaryParks surmised, a sort of architectural sampler. It was a model theater produced around 1915 by the Epco Theatre Supply Company (EPCO = Electrical Products Corporation, so it probably displayed something like theater lighting equipment.)
Gary is right about the S. Charles Lee drawing being for the Hollywood Egyptian. The drawing was mislabled by the S. C. Lee Collection as being a house in Long Beach. Lee probably had nothing to do with this theater, so only Baume and Davies should be credited as the architects.
The photo information with the Long Beach Digital Archives' copy of the picture of the Oriental Theatre discussed in earlier comments gives the correct address of 5384 Long Beach Boulevard. That means that Oriental Theatre and Murray’s Theatre (the name on the side of the stage house) are aka’s for the La Shell. It was the L.A.Public Library that got the Oriental’s address wrong, as I’d suspected (although their digital copy is bigger and a bit clearer than the copy Long Beach shows.) Our listing for the Oriental Theatre is redundant and should be deleted.
Thanks for letting us know about the archive, DebraLea.
The January 21, 1927, issue of Motion Picture News had this item pertaining to the Schultz Opera House and two other Zanesville theaters:
On June 17, 1928, The Film Daily reported that the three houses owned by Imperial Theatres had been taken over by Caldwell Brown, operator of Zanesville’s three other theaters. The names of the houses were unchanged from 1927, except that the Schultz Opera House had become the Schultz Theatre.In 1933, the Caldwell Brown circuit got into financial trouble, and the July 15 issue of The Film Daily reported that the company’s Weller Theatre would be transfered to the Shea circuit. The other three houses Brown was operating would be part of a new company formed by Brown and Sam Lind. The three theaters were the Liberty, the Imperial, and the a house called the Columbia Theatre.
This raises the possibility that by 1933 either the Schultz Theatre or the first Imperial Theatre on Main Street had been renamed the Columbia. If it was the house on Main Street, then this theater had probably been renamed the Imperial by that time. This house was renamed the Imperial at some point in the 1930s, in any case, and prior to 1933 would be as good a time as any. A local source (newspaper announcement or the address in a city directory, for example) will have to confirm the change, though.
A 1905 book called Past and Present of the City of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio, by J. Hope Sutor, says that the Weller Theatre was designed by Columbus, Ohio, architect Frederick Elliot in association with local architect Harry C. Meyer. The opening date was April 27, 1903. The opening night featured the operatic musical “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, produced on Broadway in 1902 by F. C. Whitney. The book doesn’t specify, but this was probably the Whitney Opera Company’s own road show version of the production.
The Weller Theatre was decorated by artist Alfred Ronchetti, a recent immigrant from Switzerland who, in 1904, returned to Zanesville to establish himself as the town’s leading decorator.
By 1928, the Weller Theatre was controlled by Caldwell Brown, who also had the Liberty and Grand Theatres. The July 17, 1928, issue of The Film Daily reported that Brown had acquired control of the Imperial Theatres Company, operating the Imperial, Quimby, and Shultz Theatres in Zanesville.
The Shea circuit took over operation of the Weller Theatre in 1933. The announcement of the transfer of the house from the Caldwell Brown circuit to M. A. Shea appeared in the July 28 issue of The Film Daily.
The August 8 issue of The Film Daily ran this announcement about Shea’s plans for the Weller Theatre:
The April 25, 1941, issue of The Film Daily reported that Shea Theatres, operators of the Weller Theatre, had taken over Zanesville’s other four movie houses: The Quimby, the Imperial, the New Liberty, and the Grand.The building appears to still have some of the gear with which that ornate Art Nouveau front of 1907 or 1908 was attached to the structure. Though the theater front is gone, that single window on the second floor also remains as a testament to the alterations the facade underwent when the theater was installed.
The earliest instance of the name Casino Theatre being used at Zanesville that I’ve found in trade publications is in the September 26, 1908, issue of The Billboard. Prior to that, Clyde Quimby is noted as the manager of a movie house called the Pictorium. I don’t know if Pictorium was an earlier name for the Casino or not. Interestingly, some earlier issues of the magazine from 1908 also list a Grand Theatre in operation at Zanesville. It was a movie house managed by J. G. Harlan.
A photo of the interior of the Casino Theatre appears in an ad for the Rudolph Wurlizer Comapny on this page of The Moving Picture World along with a letter from W.C. Quimby, dated September 11, 1911, praising the Wurlitzer PianOrchestra which he had recently installed in the house.
The building at this address looks quite old. The three-story front is shallow, and the lower building behind it does look as though it could have been the auditorium. I think the Grand Theatre’s building is still standing, though the theater has undoubtedly long since been dismantled.
The Bailey Theatre in Tallulah was part of a retail project called Bloom’s Arcade, built in 1930 by Abe and Mertie Bloom. The entire project, including the theater, was designed by Jackson, Mississippi, architect N. W. Overstreet. The operator of the house was Robert Lee Bailey, of Bunkie, Louisiana, who operated a regional chain of movie theaters.
By the late 1940s, the Bailey Theatres appear to have been taken over by the Southern Amusement Company. That company is listed as the operators on several projects for alterations to theaters designed by architect John M. Gabriel during the period 1947-1956. These projects appear on this partial list of Gabriel’s works. The Tallulah house was among them, but there’s no indication of how extensive the alterations were. Judging from the photo above, N. W. Overstreet’s 1930 facade, with its bits of oddly pre-Columbian decorative detail, remained intact.
R. L. Bailey’s Bailey Theatre at Bunkie, Louisiana, was mentioned in three issues of Motion Picture News, October through December, 1929. A history of Bloom’s Arcade in Tallulah, Louisiana, which also had a Bailey Theatre, says that Robert Lee Bailey Sr. operated a regional chain of movie theaters from his headquarters in Bunkie.
Quite a few of Mr. Bailey’s theaters, including the house at Bunkie, were altered over the years to plans by architect John M. Gabriel, noted on this partial list of his works. As near as I can determine, Gabriel’s office was in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The Opelousas Little Theatre web site makes no mention of the Delta Theatre. In fact the house, now called the Delta Grand Theatre, has its own web site. The correct address is 120 S. Market Street.
The web site includes a brief history section with an ad published at the time of the Delta’s reopening as a CinemaScope house in 1955. The ad says that the Delta originally opened on April 1, 1934.
Perhaps not, Stephen. A Delta Theatre at Opelousas was mentioned in the January 28, 1936, issue of The Film Daily. The January 7 issue mentioned a Harold Bailey as a recent visitor to film row in New Orleans. Though it didn’t give the name of his theater, I think we can guess what it was.
The Princess Theatre was mentioned in the January 6, 1917, issue of Motography, which said it was the only theater in Opelousas at that time, though in 1911 The Moving Picture World had mentioned a house called the Bon Ami Theatre there.
A house called the Rex Theatre was in operation at Opelousas in 1941 and 1951, the years in which alterations were planned for it by architect John M. Gabriel according to this partial list of his works. The Rex was a Southern Amusement Company house. Interestingly, Gabriel also designed alterations for the Delta Theatre a couple of times. He is already credited by Cinema Treasures with two theaters.