South Bethlehem, by Kenneth F. Raniere, Karen M. Samuels, and the South Bethlehem Historical Society (Google Books preview), has a photo of the Lehigh Theatre. The caption says that the house opened as the Lehigh Emporium [sic] Theatre in the early 20th century, was renamed the State Theatre in the 1930s and the Lehigh Theatre in the 1960s. The building was demolished in 1976.
I found a reference in the December 20, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World to a Bethlehem house called the Lehigh Orpheum Theatre, and it has made me wonder if Lehigh “Emporium” Theatre was not an error, perhaps from a transcribed oral history. Emporium was not typically a theater name, but Orpheum certainly was. Raniere and Samuels' book is the only place I’ve found any reference to a Lehigh Emporium Theatre, while I’ve found multiple period references to a Lehigh Orpheum Theatre.
I believe that the First United Life Insurance Company building, which is at the Gary Theatre’s address, is the theater building, andit has not been demolished. The front is very modern, but the side and back walls show a combination of modern and very old brick. I think the auditorium was probably gutted and filled in with office floors, and windows were punched into its walls. The current building is the same size as the theater in the historic photo.
A history of Lake County published in 1915 says that the New Gary Theatre was built by Ingwald Moe and was designed by local architect J. J. Verplank. It opened on August 29, 1913.
According to City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana, by James B. Lane, the original Gary Theatre was located at 9th and Jefferson, and was in operation by 1908.
A history of Lake County, Indiana, published in 1915 mentions the Grand Theatre, then operated by the Simon brothers. It started as a stock and vaudeville theater, but by 1915 was devoted exclusively to movies.
JRS: Do you know anything about the building at 2224 Broadway? It now houses a social club, but it looks very much like it might have been a theater at one time. Cinema Treasures has nothing listed for the address, and I can’t find anything about it on the Internet.
Also, this old building at 17th and Broadway looks like a former theater. The building still appears in Street View, taken in August, 2011, but the lot appears to be vacant in the satellite view, which is probably more recent, so I think it must have been demolished since the Street View was made.
augie53: This theater was opened as the Ridge Theatre in very late 1941 or very early 1942. It was probably renamed the Glen Theatre after a 1968 remodeling. See my earlier comment here for citations.
JRS40: The theater around the corner on Broadway was the Roxy, not the Ridge. The Glen was called the Ridge when it opened. Your older brothers told you, and that’s how I found out that the Ridge and the Glen were the same theater.
Los Alamos and the Pajarito Plateau, by Sharon Snyder and Toni Michnovicz Gibson, reveals that the Centre Theatre opened in 1948 with the Clifton Webb comedy Sitting Pretty.
Given its location, the Fine Arts Theatre might be the house that was mentioned in the July 20, 1912, issue of Motography:
“Articles of incorporation have been filed for the Stage-Simpson Amusement Company, which will open a motion picture theater at South avenue and Gregory street, Rochester, about July 15. The company is capitalized at $1,000, and the directors are Clarence G. Stage, Maggie Stage and Frank I. Simpson.”
Frank I. Simpson was mentioned as operator of the Princess Theatre at Rochester in the October 25, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World. We don’t have a Princess Theatre listed yet, and the side walls of the building the Fine Arts was in look old enough to have been built in the early 1910s. It’s quite possible that this house opened in 1912 as the Princess Theatre.
Hdtv267: I do know that Proctor’s 23rd Street was not the same theater as Proctor’s Pleasure Palace/58th Street Theatre. I was just adding a gloss to Warren’s comment of May 22, 2008, noting that this was not the only Proctor house that was called the Bijou Dream for a while. Proctor’s 58th Street was still operating as the Bijou Dream as late as 1913.
Sara D. Roosevelt Parkway was the result of the demolition of the blocks between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets, from Canal Street to Houston Street. Shortly before this project got underway, all the buildings along the east side of Allen Street, two blocks east of Forsyth Street, from Canal to Houston were demolished, and Allen Street was widened.
In the exuberant days of the late 1920s, it was thought by the city’s planners that Allen Street could become a broad boulevard in the manner of certain avenues in Paris, but lined with tall, luxurious apartment blocks, like Park Avenue north of Grand Central Station. A dubious idea at best, given the surrounding neighborhood, but the onset of the depression put an end to the plan in any case. With today’s less grandiose approach to planning, the buildings lost to those projects would probably now be far more valuable to the city than is the empty space the projects created.
AlAlvarez: I found another reference to the Grand Street Theater, this in Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s 1913 book Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday. It says that the house opened on February 4, 1903, as a Yiddish theater. It was leased to Bedford Theatrical Company in December, 1909, and as of 1913 was playing “…Marcus Loew attractions.” I don’t know if that means vaudeville only or vaudeville and pictures. Most of Loew’s early houses in New York appear to have presented both.
Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s 1913 book Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday says that the Yorkville Theatre was built in 1902 and was operated by the Shuberts for a while until being taken over my Marcus Loew and reopened as a movie and variety theater on October 1, 1909.
Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s 1913 book Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday says that Marcus Lowe took over the Majestic Theatre in December, 1909, and operated it as a movie house until it was taken over by Frank McKee and renamed the Park Theatre in 1911.
Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday,published in 1913, says that the Gotham Theatre was opened by Sullivan & Kraus in 1901, and operated as a variety theater. In 1908, it was taken over by William Fox who operated it as a combination vaudeville and movie house.
In 1906, Sullivan & Kraus paid $500 to the City of New York for a one-year license for the Gotham Music Hall, 163-167 E. 125th Street, according to The City Record of May 10 that year. Gotham Music Hall was apparently the theater’s name before Fox leased it.
According to Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday, a book by Ruth Crosby Dimmick published in 1913, the operator who took over the Savoy Theatre in 1911 and converted it into a movie house was Walter Rosenberg. A few years later, Rosenberg changed his surname to Reade, and he and his son, Walter Reade Jr., went on to build an extensive chain of movie theaters. Rosenberg/Reade was the nephew of Oscar Hammerstein I.
The Metropolis Theatre is listed in a 1913 book, Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday, by Ruth Crosby Dimmick. It gives the opening date as August 30, 1897.
Proctor’s 58th Street Theatre, opened in 1895 as Proctor’s Pleasure Palace, was also called the Bijou Dream, according to Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday, by Ruth Crosby Dimmick, published in 1913.
The May 19, 1883, issue of The American Architect and Building News said that a theater to be built at the northeast corner of Broadway and 35th Street was being designed by architect John Sexton.
The Internet Broadway Database page for this theater says that it was designed by the architectural firm of Rose & Stone. This was the 1894 remodeling project, as noted in the June 16, 1894, issue of Real Estate Record and Builders Guide.
The original building as designed by Sexton was a single storey. In 1908, the building suffered a fire which led to the removal of the second floor added by Rose & Stone in 1894.
The Palace Theatre is on the right in this picture postcard featuring a nocturnal view of Ouellette Avenue in the 1950s.
The Allen Theatre in Windsor was one of several houses designed for the chain by architect C. Howard Crane. This was noted in an edition of the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Volume 28, published in 1920. The publication isn’t available online, so I don’t know if there are any illustrations or not.
Google Books lists two libraries that have copies, both in England (University of Leicester, David Wilson Library, Leicester, and University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus Library, Frenchay, Bristol.)
Does anyone know if the building at 2224 Broadway, Gary, now housing the Safe and Sound Senior Citizen Social Club, was once a movie theater? The front looks to be about 1940s vintage, though it might have been the result of a remodeling.
The Palm Theatre appears to have been on East Railroad Street a few doors north of Depot Street. Google’s camera car didn’t travel up that block of Railroad Street, but a building visible from the intersection looks like the one in the photo above. Google Street View is dated January, 2008.
A house called the Majestic Theatre as operating at Muncie as early as 1909, when it was mentioned in the March issue of The Nickelodeon. The address was not mentioned, so I don’t know if it was the same house that later became the Liberty. The building in Street View appears to date from the late 19th or very early 20th century, though, so it could well be the same theater.
South Bethlehem, by Kenneth F. Raniere, Karen M. Samuels, and the South Bethlehem Historical Society (Google Books preview), has a photo of the Lehigh Theatre. The caption says that the house opened as the Lehigh Emporium [sic] Theatre in the early 20th century, was renamed the State Theatre in the 1930s and the Lehigh Theatre in the 1960s. The building was demolished in 1976.
I found a reference in the December 20, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World to a Bethlehem house called the Lehigh Orpheum Theatre, and it has made me wonder if Lehigh “Emporium” Theatre was not an error, perhaps from a transcribed oral history. Emporium was not typically a theater name, but Orpheum certainly was. Raniere and Samuels' book is the only place I’ve found any reference to a Lehigh Emporium Theatre, while I’ve found multiple period references to a Lehigh Orpheum Theatre.
I believe that the First United Life Insurance Company building, which is at the Gary Theatre’s address, is the theater building, andit has not been demolished. The front is very modern, but the side and back walls show a combination of modern and very old brick. I think the auditorium was probably gutted and filled in with office floors, and windows were punched into its walls. The current building is the same size as the theater in the historic photo.
A history of Lake County published in 1915 says that the New Gary Theatre was built by Ingwald Moe and was designed by local architect J. J. Verplank. It opened on August 29, 1913.
According to City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana, by James B. Lane, the original Gary Theatre was located at 9th and Jefferson, and was in operation by 1908.
In light of some previous comments, is this bad news for Fenton?
A history of Lake County, Indiana, published in 1915 mentions the Grand Theatre, then operated by the Simon brothers. It started as a stock and vaudeville theater, but by 1915 was devoted exclusively to movies.
JRS: Do you know anything about the building at 2224 Broadway? It now houses a social club, but it looks very much like it might have been a theater at one time. Cinema Treasures has nothing listed for the address, and I can’t find anything about it on the Internet.
Also, this old building at 17th and Broadway looks like a former theater. The building still appears in Street View, taken in August, 2011, but the lot appears to be vacant in the satellite view, which is probably more recent, so I think it must have been demolished since the Street View was made.
augie53: This theater was opened as the Ridge Theatre in very late 1941 or very early 1942. It was probably renamed the Glen Theatre after a 1968 remodeling. See my earlier comment here for citations.
JRS40: The theater around the corner on Broadway was the Roxy, not the Ridge. The Glen was called the Ridge when it opened. Your older brothers told you, and that’s how I found out that the Ridge and the Glen were the same theater.
Los Alamos and the Pajarito Plateau, by Sharon Snyder and Toni Michnovicz Gibson, reveals that the Centre Theatre opened in 1948 with the Clifton Webb comedy Sitting Pretty.
Given its location, the Fine Arts Theatre might be the house that was mentioned in the July 20, 1912, issue of Motography:
Frank I. Simpson was mentioned as operator of the Princess Theatre at Rochester in the October 25, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World. We don’t have a Princess Theatre listed yet, and the side walls of the building the Fine Arts was in look old enough to have been built in the early 1910s. It’s quite possible that this house opened in 1912 as the Princess Theatre.Hdtv267: I do know that Proctor’s 23rd Street was not the same theater as Proctor’s Pleasure Palace/58th Street Theatre. I was just adding a gloss to Warren’s comment of May 22, 2008, noting that this was not the only Proctor house that was called the Bijou Dream for a while. Proctor’s 58th Street was still operating as the Bijou Dream as late as 1913.
Sara D. Roosevelt Parkway was the result of the demolition of the blocks between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets, from Canal Street to Houston Street. Shortly before this project got underway, all the buildings along the east side of Allen Street, two blocks east of Forsyth Street, from Canal to Houston were demolished, and Allen Street was widened.
In the exuberant days of the late 1920s, it was thought by the city’s planners that Allen Street could become a broad boulevard in the manner of certain avenues in Paris, but lined with tall, luxurious apartment blocks, like Park Avenue north of Grand Central Station. A dubious idea at best, given the surrounding neighborhood, but the onset of the depression put an end to the plan in any case. With today’s less grandiose approach to planning, the buildings lost to those projects would probably now be far more valuable to the city than is the empty space the projects created.
AlAlvarez: I found another reference to the Grand Street Theater, this in Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s 1913 book Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday. It says that the house opened on February 4, 1903, as a Yiddish theater. It was leased to Bedford Theatrical Company in December, 1909, and as of 1913 was playing “…Marcus Loew attractions.” I don’t know if that means vaudeville only or vaudeville and pictures. Most of Loew’s early houses in New York appear to have presented both.
Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s 1913 book Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday says that the Yorkville Theatre was built in 1902 and was operated by the Shuberts for a while until being taken over my Marcus Loew and reopened as a movie and variety theater on October 1, 1909.
Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s 1913 book Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday says that Marcus Lowe took over the Majestic Theatre in December, 1909, and operated it as a movie house until it was taken over by Frank McKee and renamed the Park Theatre in 1911.
Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday,published in 1913, says that the Gotham Theatre was opened by Sullivan & Kraus in 1901, and operated as a variety theater. In 1908, it was taken over by William Fox who operated it as a combination vaudeville and movie house.
In 1906, Sullivan & Kraus paid $500 to the City of New York for a one-year license for the Gotham Music Hall, 163-167 E. 125th Street, according to The City Record of May 10 that year. Gotham Music Hall was apparently the theater’s name before Fox leased it.
According to Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday, a book by Ruth Crosby Dimmick published in 1913, the operator who took over the Savoy Theatre in 1911 and converted it into a movie house was Walter Rosenberg. A few years later, Rosenberg changed his surname to Reade, and he and his son, Walter Reade Jr., went on to build an extensive chain of movie theaters. Rosenberg/Reade was the nephew of Oscar Hammerstein I.
The Metropolis Theatre is listed in a 1913 book, Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday, by Ruth Crosby Dimmick. It gives the opening date as August 30, 1897.
Proctor’s 58th Street Theatre, opened in 1895 as Proctor’s Pleasure Palace, was also called the Bijou Dream, according to Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday, by Ruth Crosby Dimmick, published in 1913.
The May 19, 1883, issue of The American Architect and Building News said that a theater to be built at the northeast corner of Broadway and 35th Street was being designed by architect John Sexton.
The Internet Broadway Database page for this theater says that it was designed by the architectural firm of Rose & Stone. This was the 1894 remodeling project, as noted in the June 16, 1894, issue of Real Estate Record and Builders Guide.
The original building as designed by Sexton was a single storey. In 1908, the building suffered a fire which led to the removal of the second floor added by Rose & Stone in 1894.
The Palace Theatre is on the right in this picture postcard featuring a nocturnal view of Ouellette Avenue in the 1950s.
The Allen Theatre in Windsor was one of several houses designed for the chain by architect C. Howard Crane. This was noted in an edition of the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Volume 28, published in 1920. The publication isn’t available online, so I don’t know if there are any illustrations or not.
Google Books lists two libraries that have copies, both in England (University of Leicester, David Wilson Library, Leicester, and University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus Library, Frenchay, Bristol.)
Does anyone know if the building at 2224 Broadway, Gary, now housing the Safe and Sound Senior Citizen Social Club, was once a movie theater? The front looks to be about 1940s vintage, though it might have been the result of a remodeling.
The Palm Theatre appears to have been on East Railroad Street a few doors north of Depot Street. Google’s camera car didn’t travel up that block of Railroad Street, but a building visible from the intersection looks like the one in the photo above. Google Street View is dated January, 2008.
The Palm Theatre at Meigs, Georgia, is mentioned in the 1940 International Motion Picture Almanac.
A house called the Majestic Theatre as operating at Muncie as early as 1909, when it was mentioned in the March issue of The Nickelodeon. The address was not mentioned, so I don’t know if it was the same house that later became the Liberty. The building in Street View appears to date from the late 19th or very early 20th century, though, so it could well be the same theater.