This 1953 photo of Third Street shows the Border Theatre on the right and the Grand Theatre building a bit farther down the block on the opposite side of the street. The side wall of the Grand features a faded sign reading Orpheum Theatre.
In the satellite view this is a very small building. I don’t see how it ever held 780 seats.
The Park Theatre has a facade that is very similar to those of two other theaters built by the Baehr Theatres circuit about the same time: the Ridge Theatre at Breckenridge, Minnesota, and the Border Theatre at International Falls, Minnesota. The three houses differed in size and fenestration, but all shared details in common, including the boxy vertical signs that rose from the marquee instead of being attached directly to the facade of the building.
This weblog post indicates that the Border Theatre was demolished in April, 2009.
The Border Theatre’s facade was almost identical to that of the Ridge Theatre in Breckenridge, Minnesota, and to the Park Theatre in Park Rapids, Minnesota, seen in this photo. If we can find the architect of one, I’m sure we’ve found the architect of all three. All of these houses were built for the Baehr Theatres circuit during the late 1930s-early 1940s.
Boomer: Wagner Sign Company of Elyria, Ohio, still makes marquee letters, as does Gemini Signs and Letters of Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Chances are they both have dealers in your region (Buffalo, Syracuse, maybe some smaller towns.) Both companies make the classic dimensional letters, which are fairly costly, but also make flat letters (Wagner’s Zip-Change and Gemini’s Pronto line) that are (and look) considerably cheaper.
Wagner actually invented the plastic-molded dimensional marquee letter in 1942, and when you see old photos of theater marquees you are probably seeing Wagner letters in most cases.
You can also sometimes find vintage letters, but they tend to be badly worn and more expensive than new letters. As yours went missing, odds are that somebody stole them and sold them to an antique dealer.
The Santa Maria Theatre must have been twinned in its last years, which is probably why Flix70 remembers it as being smaller than 1,200 seats. Check the 1983 photos linked earlier. The signage on the building didn’t specifically claim two screens, but there are two different movies on the marquee, each with the same starting times. There had to have been two screens.
The January 21, 1928, issue of Building and Engineering News said that architect C. H. Jensen was completing revised plans for a 1,250 seat theater to be built at Daly City for E. Baron and Carol Nathan, proprietors of the Jefferson Theatre.
If the Daly City Theatre resembles the work of Reid Brothers, it might be because C. H. Jensen was that firm’s chief draftsman for several years prior to striking off on his own in 1921.
Given its location and the date of its construction, it is likely that the Campus Theatre was the project mentioned in the July, 1924, issue of The Architect and Engineer:
“Berkeley Theatre
“Plans are being completed by Architects James T. Narbett and R. F. de Sano, associated, of Richmond, for a two-story brick store and theatre to be erected on Bancroft Way, near Telegraph avenue, Berkeley, for Mr. Frank Atkins.”
When the project was noted in the January 10, 1925, issue of Building and Engineering News, associate architect Raymond de Sano was not mentioned, so perhaps he had withdrawn. The building was no longer to be built of brick, either:
“THEATRE, ETC. Cost, $100,000
“BERKELEY, Alameda Co., Cal., Bancroft W of Telegraph Ave. Steel and reinforced concrete theatre and store building. Owner — Frank Atkins. Architect — James T. Narbett, 910 Macdonald Ave., Richmond. Contract is shortly to be awarded to the low bidder, F. W. Maurice, 1362 E 25th St., Oakland.”
The Campus Theatre was probably completed and opened before the end of 1925, and so the earlier Campus Theater on Durant Avenue was most likely closed that same year.
An item about a proposed theater on Bancroft Way near Telegraph Avenue appeared in the July, 1924, issue of The Archtiect & Engineer. Given the location and the date, the project was probably the second Campus Theatre. As plans for that house were being completed in mid-1924, and the second Campus was built in 1925, it seems likely that it was also opened in 1925, so the first Campus Theater probably closed that year.
Per chronicler’s information above, this house should be listed as the Campus Theater (a 1916 photo in The Moving Picture World shows that it used the -er spelling of the T word.)
chronicler’s Berkeley Heritage link says that this theater had been converted into a retail store by the late 1920s.
The Campus Theater most likely closed in 1925 or 1926. A list of the neighborhood’s cultural resources from Joseph Stubbs' Berkeley Southside Project (PDF file) dates the building of the second Campus Theatre on Bancroft Way to 1925. It might not have opened until 1926, though.
The August 7, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Pastime Theatre in South Berkeley had been sold to J. Ashkenazy by W. M. Clark. the house was still in operation in 1916, when the September 16 issue of the same publication said that E. Staub had purchased it from J. Scotti. These are the only references to the Pastime that I’ve been able to find in publications from the period.
The Campus Theatre built in 1914 (comment by gsmurph, March 4, 2006) was a different house, located on Durant Avenue, originally called the Majestic Theatre and renamed Campus Theater in 1915. It is listed on this Cinema Treasures page.
Also, I should note that Haltnorth’s Hall, which became the Coliseum Garden Theatre in 1905, was a different building than the Haltnorth Theatre. It was located down the block at the corner of 55th and Woodland, and had a Woodland Avenue address. It was demolished in 1909. As far as I’ve been able to discover, the Haltnorth Theatre never operated under any other name.
A Cleveland Legacy: The Architecture of Walker and Weeks, by Eric Johannesen, says that the Haltnorth theater was designed by Walker & Weeks in 1914. Frank Ray Walker was the lead designer of the firm and Harry E. Weeks handled the business affairs. The Haltnorth Theatre project consisted of a three-story retail and office block fronting on 55th Street and the 1,280-seat auditorium extending along Haltnorth Court. The theater had a stage 30 feet deep. It was built on part of the site of Haltnorth’s Gardens, a long-established beer garden popular with the neighborhood’s large German population.
Historic references indicate that by the mid-1930s the Haltnorth Theatre was catering primarily to an African-American audience. Views at the Historic Aerials web site show that the building was still standing at least as late as 1970, but was gone by 2002.
Johannesen’s book notes three other theater projects that the firm of Walker & Weeks designed, but all of them remained unbuilt, so the Haltnorth was probably the only movie theater of their design that was completed. Three non-movie theaters the firm worked on were built: Goodyear Hall, Akron, completed in 1920; Cleveland Public Auditorium (Walker in collaboration with J. Harold McDowell), completed 1922, and Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra, completed in 1931.
The original 1911 facade of the Penn Square Theatre can be seen in the photo I just uploaded. I’m not sure when the alterations were made, but the photo showing the much plainer front that replaced the original must date from 1928, the year Must We Marry?, with Pauline Garan, was released.
The 1911 article I cited did say that there were already plans to add a balcony to the house, so perhaps the front was remodeled at that time, maybe not long after the theater opened. The modernized facade was a bit taller than the original.
The following text accompanied a photo of the Penn Square Theatre in the December 23, 1911, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Penn Square Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio.
“This handsome structure is the Penn Theater,
located at Euclid Avenue and East 55th Street,
Cleveland, Ohio. It is a remarkably elaborate
temple of photodrama, both inside and out. At
present the auditorium seats 650, but plans have
already been made for an additional 350, to be
placed in a balcony which is soon to be built.
The appointments at the Penn Square Theater are
sumptuous and insure the comfort of every patron.
“Particular attention is paid at the Penn Square
to the matter of projection, and there are numerous
ingenious electrical devices, which have been built
for the better presentation of the picture upon the
screen. The operating room is a veritable jungle of electrical apparatus, and resembles an electrical laboratory which, in fact, it is. There are
several different voltages of electricity coming into
the building, all of which pass through special
apparatus for improving illumination. Needless to
say that an operator who can hold this job at the
Penn Square Theater, can make good anywhere.
“The manager is Mr. Emil C. Meyer, who ably
conducts the establishment. The Penn Square people are putting up another theater at Woodland Avenue and 38th Street, which will have a seating capacity of 1,600. This new theater will also be managed by Mr. Meyer.”
It’s possible that the Penn Square Theatre was designed by Cleveland architect George Allen Grieble. The item about terrazzo floors I cited in my previous comment refers to the Penn Square Theatre and Building, and a biographical sketch of Grieble published in the early 1920s lists a Penn Square Building as one of his projects from 1911.
I’ve been unable to confirm that these were the same project, though. The office block and the theater might have been designed separately. The Penn Square Theatre’s front is certainly far more ornate than any of the other three theaters Grieble is known to have designed around the same time (the Olympia, the Alhambra, and the Gordon Square), though a bit of its decoration does resemble part of the less elaborate decoration on the Alhambra.
The Alhambra Theatre was built in 1911, and was designed and built by George Allen Grieble.
Grieble began his career as a builder prior to studying architecture with the International Correspondence School. An advertisement for the school that appeared in magazines in the early 1920s featured a biography of Grieble, giving the highlights of his career. It mentioned two 1911 projects he designed and built: the Alhambra Theatre and the Penn Square Building. The Penn Square Building was an office block that also contained the Penn Square Theatre.
A biography of Grieble from the Cleveland Landmarks Commission lists two other Cleveland theaters he designed: the Olympia and the Gordon Square.
A page from the Cleveland Landmarks Commission about builder and architect George Allen Grieble lists the Olympia Theatre as one of his projects, dated 1913. It also lists a Gordon Square Theatre (apparently not yet listed at Cinema Treasures) as a 1911 project.
An item about the growing popularity of terrazzo flooring in Cleveland appeared in the August, 1911, issue of The Ohio Architect, Engineer and Builder. It noted that the lobby of the new Penn Square Theatre had a terrazzo floor installed by the Venetian Art Mosaic Company of Cleveland.
A 1940 photo, with an inexplicable “Grand Opening Friday October 6” displayed on the marquee (perhaps the theater had been closed for a while for renovations.)
The Emerald Theatre was in operation by 1915, according to the date the Kansas City Library gives this photo of it. The following year the operators opened an airdome across the street, according to this item from the July 22, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Emerald Airdome Opens.
“Kansas City, Mo.—The open air Emerald theater, with a seating capacity of 1,000, has opened, at Thirty-sixth street and Prospect avenue. The management believes in giving the open air as good service as is given in the ‘winter’ theater across the street, and the projection is particularly well cared for. The charge is five cents. Business up to winter standards is expected. The program, too, is kept up.”
Regarding the link in my previous comment, you have to scroll up a couple of pages in the Google Books preview to reach the section about the Little Theatre of the Movies.
John Vacha’s Showtime in Cleveland (Google Books preview) says that the Band Box Was originally the Priscilla Theatre, a vaudeville house. In 1927, after closing as the Band Box, it reopened as the Little Theatre of the Movies, operating as Cleveland’s first art house. Its opening attraction was Eisenstein’s Potemkin.
However, by the end of that year the house had dropped the movies and returned to stage productions as simply the Little Theatre. It was one of Cleveland’s more adventurous theaters, presenting premiers of works by Eugene O'Neill and Maxwell Anderson. The house’s time as a legitimate theater only lasted a bit longer than its time as a movie house, and by the end of the 1920s it had been converted into a burlesque house, taking the name Empress Theatre.
As the Band Box, this theater had been the scene of comedian Bob Hope’s earliest stage success. It was here that he refined the act he later took on the road for Gus Sun’s vaudeville circuit. As near as I’ve been able to determine, the Priscilla Theatre was opened (or perhaps taken over) by Gus Sun before 1910, and it was renamed the Band Box sometime after 1918. I’ve been unable to discover how long it operated as the Empress, or what became of it after 1929.
The January 4, 1933, issue of The Film Daily said that the Terminal Theatre in downtown Cleveland, after many years as a grind house, was returning to a first-run policy on January 7. The Terminal Theatre was then owned by E. C. Flanigon, B. C. Steele, and Samuel Rosenthal.
The first-run policy apparently didn’t work out. The April 18 issue of The Film Daily said that the Terminal Theatre had converted from first-run foreign pictures to a burlesque policy.
This 1953 photo of Third Street shows the Border Theatre on the right and the Grand Theatre building a bit farther down the block on the opposite side of the street. The side wall of the Grand features a faded sign reading Orpheum Theatre.
In the satellite view this is a very small building. I don’t see how it ever held 780 seats.
Web site: Park Theatre.
The Park Theatre has a facade that is very similar to those of two other theaters built by the Baehr Theatres circuit about the same time: theRidge Theatre at Breckenridge, Minnesota, and the Border Theatre at International Falls, Minnesota. The three houses differed in size and fenestration, but all shared details in common, including the boxy vertical signs that rose from the marquee instead of being attached directly to the facade of the building.
This weblog post indicates that the Border Theatre was demolished in April, 2009.
The Border Theatre’s facade was almost identical to that of the Ridge Theatre in Breckenridge, Minnesota, and to the Park Theatre in Park Rapids, Minnesota, seen in this photo. If we can find the architect of one, I’m sure we’ve found the architect of all three. All of these houses were built for the Baehr Theatres circuit during the late 1930s-early 1940s.
The Border Theatre at International Falls (1939) also shared the design of the Ridge Theatre and the Park Theatre.
Boomer: Wagner Sign Company of Elyria, Ohio, still makes marquee letters, as does Gemini Signs and Letters of Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Chances are they both have dealers in your region (Buffalo, Syracuse, maybe some smaller towns.) Both companies make the classic dimensional letters, which are fairly costly, but also make flat letters (Wagner’s Zip-Change and Gemini’s Pronto line) that are (and look) considerably cheaper.
Wagner actually invented the plastic-molded dimensional marquee letter in 1942, and when you see old photos of theater marquees you are probably seeing Wagner letters in most cases.
You can also sometimes find vintage letters, but they tend to be badly worn and more expensive than new letters. As yours went missing, odds are that somebody stole them and sold them to an antique dealer.
The Santa Maria Theatre must have been twinned in its last years, which is probably why Flix70 remembers it as being smaller than 1,200 seats. Check the 1983 photos linked earlier. The signage on the building didn’t specifically claim two screens, but there are two different movies on the marquee, each with the same starting times. There had to have been two screens.
The January 21, 1928, issue of Building and Engineering News said that architect C. H. Jensen was completing revised plans for a 1,250 seat theater to be built at Daly City for E. Baron and Carol Nathan, proprietors of the Jefferson Theatre.
If the Daly City Theatre resembles the work of Reid Brothers, it might be because C. H. Jensen was that firm’s chief draftsman for several years prior to striking off on his own in 1921.
Given its location and the date of its construction, it is likely that the Campus Theatre was the project mentioned in the July, 1924, issue of The Architect and Engineer:
When the project was noted in the January 10, 1925, issue of Building and Engineering News, associate architect Raymond de Sano was not mentioned, so perhaps he had withdrawn. The building was no longer to be built of brick, either:The Campus Theatre was probably completed and opened before the end of 1925, and so the earlier Campus Theater on Durant Avenue was most likely closed that same year.An item about a proposed theater on Bancroft Way near Telegraph Avenue appeared in the July, 1924, issue of The Archtiect & Engineer. Given the location and the date, the project was probably the second Campus Theatre. As plans for that house were being completed in mid-1924, and the second Campus was built in 1925, it seems likely that it was also opened in 1925, so the first Campus Theater probably closed that year.
Per chronicler’s information above, this house should be listed as the Campus Theater (a 1916 photo in The Moving Picture World shows that it used the -er spelling of the T word.)
chronicler’s Berkeley Heritage link says that this theater had been converted into a retail store by the late 1920s.
The Campus Theater most likely closed in 1925 or 1926. A list of the neighborhood’s cultural resources from Joseph Stubbs' Berkeley Southside Project (PDF file) dates the building of the second Campus Theatre on Bancroft Way to 1925. It might not have opened until 1926, though.
The August 7, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Pastime Theatre in South Berkeley had been sold to J. Ashkenazy by W. M. Clark. the house was still in operation in 1916, when the September 16 issue of the same publication said that E. Staub had purchased it from J. Scotti. These are the only references to the Pastime that I’ve been able to find in publications from the period.
A list of cultural resources in Berkeley’s Southside Project area gives 1925 as the date for the Campus Theatre building.
PDF file.
The Campus Theatre built in 1914 (comment by gsmurph, March 4, 2006) was a different house, located on Durant Avenue, originally called the Majestic Theatre and renamed Campus Theater in 1915. It is listed on this Cinema Treasures page.
Also, I should note that Haltnorth’s Hall, which became the Coliseum Garden Theatre in 1905, was a different building than the Haltnorth Theatre. It was located down the block at the corner of 55th and Woodland, and had a Woodland Avenue address. It was demolished in 1909. As far as I’ve been able to discover, the Haltnorth Theatre never operated under any other name.
A Cleveland Legacy: The Architecture of Walker and Weeks, by Eric Johannesen, says that the Haltnorth theater was designed by Walker & Weeks in 1914. Frank Ray Walker was the lead designer of the firm and Harry E. Weeks handled the business affairs. The Haltnorth Theatre project consisted of a three-story retail and office block fronting on 55th Street and the 1,280-seat auditorium extending along Haltnorth Court. The theater had a stage 30 feet deep. It was built on part of the site of Haltnorth’s Gardens, a long-established beer garden popular with the neighborhood’s large German population.
Historic references indicate that by the mid-1930s the Haltnorth Theatre was catering primarily to an African-American audience. Views at the Historic Aerials web site show that the building was still standing at least as late as 1970, but was gone by 2002.
Johannesen’s book notes three other theater projects that the firm of Walker & Weeks designed, but all of them remained unbuilt, so the Haltnorth was probably the only movie theater of their design that was completed. Three non-movie theaters the firm worked on were built: Goodyear Hall, Akron, completed in 1920; Cleveland Public Auditorium (Walker in collaboration with J. Harold McDowell), completed 1922, and Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra, completed in 1931.
The original 1911 facade of the Penn Square Theatre can be seen in the photo I just uploaded. I’m not sure when the alterations were made, but the photo showing the much plainer front that replaced the original must date from 1928, the year Must We Marry?, with Pauline Garan, was released.
The 1911 article I cited did say that there were already plans to add a balcony to the house, so perhaps the front was remodeled at that time, maybe not long after the theater opened. The modernized facade was a bit taller than the original.
The following text accompanied a photo of the Penn Square Theatre in the December 23, 1911, issue of The Moving Picture World:
It’s possible that the Penn Square Theatre was designed by Cleveland architect George Allen Grieble. The item about terrazzo floors I cited in my previous comment refers to the Penn Square Theatre and Building, and a biographical sketch of Grieble published in the early 1920s lists a Penn Square Building as one of his projects from 1911.I’ve been unable to confirm that these were the same project, though. The office block and the theater might have been designed separately. The Penn Square Theatre’s front is certainly far more ornate than any of the other three theaters Grieble is known to have designed around the same time (the Olympia, the Alhambra, and the Gordon Square), though a bit of its decoration does resemble part of the less elaborate decoration on the Alhambra.
The Alhambra Theatre was built in 1911, and was designed and built by George Allen Grieble.
Grieble began his career as a builder prior to studying architecture with the International Correspondence School. An advertisement for the school that appeared in magazines in the early 1920s featured a biography of Grieble, giving the highlights of his career. It mentioned two 1911 projects he designed and built: the Alhambra Theatre and the Penn Square Building. The Penn Square Building was an office block that also contained the Penn Square Theatre.
A biography of Grieble from the Cleveland Landmarks Commission lists two other Cleveland theaters he designed: the Olympia and the Gordon Square.
A page from the Cleveland Landmarks Commission about builder and architect George Allen Grieble lists the Olympia Theatre as one of his projects, dated 1913. It also lists a Gordon Square Theatre (apparently not yet listed at Cinema Treasures) as a 1911 project.
An item about the growing popularity of terrazzo flooring in Cleveland appeared in the August, 1911, issue of The Ohio Architect, Engineer and Builder. It noted that the lobby of the new Penn Square Theatre had a terrazzo floor installed by the Venetian Art Mosaic Company of Cleveland.
Linkrot repair: The October 20, 1956, Boxoffice article about the remodeling of the Rockhill Theatre now begins at this link.
Here is some linkrot repair for the Kansas City Public Library images:
1918 photo, showing the original two-story Wirthman Building.
1937 photo, showing the five-story Wirthman Building.
A 1928 photo showing what the library presumes is the lobby of the Isis.
Another 1928 photo showing the theater by night.
A 1940 photo, with an inexplicable “Grand Opening Friday October 6” displayed on the marquee (perhaps the theater had been closed for a while for renovations.)
The Emerald Theatre was in operation by 1915, according to the date the Kansas City Library gives this photo of it. The following year the operators opened an airdome across the street, according to this item from the July 22, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
Regarding the link in my previous comment, you have to scroll up a couple of pages in the Google Books preview to reach the section about the Little Theatre of the Movies.
John Vacha’s Showtime in Cleveland (Google Books preview) says that the Band Box Was originally the Priscilla Theatre, a vaudeville house. In 1927, after closing as the Band Box, it reopened as the Little Theatre of the Movies, operating as Cleveland’s first art house. Its opening attraction was Eisenstein’s Potemkin.
However, by the end of that year the house had dropped the movies and returned to stage productions as simply the Little Theatre. It was one of Cleveland’s more adventurous theaters, presenting premiers of works by Eugene O'Neill and Maxwell Anderson. The house’s time as a legitimate theater only lasted a bit longer than its time as a movie house, and by the end of the 1920s it had been converted into a burlesque house, taking the name Empress Theatre.
As the Band Box, this theater had been the scene of comedian Bob Hope’s earliest stage success. It was here that he refined the act he later took on the road for Gus Sun’s vaudeville circuit. As near as I’ve been able to determine, the Priscilla Theatre was opened (or perhaps taken over) by Gus Sun before 1910, and it was renamed the Band Box sometime after 1918. I’ve been unable to discover how long it operated as the Empress, or what became of it after 1929.
The January 4, 1933, issue of The Film Daily said that the Terminal Theatre in downtown Cleveland, after many years as a grind house, was returning to a first-run policy on January 7. The Terminal Theatre was then owned by E. C. Flanigon, B. C. Steele, and Samuel Rosenthal.
The first-run policy apparently didn’t work out. The April 18 issue of The Film Daily said that the Terminal Theatre had converted from first-run foreign pictures to a burlesque policy.