The United Artists Queensway Cinemas was designed by San Francisco architect Daniel T. Uesugi, and was one of at least three Hong Kong projects he designed for UA.
Black light murals had been around for about a decade before the Chief Theatre was built. The first use of black light decoration in a theater that I know of was at the Academy Theatre in Inglewood, California, designed by architect S. Charles Lee. It opened on November 7, 1939.
On December 17 that year, the Tower Theatre in Fresno, California, was opened. It, too, was designed by Lee for the Fox West Coast circuit, and featured black light murals painted by Tom and Frank Bouman of the A. B. Heinsbergen Company. The Tower even had fibers that would fluoresce under ultraviolet light woven into the auditorium carpets.
I’m not sure if the black light murals of the Academy, which now houses a church, have survived, but those in the Tower are intact.
An article about new theaters in Denver that appeared in the August 5, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that finishing touches were being put on the new Rialto Theatre on Curtis Street. However, the Rialto was apparently not a new theater at that time. In this comment on the Isis Theatre page, paulomalley says that the Rialto opened in 1913 as the United States Theatre.
I found the following item about the United States Theatre in the March 4, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The United States theater, one of Denver’s newest downtown photoplay Houses, which for several months was operated under lease by R. H. McCluskey, has closed down. Plans for the future of the theater are a matter of much discussion in the local field. McCluskey’s retirement is said to be due to the expiration of his lease, which the owners would not renew, and it is understood that Albert Lewin, principal owner, is considering plans for remodelling and enlarging the theater. If his plans mature, it is reported, he will make it one of the largest moving picture houses in Denver and will conduct it himself.”
The September 16, 1916, issue of the same publication said that the United States Theatre in Denver had been remodeled and renamed the Rialto. As the project had cost only $20,000, it’s likely that the changes had been less extensive than originally planned.
The NRHP registration form for the Jefferson Square Historic District reveals that the Sierra Theatre was built in 1884 as Head’s Opera House, and was dedicated on December 17 that year. The theater was on the ground floor and a Masonic hall was upstairs. In 1914, the Masons bought the entire building.
The theater was extensively remodeled in 1916, as noted in the December 23 issue of The Moving Picture World, which said that iron columns had been removed and replaced by girders, and heating upgraded from wood stoves to a steam plant. Four boxes had been added, the stage had been remodeled, and new opera chairs installed. The opening program at the renovated house was Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation.
The September, 1916, issue of The Doherty News, an electrical industry trade publication, features a nocturnal photo of the Rialto on page 17. Text on page 22 describes the theater:
“The new Rialto moving picture theatre on Curtis Street, Denver, is a notable example of electrical illumination. The outside lighting is an important feature as it embraces 2,564 electric bulbs, giving a light equal to 82,250 candlepower, or 7,250 candlepower more than the exterior of the Denver Gas & Electric Light Company’s building. The interior of the Rialto is lighted with 800 incandescent bulbs, and the devices for diffused illumination, when the films are being shown, are complete and also ingenius.”
Robin Chandler-Miles and Norma Miles book Worcester County (Google Books preview) says that Steven Mason built Mason’s Opera House in 1908. Originally three stories, with the theater on the second floor, some time before 1950 the third floor was removed.
Google Maps now calls this stretch of Washington Street Snow Hill Road, and shows the Opera House building in the 200 block. I’ve updated Street View to the location.
The 1905-1906 Cahn guide lists the Grand Opera House in Ashland, Wisconsin, as a second floor theater with 615 seats and a stage 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep. Given those dimensions, the current building as seen in street view and satellite view is not large enough to have accommodated this theater. My guess would be that the auditorium and stage were behind the surviving part of the building, which looks to be not much more than 40 feet square.
The Royal Theatre at Ashland, Wisconsin, was mentioned in the April 1, 1916 issue of the trade journal Motography. The house was owned by Abe and Louis Latz and Leon Schwager.
Ashland, by Christine H. Box (Google Books preview) conflicts with our current description of this theater. It says that the Opera House was built in 1882, partly destroyed by fire in 1903, rebuilt and reopened in 1904. It was located at the corner of Main and Center Streets. It became a movie theater in the 1920s, but closed in 1935. The building was demolished in 1955.
There is an early photo of the Ashland Opera House on this page.
Ozark Jubilee was mentioned in the February 19, 1955, issue of The Billboard. The show had been airing from the studios of the University of Missouri at Columbia, but was scheduled to return to the refurbished Jewell Theatre about April 1.
A movie house called the Savoy was in operation at Park Falls as early as 1908. That year, the December 26 issue of The Moving Picture World ran the following item about it:
“Park Falls, Wis.—The Savoy Theater, which was recently opened under the management of Jones & Murry, is now conducted by Mr. Jones, who purchased his partner’s interest in the business.”
At some point, the old building on the corner had some of its upper floors removed. That’s where the destruction wall came from. And of course the theater would have to have been been wider than the office building, in order to accommodate so many seats. A comparatively narrow building for a theater’s entrance and a wider lot behind for the auditorium was common in neighborhoods such as Midtown, where frontage on the Avenues was very expensive and land on the side streets was considerably cheaper.
In the 1948 photo, the advertisement for Buitoni spaghetti covers the facade of the same seven story building that is seen in the 1920 photo. The 1948 Gillette razor ad is on the same corner building that is seen in the 1920 photo. The triple-bay of the Keith-Albee office tower rises higher than the advertising signs of the adjacent buildings.
In this 1962 photo, the corner building is still there, the framework for the advertising sign still atop it, but the sign itself is gone. It’s the same building that was there in 1920. Mike, bigjoe59, and I are not the ones being fooled by the false facades. The Keith-Albee building is three bays wide in every picture except the one in the 1928 souvenir booklet. The logical conclusion is that the additional bays shown in that picture were drawn in, but were never built.
Google Maps misplaced its pin icon by a mile or so again. I’ve moved Street View to the proper location. The Avon Theatre building is easily recognizable, as the marquee and vertical sign are still intact. The building now houses an antiques shop. Go to the Life Theatre page to see the proper block on a map. The Avon was across the street and a few doors south from the Life.
For some reason, the Life and Town Theatres are not appearing in the “Nearby Theaters” field on this page. Probably something to do with Google Maps being screwy again.
This building appears to have been almost universally detested, judging from the plethora of attacks on it to be found on the Internet. This article from 2005, for example, tells of a television show which voted the Sheridan IMAX the worst building in England. All I can say to that is… if only.
I’ll own that the building was not very appealing, at least judging from its Google Street View, and it was surely inappropriately sited, but the worst building in England? That’s an awful lot of buildings and a lot of awful buildings. Somebody standing on the Sheridan’s roof with a hand-held rocket launcher could probably have taken out half a dozen or more that I’d consider even worse right there in Bournemouth— but there’s no accounting for tastes, I suppose. I’d trade our bland local multiplex for something that looked more like the Sheridan any day.
Wikipedia has this photo of the Palace dated circa 1920, and the building is certainly narrower than it is in the picture in the 1928 Souvenir booklet.
The extra bays are also missing from the building in this 1948 photo. My guess would be that the addition of the side wings was proposed, but the expansion was never carried out. Vaudeville began to decline soon after the arrival of talking pictures, and that event was soon followed by the depression, further reducing the demand for live performers. The building housed the booking offices of the Keith-Albee-Orpheum vaudeville circuit, and a rapidly shrinking staff would have needed no additional space.
Arcadia Publishing Company has an entire book devoted to the World Theatre, part of its “Images of America” series.
The World opened on November 14, 1927. The opening program included vaudeville acts, the feature film Adam and Evil, and an Our Gang comedy short. There was also music from the theater’s Marr & Colton organ. The theater was designed by architect James T. Allen, who had designed the Roseland Theatre in Omaha a few years earlier.
The recent renovation of the World Theatre was designed by architect Philip Cudaback of Lahaina Architects.
The L.A. Live complex as a whole, including the exterior of the Regal Cinemas, was designed by Gensler & Associates, but the theater interior is the work of Blair Ballard Architects.
Yakima had a house called the Yakima Theatre as early as 1907, when it was mentioned in a book published that year, The Coast, by Honor H. Wilhelm. The Yakima Theatre was also mentioned in the August 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World.
As the building housing the Yakima Theatre in the 1931 photo looks to have been built in the late 19th or early 20th century, possibly the 1931 opening was a re-opening under new ownership, though it’s possible that it was an entirely different Yakima Theatre, but was located in an old building converted from some other use.
The United Artists Sha Tin Cinema was designed by San Francisco architect Daniel T. Uesugi, Uesugi & Associates.
The United Artists Queensway Cinemas was designed by San Francisco architect Daniel T. Uesugi, and was one of at least three Hong Kong projects he designed for UA.
Signature Theatres' Manchester 16 was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates.
Black light murals had been around for about a decade before the Chief Theatre was built. The first use of black light decoration in a theater that I know of was at the Academy Theatre in Inglewood, California, designed by architect S. Charles Lee. It opened on November 7, 1939.
On December 17 that year, the Tower Theatre in Fresno, California, was opened. It, too, was designed by Lee for the Fox West Coast circuit, and featured black light murals painted by Tom and Frank Bouman of the A. B. Heinsbergen Company. The Tower even had fibers that would fluoresce under ultraviolet light woven into the auditorium carpets.
I’m not sure if the black light murals of the Academy, which now houses a church, have survived, but those in the Tower are intact.
An article about new theaters in Denver that appeared in the August 5, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World said that finishing touches were being put on the new Rialto Theatre on Curtis Street. However, the Rialto was apparently not a new theater at that time. In this comment on the Isis Theatre page, paulomalley says that the Rialto opened in 1913 as the United States Theatre.
I found the following item about the United States Theatre in the March 4, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The September 16, 1916, issue of the same publication said that the United States Theatre in Denver had been remodeled and renamed the Rialto. As the project had cost only $20,000, it’s likely that the changes had been less extensive than originally planned.The NRHP registration form for the Jefferson Square Historic District reveals that the Sierra Theatre was built in 1884 as Head’s Opera House, and was dedicated on December 17 that year. The theater was on the ground floor and a Masonic hall was upstairs. In 1914, the Masons bought the entire building.
The theater was extensively remodeled in 1916, as noted in the December 23 issue of The Moving Picture World, which said that iron columns had been removed and replaced by girders, and heating upgraded from wood stoves to a steam plant. Four boxes had been added, the stage had been remodeled, and new opera chairs installed. The opening program at the renovated house was Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation.
The September, 1916, issue of The Doherty News, an electrical industry trade publication, features a nocturnal photo of the Rialto on page 17. Text on page 22 describes the theater:
Robin Chandler-Miles and Norma Miles book Worcester County (Google Books preview) says that Steven Mason built Mason’s Opera House in 1908. Originally three stories, with the theater on the second floor, some time before 1950 the third floor was removed.
Google Maps now calls this stretch of Washington Street Snow Hill Road, and shows the Opera House building in the 200 block. I’ve updated Street View to the location.
The 1905-1906 Cahn guide lists the Grand Opera House in Ashland, Wisconsin, as a second floor theater with 615 seats and a stage 40 feet wide and 30 feet deep. Given those dimensions, the current building as seen in street view and satellite view is not large enough to have accommodated this theater. My guess would be that the auditorium and stage were behind the surviving part of the building, which looks to be not much more than 40 feet square.
The Royal Theatre at Ashland, Wisconsin, was mentioned in the April 1, 1916 issue of the trade journal Motography. The house was owned by Abe and Louis Latz and Leon Schwager.
Ashland, by Christine H. Box, gives the opening date of the Ashland Theatre as March 27, 1942.
Ashland, by Christine H. Box (Google Books preview) conflicts with our current description of this theater. It says that the Opera House was built in 1882, partly destroyed by fire in 1903, rebuilt and reopened in 1904. It was located at the corner of Main and Center Streets. It became a movie theater in the 1920s, but closed in 1935. The building was demolished in 1955.
There is an early photo of the Ashland Opera House on this page.
Ozark Jubilee was mentioned in the February 19, 1955, issue of The Billboard. The show had been airing from the studios of the University of Missouri at Columbia, but was scheduled to return to the refurbished Jewell Theatre about April 1.
A movie house called the Savoy was in operation at Park Falls as early as 1908. That year, the December 26 issue of The Moving Picture World ran the following item about it:
At some point, the old building on the corner had some of its upper floors removed. That’s where the destruction wall came from. And of course the theater would have to have been been wider than the office building, in order to accommodate so many seats. A comparatively narrow building for a theater’s entrance and a wider lot behind for the auditorium was common in neighborhoods such as Midtown, where frontage on the Avenues was very expensive and land on the side streets was considerably cheaper.
In the 1948 photo, the advertisement for Buitoni spaghetti covers the facade of the same seven story building that is seen in the 1920 photo. The 1948 Gillette razor ad is on the same corner building that is seen in the 1920 photo. The triple-bay of the Keith-Albee office tower rises higher than the advertising signs of the adjacent buildings.
In this 1962 photo, the corner building is still there, the framework for the advertising sign still atop it, but the sign itself is gone. It’s the same building that was there in 1920. Mike, bigjoe59, and I are not the ones being fooled by the false facades. The Keith-Albee building is three bays wide in every picture except the one in the 1928 souvenir booklet. The logical conclusion is that the additional bays shown in that picture were drawn in, but were never built.
Google Maps misplaced its pin icon by a mile or so again. I’ve moved Street View to the proper location. The Avon Theatre building is easily recognizable, as the marquee and vertical sign are still intact. The building now houses an antiques shop. Go to the Life Theatre page to see the proper block on a map. The Avon was across the street and a few doors south from the Life.
For some reason, the Life and Town Theatres are not appearing in the “Nearby Theaters” field on this page. Probably something to do with Google Maps being screwy again.
Here is the official web site.
In the description and previous names field, the name should be spelled Philip, not Phillip.
Santa: The Town Theatre was a different house, and has its own Cinema Treasures page here.
This building appears to have been almost universally detested, judging from the plethora of attacks on it to be found on the Internet. This article from 2005, for example, tells of a television show which voted the Sheridan IMAX the worst building in England. All I can say to that is… if only.
I’ll own that the building was not very appealing, at least judging from its Google Street View, and it was surely inappropriately sited, but the worst building in England? That’s an awful lot of buildings and a lot of awful buildings. Somebody standing on the Sheridan’s roof with a hand-held rocket launcher could probably have taken out half a dozen or more that I’d consider even worse right there in Bournemouth— but there’s no accounting for tastes, I suppose. I’d trade our bland local multiplex for something that looked more like the Sheridan any day.
Wikipedia has this photo of the Palace dated circa 1920, and the building is certainly narrower than it is in the picture in the 1928 Souvenir booklet.
The extra bays are also missing from the building in this 1948 photo. My guess would be that the addition of the side wings was proposed, but the expansion was never carried out. Vaudeville began to decline soon after the arrival of talking pictures, and that event was soon followed by the depression, further reducing the demand for live performers. The building housed the booking offices of the Keith-Albee-Orpheum vaudeville circuit, and a rapidly shrinking staff would have needed no additional space.
Arcadia Publishing Company has an entire book devoted to the World Theatre, part of its “Images of America” series.
The World opened on November 14, 1927. The opening program included vaudeville acts, the feature film Adam and Evil, and an Our Gang comedy short. There was also music from the theater’s Marr & Colton organ. The theater was designed by architect James T. Allen, who had designed the Roseland Theatre in Omaha a few years earlier.
The recent renovation of the World Theatre was designed by architect Philip Cudaback of Lahaina Architects.
The L.A. Live complex as a whole, including the exterior of the Regal Cinemas, was designed by Gensler & Associates, but the theater interior is the work of Blair Ballard Architects.
The Galaxy Tulare 10 was designed by the Laguna Beach, California, firm Blair Ballard Architects. There are four photos at the firm’s web site.
Yakima had a house called the Yakima Theatre as early as 1907, when it was mentioned in a book published that year, The Coast, by Honor H. Wilhelm. The Yakima Theatre was also mentioned in the August 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World.
As the building housing the Yakima Theatre in the 1931 photo looks to have been built in the late 19th or early 20th century, possibly the 1931 opening was a re-opening under new ownership, though it’s possible that it was an entirely different Yakima Theatre, but was located in an old building converted from some other use.