A March, 1914, item in The Moving Picture World has a different address for a Bijou Theatre that was still upstairs:
“Three upstairs theaters — the Jewel, 30 Michigan avenue; the Bijou, 24 Monroe avenue; and the Avenue, 996 Michigan avenue — in Detroit were ordered closed by the state fire marshal.”
This house was called the Princess before it was called the Liberty. The February 21, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Princess Theatre in Roswell had been opened on July 28, 1913. The house had 725 seats. The building was 35x155 feet, and the projector had a throw of 92 feet to a screen which was 13x18 feet. The house employed a three-piece orchestra, and could present live events on a stage that was 23 feet wide and 18 feet deep. The owner of the Princess was James Halper, and the manager was G. W. Morgan.
The February 14, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World mentions the Olympic Theatre and gives its seating capacity:
“Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Wirick paid a visit to The World office last week. Mr. Wirick is owner of the Olympic and Majestic Theaters in Sioux City, seating, respectively, 300 and 400 people.”
The item also has this useful line: “There are 11 moving picture theaters in Sioux City, the largest being the Royal, with a capacity of 600.”
At for right in the photo of the New Theatre on its page, part of a marquee can be seen with the letter “M” and part of the letter “A” on it. That must be the Main Theatre at 106 Main Street.
That means there’s something wrong with the information from the Arkansas Historical Society magazine that Chuck cited in his previous comment. The theater at 106 Main was clearly the Main Theatre at some point, either before or after being the Rex.
I have no clue if the Rex at 213 Main (not yet listed at Cinema Treasures) was ever called the Main or not. Is it possible that it was the replacement for this theater, and when it opened this one was renamed the Main, rather than the other way around?
As the Ambridge Theatre was apparently only house of ample scale in the town, it was probably the recently-opened theater that was mentioned in the January 14, 1929, issue of The Film Daily:
“Ambridge, Pa. — M. B. Nadler has been appointed manager of the new Ambridge Amuse. Co. house here. The house seats 1,600 and built at a cost of approximately $500,000.”
There is a vacant lot directly across the street from 625 Merchant Street now. That must be where the Prince Theatre was located. The building adjacent to it is an old J. C. Penney store of 1940s or 1950s vintage, which would not have been the theater, though it might have been built on the theater’s site. It looks like the Prince has been demolished.
The Plaza Theatre opened in 1916. Here is an announcement from the January 8 issue of The Moving Picture World that year:
“SIOUX CITY. IOWA.— Plans have been filed for the new Plaza theater in Sioux City which St. Elmo Bateman of Waterloo is promoting. A wholesale liquor house is to be transformed at a cost of $35,000. It will contain a pipe organ, the only one in a Sioux City photoplay house.”
Given its location, the Penn Theatre might have been the project that was the subject of this item in the April 10, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“COL. KEENAN TO BUILD THEATER.
“Col. T. J. Keenan, the Pittsburgh newspaper man and capitalist, has announced that he will have work started in a few days on a fine large theater block covering his lots on the southeast corner of Merchant and Fifth streets, Ambridge, Pa. While the details of the construction of the building cannot be given at this time, it is known that the building will cover the whole of Col. Keenan’s lot-holding at this point, which consists of four lots, an area of 88x1OO feet.
“The new theater will be one of the finest between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. It will have seating capacity for more than 8OO persons and in modern construction and architectural design it will be the last word. Besides the commodious theater a couple of splendid business rooms, suitable for mercantile purposes, will be included in the new block. When built the theater will be placed in charge of an experienced and efficient manager.”
This page of the souvenir program of an event held in 1924 contains an advertisement for the Ambridge Amusement Company, operators of the Prince and Regent Theatres.
I’m wondering if this item from The Moving Picture World of April 10, 1915, could have been about the Liberty Theatre:
“NEW PENN AVENUE HOUSE.
“The moving picture theater to be erected on the property of the Nicola Land Company, On Penn avenue, near Frankstown avenue. East End, Pittsburg, Pa., is to be completed by October 1, as ground will be broken for it around May 1. Plans of the building are being hurried to completion by H. E. Kennedy & Company and call for a seating capacity of 1,550. The building will front 100 feet on Penn avenue and will have a depth of 171 feet, making it the largest motion picture theater in the city, and with its numerous unique features, its owners mean to also make it one of the most attractive in the country. There will be no storerooms connected with it, which omission will give the building a most imposing appearance, and will allow a much handsomer front than would be possible if there were stores alongside the entrance.
The mention of H. E. Kennedy Company as architects is especially interesting in light of Edward J. Schulte’s claim that the designed the Liberty Theatre while working in the Kennedy Company’s office. The Liberty as built doesn’t perfectly match the description of the unnamed theater in the article, but the location appears to be right, the size is close, and the absence of any shops in the Liberty building matches the proclaimed desire of the owners of the mystery project.
The April 10, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Majestic Theatre, which was probably opened before the issue’s date:
“CHARLEROI HOUSE TO OPEN.
“Work is rapidly nearing completion on the new Majestic theater in Charleroi, Pa., which is being erected by H. C. Hepler and C. J. Matthews. It is expected to have it completed about April 1. J. H. Megown, a well known Pittsburgh film man and a former exhibitor, will manage this house. It will have a capacity of 500. The building is two stories. The order for equipment has been placed with the Feature Film & Calcium Light company, which included two Powers 6-A motor-driven machines and a mirroroide screen.”
This weblog post features a photo of the Butler Theatr. The caption mistakenly says that the theater was torn down in 1960, though the movie on the marquee was released in 1965.
This house might have been a replacement for (or rebuilding of) the Butler Theatre that was mentioned in the October 23, 1915, issue of Motography:
“The new Butler theater, formerly the Orpheum, in Butler, opened the twenty-third of September.”
The October 23, 1915, issue of Motography had this item about the opening of the Hamilton Theatre in Allentown:
“After weeks of preparation on the part of the decorators and electricians, the new Hamilton theater, located on Hamilton street, near Second, Allentown, has been opened. The theater, which will be devoted to the exclusive showing of feature photoplays, is one of the prettiest in the city. It has a seating capacity of 500 people and is constructed along strictly fire-proof lines. Herbert M. Meeker is manager.”
It seems unlikely that any theater other than the Hippodrome would have ended up being called the Hipp. They must be the same house.
Here is a snippet from a 1936 issue of The Motion Picture Herald which mentions the Hipp Theatre:
“A. H. Blank, head of the Tri-States Theatres, Inc., took over six independent theatres in Sioux City, Ia. Mr. Blank already operated the Capitol and Princess theatres prior to his taking over the Rialto, Granada, Loop, Circle, Iowa and Hipp.”
Snippet views of the 1938 and 1942 editions of Film Daily Yearbook at Google Books also mention the Hipp.
The original interior of the RKO Orpheum Theatre was designed by the noted industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss. A photo of one of the lighting fixtures he designed for the theater can be seen on page 60 of Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design In America 1925-1939, by Jeffrey Meikle (Google Books preview.)
A photo montage of Sioux City Theatres unearthed by CSWalczak shows a house called the Rialto at bottom left which is a perfect match for the Victory Theatre building seen in the photo Chuck linked to. They have to be the same theater.
The montage comes from this page, which has extracts from a book published in 1923. It says that the Rialto opened in 1907 as the Lyric Theatre and soon after became the Orpheum. When Sioux City’s second Orpheum opened in 1919, the first Orpheum became the Rialto.
The Orpheum is mentioned multiple times in The Billboard in 1908, so it wasn’t the Lyric for very long. Chuck’s photo shows that the Rialto was renamed the Victory by 1940. I don’t know whether or not there were other names in between.
This PDF contains a brochure for a “walking tour” of Nebraska Street, showing many historic buildings that have been demolished. The caption for the photo of the Capitol Theatre (#10) says that it opened in 1912 and was called the Isis Theatre and the U.S.A. Theatre as well as the Orpheum Theatre before finally becoming the Capitol.
This theater was the second Orpheum Theatre in Sioux city, opened in 1919. Compare the 1955 photo of the Capitol in the walking tour brochure with an earlier photo of the Orpheum (bottom row, second from right) in this montage (published in 1923) unearthed by CSWalczak. They are unmistakably the same building.
The text from which the montage comes says that the Orpheum circuit built a new theater in 1918, which contradicts the walking tour brochure’s claim that the house that became the second Orpheum had been built in 1912. In fact, an October 5, 1912, item about the Isis Theatre in The Moving Picture World shows that the Isis was in a single-story building, 50x100 feet, and it had only 400 seats. It’s possible that parts of the Isis' building were incorporated into the new Orpheum, but unless the Isis had already been greatly expanded from its original size at some point, reconstruction for its conversion to the Orpheum had to have been extensive.
The brochure doesn’t give a time line for the names, so I’m not sure when it was called the U.S.A. Theatre. It might have been during the one-year gap between the opening of the third Orpheum and this theater’s reopening as the Capitol. But it could also have simply remained closed through most of 1928, in which case it would have been the called U.S.A. for a while before becoming the Orpheum in 1919.
The Moving Picture World of March 15, 1919, confirms J.D.’s surmise that the Wichita Theatre was designed by Carl Boller. The article says nothing of a Reproduco, or any organ or piano at this time, but says that the Wichita Theatre had a 12-piece orchestra accompanying the movies at both the evening and the matinée performances.
The caption of a photo of the Camden Theatre in Parkersburg In Vintage Postcards, by Christy and Jeff Little, says that the Camden Theatre opened on September 10, 1902 (Google Books preview.)
An article about Fayette C. Smoot, operator of the Camden, in the March 8, 1919, issue of The Moving Picture World says that “[t]he Camden Theatre is 7 years old.” That would have meant a 1912 opening, but it must have been a mistake. The Camden is listed (and recognizably described) in the 1906-1907 edition of Julius Cahn’s guide.
This house was called the Victory Theatre at least as early as 1943, when it was mentioned in the December 25 issue of The Billboard.
Just for the record, Chuck1231 originally uploaded the photo of the New Theatre, not me.
This item is from the September 9, 1936, issue of The Film Daily:
The house must have opened before the end of 1936, but I haven’t found it mentioned in later issues of the magazine that year.A March, 1914, item in The Moving Picture World has a different address for a Bijou Theatre that was still upstairs:
This house was called the Princess before it was called the Liberty. The February 21, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Princess Theatre in Roswell had been opened on July 28, 1913. The house had 725 seats. The building was 35x155 feet, and the projector had a throw of 92 feet to a screen which was 13x18 feet. The house employed a three-piece orchestra, and could present live events on a stage that was 23 feet wide and 18 feet deep. The owner of the Princess was James Halper, and the manager was G. W. Morgan.
The February 14, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World mentions the Olympic Theatre and gives its seating capacity:
The item also has this useful line: “There are 11 moving picture theaters in Sioux City, the largest being the Royal, with a capacity of 600.”At for right in the photo of the New Theatre on its page, part of a marquee can be seen with the letter “M” and part of the letter “A” on it. That must be the Main Theatre at 106 Main Street.
That means there’s something wrong with the information from the Arkansas Historical Society magazine that Chuck cited in his previous comment. The theater at 106 Main was clearly the Main Theatre at some point, either before or after being the Rex.
I have no clue if the Rex at 213 Main (not yet listed at Cinema Treasures) was ever called the Main or not. Is it possible that it was the replacement for this theater, and when it opened this one was renamed the Main, rather than the other way around?
As the Ambridge Theatre was apparently only house of ample scale in the town, it was probably the recently-opened theater that was mentioned in the January 14, 1929, issue of The Film Daily:
There is a vacant lot directly across the street from 625 Merchant Street now. That must be where the Prince Theatre was located. The building adjacent to it is an old J. C. Penney store of 1940s or 1950s vintage, which would not have been the theater, though it might have been built on the theater’s site. It looks like the Prince has been demolished.
The Plaza Theatre opened in 1916. Here is an announcement from the January 8 issue of The Moving Picture World that year:
Given its location, the Penn Theatre might have been the project that was the subject of this item in the April 10, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World:
This page of the souvenir program of an event held in 1924 contains an advertisement for the Ambridge Amusement Company, operators of the Prince and Regent Theatres.
I’m wondering if this item from The Moving Picture World of April 10, 1915, could have been about the Liberty Theatre:
The mention of H. E. Kennedy Company as architects is especially interesting in light of Edward J. Schulte’s claim that the designed the Liberty Theatre while working in the Kennedy Company’s office. The Liberty as built doesn’t perfectly match the description of the unnamed theater in the article, but the location appears to be right, the size is close, and the absence of any shops in the Liberty building matches the proclaimed desire of the owners of the mystery project.The April 10, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Majestic Theatre, which was probably opened before the issue’s date:
This weblog post features a photo of the Butler Theatr. The caption mistakenly says that the theater was torn down in 1960, though the movie on the marquee was released in 1965.
This house might have been a replacement for (or rebuilding of) the Butler Theatre that was mentioned in the October 23, 1915, issue of Motography:
The October 23, 1915, issue of Motography had this item about the opening of the Hamilton Theatre in Allentown:
Also, the photos CSWalczak linked to are from a book published in 1923 (excerpted here), so the theater was at least that old.
It seems unlikely that any theater other than the Hippodrome would have ended up being called the Hipp. They must be the same house.
Here is a snippet from a 1936 issue of The Motion Picture Herald which mentions the Hipp Theatre:
Snippet views of the 1938 and 1942 editions of Film Daily Yearbook at Google Books also mention the Hipp.The original interior of the RKO Orpheum Theatre was designed by the noted industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss. A photo of one of the lighting fixtures he designed for the theater can be seen on page 60 of Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design In America 1925-1939, by Jeffrey Meikle (Google Books preview.)
The Plaza Theatre was in operation by 1919, when it was mentioned in The Moving Picture World.
A photo montage of Sioux City Theatres unearthed by CSWalczak shows a house called the Rialto at bottom left which is a perfect match for the Victory Theatre building seen in the photo Chuck linked to. They have to be the same theater.
The montage comes from this page, which has extracts from a book published in 1923. It says that the Rialto opened in 1907 as the Lyric Theatre and soon after became the Orpheum. When Sioux City’s second Orpheum opened in 1919, the first Orpheum became the Rialto.
The Orpheum is mentioned multiple times in The Billboard in 1908, so it wasn’t the Lyric for very long. Chuck’s photo shows that the Rialto was renamed the Victory by 1940. I don’t know whether or not there were other names in between.
This PDF contains a brochure for a “walking tour” of Nebraska Street, showing many historic buildings that have been demolished. The caption for the photo of the Capitol Theatre (#10) says that it opened in 1912 and was called the Isis Theatre and the U.S.A. Theatre as well as the Orpheum Theatre before finally becoming the Capitol.
This theater was the second Orpheum Theatre in Sioux city, opened in 1919. Compare the 1955 photo of the Capitol in the walking tour brochure with an earlier photo of the Orpheum (bottom row, second from right) in this montage (published in 1923) unearthed by CSWalczak. They are unmistakably the same building.
The text from which the montage comes says that the Orpheum circuit built a new theater in 1918, which contradicts the walking tour brochure’s claim that the house that became the second Orpheum had been built in 1912. In fact, an October 5, 1912, item about the Isis Theatre in The Moving Picture World shows that the Isis was in a single-story building, 50x100 feet, and it had only 400 seats. It’s possible that parts of the Isis' building were incorporated into the new Orpheum, but unless the Isis had already been greatly expanded from its original size at some point, reconstruction for its conversion to the Orpheum had to have been extensive.
The brochure doesn’t give a time line for the names, so I’m not sure when it was called the U.S.A. Theatre. It might have been during the one-year gap between the opening of the third Orpheum and this theater’s reopening as the Capitol. But it could also have simply remained closed through most of 1928, in which case it would have been the called U.S.A. for a while before becoming the Orpheum in 1919.
As can be seen from the photo I just uploaded, the Wichita Theatre was much more Spanish than French in style.
The Moving Picture World of March 15, 1919, confirms J.D.’s surmise that the Wichita Theatre was designed by Carl Boller. The article says nothing of a Reproduco, or any organ or piano at this time, but says that the Wichita Theatre had a 12-piece orchestra accompanying the movies at both the evening and the matinée performances.
The caption of a photo of the Camden Theatre in Parkersburg In Vintage Postcards, by Christy and Jeff Little, says that the Camden Theatre opened on September 10, 1902 (Google Books preview.)
An article about Fayette C. Smoot, operator of the Camden, in the March 8, 1919, issue of The Moving Picture World says that “[t]he Camden Theatre is 7 years old.” That would have meant a 1912 opening, but it must have been a mistake. The Camden is listed (and recognizably described) in the 1906-1907 edition of Julius Cahn’s guide.