The Furby Theatre went up in flames on February 28, 1952. There’s a photo and an abstract from a Winnipeg Free Press article on this page at GenDisasters. The newspaper article said the theater was 42 years old, which would make the opening year 1910, but I’ve seen other modern sources saying it opened in 1912. The Furby was definitely in operation by 1913, when it was mentioned in the November 22 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The architect for the 1917 remodeling of the Holman Theatre was Joseph Raoul Gariepy. He is already listed at Cinema Treasures as architect of the Rialto Theatre on Avenue du Parc. According to this page of the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada he also designed the Cartier Theatre on Rue Notre-Dame Ouest in 1929 and, in 1917-18, a neighborhood house called the Maisonneuve Theatre, which was located on Avenue la Salle at Rue Ontario. The Cartier is listed at Cinema Treasures, but I can’t find the Maisonneuve, which would have been about a block from the modern Complexe Desjardins 4 Cinemas.
The 1924 Stratford City Directory has a listing for the Majestic Theatre (rebuilding) at 97-99 Downie Street. The December 12, 1923, issue of Contract Record and Engineering Review had an item about this rebuilding project, datelined Stratford:
“Partridge Bros., Ontario Street, have the plumbing and heating contract in connection with addition and remodelling ‘Majestic Theatre’ to cost $40,000, owned by A. Brandenberger, Wellington St.”
A. Brandenberger must have been Albert Brandenberger, who is mentioned in several editions of Julius Cahn’s guide as manager of the Opera House in Stratford, with which he was connected at least as early as 1900.
The 1900-1901 and 1910-1911 editions of Cahn’s guide listed the theater the Opera House, but the 1910 edition includes the line “Dates to read Theatre Albert, Stratford.” The house is also called the Theatre Albert in the October 5, 1907, issue of The Billboard, so the names must have been used interchangeably.
Then the 1913-1914 edition of Cahn’s guide lists the theater as Griffin’s Opera House, so Albert Brandenberger must have given up control of the house for a time. Despite the retention of the Opera House appellation, a biography of John Griffin in the 1915 edition of Who’s Who in Canada says that the Griffin Amusement Company ran a chain of movie and vaudeville houses in Ontario, so this house might have been showing movies at least as early as 1913.
The September 2, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Majestic Theatre in Stratford:
“Toronto, Ont.—Announcement has been made that the Majestic theater at Stratford, Ont., one of the largest and best equipped houses in Western Ontario, has been purchased by Stratford interests from the Canadian Theaters, Limited, which owns a string of theaters in Ontario and Quebec. A. Brandenberger is now the manager of the Majestic.”
It’s possible that the Griffin circuit had changed the name of the theater to Majestic sometime before it was sold to the “Stratford interests”, which presumably included former (and restored) manager Brandenberger.
Stratford: Its Heritage and Its Festival, by Carolynn Bart-Riedstra and Lutzen Riedstra, says that before it became the Majestic the Avon had been called Theatre Albert and was also known as the Griffin Theatre for a while, so there is confirmation that all these earlier reports refer to the same house.
All the period references I’ve found to the architect of this theater (and there are quite a few) list him as J. Hunt Stanford. His first name was Joseph. There is a brief biographical sketch of him on this web page, which also displays a bookplate from his personal library.
The December 19, 1923, issue of Contract Record and Engineering Review had a notice about this theater:
“Foundations are going in for $100,000 theatre north east corner Woodbine and
Danforth Aves. for Danforth-Woodbine Theatre Ltd. Architect, J. Hunt Stanford & Son, 67 Yonge Arcade. Carpentry by day labor. Roofing, plumbing, heating, electric, plastering and painting to day labor.
J. Hunt Stanford & Son was formed in 1922, when Leo Hunt Stanford joined his father’s practice.
The NorView Theatre appears to have been dismantled in 1957. The History of Kempsville Masonic Lodge has this line referring to an event related to the opening of the Masons' new lodge hall in 1957: “Brother Talbot tore his hand on removing our first set of chairs from the old Norview Theatre.”
I’ve been unable to find any mention of the NorView Theatre in any of the trade publications of the 1940s and 1950s to which I have access, but the architectural style of the building is certainly characteristic of that period.
There is a problem with the address currently given for this theater. Albano Cleaners, the first building on the block north of Chesapeake Boulevard, has an address of 6132 N. Sewells Point Road. The block south of Chesapeake Boulevard is numbered 3600. There is today no 5200 block of Sewells Point Road.
This comment on a HamptonRoads.com article about High’s Ice Cream shops has this line: “Away back in the 1940s, High’s had a store in Norview at Hugo Street, just two doors south of the Norview Theatre.” This has led me to believe that the NorView Theatre was in what is now a rather nondescript, single-story brick building painted a yellowish cream color, about a block north of where Street View is currently set.
Satellite View shows an auditorium-sized structure behind it, backing up to Chesapeake Boulevard. I can’t determine the address of the building from Street View, and there’s no external indication of what it now houses, but the theater’s entrance was probably directly across the street from what is now Sabor Catracho Restaurant, for which the Internet provides the address 6163 Sewells Point Road. That means the modern address for the theater building would be approximately 6162-6164 Sewells Point Road.
The 1938 Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to back on August 27 says that the architect for the streamline modern remodeling of the De Luxe Theatre was Mark D. Kalischer.
The July 2, 1929, issue of The Film Daily ran the following obituary for architect Nicola Petti:
“Cleveland — Nocoli [sic] Petti, local architect who designed ten local picture theaters, is dead after a brief illness. He was 49 years old. Among the houses designed by Petti are the Uptown, Variety, Kinsman, Cedar-Lee and Imperial. He is survived by three sons and two daughters.”
The July 2, 1929, issue of The Film Daily ran the following obituary for architect Nicola Petti:
“Cleveland — Nocoli [sic] Petti, local architect who designed ten local picture theaters, is dead after a brief illness. He was 49 years old. Among the houses designed by Petti are the Uptown, Variety, Kinsman, Cedar-Lee and Imperial. He is survived by three sons and two daughters.”
The Cleveland Landmarks Commission’s list of buildings designed by architect Nicola Petti includes the State Theatre in Toledo. The design was done in 1927.
The Cleveland Landmarks Commission’s list of buildings designed by architect Nicola Petti includes an unnamed theater on Park Avenue in Mansfield. The project was designed in 1927, but the list notes that it has been demolished.
As this is the only theater on Park Avenue that is listed at Cinema Treasures, and I’ve found no evidence that there was ever another theater on that street, perhaps the Landmarks Commission was mistaken about the Petti-designed theater having been demolished and it was indeed this house.
CinemaTour does attribute the design of the Renaissance Theatre to Petti, but doesn’t cite a source. The building is listed on the NRHP, but the Register’s web site says that the document with the theater’s information has not yet been digitized.
The October, 1920, issue of Western Magazine said: “Pipestone’s new $100,000 theater, the Orpheum, will be formally opened September 1.” Why an event taking place in September was written of in the future tense in October I don’t know.
Street View is set to the wrong location. The Broadway Theatre was at the northwest corner of Broadway and College Street, as shown in the 1940 photo kencmcintyre linked to on August 16, 2006. The facade was remodeled (probably part of Liebenberg & Kaplan’s work of the later 1940s) after that photo was taken, but the building still stands and still has the name Broadway emblazoned across the front above the upper floor windows.
The finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota lists the Broadway Theatre in Albert Lea as a 1927 project, with additional work done in the period 1942-1947.
A remodeling of the Bismarck Theatre is listed as a 1929 project in the finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota. I’ve been unable to discover who designed the 1937 remodeling.
The Bijou Theatre in Minneapolis is listed as a project in both 1927 and 1931-1933 in the finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota. Any extensive alterations must have been confined mostly to the interior, as the facade remained little changed over the years aside from the replacement of the corner towers seen in this early photo with a mansard that was hardly less old fashioned, and the addition of a modern theater marquee.
The finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota lists this theater as the “Band Box (Field) 1939-1940”. Possibly it opened sometime earlier as the Field Theatre and was renamed the Bandbox after a remodeling job.
This house was remodeled by Liebenberg & Kaplan in 1938, and is listed as the Badger Theatre in the finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota.
The Avon Theatre actually opened in 1935 as the Rex Theatre but was soon renamed. The house is listed with both names in the finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota. It is listed as a 1934-35 project.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to credits the firm of Liebenberg & Kaplan with the design for the 1960 remodeling of the Aster Theatre.
The Astor Theatre, aka Riviera, mentioned in the introduction for the Aster, is listed in the finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota. The firm worked on that house in 1930-31 and again in 1935. The Astor/Riviera does not appear to be listed at Cinema Treasures. Oddly, the finding aid does not mention the Aster.
The Furby Theatre went up in flames on February 28, 1952. There’s a photo and an abstract from a Winnipeg Free Press article on this page at GenDisasters. The newspaper article said the theater was 42 years old, which would make the opening year 1910, but I’ve seen other modern sources saying it opened in 1912. The Furby was definitely in operation by 1913, when it was mentioned in the November 22 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The architect for the 1917 remodeling of the Holman Theatre was Joseph Raoul Gariepy. He is already listed at Cinema Treasures as architect of the Rialto Theatre on Avenue du Parc. According to this page of the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada he also designed the Cartier Theatre on Rue Notre-Dame Ouest in 1929 and, in 1917-18, a neighborhood house called the Maisonneuve Theatre, which was located on Avenue la Salle at Rue Ontario. The Cartier is listed at Cinema Treasures, but I can’t find the Maisonneuve, which would have been about a block from the modern Complexe Desjardins 4 Cinemas.
According to this page of the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, the Cartier Theatre was designed by architect Joseph Raoul Gariepy.
The 1924 Stratford City Directory has a listing for the Majestic Theatre (rebuilding) at 97-99 Downie Street. The December 12, 1923, issue of Contract Record and Engineering Review had an item about this rebuilding project, datelined Stratford:
A. Brandenberger must have been Albert Brandenberger, who is mentioned in several editions of Julius Cahn’s guide as manager of the Opera House in Stratford, with which he was connected at least as early as 1900.The 1900-1901 and 1910-1911 editions of Cahn’s guide listed the theater the Opera House, but the 1910 edition includes the line “Dates to read Theatre Albert, Stratford.” The house is also called the Theatre Albert in the October 5, 1907, issue of The Billboard, so the names must have been used interchangeably.
Then the 1913-1914 edition of Cahn’s guide lists the theater as Griffin’s Opera House, so Albert Brandenberger must have given up control of the house for a time. Despite the retention of the Opera House appellation, a biography of John Griffin in the 1915 edition of Who’s Who in Canada says that the Griffin Amusement Company ran a chain of movie and vaudeville houses in Ontario, so this house might have been showing movies at least as early as 1913.
The September 2, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had this item about the Majestic Theatre in Stratford:
It’s possible that the Griffin circuit had changed the name of the theater to Majestic sometime before it was sold to the “Stratford interests”, which presumably included former (and restored) manager Brandenberger.Stratford: Its Heritage and Its Festival, by Carolynn Bart-Riedstra and Lutzen Riedstra, says that before it became the Majestic the Avon had been called Theatre Albert and was also known as the Griffin Theatre for a while, so there is confirmation that all these earlier reports refer to the same house.
All the period references I’ve found to the architect of this theater (and there are quite a few) list him as J. Hunt Stanford. His first name was Joseph. There is a brief biographical sketch of him on this web page, which also displays a bookplate from his personal library.
The December 19, 1923, issue of Contract Record and Engineering Review had a notice about this theater:
J. Hunt Stanford & Son was formed in 1922, when Leo Hunt Stanford joined his father’s practice.The NorView Theatre appears to have been dismantled in 1957. The History of Kempsville Masonic Lodge has this line referring to an event related to the opening of the Masons' new lodge hall in 1957: “Brother Talbot tore his hand on removing our first set of chairs from the old Norview Theatre.”
I’ve been unable to find any mention of the NorView Theatre in any of the trade publications of the 1940s and 1950s to which I have access, but the architectural style of the building is certainly characteristic of that period.
There is a problem with the address currently given for this theater. Albano Cleaners, the first building on the block north of Chesapeake Boulevard, has an address of 6132 N. Sewells Point Road. The block south of Chesapeake Boulevard is numbered 3600. There is today no 5200 block of Sewells Point Road.
This comment on a HamptonRoads.com article about High’s Ice Cream shops has this line: “Away back in the 1940s, High’s had a store in Norview at Hugo Street, just two doors south of the Norview Theatre.” This has led me to believe that the NorView Theatre was in what is now a rather nondescript, single-story brick building painted a yellowish cream color, about a block north of where Street View is currently set.
Satellite View shows an auditorium-sized structure behind it, backing up to Chesapeake Boulevard. I can’t determine the address of the building from Street View, and there’s no external indication of what it now houses, but the theater’s entrance was probably directly across the street from what is now Sabor Catracho Restaurant, for which the Internet provides the address 6163 Sewells Point Road. That means the modern address for the theater building would be approximately 6162-6164 Sewells Point Road.
The 1938 Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to back on August 27 says that the architect for the streamline modern remodeling of the De Luxe Theatre was Mark D. Kalischer.
The July 2, 1929, issue of The Film Daily ran the following obituary for architect Nicola Petti:
The July 2, 1929, issue of The Film Daily ran the following obituary for architect Nicola Petti:
The Cleveland Landmarks Commission’s list of buildings designed by architect Nicola Petti includes the State Theatre in Toledo. The design was done in 1927.
The Cleveland Landmarks Commission’s list of buildings designed by architect Nicola Petti includes an unnamed theater on Park Avenue in Mansfield. The project was designed in 1927, but the list notes that it has been demolished.
As this is the only theater on Park Avenue that is listed at Cinema Treasures, and I’ve found no evidence that there was ever another theater on that street, perhaps the Landmarks Commission was mistaken about the Petti-designed theater having been demolished and it was indeed this house.
CinemaTour does attribute the design of the Renaissance Theatre to Petti, but doesn’t cite a source. The building is listed on the NRHP, but the Register’s web site says that the document with the theater’s information has not yet been digitized.
The October, 1920, issue of Western Magazine said: “Pipestone’s new $100,000 theater, the Orpheum, will be formally opened September 1.” Why an event taking place in September was written of in the future tense in October I don’t know.
The current related website link doesn’t have any information about upcoming events at the Orpheum, but the site Friends of the Orpheum does.
The Brynwood Theatre is listed, but undated, in the finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota.
Street View is set to the wrong location. The Broadway Theatre was at the northwest corner of Broadway and College Street, as shown in the 1940 photo kencmcintyre linked to on August 16, 2006. The facade was remodeled (probably part of Liebenberg & Kaplan’s work of the later 1940s) after that photo was taken, but the building still stands and still has the name Broadway emblazoned across the front above the upper floor windows.
The finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota lists the Broadway Theatre in Albert Lea as a 1927 project, with additional work done in the period 1942-1947.
The finding aid to the Libernberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota lists the Brainerd Theatre as a 1937 project.
A remodeling of the Bismarck Theatre is listed as a 1929 project in the finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota. I’ve been unable to discover who designed the 1937 remodeling.
The Bijou Theatre in Minneapolis is listed as a project in both 1927 and 1931-1933 in the finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota. Any extensive alterations must have been confined mostly to the interior, as the facade remained little changed over the years aside from the replacement of the corner towers seen in this early photo with a mansard that was hardly less old fashioned, and the addition of a modern theater marquee.
The finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota lists this theater as the “Band Box (Field) 1939-1940”. Possibly it opened sometime earlier as the Field Theatre and was renamed the Bandbox after a remodeling job.
This house was remodeled by Liebenberg & Kaplan in 1938, and is listed as the Badger Theatre in the finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota.
The Avon Theatre actually opened in 1935 as the Rex Theatre but was soon renamed. The house is listed with both names in the finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota. It is listed as a 1934-35 project.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to credits the firm of Liebenberg & Kaplan with the design for the 1960 remodeling of the Aster Theatre.
The Astor Theatre, aka Riviera, mentioned in the introduction for the Aster, is listed in the finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the University of Minnesota. The firm worked on that house in 1930-31 and again in 1935. The Astor/Riviera does not appear to be listed at Cinema Treasures. Oddly, the finding aid does not mention the Aster.
The finding aid for the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers at the Univeristy of Minnesota lists the Ashland Theatre as one of their projects.
The architectural firm of Liebenberg & Kaplan designed alterations for the Arcade Theatre in 1934 and again in 1941-1942.