A chapter devoted to the Cameo Theatre in volume 2 of Jack Edward Shay’s Bygone Binghamton: Remembering People and Places of the Past (Google Books preview– chapter begins on page 35) says that the house opened in April, 1928. Its best-remembered proprietors, Ken and Frances Robinson, took over operation in 1954, and bought the house in 1957.
Volume 2 of Bygone Binghamton: Remembering People and Places of the Past, by By Jack Edward Shay, has an entire chapter about the Sun Theatre (Google Books preview.) The Sun opened in 1927 or 1928, and was operated by its owner, Paul Kocak, until closing in 1964. A native of Cleveland, Kocak named the Sun for a neighborhood house in the Ohio city. In addition to second run Hollywood movies, the Sun sometimes ran Czechoslovakian films for the large ethnic population in the neighborhood.
In addition to the chapter on the Sun, Shay’s book has a chapter about the Cameo Theatre, and the opening chapter covers Binghamton’s other movie theaters.
Here is an item from the April 17, 1920, issue of The American Contractor which must be about the Lyric Theatre, despite the mistaken street names:
“Theater (M. P.) & Stores (2): $75.000. 2 sty. & bas. 50x142. Nevill [sic] & Hoover [sic] sts., Beckley, W. Va. Archts. C. C. & E. A. Weber, Miller bldg., Cincinnati. Owner Messrs. Middleber & Hyman, Logan, W. Va. Gen. contr. let to Jack Freeman, Berkley. Excav.”
Christian C. and Edward A. Weber designed four other theaters already listed at Cinema Treasures, only one of which is still standing, and that converted to office space.
CSW: The 1909 picture in the book I linked to in my previous comment makes it clear that the Temple Theatre was in the taller building next door to the one with the bay window.
The cars in the photo recently uploaded here shows that there was still a theater in the building around 1940. That indicates that the proposed theater projects of 1913 and 1921 were probably never carried out (unless there was once a third theater at Caro, or if one of them was the original Strand Theatre.)
My second indented quote in the previous comment should start with “VAN LEYEN” (I want the edit function back!)
Also, I see that Street View is currently set on the Masonic Temple building, which is across the street and up the block from 137 State Street. Many towns had houses called the Temple Theatre that were located in Masonic Temple buildings, but Caro does not appear to have been one of them. The building at 137 is where the Temple Theatre was located from 1909 until at least 1913.
Maybe we don’t know where this theater was, but we now know who operated it in the 1920s and 1930s. A December 25, 1942, item in the Cass City Chronicle notes the 50th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Schuckert, who “…came to Caro in 1920 to operate the Temple Theatre, which they sold a few years ago.” As of 1942, Mr. Schukert and his son operated the Cass Theatre in Cass City and other eastern Michigan theaters the item doesn’t name.
The February 5, 1921, issue of The American Contractor has this item about a proposed theater in Caro, but I don’t know if the project was carried out:
“Store & Theater Bldg., Abt. $20,000. 2 sty. 32x102. Caro. Mich. Archt. Van Leyen & Schilling, Detroit. Owner C. H. Schuckert, prop., Temple Theater, Caro. Brk., conc. & steel, brk., stone trim. Drawing plans.”
The January, 1921, issue of The Michigan Architect and Engineer also mentions the project:
“VAX LEYEN, SCHILLING, KEOUGH & REYNOLDS, Archts. and Engrs., Detroit. Prep, plans for theater. Caro, Mich. 30x100. Brick, stone trim, steel, comp. roof, terrazzo and hardwood floors, steam heat, elec. Owner, Temple Theater Co. Plans ready Jan. 20. Bids close Feb. 15.”
If this project was carried out, maybe the Temple Theatre moved from one location to another in 1921, which would account for the conflicting street locations. While I haven’t been able to confirm that the project was actually built, if it was built it wasn’t the building shown at Water Winter Wonderland. That building (which looks about 25 feet wide) was the original Temple Theatre, according to the caption of the photo on page 30 of The Caro Area, by Marcia M. Dievendorf, Patricia E. Frazer, and Mark O. Keller. The caption says that the Temple opened at that location in 1909, and was the first movie theater in Caro.
To add more confusion, the February 8, 1913, issue of Construction News carried another item about plans by the Temple Theatre Company:
“Caro,_Mich.—Theater. Frank & Almer Sts. The Temple Theater Co., Chas. Montague, R. S. Montague, Lucy G. Montague, G. X. Van Tine & F. B. Ransford, stockholders, contemplated the erection of a theater in Caro.”
Again, I’ve found no confirmation that this project was carried out, or, if it was, that it was not just a second theater for the same owners, in which case it most likely would have operated a different name. On the other hand, maybe the Temple operated in three different locations over the years: the building at 137 State Street from 1909 to 1913, at Frank and Almer Streets from 1913 to 1921, and another unknown location from 1921 on.
Google Street View reveals that the corner of Frank and Almer Streets is where the American Legion Hall is now located (110 W. Frank Street.) Perhaps the 1913 Temple Theatre project was carried out, but I can’t tell from Street View how old the Legion Hall building might be. It doesn’t look like it would date from 1913, but it could have been extensively remodeled.
Wherever the mysterious Temple Theatre was at the time, it suffered a fire in 1934, not 1959. It was a “25 Years Ago” feature in the January 29, 1959, issue of the Cass City Chronicle that said that an overheated furnace in the Temple Theatre had destroyed the theater’s furnishings and the household goods of the proprietor, F. H. Schuckert, who lived on the second floor. The 1934 event was noted in an issue of Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record that year.
I’ve found no evidence that the Temple Theatre was still operating as late as 1959. The most recent mention of it I’ve found is an ad in the theater listings section of the Cass City Chronicle of March 21, 1947. It was showing two “B” pictures, a murder mystery and a western, and had a listing only for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, while the Strand listed three single-feature programs of “A” pictures over the next week. It’s likely that the Temple didn’t survive into the CinemaScope era. Small theaters, especially part-time, late-run and “B” houses in small towns, were closed by the thousands in the mid-1950s because they couldn’t afford the new wide-screen equipment, if they even had room for wide screens.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that Al Hauetter was the architect for the 1937 remodeling of the Sun Theatre. David and Noelle’s list of known Boller theaters lists the Sun Theatre in Kansas City as a 1941 remodeling project. Why the house was remodeled twice in four years I don’t know.
The 1941 project might have been a belated exterior remodeling, since in the 1937 photo from Boxoffice it looks like in Hauetter’s remodeling the old front was retained and merely given a new paint job. But without a photo from 1941 or later there’s no way of telling if the house got a new front in 1941.
The church that now occupies the building has a wooden false front that covers the upper portion of the facade, and the lower portion is mostly covered in some kind of stone veneer that might date from the 1940s but might be later.
The NRHP document lostmemory links to says that the Plaza Theatre replaced another house of the same name that had operated on the site for one year, but doesn’t say what happened to the earlier theater. If you compare the photo of the Music Box in the NRHP document with the 1940 photo of the Plaza in the Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to, the basic structure of the marquee is the same.
The Boxoffice article says that the Plaza Theatre was 25x120 feet in size, while the NRHP document says that the current Plaza is approximately 50x110 feet. It looks to me like the owners of the Plaza might have decided that they had underestimated the potential demand when they built the house in 1940, so they expanded the theater in 1942. Of course it’s also possible that some disaster befell the 1940 building, but either way it’s obvious that the 1940 marquee was retained on the 1942 Plaza.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that Al Hauetter was the architect for the remodeling when the Orpheum in Fairfield was converted into the Co-Ed Theatre.
The building occupied by Gragg & Gragg (financial planners and accountants, not a law firm) is very modern, and doesn’t resemble, even in part, anything that would have housed a theater in the past. I’d say the building dates from no earlier than the late 1970s, and is probably even more recent. It looks like it might have been built as a bank. The Webb Theatre has surely been demolished.
Some time after the Ricky Theatre closed, John Mullaney filed suit against the Frisina Amusement Company, operator of Mattoon’s other theaters, alleging that the bankruptcy of his and his late brother’s business had been the result of unfair practices by the chain.
Mullaney claimed that Frisina had used its power with distributors to limit his access to films, and that when the Ricky opened Frisina had begun running special promotions such as bargain nights at its theaters. The special promotions had been ended once the competition had been vanquished, he noted.
In 1953, a local Realtor bought the shuttered Ricky Theatre and converted it for other uses. The property had been sold for $5,000 at a bankruptcy auction.
A Webb Theatre at Shelby (perhaps this one, perhaps an earlier one) was mentioned in the 1926-1927 yearbook of Boiling Hills High School. An advertisement for the Deluxe Cafe said that it was next to the Webb Theatre.
In the 1947-1948 Shelby City Directory, Pete Webb is listed as manager of the Webb Theatre. Pete Webb and his brother Fred achieved some fame in the 1920s and 1930s as professional golfers. An annual golf tournament held in Cleveland County is named for Pete Webb, who died in 2003 at the age of 90.
The February 9, 1952, issue of The Billboard ran an obituary for William H. Webb, 51, who it said was the owner of theaters in Shelby, Gastonia, and Kings Mountain, NC.
Cinema Treasures has a Webb Theatre listed in Gastonia, but no house of that name in Kings Mountain. Perhaps the Webbs didn’t use the family name for that house.
Old USGS maps show that the Motor Movies Drive-In occupied an irregular quadrilateral lot of about ten acres along El Dorado Street starting about 300 feet south of Clayton Avenue and extending about 600 feet farther. A narrow additional parcel used as a driveway extended north to Clayton on a line with Mary Avenue, but the main entrance appears to have been on El Dorado.
The screen was at the northwest corner, at the back of what appears to now be a lumber yard. In the satellite view you can see a small, white-roofed building, set at an angle, about where the screen used to be. The rest of the drive-in’s parcel is now occupied by industrial uses and a storage area for big rig trailers.
I don’t know just where the marquee and attraction board were located, so I’ve set Street View to the southeast corner of the parcel, which is where the USGS maps show a driveway entering from El Dorado Street.
Go to Historic Aerials and enter the address 4000 S. El Dorado, Stockton, CA, and then when the aerial has been fetched click on the 1987 topo map link (T) to see the former layout.
It was probably 1934 or 1935 that the Colonial/Durant Theatre was renamed the Roxy. A list of theater projects designed by Flint architect George J. Bachmann, published in the 1950 Theatre Catalog, includes a “Roxie” Theatre in Flint, listed as a 1934 project. Despite the variant spelling, the entry probably does refer to this Roxy Theatre.
A list of theaters designed by Flint architect George J. Bachmann published in the 1950 Theatre Catalog includes the Columbia Theatre at Flint, listed as a 1920 design project. It most likely opened in either 1920 or 1921.
Given the Della Theatre’s early May, 1937, opening, its size, the fact that it was operated by Matt Theatres, and its neighborhood location, it was probably the yet-unnamed theater project reported in the September 12, 1936, issue of The Film Daily:
“Ground was broken a few days ago for the theater to be built in Chevrolet Park, Flint, for Lester Matt. House will seat 1,200 and cost $80,000. George Bachman of Flint is the architect.”
“George Bachman” was undoubtedly George J. Bachmann, architect of several other theaters in and around Flint.
A photo of the St. James Picture Theatre illustrates an advertisement for W. J. Furse & Co. on this page of the technical supplement to The Cinema News andProperty Gazette, published October 2, 1924.
Here is an article about the Cabridge Circus Cinema from the March, 1912, issue of The Cinema News and Property Gazette. There are photos of the vestibule and auditorium sporting their original Jacobean decor.
Here is an article about the Scala Theatre from the April, 1912, issue of The Cinema News and Property Gazette, published during the period when the theater was presenting Charles Urban’s Kinemacolor films.
Given its late 1936 reopening, the State might have been the theater that was mentioned in the September 12 issue of The Film Daily that year. The item said that Pioneer Theatres was remodeling the Royal Theatre at Carroll. There would be a new front, boxoffice and marquee, and the interior would be redecorated. The item said that the house would be renamed, but did not say what the new name would be.
In 1936, original architects Shampan & Shampan returned to the Williamsburg Playhouse to design and oversee a $15,000 renovation, reported in the September 12 issue of The Film Daily. The building was extended to increase seating capacity, the auditorium was reseated, new carpets and drapes were installed, the toilets and lounge were updated, as were lighting and mechanical equipment, and the interior was given modern decorative finishes.
A comment on the Lakeview Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland says that this theater was on Jefferson Avenue at Francis Street. That’s only a few blocks south of 13 Mile Road, so Google Maps has its pin icon almost two miles too far south. That’s probably because the theater needs a five-digit address and we only give it four digits. The right address is most likely 30620 Jefferson, which would put it in the block just north of Francis Street.
A chapter devoted to the Cameo Theatre in volume 2 of Jack Edward Shay’s Bygone Binghamton: Remembering People and Places of the Past (Google Books preview– chapter begins on page 35) says that the house opened in April, 1928. Its best-remembered proprietors, Ken and Frances Robinson, took over operation in 1954, and bought the house in 1957.
Volume 2 of Bygone Binghamton: Remembering People and Places of the Past, by By Jack Edward Shay, has an entire chapter about the Sun Theatre (Google Books preview.) The Sun opened in 1927 or 1928, and was operated by its owner, Paul Kocak, until closing in 1964. A native of Cleveland, Kocak named the Sun for a neighborhood house in the Ohio city. In addition to second run Hollywood movies, the Sun sometimes ran Czechoslovakian films for the large ethnic population in the neighborhood.
In addition to the chapter on the Sun, Shay’s book has a chapter about the Cameo Theatre, and the opening chapter covers Binghamton’s other movie theaters.
Here is an item from the April 17, 1920, issue of The American Contractor which must be about the Lyric Theatre, despite the mistaken street names:
Christian C. and Edward A. Weber designed four other theaters already listed at Cinema Treasures, only one of which is still standing, and that converted to office space.CSW: The 1909 picture in the book I linked to in my previous comment makes it clear that the Temple Theatre was in the taller building next door to the one with the bay window.
The cars in the photo recently uploaded here shows that there was still a theater in the building around 1940. That indicates that the proposed theater projects of 1913 and 1921 were probably never carried out (unless there was once a third theater at Caro, or if one of them was the original Strand Theatre.)
My second indented quote in the previous comment should start with “VAN LEYEN” (I want the edit function back!)
Also, I see that Street View is currently set on the Masonic Temple building, which is across the street and up the block from 137 State Street. Many towns had houses called the Temple Theatre that were located in Masonic Temple buildings, but Caro does not appear to have been one of them. The building at 137 is where the Temple Theatre was located from 1909 until at least 1913.
Maybe we don’t know where this theater was, but we now know who operated it in the 1920s and 1930s. A December 25, 1942, item in the Cass City Chronicle notes the 50th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Schuckert, who “…came to Caro in 1920 to operate the Temple Theatre, which they sold a few years ago.” As of 1942, Mr. Schukert and his son operated the Cass Theatre in Cass City and other eastern Michigan theaters the item doesn’t name.
The February 5, 1921, issue of The American Contractor has this item about a proposed theater in Caro, but I don’t know if the project was carried out:
The January, 1921, issue of The Michigan Architect and Engineer also mentions the project:If this project was carried out, maybe the Temple Theatre moved from one location to another in 1921, which would account for the conflicting street locations. While I haven’t been able to confirm that the project was actually built, if it was built it wasn’t the building shown at Water Winter Wonderland. That building (which looks about 25 feet wide) was the original Temple Theatre, according to the caption of the photo on page 30 of The Caro Area, by Marcia M. Dievendorf, Patricia E. Frazer, and Mark O. Keller. The caption says that the Temple opened at that location in 1909, and was the first movie theater in Caro.To add more confusion, the February 8, 1913, issue of Construction News carried another item about plans by the Temple Theatre Company:
Again, I’ve found no confirmation that this project was carried out, or, if it was, that it was not just a second theater for the same owners, in which case it most likely would have operated a different name. On the other hand, maybe the Temple operated in three different locations over the years: the building at 137 State Street from 1909 to 1913, at Frank and Almer Streets from 1913 to 1921, and another unknown location from 1921 on.Google Street View reveals that the corner of Frank and Almer Streets is where the American Legion Hall is now located (110 W. Frank Street.) Perhaps the 1913 Temple Theatre project was carried out, but I can’t tell from Street View how old the Legion Hall building might be. It doesn’t look like it would date from 1913, but it could have been extensively remodeled.
Wherever the mysterious Temple Theatre was at the time, it suffered a fire in 1934, not 1959. It was a “25 Years Ago” feature in the January 29, 1959, issue of the Cass City Chronicle that said that an overheated furnace in the Temple Theatre had destroyed the theater’s furnishings and the household goods of the proprietor, F. H. Schuckert, who lived on the second floor. The 1934 event was noted in an issue of Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record that year.
I’ve found no evidence that the Temple Theatre was still operating as late as 1959. The most recent mention of it I’ve found is an ad in the theater listings section of the Cass City Chronicle of March 21, 1947. It was showing two “B” pictures, a murder mystery and a western, and had a listing only for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, while the Strand listed three single-feature programs of “A” pictures over the next week. It’s likely that the Temple didn’t survive into the CinemaScope era. Small theaters, especially part-time, late-run and “B” houses in small towns, were closed by the thousands in the mid-1950s because they couldn’t afford the new wide-screen equipment, if they even had room for wide screens.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that Al Hauetter was the architect for the 1937 remodeling of the Sun Theatre. David and Noelle’s list of known Boller theaters lists the Sun Theatre in Kansas City as a 1941 remodeling project. Why the house was remodeled twice in four years I don’t know.
The 1941 project might have been a belated exterior remodeling, since in the 1937 photo from Boxoffice it looks like in Hauetter’s remodeling the old front was retained and merely given a new paint job. But without a photo from 1941 or later there’s no way of telling if the house got a new front in 1941.
The church that now occupies the building has a wooden false front that covers the upper portion of the facade, and the lower portion is mostly covered in some kind of stone veneer that might date from the 1940s but might be later.
The NRHP document lostmemory links to says that the Plaza Theatre replaced another house of the same name that had operated on the site for one year, but doesn’t say what happened to the earlier theater. If you compare the photo of the Music Box in the NRHP document with the 1940 photo of the Plaza in the Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to, the basic structure of the marquee is the same.
The Boxoffice article says that the Plaza Theatre was 25x120 feet in size, while the NRHP document says that the current Plaza is approximately 50x110 feet. It looks to me like the owners of the Plaza might have decided that they had underestimated the potential demand when they built the house in 1940, so they expanded the theater in 1942. Of course it’s also possible that some disaster befell the 1940 building, but either way it’s obvious that the 1940 marquee was retained on the 1942 Plaza.
The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that Al Hauetter was the architect for the remodeling when the Orpheum in Fairfield was converted into the Co-Ed Theatre.
Butterfield took over the Capitol Theatre and remodeled it in 1936, according to the September 19 issue of The Film Daily that year.
W. S. Butterfield was operating the Regent Theatre in Lansing by 1924, according to the August 25 issue of The Film Daily that year.
The building occupied by Gragg & Gragg (financial planners and accountants, not a law firm) is very modern, and doesn’t resemble, even in part, anything that would have housed a theater in the past. I’d say the building dates from no earlier than the late 1970s, and is probably even more recent. It looks like it might have been built as a bank. The Webb Theatre has surely been demolished.
Some time after the Ricky Theatre closed, John Mullaney filed suit against the Frisina Amusement Company, operator of Mattoon’s other theaters, alleging that the bankruptcy of his and his late brother’s business had been the result of unfair practices by the chain.
Mullaney claimed that Frisina had used its power with distributors to limit his access to films, and that when the Ricky opened Frisina had begun running special promotions such as bargain nights at its theaters. The special promotions had been ended once the competition had been vanquished, he noted.
In 1953, a local Realtor bought the shuttered Ricky Theatre and converted it for other uses. The property had been sold for $5,000 at a bankruptcy auction.
A Webb Theatre at Shelby (perhaps this one, perhaps an earlier one) was mentioned in the 1926-1927 yearbook of Boiling Hills High School. An advertisement for the Deluxe Cafe said that it was next to the Webb Theatre.
In the 1947-1948 Shelby City Directory, Pete Webb is listed as manager of the Webb Theatre. Pete Webb and his brother Fred achieved some fame in the 1920s and 1930s as professional golfers. An annual golf tournament held in Cleveland County is named for Pete Webb, who died in 2003 at the age of 90.
The February 9, 1952, issue of The Billboard ran an obituary for William H. Webb, 51, who it said was the owner of theaters in Shelby, Gastonia, and Kings Mountain, NC.
Cinema Treasures has a Webb Theatre listed in Gastonia, but no house of that name in Kings Mountain. Perhaps the Webbs didn’t use the family name for that house.
Old USGS maps show that the Motor Movies Drive-In occupied an irregular quadrilateral lot of about ten acres along El Dorado Street starting about 300 feet south of Clayton Avenue and extending about 600 feet farther. A narrow additional parcel used as a driveway extended north to Clayton on a line with Mary Avenue, but the main entrance appears to have been on El Dorado.
The screen was at the northwest corner, at the back of what appears to now be a lumber yard. In the satellite view you can see a small, white-roofed building, set at an angle, about where the screen used to be. The rest of the drive-in’s parcel is now occupied by industrial uses and a storage area for big rig trailers.
I don’t know just where the marquee and attraction board were located, so I’ve set Street View to the southeast corner of the parcel, which is where the USGS maps show a driveway entering from El Dorado Street.
Go to Historic Aerials and enter the address 4000 S. El Dorado, Stockton, CA, and then when the aerial has been fetched click on the 1987 topo map link (T) to see the former layout.
It was probably 1934 or 1935 that the Colonial/Durant Theatre was renamed the Roxy. A list of theater projects designed by Flint architect George J. Bachmann, published in the 1950 Theatre Catalog, includes a “Roxie” Theatre in Flint, listed as a 1934 project. Despite the variant spelling, the entry probably does refer to this Roxy Theatre.
A list of theaters designed by Flint architect George J. Bachmann published in the 1950 Theatre Catalog includes the Columbia Theatre at Flint, listed as a 1920 design project. It most likely opened in either 1920 or 1921.
Given the Della Theatre’s early May, 1937, opening, its size, the fact that it was operated by Matt Theatres, and its neighborhood location, it was probably the yet-unnamed theater project reported in the September 12, 1936, issue of The Film Daily:
“George Bachman” was undoubtedly George J. Bachmann, architect of several other theaters in and around Flint.The architect’s surname is Lovegrove, not Lovecraft, according to the caption under the drawing and the text on the page Tinseltoes linked to.
A photo of the St. James Picture Theatre illustrates an advertisement for W. J. Furse & Co. on this page of the technical supplement to The Cinema News andProperty Gazette, published October 2, 1924.
Here is an article about the Cabridge Circus Cinema from the March, 1912, issue of The Cinema News and Property Gazette. There are photos of the vestibule and auditorium sporting their original Jacobean decor.
Here is an article about the Scala Theatre from the April, 1912, issue of The Cinema News and Property Gazette, published during the period when the theater was presenting Charles Urban’s Kinemacolor films.
Given its late 1936 reopening, the State might have been the theater that was mentioned in the September 12 issue of The Film Daily that year. The item said that Pioneer Theatres was remodeling the Royal Theatre at Carroll. There would be a new front, boxoffice and marquee, and the interior would be redecorated. The item said that the house would be renamed, but did not say what the new name would be.
In 1936, original architects Shampan & Shampan returned to the Williamsburg Playhouse to design and oversee a $15,000 renovation, reported in the September 12 issue of The Film Daily. The building was extended to increase seating capacity, the auditorium was reseated, new carpets and drapes were installed, the toilets and lounge were updated, as were lighting and mechanical equipment, and the interior was given modern decorative finishes.
A comment on the Lakeview Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland says that this theater was on Jefferson Avenue at Francis Street. That’s only a few blocks south of 13 Mile Road, so Google Maps has its pin icon almost two miles too far south. That’s probably because the theater needs a five-digit address and we only give it four digits. The right address is most likely 30620 Jefferson, which would put it in the block just north of Francis Street.