Comments from Joe Vogel

Showing 8,776 - 8,800 of 15,061 comments

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Lakeview Theater on Oct 25, 2012 at 6:09 pm

An item in the January 22, 1935, issue of The Film Daily said that a remodeling of the Lakeview Theatre in St.Clair Shores was underway. Plans were by the Dearborn architectural firm Bennett & Straight.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Lafayette Theatre on Oct 25, 2012 at 6:06 pm

An item in the January 22, 1935, issue of The Film Daily said that a remodeling of the Lafayette Theatre in Bay City was one of the projects being carried out by Dearborn architects Bennett & Straight.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Star Theater on Oct 25, 2012 at 5:52 pm

In 2009, the Record & Clarion republished this 1935 article about the opening of the rebuilt Star Theatre. A postscript notes that the building is now occupied by the Gladwin County Historical Society.

A recent comment on the Water Winter Wonderland page that lostmemory linked to says that the building now houses the County Historical Museum, and that part of it has been fitted out with some of the Star’s original theater seats and is used for viewing historical videos.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Avon Theatre on Oct 25, 2012 at 5:15 pm

Click on the “Slideshow” link on this web page to see one modern and one vintage photo of the Avon Theatre building.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Hills Theater on Oct 25, 2012 at 5:12 pm

Here is an entry about the Hills Theatre at Remembering Rochester. The house opened in January, 1942, and was designed by Lavern R. Bennett and Eugene D. Straight of the Dearborn architectural firm Bennett & Straight.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Valley Theater on Oct 25, 2012 at 5:01 pm

A list of houses operated by AIA Theatres in the 1950 Theatre Catalog includes this: “VALLEY, Taylorsville, Ky. (1946).” A 1948 mention in Motion Picture Herald refers to it as the “…new Valley Theatre at Taylorsville….” The rather plain facade definitely looks like a 1940s design.

I’ve found two mentions of theaters at Taylorsville in The Moving Picture World from 1916: The January 15th issue notes that J. H. Johnson had purchased equipment for a 300-seat house to be opened at Taylorsville, and the September 30 issue says that J. H. Johnson was moving his theater in Taylorsville to the ground floor of the Cox Building and would rename it the Music Hall.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about State Theatre on Oct 25, 2012 at 3:06 pm

The Strand Theatre was listed in the 1922-1923 edition of the Monroe City Directory.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Pastime Theatre on Oct 25, 2012 at 3:02 pm

My eagle eyes say that the movie on the poster is Three Girls About Town, with Joan Blondell, Binnie Barnes, Janet Blair, Robert Benchley, and John Howard. It was released in 1941.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Empire Theatre on Oct 24, 2012 at 7:58 pm

Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County California, published in 1883, (Google Books scan) says that Placerville’s first Empire Theatre was opened after the Placer Theatre, which opened in 1852, and both houses were destroyed by the Placerville fire of 1856. After the fire The Empire Theatre was replaced by the Placerville Theatre. I’ve been unable to trace the later history of the Placerville Theatre, though it was apparently still around in 1883 when the book was published.

The Empire building in the 1849 photo might have been the building that became the Empire Theatre. It was most likely a saloon or dance hall, and saloons and dance halls were sometimes converted into theaters during the gold rush period, as towns grew and became more prosperous and the miners and merchants began seeking more elaborate entertainment.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Carolina Theatre on Oct 23, 2012 at 9:37 pm

The Architectural History of Randolph County North Carolina, published in 1985, says that the Carolina Theatre building was built in the 1920s as a post office. In 1935, the post office moved and the building was remodeled into a theater.

The interior featured some Art Deco detailing which (as of 1985) could still be seen in an area used for storage. The Carolina Theatre closed in 1962, and the building sat vacant until 1981 when it was again remodeled for commercial use.

There’s a small photo of the theater at the bottom of this page of the book.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Capitol Theatre on Oct 23, 2012 at 9:17 pm

The Capitol Theatre closed in 1958 and has since been demolished, according to a 1985 book called The Architectural History of Randolph County North Carolina.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Capitol Theatre on Oct 23, 2012 at 8:55 pm

The Film Daily of January 4, 1923, said that J. F. White had opened a theater at Asheboro. No name was given, but it must have been the Capitol. A history of the Sunset Theatre published by Randolph County (PDF here) says that the Capitol opened on December 19, 1922.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about DeMarce Theatre on Oct 23, 2012 at 11:01 am

The DeMarce Theater has a web site.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Missouri Theatre on Oct 23, 2012 at 10:31 am

A few photos of the restored Missouri Theatre are displayed in the portfolio of Henderson Engineers, one of the companies that has worked on the theater. Click on the Missouri Theatre thumbnail (#3, top row of featured projects) on this page.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Royal Music Hall on Oct 21, 2012 at 8:11 pm

According to Movie Theatres in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi, by Jerry Dallas, (Google Documents link) the Century Theatre opened in 1901 as a playhouse. In 1913, it began showing movies intermittently, when no live performances were scheduled, and thereafter movies gradually displaced most of the live events.

The Century Theatre closed in mid-1950, but was extensively renovated and reopened by the end of that year as the Royal Music Hall which, despite its name, was a movie house. Its early success was not long sustained, however, and the Royal closed its doors on June 4, 1959, finally ending the building’s history as a theater.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Capri Theatre on Oct 21, 2012 at 8:11 pm

According to Movie Theatres in Twentieth-Century Jackson, Mississippi, by Jerry Dallas, (Google Documents link) the Pix Theatre closed in 1957 and reopened as the Capri in 1962. Except for a brief closure from August to November, 1980, the Capri then operated continuously into the mid-1980s.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Fairmont Opera House on Oct 21, 2012 at 2:38 pm

Here is a PDF file with a brief biography of W. L. Nicholas.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Fairmont Opera House on Oct 21, 2012 at 2:35 pm

The official web site gives the address of the Fairmont Opera House as 45 Downtown Plaza. Here is the home page of the web site. It has the telephone number at the bottom.

I’m not sure what is at 201 Downtown Plaza. Neither Google Maps nor Bing Maps has views of that location, though both have good views of the actual location of the Opera House. The Opera House is at the southeast corner of Downtown Plaza and Blue Earth Avenue (County Highway 26 at Google Maps.)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Fairmont Opera House on Oct 21, 2012 at 2:14 pm

According to its official website, this theater is open again under its original name, the Fairmont Opera House. It was originally opened in 1902, and a few years later was renamed the Haynic Theatre when it was leased by partners William Hay and Willie Lincoln Nicolas, who operated it primarily as a movie house.

Hay withdrew from the partnership in the late 1920s, and the house was renamed the Nicolas Theatre. In 1929 it was extensively remodeled. The facade retained its original Renaissance-inspired style, though somewhat simplified, while the interior was given a more modern look in keeping with the popular Art Deco style.

The Nicolas Theatre closed as a cinema in 1980. It was purchased by a community-based organization which reopened the theater in 1981 with live performances. The theater was gradually restored, with much of the labor provided by volunteers. The restoration is now complete. The Fairmont Opera House presents live events, including plays and music, and is also used for community events and is available for private gatherings.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Vernon Theatre on Oct 21, 2012 at 12:30 pm

The Vernon Theatre was in operation by 1914, at which time 50th Avenue was still called Fourth Street. The following advertisement appeared in the classified section of The Moving Picture World, July 4, 1914:

“THE VERNON THEATER.— Comer 4th St. and Vernon Ave., Long Island City is for sale. New Steinway tunnel next door opens soon, factory and apartment houses erected daily. Big boom expected. Property fireproof brick 55 x 100. Fully equipped, 2 machines, Gold Fibre Curtain, Wurlltzer Orchestra, will seat 600. Everything the latest. License new, business good all year. One hundred per cent investment. Ten cents. Stage attached fully equipped. $10,000 cash required. Call If you mean business.”
In the January 23, 1925, issue of the Queens Borough Daily Star, the Vernon and New Idle Hour Theatres shared an ad, and were running the same program. The locations given were Court House Square (the Idle Hour) and a partly unreadable number in the 100 block of Fourth Street.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Fox Pasadena Theatre on Oct 20, 2012 at 7:33 pm

Here is a photo of the 1925 Tournament of Roses parade, with the Pasadena Theatre at right. The bottom line of the partly obscured marquee reads “VILLE” (probably the last half of VAUDEVILLE.)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Bay Theatre on Oct 19, 2012 at 12:51 pm

A brief item in the May 7, 1949, issue of Boxoffice said that B. Marcus Priteca had been the architect for the $50,000 remodeling of the Roxy Theatre into the Bay Theatre. The seating capacity of the Bay Theatre was 465.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Airway Theatre on Oct 19, 2012 at 10:21 am

Linkrot repair. These are the new locations of the Boxoffice items in my previous comment:

Airway Theatre article, May 7, 1949.

Poblocki and Sons ad, May 24, 1947.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Paramount Theatre on Oct 18, 2012 at 8:25 pm

According to local sources, the Paramount Theatre was built in 1890 as the Park Opera House. A 1987 item in the local newspaper said that the last movie at the Paramount was shown on September 5, 1985. Another item noted that the style of the 1929 remodeling was “Spanish Mediterranean.”

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Champlin Cinema 14 on Oct 18, 2012 at 7:00 pm

The Champlin Cinema was apparently remodeled and expanded at some point, even though the number of screens remained the same. The Vanney Associates PDF I cited in my previous comment lists two 14-screen Champlin Theatre projects, the first having 58,000 square feet and the second having 63,000 square feet.