Stevie Joe Payne remembers the Circle A Theatre in the early 1950s. As he describes it, this was Pawhuska’s western movie theater. Just about every town big enough to have multiple theaters had a cowboy house in those days, where the kids would go for Saturday matinees of movies with stars like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.
These theaters often had names suggestive of the old west, like the chain of several houses called the Hitching Post Theatre in the Los Angeles area. Circle A sounds like the name of a ranch. Western theaters went into decline in the 1950s, when all the old movies and a lot of new half-hour cowboy shows began running on television. Most of L.A.’s Hitching Post Theatres were re-branded as art houses, showing foreign movies, but most of the western theaters in small towns or suburbia just shut down. The Circle A probably didn’t survive the 1950s.
Also, I’ve found two theaters listed at Pawhuska in the July 25, 1908, issue of The Billboard:
“PAWHUSKA.— Pastime Theatre (R. J. Woodring, mgr.) Dubinsky Brothers furnished the best repertoire of the season week of 12; good houses. The Casino Stock Co. week of 19.
“Lyric Theatre (Mr. Streator, mgr.) The Dell Boy played to packed houses here week of July 12.”
These appear to all have been live acts. The Dubinsky Brothers were an act made up of Edward, Maurice, and Barney Dubinsky. Edward later changed his surname to Durwood and went into the theater business. His his son Stanley Durwood went on to found the AMC circuit of multiplex theaters.
A July, 1936 Pawhuska telephone directory here lists a Skelly Filling Station at 201 W. Main. The State Theatre is also listed in the directory as being on West Main Street, but the street number is not given. The State and the Kihekah (also listed only as being on West Main) are the only theaters listed.
Lauren, what year was the latest insurance map showing the theater building published? If it was from 1922 or earlier, the theater at 201 W. Main might have been the Jackson Theatre, which is known to have advertised as late as 1922 but no later. It could have been demolished about that time.
Mooreland had a single theater operating prior to 1928, when the January 3 issue of The Film Daily reported that the town' movie house had been bought by Kenneth Campbell. The name of the theater was not given, so it might or might not have been the same house that was operating as the Mooreland Theatre in the 1940s.
Are we sure the Uptown’s building has been demolished? The odd-numbered side of the 100 block of West Madison is almost solidly built up, and all the buildings look pretty old. I can’t imagine any of them having been built after 1950.
This house was operated by Video Independent Theatres for at least part of its history. The July 25, 2000, obituary of lifelong Pawhuska resident Betty Jean Moore said: “Betty worked 38 years for The Video Theatres, beginning at The State Theater and becoming Manager over The Kihekah, The State and The Circle A Theaters and Corral Drive-In Theater in Pawhuska.”
The Feb 8, 1914 obituary of Stephen P. Buler said that he had been given charge of the Orpheum Theatre in Portsmouth, Virginia, eight years previously and had managed the house for five years, which would give an opening year of no later than 1906 for the original Orpheum.
The 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide listed the Orpheum in Portsmouth as a Wilmer & Vincent house presenting vaudeville exclusively.
An ad for the Pannill Miro Screen Corporation of Norfolk, Virginia, in the March 11, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World boasted that the company had “…installed the world’s largest moving picture screen in the Orpheum Theatre, Portsmouth….”
A June 24, 1922, item in The American Contractor reported that the Portsmouth Improvement Company would expend $50,000 for fire repairs to the Orpheum Theatre in Portsmouth, Virginia, but an item in the October 19 issue of Manufacturers Record said that the company would build an entirely new Orpheum at a cost of $500,000.
A list of buildings in which products of the J. G. Braun Company had been used, published in the company’s 1926 catalog, names the architect of the Orpheum Theatre as Charles M. Major.
A 1977 book titled Woodlot and Ballot Box: Marathon County in the Twentieth Century, by Howard R. Klueter and James J. Lorence, says: “Mosinee’s only theater was built in 1923….” The Art Moderne style must have been the result of a later remodeling.
This was probably the house that was in the planning stage in 1922, according to an item in the March 25 issue of The American Contractor that year:
“Theater (m. p.): Mosinee, Wis. Archt. Oppenhamer & Obel, 408 Bellin bldg.. Green Bay, Wis. Owner John Keefe, Mosinee. Prob. be fig. bet. Mar. & May.”
The closest thing to a political controversy involving the Mosinee Theatre that I can find reference to on the Internet is a fake “Communist takeover” of the town that was staged by the American Legion in 1950. The stunt attracted enough national attention in those days when Wisconsin’s red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy was riding high that Life Magazine ran this article about the event in its May 15, 1950, issue. The article includes a photo of the Mosinee Theatre.
There are location issues with this theater. The introduction says there is now a post office where the Cameo Theatre used to be, but the U. S. Postal Service gives the address of the East Lyme branch post office as 225 Boston Post Road, not Pennsylvania Avenue. The building at that location doesn’t resemble the one in the photo at the top of this page.
Meanwhile, CinemaTour lists a Cameo Theatre at 66 Pennsylvania Avenue in Niantic, Connecticut, which is just down the road from East Lyme, but lists no theaters for East Lyme itself.
The Postal Service lists the Niantic branch post office as being at 58 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 2. That building does resemble the one in the photo above, so I’m guessing that’s the place and I’m updating Street View to it. I suppose the addresses shifted a bit after the theater closed. The location of the theater should be changed from East Lyme to Niantic, though. The Zip Code is already correct.
The photo (quick link) jacobschen found gives a clue as to why someone might have misremembered the Franklin Park Theatre as having been Gothic in style. The building next door, where Park Playland was located, had loads of Gothic ornament, and the open cupola that once graced the theater, though entirely Classical in detail, had all those finials that echoed the Gothic finials on the neighboring building. It’s too bad that the cupola has been truncated. It added a bit of playful spectacle to the block.
Advertising for the Fire Proof Door Company in the 1906 edition of Sweet’s Catalogue of Building Construction included a photo of the copper entrance doors of the Unique Theatre, which can be seen at lower left on this page. The caption identifies the architects of the Unique Theatre as Bertrand & Chamberlain.
The Tudor Theatre was opened in 1913 by Josiah Pearce & Sons, who had opened their first New Orleans movie house, the Electric Theatre, located on Canal Street, in late 1905 or early 1906.
An article on movie theaters in New Orleans in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World described the Pearce’s career in the city. In 1906, they opened a house called the Dreamland Theatre on St. Charles Street, followed by the Grand Theatre on Canal Street, opened in 1907, the Bijou Dream Theatre, built on St. Charles Street for $25,000 in 1910, and the $45,000 Trianon Theatre on Canal Street in 1911. The Pearce’s had expended $85,000 on the Tudor Theatre.
As of 1916 they were operating seven theaters in New Orleans, including the recently-opened Newcomb Theatre on Canal Street, making their’s the largest moving picture chain in the city.
The company expanded well beyond New Orleans, and a biographical sketch of Frederick William Pearce published in 1922 said that at one time they not only operated movie theaters from Pennsylvania to Texas, but had roller coasters and other outdoor amusements in parks from New England to Colorado.
Josiah Pearce & Sons closed its New Orleans headquarters in 1918, moving to Detroit and concentrating on the outdoor amusement business. It’s likely that 1918 was the year that the Saenger chain took over the Tudor Theatre and the Pearce’s other interests in New Orleans.
Multiple sources from the early 20th century indicate that Bruce Price was the lead architect of Keith’s Theatre in Philadelphia, and Albert E. Westover his local associate. The web site of the Art Institute of Chicago displays three photos of Keith’s Theatre, originally published in the journal The Inland Architect and News Record:
The March, 1904, issue of The Theatre had an article about Philadelphia’s theaters which included the following description of Keith’s Theatre:
“Another interesting example of distinctions in Philadelphia is furnished in Keith’s New Chestnut Street Theatre, in the next block. B. F. Keith first gave Philadelphians the ‘continuous’ in the Bijou Theatre on Eighth Street. While very popular, the playhouse did not draw many people from Chestnut street, the chief promenade of the city. So Mr. Keith invaded the fashionable shopping district by erecting his new million-dollar playhouse. Besides being one of the largest and safest theatres in the city, Keith’s is a veritable palace after the style of the French Renaissance. Marbles and mural paintings, rich hangings, sculptures and pale lights are somewhat bewildering at first with their elaborate designs. A salon in white and crystal is traversed while passing into the auditorium. The music room and women’s parlors are models of luxury. A series of mural decorations were done by William McL. Dodge, whose paintings in the Congressional Library in Washington attracted so much attention. Opened two years ago last November, Mr. Keith’s new theatre has become one of the fashionable resorts in the city.”
The February, 1912, issue of The Western Architect said that the Brandeis Theatre had been designed by the architectural firm of Barnett, Haynes & Barnett.
The impression I got from the item was that it was an entirely new theater in 1916. This is what it said:
“The New Columbia Opens.
St. Louis, Mo.—The Columbia, a new theater in the Clifton Heights district of St. Louis, opened recently with an all-picture program, and with an admission price of five cents during the week and ten cents on Saturday and Sunday, when special features are shown.“
Is it possible that the operators of the Columbia Airdome built an enclosed theater on their property in 1916?
The lighting system in the Pitt Theatre was redesigned as part of an early renovation, and the theater and its lighting were described at length and rather effusively in an article in the trade journal Electrical Review of June 20, 1914:
“Artistic New Lighting in Old Theater.
“The theater-going public must be pleased not only with the performance but also with physical comfort at the theaters it attends. Realizing this, the Pitt Theater, of Pittsburgh, Pa., recently remodeled the entire house and installed the latest improvements in lighting.
“The details are of interest, as there is much theater building going on now owing to the steadily increasing popularity of motion pictures. Illumination for this class of work is special and there is a noteworthy lack of definite information on the subject. In the following description of the Pitt is given a good example of recent practice in this line.
“The main ceiling has three Parian bowls, a 500-watt lamp in each, hanging 20 feet from ceiling. In front of the second balcony are 14 eight-inch Parian acorns with a 40-watt lamp in each. In front of the first balcony are 17 Parian panels with two 16-candle power carbon linolite lamps and Frink reflectors behind each panel. The ceiling over the first balcony has four Parian bowls with 250-watt lamp in each. The second-floor corridor has six bowls each with 150-watt lamp. In the first-floor corridor are five bowls, 250-watt lamp in each.
“On the newel post at the foot of the stairs are Parian urns with a 150-watt lamp in each. Under the first balcony are four bowls, 250-watt lamp in each. In the first-floor box eight bowls are used as ceiling lights with three 25watt round-bulb tungsten lamps in each. The second-floor boxes have eight Parian acorns suspended with arms so that they give the appearance of urns, a 150-watt lamp being in each. The height of the main ceiling is about 40 feet. The floor space of main floor, including corridor, is 80 by 100 feet. The area of the first balcony is about 35 by 100 feet.
“The color scheme of the theater is blue and old ivory. The hangings, draperies, etc., dark blue. All the glass work is decorated light blue and old ivory, with a blue band, the fret work on the Grecian band being brought out in blue. For the ladies' retiring room special bowls colored old rose to match the hangings were selected. Frink reflectors are used over the ticket window, around the inner edge of the marquise, and inside the framework of the two billboards in front.
“Parian balls are set on the marquise and on the top of the theater. The inside brackets use blue and old-ivory decorated shades. Special bracket fixtures for mirrors, handle trimmings and silk shades, candelabra fixtures, fire logs, etc., complete the lighting installation which, was furnished throughout by the H. W. Johns Manville Company, New York City.
“The architects, Simpson & Isles, of Pittsburgh, Pa., have received much praise from the management and patrons for the excellent effects they have secured. Formerly with the ordinary fixtures the lamps were exposed and gave the usual disagreeable glare. With the new equipment, beside accomplishing a decided current decrease, not a lamp is visible and the restful comfort and beauty are conspicuous.”
Here is a drawing of the theater made by Anthony Dumas during the period when it was known as the Shubert Pitt Theatre (1919-1935.)
I doubt that Simpson & Isles were the original architects of the theater. They probably only designed the later renovation. About the only thing I can find about them on the Internet is that the partnership was dissolved in 1915. An earlier Pittsbrgh house built by Thomas Kenyon was designed by William Kauffman, so Kauffman might have designed the New Kenyon as well, though so far I’ve found no evidence that he did.
The New Colton Theatre was a striking building, still sporting some Streamline Modern touches but leaning more toward Midcentury Modern. Despite the fact that the new house had “New” in its name, Myers must have changed the name of the earlier Colton Theatre after the new house opened. Larry Sheffield’s book Colton has a photo of 8th Street (since rather pretentiously renamed La Cadena Drive) in September, 1947, and the caption calls the theater the Hub City Theatre. It must be the earlier Colton, as that house was located on 8th Street between H and I Streets.
In fact, the original Colton Theatre was built in 1912 at the corner of H and 8th, but there are indications that the house was rebuilt down the block, most likely in 1930. An item in Southwest Builder & Contractor of April 18, 1930, said the L. C. Myers was having new furnishings and equipment installed in the Colton Theatre. This included stage and projection equipment, heating and ventilation equipment, and 700 seats supplied by Barker Bros. furniture company in Los Angeles.
There is an item in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which says that the Columbia Theatre in the Clifton Heights district of St. Louis had opened recently. The theater operated on a pictures-only policy, with admission charges of five cents on weekdays and ten cents on Saturday and Sunday.
Clifton Heights is immediately adjacent to the neighborhood now called The Hill, and I think that this theater is most likely the same Columbia Theatre opened in 1916. The style of the building with its classical pediment and cornice is characteristic of the later 1910s.
The earlier Columbia Theatre at 6th and St. Charles Streets downtown was in operation at the same time as the Columbia Theatre in Clifton Heights. While the downtown Columbia was primarily a vaudeville house, it was equipped to show movies. an item in the July 8, 1916,issue of The Moving Picture World says that the downtown Columbia would be showing movies made by the Triangle studio, which had previously been exhibited at the American Theatre. The American, owned by the same company as the Columbia, was being closed for the summer.
Here is a brief article about the opening of the Ivory Theatre from the July 8, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“NEW ST. LOUIS THEATER. The Ivory Theater Opens With Smashing Big Program.
“By A. H. Giebler, 236 Vanole Bldg., St Louis, Mo., Special Correspondent.
“ST LOUIS, Mo.—The Ivory theater, which has just opened its doors to the public at 7712 Ivory street, gave a smashing big program of pictures on opening night, and had an excellent orchestra to accompany the pictures. The Ivory is a new house operated under the management of the Ivory Amusement Company, with E. J. Paule at the head of the enterprise. Mr. Paule was formerly a councilman of St. Louis, and on opening day the lobby of the theater was filled to overflowing with floral offerings from his many friends and business associates.
“The Ivory is a model and up-to-date theater in every respect. The seating capacity is 850 and the two new Power’s 6-A machines and other furnishings of the house are of the most modern and approved designs. The Ivory has been playing to good audiences ever since opening day, and is a very attractive addition to the neighborhood.”
The entry for Abraham Albertson at the Pacific Coast Architectural Database says that he arrived in Seattle in 1907 and served as the supervising architect for the Seattle office of the New York City firm Howells & Stokes for the next ten years.
An ad for the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works in the 1913 edition of Sweet’s Catalog of Building and Construction attributes the design of the Metropolitan Theatre in Seattle to the firm of Howells & Stokes.
Testimony in a 1911 lawsuit involving the Poli Theatre at Scranton reveals that the architect of the house was Albert E. Westover. The testimony was published in volume 80 of the legal journal Atlantic Reporter.
Stevie Joe Payne remembers the Circle A Theatre in the early 1950s. As he describes it, this was Pawhuska’s western movie theater. Just about every town big enough to have multiple theaters had a cowboy house in those days, where the kids would go for Saturday matinees of movies with stars like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.
These theaters often had names suggestive of the old west, like the chain of several houses called the Hitching Post Theatre in the Los Angeles area. Circle A sounds like the name of a ranch. Western theaters went into decline in the 1950s, when all the old movies and a lot of new half-hour cowboy shows began running on television. Most of L.A.’s Hitching Post Theatres were re-branded as art houses, showing foreign movies, but most of the western theaters in small towns or suburbia just shut down. The Circle A probably didn’t survive the 1950s.
Also, I’ve found two theaters listed at Pawhuska in the July 25, 1908, issue of The Billboard:
These appear to all have been live acts. The Dubinsky Brothers were an act made up of Edward, Maurice, and Barney Dubinsky. Edward later changed his surname to Durwood and went into the theater business. His his son Stanley Durwood went on to found the AMC circuit of multiplex theaters.A July, 1936 Pawhuska telephone directory here lists a Skelly Filling Station at 201 W. Main. The State Theatre is also listed in the directory as being on West Main Street, but the street number is not given. The State and the Kihekah (also listed only as being on West Main) are the only theaters listed.
Lauren, what year was the latest insurance map showing the theater building published? If it was from 1922 or earlier, the theater at 201 W. Main might have been the Jackson Theatre, which is known to have advertised as late as 1922 but no later. It could have been demolished about that time.
Hill Country Deco attributes the design of the Varsity Theatre to architect W. Scott Dunne.
Mooreland had a single theater operating prior to 1928, when the January 3 issue of The Film Daily reported that the town' movie house had been bought by Kenneth Campbell. The name of the theater was not given, so it might or might not have been the same house that was operating as the Mooreland Theatre in the 1940s.
I updated Street View to the wrong block.
Are we sure the Uptown’s building has been demolished? The odd-numbered side of the 100 block of West Madison is almost solidly built up, and all the buildings look pretty old. I can’t imagine any of them having been built after 1950.
This house was operated by Video Independent Theatres for at least part of its history. The July 25, 2000, obituary of lifelong Pawhuska resident Betty Jean Moore said: “Betty worked 38 years for The Video Theatres, beginning at The State Theater and becoming Manager over The Kihekah, The State and The Circle A Theaters and Corral Drive-In Theater in Pawhuska.”
The Feb 8, 1914 obituary of Stephen P. Buler said that he had been given charge of the Orpheum Theatre in Portsmouth, Virginia, eight years previously and had managed the house for five years, which would give an opening year of no later than 1906 for the original Orpheum.
The 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide listed the Orpheum in Portsmouth as a Wilmer & Vincent house presenting vaudeville exclusively.
An ad for the Pannill Miro Screen Corporation of Norfolk, Virginia, in the March 11, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World boasted that the company had “…installed the world’s largest moving picture screen in the Orpheum Theatre, Portsmouth….”
A June 24, 1922, item in The American Contractor reported that the Portsmouth Improvement Company would expend $50,000 for fire repairs to the Orpheum Theatre in Portsmouth, Virginia, but an item in the October 19 issue of Manufacturers Record said that the company would build an entirely new Orpheum at a cost of $500,000.
A list of buildings in which products of the J. G. Braun Company had been used, published in the company’s 1926 catalog, names the architect of the Orpheum Theatre as Charles M. Major.
The Film Boards Report in the January 6, 1929, issue of The Film Daily listed the Guild Theatre at Crystal City as a new house.
A 1977 book titled Woodlot and Ballot Box: Marathon County in the Twentieth Century, by Howard R. Klueter and James J. Lorence, says: “Mosinee’s only theater was built in 1923….” The Art Moderne style must have been the result of a later remodeling.
This was probably the house that was in the planning stage in 1922, according to an item in the March 25 issue of The American Contractor that year:
The closest thing to a political controversy involving the Mosinee Theatre that I can find reference to on the Internet is a fake “Communist takeover” of the town that was staged by the American Legion in 1950. The stunt attracted enough national attention in those days when Wisconsin’s red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy was riding high that Life Magazine ran this article about the event in its May 15, 1950, issue. The article includes a photo of the Mosinee Theatre.
Here is a fresh link to the November 4, 1950, Boxoffice item about the recently-opened Niantic Theatre.
There are location issues with this theater. The introduction says there is now a post office where the Cameo Theatre used to be, but the U. S. Postal Service gives the address of the East Lyme branch post office as 225 Boston Post Road, not Pennsylvania Avenue. The building at that location doesn’t resemble the one in the photo at the top of this page.
Meanwhile, CinemaTour lists a Cameo Theatre at 66 Pennsylvania Avenue in Niantic, Connecticut, which is just down the road from East Lyme, but lists no theaters for East Lyme itself.
The Postal Service lists the Niantic branch post office as being at 58 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 2. That building does resemble the one in the photo above, so I’m guessing that’s the place and I’m updating Street View to it. I suppose the addresses shifted a bit after the theater closed. The location of the theater should be changed from East Lyme to Niantic, though. The Zip Code is already correct.
The photo (quick link) jacobschen found gives a clue as to why someone might have misremembered the Franklin Park Theatre as having been Gothic in style. The building next door, where Park Playland was located, had loads of Gothic ornament, and the open cupola that once graced the theater, though entirely Classical in detail, had all those finials that echoed the Gothic finials on the neighboring building. It’s too bad that the cupola has been truncated. It added a bit of playful spectacle to the block.
Advertising for the Fire Proof Door Company in the 1906 edition of Sweet’s Catalogue of Building Construction included a photo of the copper entrance doors of the Unique Theatre, which can be seen at lower left on this page. The caption identifies the architects of the Unique Theatre as Bertrand & Chamberlain.
The Tudor Theatre was opened in 1913 by Josiah Pearce & Sons, who had opened their first New Orleans movie house, the Electric Theatre, located on Canal Street, in late 1905 or early 1906.
An article on movie theaters in New Orleans in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World described the Pearce’s career in the city. In 1906, they opened a house called the Dreamland Theatre on St. Charles Street, followed by the Grand Theatre on Canal Street, opened in 1907, the Bijou Dream Theatre, built on St. Charles Street for $25,000 in 1910, and the $45,000 Trianon Theatre on Canal Street in 1911. The Pearce’s had expended $85,000 on the Tudor Theatre.
As of 1916 they were operating seven theaters in New Orleans, including the recently-opened Newcomb Theatre on Canal Street, making their’s the largest moving picture chain in the city.
The company expanded well beyond New Orleans, and a biographical sketch of Frederick William Pearce published in 1922 said that at one time they not only operated movie theaters from Pennsylvania to Texas, but had roller coasters and other outdoor amusements in parks from New England to Colorado.
Josiah Pearce & Sons closed its New Orleans headquarters in 1918, moving to Detroit and concentrating on the outdoor amusement business. It’s likely that 1918 was the year that the Saenger chain took over the Tudor Theatre and the Pearce’s other interests in New Orleans.
Multiple sources from the early 20th century indicate that Bruce Price was the lead architect of Keith’s Theatre in Philadelphia, and Albert E. Westover his local associate. The web site of the Art Institute of Chicago displays three photos of Keith’s Theatre, originally published in the journal The Inland Architect and News Record:
Entrance
Crystal Room
Lobby
The March, 1904, issue of The Theatre had an article about Philadelphia’s theaters which included the following description of Keith’s Theatre:
The February, 1912, issue of The Western Architect said that the Brandeis Theatre had been designed by the architectural firm of Barnett, Haynes & Barnett.
The impression I got from the item was that it was an entirely new theater in 1916. This is what it said:
Is it possible that the operators of the Columbia Airdome built an enclosed theater on their property in 1916?The lighting system in the Pitt Theatre was redesigned as part of an early renovation, and the theater and its lighting were described at length and rather effusively in an article in the trade journal Electrical Review of June 20, 1914:
Here is a drawing of the theater made by Anthony Dumas during the period when it was known as the Shubert Pitt Theatre (1919-1935.)I doubt that Simpson & Isles were the original architects of the theater. They probably only designed the later renovation. About the only thing I can find about them on the Internet is that the partnership was dissolved in 1915. An earlier Pittsbrgh house built by Thomas Kenyon was designed by William Kauffman, so Kauffman might have designed the New Kenyon as well, though so far I’ve found no evidence that he did.
The New Colton Theatre was a striking building, still sporting some Streamline Modern touches but leaning more toward Midcentury Modern. Despite the fact that the new house had “New” in its name, Myers must have changed the name of the earlier Colton Theatre after the new house opened. Larry Sheffield’s book Colton has a photo of 8th Street (since rather pretentiously renamed La Cadena Drive) in September, 1947, and the caption calls the theater the Hub City Theatre. It must be the earlier Colton, as that house was located on 8th Street between H and I Streets.
In fact, the original Colton Theatre was built in 1912 at the corner of H and 8th, but there are indications that the house was rebuilt down the block, most likely in 1930. An item in Southwest Builder & Contractor of April 18, 1930, said the L. C. Myers was having new furnishings and equipment installed in the Colton Theatre. This included stage and projection equipment, heating and ventilation equipment, and 700 seats supplied by Barker Bros. furniture company in Los Angeles.
There is an item in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which says that the Columbia Theatre in the Clifton Heights district of St. Louis had opened recently. The theater operated on a pictures-only policy, with admission charges of five cents on weekdays and ten cents on Saturday and Sunday.
Clifton Heights is immediately adjacent to the neighborhood now called The Hill, and I think that this theater is most likely the same Columbia Theatre opened in 1916. The style of the building with its classical pediment and cornice is characteristic of the later 1910s.
The earlier Columbia Theatre at 6th and St. Charles Streets downtown was in operation at the same time as the Columbia Theatre in Clifton Heights. While the downtown Columbia was primarily a vaudeville house, it was equipped to show movies. an item in the July 8, 1916,issue of The Moving Picture World says that the downtown Columbia would be showing movies made by the Triangle studio, which had previously been exhibited at the American Theatre. The American, owned by the same company as the Columbia, was being closed for the summer.
Here is a brief article about the opening of the Ivory Theatre from the July 8, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The entry for Abraham Albertson at the Pacific Coast Architectural Database says that he arrived in Seattle in 1907 and served as the supervising architect for the Seattle office of the New York City firm Howells & Stokes for the next ten years.
An ad for the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works in the 1913 edition of Sweet’s Catalog of Building and Construction attributes the design of the Metropolitan Theatre in Seattle to the firm of Howells & Stokes.
Testimony in a 1911 lawsuit involving the Poli Theatre at Scranton reveals that the architect of the house was Albert E. Westover. The testimony was published in volume 80 of the legal journal Atlantic Reporter.
A photo of the Hollywood Theatre illustrates an ad for Cutler-Hammer dimmers on this page of Motion Picture News from December 29, 1928.