The Strand was at one time a Fox Intermountain house. The January 13, 1940 issue of Motion Picture Herald said “N. S. SAWAYA has taken over the Fox Intermountain Strand at Trinidad, Colo.”
The bit about the Isis having been the West Opera House should be removed from the description. There was no West Opera House in Trinidad. The West Theatre, opened in 1908, was the house that later became the Fox West Theatre. It didn’t become a movie theater until the 1920s.
A letter dated September 18, 1911, from A. R. Wilson, owner of the Isis Theatre in Trinidad, was published in the October, 1911 issue of Motography. Six theaters were listed at Trinidad in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. In addition to the Isis, there were the Best Theatre, the Central Park Theatre, the Crystal Theatre, the Maze Theatre, and the Rex Theatre. Only the Central Park was listed with a location, that being San Juan Street and Santa Fe Highway. However, a 1907 city directory listed the Crystal at 205 W. Main Street. None of the theaters in the 1914 AMPD were among the four listed in the 1926 FDY, though there was a house called the Palace-Rex listed.
The Pacific Coast Architecture Database has a page for this theater. PCAD gives a slightly different history, saying that the house opened as the Madison Street Theatre in 1902, was the Alcazar in 1904 and 1905, and then John Considine operated the house as the Star Theatre #2 from 1905 to 1911.
At this point, PCAD’s page goes a bit off the rails, saying that the house later operated as the Owl, the State, and the Rivoli, but their own page for the Tivoli Theatre (later the State and the Rivoli) says that the latter house was a new build on the site of the Star Theatre. As the Tivoli didn’t open until November, 1913, it’s possible that the Star (or Owl, as it might have been called by then) operated into the early part of that year. In any case, 1913 is probably the year the Star was demolished.
Multiple local sources say that the Collins Theatre opened in 1946. The recent reopening of the house as the Melba was noted in the December 2, 1963 issue of Boxoffice. The Wehrenberg circuit had bought the Collins in early June, and had completely renovated the house. Wehrenberg also bought the local Big Sky Drive-In as part of the same deal.
The 1902-1903 Cahn guide lists the “Theatre Jefferson” at De Soto as a ground floor house with 973 seats and a stage 40 feet deep and 63 feet between side walls, so a good sized theater. A book about De Soto published in 1897 mentions the Jefferson Opera House. Interestingly enough, the September 11, 1915 Moving Picture World also mentions the Jefferson Opera House, so the two names appear to have been used interchangeably for some time. The Jefferson was probably the house that was earlier called Crawford’s Opera House (ca.1894) and the Masonic Opera House (1884.) If so, it was most likely built in 1883, when a construction journal mentioned a project planned by the Masons in De Soto. One source mentioned the Masonic Lodge being on the upper floor of the Jefferson Theatre building.
This photo shows the Jefferson Theatre’s entrance, on the lowest level of a hillside building which also housed the Post Office on a higher level. The theater’s auditorium had to have been behind the entrance building, though it can’t be clearly seen in the photo. The building was in the 100 block of Easton Street, half a block off of Main Street. It is gone, of course. Here is a Google street view of the building that replaced it. It is Midcentury in style, so the theater was probably demolished not long after closing.
I was mistaken about the seating capacity of the Dream Theatre. It was a house called the Ruby that had 200 seats. Both were listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, along with the Empress. The 1926 FDY lists the Dream with 398 seats. The Dream is gone in 1927, and the Liberty appears, with 400 seats. The only other house listed at Chehalis in those editions if the 700-seat St. Helens. Now I’m wondering if the Dream might have been renamed Liberty after the Liberty burned in 1926? That wouldn’t explain why the Liberty is not listed in 1926, though. Chehalis has a rather puzzling theater history.
The Gould is listed in the 1926 FDY with 215 seats. The Ideal was also listed, with 210 seats, so they were not the same theater. I found the Gould mentioned in both the August 24, 1918 and the January 8, 1923 issues of Moving Picture World. The January 27, 1906 issue of Pacific Building and Engineering Record has this item: “Pe Ell, Opera House: Walter Gould will build a new opera house, 50x80 ft., 2 stories high.” The Chehalis Bee-Nugget of May 14, 1926 said that “[t]he Gould theater has installed a ‘New-Air’ cooling system, capable of circulating 15,000 cubic feet of fresh air per minute. A hundred new theater chairs have also been added to the seating capacity.” Walter Gould was noted as the owner.
The Gould might have operated under other aka’s though. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only two theaters at Pe Ell, the Orpheum and the Pe Ell Theatre. I found the Orpheum mentioned in the theatrical journal The Player as early as May 31, 1912, along with a house called the People’s Theatre. Pe Ell supported two theaters for quite a long time, considering how small it was. It’s possible that lumbering camps in the area had large seasonal populations patronizing the town’s businesses.
I wonder if the Empress could have been renamed the Liberty after the 1926 fire? Neither the Liberty nor the Empress is listed in the 1926 FDY, but the Liberty was back in the 1927 edition, the only other theater listed that year being the St. Helens. Chehalis also had an earlier theater called the Dream, but it was quite small, only 200 seats.
History Link says that the Liberty Theatre in Chehalis opened on July 11, 1918. It also says that the Liberty was destroyed by a fire in the summer of 1926 and never rebuilt, but the footnotes to the essay don’t cite any sources to support the claim. The latest citation is the September 11, 1926 Motion Picture News item that reported the fire.
The Film Daily Year Book continued to list the Liberty for several years after the fire, but that might have been either a rebuilt Liberty or a different theater using the Liberty name (or just a mistake by the FDY.) A period local source would be useful, but I’ve found none online. Neither have I found any later mentions of the Liberty in the trade journals.
The July 3, 1909 issue of The New York Dramatic Mirror said that the new Star Theatre in Herkimer had opened on June 21 with two acts of vaudeville, moving pictures, and illustrated songs. The type on the page is smudged, but I believe it says the house had 500 seats. A book called A Companion to Early Cinema says that the Star was
a storefront conversion. It was not one of the three theatres listed at Herkimer in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but might only have been overlooked.
The Strand’s official web site says that it opened on Christmas Day, 1920. Originally seating 500 (as listed in the 1926 Film Daily Yearbook) it now seats 200. Operation of the Strand was taken over by a community-based non-profit corporation in 2013.
The Main Street Theatre is listed in the 1909-1910 Cahn Guide as a ground floor house with 900 seats. The May 2, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News published part of a letter from theater owner J. A. Nordquist, who said the Main Street had almost 800 seats and a stage 40x80 feet. The size of the stage was probably an exaggeration, as the Cahn guide had said that it was 30 feet deep and 70 feet wide. Still, it was a pretty large stage for a small town theater.
Here is a scan of the 1925 Motion Picture News item. The theater’s unusual location, dug into a hillside, helped keep it cool in summer and warm in winter.
The Alpine theater was probably at 907 Front Street, though there’s a slight chance it was at 913. It was still open at least as late as 1972, but gone by the early 1980s. I can’t tell if the building at 907 is the same one the theater was in, though it might be, as beginning in the mid-1960s the town was extensively remodeled in a Bavarian style and virtually none of its old buildings are recognizable. If the Alpine was at 913 the building is definitely gone, though. There’s an undated photo (possibly 1940s-‘50s) I’ll upload, with the theater at far left.
The nomination form for the Downtown Bellingham Historic District says that the historic address of the Bell Theatre was 111 E. Holly Street. The Horseshoe Café now occupies both that building and the adjacent building at 113 E. Holly and uses the address 113.
The form also has information about the end of the Bell Theatre: “In November of 1921, the Bell Theater was closed for remodeling and announced it would open under a new name, ‘The Rialto.’ In 1922, the Rialto is listed at the address, Al Finkelstein manager (formerly of the Liberty). Harry Dawson applied for permits for exterior and interior repairs worth $1,000 on the ‘Bell Theater Building’ in August of 1922 and opened his café there.”
The naming of the Bell Theatre was the subject of a brief article in the Temple Daily Telegram of September 25, 1921. The new building was being erected on Main Street and would accommodate over 500 seats on main floor and balcony, as well as two storefronts. Owner W. F. Sonneman hoped to have the house opened by October 8, but said that a delay was possible. As it turned out, the house opened Saturday morning, October 15.
Also advertised in the Telegram during this period were houses called the Gem Theatre and the Crescent Theatre, both of which had been listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, along with a house called the Temple Theatre, which was gone by 1921.
Quimby’s acquisition of the Bell Theatre was noted in the April 1, 1910 issue of Motography. The item also said that the Bell had been the first theater in Bellingham to make movies a specialty of the house.
The caption of a photo of Kelso’s City Hall om the Arcadia Publishing Company’s book Kelso says that the Embassy Theatre on Allen Street was demolished in 1939 to make way for the new City Hall. If there was still an Embassy Theatre in operation after that it must have been a different theater using the same name. The book makes no other mentions of the Embassy.
Our photo of the Embassy shows a very old building, and I suspect that it was the house listed in the 1910-1911 Cahn guide as the Kelso Theatre, a 777 seat, ground floor house with a 64 foot wide stage and 55 foot height to the rigging loft. The Embassy in the photo certainly looks to be the right size for that.
The September 28, 1907 issue of The Improvement Bulletin ran a notice datelined Kelso saying “[t]he Kelso Opera House Co. will receive bids until noon, Oct. 1st, for building a frame opera house. D. Nichols, architect, Vancouver.” (I’ve found a few other references to D Nichols in construction and architecture journals of the period, but I’ve been unable to find his first name.) The house wasn’t built until the next year, though, and the October 17, 1908 issue of The Billboard said that the Kelso Theatre would open about the middle of November.
This item from Motion Picture News of November 25, 1922 must be about the Liberty.
“Report Corrected
“In our issue of November 4, this department published an article to the effect that John Praggastis has let contract calling for the erection of a 650-seat theatre in Kelso, Wash., and that the house was to be equipped by B. F. Shearer, Inc. We have been advised that the latter part of this statement is incorrect in that the General Supply & Repair Company, Inc., of Portland, Ore., is to install Powers 6B projectors along with draperies, curtains, screens, interior decorations, etc.”
The PSTOS page for he Liberty says that a 2/4 Wurlitzer type B organ was shipped from the factory to the Liberty Theater in November, 1922. If the house was ready or its organ installation in November, it’s very likely that it opened before the end of 1922, though I haven’t found a date for the event.
PSTOS also says that the Liberty is the Kelso house that was also called the Paramount, so the line in the description about the Paramount/Kelso must be mistaken. So far I’ve been unable to discover when or for how long the house used the Paramount name.
The Liberty Theatre in Kelso is mentioned in the March 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
“Mr. Johnson, owner of the Liberty, Kelso, Wash., has built up an excellent patronage by adding a local touch to his programs in the shape of a ‘Kelso News Reel,’ photographed by his projectionist and embracing local events of all kinds.”
The earliest mention of the Vogue I can find is from a January, 1918 issue of The Moving Picture Weekly, the exact date of which I’ve been unable to discover:
“The Vogue, a genuine Butterfly theatre, is a new venture launched by C. G. Vaughn in Kelso, Wash. Mr. Vaughn was formerly a travelling exhibitor on the road with feature productions. In the beginnings of his enterprise in Kelso, he is booking the most successful of the Red Feather films, to lead into his Butterfly service, particularly the popular Jack Mulhall features.”
Given the delays in publication typical of the trade journals in those days, it’s likely that the Vogue opened in late 1917, but surely in January 1918 at the latest.
The Rialto was mentioned in the September 5, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News. It was listed in the 1926 FDY with 350 seats.
The Strand was at one time a Fox Intermountain house. The January 13, 1940 issue of Motion Picture Herald said “N. S. SAWAYA has taken over the Fox Intermountain Strand at Trinidad, Colo.”
The bit about the Isis having been the West Opera House should be removed from the description. There was no West Opera House in Trinidad. The West Theatre, opened in 1908, was the house that later became the Fox West Theatre. It didn’t become a movie theater until the 1920s.
A letter dated September 18, 1911, from A. R. Wilson, owner of the Isis Theatre in Trinidad, was published in the October, 1911 issue of Motography. Six theaters were listed at Trinidad in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. In addition to the Isis, there were the Best Theatre, the Central Park Theatre, the Crystal Theatre, the Maze Theatre, and the Rex Theatre. Only the Central Park was listed with a location, that being San Juan Street and Santa Fe Highway. However, a 1907 city directory listed the Crystal at 205 W. Main Street. None of the theaters in the 1914 AMPD were among the four listed in the 1926 FDY, though there was a house called the Palace-Rex listed.
The Pacific Coast Architecture Database has a page for this theater. PCAD gives a slightly different history, saying that the house opened as the Madison Street Theatre in 1902, was the Alcazar in 1904 and 1905, and then John Considine operated the house as the Star Theatre #2 from 1905 to 1911.
At this point, PCAD’s page goes a bit off the rails, saying that the house later operated as the Owl, the State, and the Rivoli, but their own page for the Tivoli Theatre (later the State and the Rivoli) says that the latter house was a new build on the site of the Star Theatre. As the Tivoli didn’t open until November, 1913, it’s possible that the Star (or Owl, as it might have been called by then) operated into the early part of that year. In any case, 1913 is probably the year the Star was demolished.
Actually the sources say that the theater was “founded” in 1946, which might mean only that construction began that year.
Multiple local sources say that the Collins Theatre opened in 1946. The recent reopening of the house as the Melba was noted in the December 2, 1963 issue of Boxoffice. The Wehrenberg circuit had bought the Collins in early June, and had completely renovated the house. Wehrenberg also bought the local Big Sky Drive-In as part of the same deal.
The 1902-1903 Cahn guide lists the “Theatre Jefferson” at De Soto as a ground floor house with 973 seats and a stage 40 feet deep and 63 feet between side walls, so a good sized theater. A book about De Soto published in 1897 mentions the Jefferson Opera House. Interestingly enough, the September 11, 1915 Moving Picture World also mentions the Jefferson Opera House, so the two names appear to have been used interchangeably for some time. The Jefferson was probably the house that was earlier called Crawford’s Opera House (ca.1894) and the Masonic Opera House (1884.) If so, it was most likely built in 1883, when a construction journal mentioned a project planned by the Masons in De Soto. One source mentioned the Masonic Lodge being on the upper floor of the Jefferson Theatre building.
This photo shows the Jefferson Theatre’s entrance, on the lowest level of a hillside building which also housed the Post Office on a higher level. The theater’s auditorium had to have been behind the entrance building, though it can’t be clearly seen in the photo. The building was in the 100 block of Easton Street, half a block off of Main Street. It is gone, of course. Here is a Google street view of the building that replaced it. It is Midcentury in style, so the theater was probably demolished not long after closing.
I was mistaken about the seating capacity of the Dream Theatre. It was a house called the Ruby that had 200 seats. Both were listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, along with the Empress. The 1926 FDY lists the Dream with 398 seats. The Dream is gone in 1927, and the Liberty appears, with 400 seats. The only other house listed at Chehalis in those editions if the 700-seat St. Helens. Now I’m wondering if the Dream might have been renamed Liberty after the Liberty burned in 1926? That wouldn’t explain why the Liberty is not listed in 1926, though. Chehalis has a rather puzzling theater history.
The Gould is listed in the 1926 FDY with 215 seats. The Ideal was also listed, with 210 seats, so they were not the same theater. I found the Gould mentioned in both the August 24, 1918 and the January 8, 1923 issues of Moving Picture World. The January 27, 1906 issue of Pacific Building and Engineering Record has this item: “Pe Ell, Opera House: Walter Gould will build a new opera house, 50x80 ft., 2 stories high.” The Chehalis Bee-Nugget of May 14, 1926 said that “[t]he Gould theater has installed a ‘New-Air’ cooling system, capable of circulating 15,000 cubic feet of fresh air per minute. A hundred new theater chairs have also been added to the seating capacity.” Walter Gould was noted as the owner.
The Gould might have operated under other aka’s though. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only two theaters at Pe Ell, the Orpheum and the Pe Ell Theatre. I found the Orpheum mentioned in the theatrical journal The Player as early as May 31, 1912, along with a house called the People’s Theatre. Pe Ell supported two theaters for quite a long time, considering how small it was. It’s possible that lumbering camps in the area had large seasonal populations patronizing the town’s businesses.
I wonder if the Empress could have been renamed the Liberty after the 1926 fire? Neither the Liberty nor the Empress is listed in the 1926 FDY, but the Liberty was back in the 1927 edition, the only other theater listed that year being the St. Helens. Chehalis also had an earlier theater called the Dream, but it was quite small, only 200 seats.
History Link says that the Liberty Theatre in Chehalis opened on July 11, 1918. It also says that the Liberty was destroyed by a fire in the summer of 1926 and never rebuilt, but the footnotes to the essay don’t cite any sources to support the claim. The latest citation is the September 11, 1926 Motion Picture News item that reported the fire.
The Film Daily Year Book continued to list the Liberty for several years after the fire, but that might have been either a rebuilt Liberty or a different theater using the Liberty name (or just a mistake by the FDY.) A period local source would be useful, but I’ve found none online. Neither have I found any later mentions of the Liberty in the trade journals.
The Star was at 104 N. Main Street, in a building that now houses a hardware store.
The July 3, 1909 issue of The New York Dramatic Mirror said that the new Star Theatre in Herkimer had opened on June 21 with two acts of vaudeville, moving pictures, and illustrated songs. The type on the page is smudged, but I believe it says the house had 500 seats. A book called A Companion to Early Cinema says that the Star was a storefront conversion. It was not one of the three theatres listed at Herkimer in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but might only have been overlooked.
The Strand’s official web site says that it opened on Christmas Day, 1920. Originally seating 500 (as listed in the 1926 Film Daily Yearbook) it now seats 200. Operation of the Strand was taken over by a community-based non-profit corporation in 2013.
The Main Street Theatre is listed in the 1909-1910 Cahn Guide as a ground floor house with 900 seats. The May 2, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News published part of a letter from theater owner J. A. Nordquist, who said the Main Street had almost 800 seats and a stage 40x80 feet. The size of the stage was probably an exaggeration, as the Cahn guide had said that it was 30 feet deep and 70 feet wide. Still, it was a pretty large stage for a small town theater.
Here is a scan of the 1925 Motion Picture News item. The theater’s unusual location, dug into a hillside, helped keep it cool in summer and warm in winter.
The Alpine theater was probably at 907 Front Street, though there’s a slight chance it was at 913. It was still open at least as late as 1972, but gone by the early 1980s. I can’t tell if the building at 907 is the same one the theater was in, though it might be, as beginning in the mid-1960s the town was extensively remodeled in a Bavarian style and virtually none of its old buildings are recognizable. If the Alpine was at 913 the building is definitely gone, though. There’s an undated photo (possibly 1940s-‘50s) I’ll upload, with the theater at far left.
This 2007 article from the Bellingham Business Journal has a history of the Avalon Theatre and a couple of photos I haven’t seen before.
The nomination form for the Downtown Bellingham Historic District says that the historic address of the Bell Theatre was 111 E. Holly Street. The Horseshoe Café now occupies both that building and the adjacent building at 113 E. Holly and uses the address 113.
The form also has information about the end of the Bell Theatre: “In November of 1921, the Bell Theater was closed for remodeling and announced it would open under a new name, ‘The Rialto.’ In 1922, the Rialto is listed at the address, Al Finkelstein manager (formerly of the Liberty). Harry Dawson applied for permits for exterior and interior repairs worth $1,000 on the ‘Bell Theater Building’ in August of 1922 and opened his café there.”
The naming of the Bell Theatre was the subject of a brief article in the Temple Daily Telegram of September 25, 1921. The new building was being erected on Main Street and would accommodate over 500 seats on main floor and balcony, as well as two storefronts. Owner W. F. Sonneman hoped to have the house opened by October 8, but said that a delay was possible. As it turned out, the house opened Saturday morning, October 15.
Also advertised in the Telegram during this period were houses called the Gem Theatre and the Crescent Theatre, both of which had been listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, along with a house called the Temple Theatre, which was gone by 1921.
The caption of a photo of Kelso’s City Hall om the Arcadia Publishing Company’s book Kelso says that the Embassy Theatre on Allen Street was demolished in 1939 to make way for the new City Hall. If there was still an Embassy Theatre in operation after that it must have been a different theater using the same name. The book makes no other mentions of the Embassy.
Our photo of the Embassy shows a very old building, and I suspect that it was the house listed in the 1910-1911 Cahn guide as the Kelso Theatre, a 777 seat, ground floor house with a 64 foot wide stage and 55 foot height to the rigging loft. The Embassy in the photo certainly looks to be the right size for that.
The September 28, 1907 issue of The Improvement Bulletin ran a notice datelined Kelso saying “[t]he Kelso Opera House Co. will receive bids until noon, Oct. 1st, for building a frame opera house. D. Nichols, architect, Vancouver.” (I’ve found a few other references to D Nichols in construction and architecture journals of the period, but I’ve been unable to find his first name.) The house wasn’t built until the next year, though, and the October 17, 1908 issue of The Billboard said that the Kelso Theatre would open about the middle of November.
This item from Motion Picture News of November 25, 1922 must be about the Liberty.
The PSTOS page for he Liberty says that a 2/4 Wurlitzer type B organ was shipped from the factory to the Liberty Theater in November, 1922. If the house was ready or its organ installation in November, it’s very likely that it opened before the end of 1922, though I haven’t found a date for the event.PSTOS also says that the Liberty is the Kelso house that was also called the Paramount, so the line in the description about the Paramount/Kelso must be mistaken. So far I’ve been unable to discover when or for how long the house used the Paramount name.
The Liberty Theatre in Kelso is mentioned in the March 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
The earliest mention of the Vogue I can find is from a January, 1918 issue of The Moving Picture Weekly, the exact date of which I’ve been unable to discover:
Given the delays in publication typical of the trade journals in those days, it’s likely that the Vogue opened in late 1917, but surely in January 1918 at the latest.