Jones Institute of Eastern Virginia Medical School has the address 601 Colley Avenue, so the footprint of that large building probably includes the former site of the Plaza Theatre.
The Moving Picture World of October 4, 1912, reported that the Hyperion Theatre had begun its final season as a legitimate house. It was to be operated by the Shuberts until May 1, 1914, when the lease would expire, and then be taken over by S. Z. Poli, to be operated as a movie and vaudeville house (the new Shubert Theatre opened in 1914.) The Hyperion’s career as a stage house was not entirely over, though, as I’ve found references to a repertory season being presented there by Poli in 1920.
Here is a fresh link to the 1951 Boxoffice item with photo that Gerald DeLuca linked to earlier. The item says that the seating capacity of Loew’s recently-remodeled Poli-College Theatre had been reduced from 1,400 to 1,250.
The Rialto Theatre occupied a Greek Revival building originally built as the College Street Congregational Church in the late 1840s. The building was bought by Yale University in 1898, and it served as the University’s school of music for about two decades before its conversion into a movie theater. The house seated about 500, and was full the night of the fire. The ultimate death toll from the fire was nine, with over a hundred injured.
Hyperion Theatre was the name of the house that later became Loew’s College Theatre. Bunnell’s New Haven Theatre was a different house. The confusion may come from the fact that George Bunnell also operated the Hyperion Theatre for a time. Bunnell also operated theaters in New York City, Brooklyn, Buffalo, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
I’m not sure if the New Haven Theatre ever operated as a movie house or not. This web page about the Chapel Street Historic District says that Bunnell’s New Haven Theatre was a legitimate house that was destroyed by a fire in 1915. However, this web page, which features a drawing by Anthony Dumas, says the the theater was destroyed in 1912.
This house was called the Music Hall, under which name I’ve found it mentioned as early as 1877, the Grand Opera House, and the New Haven Theatre. The building also housed Bunnell’s Museum. Andrew Craig Morrison’s Theatres (a book of drawings by Dumas) gives the address as 182 Crown Street.
The NRHP nomination form for the State Theatre says that it opened in May, 1929. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The State Theatre was built by Louis Handloff, who had operated a small theater on Main Street called the Hanark for several years. He closed the Hanark Theatre when the State opened. Handloff also bought the Newark Opera House, an 1885 theater that sometimes showed movies during the silent era.
An organization called Video Americain says that they operated the State Theatre as a repertory cinema from 1979 until mid-1986.
An April 9, 2012 article in the Modesto Bee says that the City of Riverbank has condemned the Del Rio Theatre building and it is now vacant. The redevelopment agency that was to have overseen the renovation of the house is near default and will probably be shut down. At this point, it seems unlikely that the Del Rio Theatre will be saved.
A history of Morris County published in 1914 included a biographical sketch of Antonio Esposito, an Italian immigrant who built and operated the Palace Theatre. It says the theater was opened in 1910, and that Esposito had opened an earlier movie house on Park Place in 1907, which he operated until opening the Palace.
“Energy, enterprise and perseverance have been the main attributes in the success which has attended the well directed efforts of Antonio ESPOSITO, proprietor and manager of the Palace Theatre, located on Speedwell avenue, Morristown, erected in 1910 and opened in that year, which is considered one of the finest miniature playhouses in the State of New Jersey, having a seating capacity of 700, and equipped with everything needful for the comfort, convenience and safety of its numerous patrons.
“During the winter season, in addition to moving pictures, which are of a high class, there is a vaudeville performance, which is the best that can be obtained, nothing of an obnoxious character being allowed on the boards, thus insuring to the ladies and children who patronize it a clean show in every way with nothing offensive to their senses or morals, and during the summer season, in addition to moving pictures, there is a stock company which furnishes a fine repertoire of the best plays portrayed in an excellent manner. This brief statement of facts proves conclusively that the Palace Theatre is conducted on the best known lines, and is worthy the patronage of the better class of residents, the constant aim of the proprietor being to make it rank among the leading amusement places of the county.”
This lavish encomium is followed by the news that:
“Mr. Esposito is now, October, 1913, beginning the erection of a new and more commodious play house to be located immediately in the rear of his present play house, it will have a seating capacity of 1,641 and standing room for 400 more. The theatre will be constructed along the lines the most modern, and where the best talent can appear and feel at home. It will be called the Morris Theatre.”
I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Esposito’s 1913 project was ever completed, but it seems unlikely that it was. I’ve been unable to find any references to a Morris Theatre prior to the 1960s, and that one appears to have been a different theater housing a local community theater group.
The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that a new theater was to be built at 16th and Corby Streets in Omaha. The November 19, 1926, issue of the same publication said that Sam and Louis Epstein had purchased the recently-completed Corby Theatre from its builder, Alexander Beck. This item gave the location as 15th and Corby Streets. From Street View, it looks like the theater building occupies the entire block along Corby Street from 15th Avenue to 16th Street.
This PDF from the fall, 2008, issue of newsletter Landmark News has a small photo of the Corby Theatre which appears to have been taken in the 1930s. The building is little changed in appearance since then, but the satellite view shows that the roof is in poor condition. This building might still be saved, but if the roof has not yet been repaired it will have to be done soon.
The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that architect Fred Elliott was drawing plans for a new theater at Parkersburg, West Virginia, for the Smoot Amusement Company. The house would be built on the site of the Hippodrome Theatre.
Historic references to the Jersey Theatre are few, but I found a few that reveal that the house was operating as a legitimate theater during at least part of 1946. An item in a 1946 issue of Fire Engineering mentions an incident in which a production of W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Circle was interrupted when a faulty sprinkler system soaked the cast on stage and in the dressing rooms.
A June 8, 1946, item in The Billboard said that a production of Androcles and the Lion had abruptly been canceled and the house closed on May 18, leading to a fracas with Actor’s Equity about unpaid wages.
The September 30, 1926, issue of The Film Daily lists among theaters planned or under construction a house called the Jersey in Morristown which was expected to open in early October.
This weblog post from The Daily News says that demolition of the Dipson Family Theatre began on April 21, 1965. It also says that the Family Theatre had been built in 1912. The house was one of the first buildings to be destroyed for Batavia’s first urban renewal project.
The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily reported that the Dellinger Theatre in Batavia had recently been sold for $75,000 by William F. Haitz. The name of the buyer was withheld.
This weblog post from The Daily News says that when the Dellinger Theatre was destroyed by a spectacular fire on October 12, 1935, it was dark, having been closed since 1927. The Theater had been built in 1874, and had operated as a movie house for a number of years during the silent era.
I don’t know if it is the same house or not, as the exact location is not given, but the January 8, 1926 issue of The Film Daily had this item datelined Winnipeg: “The Classic, a new neighborhood first run house, owned by George Graham, has opened.”
Might this theater have originally been called the Empire? The earliest mention of a theater in Sunnyvale that I can find in the trade publications is this item from The Moving Picture World of July 15, 1916:
“Sunnyvale, Cal.—Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Meany have disposed of the Empire theater to P. S. Fleischer and associates of Palo Alto who plan to make a number of improvements.”
Silicon Valley History Online provides this photo of the Empire Theatre, dated 1913. A 1911 directory of San Jose and Santa Clara County lists the Empire Theatre as being on Murphy Avenue near Evelyn Avenue.
meheuck: The building at 721 S. Western Avenue formerly housed a bowling alley that was probably built in the late 1930s or early 1940s. It was converted into a restaurant in 1984, according to this L.A. Times review.
At one time there were a number of streamline modern bowling alleys with theater-style marquees around Los Angeles. As far as I know, all the survivors have been converted to other uses. They can usually be distinguished from theaters by the fact that their roofs were typically lower toward the back, where the lanes were, than at the front, where many of them had a mezzanine housing rest rooms, a storage area, and a manager’s office.
The Santa Monica office of architectural firm Gensler & Associates designed the rebuilding of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, including the ArcLight Cinemas. Gensler also designed the ArcLight project in Hollywood.
This undated news item from the Northwest Council of Michigan Governments says that the Vogue Theatre was being gutted, though some architectural features and fixtures were to be preserved and used in the rebuilt theater. Presumably, the historic exterior will be restored, but the remainder of the project will be a rebuild rather than a restoration.
The building at this location looks like newer construction to me, both at street level and in the satellite view. I see no resemblance at all between the current building and the Kinema Theatre building in the 1931 photo.
Despite its name, this house was never operated by the Syufy family’s Century Theatres chain. Note that RonP’s comment of June 18, 2006, names the companies that operated this theater: Statewide, Loew’s, and General Cinema, and then the house was independently operated during its last year.
Here is page one of a Boxoffice Magazine article from January 7, 1950, with photos of the Lake Theatre as well as the Mayland Theatre, built the same year and designed by the same architects. Additional photos of the theaters appear on the two subsequent pages. The final page of text can be found at this link.
Here is a fresh link to the January 7, 1950, Boxoffice article about the Mayfield and Lake Theatres. There are three pages with photos. In adition, here is a direct link to the final page of the article’s text.
The Capitol Theater now has a web site. The renovated house is scheduled to reopen on June 1.
Jones Institute of Eastern Virginia Medical School has the address 601 Colley Avenue, so the footprint of that large building probably includes the former site of the Plaza Theatre.
The Moving Picture World of October 4, 1912, reported that the Hyperion Theatre had begun its final season as a legitimate house. It was to be operated by the Shuberts until May 1, 1914, when the lease would expire, and then be taken over by S. Z. Poli, to be operated as a movie and vaudeville house (the new Shubert Theatre opened in 1914.) The Hyperion’s career as a stage house was not entirely over, though, as I’ve found references to a repertory season being presented there by Poli in 1920.
Here is a fresh link to the 1951 Boxoffice item with photo that Gerald DeLuca linked to earlier. The item says that the seating capacity of Loew’s recently-remodeled Poli-College Theatre had been reduced from 1,400 to 1,250.
Here is an article about the burning of the Rialto Theatre from The New York Times of November 28, 1921.
The Rialto Theatre occupied a Greek Revival building originally built as the College Street Congregational Church in the late 1840s. The building was bought by Yale University in 1898, and it served as the University’s school of music for about two decades before its conversion into a movie theater. The house seated about 500, and was full the night of the fire. The ultimate death toll from the fire was nine, with over a hundred injured.
Hyperion Theatre was the name of the house that later became Loew’s College Theatre. Bunnell’s New Haven Theatre was a different house. The confusion may come from the fact that George Bunnell also operated the Hyperion Theatre for a time. Bunnell also operated theaters in New York City, Brooklyn, Buffalo, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
I’m not sure if the New Haven Theatre ever operated as a movie house or not. This web page about the Chapel Street Historic District says that Bunnell’s New Haven Theatre was a legitimate house that was destroyed by a fire in 1915. However, this web page, which features a drawing by Anthony Dumas, says the the theater was destroyed in 1912.
This house was called the Music Hall, under which name I’ve found it mentioned as early as 1877, the Grand Opera House, and the New Haven Theatre. The building also housed Bunnell’s Museum. Andrew Craig Morrison’s Theatres (a book of drawings by Dumas) gives the address as 182 Crown Street.
Here are two early photos of the Community Theatre from the Library of Congress collection:
One.
Two.
The NRHP nomination form for the State Theatre says that it opened in May, 1929. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The State Theatre was built by Louis Handloff, who had operated a small theater on Main Street called the Hanark for several years. He closed the Hanark Theatre when the State opened. Handloff also bought the Newark Opera House, an 1885 theater that sometimes showed movies during the silent era.
An organization called Video Americain says that they operated the State Theatre as a repertory cinema from 1979 until mid-1986.
An April 9, 2012 article in the Modesto Bee says that the City of Riverbank has condemned the Del Rio Theatre building and it is now vacant. The redevelopment agency that was to have overseen the renovation of the house is near default and will probably be shut down. At this point, it seems unlikely that the Del Rio Theatre will be saved.
A history of Morris County published in 1914 included a biographical sketch of Antonio Esposito, an Italian immigrant who built and operated the Palace Theatre. It says the theater was opened in 1910, and that Esposito had opened an earlier movie house on Park Place in 1907, which he operated until opening the Palace.
Here is a link to the biography, and here are passages about the theater:
This lavish encomium is followed by the news that:I’ve been unable to discover if Mr. Esposito’s 1913 project was ever completed, but it seems unlikely that it was. I’ve been unable to find any references to a Morris Theatre prior to the 1960s, and that one appears to have been a different theater housing a local community theater group.The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that a new theater was to be built at 16th and Corby Streets in Omaha. The November 19, 1926, issue of the same publication said that Sam and Louis Epstein had purchased the recently-completed Corby Theatre from its builder, Alexander Beck. This item gave the location as 15th and Corby Streets. From Street View, it looks like the theater building occupies the entire block along Corby Street from 15th Avenue to 16th Street.
This PDF from the fall, 2008, issue of newsletter Landmark News has a small photo of the Corby Theatre which appears to have been taken in the 1930s. The building is little changed in appearance since then, but the satellite view shows that the roof is in poor condition. This building might still be saved, but if the roof has not yet been repaired it will have to be done soon.
The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily said that architect Fred Elliott was drawing plans for a new theater at Parkersburg, West Virginia, for the Smoot Amusement Company. The house would be built on the site of the Hippodrome Theatre.
Historic references to the Jersey Theatre are few, but I found a few that reveal that the house was operating as a legitimate theater during at least part of 1946. An item in a 1946 issue of Fire Engineering mentions an incident in which a production of W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Circle was interrupted when a faulty sprinkler system soaked the cast on stage and in the dressing rooms.
A June 8, 1946, item in The Billboard said that a production of Androcles and the Lion had abruptly been canceled and the house closed on May 18, leading to a fracas with Actor’s Equity about unpaid wages.
The September 30, 1926, issue of The Film Daily lists among theaters planned or under construction a house called the Jersey in Morristown which was expected to open in early October.
This weblog post from The Daily News says that demolition of the Dipson Family Theatre began on April 21, 1965. It also says that the Family Theatre had been built in 1912. The house was one of the first buildings to be destroyed for Batavia’s first urban renewal project.
The January 7, 1926, issue of The Film Daily reported that the Dellinger Theatre in Batavia had recently been sold for $75,000 by William F. Haitz. The name of the buyer was withheld.
This weblog post from The Daily News says that when the Dellinger Theatre was destroyed by a spectacular fire on October 12, 1935, it was dark, having been closed since 1927. The Theater had been built in 1874, and had operated as a movie house for a number of years during the silent era.
I don’t know if it is the same house or not, as the exact location is not given, but the January 8, 1926 issue of The Film Daily had this item datelined Winnipeg: “The Classic, a new neighborhood first run house, owned by George Graham, has opened.”
The Ramon Theatre now has an official web site.
Might this theater have originally been called the Empire? The earliest mention of a theater in Sunnyvale that I can find in the trade publications is this item from The Moving Picture World of July 15, 1916:
Silicon Valley History Online provides this photo of the Empire Theatre, dated 1913. A 1911 directory of San Jose and Santa Clara County lists the Empire Theatre as being on Murphy Avenue near Evelyn Avenue.meheuck: The building at 721 S. Western Avenue formerly housed a bowling alley that was probably built in the late 1930s or early 1940s. It was converted into a restaurant in 1984, according to this L.A. Times review.
At one time there were a number of streamline modern bowling alleys with theater-style marquees around Los Angeles. As far as I know, all the survivors have been converted to other uses. They can usually be distinguished from theaters by the fact that their roofs were typically lower toward the back, where the lanes were, than at the front, where many of them had a mezzanine housing rest rooms, a storage area, and a manager’s office.
Cinemark at the Pike was designed by Blair Ballard Architects.
The Santa Monica office of architectural firm Gensler & Associates designed the rebuilding of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, including the ArcLight Cinemas. Gensler also designed the ArcLight project in Hollywood.
This undated news item from the Northwest Council of Michigan Governments says that the Vogue Theatre was being gutted, though some architectural features and fixtures were to be preserved and used in the rebuilt theater. Presumably, the historic exterior will be restored, but the remainder of the project will be a rebuild rather than a restoration.
The building at this location looks like newer construction to me, both at street level and in the satellite view. I see no resemblance at all between the current building and the Kinema Theatre building in the 1931 photo.
Despite its name, this house was never operated by the Syufy family’s Century Theatres chain. Note that RonP’s comment of June 18, 2006, names the companies that operated this theater: Statewide, Loew’s, and General Cinema, and then the house was independently operated during its last year.
Here is page one of a Boxoffice Magazine article from January 7, 1950, with photos of the Lake Theatre as well as the Mayland Theatre, built the same year and designed by the same architects. Additional photos of the theaters appear on the two subsequent pages. The final page of text can be found at this link.
Here is a fresh link to the January 7, 1950, Boxoffice article about the Mayfield and Lake Theatres. There are three pages with photos. In adition, here is a direct link to the final page of the article’s text.