I’ve found another reference to the Royal Theatre, this in the October 10, 1908, issue of The Billboard, in the magazines “Playhouses” section:
“The Royal Theatre, which is to occupy a building at 218 East Houston street, San Antonio, Tex., will be one of the prettiest and coziest amusement places In the Southwest. Harry J. Moore, the manager, is busily arranging the bookings and making other details for the theatre. The Royal is to give high-class vaudeville for ten cents. The Royal Amusement Co., who control the theatre, have recently filed articles of incorporation with the secretary of state at Austin. The capital stock Is $15,000. The incorporators are E. W. Mills. J. M. Nix and Lee Shannon.”
It’s possible that the Royal Theatre on Houston Street was closed in or by 1920. A contributor to the Wikipedia article about the Majestic Theatre found this bit of information, and cites a 1988 article in the Theatre Historical Society’s journal Marquee as the source:
“The land on which the office building-theatre complex now stands was leased to Karl Hoblitzelle from J. M. Nix, who had purchased it in 1920 from the Enterprise Company of Dallas. The land came with the curious deed restriction that, until April 5, 1928, ‘neither aforesaid land nor any building or improvement or any part thereon shall be used or occupied for theatrical, motion picture, or amusement purposes at any time…’”
The wording doesn’t make clear if the deed restriction was part of the lease by Nix to Hoblitzelle, or part of the sale by Enterprise Company to Nix, or both. If the deed restriction was part of the sale, and included the portion of the property on which the Royal Theatre sat, then the house must have been closed when the sale was made. The Royal must also have been closed if it was included in the lease agreement.
But I can’t think of any reason why either Nix or Enterprise Company would place the deed restriction on the property unless they were either still operating the Royal themselves, in which case it must not have been included in the original lease, or if they had opened another theater nearby and wanted to prevent new competition at this location.
Also, I’ve found that architect H. L. Page’s first name was Harvey.
The Knickerbocker Theatre was built in 1913 or earlier. A biographical sketch of several members of the Skeel family in a book published that year says of the Skeel Brothers Company, a large construction and development firm: “The company built and owns the Knickerbocker Theatre and the Mercantile Office Building, Euclid avenue, and in this building their office is located.”
At least two members of the Skeel family were architects, so it’s possible that the Knickerbocker Theatre was designed by one or both of them, but I’ve been unable to confirm this.
The Knickerbocker Theatre got a few lines in an article about Cleveland movie houses that was published in The Moving Picture World on July 15, 1916:
“The Knickerbocker Theater, 8315 Euclid avenue, boasts of the most exclusive patronage of any Cleveland picture theater. Emery M. Downs, who manages both the Knickerbocker and the Metropolitan Theater, says high class music and the best obtainable pictures have built up this reputation.
“All the ushers in the Knickerbocker, which has 1,100 seats, are college boys, from either Western Reserve University or the Case School of Applied Science.
“Morris Spitalney’s orchestra provides music with the pictures. The Knickerbocker charges 10, 20 and 35 cents for admission.”
Here is a bit more information about the Standard Theatre, from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“The Standard Theater, 813 Prospect avenue, is one of the largest and most popular of the downtown picture theaters in Cleveland. Joseph Grossman, who with his wife operates the theater, opened it just two years ago. The Standard was the first downtown house to charge ten cents admission, and is the only house which runs its entire program for a week. Grossman books Fox first run features with twenty-one days protection, and declares his S. R. O. sign works overtime. The Standard seats 700.
“When Grossman opened the Standard, failure was predicted because of the fact that the entrance to the house is one of the longest in the city. Grossman overcame this allegedly objectionable feature by artistic treatment of the entrance. In observance of his second anniversary, he has just had the lobby transformed into a rose bower, by the use of trellis work and thousands of artificial flowers.”
The Olympia Theatre was in operation prior to January 19, 1916, on which date a telegram from its operator, W. H. Miller, was entered into the records of a hearing being held by the Federal Motion Picture Commission. It was one of many telegrams sent by Cleveland theater operators to express opposition to a proposed Federal censorship law.
The opening ad rivest266 linked to shows that the Liberty Theatre was in operation in 1919, but it was probably the same house that was mentioned in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World, which mentions the “…Liberty Theater… built a year ago, and seating 1,500.”
I’ve been unable to find any references to any other Cleveland house called the Liberty during this period, so this one must have been the one that opened in 1915, and must have been one of the several existing Cleveland houses that Loew’s took over in 1919.
I’ve also found a few references from 1916 to a house called the Manhattan Theatre located at Superior Avenue and 105th Street. One reference indicates that the Manhattan Theatre was valued at $65,000, so it must have been a fairly large house. It’s hard to believe that this now rather forlorn intersection once hosted two big theaters.
The Milo Theatre was located on the lot at the northeast corner of Miles Avenue and East 100th Street, which is about a mile west of the place where the Google map is currently displaying its pin icon.
4306 Warner is now the location of a business called Motorcycle Specialties. The building (which is a couple of blocks north of Tioga Avenue) is obviously quite old, so if the Rex was at that address then it hasn’t been demolished.
I found a source indicating that the Rex Theatre was in operation at 4305 Warner Road as early as January, 1916. Perhaps the street number was a typo, or perhaps the theater started out at 4305 and later moved to larger quarters across the street.
A telegram from the Rex Theatre’s operator, C. S. Reinberger, was placed into the records of the Federal Motion Picture Commission on January 19, 1916. The telegram was sent in protest of a proposed Federal censorship law.
There were at least two early theaters called the Mall in Cleveland. As shown in the ad to which Mike Rivest linked in the previous comment, the duplex Mall Theatre on Euclid Avenue opened in 1917. The earlier Mall Theatre was a smaller house located on Superior Avenue.
Here are a few relevant lines from an article on Cleveland movie houses published in The Moving Picture World, issue of July 5, 1916:
“Louis H. Becht, now owner of the Mall theater, Superior avenue, opened Dreamland, on Euclid avenue, which is the oldest downtown picture theater still in existence, in 1908. He was there two years when he opened the Mall where he now is.
“Now Becht is spending $100,000 on a new Mall, to be a duplex theater, each auditorium to seat 650 persons and have both entrances from Euclid avenue, which run parallel. This house will be ready for opening about Nov. 1. The present Mall, one of the most popular downtown houses, seats 300 persons.”
As Mike’s ad is dated March 17, 1917, the completion of the house was obviously delayed. The 1917 opening also means that the Duplex Theatre in Detroit, opened in 1915, so far remains the earliest twin theater known to have operated in the United States. The claim to uniqueness made in the Mall’s opening ad could only have applied to its piggyback configuration. The Detroit Duplex featured side-by-side auditoriums.
I’ve found several references to this house as Loew’s Mall Theatre from the period 1920-1922.
The Milo Theatre was built in 1915. The January 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World included it on a list of new theaters built in Cleveland the previous year.
On January 19, 1916, a telegram from the Milo’s operator, Adolph Mahrer, protesting a proposed Federal censorship bill, was entered into the records of the Federal Motion Picture Commission. This is the text of Mr. Mahrer’s telegram:
“I, Adolph Mahrer, individually, and as the representative of Milo Theater, One hundredth Street and Miles Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, respectfully protest against the enactment of a Federal censorship bill in any form. I urge and advocate the amendment of section 245 of the Federal Criminal Code so as to make it unmistakably applicable to motion pictures.
“I represent an investment of $40,000 in the exhibiting branch of the motion picture industry. My interests employ 10 employees.”
Issues of Engineering News-Record from 1921 list two theater projects proposed for Wellsboro. One project was for an Arcadia Theatre company, but its description doesn’t fit the Arcadia as it appears in photos. The other project has no name attached, but its description is a better match for the Arcadia. I’ll post both items here:
“Wellsboro—Theatre—Arcadia Theatre Co., Wellsboro, and H. M. Haskell, archt, Hulett Bldg., Elmira, N. Y.. opens bids within month, building 2 story, 80 x 100 ft, concrete, brick and steel, on Main St About $75,000.”
The second item:
“Wellsboro—Theater—O. B. Roberts & Son, Bache Auditorium, receiving bids building 1 story, 50 x 187 ft. hollow tile and concrete, on Main St. About $150,000. H. Spann. 52 West Chippewa St.. Buffalo. N. Y., archt.”
I can’t find the dates of either issue of the journal, but the Roberts project was earlier in the Google Books scan, so it was probably the first announced. It’s possible that the Arcadia Theatre Company arranged to abandon their project and take over the Roberts project instead, as it might have been farther along. Perhaps the Arcadia project announcement was even a ploy to force Roberts into a deal to turn over operation of his new house to the other group.
In any case, the architect of the Arcadia Theatre was probably either H. M. Haskell of Elmira or H. Spann of Buffalo. Henry L. Spann was the architect of several theaters in Buffalo, but I’ve been unable to find anything about H. M. Haskell other than a couple of directory listings. Maybe somebody with access to records in Wellsboro can clear up the mystery.
It is likely, though not a certainty, that the Casino was the theater that was to be part of the project mentioned in this item from The Moving Picture World of January 3, 1914:
“The Keansburg Heights Company is laying out work to be completed before the summer of 1914 for an amusement park, to include dance ball, moving pictures, carosel, swings, park building and broadwalk.”
The earlier comment by KGordonMurray does say that the theater was located in an amusement park, and the Casino Theatre in the photo in the book I linked to earlier certainly looked old enough to have been built in 1914.
Keansburg, by Randall Gabrielan (Google Books preview), has a photo on page 46 showing the Casino Theatre about 1952. It was on the south side of Beachway about mid-block between Highland and Carr Avenues. The caption says that the theater has been demolished.
The architect of the Blue Mouse Theatre was Henderson Ryan. The September 8, 1920, issue of Engineering and Contracting said: “H. Ryan, Architect, will proceed with construction of the Blue Mouse Theatre.”
The Regent Theatre was drastically altered by the mid-1930s, when the original stadium seating section was removed and replaced with a conventional orchestra floor. A cross section of the Regent’s auditorium as originally designed can be seen on this page of Lisa Maria DiChiera’s The Theatre Designs of C. Howard Crane.
Contrast that with this photo of the remodeled Regent that was featured in a Heywood-Wakefield ad in Boxoffice of September 19, 1936.
I’ve been unable to find a photo of the Regent’s auditorium before its remodeling, but DeChiera’s thesis includes these photos of the Majestic Theatre in Detroit, built the year after the Regent and designed by Crane with a very similar seating configuration.
Here is a fresh link to the first page of the 1936 Boxoffice article about the Eastown Theatre. The article continues on subsequent pages of the magazine (click on “next page” links above or below the right side of the page scans.)
Keep clicking a couple of pages past the article about the Eastown and there is an article about the Washoe Theatre in Anaconda, Montana, opened the same year. The pair provide an interesting example of the two streams of modern design during the 1930s: the ornate (and costly) Art Deco details of the Washoe, versus the elegant simplicity of the Eastown’s Streamline Modern style.
Old Town has changed so much over the last century that old photos of Main Street are all but unrecognizable. Almost every building in this photo, which appears to be from the 1910s, is gone, including the Strand Theatre. Many of the buildings were already gone by the time this photo was taken, probably in 1959, though the Strand was still there with its modernized front from the mid-1930s.
The October 17, 1936, issue of Boxoffice published before and after photos of the recently remodeled Strand Theatre, which can be seen at lower right on this page. As near as I can tell, the Strand was on part of the site of a modern building that currently houses a Rite Aid drug store, and its front has been replaced by a blank brick wall.
The October 17, 1936, issue of Boxoffice featured a brief article about the Will Rogers Theatre, with a single photo of its Streamline Modern auditorium. The exterior had some Art Deco flourishes, but the auditorium was almost austere, nearly the sole exception being the florid upholstery on the seats. The scan of the photo is a bit blurry, but it serves to show the overall sleekness of the design.
The text is in Portuguese, but this web page features several interior photos of the Cine-Metro Passeio, a rendering of the exterior, floor plans, and a cross section of the building, all of which will be of interest to theater fans whether they can read the text or not.
Here are updated links to the Boxoffice items cited in my previous comment.
November 7, 1942 article about three Jack Corgan projects, including the El Rancho Theatre.
Rendering of the proposed El Rancho Theatre (bottom of page) in Boxoffice of June 21, 1941.
I’ve found another reference to the Royal Theatre, this in the October 10, 1908, issue of The Billboard, in the magazines “Playhouses” section:
It’s possible that the Royal Theatre on Houston Street was closed in or by 1920. A contributor to the Wikipedia article about the Majestic Theatre found this bit of information, and cites a 1988 article in the Theatre Historical Society’s journal Marquee as the source:The wording doesn’t make clear if the deed restriction was part of the lease by Nix to Hoblitzelle, or part of the sale by Enterprise Company to Nix, or both. If the deed restriction was part of the sale, and included the portion of the property on which the Royal Theatre sat, then the house must have been closed when the sale was made. The Royal must also have been closed if it was included in the lease agreement.But I can’t think of any reason why either Nix or Enterprise Company would place the deed restriction on the property unless they were either still operating the Royal themselves, in which case it must not have been included in the original lease, or if they had opened another theater nearby and wanted to prevent new competition at this location.
Also, I’ve found that architect H. L. Page’s first name was Harvey.
Here is a photo of the Knickerbocker Playhouse auditorium from the Cleveland Memory project.
The Knickerbocker Theatre was built in 1913 or earlier. A biographical sketch of several members of the Skeel family in a book published that year says of the Skeel Brothers Company, a large construction and development firm: “The company built and owns the Knickerbocker Theatre and the Mercantile Office Building, Euclid avenue, and in this building their office is located.”
At least two members of the Skeel family were architects, so it’s possible that the Knickerbocker Theatre was designed by one or both of them, but I’ve been unable to confirm this.
The Knickerbocker Theatre got a few lines in an article about Cleveland movie houses that was published in The Moving Picture World on July 15, 1916:
Here is a bit more information about the Standard Theatre, from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
This entire block of Broadway has been redeveloped as a modern shopping center. The New Broadway Theatre has been demolished.
I found a January, 1916, reference to a Broadway Theatre at 4628 Broadway. The New Broadway must have been its replacement.
The Olympia Theatre was in operation prior to January 19, 1916, on which date a telegram from its operator, W. H. Miller, was entered into the records of a hearing being held by the Federal Motion Picture Commission. It was one of many telegrams sent by Cleveland theater operators to express opposition to a proposed Federal censorship law.
The opening ad rivest266 linked to shows that the Liberty Theatre was in operation in 1919, but it was probably the same house that was mentioned in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World, which mentions the “…Liberty Theater… built a year ago, and seating 1,500.”
I’ve been unable to find any references to any other Cleveland house called the Liberty during this period, so this one must have been the one that opened in 1915, and must have been one of the several existing Cleveland houses that Loew’s took over in 1919.
I’ve also found a few references from 1916 to a house called the Manhattan Theatre located at Superior Avenue and 105th Street. One reference indicates that the Manhattan Theatre was valued at $65,000, so it must have been a fairly large house. It’s hard to believe that this now rather forlorn intersection once hosted two big theaters.
The Milo Theatre was located on the lot at the northeast corner of Miles Avenue and East 100th Street, which is about a mile west of the place where the Google map is currently displaying its pin icon.
4306 Warner is now the location of a business called Motorcycle Specialties. The building (which is a couple of blocks north of Tioga Avenue) is obviously quite old, so if the Rex was at that address then it hasn’t been demolished.
I found a source indicating that the Rex Theatre was in operation at 4305 Warner Road as early as January, 1916. Perhaps the street number was a typo, or perhaps the theater started out at 4305 and later moved to larger quarters across the street.
A telegram from the Rex Theatre’s operator, C. S. Reinberger, was placed into the records of the Federal Motion Picture Commission on January 19, 1916. The telegram was sent in protest of a proposed Federal censorship law.
There were at least two early theaters called the Mall in Cleveland. As shown in the ad to which Mike Rivest linked in the previous comment, the duplex Mall Theatre on Euclid Avenue opened in 1917. The earlier Mall Theatre was a smaller house located on Superior Avenue.
Here are a few relevant lines from an article on Cleveland movie houses published in The Moving Picture World, issue of July 5, 1916:
As Mike’s ad is dated March 17, 1917, the completion of the house was obviously delayed. The 1917 opening also means that the Duplex Theatre in Detroit, opened in 1915, so far remains the earliest twin theater known to have operated in the United States. The claim to uniqueness made in the Mall’s opening ad could only have applied to its piggyback configuration. The Detroit Duplex featured side-by-side auditoriums.I’ve found several references to this house as Loew’s Mall Theatre from the period 1920-1922.
The Milo Theatre was built in 1915. The January 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World included it on a list of new theaters built in Cleveland the previous year.
On January 19, 1916, a telegram from the Milo’s operator, Adolph Mahrer, protesting a proposed Federal censorship bill, was entered into the records of the Federal Motion Picture Commission. This is the text of Mr. Mahrer’s telegram:
Issues of Engineering News-Record from 1921 list two theater projects proposed for Wellsboro. One project was for an Arcadia Theatre company, but its description doesn’t fit the Arcadia as it appears in photos. The other project has no name attached, but its description is a better match for the Arcadia. I’ll post both items here:
The second item:I can’t find the dates of either issue of the journal, but the Roberts project was earlier in the Google Books scan, so it was probably the first announced. It’s possible that the Arcadia Theatre Company arranged to abandon their project and take over the Roberts project instead, as it might have been farther along. Perhaps the Arcadia project announcement was even a ploy to force Roberts into a deal to turn over operation of his new house to the other group.In any case, the architect of the Arcadia Theatre was probably either H. M. Haskell of Elmira or H. Spann of Buffalo. Henry L. Spann was the architect of several theaters in Buffalo, but I’ve been unable to find anything about H. M. Haskell other than a couple of directory listings. Maybe somebody with access to records in Wellsboro can clear up the mystery.
It is likely, though not a certainty, that the Casino was the theater that was to be part of the project mentioned in this item from The Moving Picture World of January 3, 1914:
The earlier comment by KGordonMurray does say that the theater was located in an amusement park, and the Casino Theatre in the photo in the book I linked to earlier certainly looked old enough to have been built in 1914.Keansburg, by Randall Gabrielan (Google Books preview), has a photo on page 46 showing the Casino Theatre about 1952. It was on the south side of Beachway about mid-block between Highland and Carr Avenues. The caption says that the theater has been demolished.
The architect of the Blue Mouse Theatre was Henderson Ryan. The September 8, 1920, issue of Engineering and Contracting said: “H. Ryan, Architect, will proceed with construction of the Blue Mouse Theatre.”
The Regent Theatre was drastically altered by the mid-1930s, when the original stadium seating section was removed and replaced with a conventional orchestra floor. A cross section of the Regent’s auditorium as originally designed can be seen on this page of Lisa Maria DiChiera’s The Theatre Designs of C. Howard Crane.
Contrast that with this photo of the remodeled Regent that was featured in a Heywood-Wakefield ad in Boxoffice of September 19, 1936.
I’ve been unable to find a photo of the Regent’s auditorium before its remodeling, but DeChiera’s thesis includes these photos of the Majestic Theatre in Detroit, built the year after the Regent and designed by Crane with a very similar seating configuration.
Here is a fresh link to the first page of the 1936 Boxoffice article about the Eastown Theatre. The article continues on subsequent pages of the magazine (click on “next page” links above or below the right side of the page scans.)
Keep clicking a couple of pages past the article about the Eastown and there is an article about the Washoe Theatre in Anaconda, Montana, opened the same year. The pair provide an interesting example of the two streams of modern design during the 1930s: the ornate (and costly) Art Deco details of the Washoe, versus the elegant simplicity of the Eastown’s Streamline Modern style.
Old Town has changed so much over the last century that old photos of Main Street are all but unrecognizable. Almost every building in this photo, which appears to be from the 1910s, is gone, including the Strand Theatre. Many of the buildings were already gone by the time this photo was taken, probably in 1959, though the Strand was still there with its modernized front from the mid-1930s.
The October 17, 1936, issue of Boxoffice published before and after photos of the recently remodeled Strand Theatre, which can be seen at lower right on this page. As near as I can tell, the Strand was on part of the site of a modern building that currently houses a Rite Aid drug store, and its front has been replaced by a blank brick wall.
Two small interior photos of the Plaza Theatre illustrate this brief article in Boxoffice of October 17, 1936.
Another view of the Plaza’s auditorium illustrates an ad for Heywood-Wakefield theater seats on this page of the same issue of Boxoffice.
The 1936 Boxoffice article about the Frolic Theatre can be seen at this link. A photo and partial floor plan appear on the subsequent page.
The October 17, 1936, issue of Boxoffice featured a brief article about the Will Rogers Theatre, with a single photo of its Streamline Modern auditorium. The exterior had some Art Deco flourishes, but the auditorium was almost austere, nearly the sole exception being the florid upholstery on the seats. The scan of the photo is a bit blurry, but it serves to show the overall sleekness of the design.
The text is in Portuguese, but this web page features several interior photos of the Cine-Metro Passeio, a rendering of the exterior, floor plans, and a cross section of the building, all of which will be of interest to theater fans whether they can read the text or not.
There is a photo of the auditorium of the Center Mayfield Theatre at the upper right corner of this page of Boxoffice, November 14, 1936.