The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that Don Tracy planned to open his new Grand Theatre at Carrington, North Dakota, on December 31.
A photo of the vertical sign of the Dixwell Theatre illustrated an ad for Flexlume Electric Displays on this page of Motion Picture News, December 1, 1928.
There are probably few people who remember the original 1928 look of the Little Carnegie Playhouse. It was a strikingly modern design, most likely inspired, at least in part, by the work of the German Bauhaus. Here are two photos from the December 1, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News showing the auditorium and lounge.
I don’t know how much of the original design was lost in the early 1940s remodeling by Thomas Lamb’s office, but whatever might have remained after that was wiped out in the gut renovation designed by John McNamara that was undertaken in 1952. So far I’ve been unable to discover who the theater’s original architect was.
The ornate Spanish Baroque organ screen of the Palace Theatre at Gary can be seen in this photo illustrating an ad for the George Kilgen & Son organ company in the October 13, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News.
The Wigwam having been on Court Street certainly lets it out as an earlier name for the Roxy Independent.
But I’ve also found another puzzle. A 1928 item in MotionPicture News says that a house called the Strand Theatre had opened in Muskogee on September 30. I can find only one other reference to the Strand, in the 1929 Film Daily Yearbook, which said that the house had been sold to Cauhle and Perry.
I’m reluctant to submit the Strand to Cinema Treasures, as, with no address to go by, it might be an early name for one of the other theaters already listed and described as having opened in the 1930s (the Oklahoma and the Lyric.) Trade publications sometimes listed a theater as new when it was actually an old theater that had been reopened under a new name. In fact the 1928 Strand itself could have been an earlier theater reopened with a new name.
The Murray Theatre is Richmond’s splendid survivor. Opened on October 11, 1909, the 700-seat house was primarily a vaudeville theater. The Murray Theatre was designed by architect Fred W. Elliot.
In 1930 the house closed, but was reopened the following year as the Indiana Theatre, devoted to movies. In 1952 the local theater company, the Richmond Civic Theatre, began leasing the Indiana Theatre for its performances, and the company bought the house in 1966. In 1984, the name Murray Theatre was restored, and the venerable house was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
After more than a half century, the Richmond Civic Theatre continues to operate the Murray Theatre as its main stage, mounting several productions each year. The company also has plans to launch a classic film series some time in the future.
In 2009, local blogger Dan Tate posted this entry in honor of the Murray Theatre’s centennial. It features several vintage illustrations of the Murray, as well as pictures of several other Richmond theaters.
The Murray Theatre is located at 1003 E. Main Street. Here is the web site of the Richmond Civic Theatre.
Marks' Ritz was a splendid little theater. A photo of the front illustrated an ad for Cutler-Hammer dimmers in the October 6, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News. The somewhat eclectic facade was predominantly Spanish Renaissance in style.
An ad for the American Seating Company in the October 6, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News featured a photo of the auditorium of Redmon’s Majestic Theatre.
The 1929 edition of The Film Daily Yearbook included the Ritz in Muskogee in its list of new theaters for 1928, so that must be the year the name was changed.
The Summer, 2000, issue of Three Rivers Historian, the journal of the Three Rivers Museum, had an article about Muskogee’s theaters which said that the Roxy Theatre that opened in 1948 on Okmulgee Avenue had been built to replace an earlier Roxy Theatre that had burned. The burned theater must have been the Roxy Independent.
The building looks like it would have predated the name Roxy, which only came into use after the original Roxy Theatre in New York was opened in 1927. I suspect that the Roxy Independent was an older theater renamed, probably one of the four early theaters mentioned in the journal article the locations of which are not listed: the Gem, the Gaiety, the Wigwam, or the Merchant’s.
An ad in the October 5, 1916, issue of the Muskogee County Democrat places the New Yale Theatre at Broadway and Third. That explains why the building at 208 Broadway looks too small to have held a 1,000-seat theater. It didn’t.
Either the New Yale Theatre isn’t listed at Cinema Treasures or its name was changed and it is listed under the later name, but is missing the AKA. I wonder if it could have become the Palace, which is listed here but without an address? The Palace was advertised as early as 1921, and I haven’t found any mentions of the New Yale later than 1919.
This article from the Muskogee Phoenix says that the Hinton Theatre was built in 1905, was renamed the Orpheum in 1920. It doesn’t give the year the name Ritz was adopted, but it must have been by 1929, as the article says that Procter and Marsh, who renamed the house after taking it over and remodeling, introduced talking pictures at the Ritz. The name Ritz was definitely in use by February, 1930, when it was mentioned in a newspaper item.
The house was still called the Orpheum at least as late as January, 1928, when a production of Phillip Duning and George Abbott’s play Broadway was mounted there by the authors. The Library of Congress has a copy of the program for the production, but it hasn’t been digitized.
It’s likely that the Colonial Theatre was designed by Rubush & Hunter. The July 30, 1910, issue of The American Contractor said that the owners of the Colonial Theatre, which was under lease to the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville circuit, were contemplating alterations to the house, and that Rubush & Hunter would draw the plans for the project. It seems likely that if the theater was being remodeled only a year after it opened that the original architects would be hired to design the project. The Colonial Revival detailing of the facade was certainly characteristic of the firm’s work.
I failed to explain in my previous comment that the page of thumbnails can be used to start the video at the point each thumbnail depicts, so you can watch any particular segment over again. Just click on it.
To belatedly answer Yves Marchand’s question, yes the photos on that page do depict the Palace Theatre.
Prior to the theater’s destruction, a tour of the Palace was captured on video, and it can be watched on this page at the Internet Archive. It can also be downloaded in either of two formats, and if you have problems with the video there is also a page with several thumbnail stills. Many of the interior shots are extremely dark, but the video is still worth a look. Running time is 7:22.
An announcement of the start of construction on the Palace appeared in the September 16, 1916, issue of Moving Picture World:
“New Palace at Superior, Wis.
“Duluth, Minn.—We have received from Frank N. Phelps, manager of New Grand Theater Co. of Duluth, Minn., the following communication: Contracts for construction of the Palace theater at Tower avenue and Eleventh street, Superior, Wis., by the Cook Amusement company, have been let. The amount of the contract was withheld by the amusement company incorporators, the Cook Brothers and Frank Phelps of the New Grand theater. Furnishings for the house, heating, ventilating and lighting will be contracted for later.
“Work on the theater building will begin Monday and it is hoped to have it completed by January 1. The house will be 50 x 140 feet, constructed of reinforced concrete, brick and terra cotta. It will be fireproof and will have a seating capacity of 1,200 on two floors.”
The final final close-up of the photo on this web page from the Duluth News Tribune archives shows the Strand’s sign and small attraction board. The movie advertised, The Other Tomorrow, was released in 1930.
This web page about Duluth’s smaller movie theaters says that the house at 18-20 2nd Avenue West opened in 1913 as the Rex Theatre. The building was razed in 1956.
The Lake Theatre was located in one of the store fronts of the Hayes Building, which was originally owned by Rutherford B. Hayes. As told on this web page about Duluth’s smaller movie theaters, the space was occupied by a theater called the Savoy during the silent era. The house reopened as the Lake Theatre from 1935 to 1950, and then became the World Theatre until 1956.
The Hayes Building and the adjacent Weiland Building have been renovated as part of a mixed-use project covering almost a full block of downtown Duluth, but I’m not sure how much of the original structures remain. This web page describes the extent of the project. It sounds like the original walls are intact, but that the interior of the building has been largely rebuilt. There is probably no trace of the theater remaining.
This web page about Duluth’s smaller theaters says that the Strand’s building was built in 1906 as a meat market, but had been converted to a movie theater by 1915. The house closed in 1951, then reopened as an adult theater twenty years later. The Strand closed for the last time in 1986, and the building remained vacant until it was demolished in 1998.
The February 5, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an item about the opening of the Majestic Theatre:
“The new Majestic theater in Wyandotte, owned by the Caille & Guthard Interests of Detroit, was formally opened on Thursday evening, January 20, to immense crowds, hundreds going from Detroit to see the new house. In the first ten days booking the following companies have been considered: Paramount, Metro, Big Four, Equitable, World, Pathe, Triangle and Blue Bird. The opening picture was ‘The Whirl of Life’ with Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle, which Caille & Guthard control for Michigan. George P. Wilbur is the manager of the New Majestic, having come from the Grand in Columbia, Ohio. The Marx theater in Wyandotte closed Jan. 23. It will be entirely remodelled, redecorated and refurnished and re-opened sometime in February. This theater is also owned by Caille & Guthard. Mr. Guthard announces that the firm will also control a third theater In Wyandotte.”
Other sources indicate that the Marx Theatre was built in 1910 at the northwest corner of Biddle and Sycamore Streets, so it was almost directly across the street from the Majestic.
This web page with an extensive history of the Empire Theatre in Grand Forks also has information about the Dakota Theatre. The Dakota itself was originally called the Empire Theatre, but had been renamed the Grand Theatre sometime before 1918, in which year it was damaged by a fire. After the fire, the house was rebuilt and reopened as the Orpheum Theatre. The page doesn’t say when it became the Dakota Theatre, but Chuck’s earlier comments suggest that it was probably renamed in 1935.
The August 6, 1931, issue of The Film Daily had a brief item about the house: “Grand Forks, N. D. — Work has been started on rebuilding the Publix Orpheum.”
According to the official web site of the Heights Theatre in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, the bottom section of that restored theatre’s stage curtain is from the Orpheum in Grand Forks.
RKO’s Capitol Theatre was enlarged following the 1931 fire. The August 6, 1931, issue of The Film Daily ran the following item about the project:
“Trenton, N. J.— The Capitol, RKO
house, will have its seating capacity increased to 1,850. Plans also call for a cooling system and fireproof roof, in addition to the rebuilding of the interior.”
The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that Don Tracy planned to open his new Grand Theatre at Carrington, North Dakota, on December 31.
A photo of the vertical sign of the Dixwell Theatre illustrated an ad for Flexlume Electric Displays on this page of Motion Picture News, December 1, 1928.
There are probably few people who remember the original 1928 look of the Little Carnegie Playhouse. It was a strikingly modern design, most likely inspired, at least in part, by the work of the German Bauhaus. Here are two photos from the December 1, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News showing the auditorium and lounge.
I don’t know how much of the original design was lost in the early 1940s remodeling by Thomas Lamb’s office, but whatever might have remained after that was wiped out in the gut renovation designed by John McNamara that was undertaken in 1952. So far I’ve been unable to discover who the theater’s original architect was.
Here is a circa 1954 photo of the Electric Theatre.
Here are three photos of the Electric Theatre, including two interior shots, from the November 3, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News.
The ornate Spanish Baroque organ screen of the Palace Theatre at Gary can be seen in this photo illustrating an ad for the George Kilgen & Son organ company in the October 13, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News.
The Wigwam having been on Court Street certainly lets it out as an earlier name for the Roxy Independent.
But I’ve also found another puzzle. A 1928 item in MotionPicture News says that a house called the Strand Theatre had opened in Muskogee on September 30. I can find only one other reference to the Strand, in the 1929 Film Daily Yearbook, which said that the house had been sold to Cauhle and Perry.
I’m reluctant to submit the Strand to Cinema Treasures, as, with no address to go by, it might be an early name for one of the other theaters already listed and described as having opened in the 1930s (the Oklahoma and the Lyric.) Trade publications sometimes listed a theater as new when it was actually an old theater that had been reopened under a new name. In fact the 1928 Strand itself could have been an earlier theater reopened with a new name.
The Murray Theatre is Richmond’s splendid survivor. Opened on October 11, 1909, the 700-seat house was primarily a vaudeville theater. The Murray Theatre was designed by architect Fred W. Elliot.
In 1930 the house closed, but was reopened the following year as the Indiana Theatre, devoted to movies. In 1952 the local theater company, the Richmond Civic Theatre, began leasing the Indiana Theatre for its performances, and the company bought the house in 1966. In 1984, the name Murray Theatre was restored, and the venerable house was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
After more than a half century, the Richmond Civic Theatre continues to operate the Murray Theatre as its main stage, mounting several productions each year. The company also has plans to launch a classic film series some time in the future.
In 2009, local blogger Dan Tate posted this entry in honor of the Murray Theatre’s centennial. It features several vintage illustrations of the Murray, as well as pictures of several other Richmond theaters.
The Murray Theatre is located at 1003 E. Main Street. Here is the web site of the Richmond Civic Theatre.
Marks' Ritz was a splendid little theater. A photo of the front illustrated an ad for Cutler-Hammer dimmers in the October 6, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News. The somewhat eclectic facade was predominantly Spanish Renaissance in style.
An ad for the American Seating Company in the October 6, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News featured a photo of the auditorium of Redmon’s Majestic Theatre.
The 1929 edition of The Film Daily Yearbook included the Ritz in Muskogee in its list of new theaters for 1928, so that must be the year the name was changed.
The Summer, 2000, issue of Three Rivers Historian, the journal of the Three Rivers Museum, had an article about Muskogee’s theaters which said that the Roxy Theatre that opened in 1948 on Okmulgee Avenue had been built to replace an earlier Roxy Theatre that had burned. The burned theater must have been the Roxy Independent.
The building looks like it would have predated the name Roxy, which only came into use after the original Roxy Theatre in New York was opened in 1927. I suspect that the Roxy Independent was an older theater renamed, probably one of the four early theaters mentioned in the journal article the locations of which are not listed: the Gem, the Gaiety, the Wigwam, or the Merchant’s.
An ad in the October 5, 1916, issue of the Muskogee County Democrat places the New Yale Theatre at Broadway and Third. That explains why the building at 208 Broadway looks too small to have held a 1,000-seat theater. It didn’t.
Either the New Yale Theatre isn’t listed at Cinema Treasures or its name was changed and it is listed under the later name, but is missing the AKA. I wonder if it could have become the Palace, which is listed here but without an address? The Palace was advertised as early as 1921, and I haven’t found any mentions of the New Yale later than 1919.
This article from the Muskogee Phoenix says that the Hinton Theatre was built in 1905, was renamed the Orpheum in 1920. It doesn’t give the year the name Ritz was adopted, but it must have been by 1929, as the article says that Procter and Marsh, who renamed the house after taking it over and remodeling, introduced talking pictures at the Ritz. The name Ritz was definitely in use by February, 1930, when it was mentioned in a newspaper item.
The house was still called the Orpheum at least as late as January, 1928, when a production of Phillip Duning and George Abbott’s play Broadway was mounted there by the authors. The Library of Congress has a copy of the program for the production, but it hasn’t been digitized.
It’s likely that the Colonial Theatre was designed by Rubush & Hunter. The July 30, 1910, issue of The American Contractor said that the owners of the Colonial Theatre, which was under lease to the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville circuit, were contemplating alterations to the house, and that Rubush & Hunter would draw the plans for the project. It seems likely that if the theater was being remodeled only a year after it opened that the original architects would be hired to design the project. The Colonial Revival detailing of the facade was certainly characteristic of the firm’s work.
I failed to explain in my previous comment that the page of thumbnails can be used to start the video at the point each thumbnail depicts, so you can watch any particular segment over again. Just click on it.
To belatedly answer Yves Marchand’s question, yes the photos on that page do depict the Palace Theatre.
Prior to the theater’s destruction, a tour of the Palace was captured on video, and it can be watched on this page at the Internet Archive. It can also be downloaded in either of two formats, and if you have problems with the video there is also a page with several thumbnail stills. Many of the interior shots are extremely dark, but the video is still worth a look. Running time is 7:22.
An announcement of the start of construction on the Palace appeared in the September 16, 1916, issue of Moving Picture World:
The final final close-up of the photo on this web page from the Duluth News Tribune archives shows the Strand’s sign and small attraction board. The movie advertised, The Other Tomorrow, was released in 1930.
This web page about Duluth’s smaller movie theaters gives the years of operation of the Zelda Theatre as 1920-1929.
This web page about Duluth’s smaller movie theaters says that the house at 18-20 2nd Avenue West opened in 1913 as the Rex Theatre. The building was razed in 1956.
The Lake Theatre was located in one of the store fronts of the Hayes Building, which was originally owned by Rutherford B. Hayes. As told on this web page about Duluth’s smaller movie theaters, the space was occupied by a theater called the Savoy during the silent era. The house reopened as the Lake Theatre from 1935 to 1950, and then became the World Theatre until 1956.
The Hayes Building and the adjacent Weiland Building have been renovated as part of a mixed-use project covering almost a full block of downtown Duluth, but I’m not sure how much of the original structures remain. This web page describes the extent of the project. It sounds like the original walls are intact, but that the interior of the building has been largely rebuilt. There is probably no trace of the theater remaining.
This web page about Duluth’s smaller theaters says that the Strand’s building was built in 1906 as a meat market, but had been converted to a movie theater by 1915. The house closed in 1951, then reopened as an adult theater twenty years later. The Strand closed for the last time in 1986, and the building remained vacant until it was demolished in 1998.
The February 5, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World ran an item about the opening of the Majestic Theatre:
Other sources indicate that the Marx Theatre was built in 1910 at the northwest corner of Biddle and Sycamore Streets, so it was almost directly across the street from the Majestic.The first Empire Theatre goes back to at least 1908, when it is mentioned in several issues of The Billboard as a vaudeville house.
This web page with an extensive history of the Empire Theatre in Grand Forks also has information about the Dakota Theatre. The Dakota itself was originally called the Empire Theatre, but had been renamed the Grand Theatre sometime before 1918, in which year it was damaged by a fire. After the fire, the house was rebuilt and reopened as the Orpheum Theatre. The page doesn’t say when it became the Dakota Theatre, but Chuck’s earlier comments suggest that it was probably renamed in 1935.
The August 6, 1931, issue of The Film Daily had a brief item about the house: “Grand Forks, N. D. — Work has been started on rebuilding the Publix Orpheum.”
According to the official web site of the Heights Theatre in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, the bottom section of that restored theatre’s stage curtain is from the Orpheum in Grand Forks.
RKO’s Capitol Theatre was enlarged following the 1931 fire. The August 6, 1931, issue of The Film Daily ran the following item about the project: