This must be the Ishpeming Theatre that E. J. Butler was operating about a decade before he built the Butler Theatre. It was listed as a new house in the 1906 edition of Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide. The 1913 edition of the guide gave a breakdown of the seating arrangements: 403 seats in the orchestra, 176 in the balcony, 350 in the gallery, and 92 in the boxes. In 1916, an item in The Moving Picture World noted that Butler was showing Triangle comedies at the Ishpeming Theatre and Triangle dramas at the Butler Theatre.
The Ishpeming Theatre was remodeled in 1929 at the time sound equipment was installed. Both the Butler and Ishpeming Theatres are mentioned by various publications into the 1930s. Ed Butler died in 1937, and the Butler Theatre was taken over by Fox Midwest, and the Ishpeming Theatre was probably taken over by Fox as well, but I’ve been unable to find any specific references to it.
I can’t find the house mentioned in the trade publications after the 1930s, but the Ishpeming Theatre was apparently in operation at least as late as 1965, as E-Yearbooks has a copy of the local high school yearbook from 1965, and it contains a courtesy ad offering congratulations from the Butler and Ishpeming Theatres.
Historian Robert Archibald, a native of Ishpeming, in his 1999 book A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community, made reference to Ishpeming’s two downtown theaters, saying that one had closed and the other had been demolished for a parking lot. As the Butler Theatre is still standing, the Ishpeming Theatre has to be the one that had been demolished by 1999.
A small photo of the Gayety Theatre can be seen here, in the March 11, 1916, issue of the trade journal Electrical Review. The brief article was about the theater’s electric sign.
The photo actually shows the side entrance to the theater’s gallery, on Wyandotte Street. Its main entrance was around the corner on 12th Street, as seen in this postcard view from before the electric sign was installed.
Here is a photo dated 1945, after the theater had converted from burlesque to movies and the enormous electric sign had been removed.
The January 3, 1926, issue of The Film Daily carried a brief notice of the opening of this theater:
“Cleveland — The Cedar-Lee theater, the seventh and newest house operated by Dr. B. I. Brody and his associates, was opened Dec. 28. It is a 1,200 seat house, located in Cleveland Heights. Dr. Brody has leased it for 17 years at an aggregate amount of about $300,000. The opening attraction was ‘A King on Main Street.’”
Jeffersonville Indiana, by Garry J. Nokes, says that the Le Rose Theatre was built in 1920. If the claim is correct, the item that appeared in the July 5, 1919, issue of The American Contractor was probably about the Le Rose:
“M P. Theatre (stg. cap. 800): $18,000. 1 sty. 70x90. Jeffersonville. Ind. Archt. J. J. Gaffney. 437 S. 2nd St.. Louisville. Owner M. Switow. 408 Fourth st. Brk.. non-frpf.. comp. rfg. Drawing plans. Excav. Owner builds by day work.”
The Le Rose is more than 90' deep, though, and has considerably more than 800 seats, and the entrance building is two stories, not one. It’s possible that Mr. Switlow decided to build it bigger, or it might have been expanded later.
There are photos on the Internet of a few buildings designed by J. J. Gaffney, and the facade of the Le Rose does appear to be characteristic of his style (he seems to have been very fond of red and orange toned face brick set off with stone or cast stone trim.) But given the difference between the project described in the journal item and the Le Rose as it was built, maybe we should only put down James J. Gaffney as the possible architect of the Le Rose. Maybe someone with access to other sources can use this information as a starting point for further research.
Here is a 1928 photo of the auditorium of the Le Rose Theatre. It looks to me as though it might have had a section of stadium seating at the back. It was a very handsome interior, although the clerestory windows must have precluded movie matinees, unless there was some way of blacking them out.
The February 10, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World had the following item about the Ideal Theatre:
“The Ideal Amusement Company, of Louisville, Ky…. has made arrangements with S. P. Ostrander, architect, to draw up plans for the establishment of an elaborate and commodious theater in Louisville.
“This new theater will be built of brick and will be absolutely fireproof throughout and will have a seating capacity of 1,400. It will cost when completed $50,000 and will be located at 2315 West Market Street. The building will be a frontage of 80 feet and a depth of 150 feet. The stage will measure 32 x 28 feet. This house has been so constructed that during the hot spell in the summer time it can easily converted into an airdome.”
I’ve been unable to find any other references to an architect named S. P. Ostrander, so he must never have become well known.
Here is a 1938 photo of the Ideal Theatre’s lobby.
Three photos of the Shaker Square Cinemas can be seen here, on the web site of Mesbur+Smith Architects, the Toronto firm responsible for the 1999 renovations.
The auditorium had been carved into five screens in 1983, and the original lobby had been destroyed by a fire at some point. When Cleveland Cinemas took control of the house in 1999, the earlier multiplexing was torn out and replaced with a new six-screen configuration with stadium seating, and John Eberson’s original Art Moderne lobby design was restored.
The historical marker for the Cascade Theatre is at 11-15 S. Mill Street, according to this web page. I don’t know if that means the theater was at that exact address or not, but as it was a very small house it might well have been located in a storefront on the side street.
The September 9, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about a Strand Theatre in Athens, but I’m not sure it was the same house:
“The old Palace theater has been remodeled, and is now known as the Strand. This house runs Metro pictures, and is owned by Manning & Wink, who operate several houses in Georgia and Tennessee.”
The Strand building in the various photos looks a bit too modern to have been operating in 1916, though it might have been remodeled again later, of course.
The New Victoria Theatre was built and originally operated by Mitchell Mark, and was one of several Buffalo houses that he and his brother Moe Mark owned. Mark had opened Buffalo’s first movie theater in the basement of the Ellicott Square Building in 1896, and by the time the Victoria opened the Mark brothers were among the country’s leading movie exhibitors, counting among their houses the Strand Theatre in New York City, considered by some theater historians the first true movie palace ever built. A brief article about Mitchell Mark in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World mentions the Victoria:
“The New Victoria theater, Buffalo, one of the handsomest in the country, is Mr. Mark’s favorite, although he built the New York Strand and other magnificent theaters. It is his idea, cherished largely by himself, and is up to the minute in equipment and construction. The Victoria is located in a fine West Side residential district. In regard to this house Mr. Mark said, ‘The people out here were loyal patrons of my little Victoria theater, my former house in this neighborhood, and I decided to give them one of the handsomest theaters that could be built—the New Victoria.’”
The July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World published an article about the Aristo Theatre. It gives a detailed description of the house and is accompanied by two small photos of the building. It says that the Aristo opened in the latter part of April, 1916.
Here is an item from the August 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which might be about this theater under one of its early names:
:The Evaline theater, at Penn avenue and Evaline street, has been taken over by George Logue, a well known exhibitor of the North Side. New equipment is being installed and the house redecorated in preparation for opening in the near future. The Evaline was built about two years ago by Page Brothers, a real estate firm, and was later sold out to Harry Mintz. It was conducted by Mr. Mintz until last summer; since which time the theater has been dark. The Evaline is a medium sized house and excellently located in a populous residential section.“
The building at 5139 Penn Avenue is obviously very old, so if this was the correct address of the Arcana Theatre I don’t think it has been demolished. It’s a very small building, though, and not what I would call a "medium sized house” as the MPW article called the Evaline Theatre, but perhaps the standards were different in 1916 Pittsburgh.
I’m wondering if Victoria Theatre was just another aka for the Arcana Theatre, at 5139 Penn Avenue? The address 5139 Penn exists, but the building next door to it (the white building in Street View) has the address 5145, which can be read if you zoom in. It seems possible that the address might have shifted, as there is a spread of five possible numbers for the two structures. This seems more likely than that there would have been two small theaters next door to each other.
In any case, both buildings are obviously very old, so I don’t think either the Arcana or the Victoria (assuming it even was a separate theater) has been demolished.
For anyone coming across my earlier comment, Boxoffice decided not to limit access to its archives to subscribers only after all. Anyone can see the scans of nearly 3000 back issues at The Vault.
The name Fischer is currently misspelled in the architect field.
John B. Fischer was for a time the chief designer of the Chicago office of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, the Boston firm that succeeded the practice of Henry Hobson Richardson. Fisher continued to practice architecture in Chicago after the firm of Postle & Fischer was dissolved in 1920 or 1921.
According to an item in the August 10, 1921, issue of Engineering and Contracting, architect David E. Postle had recently moved to Los Angeles. He practiced architecture in Southern California for several more years, mostly in partnership with his son George R. Postle. They were especially active in the Glendale and Pasadena areas.
As the original facade of the Inter-Ocean Building was retained in the rebuilding, i’s original architect should also be credited. This blog post about the building (which includes two nice photos) gives his name as W. Carbys Zimmerman.
For some reason, Broan’s link in the previous comment now fetches a photo of the interior of the Juneau Theatre in Milwaukee. Here is a link that should get the photo of the National.
Here is an item about this theater from the March 4, 1922, issue of The Economist, a regional weekly business magazine published in Chicago:
“The National Theater at 6217 to 6223 South Halsted street, 79x124, has been purchased by Harry O. Rabe and James F. Sutter of the Printing firm of Rabe, Sutter & Co., from the Englewood Stock Company, of which Louis Rathje is president, for an indicated $160,000. In addition to the 1,200-seat theater the building contains stores and 17 offices. The National Theater & Amusement Company has the theater leased for a term having seven and one-half years yet to run.”
Thanks to RonP for uploading the current photos of the Valley Theatre’s building. The brickwork on the back wall is certainly characteristic of the 1920s rather than the 1930s, providing more evidence that this is probably the original structure from 1923.
The page still needs to be updated with the building’s modern address, 10818 Valley Mall, to note that it has not been demolished, and to credit Walker & Eisen as the architects.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown says that he was the partner of George Budde in the opening of the Alcazar Theatre. Brown sold his interest in the project to Budde after about eight months, and then built the Fulton Theatre. In 1916, he opened the Stocking Avenue Theatre. The biography doesn’t give dates for the opening of the Alcazar or the Fulton, but as Brown operated the Fulton for four years, the Alcazar could have been opened as early as 1911, and was probably in operation within a year or two of that at most.
It says he operated the Fulton Theatre for four years before selling it, and devoted his attentions to operating the Stocking Avenue Theatre, so the earliest the Fulton Theatre would have opened was probably 1912, but it was certainly in operation before 1916.
CinemaTour gives the Fulton Theatre the AKA Fulton Vaudette. Vaudette was a popular name for theaters in Grand Rapids during the 1910s, and several houses are listed as Vaudettes in city directories of the period.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown,original owner of Brown’s Stocking Avenue Theatre, says that he built the house in 1916. Earlier, he had been one of the original partners in the Alcazar Theatre, and had then opened the Fulton Theatre.
Volume 2 of a book in Arcadia Publishing Company’s “Images of America” series, Fostoria, Ohio, by Paul H. Krupp, says that the State Theatre was once known as the Colonial Theatre.
The August 9, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that additions and alterations were being made to the Colonial Theatre at Fostoria, with plans by Columbus architect Fred W. Elliot.
The Michigan Theatre was apparently a bit older than the author of the 1938 Boxoffice article I cited earlier thought. Here is an item from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“A new motion picture theater, known as the Michigan theater, and located at Michigan street and Grand avenue, N. E., Grand Rapids, Mich., was recently opened. The owners and operators, G. H. and C. W. Budde, also are owners of the Alcazar theater on Bridge street, N. W. The new picture house is one of the largest of the outlying theaters, having a seating capacity of 650. The decorations of the cosy interior are rose and steel gray, and ample provision has been made for the comfort of the patrons.”
The 1938 photo of the Vogue in Boxoffice has been moved to this link.
Here is an item about this theater from the March 8, 1919, issue of Chicago’s regional business magazine, The Economist:
“Architects Postle & Fischer, 140 South Dearborn street, have completed plans and are receiving bids on the general work for remodeling the former three-story Inter Ocean building, 69x190, Nos. 55 to 59 West Monroe street, into a thoroughly modern motion-picture theater for Harry C. Moir and Wm. S. Barbee. The entire rear portion will be wrecked, and the building reconstructed up from grade, with brick walls and reinforced concrete floor and roof. It will have a seating capacity of 1,000 persons, all on one floor. The design of the interior will be an adaptation of the Spanish renaissance style. The lobby, foyer and spectatorium will be finished in tile, twenty feet high, surmounted by ornamental plaster cornice and ceiling. Special attention has been paid to the color scheme and light effect, which will be unique. An air washing ventilation system and a costly pipe organ will be installed. The improvements are estimated to cost $115,000 to $125,000.”
A splendid night shot of the Pantages Theatre illustrates this article about vaudeville in Spokane, published by the Spokesman-Review in 2005.
This must be the Ishpeming Theatre that E. J. Butler was operating about a decade before he built the Butler Theatre. It was listed as a new house in the 1906 edition of Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide. The 1913 edition of the guide gave a breakdown of the seating arrangements: 403 seats in the orchestra, 176 in the balcony, 350 in the gallery, and 92 in the boxes. In 1916, an item in The Moving Picture World noted that Butler was showing Triangle comedies at the Ishpeming Theatre and Triangle dramas at the Butler Theatre.
The Ishpeming Theatre was remodeled in 1929 at the time sound equipment was installed. Both the Butler and Ishpeming Theatres are mentioned by various publications into the 1930s. Ed Butler died in 1937, and the Butler Theatre was taken over by Fox Midwest, and the Ishpeming Theatre was probably taken over by Fox as well, but I’ve been unable to find any specific references to it.
I can’t find the house mentioned in the trade publications after the 1930s, but the Ishpeming Theatre was apparently in operation at least as late as 1965, as E-Yearbooks has a copy of the local high school yearbook from 1965, and it contains a courtesy ad offering congratulations from the Butler and Ishpeming Theatres.
Historian Robert Archibald, a native of Ishpeming, in his 1999 book A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community, made reference to Ishpeming’s two downtown theaters, saying that one had closed and the other had been demolished for a parking lot. As the Butler Theatre is still standing, the Ishpeming Theatre has to be the one that had been demolished by 1999.
A small photo of the Gayety Theatre can be seen here, in the March 11, 1916, issue of the trade journal Electrical Review. The brief article was about the theater’s electric sign.
The photo actually shows the side entrance to the theater’s gallery, on Wyandotte Street. Its main entrance was around the corner on 12th Street, as seen in this postcard view from before the electric sign was installed.
Here is a photo dated 1945, after the theater had converted from burlesque to movies and the enormous electric sign had been removed.
The January 3, 1926, issue of The Film Daily carried a brief notice of the opening of this theater:
Jeffersonville Indiana, by Garry J. Nokes, says that the Le Rose Theatre was built in 1920. If the claim is correct, the item that appeared in the July 5, 1919, issue of The American Contractor was probably about the Le Rose:
The Le Rose is more than 90' deep, though, and has considerably more than 800 seats, and the entrance building is two stories, not one. It’s possible that Mr. Switlow decided to build it bigger, or it might have been expanded later.There are photos on the Internet of a few buildings designed by J. J. Gaffney, and the facade of the Le Rose does appear to be characteristic of his style (he seems to have been very fond of red and orange toned face brick set off with stone or cast stone trim.) But given the difference between the project described in the journal item and the Le Rose as it was built, maybe we should only put down James J. Gaffney as the possible architect of the Le Rose. Maybe someone with access to other sources can use this information as a starting point for further research.
Here is a 1928 photo of the auditorium of the Le Rose Theatre. It looks to me as though it might have had a section of stadium seating at the back. It was a very handsome interior, although the clerestory windows must have precluded movie matinees, unless there was some way of blacking them out.
The February 10, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World had the following item about the Ideal Theatre:
I’ve been unable to find any other references to an architect named S. P. Ostrander, so he must never have become well known.Here is a 1938 photo of the Ideal Theatre’s lobby.
Three photos of the Shaker Square Cinemas can be seen here, on the web site of Mesbur+Smith Architects, the Toronto firm responsible for the 1999 renovations.
The auditorium had been carved into five screens in 1983, and the original lobby had been destroyed by a fire at some point. When Cleveland Cinemas took control of the house in 1999, the earlier multiplexing was torn out and replaced with a new six-screen configuration with stadium seating, and John Eberson’s original Art Moderne lobby design was restored.
There are three color renderings of the Drexel Cinemas/Gateway Film Center on the web site of its designers, Mesbur+Smith Architects.
The historical marker for the Cascade Theatre is at 11-15 S. Mill Street, according to this web page. I don’t know if that means the theater was at that exact address or not, but as it was a very small house it might well have been located in a storefront on the side street.
Here is a 1948 photo of the Strand.
The September 9, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about a Strand Theatre in Athens, but I’m not sure it was the same house:
The Strand building in the various photos looks a bit too modern to have been operating in 1916, though it might have been remodeled again later, of course.The New Victoria Theatre was built and originally operated by Mitchell Mark, and was one of several Buffalo houses that he and his brother Moe Mark owned. Mark had opened Buffalo’s first movie theater in the basement of the Ellicott Square Building in 1896, and by the time the Victoria opened the Mark brothers were among the country’s leading movie exhibitors, counting among their houses the Strand Theatre in New York City, considered by some theater historians the first true movie palace ever built. A brief article about Mitchell Mark in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World mentions the Victoria:
Here is a direct link to the PDF file with a photo of the Victoria mentioned in LouB’s comment.The July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World published an article about the Aristo Theatre. It gives a detailed description of the house and is accompanied by two small photos of the building. It says that the Aristo opened in the latter part of April, 1916.
Scan at Google Books.
Here is an item from the August 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which might be about this theater under one of its early names:
The building at 5139 Penn Avenue is obviously very old, so if this was the correct address of the Arcana Theatre I don’t think it has been demolished. It’s a very small building, though, and not what I would call a "medium sized house” as the MPW article called the Evaline Theatre, but perhaps the standards were different in 1916 Pittsburgh.I’m wondering if Victoria Theatre was just another aka for the Arcana Theatre, at 5139 Penn Avenue? The address 5139 Penn exists, but the building next door to it (the white building in Street View) has the address 5145, which can be read if you zoom in. It seems possible that the address might have shifted, as there is a spread of five possible numbers for the two structures. This seems more likely than that there would have been two small theaters next door to each other.
In any case, both buildings are obviously very old, so I don’t think either the Arcana or the Victoria (assuming it even was a separate theater) has been demolished.
For anyone coming across my earlier comment, Boxoffice decided not to limit access to its archives to subscribers only after all. Anyone can see the scans of nearly 3000 back issues at The Vault.
The name Fischer is currently misspelled in the architect field.
John B. Fischer was for a time the chief designer of the Chicago office of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, the Boston firm that succeeded the practice of Henry Hobson Richardson. Fisher continued to practice architecture in Chicago after the firm of Postle & Fischer was dissolved in 1920 or 1921.
According to an item in the August 10, 1921, issue of Engineering and Contracting, architect David E. Postle had recently moved to Los Angeles. He practiced architecture in Southern California for several more years, mostly in partnership with his son George R. Postle. They were especially active in the Glendale and Pasadena areas.
As the original facade of the Inter-Ocean Building was retained in the rebuilding, i’s original architect should also be credited. This blog post about the building (which includes two nice photos) gives his name as W. Carbys Zimmerman.
For some reason, Broan’s link in the previous comment now fetches a photo of the interior of the Juneau Theatre in Milwaukee. Here is a link that should get the photo of the National.
Here is an item about this theater from the March 4, 1922, issue of The Economist, a regional weekly business magazine published in Chicago:
Thanks to RonP for uploading the current photos of the Valley Theatre’s building. The brickwork on the back wall is certainly characteristic of the 1920s rather than the 1930s, providing more evidence that this is probably the original structure from 1923.
The page still needs to be updated with the building’s modern address, 10818 Valley Mall, to note that it has not been demolished, and to credit Walker & Eisen as the architects.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown says that he was the partner of George Budde in the opening of the Alcazar Theatre. Brown sold his interest in the project to Budde after about eight months, and then built the Fulton Theatre. In 1916, he opened the Stocking Avenue Theatre. The biography doesn’t give dates for the opening of the Alcazar or the Fulton, but as Brown operated the Fulton for four years, the Alcazar could have been opened as early as 1911, and was probably in operation within a year or two of that at most.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown says that he opened the Fulton Theatre. Earlier, he had been one of the original partners in the Alcazar Theatre, and later, in 1916, he opened the Stocking Avenue Theatre.
It says he operated the Fulton Theatre for four years before selling it, and devoted his attentions to operating the Stocking Avenue Theatre, so the earliest the Fulton Theatre would have opened was probably 1912, but it was certainly in operation before 1916.
CinemaTour gives the Fulton Theatre the AKA Fulton Vaudette. Vaudette was a popular name for theaters in Grand Rapids during the 1910s, and several houses are listed as Vaudettes in city directories of the period.
A brief biography of Edward N. Brown,original owner of Brown’s Stocking Avenue Theatre, says that he built the house in 1916. Earlier, he had been one of the original partners in the Alcazar Theatre, and had then opened the Fulton Theatre.
Volume 2 of a book in Arcadia Publishing Company’s “Images of America” series, Fostoria, Ohio, by Paul H. Krupp, says that the State Theatre was once known as the Colonial Theatre.
The August 9, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that additions and alterations were being made to the Colonial Theatre at Fostoria, with plans by Columbus architect Fred W. Elliot.
The Michigan Theatre was apparently a bit older than the author of the 1938 Boxoffice article I cited earlier thought. Here is an item from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The 1938 photo of the Vogue in Boxoffice has been moved to this link.Here is an item about this theater from the March 8, 1919, issue of Chicago’s regional business magazine, The Economist:
Here is a slightly better view of the Trio Theatre, though its still partly hidden by the Blodgett Hotel’s entrance portico.