An interesting item from the March 4, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World says: “Woodstock, Ill.-J. C. Miller, owner of the Princess theater at Woodstock, will open about March 1 his new theater north of his present location, using it about three nights a week for the overflow crowds from the Princess”
This annex was most likely the house called the Strand Theatre. The April 15 issue of MPW said “Woodstock, Ill.-J. C. Miller of the Princess and Strand theaters has booked ‘The Battle Cry of Peace’ for April 30 and May 1.”
The Princess and the Municipal Opera House are the only theaters listed at Woodstock in the 1926 FDY, so the Strand was probably closed by then.
The State Theatre at Statesboro, owned by H. H. Macon, was one of 22 Georgia theater projects either under construction or recently opened that were listed in an article in Film Daily of October 13, 1936.
The Bremen Theatre was rebuilt in 1936. It was one of 22 Georgia theater projects either under construction or recently opened that were listed in an article in Film Daily of October 13. The owner was named Mike Ellis.
An article in Film Daily o October 13, 1936 listed 200 theater projects either under construction or recently opened in Georgia. The Jewel at Gordon, owned by D. P. Lee, was one of them.
The Metro Theatre at Mount Vernon was one of 22 Georgia theater projects either under construction or recently opened that were listed in an article in Film Daily of October 13, 1936. It was owned by a Mrs. Liggett.
The theater opened in 1911 as the Lyric Theatre. Financial difficulties led to its closure in less than a year. A new owner reopened the theater as the Grand Opera House. It operated under that name until 1927, when it was renamed Grand Theatre.
The original Grand burned on September 4, 1935, leaving only one corner of the structure intact. This corner was incorporated into the new Grand Theatre, which opened on February 17, 1936 with the feature film “The Widow from Monte Carlo” with Louise Fezenda, Warren William and Dolores Del Rio.
The Grand closed on June 14, 1978 and sat vacant until restoration began in 1986. 35mm film projection equipment was reinstalled in 1996, for a film festival commemorating the town’s centennial. Regular movie exhibition resumed in 2004, though only with special events one weekend a month until the Carmike Capri Twin closed in 2005, at which time first run films returned to the Grand. Digital projection equipment was installed in 2015.
The Royal Theatre was built in 1936. It was one of 22 theater projects either underway or recently opened that were noted in the October 13 issue of Film Daily. George Benton was the original owner of the theater building.
The Franklin was one of 22 theater projects either recently completed or under construction in Georgia, listed in an article in the October 13, 1936 issue of Film Daily. L. J. Duncan was the owner.
The Emily Theatre at Hartwell was listed as one of 22 Georgia theater projects either recently completed or under construction, in an article in the October 13, 1936 issue of Film Daily. W. T. Yarbrough was named as the owner of the house.
The October 13, 1936 issue of Film Daily ran an article that listed 22 theater projects either recently completed or underway in Georgia. A project was listed at Fort Gaines, but it was called the Ritz. The owner of the house was Ellison Dunn. The April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture News also mentions Mr Dunn:
“ G. M. Coleman has sold the Lyric, which he operated in Fort Gaines, Ga., for 20 years, to Ellison Dunn, who will rebuild it, and rename it the Ritz.”
So where did the name Walker come from? The 1964 obituary of Mrs. A. E. Walker, the former Bessie Dunn, gives this clue: “Mrs. Walker moved to Fort Gaines from Blakey in 1936 and became owner and operator of the Walker Theatre, Ft. Gaines and the Archie Theatre, Abbeville Ala., members of the Dunn family theatre chain.”
The 1926 FDY lists the Lyric Theatre at Fort Gaines with 300 seats. The MPN article doesn’t say that Mr. Dunne’s rebuild of the Lyric was a complete teardown, and as the Walker was the same size it seems likely that the house was just gutted, at most, and given a new front.
Numerous items in trade journals starting in the mid-1930s indicate that the Palace at Athens was then a Lucas & Jenkins house. A July 13, 1935 Motion Picture Herald item noted that Paramount partners L&J had just taken over two houses at Athens. The item didn’t give the names of the theaters, but the Palace was likely one of them. Lucas and Jenkins didn’t enter the theater business until 1934, when they took control of the Atlanta Fox.
An article in the October 13, 1936 issue of Film Daily listed 22 theaters either recently opened or under construction in Georgia, and the Georgia Theatre at Athens was among them. It was opened by Lucas & Jenkins, who already had the Palace Theatre in Athens. The article didn’t specify which houses had already opened, so the Georgia might not have opened until early 1937.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the 700 seat Fain Theater under construction for Frank Fain at Livingston, Texas, had been designed by architect Jack Corgan.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice had an article about theater projects underway that were designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. It said that Smith had prepared the plans for a new house in Lewisville for local exhibitor Andy Sisk. It seems likely that Sisk would have stuck to Smith’s original plans, however long it took to execute them.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice had an article about theater projects underway that were designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. One project was an extensive renovation and expansion of the Select Theatre at Mineola, for owner Robert Hooks.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice had an article about theater projects underway that were designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. On project recently begun was a house at Stanton for R. B. Whitaker. It was probably the Texas.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice had an article about theater projects underway that were designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. One of them was an unnamed theater for W. J. Wooten at Canyon. It must have been the Varsity. The target date for opening was September 1.
A 1948 construction date means that this must be the Springhill house noted in the May 8 issue of Boxoffice that year. It was originally to be called the Orleans Theatre, and was built for B. R. McLendon’s Tri-States Theatres. It was designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. The item, which mentioned several theater projects that were then at various stages of planning or construction, said that the Orleans had “just started.” I’ve been unable to discover if it opened under the name originally announced or as the Spring.
According to the Friday, January 23, 1948 issue of the Mt. Adams Sun, the Canyon Theatre in Bingen would open that night. The opening feature would be “Down to Earth” with Rita Hayworth and Larry Parks. The Canyon was still advertising in the paper in December, 1966, but appears to have closed soon after.
Did this house later become the Roxy? This item appears in Showmen’s Trade Review of Octobe 19, 1946: “The name of the Roxy, Indianola, Neb., has been changed to the Ray by R. H. Phillips.”
Although it is not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, which misses Waitsburg completely, the Empire Theatre was open in 1914. In March of that year, manager Al. C. Stewart bought a Victor player piano from the Seattle branch of the Bush & Lane Piano Company. In July, 1922, Mr. Stewart sent a letter to the company, on an Empire Theatre letterhead, praising the durability of the instrument, which he was retiring after eight years, during which time it had been “…played in this theater three and half hours a night, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, under the hardest and most trying conditions.”
The April 11, 1914 issue of Moving Picture World mentions “A. C. Stewart, late of Rossland, B. C, now proprietor of the Empire Theater, Waitsburg, Washington….” If Mr. Stewart was the original proprietor of the Empire, it would have opened right around that time. This item is the earliest mention of a theater in Waitsburg I’ve found in the trade journals.
The December 6, 1924 issue of Exhibitor’s Trade Review has an item saying that “[m]any very important improvements are being made on the Empress Theatre, Waitsburg, Wash. Will reopen in a few weeks.” The name “Empress” was probably a mistake, and the item was actually about the Empire. The Empire is still listed, with 250 seats, in the 1926 FDY, and no other theaters are listed at Waitsburg that year.
This LandmarkHunter page says that the Neace Theatre opened on February 2, 1928, and was designed by Walla Walla architect Victor Siebert. I haven’t been able to find period sources confirming these claims, but they seem quite likely to be true.
I think we can mark the Plaza as open, though just barely. It has been presenting occasional live events (and a couple of movies) over the last few months. I can’t find a regular web site, but they do have this Facebook page, the earliest post on it being from August 14, 2021 (it was about the theater’s first anniversary in 1929.) The first public event was a free movie showing on November 19. They called it a soft opening. If there are plans for a formal reopening event, they haven’t been announced yet. Renovations appear to be ongoing, though the page doesn’t say anything about them that I can find.
There were two houses called the Cameo Theatre in White Salmon. The second is a bit easier easier to trace, though I haven’t found an address for it. The March 10, 1951 issue of Boxoffice said that Larry Bristol was aiming for a May 1 opening for his Cameo Theatre in White Salmon. A March 31 item in the same journal said that the Cameo was a new house, seating 350, and was being outfitted by the B. F. Shearer Co. of Seattle. I haven’t found out how long it operated, but it was fitted for CinemaScope in 1955. In 1982 it was in use by a little theater group called the Cameo Players.
The first Cameo is a bit puzzling. It first appears in the 1937 FDY, with 247 seats. Prior to that, when White Salmon is listed in the FDY at all, it is with a 200-seat house called the Leo, a 200-seat house called the Wauna, or a house called the Dewey, with no capacity listed. The Dewey is mentioned frequently in trade journals in the mid-1920s, but doesn’t show up in the FDY until 1931 and 1932, and then never again. And yet modern documents from the city itself mention the Dewey Theatre Building, at 121 N. Main Avenue, so it is clearly remembered by that name. I thought Dewey might have been an aka for the first Cameo, but it turns out not to have been.
There is this line from a February 21, 1941 article in The Enterprise, the local newspaper: “The Cameo Theatre now occupies the site which will be remembered as the one called the Alpha Opera House, as seen in the pictures of the town taken in earlier days. It has been run by Mr. Percy since 1935.”
Then there is this photo from 1949, and I’m pretty sure a building up the block on the left has a marquee with the name Cameo over it, though it’s hard to make out. I believe that this building, which would have been at approximately 113-115 E. Jewett Boulevard, has been demolished within the last ten years. It shows up in Google street views from 2012, but not in those from 2018.
One puzzle is, were Leo Theatre and Wuana Theatre aka’s for the first Cameo, or were they aka’s for the Dewey, or was there a third theater somewhere in White Salmon? Even if the building actually started out as a theater (Alpha Opera House) it’s not impossible that it would be used for other purposes for decades and then return to theatrical use in 1935, when Mr. Percy began running the Cameo, but it could quite easily have housed the Leo and the Wuana as well. No editions of the FDY list more than one theater in operation at White Salmon at a given time.
The other puzzle of course is where was the second Cameo? I don’t see any buildings in Google street views that look like a theater from the early 1950s, and the town’s planning documents available on the Internet never mention it.
50sSNIPES is correct. The Orpheum sign was still on the building in the mid-1950s, and a photo from that time was published in Boxoffice of June 2, 1958. Though the theater was advertised as the Fox Orpheum in the 1930s, the Fox Wisconsin circuit only leased the house from 1933 to 1943, after which it was independently operated as the Orpheum Theatre by Victor McCormick until he leased it to Marcus Theatres in 1956.
An interesting item from the March 4, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World says: “Woodstock, Ill.-J. C. Miller, owner of the Princess theater at Woodstock, will open about March 1 his new theater north of his present location, using it about three nights a week for the overflow crowds from the Princess”
This annex was most likely the house called the Strand Theatre. The April 15 issue of MPW said “Woodstock, Ill.-J. C. Miller of the Princess and Strand theaters has booked ‘The Battle Cry of Peace’ for April 30 and May 1.”
The Princess and the Municipal Opera House are the only theaters listed at Woodstock in the 1926 FDY, so the Strand was probably closed by then.
The State Theatre at Statesboro, owned by H. H. Macon, was one of 22 Georgia theater projects either under construction or recently opened that were listed in an article in Film Daily of October 13, 1936.
The Bremen Theatre was rebuilt in 1936. It was one of 22 Georgia theater projects either under construction or recently opened that were listed in an article in Film Daily of October 13. The owner was named Mike Ellis.
An article in Film Daily o October 13, 1936 listed 200 theater projects either under construction or recently opened in Georgia. The Jewel at Gordon, owned by D. P. Lee, was one of them.
Mrs. Violet Edwards had the Dixie Theatre built at Wrens in 1936, according to an article in Film Daily of October 13 that year
The Metro Theatre at Mount Vernon was one of 22 Georgia theater projects either under construction or recently opened that were listed in an article in Film Daily of October 13, 1936. It was owned by a Mrs. Liggett.
Corrected web site
Corrected history
The theater opened in 1911 as the Lyric Theatre. Financial difficulties led to its closure in less than a year. A new owner reopened the theater as the Grand Opera House. It operated under that name until 1927, when it was renamed Grand Theatre.
The original Grand burned on September 4, 1935, leaving only one corner of the structure intact. This corner was incorporated into the new Grand Theatre, which opened on February 17, 1936 with the feature film “The Widow from Monte Carlo” with Louise Fezenda, Warren William and Dolores Del Rio.
The Grand closed on June 14, 1978 and sat vacant until restoration began in 1986. 35mm film projection equipment was reinstalled in 1996, for a film festival commemorating the town’s centennial. Regular movie exhibition resumed in 2004, though only with special events one weekend a month until the Carmike Capri Twin closed in 2005, at which time first run films returned to the Grand. Digital projection equipment was installed in 2015.
The Royal Theatre was built in 1936. It was one of 22 theater projects either underway or recently opened that were noted in the October 13 issue of Film Daily. George Benton was the original owner of the theater building.
The Franklin was one of 22 theater projects either recently completed or under construction in Georgia, listed in an article in the October 13, 1936 issue of Film Daily. L. J. Duncan was the owner.
The Emily Theatre at Hartwell was listed as one of 22 Georgia theater projects either recently completed or under construction, in an article in the October 13, 1936 issue of Film Daily. W. T. Yarbrough was named as the owner of the house.
The October 13, 1936 issue of Film Daily ran an article that listed 22 theater projects either recently completed or underway in Georgia. A project was listed at Fort Gaines, but it was called the Ritz. The owner of the house was Ellison Dunn. The April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture News also mentions Mr Dunn:
So where did the name Walker come from? The 1964 obituary of Mrs. A. E. Walker, the former Bessie Dunn, gives this clue: “Mrs. Walker moved to Fort Gaines from Blakey in 1936 and became owner and operator of the Walker Theatre, Ft. Gaines and the Archie Theatre, Abbeville Ala., members of the Dunn family theatre chain.”The 1926 FDY lists the Lyric Theatre at Fort Gaines with 300 seats. The MPN article doesn’t say that Mr. Dunne’s rebuild of the Lyric was a complete teardown, and as the Walker was the same size it seems likely that the house was just gutted, at most, and given a new front.
Numerous items in trade journals starting in the mid-1930s indicate that the Palace at Athens was then a Lucas & Jenkins house. A July 13, 1935 Motion Picture Herald item noted that Paramount partners L&J had just taken over two houses at Athens. The item didn’t give the names of the theaters, but the Palace was likely one of them. Lucas and Jenkins didn’t enter the theater business until 1934, when they took control of the Atlanta Fox.
An article in the October 13, 1936 issue of Film Daily listed 22 theaters either recently opened or under construction in Georgia, and the Georgia Theatre at Athens was among them. It was opened by Lucas & Jenkins, who already had the Palace Theatre in Athens. The article didn’t specify which houses had already opened, so the Georgia might not have opened until early 1937.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the 700 seat Fain Theater under construction for Frank Fain at Livingston, Texas, had been designed by architect Jack Corgan.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice had an article about theater projects underway that were designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. It said that Smith had prepared the plans for a new house in Lewisville for local exhibitor Andy Sisk. It seems likely that Sisk would have stuck to Smith’s original plans, however long it took to execute them.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice had an article about theater projects underway that were designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. One project was an extensive renovation and expansion of the Select Theatre at Mineola, for owner Robert Hooks.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice had an article about theater projects underway that were designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. On project recently begun was a house at Stanton for R. B. Whitaker. It was probably the Texas.
The May 8, 1948 issue of Boxoffice had an article about theater projects underway that were designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. One of them was an unnamed theater for W. J. Wooten at Canyon. It must have been the Varsity. The target date for opening was September 1.
A 1948 construction date means that this must be the Springhill house noted in the May 8 issue of Boxoffice that year. It was originally to be called the Orleans Theatre, and was built for B. R. McLendon’s Tri-States Theatres. It was designed by Dallas architect Raymond F. Smith. The item, which mentioned several theater projects that were then at various stages of planning or construction, said that the Orleans had “just started.” I’ve been unable to discover if it opened under the name originally announced or as the Spring.
According to the Friday, January 23, 1948 issue of the Mt. Adams Sun, the Canyon Theatre in Bingen would open that night. The opening feature would be “Down to Earth” with Rita Hayworth and Larry Parks. The Canyon was still advertising in the paper in December, 1966, but appears to have closed soon after.
Did this house later become the Roxy? This item appears in Showmen’s Trade Review of Octobe 19, 1946: “The name of the Roxy, Indianola, Neb., has been changed to the Ray by R. H. Phillips.”
Although it is not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, which misses Waitsburg completely, the Empire Theatre was open in 1914. In March of that year, manager Al. C. Stewart bought a Victor player piano from the Seattle branch of the Bush & Lane Piano Company. In July, 1922, Mr. Stewart sent a letter to the company, on an Empire Theatre letterhead, praising the durability of the instrument, which he was retiring after eight years, during which time it had been “…played in this theater three and half hours a night, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, under the hardest and most trying conditions.”
The April 11, 1914 issue of Moving Picture World mentions “A. C. Stewart, late of Rossland, B. C, now proprietor of the Empire Theater, Waitsburg, Washington….” If Mr. Stewart was the original proprietor of the Empire, it would have opened right around that time. This item is the earliest mention of a theater in Waitsburg I’ve found in the trade journals.
The December 6, 1924 issue of Exhibitor’s Trade Review has an item saying that “[m]any very important improvements are being made on the Empress Theatre, Waitsburg, Wash. Will reopen in a few weeks.” The name “Empress” was probably a mistake, and the item was actually about the Empire. The Empire is still listed, with 250 seats, in the 1926 FDY, and no other theaters are listed at Waitsburg that year.
This LandmarkHunter page says that the Neace Theatre opened on February 2, 1928, and was designed by Walla Walla architect Victor Siebert. I haven’t been able to find period sources confirming these claims, but they seem quite likely to be true.
I think we can mark the Plaza as open, though just barely. It has been presenting occasional live events (and a couple of movies) over the last few months. I can’t find a regular web site, but they do have this Facebook page, the earliest post on it being from August 14, 2021 (it was about the theater’s first anniversary in 1929.) The first public event was a free movie showing on November 19. They called it a soft opening. If there are plans for a formal reopening event, they haven’t been announced yet. Renovations appear to be ongoing, though the page doesn’t say anything about them that I can find.
There were two houses called the Cameo Theatre in White Salmon. The second is a bit easier easier to trace, though I haven’t found an address for it. The March 10, 1951 issue of Boxoffice said that Larry Bristol was aiming for a May 1 opening for his Cameo Theatre in White Salmon. A March 31 item in the same journal said that the Cameo was a new house, seating 350, and was being outfitted by the B. F. Shearer Co. of Seattle. I haven’t found out how long it operated, but it was fitted for CinemaScope in 1955. In 1982 it was in use by a little theater group called the Cameo Players.
The first Cameo is a bit puzzling. It first appears in the 1937 FDY, with 247 seats. Prior to that, when White Salmon is listed in the FDY at all, it is with a 200-seat house called the Leo, a 200-seat house called the Wauna, or a house called the Dewey, with no capacity listed. The Dewey is mentioned frequently in trade journals in the mid-1920s, but doesn’t show up in the FDY until 1931 and 1932, and then never again. And yet modern documents from the city itself mention the Dewey Theatre Building, at 121 N. Main Avenue, so it is clearly remembered by that name. I thought Dewey might have been an aka for the first Cameo, but it turns out not to have been.
There is this line from a February 21, 1941 article in The Enterprise, the local newspaper: “The Cameo Theatre now occupies the site which will be remembered as the one called the Alpha Opera House, as seen in the pictures of the town taken in earlier days. It has been run by Mr. Percy since 1935.”
Then there is this photo from 1949, and I’m pretty sure a building up the block on the left has a marquee with the name Cameo over it, though it’s hard to make out. I believe that this building, which would have been at approximately 113-115 E. Jewett Boulevard, has been demolished within the last ten years. It shows up in Google street views from 2012, but not in those from 2018.
One puzzle is, were Leo Theatre and Wuana Theatre aka’s for the first Cameo, or were they aka’s for the Dewey, or was there a third theater somewhere in White Salmon? Even if the building actually started out as a theater (Alpha Opera House) it’s not impossible that it would be used for other purposes for decades and then return to theatrical use in 1935, when Mr. Percy began running the Cameo, but it could quite easily have housed the Leo and the Wuana as well. No editions of the FDY list more than one theater in operation at White Salmon at a given time.
The other puzzle of course is where was the second Cameo? I don’t see any buildings in Google street views that look like a theater from the early 1950s, and the town’s planning documents available on the Internet never mention it.
50sSNIPES is correct. The Orpheum sign was still on the building in the mid-1950s, and a photo from that time was published in Boxoffice of June 2, 1958. Though the theater was advertised as the Fox Orpheum in the 1930s, the Fox Wisconsin circuit only leased the house from 1933 to 1943, after which it was independently operated as the Orpheum Theatre by Victor McCormick until he leased it to Marcus Theatres in 1956.