Boxoffice of February 23, 1957, said that the renovated Valentine Theatre had reopened as the Towne Theatre. It was being operated by Irving Reinhart when mentioned in Boxoffice of April 18, 1960, the last mention I’ve found of it in that publication.
Boxoffice of December 7, 1964, said that Stanley Warner Theatres had been given permission by a Federal judge to build a new theater in the McKinley Plaza shopping center at Canton, provided the circuit gave up the lease on their Ohio Theatre in downtown Canton. The Ohio had been a Warner house since the mid-1930s.
This theater opened as a first-run, single-screen house, as reported in Boxoffice of September 27, 1965. It had 1,182 seats, 831 on the mainfloor and 351 in the balcony. The screen was 25x60 feet. The McKinley Theatre was designed by architect Drew Eberson.
The Variety Theatre at Cleveland was opened by the well-established regional circuit, the Variety Amusement Company. On opening it became the company’s largest and most lavishly appointed theater. A 1927 issue of the Auburn, NY, Citizen ran an article about the Cleveland Variety’s new resident manager, Edward J. Wise, who had previously been manager of the palace Theatre in Auburn.
I’m not sure when Warner took over operation of the Variety (though it was certainly by 1938, when it was mentioned in the March 19 issue of Boxoffice), but I know that they took over another Variety Amusement Co. house, the Alhambra Theatre at Canton, Ohio, in the mid-1930s. It’s difficult to find information about the company, which is seldom mentioned in Boxoffice in later years, and then usually in the magazine’s “Twenty Years Ago” features. It appears to have gone into decline during the depression years.
The Variety Amusement Company is mentioned in connection with several Ohio theaters in Mike Rivest’s list of Cleveland theaters. The web site of the Lorain Palace Civic Center says that the company “…operated many theaters, primarily in Pennsylvania and Ohio, with 16 others in Northern Ohio alone.”
The Mozart Theatre was closed in 1954 and demolished the following year to make way for a parking lot, according to Boxoffice of November 5, 1955. It was last operated by Jerry and Irving Reinhart, sons of Harry Reinhart, who had taken over the house in 1931.
The designated landmark list of the Cleveland City Planning Commission gives a 1927 construction date for the La Salle Theatre, and names the architect as Nicola Petti, who also designed the Variety Theatre, opened the same year.
This theater is mentioned in Boxoffice dozens of times from early 1963 until 1976, and is almost invariably called the Windsor Cinerama Theatre, even long after it was no longer showing Cinerama films. Windsor Cinerama Theatre should be listed as an aka.
The last mention I find of the McKinley Theatre in Boxoffice is in an item about the hospitalization of Jerry Reinhart who, the item said, had “until lately” been owner of the Mozart and McKinley theaters. This appeared in the issue of February 18, 1956. The McKinley had apparently been closed the previous year, along with the Mozart.
Jerry Reinhart’s father, Harry Reinhart, had died in 1946, and his death notice in Boxoffice of September 28 that year said that he had bought the McKinley Theatre about 20 years before, so it had to have been in operation by the mid-1920s.
A later McKinley Theatre opened at a different location in Canton about 1965, and was originally a Stanley Warner house.
This house opened as the Parkway Twin in early 1973. It was located on the former site of the Parkway Bowl, according to Boxoffice of February 5 that year. The original configuration was one auditorium seating 242 and a second auditorium seating 484. Boxoffice gave the address as 1280 Fletcher Parkway.
Boxoffice of October 2, 1937, reported that the new Frederic Theatre had recently opened. It replaced a theater of the same name that had been destroyed by fire in March. The operator of the Frederic, Ralph “Clint” Norine, continued to operate the theater into the 1970s. His death was reported in Boxoffice of February 19, 1979. The death notice didn’t say that the theater had closed. It had still been open when mentioned in Boxoffice of April 17, 1972. It isn’t mentioned after 1979.
A second theater at Frederic, the Milltown, was opened in 1947, but soon closed. Boxoffice of October 16, 1954, reported that the Milltown Theatre building had been sold and would be converted to other uses. The theater had been dismantled some time before, according to a Boxoffice item of September 11, 1954.
Boxoffice of September 27, 1941, said the new Sunrise Theatre at Southern Pines had been opened the previous week. This item says the first operator of the house was W. P. Benner, who had theaters at Carthage and Hemp. Everett and Stewart are first mentioned in connection with the Sunrise in Boxoffice of December 2, 1944, in an item saying they would take over the house on Decmeber 3.
The Carolina Theatre was long operated by Charles Picquet. A March 10, 1956 Boxoffice item about his 72nd birthday said that he had gone “…to Pinehurst to operate a theatre there and at Southern Pines in the early twenties.” He had become head of the Theatre Owners of North and South Carolina as early as 1923, so there must have been a theater in operation at Southern Pines by that year.
The article doesn’t mention names for the theaters he was operating in the early 1920s, but the Pinehurst and Southern Pines houses he ran in later years were both called the Carolina Theatre. Cinema Treasures doesn’t currently list any theaters at Pinehurst.
This theater was originally called simply the Squire Theatre, though a facade sign read “Shellmel’s Squire Theatre.” Boxoffice of October 11, 1965, said the Squire was scheduled to open on October 13. It was Fresno’s first new theater in 20 years, Boxoffice said. They must have meant indoor theater. I’m pretty sure drive-ins had been built in Fresno during that period.
By 1968 it had been renamed the Country Squire Theatre, and was being operated by Trans-Beacon Theatres, according to Boxoffice of February 19. Simon Korenbrot was noted as owner and builder of the theater in the 1965 item, and in the 1968 item William Korenbrot was mentioned as head of Trans-Beacon.
A photo of the Squire was featured as the frontispiece of the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice, December 13, 1965.
An 868-seat single-screen house called the Merritt Theatre was in operation at Merritt Island by late 1965. Here’s an article about it in Boxoffice of December 13 that year. There are two photos, but both are interior shots. Does anybody from the area remember this theater, or know how long it survived? I can’t find it mentioned in Boxoffice after 1967. I’m just wondering if this building might have been incorporated into the AMC project.
The earliest mention I can find of an AMC multiplex at Merritt Island is in Boxoffice of October 19, 1970, which mentioned the project briefly, though a September 15, 1969, item had said that a six-screen “American Royal Cinema complex” was being developed by the Alpert Investment Corp. of Jacksonville at the Merritt Island Shopping Center. The recent opening of the AMC six-plex was announced in Boxoffice of November 16, 1970.
Fox West Coast gave up the United Artists in Pasadena in 1950 as part of the consent decree. Boxoffice of February 2 that year listed twelve FWC houses in California that had gone to UA, finally severing the relationship that had existed between the two chains. The other eleven houses were: State and United Artists, Los Angeles; Capitol and California, Glendale; United Artists in Inglewood, Long Beach, and Berkeley; Long Beach in Long Beach; Mission, San Jose; Varsity, Palo Alto, and California, Richmond.
FWC was operating the Pasadena UA at least as early as 1937, according to items I’ve seen in Boxoffice, but I’m pretty sure it was a UA-operated house from 1950 until it closed. I also recall the Washington Theatre in Pasadena being a UA house in the 1960s.
The description currently says that this theater originally presented movies and vaudeville, but I remember the building quite well and it had no stage house. Despite its fairly lavish proscenium, I don’t think the stage was very deep, and it certainly had no fly tower. The theater was built as a movie house, and its minimal stage facilities could have accommodated only the simplest live events.
However, there is enough room at the back of the lot that a proper stage house could be added on to the building, should anyone with very deep pockets want to convert the place into a regular live theater— though in a town that was unable to save the Raymond Theatre, which already had a generous stage, I don’t know who would want to make such a commitment to the old Egyptian.
Here is an article about the reopening of the Melba as the Capri in Boxoffice of May 9, 1960. There are two small photos. This article doesn’t give the date the house had reopened, but an April 18 Boxoffice item had said that the conversion had taken place that winter, and that as part of the project the Capri had been equipped for 70mm projection.
The Melba had ended its four-year run as a Cinerama house in 1958, when Tans-Texas Theatres renovated and reopened it as a first-run house. Boxoffice of June 8 that year said the first feature shown was William Castle’s “Macabre.”
The Astro Theatre was expected to be completed in time for a Thanksgiving Day opening in 1967, according to Boxoffice of August 28 that year. The 700-seat, single-screen theater would feature D-150 projection, and was being erected at a cost of $350,000. The architect of the Astro Theatre was Joe W. Hiller.
Ground was broken for the Cargill Theatre on August 7, 1967, according to an article in Boxoffice of August 28. Developer Robert Cargill had arranged to lease the theater to Jefferson Amusement company’s subsidiary, East Texas Theatres. (Though opened by East Texas Theatres in May, 1968, by 1969 it was being operated by Gulf States Theatres.)
The single-screen house would seat 1,368, (a 1968 Boxoffice item gives the capacity as 1,260) all on one level. The Cargill would have the largest screen in East Texas, 92 feet wide and 32 feet 6 inches high, and would be equipped with 70mm projection.
The theater was designed by the Longview architectural firm Allen & Quinn, with Leon C. Kyburz as consulting architect.
Boxoffice of February 25, 1974, said that the Cargill Theatre was being converted into a triplex. There would be a central auditorium seating 450, and a 300-seat auditorium on each side.
All Gulf States Theatres operations in Texas were taken over by Martin Theatre of Texas on December 21, 1975, according to an item in Boxoffice of January 19, 1976. I found the Cargill mentioned once more in Boxoffice, later in 1976, and after that, nothing. Is it possible that Martin changed the name of the theater? If they did, I’ve been unable to discover what it became, or what became of it.
The Binghamton Theatre was renamed the Capri Theatre in 1960. Boxoffice of June 20 reported that Comerford Theatres had held an invitational premier on June 8, and the remodeled house had opened to the public the following night. The renovation had included reseating the auditorium, reducing its capacity from about 1,800 to about 1,200.
An item in Boxoffice of June 20, 1960, announced the reopening of this theater which had been closed for eight years. The item calls it the East Main Street Theatre, but I think the writer must have mistaken the location for the name. The house had been closed by the Board of health in 1952 following a series of fires. It was updated with new wiring, wide screen, and rebuilt seats by the new operator, Bertil J. Carlson.
Boxoffice gave the seating capacity in 1960 as 296, so I’m wondering how they’ve managed to not only twin it but increase seating to 380. From the photos it’s apparent that the building has not been expanded. Did they add an auditorium in the basement?
I thought the story vaguely sounded familiar as I was writing my previous comment, so I double checked and, sure enough, this theater is already listed at Cinema Treasures under its final name, the Mexico, and I’d already posted lots of information about it on that page last year.
Thanks for the tipoff with the aka’s, Bob. I probably wouldn’t have realized the duplication existed if I hadn’t seen them.
The Coronet was set to open on December 28, said Boxoffice of December 18, 1948. Alfred Sack, new operator of the remodeled theater, intended to show foreign language and art films with a top admission of sixty cents. The item didn’t say if the Coronet had been renamed, only that it had been remodeled.
A December 24, 1953, Boxoffice item said that Sack had opened the Coronet “…in an abandoned and four-times closed small and unsuccessful neighborhood film house.”
This house was the Encore after it was the Lucas. The earliest mention of the Lucas I’ve found in Boxoffice is in the classified section of the issue of August 17, 1946. The ad was placed by someone whose name appears to be Rey Lampkin (the scan is very blurry) who said that he had just sold the Lucas Theatre in Dallas and was looking to buy another theater, preferably in north Texas.
L. R. Robertson was apparently the buyer of the Lucas, as either L. R. Robertson or Mrs. L. R. Robertson are mentioned as operators of the Lucas in Boxoffice items in 1947 and 1948.
Then in 1949, the October 1 issue of Boxoffice reported that the Lucas Theatre had been sold to Alfred and Lester Sack. The October 22 issue said that the Lucas Theatre would close for remodeling, and would reopen as the Encore in November with a revival policy.
The most interesting item about the theater appears in Boxoffice of November 26, 1949, which said that the Sack brothers' Encore Theatre had opened on Thanksgiving Day, with Mrs. Ethel Garland, Judy Garland’s mother, as manager (the former Mrs. Gumm had apparently married her daughter’s career and taken its name.)
Perhaps Mrs. Garland was not a good manager, as Boxoffice of May 13, 1950, said that G. L. and J. W. Griffin had bought the Encore Theatre from Alfred Sack. I’ve been unable to trace the history of the theater beyond that. Perhaps the name was changed again and that’s why I can’t find any more mentions of it in Boxoffice.
Though not identified as the Kansas City Apollo, a few small photos of this house appeared in an ad for Viragon germicidal equipment that was published in Boxoffice of August 17, 1946. There is a photo of the facade before its modern remodeling, and a rare interior photo showing a section of seating in the balcony. Viragon was a Kansas City based company.
Boxoffice of February 23, 1957, said that the renovated Valentine Theatre had reopened as the Towne Theatre. It was being operated by Irving Reinhart when mentioned in Boxoffice of April 18, 1960, the last mention I’ve found of it in that publication.
Boxoffice of December 7, 1964, said that Stanley Warner Theatres had been given permission by a Federal judge to build a new theater in the McKinley Plaza shopping center at Canton, provided the circuit gave up the lease on their Ohio Theatre in downtown Canton. The Ohio had been a Warner house since the mid-1930s.
This theater opened as a first-run, single-screen house, as reported in Boxoffice of September 27, 1965. It had 1,182 seats, 831 on the mainfloor and 351 in the balcony. The screen was 25x60 feet. The McKinley Theatre was designed by architect Drew Eberson.
The Variety Theatre at Cleveland was opened by the well-established regional circuit, the Variety Amusement Company. On opening it became the company’s largest and most lavishly appointed theater. A 1927 issue of the Auburn, NY, Citizen ran an article about the Cleveland Variety’s new resident manager, Edward J. Wise, who had previously been manager of the palace Theatre in Auburn.
I’m not sure when Warner took over operation of the Variety (though it was certainly by 1938, when it was mentioned in the March 19 issue of Boxoffice), but I know that they took over another Variety Amusement Co. house, the Alhambra Theatre at Canton, Ohio, in the mid-1930s. It’s difficult to find information about the company, which is seldom mentioned in Boxoffice in later years, and then usually in the magazine’s “Twenty Years Ago” features. It appears to have gone into decline during the depression years.
The Variety Amusement Company is mentioned in connection with several Ohio theaters in Mike Rivest’s list of Cleveland theaters. The web site of the Lorain Palace Civic Center says that the company “…operated many theaters, primarily in Pennsylvania and Ohio, with 16 others in Northern Ohio alone.”
The Mozart Theatre was closed in 1954 and demolished the following year to make way for a parking lot, according to Boxoffice of November 5, 1955. It was last operated by Jerry and Irving Reinhart, sons of Harry Reinhart, who had taken over the house in 1931.
The designated landmark list of the Cleveland City Planning Commission gives a 1927 construction date for the La Salle Theatre, and names the architect as Nicola Petti, who also designed the Variety Theatre, opened the same year.
This theater is mentioned in Boxoffice dozens of times from early 1963 until 1976, and is almost invariably called the Windsor Cinerama Theatre, even long after it was no longer showing Cinerama films. Windsor Cinerama Theatre should be listed as an aka.
The last mention I find of the McKinley Theatre in Boxoffice is in an item about the hospitalization of Jerry Reinhart who, the item said, had “until lately” been owner of the Mozart and McKinley theaters. This appeared in the issue of February 18, 1956. The McKinley had apparently been closed the previous year, along with the Mozart.
Jerry Reinhart’s father, Harry Reinhart, had died in 1946, and his death notice in Boxoffice of September 28 that year said that he had bought the McKinley Theatre about 20 years before, so it had to have been in operation by the mid-1920s.
A later McKinley Theatre opened at a different location in Canton about 1965, and was originally a Stanley Warner house.
This house opened as the Parkway Twin in early 1973. It was located on the former site of the Parkway Bowl, according to Boxoffice of February 5 that year. The original configuration was one auditorium seating 242 and a second auditorium seating 484. Boxoffice gave the address as 1280 Fletcher Parkway.
Boxoffice of October 2, 1937, reported that the new Frederic Theatre had recently opened. It replaced a theater of the same name that had been destroyed by fire in March. The operator of the Frederic, Ralph “Clint” Norine, continued to operate the theater into the 1970s. His death was reported in Boxoffice of February 19, 1979. The death notice didn’t say that the theater had closed. It had still been open when mentioned in Boxoffice of April 17, 1972. It isn’t mentioned after 1979.
A second theater at Frederic, the Milltown, was opened in 1947, but soon closed. Boxoffice of October 16, 1954, reported that the Milltown Theatre building had been sold and would be converted to other uses. The theater had been dismantled some time before, according to a Boxoffice item of September 11, 1954.
Boxoffice of September 27, 1941, said the new Sunrise Theatre at Southern Pines had been opened the previous week. This item says the first operator of the house was W. P. Benner, who had theaters at Carthage and Hemp. Everett and Stewart are first mentioned in connection with the Sunrise in Boxoffice of December 2, 1944, in an item saying they would take over the house on Decmeber 3.
The Carolina Theatre was long operated by Charles Picquet. A March 10, 1956 Boxoffice item about his 72nd birthday said that he had gone “…to Pinehurst to operate a theatre there and at Southern Pines in the early twenties.” He had become head of the Theatre Owners of North and South Carolina as early as 1923, so there must have been a theater in operation at Southern Pines by that year.
The article doesn’t mention names for the theaters he was operating in the early 1920s, but the Pinehurst and Southern Pines houses he ran in later years were both called the Carolina Theatre. Cinema Treasures doesn’t currently list any theaters at Pinehurst.
This theater was originally called simply the Squire Theatre, though a facade sign read “Shellmel’s Squire Theatre.” Boxoffice of October 11, 1965, said the Squire was scheduled to open on October 13. It was Fresno’s first new theater in 20 years, Boxoffice said. They must have meant indoor theater. I’m pretty sure drive-ins had been built in Fresno during that period.
By 1968 it had been renamed the Country Squire Theatre, and was being operated by Trans-Beacon Theatres, according to Boxoffice of February 19. Simon Korenbrot was noted as owner and builder of the theater in the 1965 item, and in the 1968 item William Korenbrot was mentioned as head of Trans-Beacon.
A photo of the Squire was featured as the frontispiece of the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice, December 13, 1965.
An 868-seat single-screen house called the Merritt Theatre was in operation at Merritt Island by late 1965. Here’s an article about it in Boxoffice of December 13 that year. There are two photos, but both are interior shots. Does anybody from the area remember this theater, or know how long it survived? I can’t find it mentioned in Boxoffice after 1967. I’m just wondering if this building might have been incorporated into the AMC project.
The earliest mention I can find of an AMC multiplex at Merritt Island is in Boxoffice of October 19, 1970, which mentioned the project briefly, though a September 15, 1969, item had said that a six-screen “American Royal Cinema complex” was being developed by the Alpert Investment Corp. of Jacksonville at the Merritt Island Shopping Center. The recent opening of the AMC six-plex was announced in Boxoffice of November 16, 1970.
A December 4, 1937, Boxoffice magazine obituary of Atlanta showman Louis Bach says that he built the Hilan Theatre in 1933.
Fox West Coast gave up the United Artists in Pasadena in 1950 as part of the consent decree. Boxoffice of February 2 that year listed twelve FWC houses in California that had gone to UA, finally severing the relationship that had existed between the two chains. The other eleven houses were: State and United Artists, Los Angeles; Capitol and California, Glendale; United Artists in Inglewood, Long Beach, and Berkeley; Long Beach in Long Beach; Mission, San Jose; Varsity, Palo Alto, and California, Richmond.
FWC was operating the Pasadena UA at least as early as 1937, according to items I’ve seen in Boxoffice, but I’m pretty sure it was a UA-operated house from 1950 until it closed. I also recall the Washington Theatre in Pasadena being a UA house in the 1960s.
The description currently says that this theater originally presented movies and vaudeville, but I remember the building quite well and it had no stage house. Despite its fairly lavish proscenium, I don’t think the stage was very deep, and it certainly had no fly tower. The theater was built as a movie house, and its minimal stage facilities could have accommodated only the simplest live events.
However, there is enough room at the back of the lot that a proper stage house could be added on to the building, should anyone with very deep pockets want to convert the place into a regular live theater— though in a town that was unable to save the Raymond Theatre, which already had a generous stage, I don’t know who would want to make such a commitment to the old Egyptian.
Here is an article about the reopening of the Melba as the Capri in Boxoffice of May 9, 1960. There are two small photos. This article doesn’t give the date the house had reopened, but an April 18 Boxoffice item had said that the conversion had taken place that winter, and that as part of the project the Capri had been equipped for 70mm projection.
The Melba had ended its four-year run as a Cinerama house in 1958, when Tans-Texas Theatres renovated and reopened it as a first-run house. Boxoffice of June 8 that year said the first feature shown was William Castle’s “Macabre.”
The Astro Theatre was expected to be completed in time for a Thanksgiving Day opening in 1967, according to Boxoffice of August 28 that year. The 700-seat, single-screen theater would feature D-150 projection, and was being erected at a cost of $350,000. The architect of the Astro Theatre was Joe W. Hiller.
Ground was broken for the Cargill Theatre on August 7, 1967, according to an article in Boxoffice of August 28. Developer Robert Cargill had arranged to lease the theater to Jefferson Amusement company’s subsidiary, East Texas Theatres. (Though opened by East Texas Theatres in May, 1968, by 1969 it was being operated by Gulf States Theatres.)
The single-screen house would seat 1,368, (a 1968 Boxoffice item gives the capacity as 1,260) all on one level. The Cargill would have the largest screen in East Texas, 92 feet wide and 32 feet 6 inches high, and would be equipped with 70mm projection.
The theater was designed by the Longview architectural firm Allen & Quinn, with Leon C. Kyburz as consulting architect.
Boxoffice of February 25, 1974, said that the Cargill Theatre was being converted into a triplex. There would be a central auditorium seating 450, and a 300-seat auditorium on each side.
All Gulf States Theatres operations in Texas were taken over by Martin Theatre of Texas on December 21, 1975, according to an item in Boxoffice of January 19, 1976. I found the Cargill mentioned once more in Boxoffice, later in 1976, and after that, nothing. Is it possible that Martin changed the name of the theater? If they did, I’ve been unable to discover what it became, or what became of it.
The Binghamton Theatre was renamed the Capri Theatre in 1960. Boxoffice of June 20 reported that Comerford Theatres had held an invitational premier on June 8, and the remodeled house had opened to the public the following night. The renovation had included reseating the auditorium, reducing its capacity from about 1,800 to about 1,200.
An item in Boxoffice of June 20, 1960, announced the reopening of this theater which had been closed for eight years. The item calls it the East Main Street Theatre, but I think the writer must have mistaken the location for the name. The house had been closed by the Board of health in 1952 following a series of fires. It was updated with new wiring, wide screen, and rebuilt seats by the new operator, Bertil J. Carlson.
Boxoffice gave the seating capacity in 1960 as 296, so I’m wondering how they’ve managed to not only twin it but increase seating to 380. From the photos it’s apparent that the building has not been expanded. Did they add an auditorium in the basement?
I thought the story vaguely sounded familiar as I was writing my previous comment, so I double checked and, sure enough, this theater is already listed at Cinema Treasures under its final name, the Mexico, and I’d already posted lots of information about it on that page last year.
Thanks for the tipoff with the aka’s, Bob. I probably wouldn’t have realized the duplication existed if I hadn’t seen them.
The Coronet was set to open on December 28, said Boxoffice of December 18, 1948. Alfred Sack, new operator of the remodeled theater, intended to show foreign language and art films with a top admission of sixty cents. The item didn’t say if the Coronet had been renamed, only that it had been remodeled.
A December 24, 1953, Boxoffice item said that Sack had opened the Coronet “…in an abandoned and four-times closed small and unsuccessful neighborhood film house.”
This house was the Encore after it was the Lucas. The earliest mention of the Lucas I’ve found in Boxoffice is in the classified section of the issue of August 17, 1946. The ad was placed by someone whose name appears to be Rey Lampkin (the scan is very blurry) who said that he had just sold the Lucas Theatre in Dallas and was looking to buy another theater, preferably in north Texas.
L. R. Robertson was apparently the buyer of the Lucas, as either L. R. Robertson or Mrs. L. R. Robertson are mentioned as operators of the Lucas in Boxoffice items in 1947 and 1948.
Then in 1949, the October 1 issue of Boxoffice reported that the Lucas Theatre had been sold to Alfred and Lester Sack. The October 22 issue said that the Lucas Theatre would close for remodeling, and would reopen as the Encore in November with a revival policy.
The most interesting item about the theater appears in Boxoffice of November 26, 1949, which said that the Sack brothers' Encore Theatre had opened on Thanksgiving Day, with Mrs. Ethel Garland, Judy Garland’s mother, as manager (the former Mrs. Gumm had apparently married her daughter’s career and taken its name.)
Perhaps Mrs. Garland was not a good manager, as Boxoffice of May 13, 1950, said that G. L. and J. W. Griffin had bought the Encore Theatre from Alfred Sack. I’ve been unable to trace the history of the theater beyond that. Perhaps the name was changed again and that’s why I can’t find any more mentions of it in Boxoffice.
Though not identified as the Kansas City Apollo, a few small photos of this house appeared in an ad for Viragon germicidal equipment that was published in Boxoffice of August 17, 1946. There is a photo of the facade before its modern remodeling, and a rare interior photo showing a section of seating in the balcony. Viragon was a Kansas City based company.