A bit of name switching took place in Mexia in 1951. The January 6 issue of Boxoffice said that the former Palace Theatre had been remodeled and reopened as the National Theatre. Both houses had been owned by Maurice Easterling, who also owned the newer Mexia Theatre.
The Mexia Theatre was in the planning stage as early as 1947, with the plans being drawn by Dallas theater architect Raymond Smith, but construction was delayed by postwar materials shortages. Boxoffice of June 28, 1948, said that construction was slated to begin as soon as long-delayed structural steel became available. Apparently there was further delay, as the recent opening of the Mexia Theatre was noted in the November 19, 1949 issue of Boxoffice. The Mexia was built for Maurice Easterling, then owner of the National and Palace Theatres in Mexia. The house opened with 680 seats.
The Liberty Theatre was advertised in the May 19, 1939 issue of the local newspaper. It had still been advertised as the American Theatre at least as late as March 26, 1937.
The American Theatre at Mexia was mentioned in the June 10, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World, along with some good advice:
“Lest You Forget
“The donkey stunt still works. Ray Stemmit, of the American Theatre, Mexia, Tex., used it lately to good advantage, the jack carrying a sign which read, ‘I am a jackass because I have not seen "Over the Hill.”’
“A better wording is, ‘I have not seen "Over the Hill,” but that’s because I’m a jackass.’“
rdimucci: Yes, the Boulevard Theatre was the first home of the Inner City Cultural Center, from its founding in 1966 until 1972. The Center moved into the former Masonic Temple at 1308 S. New Hampshire Avenue in 1972 and acquired the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood in 1986.
The Coronet opened in late 1962. It was still under construction when Boxoffice of September 3 mentioned the project in an article about twin cinemas, several of which were slated to open or begin construction over the next several months. Rugoff’s Cinema I and II down the block from the Baronet had already opened on July 25.
This item from the March 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World has to be about this theater, though the hotel was downsized from five stories to three before it was built:
“CADIZ, O.— Cadiz Prospect Company has plans by Hubert L. Wardner, 522 Everett Building, Akron, for five-story brick theatre, store and hotel building, 78 by 147 and 22 by 100 feet, to cost about $200,000.”
Also please note correct name, address and seating capacity provided in the previous comment by Comfortably Cool. Both the theater and the hotel have now been completely demolished, though the hotel still appears in the Google street view dated July, 2012.
This item about the new Ritz Theatre in Blytheville is from the November 14, 1925 issue of Moving Picture World:
“Got an Invite
“Mr. and Mrs. O. W. McCutcheon have been busier than ‘repeaters’ just before election day — but not in the same way, because these two up-and-doing folks have been getting the work finished up on their new Ritz Theatre, in Blytheville, Arkansas.
“They sent in an invitation to the opening. As the grand occasion was to be October 29th and the invitation just landed in the office on that day, it was too late. But from what I’ve heard of the ability of these folks, the opening was bound to be a great success.”
This web page (and the subsequent one) has a brief history and a few photos of the Romina Theatre. Some original decorative details remain in the building’s interior even now.
The same web site offers this page, with the text of an article from one local newspaper’s January 2, 1929 edition, the day before the house opened. It has a description of the theater and other details, including the name of the architect, R. E. Carpenter.
There is also this web page with the text of the article about the theater from the issue of The Forest City Courier published the day of the opening. It goes into more detail about the plans for the opening night program.
This web page is mostly about the Romina Theatre, but also says that the Griffin Theatre was opened in 1948 and operated until the summer of 1972. The theater was owned and operated by James W. Griffin Jr, whose parents owned the Romina Theatre and a smaller movie house across the street from it, the Grace Theatre.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists no fewer than five theaters called the Lyric then operating in Philadelphia, including this one at 2nd and Morris Streets. The other four are not yet listed at Cinema Treasures (unless perhaps they are listed under later names and are missing the aka Lyric.)
The other Lyrics were at 2129 S. 6th Street; 728 Girard Avenue; 1710 Crosky Avenue; and 816 S. 10th Street.
The correct address is 104 E. Washington (I’m not sure where I got west in my earlier comment. I might have been drunk that night.) Also, the Star is not one of the two movie theater names listed at Rockingham in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory (Lyric and Wonderland) so the house was probably operated under one of those names then. A 1918 Sanborn map shows the building as “Electric Theatre”, but I don’t know if that was the operating name at that time or it was just being used by Sanborn as a generic term for a movie theater in that instance.
The Rockingham Opera House opened in 1908. Items in Manufacturers Record from early that year and late 1907 say that the house was designed by Columbia, South Carolina architect Charles C. Wilson. The listing of the Opera House in the 1909 Cahn guide says it was a ground floor theater seating 550 with a stage 50x20 featuring a 24 foot wide proscenium. A 1918 Sanborn insurance map shows a long, narrow entrance hall leading to an almost square auditorium with a horseshoe balcony.
The Opera House was not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, unless it was using one of the two names that were listed, the Lyric Theatre or the Wonderland Theatre. The local historical society says that the Opera House was operating as a movie house under the name Garden Theatre in the early 1920s, and that in late 1929 it was renamed the Rockingham Theatre.
A major rebuilding was undertaken in 1935, giving the house a modernized auditorium with increased seating capacity, a wider entrance, and an Art Deco façade with a new marquee. Historic aerial photos show that the building was still standing in 1956, but had been demolished by 1983.
As of the evening of December 30, most of Louisville and all of the adjacent town of Superior are under evacuation orders due to a wildfire that has burned almost 600 buildings, including a large hotel, a Target store, and more than 500 houses. No word at this hour of whether or not the theater has suffered any damage.
Here is David Zornig’s link in clickable form. We have indeed been conflating two different theaters, and apparently we’re not the only ones. The University of North Carolina’s database of architects and builders says that the Rockingham Opera House “…is probably….” the current Richmond Community Theatre, but if the Richmond County Historical Society page David Zornig linked to is correct (and it probably is), it wasn’t.
The 1935 Film Daily Yearbook does list a 400-seat house called Joe’s Theatre for the first time. The 500-seat Richmond Theatre is still listed as well. The house is listed as Joe’s Theatre through 1938. I don’t have the 1939 FDY, but the 1940 edition lists the Strand instead of Joe’s. The 1940 edition also lists the Richmond, and the Little Theatre, no capacity given, and a house called the Hanna Picket, with 300 seats. Rockingham’s leading employer then was a textile company called Hannah Pickett Mills, and I suspect that the Hanna Picket Theatre was operated by that company for its employee
A plaque on the Richmond Community Theatre says that Herman and Claire Meiselman operated the Strand Theatre from 1939 until December 17, 1976, at which time their family donated the building to the city.
As late as July, 1941, the Movie Parade Theatre advertised its location as Gordon and Sunset. By September that year it was at 1737 N. Highland. The house was open prior to 1941, as Jimmie Fidler’s “In Hollywood” column from December 20, 1940, mentioned actor Wallace Beery taking his eight-year-old daughter to the Movie Parade Revival Theatre to see one of his early comedies.
The April 7, 1958 issue of Boxoffice said that 114 formerly closed theaters had been reopened nationwide since January 1. Listed among then was the Town & Country Theatre, formerly the Penn, at Conemaugh. The house had been reopened by Joe Averi, who was mentioned again in the June 15, 1959 issue of Boxoffice, which said that he had negotiated a lease on the long-dark Smith Theatre in Barnestown [sic: it was actually Barnesboro] and planned to reopen that house the next month. Averi was then also operating the Ideal Theatre in Johnstown. Averi was still operating all three houses when he was mentioned again in the August 29, 1960 issue of Boxoffice.
The January 9, 1936 issue of Film Daily mentions Needville and Mart Cole, though the theater name is different:
“Mart Cole has taken back operation of the following ten Texas houses: Angleton, Angleton; Avalon, Eagle Lake; Cole’s, Hallettsville; Alcove, Needville; Queen, Richmond; Queen, Rosenberg; Texas, Sealy; Queen, West Columbia, and the Grand and Ritz, Yoakum.”
klongwilson: you might be interested in this brief item from the October 1, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “TED WILSON has taken over management of the Royal Theatre, Cashmere, Wash.”
There is also this item from the March 27, 1937 issue of Film Daily:
Leavenworth, Wash.— Reopening of the Alpine was staged with a big ‘open house’ preceding regular show starting at 4:30. Ted Wilson, owner and operator, has expended over $6,000 on remodeling improvements, modernistic front and illuminated marquee. Modern blue and silver trimmings dominate box office appearance, while interior is declared to be an ‘architect’s dream.’“
An item in an earlier issue said that the opening was slated for March 12.
I see we don’t have a Cinema Treasures page for the Alpine Theatre at Leavenworth. I’ll try to dig up more about it and submit it. All I’ve found so far is that it was at 907 Front Street and was still open at least as late as 1972. I can’t tell if the building now on that site is the theater’s or not. If it is, it has been substantially altered.
The July 3, 1941 issue of Film Daily had this item about the proposed (but not yet named) Crest Theatre:
“Shindler to Construct $100,000 Pic Theater
“Wilmington, Del.— Benjamin Shindler, manager of the Ace Theater, has announced that construction of a film theater to cost more than $100,000 will be started within a few weeks at Boxwood Road and Maryland Ave. in suburban Crestwood.
“The property in Crestwood was purchased recently by Shindler, and an initial survey was immediately started.
“House will seat about 800, Shindler said, and will incorporate every modern design of theater construction. It is planned to have the theater ready for opening in the Autumn.”
This item from the July 3, 1941 issue of Film Daily indicates that the remodeling of the Norwood Theatre that year was actually to be a complete reconstruction.
“To Demolish Norwood
“The Norwood Theater on Woodward Ave., one of the oldest neighborhood theaters in the city, is to be torn down in about a month for street widening, and will be replaced by an entirely new theater structure.”
A bit of name switching took place in Mexia in 1951. The January 6 issue of Boxoffice said that the former Palace Theatre had been remodeled and reopened as the National Theatre. Both houses had been owned by Maurice Easterling, who also owned the newer Mexia Theatre.
The Mexia Theatre was in the planning stage as early as 1947, with the plans being drawn by Dallas theater architect Raymond Smith, but construction was delayed by postwar materials shortages. Boxoffice of June 28, 1948, said that construction was slated to begin as soon as long-delayed structural steel became available. Apparently there was further delay, as the recent opening of the Mexia Theatre was noted in the November 19, 1949 issue of Boxoffice. The Mexia was built for Maurice Easterling, then owner of the National and Palace Theatres in Mexia. The house opened with 680 seats.
The Liberty Theatre was advertised in the May 19, 1939 issue of the local newspaper. It had still been advertised as the American Theatre at least as late as March 26, 1937.
The American Theatre at Mexia was mentioned in the June 10, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World, along with some good advice:
rdimucci: Yes, the Boulevard Theatre was the first home of the Inner City Cultural Center, from its founding in 1966 until 1972. The Center moved into the former Masonic Temple at 1308 S. New Hampshire Avenue in 1972 and acquired the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood in 1986.
The Coronet opened in late 1962. It was still under construction when Boxoffice of September 3 mentioned the project in an article about twin cinemas, several of which were slated to open or begin construction over the next several months. Rugoff’s Cinema I and II down the block from the Baronet had already opened on July 25.
This item from the March 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World has to be about this theater, though the hotel was downsized from five stories to three before it was built:
Also please note correct name, address and seating capacity provided in the previous comment by Comfortably Cool. Both the theater and the hotel have now been completely demolished, though the hotel still appears in the Google street view dated July, 2012.This item about the new Ritz Theatre in Blytheville is from the November 14, 1925 issue of Moving Picture World:
This web page (and the subsequent one) has a brief history and a few photos of the Romina Theatre. Some original decorative details remain in the building’s interior even now.
The same web site offers this page, with the text of an article from one local newspaper’s January 2, 1929 edition, the day before the house opened. It has a description of the theater and other details, including the name of the architect, R. E. Carpenter.
There is also this web page with the text of the article about the theater from the issue of The Forest City Courier published the day of the opening. It goes into more detail about the plans for the opening night program.
This web page is mostly about the Romina Theatre, but also says that the Griffin Theatre was opened in 1948 and operated until the summer of 1972. The theater was owned and operated by James W. Griffin Jr, whose parents owned the Romina Theatre and a smaller movie house across the street from it, the Grace Theatre.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists no fewer than five theaters called the Lyric then operating in Philadelphia, including this one at 2nd and Morris Streets. The other four are not yet listed at Cinema Treasures (unless perhaps they are listed under later names and are missing the aka Lyric.)
The other Lyrics were at 2129 S. 6th Street; 728 Girard Avenue; 1710 Crosky Avenue; and 816 S. 10th Street.
The correct address is 104 E. Washington (I’m not sure where I got west in my earlier comment. I might have been drunk that night.) Also, the Star is not one of the two movie theater names listed at Rockingham in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory (Lyric and Wonderland) so the house was probably operated under one of those names then. A 1918 Sanborn map shows the building as “Electric Theatre”, but I don’t know if that was the operating name at that time or it was just being used by Sanborn as a generic term for a movie theater in that instance.
The link in my previous comment is broken, so I’ll try it again and delete if I can’t get it to work: Historical Society article.
The Rockingham Opera House opened in 1908. Items in Manufacturers Record from early that year and late 1907 say that the house was designed by Columbia, South Carolina architect Charles C. Wilson. The listing of the Opera House in the 1909 Cahn guide says it was a ground floor theater seating 550 with a stage 50x20 featuring a 24 foot wide proscenium. A 1918 Sanborn insurance map shows a long, narrow entrance hall leading to an almost square auditorium with a horseshoe balcony.
The Opera House was not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, unless it was using one of the two names that were listed, the Lyric Theatre or the Wonderland Theatre. The local historical society says that the Opera House was operating as a movie house under the name Garden Theatre in the early 1920s, and that in late 1929 it was renamed the Rockingham Theatre.
A major rebuilding was undertaken in 1935, giving the house a modernized auditorium with increased seating capacity, a wider entrance, and an Art Deco façade with a new marquee. Historic aerial photos show that the building was still standing in 1956, but had been demolished by 1983.
As of the evening of December 30, most of Louisville and all of the adjacent town of Superior are under evacuation orders due to a wildfire that has burned almost 600 buildings, including a large hotel, a Target store, and more than 500 houses. No word at this hour of whether or not the theater has suffered any damage.
Here is David Zornig’s link in clickable form. We have indeed been conflating two different theaters, and apparently we’re not the only ones. The University of North Carolina’s database of architects and builders says that the Rockingham Opera House “…is probably….” the current Richmond Community Theatre, but if the Richmond County Historical Society page David Zornig linked to is correct (and it probably is), it wasn’t.
The 1935 Film Daily Yearbook does list a 400-seat house called Joe’s Theatre for the first time. The 500-seat Richmond Theatre is still listed as well. The house is listed as Joe’s Theatre through 1938. I don’t have the 1939 FDY, but the 1940 edition lists the Strand instead of Joe’s. The 1940 edition also lists the Richmond, and the Little Theatre, no capacity given, and a house called the Hanna Picket, with 300 seats. Rockingham’s leading employer then was a textile company called Hannah Pickett Mills, and I suspect that the Hanna Picket Theatre was operated by that company for its employee
A plaque on the Richmond Community Theatre says that Herman and Claire Meiselman operated the Strand Theatre from 1939 until December 17, 1976, at which time their family donated the building to the city.
Nessa: Strand was an aka for the Geyer Performing Arts Center, which was originally the Geyer Opera House.
As late as July, 1941, the Movie Parade Theatre advertised its location as Gordon and Sunset. By September that year it was at 1737 N. Highland. The house was open prior to 1941, as Jimmie Fidler’s “In Hollywood” column from December 20, 1940, mentioned actor Wallace Beery taking his eight-year-old daughter to the Movie Parade Revival Theatre to see one of his early comedies.
The April 7, 1958 issue of Boxoffice said that 114 formerly closed theaters had been reopened nationwide since January 1. Listed among then was the Town & Country Theatre, formerly the Penn, at Conemaugh. The house had been reopened by Joe Averi, who was mentioned again in the June 15, 1959 issue of Boxoffice, which said that he had negotiated a lease on the long-dark Smith Theatre in Barnestown [sic: it was actually Barnesboro] and planned to reopen that house the next month. Averi was then also operating the Ideal Theatre in Johnstown. Averi was still operating all three houses when he was mentioned again in the August 29, 1960 issue of Boxoffice.
The Ideal was reopened in the late 1950s by Joe Averi, who adopted an art policy at the house in 1960, as noted in the August 29 issue of Boxoffice.
The January 9, 1936 issue of Film Daily mentions Needville and Mart Cole, though the theater name is different:
It looks like it would have been just about impossible to fit this room with a decent sized CinemaScope screen. There just wouldn’t have been room.
klongwilson: you might be interested in this brief item from the October 1, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “TED WILSON has taken over management of the Royal Theatre, Cashmere, Wash.”
There is also this item from the March 27, 1937 issue of Film Daily:
An item in an earlier issue said that the opening was slated for March 12.I see we don’t have a Cinema Treasures page for the Alpine Theatre at Leavenworth. I’ll try to dig up more about it and submit it. All I’ve found so far is that it was at 907 Front Street and was still open at least as late as 1972. I can’t tell if the building now on that site is the theater’s or not. If it is, it has been substantially altered.
The July 3, 1941 issue of Film Daily had this item about the proposed (but not yet named) Crest Theatre:
This item from the July 3, 1941 issue of Film Daily indicates that the remodeling of the Norwood Theatre that year was actually to be a complete reconstruction.
The building, now completely gutted, is currently listed for sale for $625,000.