Sometime between midnight Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday, October 22, burglars entered the Des Plaines theater manager’s office and removed a small safe containing $200 cash, tickets and valuable papers. They then dragged or carried the safe to the first exit door on the east wall of the theater and left the building. The safe was transported to a waiting automobile in the parking lot to the rear and east of the building in which the burglars fled the scene.
A Grand Island theater being built in December 1936 almost died before it was born. The theater isn’t identified, but the Grand is a good bet:
GRAND ISLAND FIRE CAUSES $40,000 LOSS
Nearly New Theater Building and Two Stores Set Ablaze
by Heat Pots
GRAND ISLAND – Fire which broke out in the partially completed theater building shortly before 6 o'clock Tuesday morning, did damage estimated in the neighborhood of $40,000 to the theater and to adjoining business houses. While the fire was confined to the theater, the O'Loughlin furniture company, located to the west side of the theater, suffered heavy smoke and some water damage. The Kaufman store, on the east side, escaped with little smoke damage.
Harry Schiller, manager of the theater, estimated the actual fire loss in the neighborhood of $20,000 and while officials of the O'Loughlin company declined to make an estimate of damage to their store and stock, it was believed it would run to a considerable figure. All loss, it was understood, was covered by insurance.
Fire started on the east side, midway in the theatre, from an overheated open “heat pot.” Several of the pots had been placed in the theater for the night to keep freshly poured cement from freezing. Mr. Schiller said a watchman was supposed to have been on duty just to watch these heat pots. By the time firemen arrived, the flames were spreading to scaffolding. Firemen laid 12 lines of hose and poured water into the building from all angles for nearly four hours before the flames could be extinguished.
$400,000 Loss At Fortuna As Fire Razes Business Block
Fortunans today looked over the smoldering embers of the most disastrous blaze in the history of the Eel River Valley community, a fire that last night burned almost an entire block of business houses and caused an estimated $100,000 damages. But for assistance from every fire department in the radius of thirty miles, including equipment from Loleta, Ferndale, Scotia, Eureka, Arcata and Humboldt District No. 1, the flames could easily have wiped out most of the Fortuna business district. Biggest loss was the Fortuna Construction Company owned by Robert and James Loudon. Other business houses destroyed was the Wyckoff Plumbing Company, the Stewart and Cloney public accountants firm owned by Arthur Stewart and Frank Cloney and the Harbers Insurance Company offices operated by Otto and Gerald Harbers. Loss in buildings amounted to an estimated $100,000. Loss of stock in buildings was put at $300,000.
The Fortuna Theater, in the same block, was saved from the flames by brilliant work. A crew worked continually on the roof of the theater. About 100 patrons of the theater filed out in an orderly manner at the first alarm. The front of the theater and walls were scorched. The theater is built with concrete walls.
CLEVELAND, Tenn (UPI) – Calvin Harvey, manager of the Princess Theater, will go on trial May 26 on charges the movie “And God Created Women” shown at his theater was obscene. Police arrested Harvey Friday at the end of the film’s five-day run.
Movie exhibitors have obtained court permission to continue showing the film “Fire Under Her Skin,” which has been labeled obscene by Los Angeles police. Superior Judge Kurt Kauffman issued an order temporarily restraining Police Chief William Parker from interfering with exhibition of the French picture pending a hearing on Dec. 12.
In a petition for injunction, Mayfair Pictures, distributors of the film, complained that police raided the Vagabond Theater on November 29 and confiscated the print. At that time, two theater executives, Sydney Linden and Roger Quijada, were charged with violating the city’s ordinance against showing obscene and indecent movies. In an affidavit filed with the suit, Mayfair president Robert Rosener admitted that the film “is not a great work of art.†“But it is not obscene,” he said. “It deals with sex but no more than any number of other foreign motion pictures that have been shown every day in every state of the Union.â€
Any purity squad worth its salt has to have a couple of war veterans:
Purity Squad Rules Show Off Screen
2/2/51 – A “purity” committee, composed of the police matron, a Catholic priest, member of the Parent-Teachers association and two World war II veterans Thursday asked the manager of the RKO-Orpheum theater to stop showing what they called an “obscene” movie. Mrs. Cecelia Storm, the police matron, said Russell Beach, manager of the theater, was “very cooperative” and the movie was withdrawn.
Mrs. Storm said the picture, “International Burlesqueâ€, starring Betty Rowland, was chiefly a series of action pictures of five different stripteasers. Billed as “A Ball of Fire,” Miss Rowland appeared to be completely undressed, the committee said. Beach, Mrs. Storm said, told her he intended stopping the presentation of the movie after he saw what type of production it was. The theater manager told Mrs. Storm he had never seen the picture before and was unaware of what type of film it was.
MOVIE PROMOTER GUILTY OF CHARGE
Holly Leslie Pleads Guilty to Showing
Obscene Picture At Hilan Theater
Holly Leslie, traveling motion picture promoter, pleaded guilty Monday to charges in two warrants of “showing to the public obscene pictures” and “having obscene pictures in his possession.” Leslie was arrested by Constable Dave Pierce and tried before Magistrate T. Mack Ketron. The court fined him $25 and costs in each case.
Pierce said the warrants were drawn as a result of numerous complaints received from those who had seen the picture shown on the screen of the Hilan theater. The officer said the warrants were drawn as provided by the state statute which prohibits the showing or possession of “obscene literature, books, pamphlets or pictures or possession thereof.” The picture had been booked at the theater since last Monday. Sex was the theme of the picture, officers said, including the showing of the spread of venereal diseases. The title of the film was “Body of Beautiful”.
Pleas of guilty were made by Harry Thomas and Earl A. Attlesey to the charge of violating the city ordinance against obscene pictures at the Globe Theater, 1422 Twenty Third Avenue, today before Police Judge George Samuels and each was fined $1.00. The charges of breaking the state law were dismissed against both men. It was alleged that the men were proprietors in the motion picture house that was raided while an alleged obscene film was being shownto a large number of men and boys. Wallace Asdy, the alleged operator, pleaded not guilty and his hearing was set for August 20, in Judge Samuels’ court. The same charge of breaking the state law against him was also dismissed.
Here is an account of the demolition in January 1976:
Capitol Theater is last to go
With little fanfare and almost unnoticed, Elyria’s motion picture theater era slipped quietly into history. Wreckers have begun the demolition of the Capitol Theater, 530 Broad St., which ceased operation in 1972. At one time, the last of Elyria’s three downtown movie houses and considered the finest, featured the better grade silent flicks.
It was built in 1918, the last year of the first of the World Wars and you could recognize it by its unique Spanish-looking facade. The Grand Restaurant, a top notch eatery, was located next to the theater. The first of the talking or sound movies, was a two-reeler entitled “Stark Mad,†shown in the old movie house in the mid-twenties. Al Jolson. who appeared in the first talking motion picture, “The Jazz Singer,” was featured in 1927 when the new movies sounded the death knell of the silent movies.
“I worked as an usher there in 1920,” Charles E. Hengartner, 300 Washington Ave., said, and it was always a class theater house.“ "As a matter of fact, I saw "The Sheik,” starring Rudolph Valentino, 17 times while I worked there.“ he chuckled. The Capitol was host to many radio and television personalities and vaudeville acts. These shows would work week engagements in Cleveland and then stage one night stands here before moving on to larger cities.
“One of those shows featured the ‘Harmonica Rascals’ whose star was Borah Minnevitch, the tiny madcap harmonica expert,” Hengartner recalled. The theater also saw the introduction of technicolor movies in the late thirties and the three-dimensional flick where the moviegoers used celluloid glasses for viewing.
Admission in those pioneer days and even until the thirties was a nickel for children and a dime for adults. Some of those famed Saturday serials were run, but the Capitol did not particularly feature those old shows. With the advent of television, the 1000-seat theater experienced a checkered career of openings and closings with its final closing in 1972. A parking lot will occupy the present site. The frontage portion of the building which includes the American Shoe Repair, The Tux Shop, and Mac’s Restaurant, will remain. The property is owned jointly by First National Bank of Elyria and Mrs. Helen C. Ely, co-trustees of the William A. Ely Estate.
Here is an older photo from the LAPL:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028662.jpg
Here is an uncropped version of the photo at the top of the page:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028700.jpg
Sorry about that:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028703.jpg
From the LAPL:
/theaters/1161/
Art and commerce:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028714.jpg
I think that should be 18, not 13. Bad cutting and pasting on my part, especially if it was an adult theater.
Here is a 1973 ad from the Valley News. The theater would have been across the street, more or less, from the Canoga:
PROJECTIONIST. Will train. Minimum 13 yrs. old. Contact:
Mr. L. Lindell, mgr., First Run Theatre. 21605 Sherman Way. C.P. 9:30
a.m. No phone calls.
Here is a circa 1970s photo from the LAPL:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028740.jpg
True crime, October 1950:
Des Plaines theater safe with $200 taken
Sometime between midnight Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday, October 22, burglars entered the Des Plaines theater manager’s office and removed a small safe containing $200 cash, tickets and valuable papers. They then dragged or carried the safe to the first exit door on the east wall of the theater and left the building. The safe was transported to a waiting automobile in the parking lot to the rear and east of the building in which the burglars fled the scene.
A Grand Island theater being built in December 1936 almost died before it was born. The theater isn’t identified, but the Grand is a good bet:
GRAND ISLAND FIRE CAUSES $40,000 LOSS
Nearly New Theater Building and Two Stores Set Ablaze
by Heat Pots
GRAND ISLAND – Fire which broke out in the partially completed theater building shortly before 6 o'clock Tuesday morning, did damage estimated in the neighborhood of $40,000 to the theater and to adjoining business houses. While the fire was confined to the theater, the O'Loughlin furniture company, located to the west side of the theater, suffered heavy smoke and some water damage. The Kaufman store, on the east side, escaped with little smoke damage.
Harry Schiller, manager of the theater, estimated the actual fire loss in the neighborhood of $20,000 and while officials of the O'Loughlin company declined to make an estimate of damage to their store and stock, it was believed it would run to a considerable figure. All loss, it was understood, was covered by insurance.
Fire started on the east side, midway in the theatre, from an overheated open “heat pot.” Several of the pots had been placed in the theater for the night to keep freshly poured cement from freezing. Mr. Schiller said a watchman was supposed to have been on duty just to watch these heat pots. By the time firemen arrived, the flames were spreading to scaffolding. Firemen laid 12 lines of hose and poured water into the building from all angles for nearly four hours before the flames could be extinguished.
Close call in September 1952:
$400,000 Loss At Fortuna As Fire Razes Business Block
Fortunans today looked over the smoldering embers of the most disastrous blaze in the history of the Eel River Valley community, a fire that last night burned almost an entire block of business houses and caused an estimated $100,000 damages. But for assistance from every fire department in the radius of thirty miles, including equipment from Loleta, Ferndale, Scotia, Eureka, Arcata and Humboldt District No. 1, the flames could easily have wiped out most of the Fortuna business district. Biggest loss was the Fortuna Construction Company owned by Robert and James Loudon. Other business houses destroyed was the Wyckoff Plumbing Company, the Stewart and Cloney public accountants firm owned by Arthur Stewart and Frank Cloney and the Harbers Insurance Company offices operated by Otto and Gerald Harbers. Loss in buildings amounted to an estimated $100,000. Loss of stock in buildings was put at $300,000.
The Fortuna Theater, in the same block, was saved from the flames by brilliant work. A crew worked continually on the roof of the theater. About 100 patrons of the theater filed out in an orderly manner at the first alarm. The front of the theater and walls were scorched. The theater is built with concrete walls.
Trouble in 1967:
http://tinyurl.com/33rlyh
Re “Vixen”, as discussed above:
http://tinyurl.com/2wgfu9
Kudos to the open-minded Mrs. Horne:
http://tinyurl.com/27n44w
$2? I can’t even buy popcorn for $2 in Los Angeles.
Trouble in 1957:
http://tinyurl.com/25zx4b
Trouble in 1970:
http://tinyurl.com/23qzf8
Trouble in May 1958:
Manager Arrested
CLEVELAND, Tenn (UPI) – Calvin Harvey, manager of the Princess Theater, will go on trial May 26 on charges the movie “And God Created Women” shown at his theater was obscene. Police arrested Harvey Friday at the end of the film’s five-day run.
Same problem as above in 1957:
Exhibitors Obtain Court Permission to Show Film
Movie exhibitors have obtained court permission to continue showing the film “Fire Under Her Skin,” which has been labeled obscene by Los Angeles police. Superior Judge Kurt Kauffman issued an order temporarily restraining Police Chief William Parker from interfering with exhibition of the French picture pending a hearing on Dec. 12.
In a petition for injunction, Mayfair Pictures, distributors of the film, complained that police raided the Vagabond Theater on November 29 and confiscated the print. At that time, two theater executives, Sydney Linden and Roger Quijada, were charged with violating the city’s ordinance against showing obscene and indecent movies. In an affidavit filed with the suit, Mayfair president Robert Rosener admitted that the film “is not a great work of art.†“But it is not obscene,” he said. “It deals with sex but no more than any number of other foreign motion pictures that have been shown every day in every state of the Union.â€
This theater on Main Street was open in 1916. Obviously no way to tell if this was the Capitol or some other theater.
http://tinyurl.com/2hkwcl
Any purity squad worth its salt has to have a couple of war veterans:
Purity Squad Rules Show Off Screen
2/2/51 – A “purity” committee, composed of the police matron, a Catholic priest, member of the Parent-Teachers association and two World war II veterans Thursday asked the manager of the RKO-Orpheum theater to stop showing what they called an “obscene” movie. Mrs. Cecelia Storm, the police matron, said Russell Beach, manager of the theater, was “very cooperative” and the movie was withdrawn.
Mrs. Storm said the picture, “International Burlesqueâ€, starring Betty Rowland, was chiefly a series of action pictures of five different stripteasers. Billed as “A Ball of Fire,” Miss Rowland appeared to be completely undressed, the committee said. Beach, Mrs. Storm said, told her he intended stopping the presentation of the movie after he saw what type of production it was. The theater manager told Mrs. Storm he had never seen the picture before and was unaware of what type of film it was.
Trouble in March 1939:
MOVIE PROMOTER GUILTY OF CHARGE
Holly Leslie Pleads Guilty to Showing
Obscene Picture At Hilan Theater
Holly Leslie, traveling motion picture promoter, pleaded guilty Monday to charges in two warrants of “showing to the public obscene pictures” and “having obscene pictures in his possession.” Leslie was arrested by Constable Dave Pierce and tried before Magistrate T. Mack Ketron. The court fined him $25 and costs in each case.
Pierce said the warrants were drawn as a result of numerous complaints received from those who had seen the picture shown on the screen of the Hilan theater. The officer said the warrants were drawn as provided by the state statute which prohibits the showing or possession of “obscene literature, books, pamphlets or pictures or possession thereof.” The picture had been booked at the theater since last Monday. Sex was the theme of the picture, officers said, including the showing of the spread of venereal diseases. The title of the film was “Body of Beautiful”.
Scandal in August 1919:
Enter Guilty Pleas in Obscene Case
Pleas of guilty were made by Harry Thomas and Earl A. Attlesey to the charge of violating the city ordinance against obscene pictures at the Globe Theater, 1422 Twenty Third Avenue, today before Police Judge George Samuels and each was fined $1.00. The charges of breaking the state law were dismissed against both men. It was alleged that the men were proprietors in the motion picture house that was raided while an alleged obscene film was being shownto a large number of men and boys. Wallace Asdy, the alleged operator, pleaded not guilty and his hearing was set for August 20, in Judge Samuels’ court. The same charge of breaking the state law against him was also dismissed.
Here is an account of the demolition in January 1976:
Capitol Theater is last to go
With little fanfare and almost unnoticed, Elyria’s motion picture theater era slipped quietly into history. Wreckers have begun the demolition of the Capitol Theater, 530 Broad St., which ceased operation in 1972. At one time, the last of Elyria’s three downtown movie houses and considered the finest, featured the better grade silent flicks.
It was built in 1918, the last year of the first of the World Wars and you could recognize it by its unique Spanish-looking facade. The Grand Restaurant, a top notch eatery, was located next to the theater. The first of the talking or sound movies, was a two-reeler entitled “Stark Mad,†shown in the old movie house in the mid-twenties. Al Jolson. who appeared in the first talking motion picture, “The Jazz Singer,” was featured in 1927 when the new movies sounded the death knell of the silent movies.
“I worked as an usher there in 1920,” Charles E. Hengartner, 300 Washington Ave., said, and it was always a class theater house.“ "As a matter of fact, I saw "The Sheik,” starring Rudolph Valentino, 17 times while I worked there.“ he chuckled. The Capitol was host to many radio and television personalities and vaudeville acts. These shows would work week engagements in Cleveland and then stage one night stands here before moving on to larger cities.
“One of those shows featured the ‘Harmonica Rascals’ whose star was Borah Minnevitch, the tiny madcap harmonica expert,” Hengartner recalled. The theater also saw the introduction of technicolor movies in the late thirties and the three-dimensional flick where the moviegoers used celluloid glasses for viewing.
Admission in those pioneer days and even until the thirties was a nickel for children and a dime for adults. Some of those famed Saturday serials were run, but the Capitol did not particularly feature those old shows. With the advent of television, the 1000-seat theater experienced a checkered career of openings and closings with its final closing in 1972. A parking lot will occupy the present site. The frontage portion of the building which includes the American Shoe Repair, The Tux Shop, and Mac’s Restaurant, will remain. The property is owned jointly by First National Bank of Elyria and Mrs. Helen C. Ely, co-trustees of the William A. Ely Estate.
It’s a pawn shop, obviously.