She was married to Mr. Van Der Vaart of Sheboygan in the early 1900s. In 1911 Mr. Van Der Vaart, E. R. Bowler, T. M. Bowler, and August Westermeyer formed the Majestic Theater Co. The theater recently was razed to make way for a million dollar motel and convention center.
Arlington Heights Police Chief Carl H. Skoog reported a flurry of vandalism over the New Year holiday. Two homes had outside Christmas lights smashed or stolen, 2 cars had windows smashed and 1 a canvas top slashed, and a parking meter on Davis Street was knocked off its post and found on the sidewalk. Skoog also reported the theft of a car from the Arlington Theater parking lot and the theft of gas, an aerial and hub caps from other autos.
The smashed Christmas trees were at the residence of Warren Treutler, 1015 N. Forrest Ave., December 27. Two strings of lights were stolen from the Henry Paulson home at 637 S. Bristol Ave. on December 28. A cab belonging to William F. Langan, 1703 Brown St., Arlington Heights, was stolen from the theatre parking lot December 28 and recovered 3 days later near Roselle by sheriff’s police. It was burned out and a total loss.
Hub caps and an aerial were stolen from an auto owned by Arnold L. Weise December 28. The car was parked in front of his home at 710 Kensington. All the gas was siphoned out of the gas tank of a car belonging to Mrs. Arthur Findall, Des Plaines, on New Year’s Eve and vandals broke a windshield and cut a convertible top of a 1954 Ford belonging to Eileen Brown, also of Des Plaines, December 30. Another window was broken on a car parked in the downtown area of Arlington Heights. The owner, Mrs. Otto Bunge of Addison told police the incident occurred between 8 and 10 p.m. December 29. Kenneth Rapp, 308 W. Euclid, picked a parking meter up off the sidewalk on Davis Street Thursday and brought it into the police station.
Here is a January 1976 article about the demolition of the Shubert:
Old Shubert Theater Torn Down
CINCINNATI (AP) â€" There has been little applause in the Shubert Theater in recent years and there was little mourning when it was razed by a wrecker’s ball along with the Cox Theater next door over the weekend. “I was a stage hand 22 years in there and now I’m tearing it down,” said Larry Trumbo, one of the wrecking crew. “I feel bad about it. But what can you do? They didn’t bring shows in there anymore ”.
The Cincinnati owners of the two downtown theaters said the land will be converted to a parking lot. The Theater Guild-American Theater Society canceled the 1975-76 season at the Shubert when touring companies refused to play Cincinnati because of financial losses in previous years. The 1,000 advance subscribers received refunds. The last two shows at the Shubert, however, were sellouts. Comedian Redd Foxx had two performances May 3, 1975, billed as “a black show for black people ”.
The Shubert Co. of New York spent $250,000 refurbishing the Shubert in 1964. The granite building was constructed by the YMCA in 1848 and Shubert converted it to a theater in 1921. Both theaters became vacant in the 1950s when the U.S. Department of Justice ordered them sold in an antitrust action. Shubert was allowed to reopen them in 1954 when no one bought the buildings. But productions there of “Misalliance,” “The Moon Is Blue” and “Dial M for Murder” played to almost empty houses.
Ogallala, (UPI)-A fire swept through the Dutchess Hotel in downtown Ogallala early Monday forcing the evacuation of an estimated 30 persons and leaving two hospitalized from smoke inhalation. The three-alarm blaze raged out of control for more than five hours as an estimated 60 firefighters from Ogallala, Brule and Grant waited until daybreak to enter the burning four-story structure. Firemen poured gallons of water onto the burning corner building and prevented the blaze from spreading significantly to two businesses to the north, the Prairie movie theater and Vivian’s Fashionette.
Authorities said the fire broke out in the hotel basement in the furnace area about 3 a.m.
Firemen, who entered the structure at daybreak, said three floors on the north side of the hotel, in addition to the north half of the roof, collapsed as smoke and flames continued to billow from the building. Firemen were standing on the roof of the movie theater in 15-degree temperatures spraying water on the hotel. The hotel building housed the Continental Trailways bus depot, a hobby shop in the basement, the Merle Norman cosmetic studio and Crook’s Shoe Service.
Here is an article about the conversion to retail in December 1973. The theater had been closed for thirteen years by that time.
What can you do with an old edifice?
BEAVER FALLS. Pa. – What can be done with an old theater building in a business district, short of tearing it down for redevelopment? One answer is conversion of the structure into a minimall with 13 stores and a restaurant-lounge. In Beaver Falls, it was a $250,000 venture undertaken by three businessmen. The minimall, first of its type in the area, opened this month with accolades from other business people and customers alike, pleased with conversion of an eyesore into something attractive and useful. In addition, it gave an aging business district a shot-in-the-arm. The first step was acquisition at a reasonable price of the property â€" which was closed as a movie theater in November 1960. The second step was borrowing a wad of money.
Lining up prospective tenants was necessary, too, like a fabrics shop, a branch outlet of a bakery, a toiletries-bath shop, men’s sports and casual clothes, a nurses-waitresses uniform shop, tobacco and candy store, costume jewelry-cosmetics shop, paint, wallpaper and decorating store, photo shop, a carpet shop, an ice cream parlor and a sporting goods store.
Conversion of the theater building into a minimall involved tearing out much of the first floor and building a shell within the structure. There were 1,098 tons of fill used to make the first floor level and 110 cubic yards of concrete poured. The Spanish motif of the former Theater â€" named the Granada â€" was preserved and enhanced in the conversion. The marquee was retained and redecorated in Spanish stucco and the front of the building was cleaned and floodlighted with mercury vapor lights. Besides the main entrance, two entrances were provided from an alley at the rear â€" near a parking lot and adjacent street.
The minimail has 8,800 square feet of space on the first floor and there are 2,500 square feet of useable space in the basement, where a soon-to-be-opened restaurant-lounge is located. The restaurant-lounge has the capacity to seat about 135 persons for dinner and there are entrances from within the mall and directly from outside. The former mezzanine and office of the theater provide for storage area and offices Use of the balcony for a mini-theater is a possibility.
Another possibility being given serious consideration is constructing entrances between the minimall and multistory mercantile buildings adjoining on either side. The minimallâ€" named Granada at Seventh â€" has done much to renovate one block in the business district, along with a new Mellon Bank branch recently constructed directly across Seventh Avenue. Promotion helps, too â€" just as it did in the theater business. When the minimall opened in mid-November, the developers had a 61 ½ foot cake stretched across the property’s frontage. The cake was sliced into 2,500 pieces and distributed to visitors.
In 1960, the drive-in also hosted church services:
Dr. FRANK LAUBACH, famed international Christian missionary, will be speaking in person in Southern California this Sunday morning at 11 a.m. in the Orange Church on the Santa Ana Freeway, 2 miles below Disneyland. Norman Vincent Peale has described Dr. Laubach as “one of the 10 greatest persons alive in the world today.” The Orange Church meets in the Orange Drive-In Theater where even the handicapped, hard of hearing, aged and infirm can see and hear the entire service without leaving their family car.
I think it was open before 1980. I made the same assumption once from the website you are probably referring to. The newspaper article I read about the theater was from sometime in the 1950s.
Appleton, WI – About $15 in pennies was stolen in a burglary of the Rio Theater early Monday morning, police revealed today. One or more persons hid in the theater after the last show Sunday night, police believe. After employees left the building, the burglars drilled and opened an old safe but found nothing there. It was believed early Monday morning that nothing of value was taken but when Stanley Gross, theater manager, returned Monday evening he discovered that a sack of pennies was missing, police said.
This article mentions the Woodbine and its use as storage for new cars:
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=352083
There is a photo on this page of the Pix/Wigwam sign:
http://tinyurl.com/2jjah5
There is an old photo of the Rialto on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/2m8p87
The theater is now listed on the Register, along with five others in New Mexico:
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/56526.html
Here is a photo:
http://www.pbase.com/pathfindar/image/68942072
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2q85vw
This is a 1940 photo, but it does not identify the city in which the Esquire was located:
http://tinyurl.com/2ewk9r
Is King Street different from King Boulevard? I won’t add the Madison if it’s the same theater as the Majestic:
http://tinyurl.com/287788
Demolition was in 1964:
She was married to Mr. Van Der Vaart of Sheboygan in the early 1900s. In 1911 Mr. Van Der Vaart, E. R. Bowler, T. M. Bowler, and August Westermeyer formed the Majestic Theater Co. The theater recently was razed to make way for a million dollar motel and convention center.
The Fresno Bee states theater built 1913, demolished 1957. Address is given as 1211 Fulton Street.
Crime wave in January 1956:
Chief Skoog Reports Weekend Vandalism, Theft
Arlington Heights Police Chief Carl H. Skoog reported a flurry of vandalism over the New Year holiday. Two homes had outside Christmas lights smashed or stolen, 2 cars had windows smashed and 1 a canvas top slashed, and a parking meter on Davis Street was knocked off its post and found on the sidewalk. Skoog also reported the theft of a car from the Arlington Theater parking lot and the theft of gas, an aerial and hub caps from other autos.
The smashed Christmas trees were at the residence of Warren Treutler, 1015 N. Forrest Ave., December 27. Two strings of lights were stolen from the Henry Paulson home at 637 S. Bristol Ave. on December 28. A cab belonging to William F. Langan, 1703 Brown St., Arlington Heights, was stolen from the theatre parking lot December 28 and recovered 3 days later near Roselle by sheriff’s police. It was burned out and a total loss.
Hub caps and an aerial were stolen from an auto owned by Arnold L. Weise December 28. The car was parked in front of his home at 710 Kensington. All the gas was siphoned out of the gas tank of a car belonging to Mrs. Arthur Findall, Des Plaines, on New Year’s Eve and vandals broke a windshield and cut a convertible top of a 1954 Ford belonging to Eileen Brown, also of Des Plaines, December 30. Another window was broken on a car parked in the downtown area of Arlington Heights. The owner, Mrs. Otto Bunge of Addison told police the incident occurred between 8 and 10 p.m. December 29. Kenneth Rapp, 308 W. Euclid, picked a parking meter up off the sidewalk on Davis Street Thursday and brought it into the police station.
Look both ways…
http://tinyurl.com/2vu87q
I think there was just the one.
The address was 115 W. Aurora Street. Demolition was in April 1961.
Movies, bah. No time for that when I am in Vegas.
An article in the Lincoln Star gives the demolition date as 12/12/75.
Here is a January 1976 article about the demolition of the Shubert:
Old Shubert Theater Torn Down
CINCINNATI (AP) â€" There has been little applause in the Shubert Theater in recent years and there was little mourning when it was razed by a wrecker’s ball along with the Cox Theater next door over the weekend. “I was a stage hand 22 years in there and now I’m tearing it down,” said Larry Trumbo, one of the wrecking crew. “I feel bad about it. But what can you do? They didn’t bring shows in there anymore ”.
The Cincinnati owners of the two downtown theaters said the land will be converted to a parking lot. The Theater Guild-American Theater Society canceled the 1975-76 season at the Shubert when touring companies refused to play Cincinnati because of financial losses in previous years. The 1,000 advance subscribers received refunds. The last two shows at the Shubert, however, were sellouts. Comedian Redd Foxx had two performances May 3, 1975, billed as “a black show for black people ”.
The Shubert Co. of New York spent $250,000 refurbishing the Shubert in 1964. The granite building was constructed by the YMCA in 1848 and Shubert converted it to a theater in 1921. Both theaters became vacant in the 1950s when the U.S. Department of Justice ordered them sold in an antitrust action. Shubert was allowed to reopen them in 1954 when no one bought the buildings. But productions there of “Misalliance,” “The Moon Is Blue” and “Dial M for Murder” played to almost empty houses.
Close call in December 1974:
30 Escape Blaze At Ogallala Hotel
Ogallala, (UPI)-A fire swept through the Dutchess Hotel in downtown Ogallala early Monday forcing the evacuation of an estimated 30 persons and leaving two hospitalized from smoke inhalation. The three-alarm blaze raged out of control for more than five hours as an estimated 60 firefighters from Ogallala, Brule and Grant waited until daybreak to enter the burning four-story structure. Firemen poured gallons of water onto the burning corner building and prevented the blaze from spreading significantly to two businesses to the north, the Prairie movie theater and Vivian’s Fashionette.
Authorities said the fire broke out in the hotel basement in the furnace area about 3 a.m.
Firemen, who entered the structure at daybreak, said three floors on the north side of the hotel, in addition to the north half of the roof, collapsed as smoke and flames continued to billow from the building. Firemen were standing on the roof of the movie theater in 15-degree temperatures spraying water on the hotel. The hotel building housed the Continental Trailways bus depot, a hobby shop in the basement, the Merle Norman cosmetic studio and Crook’s Shoe Service.
Here is an article about the conversion to retail in December 1973. The theater had been closed for thirteen years by that time.
What can you do with an old edifice?
BEAVER FALLS. Pa. – What can be done with an old theater building in a business district, short of tearing it down for redevelopment? One answer is conversion of the structure into a minimall with 13 stores and a restaurant-lounge. In Beaver Falls, it was a $250,000 venture undertaken by three businessmen. The minimall, first of its type in the area, opened this month with accolades from other business people and customers alike, pleased with conversion of an eyesore into something attractive and useful. In addition, it gave an aging business district a shot-in-the-arm. The first step was acquisition at a reasonable price of the property â€" which was closed as a movie theater in November 1960. The second step was borrowing a wad of money.
Lining up prospective tenants was necessary, too, like a fabrics shop, a branch outlet of a bakery, a toiletries-bath shop, men’s sports and casual clothes, a nurses-waitresses uniform shop, tobacco and candy store, costume jewelry-cosmetics shop, paint, wallpaper and decorating store, photo shop, a carpet shop, an ice cream parlor and a sporting goods store.
Conversion of the theater building into a minimall involved tearing out much of the first floor and building a shell within the structure. There were 1,098 tons of fill used to make the first floor level and 110 cubic yards of concrete poured. The Spanish motif of the former Theater â€" named the Granada â€" was preserved and enhanced in the conversion. The marquee was retained and redecorated in Spanish stucco and the front of the building was cleaned and floodlighted with mercury vapor lights. Besides the main entrance, two entrances were provided from an alley at the rear â€" near a parking lot and adjacent street.
The minimail has 8,800 square feet of space on the first floor and there are 2,500 square feet of useable space in the basement, where a soon-to-be-opened restaurant-lounge is located. The restaurant-lounge has the capacity to seat about 135 persons for dinner and there are entrances from within the mall and directly from outside. The former mezzanine and office of the theater provide for storage area and offices Use of the balcony for a mini-theater is a possibility.
Another possibility being given serious consideration is constructing entrances between the minimall and multistory mercantile buildings adjoining on either side. The minimallâ€" named Granada at Seventh â€" has done much to renovate one block in the business district, along with a new Mellon Bank branch recently constructed directly across Seventh Avenue. Promotion helps, too â€" just as it did in the theater business. When the minimall opened in mid-November, the developers had a 61 ½ foot cake stretched across the property’s frontage. The cake was sliced into 2,500 pieces and distributed to visitors.
Status should be closed/demolished.
Remember Charlie Chan’s kid, “Number One Son”? How about number one drive-in?
Too bad the messages deal with such a sad situation, though.
In 1960, the drive-in also hosted church services:
Dr. FRANK LAUBACH, famed international Christian missionary, will be speaking in person in Southern California this Sunday morning at 11 a.m. in the Orange Church on the Santa Ana Freeway, 2 miles below Disneyland. Norman Vincent Peale has described Dr. Laubach as “one of the 10 greatest persons alive in the world today.” The Orange Church meets in the Orange Drive-In Theater where even the handicapped, hard of hearing, aged and infirm can see and hear the entire service without leaving their family car.
I think it was open before 1980. I made the same assumption once from the website you are probably referring to. The newspaper article I read about the theater was from sometime in the 1950s.
Burglary in 1937:
Burglars Obtain Sack of Pennies In Theater Raid
Appleton, WI – About $15 in pennies was stolen in a burglary of the Rio Theater early Monday morning, police revealed today. One or more persons hid in the theater after the last show Sunday night, police believe. After employees left the building, the burglars drilled and opened an old safe but found nothing there. It was believed early Monday morning that nothing of value was taken but when Stanley Gross, theater manager, returned Monday evening he discovered that a sack of pennies was missing, police said.