Closed July 1, 1951 (as was the Regus, both in the Comerford Chain). The Press on June 17, 1951 ran a humorous (but respectful) story about its closure in western dialect (apparently the Star was the go-to for kids to see westerns at the time it closed doors). There is a photo of pictures waiting in line in front of the Star…good view of the ticket counter and poster enclosure.
While doing research on a theatre in Endicott, I came across references to a Colonial Theater (around 1905) and an Ideal Theater (from around 1923-1933) in Montrose. Oddly enough, these were the same names as the theatre in Endicott I was researching, exactly before and after.
This seems likely to have been originally the Ideal Theater, since 1923 is about when the references to it first start popping up.
What’s sad is the new Bijou that replaced this one only was open 15 years. It apparently closed at the very beginning of 1945. While we’ve finally located pictures of the later theatre, it would be really interesting to know what this one looked like.
A Feb. 1945 item about the closing of the Lyric by the Comerford chain stated that at the time of that writing, this theatre was also owned by them, and also dark.
I uncovered a lot of information about the earlier Lyric (it goes back a lot further than we thought, back to the Stone Opera House era), and put up its own page. It should be up tomorrow. This theatre had one convoluted history, that’s for sure.
The October 12, 1929 issue of the Press records the grand opening of the new Lyric (which took place two days later, Monday, October 14, 1929, with the Fred Waring film “Syncopation”), including a better picture of the new building. It’s clear from comparing it to the 1950 photo that there was no remodeling of the exterior in the interim…it’s the same in pretty much every respect. The advertisements for the grand opening make it clear they went “all in” on talkies, but it doesn’t seem to have helped them much.
Going through the ads in the Press, it also seems clear the Lyric closed quite a bit earlier than I had thought. The last ad in the Press I could locate was Dec. 28, 1944. On Feb. 21, 1945 a tiny item states that Comerford chain (who had bought the theatre three years prior) had closed the theatre, citing “no business” as the reason.
And the September 11, 1929 issue of the Press shows a picture of the same building (including the same marquee) under construction! Apparently there were TWO Lyrics, and the one demolished in 1950 had only been built in 1929.
Highlights from the Press article:
“The new theatre, said to be the first in this section of the country which was especially designed and constructed for the presentation of the "talkies” will cost more than $30,000.
The old Lyric theatre, formerly known as the Bijou, was a populr house for the burlesque shows in the boygone days in this city….in recent years presentations there have been restricted to moving pictures.
King decided to raze the old building, long a Water street landmark. In its place he is erecting a building with basement and four upper floors. The seating capacity will provide accommodations for more than 1,000 persons.
The building has a concere foundation, outer walls are brick.
The main entrance to the building is through four sets of double swinging doors and leads to the outer lobby, where there are two sets of stairs to the balcony. Four more sets of double doors afford access to the foyer and auditorium. On the balcony floor will be a smoking room for men, with lavatory, and a woman’s parlor, also with lavatory. The manger’s office will be situated between these rooms. The projection room will be on the third level above the balcony.
Groups of three fluted columns each will be located at either side of the stage, which will be 21 feet wide and eight feet deep.
Architect David W. Jones. Frank W. O'Connell is the builder."
At last! At the end of this lengthy URL is the picture of the mysterious Lyric that Jim Macumber referred to above. This is the first time I have seen a picture of this mysterious venue after 35 years of searching.
It definitely looked very old school, even for 1950.
Per various news articles and the Sherburne Historical Society facebook page, we can glean more information about this theater.
The Sherburne Theater started life as the Sherburne Opera House. Ground was broken in September 1891 on the site of an even earlier theatre which was destroyed by fire, but about which little is known. The opera house opened on February 20, 1892. The auditorium was on the second floor of the building.
A 1930 newspaper article indicates that this was the same theatre Smalley had added to his chain in 1925. It apparently was a five year lease since it was due to expire Nov. 1 and the paper further claimed that Smalley “had left the theatre idle for quite a portion of the latter part of the term of the lease,” indicating the theatre was open intermittently, if at all, from 1928-1930. The problem may have been Smalley not wanting to make the jump to sound on a leased, small town operation as the same article said that upon expiration of the lease the Sherburne Opera House Company planned to renovate the theatre for talkies and reopen it as a movie theatre, thus beginning the modern era of the theatre.
With the help of old postcards we can trangulate both what this large structure looked like, and where it was. It stood just north of the building on North Main Street that now houses Service Pharmacy and a pizzeria. A parking lot now stands on the site. Address should be 16-18 North Main.
The picture is starting to clear about the Point Theater, though where it was is still a mystery.
The Point Theater was very likely a continuation of the Whitney Point Opera House, which was erected in 1897 to replace a previous venue that was lost, along with much of the town, in a fire that year. Newspaper articles make it clear that the opera house survived the great 1935 flood in that over 50 survivors camped there until flood waters went down. About this time a flyer was made for the “Whitney Point Theater.” Concerts were still being given at the opera house the following year, in 1936.
It is still not clear whether the building still exists or not, or whether the opera house and Point Theater were one and the same. But it does now seem clear that the opera house is/was one of the brick buildings built erected downtown after the fire.
Hold the phone…further research reveals Whitney Point had an opera house that was in operation during this same period, and my recollection is further confirmed by a survey of the area from 1924 that states Whitney Point had “two opera houses” at that time. It makes more sense that the village fathers would ask the newer business to shut down.
After locating a photo of the interior of the opera house, it stirred a personal recollection of playing a talent show in New Berlin in 1982. I do not remember where the talent show was held, but I remember the layout of the stage and the room and it was very similar to this photo. I wonder if it could have possibly been held in the old opera house? I am fairly sure the building was still there at that time. I would think I would have remembered, but maybe not.
As an addendum to the above, a recollection of research done 35 years ago just popped into my head, that in 1925 the town fathers ordered one of the two operating movie theaters in Whitney Point to close on the idea that the village could only sustain one. Without access to the old Whitney Point Reporter archives I cannot confirm this recollection, but I think this may have been the theater that was ordered to close, and the later Point Theater (whose location is still unknown) being the beneficiary of this decision.
I have finally found a clue to explain the above photograph. It comes from a small item in the August 26, 1920 issue of the Binghamton Press.
“Andy Tyler started work on his new moving picture last week. It is being built on the lot just east of the Rogers house.”
This appears to confirm the theory that the building next to the Rogers House (to the left, or east towards the village) was Whitney Point’s first theater. It may possibly have been called a Hippodrome (based on a vague memory of research I did many years ago, which suggested the existence of two theaters in Whitney Point early on).
…and a big sign in front that says “Woodland Opera House State Historical Park.” Duh. There seems to be some cross-over in the two histories (in that the Woodland Opera House claims to have been boarded up from 1913 on, and Bill’s Theatre starts up in 1914). But the building I’m looking at is the old opera house, which, I assume, is a different theatre, but seems to have been in about the same place. Hmm.
An ad for Peoples' Theatre in June 1930, three months prior to shuttering, proclaims itself to be “100% Silent,” which gives a strong indication as to the reason for its closure.
Per the Binghamton Press, opened Tues., Aug. 3, 1948. 615 seats.
My recollection of this theatre is that after closure it operated for one year as a roller skating rink before undergoing demolition around 1978, slightly later than Joe Masher suggests above.
Closed July 1, 1951 (as was the Regus, both in the Comerford Chain). The Press on June 17, 1951 ran a humorous (but respectful) story about its closure in western dialect (apparently the Star was the go-to for kids to see westerns at the time it closed doors). There is a photo of pictures waiting in line in front of the Star…good view of the ticket counter and poster enclosure.
Opened Saturday, September 2, 1922.
While doing research on a theatre in Endicott, I came across references to a Colonial Theater (around 1905) and an Ideal Theater (from around 1923-1933) in Montrose. Oddly enough, these were the same names as the theatre in Endicott I was researching, exactly before and after.
This seems likely to have been originally the Ideal Theater, since 1923 is about when the references to it first start popping up.
Correction: Not new Bijou, new Lyric. Arrgh.
What’s sad is the new Bijou that replaced this one only was open 15 years. It apparently closed at the very beginning of 1945. While we’ve finally located pictures of the later theatre, it would be really interesting to know what this one looked like.
This theatre, it seems, had nothing but problems.
A Feb. 1945 item about the closing of the Lyric by the Comerford chain stated that at the time of that writing, this theatre was also owned by them, and also dark.
I uncovered a lot of information about the earlier Lyric (it goes back a lot further than we thought, back to the Stone Opera House era), and put up its own page. It should be up tomorrow. This theatre had one convoluted history, that’s for sure.
The October 12, 1929 issue of the Press records the grand opening of the new Lyric (which took place two days later, Monday, October 14, 1929, with the Fred Waring film “Syncopation”), including a better picture of the new building. It’s clear from comparing it to the 1950 photo that there was no remodeling of the exterior in the interim…it’s the same in pretty much every respect. The advertisements for the grand opening make it clear they went “all in” on talkies, but it doesn’t seem to have helped them much.
Going through the ads in the Press, it also seems clear the Lyric closed quite a bit earlier than I had thought. The last ad in the Press I could locate was Dec. 28, 1944. On Feb. 21, 1945 a tiny item states that Comerford chain (who had bought the theatre three years prior) had closed the theatre, citing “no business” as the reason.
And the September 11, 1929 issue of the Press shows a picture of the same building (including the same marquee) under construction! Apparently there were TWO Lyrics, and the one demolished in 1950 had only been built in 1929.
Highlights from the Press article:
“The new theatre, said to be the first in this section of the country which was especially designed and constructed for the presentation of the "talkies” will cost more than $30,000.
The old Lyric theatre, formerly known as the Bijou, was a populr house for the burlesque shows in the boygone days in this city….in recent years presentations there have been restricted to moving pictures.
King decided to raze the old building, long a Water street landmark. In its place he is erecting a building with basement and four upper floors. The seating capacity will provide accommodations for more than 1,000 persons.
The building has a concere foundation, outer walls are brick.
The main entrance to the building is through four sets of double swinging doors and leads to the outer lobby, where there are two sets of stairs to the balcony. Four more sets of double doors afford access to the foyer and auditorium. On the balcony floor will be a smoking room for men, with lavatory, and a woman’s parlor, also with lavatory. The manger’s office will be situated between these rooms. The projection room will be on the third level above the balcony.
Groups of three fluted columns each will be located at either side of the stage, which will be 21 feet wide and eight feet deep.
Architect David W. Jones. Frank W. O'Connell is the builder."
At last! At the end of this lengthy URL is the picture of the mysterious Lyric that Jim Macumber referred to above. This is the first time I have seen a picture of this mysterious venue after 35 years of searching.
It definitely looked very old school, even for 1950.
http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspaper4/Binghamton%20NY%20Press%20Grayscale/Binghamton%20NY%20Press%20Grayscale%201950.pdf/Binghamton%20NY%20Press%20Grayscale%201950%20-%206444.pdf#xml=http://www.fultonhistory.com/dtSearch/dtisapi6.dll?cmd=getpdfhits&u=ffffffff86b79ae0&DocId=638089&Index=Z%3a\Index%20O-G-T&HitCount=52&hits=1f+12f+215+26c+26d+271+27d+27e+29e+2a0+2a2+2a3+2ac+37a+38e+38f+3ba+3cd+40b+40e+455+497+4e8+50b+557+600+648+689+692+7df+853+857+86c+871+8cf+8f2+90f+a73+b2d+b4e+b5a+b7c+c5b+c75+cec+cf1+d04+d3c+d43+d81+dc4+dca+&SearchForm=C%3a\inetpub\wwwroot\Fulton_New_form.html&.pdf
Per various news articles and the Sherburne Historical Society facebook page, we can glean more information about this theater.
The Sherburne Theater started life as the Sherburne Opera House. Ground was broken in September 1891 on the site of an even earlier theatre which was destroyed by fire, but about which little is known. The opera house opened on February 20, 1892. The auditorium was on the second floor of the building.
A 1930 newspaper article indicates that this was the same theatre Smalley had added to his chain in 1925. It apparently was a five year lease since it was due to expire Nov. 1 and the paper further claimed that Smalley “had left the theatre idle for quite a portion of the latter part of the term of the lease,” indicating the theatre was open intermittently, if at all, from 1928-1930. The problem may have been Smalley not wanting to make the jump to sound on a leased, small town operation as the same article said that upon expiration of the lease the Sherburne Opera House Company planned to renovate the theatre for talkies and reopen it as a movie theatre, thus beginning the modern era of the theatre.
With the help of old postcards we can trangulate both what this large structure looked like, and where it was. It stood just north of the building on North Main Street that now houses Service Pharmacy and a pizzeria. A parking lot now stands on the site. Address should be 16-18 North Main.
The picture is starting to clear about the Point Theater, though where it was is still a mystery.
The Point Theater was very likely a continuation of the Whitney Point Opera House, which was erected in 1897 to replace a previous venue that was lost, along with much of the town, in a fire that year. Newspaper articles make it clear that the opera house survived the great 1935 flood in that over 50 survivors camped there until flood waters went down. About this time a flyer was made for the “Whitney Point Theater.” Concerts were still being given at the opera house the following year, in 1936.
It is still not clear whether the building still exists or not, or whether the opera house and Point Theater were one and the same. But it does now seem clear that the opera house is/was one of the brick buildings built erected downtown after the fire.
Hold the phone…further research reveals Whitney Point had an opera house that was in operation during this same period, and my recollection is further confirmed by a survey of the area from 1924 that states Whitney Point had “two opera houses” at that time. It makes more sense that the village fathers would ask the newer business to shut down.
After locating a photo of the interior of the opera house, it stirred a personal recollection of playing a talent show in New Berlin in 1982. I do not remember where the talent show was held, but I remember the layout of the stage and the room and it was very similar to this photo. I wonder if it could have possibly been held in the old opera house? I am fairly sure the building was still there at that time. I would think I would have remembered, but maybe not.
Tried to make a hotlink of the below picture but couldn’t get it to work:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K78YS2Yisw0/SteT1Fhh48I/AAAAAAAAAw0/kwfWFyw80D4/s640/NYBerlin1a.jpg
Opera house is just to the right of (and dwarfed by) the New Eagle Hotel. Both were rebuilt after a large fire in 1899.
As an addendum to the above, a recollection of research done 35 years ago just popped into my head, that in 1925 the town fathers ordered one of the two operating movie theaters in Whitney Point to close on the idea that the village could only sustain one. Without access to the old Whitney Point Reporter archives I cannot confirm this recollection, but I think this may have been the theater that was ordered to close, and the later Point Theater (whose location is still unknown) being the beneficiary of this decision.
I have finally found a clue to explain the above photograph. It comes from a small item in the August 26, 1920 issue of the Binghamton Press.
“Andy Tyler started work on his new moving picture last week. It is being built on the lot just east of the Rogers house.”
This appears to confirm the theory that the building next to the Rogers House (to the left, or east towards the village) was Whitney Point’s first theater. It may possibly have been called a Hippodrome (based on a vague memory of research I did many years ago, which suggested the existence of two theaters in Whitney Point early on).
…and a big sign in front that says “Woodland Opera House State Historical Park.” Duh. There seems to be some cross-over in the two histories (in that the Woodland Opera House claims to have been boarded up from 1913 on, and Bill’s Theatre starts up in 1914). But the building I’m looking at is the old opera house, which, I assume, is a different theatre, but seems to have been in about the same place. Hmm.
There appears to be an arched entranceway on Second Street but googlemaps doesn’t have a street view of it.
Googlemaps shows the back of a building at this location that looks a lot like an old theatre…a big one, too.
It could conceivably have been a theater building (Love that Music) but it’s a very odd design for one.
The first place I ever…um…batted a triple!
An ad for Peoples' Theatre in June 1930, three months prior to shuttering, proclaims itself to be “100% Silent,” which gives a strong indication as to the reason for its closure.
Point Theater was still open in April 1959 per Binghamton Press.
An article in the DeRuyter newspaper about the 1937 remodeling indicated that the Opera House had been closed for seven years prior to that point.
Per the Binghamton Press, opened Tues., Aug. 3, 1948. 615 seats.
My recollection of this theatre is that after closure it operated for one year as a roller skating rink before undergoing demolition around 1978, slightly later than Joe Masher suggests above.