Here is an article dated 11/25/42 from the Dunkirk Evening Observer:
REGENT THEATRE WILL HOLD ITS PREMIERE ON THANKSGIVING DAY
The Regent Theatre, Dunkirk’s newest moving picture house, will have its premiere Thanksgiving Day. The initial program will start at 1 p.m. and will run continuously until 11 p.m. The new theater, built on the southwest corner at Washington Avenue and East Third street, has a seating capacity of 762 persons, all on the ground floor. It was constructed by Dalton B. Burgeit for a syndicate headed by Clyde R. Lathrop of Brocton.
The ceiling and walls are constructed of celetex which is painted in a rose-tan, grey and cream color scheme. Drapes at the exits are of rust colored velour. The outer stage curtain is rust velour and the inner curtain green and gold silk. Carpeting is of a brown and
marooned figured design.
The interior of the building was constructed along a streamlined plan with curves replacing sharp angles in the wall structure. Indirect lighting is in use. A commodious lobby faces on the East Third street side of the building. The ticket office is in the
center of the lobby’s south wall with entrances to the theater on either side. Upstairs over the lobby are the projection room, offices, ushers' dressing room and storage room.
Besides the two exits into the lobby there are three others in the theater. Two of these lead directly into Washington Avenue. The other is at the southwest corner of the building and leads to a roadway connecting with Lynx street. The theater is equipped with a ventilating and heating system which changes the air in the amusement center every two minutes. A blower in the cellar forces the heated fresh air out through two large vents in the ceiling while the spent air is sucked out through louvers beneath the stage.
The latest model RCA Photophone sound system has been installed at the theater. Arrangements have been made for showing of pictures released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Columbia, RKO, and United Artists.
Con DeFere qualifies as a professional, if not a pioneer, in the do-it-yourself field that has become a busy occupation for amateurs in recent years. The regular trade of this 60-year-old Tyrone Road resident is that of movie projectionist at the Warner Theater, where he has been the senior film operator since it opened in 1931.
He was working in a glass factory when he started to learn the operation of a movie projection machine. That was in June of 1918 at the old Grand Theater on Walnut Street. Within a couple of weeks he got the job as a regular operator and has been in the trade since. The more than 40 years he has spent in that craft make him the veteran of movie projectionists in this city, and just about covers the history of movie theaters in Morgantown.
He has worked in all of themâ€"the short-lived Dixie, the Arcade (now known as the Morgan), the Strand (destroyed in the big 1927 fire), the Metropolitan, the Grand, and for the past 27 years at the Warner.
Con has received considerable practice in “do-it-yourself” theories to keep up with the many changes he has experienced in operating movie machines. There was the revolutionary change from silent to sound films shortly before 1930, and in recent years the development to Cinemascope and stereophonic sound. He helped install the sound equipment at the Warner for its opening in 1931, and before that did the same at the old Osage theater in that mining town.
He experienced one movie booth fire Friday, Dec. 13 in 1918, at the Arcade Theater where he had moved from the Grand. He had both arms burned seriously before he was able to jump from the booth.
He tried electrical contracting for a few months before accepting a job at the Dixie, a theater only old residents will remember. It was located in the building now occupied by Reiner & Core. He was there only eight months before it went out of business about the close of 1919. He moved to the Strand, where George H. Sallows was the manager, then back to the Grand, until about 1925 he began a roving period outside Morgantown.
He worked for a short time at Osage, then tried going into business for himself with a theater in Weston. That venture lasted six months before he went broke. He then leased a theater in Terra Alta with Fielding O'Kelly. After a short time he sold out his share to his partner to return to the Arcade.
Con says he had never heard a sound movie before he installed the sound system at the Osage theater, although the Met had already shown “Weary River,” featuring Richard Barthelmess, the first talkie
shown in Morgantown. Since taking a permanent seat at the Warner he also has operated a movie machine at one of the early drive-in theaters, the Oaks, that was near Cheat Lake.
Here is a 4/29/44 article from the Maryville Daily Forum:
Missouri Theater Destroyed by Fire
Spacious Show Place, Erected in 1926 by the Cook Family, Entirely Gutted by Flames After the Second Show Last Night.
Firemen Unable to Halt Flames That Start in Rear of Building
Fire which started soon after the second show had been completed last nighut about 11:30 o'clock totally destroyed the Missouri theater, leaving only the walls of the 18-year-old building standing. The Eugene Beauty Shop, which was located on the south side of the building was also destroyed. Nothing was saved at the Missouri, which was constructed and opened to the public in September 1926.
The fire last night was the second serious fire in the history of Maryville. The Empire theater, which was located across the street from the Missouri at the present site of the Masonic Temple and the Maryville Electric Light and Power company, was destroyed by fire in December, 1925.
The Missouri was built by J. F. Cook and his two sons, J. Ray,
the present operator of the theater, and Clarence K.. the present operator of the Tivoli theater. At the time the Missouri opened, it was considered as the most modern theater in this area. It had a seating capacity of 818, the main auditorium seating 540 persons, and the mezzanine, 218. It was designed by a Kansas City architect and followed closely the Spanish designs of show houses.
Here is a 1987 article from the Placerville Mountain Democrat about efforts to find a buyer for the theater:
Empire Theater Up for Sale Again
The 56-year-old New Empire Theater, which served as Placerville’s only movie theater for 50 years, is up for sale once again after Placerville developers Jim Liles and Jim Newmeyer gave up on a dream to turn it into a performing arts center. Liles and Newmeyer bought the theater in 1985, rented upstairs office space to arts groups and began scheduling live performances of musical acts like Jesse Colin Young, Dan Hicks and Maria Muldaur. But the two developers recently grant deeded the 375-seat theater back to Aria Toler, who has been trying to sell it since 1984.
The goal was “to keep it as an entertainment facility,” Newmeyer said. “We did as much as we could. We gave it a run. We ‘tried stuff. There just wasn’t enough support … The burden of the building and the maintenance made it too hard to do the kind of program we wanted.” That burden amounts to about $70,000 to $100,000 in maintenance costs to bring the aging building into compliance with city building and fire codes, estimated Don McConnell, real estate agent handling the sale for Toler.
The theater is plagued with a costly, antiquated heating system, old wiring and plumbing, inadequate insulation and a faulty fire wall, several sources said. The city sent Toler a letter in June which requires the necessary improvements before the theater can be used again, said Conrad Montgomery, Placerville’s community development director. Toler’s selling price is $300,000, McConnell said. Toler originally bought the theater in 1970 and continued operating it as a movie house. But she said she closed the doors in 1984 after the video craze and the new Placerville Cinema 4 began siphoning off customers and the city sent the bill for a $4,600 a year parking assessment.
The theater, built during the Great Depression in the 1930s, has a colorful background, involving old movies, stage shows and rumors of ghosts. One of the theater’s ads in the Mountain Democrat in 1933 featured James Cagney in “The Mayor of Hell,” John Barrymore in “Reunion in Vienna,” and Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in “Hold Your Man.” The theater presented stage shows in the early years. “Two Sensational Psychics” appeared there in August 1933: “Helena â€"the girl who baffled Edison” and “Mahra.” The audience was encouraged to “prepare your questions” ahead of time
.
The theater is haunted by ghosts, according to numerous employees and visitors over the years. “Good spirits reportedly inhabit the upper part of the theater, while the unsettled spirit of a drunk who died about 1940 in the boiler room supposedly leaves a negative aura in the inner sanctum of the structure,” the Mountain Democrat observed in 1984.
Toler blamed the monopolistic practices of the big movie companies for the downfall of small independent theaters like hers. “They make the film, they distribute it and then they run it in their own theaters,” she said. The city has considered purchasing the theater in the past but was stopped by lack of funds. Both the Sierra Cultural Arts Center Association and Theater El Dorado have considered using it as a cultural arts center. But the theater requires numerous renovations to function in that capacity, representatives have claimed.
“We were a little early for what we wanted to do,” Newmeyer said. “The town is rejuvenating” and the support will be there in the future, he said. “There is no central place for the arts,” said Newmeyer. He said the theater is a prime location for that arts center. “It still could be done,” Newmeyer claims, but it will take a “full-time person” who has the resources, he said. Toler agreed. “If somebody came in here and had the know how, I’m sure they could make it go,” she said.
Here is an article about the Metropolitan from the 1/06/18 edition of the Washington Post:
Crandall’s Metropolitan Theater, now in the course of erection at F and Tenth streets, in which all right and title was purchased by Harry M. Crandall, Barry Bulkley and R. W. Bulkley, will throw open its doors to the public of Washington about the middle of February. This new and handsome addition to the amusement houses of the nation’s Capital covers approximately 10,000 square feet. The entrance is on F Street, the lobby extending back 30 feet to a rotunda promenade leading directly to the auditorium proper of the theater, which, extending at a direct right angle, covers the remainder of the property to Tenth Street. This affords an immense area on the first floor, the plans calling for 1,200 seats on the orchestra level alone.
Extending over half of this space is hung the cantilever balcony and mezzanine. Private boxes and loge seats will occupy the entire mezzanine. The arrangement of the balcony is novel in that it consists of a series of rises reached by a system of ornamental fireproof tunnels or promenades. This is declared to be utilizing such manner of balcony approaches for the first time in theater construction in the United States.
The mezzanine floor will have a seating capacity of more than 300, while the balcony will seat approximately 700, giving the theater a total seating capacity of over 2,200. This makes the Metropolitan the largest theater in Washington. The house is of fireproof construction throughout, and the general lines and architectural plan is of the Adams period. The front of the theater on F Street is of Pompeian art brick with Tennessee limestone trimmings. The foyer and rotunda promenade are of highly polished grey—veined Vermont marble finished with carved ornamental New Hampshire granite. The interior decorations will be in rich tones of old rose and medieval ivory heightened with gold. On each floor of the theater will be a broad, spacious promenade handsomely appointed and lavishly furnished.
The Metropolitan Theater will be strictly a motion picture house and Mr. Crandall has already arranged for the first Washington showing of many photographic productions featuring the well known stars of the film and stage worlds. The theater was designed by Reginald W. Geare and was built by Frank L. Wagner. In the transaction P. A. Drury has conveyed to H. M. Crandall nineteen parcels of real estate for a consideration of $175,000. The negotiations were conducted through the real estate office of Moore & Hill, Inc.
The Hoosier closed in December 1959 for an unspecified period. An article in the Hammond Times, excerpted here, mentions three other Whiting theaters, the Star, Princess and Capitol.
Top Stars Showed Youthful Wares In Hoosier Theater
Oil City Once Had 4 Showhouses
Closing of Whiting’s Hoosier theater, the city’s only remaining theater and an entertainment center in the Oil City for the last 35 yearsâ€"because there just wasn’t enough revenueâ€"opens the door to a past, brilliant with its glitter of stars, both in the vaudeville and movie worlds.
Although of late movies played to more empty seats than filled ones at the Hoosier, former stage manager William Schulte recalls the days when people lined up outside waiting to get in to see such hits of the past as “Birth of a Nation”, “What Price Glory” and others.
When the Hoosier theater opened its doors in 1924 it was under the ownership of Jack and Margaret Bennett, who prior to construction of the Hoosier had operated the Princess theater near the new show place. In 1929 the Hoosier was taken over by Warner Brothers, with Mrs. Bennett and a new partner, Roy Green, Whiting attorney, as operators.
Passing of the Hoosier theater temporarily or permanently, brings to a close a Whiting theater era that had its start shortly after the coming of Standard Oil Co. refinery to the town in 1889. The Star theater on 119th Street near New York Avenue was recognized as the first “modern” movie house in Whiting, although there had been one earlier place that catered to the public in the early history of movies. Opening of the Princess theater, also on 119th street, near Sheridan Avenue, and west of the Star, gave the Oil City two theaters.
For a short time Whiting was a town with four theaters. The town enjoyed this distinction when the Capitol theater, on 119th Street near LaPorte Avenue, opened its doors, Hoosier came into existence about a year laterâ€"and the Star and Princess theaters were still operated by the owners of the new Capitol and Hoosier theatersâ€"A. J. Obresk and Margaret Bennett, respectively. Both Obresk and Mrs. Bennett are now dead.
Here are excerpts from a 1978 article from the Oakland Tribune about the Vogue and other Oakland theaters:
If New York’s Radio City Music Hall, with its gorgeous Rockettes, cannot make it these days, what can? Maybe the days of the huge, ornate downtown movie theaters are gone. That’s the picture in the Eastbay, in line with the New York trend. The Radio City Music Hall has been the showplace for movie extravaganzas, the Rockettes chorus line, the big bands, and stand-up comedians. Now the owners say the crowds are staying away.
What is happening in New York has already happened to many Eastbay theaters â€" and for much the same reasons: The flight to the suburbs, mushrooming of small neighborhood theaters,
television, the drive-ins, and changes in the way Hollywood merchandises its products. Some Eastbay theater operators today say they are barely making a living. Others say business is great; these are notably the chains which can out-bid small independents for Hollywood’s latest blockbuster. The ones who didn’t adjust their operations to the changing times have sunk into red ink.
The death roll of those that closed is long: The first exclusive cinema palace in Oakland was said to be the T & D (circa 1916) on llth Street between Broadway and Franklin Street. The building
now is deserted. In 1926, an even finer exhibition hall, the Grand Lake Theater, began operating at 3200 Grand Avenue, and it is still open. Also in the mid 20s, the old Orpheum abandoned its first site on 12th Street to take over the original Fox Oakland on Broadway near 19th Street, later naming it the Orpheum. A bank now stands on the site.
In 1928, the new Fox Oakland on Telegraph Avenue at 18th Street, the grandest of them all, seated 3,400 customers in plush and mysterious East Indian surroundings. The decor itself transported audiences even before the movie began. Today the Fox faces a precarious future, shut for several
years. The theater complex was sold recently to Mario and Erma Delucchi of Piedmont, who say they will entertain any ideas for preserving it.
The Paramount opened in 1931 at 2025 Broadway; one of the last great, movie palaces built in the United States. It flourished for four decades, then fell into disuse. It has since been revived and refurbished as the Paramount Theatre of the Arts and the home of the Oakland Symphony. It has also been designated a national historic landmark. Another early landmark, The Esquire Theater, was located at 17th Street and.San Pablo Avenue. Built in 1919 as the American
Theater, it became the Esquire in 1939 with a change of ownership and refurbishing of the 1,500-seat interior. The wrecking ball knocked it down in 1953.
What about the business today? “It’s a strange business and getting stranger,” says Jerry Toler, owner-operator of the Chabot Theater in Castro Valley. Toler admits he is a discouraged
man. “The small independent has low buying power,” he explained, predicting that soon a
lot of them will be forced to close. His theater is called a “sub-run house” and, as such, he
has to wait for others to show the big films first, then he gets them â€" perhaps a month later
or longer. “It puts us at a big disadvantage. The independents are fighting constantly to get pictures,” Toler said. Film companies control all that, he said, and it was one of the reasons his father, who operated the theater before him, sued the film companies. “Things got better for a while after the suit was settled out of court, but it didn’t last,” Toler said.
In Fremont, on the other hand, Doug Krutilak, one-time partner in the Showcase Cinemas I and II, thinks small theaters “can do very well” despite a drop in film audiences. He says there are about the same number of theaters in existence today as there were in the early ‘50s, but they are much smaller. Krutilak, who now manages a night club in Fremont, lost his lease in 1977 when Transcontinental Theaters decided to get out of the business. One of the theaters was converted to an amusement center; the other remains for daily specialty shows as part of the amusement center.
Joe Siino owns the Vogue Theater in Pittsburg. The theater was shut recently after Siino’s son, who helped his father, was injured in an auto accident. “We were doing all right and we plan to reopen,” said Siino. The big Vogue seats 1,061 and Siino says he practically filled the house on weekends.
Here is an article dated 11/25/42 from the Dunkirk Evening Observer:
REGENT THEATRE WILL HOLD ITS PREMIERE ON THANKSGIVING DAY
The Regent Theatre, Dunkirk’s newest moving picture house, will have its premiere Thanksgiving Day. The initial program will start at 1 p.m. and will run continuously until 11 p.m. The new theater, built on the southwest corner at Washington Avenue and East Third street, has a seating capacity of 762 persons, all on the ground floor. It was constructed by Dalton B. Burgeit for a syndicate headed by Clyde R. Lathrop of Brocton.
The ceiling and walls are constructed of celetex which is painted in a rose-tan, grey and cream color scheme. Drapes at the exits are of rust colored velour. The outer stage curtain is rust velour and the inner curtain green and gold silk. Carpeting is of a brown and
marooned figured design.
The interior of the building was constructed along a streamlined plan with curves replacing sharp angles in the wall structure. Indirect lighting is in use. A commodious lobby faces on the East Third street side of the building. The ticket office is in the
center of the lobby’s south wall with entrances to the theater on either side. Upstairs over the lobby are the projection room, offices, ushers' dressing room and storage room.
Besides the two exits into the lobby there are three others in the theater. Two of these lead directly into Washington Avenue. The other is at the southwest corner of the building and leads to a roadway connecting with Lynx street. The theater is equipped with a ventilating and heating system which changes the air in the amusement center every two minutes. A blower in the cellar forces the heated fresh air out through two large vents in the ceiling while the spent air is sucked out through louvers beneath the stage.
The latest model RCA Photophone sound system has been installed at the theater. Arrangements have been made for showing of pictures released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Columbia, RKO, and United Artists.
So it wouldn’t have opened in 1972, but probably sometime in the 50s.
There is an ad for the Los Altos Drive-In in the Long Beach Independent dated 9/17/58. Address is given as Bellflower at Spring.
Here is a 1958 article from the Morgantown Post:
Con DeFere qualifies as a professional, if not a pioneer, in the do-it-yourself field that has become a busy occupation for amateurs in recent years. The regular trade of this 60-year-old Tyrone Road resident is that of movie projectionist at the Warner Theater, where he has been the senior film operator since it opened in 1931.
He was working in a glass factory when he started to learn the operation of a movie projection machine. That was in June of 1918 at the old Grand Theater on Walnut Street. Within a couple of weeks he got the job as a regular operator and has been in the trade since. The more than 40 years he has spent in that craft make him the veteran of movie projectionists in this city, and just about covers the history of movie theaters in Morgantown.
He has worked in all of themâ€"the short-lived Dixie, the Arcade (now known as the Morgan), the Strand (destroyed in the big 1927 fire), the Metropolitan, the Grand, and for the past 27 years at the Warner.
Con has received considerable practice in “do-it-yourself” theories to keep up with the many changes he has experienced in operating movie machines. There was the revolutionary change from silent to sound films shortly before 1930, and in recent years the development to Cinemascope and stereophonic sound. He helped install the sound equipment at the Warner for its opening in 1931, and before that did the same at the old Osage theater in that mining town.
He experienced one movie booth fire Friday, Dec. 13 in 1918, at the Arcade Theater where he had moved from the Grand. He had both arms burned seriously before he was able to jump from the booth.
He tried electrical contracting for a few months before accepting a job at the Dixie, a theater only old residents will remember. It was located in the building now occupied by Reiner & Core. He was there only eight months before it went out of business about the close of 1919. He moved to the Strand, where George H. Sallows was the manager, then back to the Grand, until about 1925 he began a roving period outside Morgantown.
He worked for a short time at Osage, then tried going into business for himself with a theater in Weston. That venture lasted six months before he went broke. He then leased a theater in Terra Alta with Fielding O'Kelly. After a short time he sold out his share to his partner to return to the Arcade.
Con says he had never heard a sound movie before he installed the sound system at the Osage theater, although the Met had already shown “Weary River,” featuring Richard Barthelmess, the first talkie
shown in Morgantown. Since taking a permanent seat at the Warner he also has operated a movie machine at one of the early drive-in theaters, the Oaks, that was near Cheat Lake.
Here is a 4/29/44 article from the Maryville Daily Forum:
Missouri Theater Destroyed by Fire
Spacious Show Place, Erected in 1926 by the Cook Family, Entirely Gutted by Flames After the Second Show Last Night.
Firemen Unable to Halt Flames That Start in Rear of Building
Fire which started soon after the second show had been completed last nighut about 11:30 o'clock totally destroyed the Missouri theater, leaving only the walls of the 18-year-old building standing. The Eugene Beauty Shop, which was located on the south side of the building was also destroyed. Nothing was saved at the Missouri, which was constructed and opened to the public in September 1926.
The fire last night was the second serious fire in the history of Maryville. The Empire theater, which was located across the street from the Missouri at the present site of the Masonic Temple and the Maryville Electric Light and Power company, was destroyed by fire in December, 1925.
The Missouri was built by J. F. Cook and his two sons, J. Ray,
the present operator of the theater, and Clarence K.. the present operator of the Tivoli theater. At the time the Missouri opened, it was considered as the most modern theater in this area. It had a seating capacity of 818, the main auditorium seating 540 persons, and the mezzanine, 218. It was designed by a Kansas City architect and followed closely the Spanish designs of show houses.
Here is a 1987 article from the Placerville Mountain Democrat about efforts to find a buyer for the theater:
Empire Theater Up for Sale Again
The 56-year-old New Empire Theater, which served as Placerville’s only movie theater for 50 years, is up for sale once again after Placerville developers Jim Liles and Jim Newmeyer gave up on a dream to turn it into a performing arts center. Liles and Newmeyer bought the theater in 1985, rented upstairs office space to arts groups and began scheduling live performances of musical acts like Jesse Colin Young, Dan Hicks and Maria Muldaur. But the two developers recently grant deeded the 375-seat theater back to Aria Toler, who has been trying to sell it since 1984.
The goal was “to keep it as an entertainment facility,” Newmeyer said. “We did as much as we could. We gave it a run. We ‘tried stuff. There just wasn’t enough support … The burden of the building and the maintenance made it too hard to do the kind of program we wanted.” That burden amounts to about $70,000 to $100,000 in maintenance costs to bring the aging building into compliance with city building and fire codes, estimated Don McConnell, real estate agent handling the sale for Toler.
The theater is plagued with a costly, antiquated heating system, old wiring and plumbing, inadequate insulation and a faulty fire wall, several sources said. The city sent Toler a letter in June which requires the necessary improvements before the theater can be used again, said Conrad Montgomery, Placerville’s community development director. Toler’s selling price is $300,000, McConnell said. Toler originally bought the theater in 1970 and continued operating it as a movie house. But she said she closed the doors in 1984 after the video craze and the new Placerville Cinema 4 began siphoning off customers and the city sent the bill for a $4,600 a year parking assessment.
The theater, built during the Great Depression in the 1930s, has a colorful background, involving old movies, stage shows and rumors of ghosts. One of the theater’s ads in the Mountain Democrat in 1933 featured James Cagney in “The Mayor of Hell,” John Barrymore in “Reunion in Vienna,” and Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in “Hold Your Man.” The theater presented stage shows in the early years. “Two Sensational Psychics” appeared there in August 1933: “Helena â€"the girl who baffled Edison” and “Mahra.” The audience was encouraged to “prepare your questions” ahead of time
.
The theater is haunted by ghosts, according to numerous employees and visitors over the years. “Good spirits reportedly inhabit the upper part of the theater, while the unsettled spirit of a drunk who died about 1940 in the boiler room supposedly leaves a negative aura in the inner sanctum of the structure,” the Mountain Democrat observed in 1984.
Toler blamed the monopolistic practices of the big movie companies for the downfall of small independent theaters like hers. “They make the film, they distribute it and then they run it in their own theaters,” she said. The city has considered purchasing the theater in the past but was stopped by lack of funds. Both the Sierra Cultural Arts Center Association and Theater El Dorado have considered using it as a cultural arts center. But the theater requires numerous renovations to function in that capacity, representatives have claimed.
“We were a little early for what we wanted to do,” Newmeyer said. “The town is rejuvenating” and the support will be there in the future, he said. “There is no central place for the arts,” said Newmeyer. He said the theater is a prime location for that arts center. “It still could be done,” Newmeyer claims, but it will take a “full-time person” who has the resources, he said. Toler agreed. “If somebody came in here and had the know how, I’m sure they could make it go,” she said.
Here is an article about the Metropolitan from the 1/06/18 edition of the Washington Post:
Crandall’s Metropolitan Theater, now in the course of erection at F and Tenth streets, in which all right and title was purchased by Harry M. Crandall, Barry Bulkley and R. W. Bulkley, will throw open its doors to the public of Washington about the middle of February. This new and handsome addition to the amusement houses of the nation’s Capital covers approximately 10,000 square feet. The entrance is on F Street, the lobby extending back 30 feet to a rotunda promenade leading directly to the auditorium proper of the theater, which, extending at a direct right angle, covers the remainder of the property to Tenth Street. This affords an immense area on the first floor, the plans calling for 1,200 seats on the orchestra level alone.
Extending over half of this space is hung the cantilever balcony and mezzanine. Private boxes and loge seats will occupy the entire mezzanine. The arrangement of the balcony is novel in that it consists of a series of rises reached by a system of ornamental fireproof tunnels or promenades. This is declared to be utilizing such manner of balcony approaches for the first time in theater construction in the United States.
The mezzanine floor will have a seating capacity of more than 300, while the balcony will seat approximately 700, giving the theater a total seating capacity of over 2,200. This makes the Metropolitan the largest theater in Washington. The house is of fireproof construction throughout, and the general lines and architectural plan is of the Adams period. The front of the theater on F Street is of Pompeian art brick with Tennessee limestone trimmings. The foyer and rotunda promenade are of highly polished grey—veined Vermont marble finished with carved ornamental New Hampshire granite. The interior decorations will be in rich tones of old rose and medieval ivory heightened with gold. On each floor of the theater will be a broad, spacious promenade handsomely appointed and lavishly furnished.
The Metropolitan Theater will be strictly a motion picture house and Mr. Crandall has already arranged for the first Washington showing of many photographic productions featuring the well known stars of the film and stage worlds. The theater was designed by Reginald W. Geare and was built by Frank L. Wagner. In the transaction P. A. Drury has conveyed to H. M. Crandall nineteen parcels of real estate for a consideration of $175,000. The negotiations were conducted through the real estate office of Moore & Hill, Inc.
The Hoosier closed in December 1959 for an unspecified period. An article in the Hammond Times, excerpted here, mentions three other Whiting theaters, the Star, Princess and Capitol.
Top Stars Showed Youthful Wares In Hoosier Theater
Oil City Once Had 4 Showhouses
Closing of Whiting’s Hoosier theater, the city’s only remaining theater and an entertainment center in the Oil City for the last 35 yearsâ€"because there just wasn’t enough revenueâ€"opens the door to a past, brilliant with its glitter of stars, both in the vaudeville and movie worlds.
Although of late movies played to more empty seats than filled ones at the Hoosier, former stage manager William Schulte recalls the days when people lined up outside waiting to get in to see such hits of the past as “Birth of a Nation”, “What Price Glory” and others.
When the Hoosier theater opened its doors in 1924 it was under the ownership of Jack and Margaret Bennett, who prior to construction of the Hoosier had operated the Princess theater near the new show place. In 1929 the Hoosier was taken over by Warner Brothers, with Mrs. Bennett and a new partner, Roy Green, Whiting attorney, as operators.
Passing of the Hoosier theater temporarily or permanently, brings to a close a Whiting theater era that had its start shortly after the coming of Standard Oil Co. refinery to the town in 1889. The Star theater on 119th Street near New York Avenue was recognized as the first “modern” movie house in Whiting, although there had been one earlier place that catered to the public in the early history of movies. Opening of the Princess theater, also on 119th street, near Sheridan Avenue, and west of the Star, gave the Oil City two theaters.
For a short time Whiting was a town with four theaters. The town enjoyed this distinction when the Capitol theater, on 119th Street near LaPorte Avenue, opened its doors, Hoosier came into existence about a year laterâ€"and the Star and Princess theaters were still operated by the owners of the new Capitol and Hoosier theatersâ€"A. J. Obresk and Margaret Bennett, respectively. Both Obresk and Mrs. Bennett are now dead.
Here is a July 2006 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/uuc79
Here is a July 2006 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/vdpro
Here are two photos from July 2006:
http://tinyurl.com/y42kfe
http://tinyurl.com/vvxo2
Here is a photo from July 2006:
http://tinyurl.com/y3bxy8
Here is a photo from July 2006:
http://tinyurl.com/w9stm
There is a July 1990 photo on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/yaax7s
There is a March 1987 photo on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/yaax7s
There is a July 1990 photo on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/yaax7s
Here are excerpts from a 1978 article from the Oakland Tribune about the Vogue and other Oakland theaters:
If New York’s Radio City Music Hall, with its gorgeous Rockettes, cannot make it these days, what can? Maybe the days of the huge, ornate downtown movie theaters are gone. That’s the picture in the Eastbay, in line with the New York trend. The Radio City Music Hall has been the showplace for movie extravaganzas, the Rockettes chorus line, the big bands, and stand-up comedians. Now the owners say the crowds are staying away.
What is happening in New York has already happened to many Eastbay theaters â€" and for much the same reasons: The flight to the suburbs, mushrooming of small neighborhood theaters,
television, the drive-ins, and changes in the way Hollywood merchandises its products. Some Eastbay theater operators today say they are barely making a living. Others say business is great; these are notably the chains which can out-bid small independents for Hollywood’s latest blockbuster. The ones who didn’t adjust their operations to the changing times have sunk into red ink.
The death roll of those that closed is long: The first exclusive cinema palace in Oakland was said to be the T & D (circa 1916) on llth Street between Broadway and Franklin Street. The building
now is deserted. In 1926, an even finer exhibition hall, the Grand Lake Theater, began operating at 3200 Grand Avenue, and it is still open. Also in the mid 20s, the old Orpheum abandoned its first site on 12th Street to take over the original Fox Oakland on Broadway near 19th Street, later naming it the Orpheum. A bank now stands on the site.
In 1928, the new Fox Oakland on Telegraph Avenue at 18th Street, the grandest of them all, seated 3,400 customers in plush and mysterious East Indian surroundings. The decor itself transported audiences even before the movie began. Today the Fox faces a precarious future, shut for several
years. The theater complex was sold recently to Mario and Erma Delucchi of Piedmont, who say they will entertain any ideas for preserving it.
The Paramount opened in 1931 at 2025 Broadway; one of the last great, movie palaces built in the United States. It flourished for four decades, then fell into disuse. It has since been revived and refurbished as the Paramount Theatre of the Arts and the home of the Oakland Symphony. It has also been designated a national historic landmark. Another early landmark, The Esquire Theater, was located at 17th Street and.San Pablo Avenue. Built in 1919 as the American
Theater, it became the Esquire in 1939 with a change of ownership and refurbishing of the 1,500-seat interior. The wrecking ball knocked it down in 1953.
What about the business today? “It’s a strange business and getting stranger,” says Jerry Toler, owner-operator of the Chabot Theater in Castro Valley. Toler admits he is a discouraged
man. “The small independent has low buying power,” he explained, predicting that soon a
lot of them will be forced to close. His theater is called a “sub-run house” and, as such, he
has to wait for others to show the big films first, then he gets them â€" perhaps a month later
or longer. “It puts us at a big disadvantage. The independents are fighting constantly to get pictures,” Toler said. Film companies control all that, he said, and it was one of the reasons his father, who operated the theater before him, sued the film companies. “Things got better for a while after the suit was settled out of court, but it didn’t last,” Toler said.
In Fremont, on the other hand, Doug Krutilak, one-time partner in the Showcase Cinemas I and II, thinks small theaters “can do very well” despite a drop in film audiences. He says there are about the same number of theaters in existence today as there were in the early ‘50s, but they are much smaller. Krutilak, who now manages a night club in Fremont, lost his lease in 1977 when Transcontinental Theaters decided to get out of the business. One of the theaters was converted to an amusement center; the other remains for daily specialty shows as part of the amusement center.
Joe Siino owns the Vogue Theater in Pittsburg. The theater was shut recently after Siino’s son, who helped his father, was injured in an auto accident. “We were doing all right and we plan to reopen,” said Siino. The big Vogue seats 1,061 and Siino says he practically filled the house on weekends.
This page has a July 1988 photo:
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Here is a photo from July 2001:
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There is a photo of the Tower on this page:
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I’ve never heard South Jersey referred to as “Southern NJ” before. I grew up in Absecon, which is close to Atlantic City.
There is a 1986 photo on this page:
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There is a pre-renovation photo on this page:
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There is a photo of the Royal on this page:
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