Here is an article from the Lowell Sun dated 11/5/55:
An investigation by the state fire marshal’s office was ordered today into the general alarm fire which swept through Cantor’s Garage on George street, at Towers' corner area early this morning and completely destroyed two dozen trucks, a number of cars and much merchandise at a loss approximating §300,000. The spectacular blaze which was discovered at l:30 this morning kept every available Lowell fireman battling for two hours, with aid being summoned from four Greater Lowell towns to provide stand-by protection to the city.
The block-long building, which extends from George Street to Central street, with Green and Williams streets on either side, is sub-divided by thick, brick fire walls which were greatly responsible
for preventing much greater property damage, including the gutting of the Rialto theater and the Bissonette showroom with three new model cars on the Central street end.
It was the presence of a fire wall which did extend above the roof that saved the Rialto theater. The theater boiler room in the back of the stage was flooded by water to a depth of several feet and the heating plant was killed. The water also penetrated behind the theater stage and firemen today are pumping out the building.
On July 8, 1954, the feature was Walt Disney’s “Rob Roy” in Technicolor, shown on the Park’s “Panoramic Wide Screen”. The Holland Theater was advertising “Demetrius and the Gladiators”, in Cinemascope.
The theater burned in 1959, according to this 1963 article:
A large downtown lot, its emptiness partially hidden from view by a rough fence which bears a sign proclaiming “Paradise”, would serve a variety of uses if Benningtonians had their way.
The roughly graded lot is all that remains of a busy downtown corner which once accommodated a portion of the General Stark theater as well as the Vermont Savings Bank building. The theater block was destroyed by fire in 1959 and the bank building was demolished last spring when it proved unadaptable to modern business uses. The current owner, John B. Harte, has no prospective tenants or future plans.
Here is an article from a local paper on 7/19/61 re the conversion from theater to films:
“Bennington is going to have a movie theater”, John R. Harte,
attorney for Harte Realty Corp. announced yesterday. Projected
opening date is after Labor Day.
Harte said the Harte Theater at 481 Main St. has been leased to
Lloyd H. Bridgham of Dover, N.H., a theater-chain owner and operator who has theaters in the Vermont cities of Rutland and Barre.
Two weeks ago Bridgham stored 250 movie theater chairs inside the Harte Thealer in anticipation of completing negotiations with Harte.
“We are going to completely modernize the theater,” Harte said. He described renovating and refurbishing the theater as “a joint venture.”
Harte said he was happy to announce signing of the lease agreement and said it was a result of “the insistence of the public. We are going into this with our fingers crossed since we are opening a theater when people are still closing movie houses all around the country,” Harle said. Bridgham, as leasee of the theater, will have complete control, Harte said, “from the marquee straight on through."
"I am sure he desires to make every effort to supply people with
first-class entertainment,” Harte added.
Harte said his efforts to secure a lease for the theater were influenced “by an honest attempt to provide a place for young people
to have an entertainment outlet”. Picking up the current slogan
of movies, Harte added, “after all, TV leaves a lot to be desired.”
On 5/28/17, the Alhambra was featuring Alice Brady in “Maternity”. The Indianapolis Star listed several other venues of the day, but some seem to be a mixture of vaudeville and films or vaudeville only, so it’s hard to say which would be an actual movie theater:
The Circle – “Shrine of the Silent Art"
Lyric
Colonial
Isis
Regent (Last Time – Dorothy Phillips in "The Flashlight”)
Park – Summer Vaudeville (perhaps no films at all)
BF Keiths – “Patriotic Photoplays, World News Weekly"
English’s – Universal News Weekly
Majestic – Burlesque
Here is an article about the renovation from the Northwest Arkansas Times, dated 1/22/68:
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will no longer have to compete with
rock ‘n’ roll musicians in the battles of the bands. The symphony has a new home, a glittering palace complete with crystal chandeliers
and a very proper bar salvaged from the New York Metropolitan Opera building which is now just a memory.
“It’s a dream, it’s just a dream”, said Walter Susskind, new conductor for the orchestra. The dream becomes reality Wednesday night when the symphony presents its first concert in Powell Hall, named for Walter S. Powell, whose widow provided a generous endowment for the project.
The orchestra’s new home was built more than 40 years ago as a movie theater to end them all with a 70-foot domed ceiling in the auditorium, Italian marble floors, carved and gilded mouldings. But its history wasn’t as happy as its promise, until now. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Society purchased the theater two years ago for about $400,000. Renovation has cost about $2 million.
The Ozark was showing “How Sweet It Is!” with James Garner and Debbie Reynolds on 10/4/68. Other local theaters were the Uark, Palace and the 71 Drive-In.
We had a theater like that in Bargaintown, NJ when I was a teenager. The projectionist was the same guy that took the tickets at the front door. He also came down from the booth occasionally to sell popcorn, so you had to catch him when he was manning the snackbar if you were hungry.
Here is an article from the December 20, 1940 edition of the Palatine Enterprise:
Movie Matinee to Help Fill Christmas Baskets
Tom Norman, proprietor of Palatine Theatre, in appreciation for
the treatment accorded him by Palatine people the past year, has
booked a special movie show that will be presented Saturday after-
noon, starting at 2:30 p.m. Any child can secure admission by
bringing some article of non-perishable food, canned goods preferred.
Admission, however, will not be denied any child who is unable
to bring the food.
All food obtained will be turned over to the local Christmas basket
committee, which will enable the committee to supply larger baskets
than is customary. The program, especially booked for the show, will include the Adolph Zukor feature “Sons of the Legion,” a cartoon, comedy and shortsâ€"just the kind of a program the children will enjoy and one that has the approval of parents.
In view of all the current talk about the meaning of Americanism
nothing could be timelier than the new American youth drama, “Sons of the Legion” with Lynne Overman, Donald O'Connor and Elizabeth Patterson heading the cast in a dramatic story of the effect
of a liberal interpretation of Americanism on a typical community.
On October 14, 1927, Clara Bow was starring in “Hula” at the Uptown:
That Clara Bow now occupies the coveted position of attracting more people to the theaters in which her pictures unreel than any other young woman star of 1927 is again being demonstrated with the release of “Hula,” her latest picture. “Hula” comes next Monday to the Uptown Theater, and Balaban & Katz are expecting a rush
of customers, therefore.
“Hula” exhibits the peppy Miss Bow as a wild little child of some
Hawaiian island. She is wild just because she grew that way, having
a dissolute old father and no mother to guide her. Only the kindly natives take good care of Clara, teaching her to be a good girl if a tomboy. And also teaching her the native dance that gives the picture a title.
Thus when love, in the form of Clive Brook, is made known to Miss
Bow she has a hard time of it. Miss Bow has “it,” in the various stages of dress and undress that her role calls for.
On the stage at the Uptown Bennie Krueger and his band will offer “Tokio Blues.” “Tokio Blues” is one of the most novel revues
ever seen at the Uptown. These artists combine their native charm
and grace with the Yankee pep of jazz performers. And the oriental
beauty of the Japanese girls is a pleasant change from the typical
North American beauty. Willie Solar, the featured comedian of
“Tokio Blues,” is a well-known comic from vaudeville and revues.
On 5/24/19, the Majestic was showing “The Gun Packer”, with Pete Morison, along with a Hearst newsreel and a short about a circus strongman. Other theaters showing films on that day were the New Folly (“A Picture Playhouse of Character”), the Lyric (“A Family Theater – Always a Good Show”), the Palace, the Liberty, Empress, Strand, Overholser and Dreamland.
On 4/8/34, the Midwest was showing “As the Earth Turns”, along with a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Admission was 36 cents. Other theaters showing on that day were the Rialto, Folly, Circle, Criterion, Empress, Victoria, Ritz, Capitol and Liberty.
“Whiplash” with Dane Clark and Alexis Smith was playing at the Tri-States Paramount on 5/22/49. Tommy Dorsey and his band was booked for 5/31. Other theaters in Waterloo at the time were the RKO Orpheum, Strand, Warner Brothers' State, Waterloo and Starlite Drive-In Theater.
There was a boxing exhibition at the McSwain on 5/24/22, according to the Ada Evening News. Ringside seats $1.50, Ladies half price. In the same issue was this prescient comment from our old friend Samuel Roxy Rothafel:
In 10 years the motion picture will rival grand opera as an artistic
production. This is the prophecy, not by the ghost of Bill Nye talking over the ouija board, but by Samuel L. Rothafel, celebrated designer and director of the Capitol theater in New York. If Rothafel is right, the movies have a long way to go and it will have
to be at a fast clip. The movies, however, come in for a lot of unjust criticism. Critics forget that the motion picture is a baby among the various kinds of theatical entertainments.
Rothafel has a golden dream of future movies. He believes movie
theaters will be shaped like an egg, the pictures made realistic by a fusion of colors, high-grade music, magic lighting effects, the characters “talking” their lines, with sounds and even odors reproduced to complete the hypnotic state of the audience.
Rothafel even predicts that movie theaters will be endowed by national state and city governments, like the endowed theaters of ancient Greece. In the background, however, is the possibility that 10 years from now movie theaters may be closed, with the finest movies broadcasted by wireless to the humblest home. In that case, you wonder, who would pay the actors? It would be the same process as the future of radio music. The finest of vocal and instrumental talent will undoubtedly be employed by the radio industry as a free inducement to further the sales of their instruments.
Under the Impact of a heavy wrecking ball swung by a crane boom, a Large section of the roof of the old Manring Theater caves in on the mass of rubble below. Demolition of the old Middlesboro Cumberland Avenue landmark followed in the wake of a Disastrous fire June 13 that destroyed the interior of the threater and severely damaged the walls.
Here is an article from the Lowell Sun dated 11/5/55:
An investigation by the state fire marshal’s office was ordered today into the general alarm fire which swept through Cantor’s Garage on George street, at Towers' corner area early this morning and completely destroyed two dozen trucks, a number of cars and much merchandise at a loss approximating §300,000. The spectacular blaze which was discovered at l:30 this morning kept every available Lowell fireman battling for two hours, with aid being summoned from four Greater Lowell towns to provide stand-by protection to the city.
The block-long building, which extends from George Street to Central street, with Green and Williams streets on either side, is sub-divided by thick, brick fire walls which were greatly responsible
for preventing much greater property damage, including the gutting of the Rialto theater and the Bissonette showroom with three new model cars on the Central street end.
It was the presence of a fire wall which did extend above the roof that saved the Rialto theater. The theater boiler room in the back of the stage was flooded by water to a depth of several feet and the heating plant was killed. The water also penetrated behind the theater stage and firemen today are pumping out the building.
On July 8, 1954, the feature was Walt Disney’s “Rob Roy” in Technicolor, shown on the Park’s “Panoramic Wide Screen”. The Holland Theater was advertising “Demetrius and the Gladiators”, in Cinemascope.
Here is the lineup on 11/21/40:
IDAN-HA THEATRE
“The Pick of the Pictures"
New Admission Prices – 10c and 30c – Defense Tax Included
Friday and Saturday – “It All Came True"
Sun, Mon & Tues – "East of the River”
plus Terry Tune, Pathe News, Selected Short Subjects
This was a Schine theater in 1939. There was some kind of remodeling as the local paper had a page of ads saluting the grand opening of the Manring.
The theater burned in 1959, according to this 1963 article:
A large downtown lot, its emptiness partially hidden from view by a rough fence which bears a sign proclaiming “Paradise”, would serve a variety of uses if Benningtonians had their way.
The roughly graded lot is all that remains of a busy downtown corner which once accommodated a portion of the General Stark theater as well as the Vermont Savings Bank building. The theater block was destroyed by fire in 1959 and the bank building was demolished last spring when it proved unadaptable to modern business uses. The current owner, John B. Harte, has no prospective tenants or future plans.
Here is an article from a local paper on 7/19/61 re the conversion from theater to films:
“Bennington is going to have a movie theater”, John R. Harte,
attorney for Harte Realty Corp. announced yesterday. Projected
opening date is after Labor Day.
Harte said the Harte Theater at 481 Main St. has been leased to
Lloyd H. Bridgham of Dover, N.H., a theater-chain owner and operator who has theaters in the Vermont cities of Rutland and Barre.
Two weeks ago Bridgham stored 250 movie theater chairs inside the Harte Thealer in anticipation of completing negotiations with Harte.
“We are going to completely modernize the theater,” Harte said. He described renovating and refurbishing the theater as “a joint venture.”
Harte said he was happy to announce signing of the lease agreement and said it was a result of “the insistence of the public. We are going into this with our fingers crossed since we are opening a theater when people are still closing movie houses all around the country,” Harle said. Bridgham, as leasee of the theater, will have complete control, Harte said, “from the marquee straight on through."
"I am sure he desires to make every effort to supply people with
first-class entertainment,” Harte added.
Harte said his efforts to secure a lease for the theater were influenced “by an honest attempt to provide a place for young people
to have an entertainment outlet”. Picking up the current slogan
of movies, Harte added, “after all, TV leaves a lot to be desired.”
This was the lineup on 1/29/77:
WES MER DRIVE IN
MERCEDES
NO. 1
JOHN WAYNE IN
“THE SHOOTIST”
NO. 2
“THE BIG BOSS"
NO. 3
"EMPEROR OF THE NORTH"
$3 PER CARLOAD
This was the lineup on 1/29/77:
H.BENITEZ THEATRES
GRANDE THEATRE
HARLINGEN
NO. 1
“LOS POLIVOCES"
NO. 2
"SOMOS DEL OTRO LAREDO"
NO. 3
"EL PARDRINO ES MI COMPADRE”
On 5/28/17, the Alhambra was featuring Alice Brady in “Maternity”. The Indianapolis Star listed several other venues of the day, but some seem to be a mixture of vaudeville and films or vaudeville only, so it’s hard to say which would be an actual movie theater:
The Circle – “Shrine of the Silent Art"
Lyric
Colonial
Isis
Regent (Last Time – Dorothy Phillips in "The Flashlight”)
Park – Summer Vaudeville (perhaps no films at all)
BF Keiths – “Patriotic Photoplays, World News Weekly"
English’s – Universal News Weekly
Majestic – Burlesque
Here is an article about the renovation from the Northwest Arkansas Times, dated 1/22/68:
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will no longer have to compete with
rock ‘n’ roll musicians in the battles of the bands. The symphony has a new home, a glittering palace complete with crystal chandeliers
and a very proper bar salvaged from the New York Metropolitan Opera building which is now just a memory.
“It’s a dream, it’s just a dream”, said Walter Susskind, new conductor for the orchestra. The dream becomes reality Wednesday night when the symphony presents its first concert in Powell Hall, named for Walter S. Powell, whose widow provided a generous endowment for the project.
The orchestra’s new home was built more than 40 years ago as a movie theater to end them all with a 70-foot domed ceiling in the auditorium, Italian marble floors, carved and gilded mouldings. But its history wasn’t as happy as its promise, until now. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Society purchased the theater two years ago for about $400,000. Renovation has cost about $2 million.
Fair enough. Hopefully we can keep to a minimum the number of new additions that are blatant advertisements.
There was also a 71 Drive-In operating in the 1960s in Fayetteville. I assume would have been off Highway 71?
The Ozark was showing “How Sweet It Is!” with James Garner and Debbie Reynolds on 10/4/68. Other local theaters were the Uark, Palace and the 71 Drive-In.
Do you show films? Has this venue ever been a movie theater?
We had a theater like that in Bargaintown, NJ when I was a teenager. The projectionist was the same guy that took the tickets at the front door. He also came down from the booth occasionally to sell popcorn, so you had to catch him when he was manning the snackbar if you were hungry.
That’s a very good timeline. Well done.
Here is an article from the December 20, 1940 edition of the Palatine Enterprise:
Movie Matinee to Help Fill Christmas Baskets
Tom Norman, proprietor of Palatine Theatre, in appreciation for
the treatment accorded him by Palatine people the past year, has
booked a special movie show that will be presented Saturday after-
noon, starting at 2:30 p.m. Any child can secure admission by
bringing some article of non-perishable food, canned goods preferred.
Admission, however, will not be denied any child who is unable
to bring the food.
All food obtained will be turned over to the local Christmas basket
committee, which will enable the committee to supply larger baskets
than is customary. The program, especially booked for the show, will include the Adolph Zukor feature “Sons of the Legion,” a cartoon, comedy and shortsâ€"just the kind of a program the children will enjoy and one that has the approval of parents.
In view of all the current talk about the meaning of Americanism
nothing could be timelier than the new American youth drama, “Sons of the Legion” with Lynne Overman, Donald O'Connor and Elizabeth Patterson heading the cast in a dramatic story of the effect
of a liberal interpretation of Americanism on a typical community.
On October 14, 1927, Clara Bow was starring in “Hula” at the Uptown:
That Clara Bow now occupies the coveted position of attracting more people to the theaters in which her pictures unreel than any other young woman star of 1927 is again being demonstrated with the release of “Hula,” her latest picture. “Hula” comes next Monday to the Uptown Theater, and Balaban & Katz are expecting a rush
of customers, therefore.
“Hula” exhibits the peppy Miss Bow as a wild little child of some
Hawaiian island. She is wild just because she grew that way, having
a dissolute old father and no mother to guide her. Only the kindly natives take good care of Clara, teaching her to be a good girl if a tomboy. And also teaching her the native dance that gives the picture a title.
Thus when love, in the form of Clive Brook, is made known to Miss
Bow she has a hard time of it. Miss Bow has “it,” in the various stages of dress and undress that her role calls for.
On the stage at the Uptown Bennie Krueger and his band will offer “Tokio Blues.” “Tokio Blues” is one of the most novel revues
ever seen at the Uptown. These artists combine their native charm
and grace with the Yankee pep of jazz performers. And the oriental
beauty of the Japanese girls is a pleasant change from the typical
North American beauty. Willie Solar, the featured comedian of
“Tokio Blues,” is a well-known comic from vaudeville and revues.
End of the road, 1970:
http://tinyurl.com/ut7lp
Here is a 1939 photo from the Brooklyn Public Library:
http://tinyurl.com/y5somx
On 5/24/19, the Majestic was showing “The Gun Packer”, with Pete Morison, along with a Hearst newsreel and a short about a circus strongman. Other theaters showing films on that day were the New Folly (“A Picture Playhouse of Character”), the Lyric (“A Family Theater – Always a Good Show”), the Palace, the Liberty, Empress, Strand, Overholser and Dreamland.
On 4/8/34, the Midwest was showing “As the Earth Turns”, along with a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Admission was 36 cents. Other theaters showing on that day were the Rialto, Folly, Circle, Criterion, Empress, Victoria, Ritz, Capitol and Liberty.
“Whiplash” with Dane Clark and Alexis Smith was playing at the Tri-States Paramount on 5/22/49. Tommy Dorsey and his band was booked for 5/31. Other theaters in Waterloo at the time were the RKO Orpheum, Strand, Warner Brothers' State, Waterloo and Starlite Drive-In Theater.
There was a boxing exhibition at the McSwain on 5/24/22, according to the Ada Evening News. Ringside seats $1.50, Ladies half price. In the same issue was this prescient comment from our old friend Samuel Roxy Rothafel:
In 10 years the motion picture will rival grand opera as an artistic
production. This is the prophecy, not by the ghost of Bill Nye talking over the ouija board, but by Samuel L. Rothafel, celebrated designer and director of the Capitol theater in New York. If Rothafel is right, the movies have a long way to go and it will have
to be at a fast clip. The movies, however, come in for a lot of unjust criticism. Critics forget that the motion picture is a baby among the various kinds of theatical entertainments.
Rothafel has a golden dream of future movies. He believes movie
theaters will be shaped like an egg, the pictures made realistic by a fusion of colors, high-grade music, magic lighting effects, the characters “talking” their lines, with sounds and even odors reproduced to complete the hypnotic state of the audience.
Rothafel even predicts that movie theaters will be endowed by national state and city governments, like the endowed theaters of ancient Greece. In the background, however, is the possibility that 10 years from now movie theaters may be closed, with the finest movies broadcasted by wireless to the humblest home. In that case, you wonder, who would pay the actors? It would be the same process as the future of radio music. The finest of vocal and instrumental talent will undoubtedly be employed by the radio industry as a free inducement to further the sales of their instruments.
End of the road, 6/26/74:
Burned-Out Manring Theater Demolished
Under the Impact of a heavy wrecking ball swung by a crane boom, a Large section of the roof of the old Manring Theater caves in on the mass of rubble below. Demolition of the old Middlesboro Cumberland Avenue landmark followed in the wake of a Disastrous fire June 13 that destroyed the interior of the threater and severely damaged the walls.