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.
This theater dates back to at least 1911, according to a local paper:
MANRING THEATER
Starting Monday Night, May 1st and running for two weeks. Will give away the pick of any $15.00 Hat at the Hamilton Millinery Store.
Only coupons received during this two weeks are good on the night
of drawing. Save them.
Help! I’m looking at an ad in the Harlingen Valley Morning Star dated 2/22/53. The Majestic in Brownsville was showing the “Jazz Singer” with Danny Thomas. The theater page lists a number of movie houses in various locales, but I cannot figure out which are listed already as the locations are rather flexible, geographically. Take a look at the list and feel free to pitch in if you have any clue:
Palace – McAllen
Rivoli – San Benito
Alto – La Feria (I have already listed an Alto in Alto, which makes sense)
Valley Drive-In Theatre – no location given
Queen – McAllen
State – Mercedes
Strand – Harlingen
Citrus Drive-In – Harlingen
Rialto – Harlingen
Ritz – Weslaco
Here is an article from the Cedar Rapids Gazette dated 4/15/62:
End Nears for Boston’s Historic Scollay Square
Proper Boston is standing death watch over an aged and roguish black sheep relative. Brazen Scollay Square, long the stamping grounds of millions of seamen and servicemen, is breathing its last raspy breaths as a rowdy oasis in the midst of puritan virtue.
Soon the burlesque theaters, the cafes and their come-on
girls, the tattoo studios, the penny arcade, the hamburger joints will be reduced to nostalgic rubble and carted away. In their places will rise a stately and respectableâ€"but far less interestingâ€"
government center, housing federal, state, county and city offices with approaches of flowers and tree-lined malls…
Also coming down is the Rialto Theater, the only all-night movie house in Boston, where sleepy-eyed patrons were ousted for for two hours each dawn so the place could be swept and aired out.
Here is an ad for a rather exotic film showing at the Rialto on 1/23/38:
RIALTO THEATRE – Monday Only
For the first time on any screen … the horrifying, blood-chilling
rites of the savage PENITENTES, whose pagan idolatry forces
them to undergo self-torture and flagellation before they can reach
the apex of their sacrifices, crucifixion!
My link has died. Here is the text of the ad, which had an eclectic cast, including Ted Healy of Three Stooges fame, Betty Furness, best known for selling refrigerators in the fifties, and Una Merkel, who usually played the local busybody in the Frankenstein pictures of the thirties:
A PICTURE FOR YOU, NEIGHBOR, AND YOU’LL LOVE IT!
Wally’s back! With a grand new load of laughs and tears and thrills!
WALLACE BEERY
Just an “old soak”… but how he comes through when his kid’s in a jam! Riotous fun.. .when he rides up Park Avenue in a peddler’s wagon! Thrills and howls …when he traps a rascally banker and scares him out of ten grand!
“GOOD OLD SOAK” and what a cast!
Una Merkel, Eric Linden, Judith Barrett, Betty Furness, Ted Healy, Janet Beecher, George Sidney
Here is an ad from the Kingsport Times on 6/20/37:
GEM THEATRE Monday and Tuesday
A PICTURE ALL SHOULD SEE!
BRET HARTE'S
‘OUTCASTS of POKER FLATS'
â€" with â€"
PRESTON FOSTER – JEAN MUIR
CARDS – THAT DEAL OUT T0 MEN AND WOMENâ€"
LOVE …
WEALTH …
ROMANCE…
RUIN …
Here is a 1977 article from the Pasadena Star-News about the possible demolition of the Rialto:
SoPas citizens write to the rescue of Rialto Theater
South Pasadenans are beginning to rumble about the imminent plans to
demolish the Rialto Theater, a 1925 Moorish landmark that has seen the rise and fall of vaudeville, Saturday serials and cinema verite.
About 100 petitions are being circulated by a grass-roots organization which calls itself the Rescue the Rialto Committee.
Residents are riding on a groundswell following a county surveyor’s report found that the Rialto met the criteria necessary for possible
inclusion on the national register.
Tom Sitton, a surveyor employed by the county to examine structures
for a statewide inventory, said that he found that the Rialto met the
criteria necessary for possible inclusion on the national register.
Sitton said that qualifying as “potential material” would afford the edifice the same protection as a structure, already on the register.
This resulted from an executive document issued in 1972 which said
that since surveying historic sites was a time-consuming operation,
those that met the criteria should be treated like those already on the register, until the drawnout application procedure can be completed.
The structure is among other buildings on a four-square block area
in the downtown section that has been slated for a shopping center.
The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on that project, which was
adopted in July, 1975, reported that there were no state or federally
registered historic structures in the project area. John Bernardi, the city’s director of building and planning, said that the citizenry had 80 days to challenge an EIR. That time is past, but hearings will be held for the parking district, which is another part of the downtown development, Bernardi said. During those hearings, residents may bring up the Rialto issue.
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.
This theater dates back to at least 1911, according to a local paper:
MANRING THEATER
Starting Monday Night, May 1st and running for two weeks. Will give away the pick of any $15.00 Hat at the Hamilton Millinery Store.
Only coupons received during this two weeks are good on the night
of drawing. Save them.
ADMISSION:ADULTS 10c CHILDREN UNDER 9 5c
There was also a Rialto in New Haven which was destroyed by fire on 11/28/21, with three fatalities and 79 patrons injured.
Help! I’m looking at an ad in the Harlingen Valley Morning Star dated 2/22/53. The Majestic in Brownsville was showing the “Jazz Singer” with Danny Thomas. The theater page lists a number of movie houses in various locales, but I cannot figure out which are listed already as the locations are rather flexible, geographically. Take a look at the list and feel free to pitch in if you have any clue:
Palace – McAllen
Rivoli – San Benito
Alto – La Feria (I have already listed an Alto in Alto, which makes sense)
Valley Drive-In Theatre – no location given
Queen – McAllen
State – Mercedes
Strand – Harlingen
Citrus Drive-In – Harlingen
Rialto – Harlingen
Ritz – Weslaco
Thanks!
Here is an article from the Cedar Rapids Gazette dated 4/15/62:
End Nears for Boston’s Historic Scollay Square
Proper Boston is standing death watch over an aged and roguish black sheep relative. Brazen Scollay Square, long the stamping grounds of millions of seamen and servicemen, is breathing its last raspy breaths as a rowdy oasis in the midst of puritan virtue.
Soon the burlesque theaters, the cafes and their come-on
girls, the tattoo studios, the penny arcade, the hamburger joints will be reduced to nostalgic rubble and carted away. In their places will rise a stately and respectableâ€"but far less interestingâ€"
government center, housing federal, state, county and city offices with approaches of flowers and tree-lined malls…
Also coming down is the Rialto Theater, the only all-night movie house in Boston, where sleepy-eyed patrons were ousted for for two hours each dawn so the place could be swept and aired out.
Here is an ad for a rather exotic film showing at the Rialto on 1/23/38:
RIALTO THEATRE – Monday Only
For the first time on any screen … the horrifying, blood-chilling
rites of the savage PENITENTES, whose pagan idolatry forces
them to undergo self-torture and flagellation before they can reach
the apex of their sacrifices, crucifixion!
MAN HUNTERS OF THE CARIBBEAN
with ANDRE ROOSEVELT, CAPT. E ERSKINE LOCH
Any Seat – 10c and 20c – Any Time
My link has died. Here is the text of the ad, which had an eclectic cast, including Ted Healy of Three Stooges fame, Betty Furness, best known for selling refrigerators in the fifties, and Una Merkel, who usually played the local busybody in the Frankenstein pictures of the thirties:
A PICTURE FOR YOU, NEIGHBOR, AND YOU’LL LOVE IT!
Wally’s back! With a grand new load of laughs and tears and thrills!
WALLACE BEERY
Just an “old soak”… but how he comes through when his kid’s in a jam! Riotous fun.. .when he rides up Park Avenue in a peddler’s wagon! Thrills and howls …when he traps a rascally banker and scares him out of ten grand!
“GOOD OLD SOAK” and what a cast!
Una Merkel, Eric Linden, Judith Barrett, Betty Furness, Ted Healy, Janet Beecher, George Sidney
ADDED – See the New March of Time
It’s Healthfully COOL At the STRAND
Here is an ad from the Kingsport Times on 6/20/37:
GEM THEATRE Monday and Tuesday
A PICTURE ALL SHOULD SEE!
BRET HARTE'S
‘OUTCASTS of POKER FLATS'
â€" with â€"
PRESTON FOSTER – JEAN MUIR
CARDS – THAT DEAL OUT T0 MEN AND WOMENâ€"
LOVE …
WEALTH …
ROMANCE…
RUIN …
Admission 10c and 15c
Any Time
Here is a 1977 article from the Pasadena Star-News about the possible demolition of the Rialto:
SoPas citizens write to the rescue of Rialto Theater
South Pasadenans are beginning to rumble about the imminent plans to
demolish the Rialto Theater, a 1925 Moorish landmark that has seen the rise and fall of vaudeville, Saturday serials and cinema verite.
About 100 petitions are being circulated by a grass-roots organization which calls itself the Rescue the Rialto Committee.
Residents are riding on a groundswell following a county surveyor’s report found that the Rialto met the criteria necessary for possible
inclusion on the national register.
Tom Sitton, a surveyor employed by the county to examine structures
for a statewide inventory, said that he found that the Rialto met the
criteria necessary for possible inclusion on the national register.
Sitton said that qualifying as “potential material” would afford the edifice the same protection as a structure, already on the register.
This resulted from an executive document issued in 1972 which said
that since surveying historic sites was a time-consuming operation,
those that met the criteria should be treated like those already on the register, until the drawnout application procedure can be completed.
The structure is among other buildings on a four-square block area
in the downtown section that has been slated for a shopping center.
The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on that project, which was
adopted in July, 1975, reported that there were no state or federally
registered historic structures in the project area. John Bernardi, the city’s director of building and planning, said that the citizenry had 80 days to challenge an EIR. That time is past, but hearings will be held for the parking district, which is another part of the downtown development, Bernardi said. During those hearings, residents may bring up the Rialto issue.