The history section of the Fountain’s web site says that it is the “…only continuously-operating movie theatre in the state” of New Mexico. (I wonder if they meant to say “oldest” rather than “only?”) If so, then, as this theatre has been operating since 1905, it would almost certainly be the oldest continuously operating movie theatre in the United States.
In 1931, United Artists announced plans to construct nearly a dozen new theaters in California, all to be designed by the firm of Walker & Eisen, with Clifford A. Balch associated. This theater in Pasadena was one of several of these, mostly in Southern California, which were actually built.
The United Artists theaters in El Centro, Inglewood, East Los Angeles and Berkeley, as well as the Four Star Theater in Los Angeles, were also succesful products of this colaboration, but several of the planned theaters remained unbuilt, including those designed for Ventura, Oakland, Palo Alto, San Jose and Vallejo.
Copies of old lists of the AIA’s membership would be handy to have in circumstances like this. Some large public library somewhere must have them. Copies of regional versions of “Who’s Who” would be useful, too. I don’t think any of them are online yet, but public libraries usually have them for their area. It should be easy enough for somebody in Chicago to double check this.
The Majestic Theater opened on December 12th, 1911, as a live theater and opera house. The architect was Henry C. Hollwedel.
The Spanish colonial revival style of the theatre’s current facade was very rare prior to its popularization by architect Bertram Goodhue, who used it for many of the buildings (some still extant) at the California Pacific Exposition of 1915 in San Diego’s Balboa Park. I suspect that the Mayfair’s facade may be the result of a later remodeling, perhaps done at the time it was converted into a movie house.
The Fox Belmont Theatre in Los Angeles was damaged by a fire in 1973 (and subsequently demolished), and some of the surviving movable decorations of that theater were used by Milt Larsen when he renovated the Majestic and converted it into the Mayfair Music Hall that same year.
The Belmont Theatre was demolished following a fire which damaged the building in 1973. Some of the surviving movable decor of the Belmont was used by Milt Larsen in his renovation of Santa Monica’s old Majestic Theater into the Mayfair Music Hall that same year.
This theatre was renamed the Columbia sometime before April of 1931. The April 17th, 1931 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor tells of a remodeling of the Columbia Theatre in Santa Paula, which had just been purchased by a Mr. J. Leslie Asher. New drapes, seats, projection and sound equipment were to be installed.
Centinella and La Tijera is only a block west of the Inglewood city limits, and less than two miles from all those theaters that used to be on Market Street. That’s probably why it didn’t last very long- too much competition from theaters in Inglewood and Westchester.
Also, when it was built, the Baldwin Hills were still mostly undeveloped, except for Ladera Heights. There was only a very small population there for the theater to draw on. It makes me wonder why they built it there to begin with, unless they were expecting the Baldwin Hills area to build up faster than it ended up doing.
This is actually a fairly old theater. I have an old newspaper article about it, but I can’t find it at the moment. If I recall correctly, the El Rey was opened in 1926 as the National Theatre, was owned by the Valley Empire Theatres Company, and was designed by the firm of Stark and Flanders.
I believe this to be the last big, single screen theater in the northern Sacramento Valley still operating as a movie house. It has survived this long largely due to its location almost next door to the campus of California State University at Chico.
I believe that the Vineland Drive-In, located a couple of miles east of El Monte in Los Angles County, is still open. One of my friends went to a movie there about three or four months ago.
The architect of the Elite Theatre was Wilfred B. Verity, whose offices were in the Garland Building in Los Angeles. Plans for the Elite were announced in late 1936.
The architect of the Alcazar was J.T. Zeller. The first contracts were let in late 1924. The estimated cost of the theater was $105,000, including an Estey pipe organ.
The address of the San Val Drive-In was 2720 Winona Street. Like the earlier Drive-In Theater in West Los Angeles, it was designed by Clifford Balch. Plans were announced in 1938.
This is the theater which is pictured on the dust jacket of David Naylor’s 1981 book, “American Picture Palaces.” That’s a much better photograph than I’ve been able to find online. There’s another color picture, showing the organ screens, on page 96 of the book.
The Los Angeles Times carried an article about the Criterion headlined “Santa Monica theater will open soon” in its December 30th, 1923 issue, so the theater must have opened early in 1924. An article in the Santa Monica Outlook of August 4th, 1923, announced that the theater’s organ had been ordered.
Awarding of the contract to W.J. Burgin for construction of the Rivoli Theatre was announced in Southwest Builder and Contractor issue of August 7th, 1936. The owner of the building was named as L.T. Edwards, and the plans were prepared by structural engineer F.E. Stanbery (no mention is made of Stanbery’s usual partner, architect Cliff Balch.) The building was to be of reinforced concrete construction, and the estimated cost was $45,000- a tidy sum in that depression year.
Announcing the completion of Carl Boller’s plans for this theater, Southwest Builder and Contractor of June 13th, 1924, said that the there would be six stores and the theater entrance on the ground floor, and that the third floor would be used as a cafe. It also says that the theater would have 1400 seats.
A Los Angeles Times article of April 26th, 1925 (part V, p.5.) contains an illustration of the theater.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram of May 24th, 1925, has an article headlined “Newly erected Ritz Theater to open doors at noon today.”
There is some information about the Oroville State Theater on the City of Oroville web site. The theater’s schedule of events is available there, as well.
The ultimate seating capacity of this 1928 house will be 1000, once the balcony is fully restored. Current seating is 608, on the main floor.
Surprisingly, the total expenditure for the purchase and renovation of this theater in 1986-87 was less than $700,000, including the cost of asbestos removal.
Originally built for San Francisco-based exhibitors Turner and Danken, the State was operated in its last years as a twinned movie house by United Artists.
The theater must have opened as the Carter. Southwest Builder and Contractor of August 22nd, 1924, names the owner of the proposed theater as J.W. Carter.
By 1933, in an article saying that Schilling & Schilling were taking bids for repairing earthquake damage to the theater, the April 14th issue of the same publication names the owner (or perhaps operator) as E. H. Lee.
In an announcement of the remodeling of the theater in its May 16th, 1947 issue, SB&C says that the work is being done for Milton Arthur. Presumably, the house had changed hands, or management, again by then.
The Motion Picture Herald issue of December 12, 1936, Better Theatres section, announced the re-opening of this theater as the Colony, following an “expensive remodeling” by S. Charles Lee. Apparently, the Automatic Theater thing didn’t work out as planned. The operator of the Colony was named as Albert A. Galston, and the article also said that the remodeled theater had 500 seats.
The history section of the Fountain’s web site says that it is the “…only continuously-operating movie theatre in the state” of New Mexico. (I wonder if they meant to say “oldest” rather than “only?”) If so, then, as this theatre has been operating since 1905, it would almost certainly be the oldest continuously operating movie theatre in the United States.
In 1931, United Artists announced plans to construct nearly a dozen new theaters in California, all to be designed by the firm of Walker & Eisen, with Clifford A. Balch associated. This theater in Pasadena was one of several of these, mostly in Southern California, which were actually built.
The United Artists theaters in El Centro, Inglewood, East Los Angeles and Berkeley, as well as the Four Star Theater in Los Angeles, were also succesful products of this colaboration, but several of the planned theaters remained unbuilt, including those designed for Ventura, Oakland, Palo Alto, San Jose and Vallejo.
Copies of old lists of the AIA’s membership would be handy to have in circumstances like this. Some large public library somewhere must have them. Copies of regional versions of “Who’s Who” would be useful, too. I don’t think any of them are online yet, but public libraries usually have them for their area. It should be easy enough for somebody in Chicago to double check this.
According to the index at the Chicago Art Institute, the name of the architect is Eichenbaum, not Eichenberg.
The Majestic Theater opened on December 12th, 1911, as a live theater and opera house. The architect was Henry C. Hollwedel.
The Spanish colonial revival style of the theatre’s current facade was very rare prior to its popularization by architect Bertram Goodhue, who used it for many of the buildings (some still extant) at the California Pacific Exposition of 1915 in San Diego’s Balboa Park. I suspect that the Mayfair’s facade may be the result of a later remodeling, perhaps done at the time it was converted into a movie house.
The Fox Belmont Theatre in Los Angeles was damaged by a fire in 1973 (and subsequently demolished), and some of the surviving movable decorations of that theater were used by Milt Larsen when he renovated the Majestic and converted it into the Mayfair Music Hall that same year.
The Belmont Theatre was demolished following a fire which damaged the building in 1973. Some of the surviving movable decor of the Belmont was used by Milt Larsen in his renovation of Santa Monica’s old Majestic Theater into the Mayfair Music Hall that same year.
This theatre was renamed the Columbia sometime before April of 1931. The April 17th, 1931 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor tells of a remodeling of the Columbia Theatre in Santa Paula, which had just been purchased by a Mr. J. Leslie Asher. New drapes, seats, projection and sound equipment were to be installed.
Centinella and La Tijera is only a block west of the Inglewood city limits, and less than two miles from all those theaters that used to be on Market Street. That’s probably why it didn’t last very long- too much competition from theaters in Inglewood and Westchester.
Also, when it was built, the Baldwin Hills were still mostly undeveloped, except for Ladera Heights. There was only a very small population there for the theater to draw on. It makes me wonder why they built it there to begin with, unless they were expecting the Baldwin Hills area to build up faster than it ended up doing.
This is actually a fairly old theater. I have an old newspaper article about it, but I can’t find it at the moment. If I recall correctly, the El Rey was opened in 1926 as the National Theatre, was owned by the Valley Empire Theatres Company, and was designed by the firm of Stark and Flanders.
I believe this to be the last big, single screen theater in the northern Sacramento Valley still operating as a movie house. It has survived this long largely due to its location almost next door to the campus of California State University at Chico.
W.H. Wingo:
I believe that the Vineland Drive-In, located a couple of miles east of El Monte in Los Angles County, is still open. One of my friends went to a movie there about three or four months ago.
Listed here: /theaters/7692/
The architect of the Elite Theatre was Wilfred B. Verity, whose offices were in the Garland Building in Los Angeles. Plans for the Elite were announced in late 1936.
The architect of the Alcazar was J.T. Zeller. The first contracts were let in late 1924. The estimated cost of the theater was $105,000, including an Estey pipe organ.
The address of the San Val Drive-In was 2720 Winona Street. Like the earlier Drive-In Theater in West Los Angeles, it was designed by Clifford Balch. Plans were announced in 1938.
I found a small color picture of the Ohio here:
http://www.columbus-connections.com/links.htm
This is the theater which is pictured on the dust jacket of David Naylor’s 1981 book, “American Picture Palaces.” That’s a much better photograph than I’ve been able to find online. There’s another color picture, showing the organ screens, on page 96 of the book.
I found an old postcard view of the Ohio Theater posted here (Google’s cache of the site):
View link
The Los Angeles Times carried an article about the Criterion headlined “Santa Monica theater will open soon” in its December 30th, 1923 issue, so the theater must have opened early in 1924. An article in the Santa Monica Outlook of August 4th, 1923, announced that the theater’s organ had been ordered.
Awarding of the contract to W.J. Burgin for construction of the Rivoli Theatre was announced in Southwest Builder and Contractor issue of August 7th, 1936. The owner of the building was named as L.T. Edwards, and the plans were prepared by structural engineer F.E. Stanbery (no mention is made of Stanbery’s usual partner, architect Cliff Balch.) The building was to be of reinforced concrete construction, and the estimated cost was $45,000- a tidy sum in that depression year.
Announcing the completion of Carl Boller’s plans for this theater, Southwest Builder and Contractor of June 13th, 1924, said that the there would be six stores and the theater entrance on the ground floor, and that the third floor would be used as a cafe. It also says that the theater would have 1400 seats.
A Los Angeles Times article of April 26th, 1925 (part V, p.5.) contains an illustration of the theater.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram of May 24th, 1925, has an article headlined “Newly erected Ritz Theater to open doors at noon today.”
Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of September 26th, 1945, says that the plans for the Crest were made by Kaiser Engineers.
There is some information about the Oroville State Theater on the City of Oroville web site. The theater’s schedule of events is available there, as well.
The ultimate seating capacity of this 1928 house will be 1000, once the balcony is fully restored. Current seating is 608, on the main floor.
Surprisingly, the total expenditure for the purchase and renovation of this theater in 1986-87 was less than $700,000, including the cost of asbestos removal.
Originally built for San Francisco-based exhibitors Turner and Danken, the State was operated in its last years as a twinned movie house by United Artists.
Actually, that opening was February 1st, 1945. ((Can’t read my own scribbling.)
The Los Angeles Times records the date on which this theater re-opened as the Guild as February 2nd, 1945.
The theater must have opened as the Carter. Southwest Builder and Contractor of August 22nd, 1924, names the owner of the proposed theater as J.W. Carter.
By 1933, in an article saying that Schilling & Schilling were taking bids for repairing earthquake damage to the theater, the April 14th issue of the same publication names the owner (or perhaps operator) as E. H. Lee.
In an announcement of the remodeling of the theater in its May 16th, 1947 issue, SB&C says that the work is being done for Milton Arthur. Presumably, the house had changed hands, or management, again by then.
The Motion Picture Herald issue of December 12, 1936, Better Theatres section, announced the re-opening of this theater as the Colony, following an “expensive remodeling” by S. Charles Lee. Apparently, the Automatic Theater thing didn’t work out as planned. The operator of the Colony was named as Albert A. Galston, and the article also said that the remodeled theater had 500 seats.
Architect Clarence Smale collaborated with theater designer Carl G. Moeller on the Hawaii. It was built for the Times-Mirror Company.