The Cine Moly in MichaelKilgore’s link was a different theater, located at 1920 N. Poplar Street. It opened in February, 1969 and has been demolished. I haven’t found a closing date.
The Silver City Cinema was in operation at least as late as 2008, when it was scheduled to be one of the venues of that year’s Independence Film Fest, held in September.
Robert Kratky: A press release in June said that the Montclair Film Festival had secured a long-term lease on the Clairidge Cinemas and would begin renovations immediately with the intent of opening the house for the 10th Festival, which is scheduled for October 21-30. The Information about the events will be posted on the festival’s web site, which is apparently going to be serving as the theater’s web site as well.
An October 22, 1955 article about the reopening of the only movie house in Leonard, Texas, said that it was now called the Joy Theatre. The house had been closed for months before new owners Roy and Charles DeViney had bought and remodeled it. The DeViney brothers continued to operate their theater at Vernon, Texas, which was also called the Joy.
In 1916 Leonard had a theater called the Happy Hour, mentioned in the May 6 issue of Moving Picture World.
Under the headline “R. L. Duncan Builds” and datelined Islamorada, the June 18, 1955 issue of Boxoffice said “Robert L. Duncan soon will start construction on an indoor theatre on Plantation Key. He is owner of the new drive-in underway on Plantation Key. Duncan formerly was of Washington.” An October 22 Boxoffice item said that construction on the house was slated to start immediately. That makes it likely that the house opened in very late 1955 or early 1956.
The October 22, 1955 issue of Boxoffice said that Mr. and Mrs. John Castner and Mrs. Wanona Allen of Springfield had bought the Cameo Theatre and 60 Drive-In at Mountain Grove from the Dean Davis family. Castner had been manager of the Cameo since 1935 and of the drive-in for the last three years.
Linkrot repair repair: Boxoffice now has its archive on a site that doesn’t appear to allow direct links to specific pages, but this link should take you to the cover of the October 22, 1955 issue. The article about the Roxy begins on page 12 of the issue’s “Modern Theatre” section, which is digital scan page 114.
So far the only mention of the Mansfield Theatre I’ve found in the trade publications is an item in the June 18, 1955 issue of Boxoffice which said that L. H. Petit had reopened the house, which had been dark since early March. So far I’ve found no mention of the Paradise Theatre.
There are other theater names associated with Mansfield, but I think not enough information about them to justify adding separate pages for them yet, so I’ll just post what I’ve discovered to this page. A house called the Nugget Theatre was advertised in the Mansfield Mirror as early as 1918. An item in a March, 1924 trade journal mentions the Nugget and its operator, Dr. J. H. Riley.
Then in 1928, capsule movie reviews appear in trade journals, submitted by Robert K. Yancy, owner of a Mansfield house called the Bonny Theatre. In a letter from Mr. Yancey in the April 6, 1929 issue of Exhibitors Herald World he indicates that he had opened the Bonny on November 28, 1926. In 1930, Mr. Yancy’s reviews are from a house called the New Bonny Theatre. Was this a new building, or perhaps he simply remodeled the old Bonny and added New to the name? Was the Bonny of 1926 the same theater as the Nugget that was operating in 1924? As yet there is no evidence, and since I don’t find the New Bonny mentioned after 1930, neither is there evidence that it was or wasn’t renamed the Paradise by 1931.
To add a bit more complication, the September 11, 1943 issue of Motion Picture Herald has a capsule movie review from Charles A. Brooks, operator of a theater in Mansfield called the Ritz. Was this another theater, or a temporary aka for the Paradise/Mansfield? There’s just no evidence yet. All we know so far is that between 1918 and 1955 there were somewhere between one and five movie theaters operated in Mansfield, and until more information is found to clarify it, the history of Mansfield’s movie theaters remains mostly a mystery.
Yes, Mansfield’s early theaters are missing from the database, unless they are early aka’s for the Mansfield. The only mention of the Nugget I’ve found in the trades is in that item from 1924, but it was being advertised in the local newspaper as early as 1918. Then in 1928 there are frequent mentions of a house called the Bonny Theatre, and then in 1930 the New Bonny Theatre, both run by a Robert K. Yancey. I don’t know if the Bonny (CinemaTour spells it Bonnie, but has no information about it) was a different theater or a new name for the Nugget, and I don’t know if the Bonny and New Bonny were in two different buildings, or if either or both were aka’s for the Paradise/Mansfield, so I’m not submitting them, but I’ll leave a comment on the Mansfield page revealing what little I know about them, in anticipation of more information becoming available.
The August 2, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal had an item about a planned theater in Kirksville that might have been the beginning of the Kennedy Theatre project:
“1,200 SEAT HOUSE FOR KIRKSVILLE, MO.
“Kirksville, Mo., is to have a new motion picture and vaudeville theatre if present plans mature sucessfully. The deal is now being financed. Plans for the new house have been prepared by R. Levine & Company of Chicago. The new theatre will have accommodations for 1200 spectators and cost upwards of $175,000.”
One reason I suspect that this item was about the Kennedy is that one of the architects who frequently worked with R. Levine & Company during this period, Edward P. Rupert, designed a few theaters with styles and details that closely resemble the Kennedy, most notably the 1924 Washington Theatre in Quincy, Illinois.
It seems likely now that the local legend saying that this house opened as the Winkler Theatre might be only a legend. Here is an item mentioning the opening of the house, from the June 14, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal:
“Miss Hazel Brinkley, formerly of Moran, Kans., was seen at the Universal offices this week. Miss Brinkley has opened a new theatre, the Mainstreet, at Lexington, Mo.”
It’s easy to imagine someone’s faulty memory many years later corrupting the name Brinkley into Winkler and someone else mistaking the corrupted version of the original owner’s name for the original theater name.
The April 5, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal said that the Avalon Theatre in Lawrenceville, Illinois had opened on Monday, March 17 with “Scaramouche” as the feature film.
The Frisina circuit operated the Avalon under lease from 1936 until 1956, at which time they bought the building and undertook extensive renovations. The house continued in operation until November, 1978, when it closed with a showing of “Grease.” Frisina then sold the building to the Golden Rule Insurance Co., who remodeled the building for its offices.
Here is an announcement about the Cozy/Cameo Theatre from The Reel Journal of March 22, 1924:
“MOUNTAIN GROVE, MO.
“TO OPEN NEW THEATRE
“The Collier-Roberston building at Mountain Grove. Mo., will soon be remodeled and decorated in order to make possible a new ground floor motion picture theatre. The theatre will be modern in every respect, and will be beautifully lighted, ventilated and decorated.
“Dr. J. H. Riley of Mansfield, Mo., has owned and managed the Nugget Theatre in Mansfield for many years, will be the owner of the new house in Mountain Grove.
“The name of the theatre will be decided by the public, and the grand opening will be announced later as the work progresses. The new theatre will play only new pictures, and it will have a stage of sufficient size to accommodate vaudeville acts and theatrical troupes.
“It is the plan of the owners and builders to give to the people of Mountain Grove one of the finest picture houses in the Ozarks.”
Since this is the only theater listed for Russellville, Missouri, and there is always the possibility that the information we have for it is wrong, I’m putting this item from the January 26, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal here:
“C. T. Karr and son have opened a new theatre, the Liberty, at Russellville, Mo. The house seats 200 and shows three times a week. G. W. Hartnian of Vitagraph sold the house exclusive Vitagraph service for three months' showing.”
A house called the Russellville Theatre is mentioned in the January 9, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News. Odds are the Liberty and the Russellville were the same theater. These are the only trade journal mentions of theaters in Russellville that I can find until this item from the April 19, 1947 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review:
“C. T. Carr is returning to film exhibition and hopes to open within a few weeks a theatre remodeled from an auditorium in Russellville, Mo. Carr was an exhibitor in that section of the state 10 or 15 years ago.”
Advertisements that appeared in various issues of The Reel Journal in 1924 feature the letterhead of the Best Theatre, which gives its address as 1819-1821 Main Street. The house was operated by brothers Otto and Fred Feess, who billed it as “The Theatre for the Whole Family.”
The correct address of this house, now called the Elkhorn Valley Community Theatre, is 101 E. Gardiner Street. This is their web site, though it doesn’t have information about the theater building, only the theater group. Here is a Google street view. The building appears to be in very good condition.
A house called the Jewel Theatre was listed at Valentine in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Jewell (two L’s) Theatre was mentioned in the April 15, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World. Another mention appeared in the July 7, 1917 issue of the same journal, noting the management’s replacement of their Saturday children’s matinee with something called the “family program.” The January 9, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald said that the Jewel had been remodeled, and new sound equipment had been installed.
Marcus Loew acquired the Stillman in 1917, according to the September 1 issue of The Moving Picture World that year. The chain acquired to Valentine Theatre in Toledo at the same time. The pair were the first Loew’s houses in Ohio.
The June 19, 1954 issue of Boxoffice said that Gus Barbalis and an unnamed partner expected to open the New Salem Theatre in Dayton by July 1. The house, which had been closed since December, 1953, had been extensively remodeled and CinemaScope equipment had been installed.
The Grand was Newark’s oldest operating theater at the time it closed, as noted in the June 19, 1954 issue of Boxoffice. The recently closed house had been purchased by Charles Price in 1919, and had been operated by his family until closing.
Here is part of an item from the May 3, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
“Page Organ Draws Crowds
“Standing room only was to be had when Messrs. Scholl, Gallagher and Gleason recently dedicated the new $15,000 Page pipe organ in their Gem Theatre, a 350-seat house in Newark, Ohio. William Dalton, the wellknown organist of the Grand Theatre, Columbus, motored to Newark to give a special midnight concert on the beautiful instrument, and the following day Prof. Berton Burkett, assisted by Frank Reynolds, the Gem organist, officially dedicated the organ with a series of recitals.
“The occasion testified to the value of music in a picture theatre. The Gem has been crowded since the installation of the Page instrument and many compliments have been paid the proprietors for installing so expensive an organ in such a comparatively small theatre.”
The Gem Theatre was still in operation in November, 1931, though the November 14 edition of The Newark Advocate said that the house was continuing its policy of opening only one day a week, Saturday.
Newark’s original Arcade Building was built in 1908, and the Annex, including the theater, was built sometime later. I haven’t found the opening date, but the Orpheum Theatre at Newark is mentioned in newspaper items as early as 1911. The Orpheum is listed as a ground floor house with 516 seats, playing Gus Sun vaudeville exclusively, in the 1913-1914 Cahn guide. Some remodeling of the theater was done in 1914, with plans by the original architects of the Arcade Building, Howell & Thomas.
I’ve found references to the Alhambra Theatre at Newark in trade publications as early as July, 1919. The opening of the New Arcade Theatre on November 22, 1934 was noted in the previous day’s issue of The Newark Advocate.
Confirmation of some of the information in my previous comment plus additional information about the Star Theatre comes from the Hopkins Historical Society. Their web site has a photo of the Star from around 1920-21 on this page, and the caption reads:
“The theater pictured here was opened on the 800 block of Mainstreet in 1914 by Jack Shonka. It was variously known as the Hopkins Theater, Royal Theater (after the original Royal Theater went out of business) and finally as the Star Theater until the building burned down in 1954.”
The Cine Moly in MichaelKilgore’s link was a different theater, located at 1920 N. Poplar Street. It opened in February, 1969 and has been demolished. I haven’t found a closing date.
The Silver City Cinema was in operation at least as late as 2008, when it was scheduled to be one of the venues of that year’s Independence Film Fest, held in September.
Robert Kratky: A press release in June said that the Montclair Film Festival had secured a long-term lease on the Clairidge Cinemas and would begin renovations immediately with the intent of opening the house for the 10th Festival, which is scheduled for October 21-30. The Information about the events will be posted on the festival’s web site, which is apparently going to be serving as the theater’s web site as well.
According to PSTOS, the building was demolished in 1969.
An October 22, 1955 article about the reopening of the only movie house in Leonard, Texas, said that it was now called the Joy Theatre. The house had been closed for months before new owners Roy and Charles DeViney had bought and remodeled it. The DeViney brothers continued to operate their theater at Vernon, Texas, which was also called the Joy.
In 1916 Leonard had a theater called the Happy Hour, mentioned in the May 6 issue of Moving Picture World.
Under the headline “R. L. Duncan Builds” and datelined Islamorada, the June 18, 1955 issue of Boxoffice said “Robert L. Duncan soon will start construction on an indoor theatre on Plantation Key. He is owner of the new drive-in underway on Plantation Key. Duncan formerly was of Washington.” An October 22 Boxoffice item said that construction on the house was slated to start immediately. That makes it likely that the house opened in very late 1955 or early 1956.
The October 22, 1955 issue of Boxoffice said that Mr. and Mrs. John Castner and Mrs. Wanona Allen of Springfield had bought the Cameo Theatre and 60 Drive-In at Mountain Grove from the Dean Davis family. Castner had been manager of the Cameo since 1935 and of the drive-in for the last three years.
Linkrot repair repair: Boxoffice now has its archive on a site that doesn’t appear to allow direct links to specific pages, but this link should take you to the cover of the October 22, 1955 issue. The article about the Roxy begins on page 12 of the issue’s “Modern Theatre” section, which is digital scan page 114.
So far the only mention of the Mansfield Theatre I’ve found in the trade publications is an item in the June 18, 1955 issue of Boxoffice which said that L. H. Petit had reopened the house, which had been dark since early March. So far I’ve found no mention of the Paradise Theatre.
There are other theater names associated with Mansfield, but I think not enough information about them to justify adding separate pages for them yet, so I’ll just post what I’ve discovered to this page. A house called the Nugget Theatre was advertised in the Mansfield Mirror as early as 1918. An item in a March, 1924 trade journal mentions the Nugget and its operator, Dr. J. H. Riley.
Then in 1928, capsule movie reviews appear in trade journals, submitted by Robert K. Yancy, owner of a Mansfield house called the Bonny Theatre. In a letter from Mr. Yancey in the April 6, 1929 issue of Exhibitors Herald World he indicates that he had opened the Bonny on November 28, 1926. In 1930, Mr. Yancy’s reviews are from a house called the New Bonny Theatre. Was this a new building, or perhaps he simply remodeled the old Bonny and added New to the name? Was the Bonny of 1926 the same theater as the Nugget that was operating in 1924? As yet there is no evidence, and since I don’t find the New Bonny mentioned after 1930, neither is there evidence that it was or wasn’t renamed the Paradise by 1931.
To add a bit more complication, the September 11, 1943 issue of Motion Picture Herald has a capsule movie review from Charles A. Brooks, operator of a theater in Mansfield called the Ritz. Was this another theater, or a temporary aka for the Paradise/Mansfield? There’s just no evidence yet. All we know so far is that between 1918 and 1955 there were somewhere between one and five movie theaters operated in Mansfield, and until more information is found to clarify it, the history of Mansfield’s movie theaters remains mostly a mystery.
Yes, Mansfield’s early theaters are missing from the database, unless they are early aka’s for the Mansfield. The only mention of the Nugget I’ve found in the trades is in that item from 1924, but it was being advertised in the local newspaper as early as 1918. Then in 1928 there are frequent mentions of a house called the Bonny Theatre, and then in 1930 the New Bonny Theatre, both run by a Robert K. Yancey. I don’t know if the Bonny (CinemaTour spells it Bonnie, but has no information about it) was a different theater or a new name for the Nugget, and I don’t know if the Bonny and New Bonny were in two different buildings, or if either or both were aka’s for the Paradise/Mansfield, so I’m not submitting them, but I’ll leave a comment on the Mansfield page revealing what little I know about them, in anticipation of more information becoming available.
The August 2, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal had an item about a planned theater in Kirksville that might have been the beginning of the Kennedy Theatre project:
One reason I suspect that this item was about the Kennedy is that one of the architects who frequently worked with R. Levine & Company during this period, Edward P. Rupert, designed a few theaters with styles and details that closely resemble the Kennedy, most notably the 1924 Washington Theatre in Quincy, Illinois.It seems likely now that the local legend saying that this house opened as the Winkler Theatre might be only a legend. Here is an item mentioning the opening of the house, from the June 14, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal:
It’s easy to imagine someone’s faulty memory many years later corrupting the name Brinkley into Winkler and someone else mistaking the corrupted version of the original owner’s name for the original theater name.The April 5, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal said that the Avalon Theatre in Lawrenceville, Illinois had opened on Monday, March 17 with “Scaramouche” as the feature film.
The Frisina circuit operated the Avalon under lease from 1936 until 1956, at which time they bought the building and undertook extensive renovations. The house continued in operation until November, 1978, when it closed with a showing of “Grease.” Frisina then sold the building to the Golden Rule Insurance Co., who remodeled the building for its offices.
Here is an announcement about the Cozy/Cameo Theatre from The Reel Journal of March 22, 1924:
Since this is the only theater listed for Russellville, Missouri, and there is always the possibility that the information we have for it is wrong, I’m putting this item from the January 26, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal here:
A house called the Russellville Theatre is mentioned in the January 9, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News. Odds are the Liberty and the Russellville were the same theater. These are the only trade journal mentions of theaters in Russellville that I can find until this item from the April 19, 1947 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review:Advertisements that appeared in various issues of The Reel Journal in 1924 feature the letterhead of the Best Theatre, which gives its address as 1819-1821 Main Street. The house was operated by brothers Otto and Fred Feess, who billed it as “The Theatre for the Whole Family.”
The correct address of this house, now called the Elkhorn Valley Community Theatre, is 101 E. Gardiner Street. This is their web site, though it doesn’t have information about the theater building, only the theater group. Here is a Google street view. The building appears to be in very good condition.
The link in my previous comment is not opening on the proper page. The photo is on digital page 72.
The caption of a photo of the Valley Theatre in Boxoffice of June 4, 1949 gives the original seating capacity as 420.
A house called the Jewel Theatre was listed at Valentine in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Jewell (two L’s) Theatre was mentioned in the April 15, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World. Another mention appeared in the July 7, 1917 issue of the same journal, noting the management’s replacement of their Saturday children’s matinee with something called the “family program.” The January 9, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald said that the Jewel had been remodeled, and new sound equipment had been installed.
Marcus Loew acquired the Stillman in 1917, according to the September 1 issue of The Moving Picture World that year. The chain acquired to Valentine Theatre in Toledo at the same time. The pair were the first Loew’s houses in Ohio.
The June 19, 1954 issue of Boxoffice said that Gus Barbalis and an unnamed partner expected to open the New Salem Theatre in Dayton by July 1. The house, which had been closed since December, 1953, had been extensively remodeled and CinemaScope equipment had been installed.
The Grand was Newark’s oldest operating theater at the time it closed, as noted in the June 19, 1954 issue of Boxoffice. The recently closed house had been purchased by Charles Price in 1919, and had been operated by his family until closing.
Here is part of an item from the May 3, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
The Gem Theatre was still in operation in November, 1931, though the November 14 edition of The Newark Advocate said that the house was continuing its policy of opening only one day a week, Saturday.Newark’s original Arcade Building was built in 1908, and the Annex, including the theater, was built sometime later. I haven’t found the opening date, but the Orpheum Theatre at Newark is mentioned in newspaper items as early as 1911. The Orpheum is listed as a ground floor house with 516 seats, playing Gus Sun vaudeville exclusively, in the 1913-1914 Cahn guide. Some remodeling of the theater was done in 1914, with plans by the original architects of the Arcade Building, Howell & Thomas.
I’ve found references to the Alhambra Theatre at Newark in trade publications as early as July, 1919. The opening of the New Arcade Theatre on November 22, 1934 was noted in the previous day’s issue of The Newark Advocate.
Confirmation of some of the information in my previous comment plus additional information about the Star Theatre comes from the Hopkins Historical Society. Their web site has a photo of the Star from around 1920-21 on this page, and the caption reads: