Warner’s had an interest in the Griswold Theatre, according to this item from Motion Picture Herald of March 6, 1943:
“Shift Warner Theatre Policy in Troy
“C. J. Latta, zone manager, announced changes in the Warner theatre policy in Troy, N. Y., coincident with the opening of the Griswold theatre there last week. The Griswold had been dark for about 10 years until its renovation recently.
“With the Griswold in operation as a second run house, the Lincoln, previously first run, was put into a move-over policy, to take pictures directly from first run Proctor’s and Warner’s on completion of run in those houses. The Griswold’s prices represent an increase over those of the American, previously second run. The American moved up from second to first run with an increase in prices of 10 cents both matinees and evenings. The Lincoln’s price increase amounts to 15 cents for matinees and 20 cents at night.
“The Griswold, like the Troy, Lincoln and American, will be operated in a pool with Fabian’s Proctor theatre. Named as manager for the Griswold was Jack Swartout, who moves over from the American. Al Newhall, of the Regent, Elmira, is the new manager of the American.”
The December 3, 1949 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review carried this brief item in its “Openings” column: “Engler Bros.‘ Star (formerly Royal), Hopkins, Minn., after remodeling.” The Englers were operating the Royal at least as early as 1943, when the house was mentioned in the March 20 issue of Motion Picture Herald. They also operated the Hopkins Theatre.
Due to some shifting of street names in Hopkins, the site of the Royal/Star Theatre is no longer on Excelsior Avenue, but on Mainstreet (spelled as one word.) The building currently at 805 Mainstreet is only one story, and it’s impossible to tell if it is what remains of the theater building or was new construction on the theater’s site. I haven’t been able to discover the year the fire took place.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two theaters at Hopkins: The Harrison Theatre on Excelsior Avenue and the Hopkins Theatre, no location given. I’ve been unable to discover if either house later became the Royal/Star.
The Parkway Theatre was listed at 40th and Poplar Street in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Judging from the old signage, Barb’s Beauty Salon, Bob’s Deli, and the coin operated laundromat were all in operation at the same time. Very convenient. The ladies could get their hair done while their laundry was washing, then pick up some cold cuts and a pickle for lunch on their way out.
This CinemaTour Facebook post from Ty Nelson has a photo of the AMC Woodridge 18 being demolished. It’s undated, but I would assume recent or current, though I can’t find the event noted on any news web sites.
JRHagan: Cinema Treasures has a page for the Grand Stafford Theater. There’s a link to it in the “Nearby Theaters” field on the right side of this page.
The Arc Theatre was mentioned in the August 5, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World. The Arc and the Sourwine Theatre had been operated by the Brazil Theater Company, which had just sold its interest in the houses to Dr. T. A. Walsh.
Could this item from Motion Picture Daily of January 11, 1935 be about this theater?
“New House for Brazil
“Brazil, Ind., Jan. 10. — A new downtown theatre is being completed here from a remodeled business building by a company headed by H. V. Neese. It will seat 500.”
The 1947 Film Daily Yearbook lists only four theaters at Brazil: The 400-seat Beverly, the 300-seat Fox, the 800-seat Lark, and the 800-seat Sourwine. As the locations of the Beverly, Lark and Sourwine are accounted for, by process of elimination 112 W. National must have been the Fox. The 1935 storefront remodeling might have been either the Fox or the Beverly, but the item’s claim of 500 seats might make the Beverly the more likely candidate, unless the 500 was a typo.
The March 6, 1956 issue of Boxoffice said that the Lark Theatre in Brazil, Indiana had been reopened with a policy of excluding children of elementary school age and younger. Owner Stanley Cooper told Boxoffice that “[s]o far, the idea has been received with enthusiasm. We are getting out adults who haven’t been in a theater for years.” The house was not running adult or art films, just regular movies. I haven’t discovered how long the policy lasted. The house had been closed for two years when the experiment began.
Ashland Theatre is an aka for Ingram’s Theatre. A biography of E. A. Ingram says that he entered the theater business in Ashland when he was 19, which would have been 1920 or 1921, and that “[t]he theater was named ‘Ingram’s’ in the early years and later became the Ashland Theater.”
A biography of E. F. Ingram, operator of Ingram’s Theatre in Ashland says that “[i]n July of 1939, he also opened a second theater in Lineville, the ‘Lineville Theater.’” The 2014 obituary of E. F.’s son, Earnest Allen Ingram, says that “[a]fter military service he returned to Clay County to run the family theaters in Ashland and Lineville for another 30 years.” The military service referred to was during WWII, so at least one of the family theaters must have been open into the mid-1970s.
The December 15, 1934 issue of Motion Picture Herald published this comment on Cecil B. DeMille’s Cleopatra from the operator of Ashland’s Paramount Theatre:
“This drew the best Monday night crowd in several months. Did extra advertising and it paid. You can’t go wrong booking this. Had many good comments.”
I had occasion to travel along this stretch of Fair Oaks Avenue a number of times over the years, and I recall the Park Theatre building still standing in the early 1960s. I don’t recall what, if anything, occupied the building at that time. There has been some speculation that the theater was in the building now occupied by the Berry & Sweeney Pharmacy, but the Historic Aerials web site shows the building immediately south of the pharmacy, still standing in 1972 but gone in 1977, with what appears to be a small stage house at the rear. I’m pretty sure that’s where the Park Theatre was. It was somewhat larger than the pharmacy building, which looks too small to have housed a theater with 760 seats. The commercial building now on what I believe was the theater’s site appears in the aerial from 1980.
The old Mason City Opera House, long vacant, was demolished in the 1970s. It’s site is now part of a small public park and playground at the southeast corner of Main Street and Crawford Street.
An article on the Albion Recorder of May 19, 1997 says that this house actually opened in 1908 as the Temple Theatre, after the Temple’s original location was lost to a flood:
“Another theater, the Temple, moved to the north side of the Opera House building (223 S. Superior St.) after the Flood of 1908. In 1914 it was purchased by building owner Hadley H. Sheldon, and renamed the Censor Theatre. George A. Bohm purchased the Censor from Sheldon in late 1916, thereby closing his W. Porter St. operation. He then took over operating the Censor.”
This is from the May 10, 1947 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “M. C. Kennedy, Port Hueneme, Calif., was to open his new 400-seat quonset theatre May 1.”
The original Bishop Theatre, also known as Holland’s Opera House, was a large, wood framed building that was destroyed by a fire on January 6, 1924. The present Bishop Theatre was the replacement for that house. In 1947, Harry Holland had the theater remodeled, as noted in the May 10 issue of Motion Picture Herald. Unfortunately, the impressive Streamline Modern front the house got at that time has since been covered by a false front featuring two upper floors of fake windows for rooms that don’t exist. Bishop is apparently one of those towns that destroys its real history and replaces it with an “olde timey” look that only the hopelessly naïve would mistake for actual historic design. Other buildings along Main Street appear to have suffered similar sad transformations.
Here is an item about Harry Holland from the April 14, 1945 issue of Boxoffice:
“WESTERN 20-YEAR SHOWMEN
“Traveling as a ventriloquist with a medicine show wagon in Texas, was Harry Holland’s initial appearance in the theatrical world. In 1911 he joined a troupe engaged for a week at the Bishop Opera House, Bishop, Calif., and at the end of his engagement decided to stay there. Going into business for himself, Holland opened his first house, the Gem, converted from a vacant shoe shop. It featured three single-reel subjects and two illustrated songs. Admission was ten cents. Later he built the present Bishop Theatre. He has two sons in the service.”
The March 1, 1924 issue of Motion Picture News listed Lone Pine Hall as one of the Southern California locations at which new Simplex projection equipment had recently been installed. Both Lone Pine Hall and the New Lone Pine Theatre were mentioned in the December 6, 1930 issue of the Big Pine Citizen. The October 3, 1932 issue of the Citizen said that the mystery thriller Dr. X would play at the Lone Pine Hall Theatre on October 4th, 5th, and 6th.
A July 23, 1932 Citizen article noted that Ray Pierson had leased the Lone Pine Hall in 1930. He was still operating the house in 1932. Mentions of Pierson (sometimes with the variant spelling Pearson) as operator of the Lone Pine Theatre appear in trade journals through the 1930s and 1940s, one in the May 29, 1948 issue of Motion Picture Herald, not long after the same publication noted that Western Amusement Company was building the new house that would open later that year as the Whitney Theatre. I haven’t been able to discover if the Lone Pine continued in operation after the Whitney opened.
Exhibitors Herald of October 18, 1930 reported that the New Lone Pine Theatre was one of 220 houses in which RCA Photophone equipment had been installed during August and September.
I’ve found another aka for the Gregg Theatre. The September 27, 1912 issue of the Caney News said that the new, 452-seat Hobson Theatre on 4th Avenue had opened the previous Monday (September 23.) The Hobson then advertised in the paper for several years. The house presented movies, vaudeville, frequent live theater productions, public meetings, and occasionally even wrestling matches, so it to have had a stage. In its early years, the Hobson’s competition was the Cozy Theatre, which appears to have been exclusively a movie house and which closed at the end of 1913. In 1917, ads for a new rival, the Strand Theatre, began to appear.
The last mention of the Hobson I’ve found is in the issue of September 27, 1918, six years after the house opened, and the article said that the Hobson was reopening that night under new management. The first mention of the Liberty Theatre I’ve found is from December 20, 1918, in an ad which includes the line “Formerly the Hobson.” Then the January 24, 1919 issue of the News had this item:
“H. R. Bisby, manager of the Liberty Theatre, has moved his pipe organ from the Strand Theatre to the big show house and will soon be in position to again give the patrons of his place the pipe organ music. He also plans to re-open the Strand about the second week in next month.”
It is likely that the original operators of the Hobson were either unwilling or unable to renew their lease and the house fell into the hands of their competitor, Mr. Bisby.
It seems quite likely that Tom’s Ice Cream is in the same building that housed the Eglin Theatre. Looking at Google’s satellite view, one can see that the building has a very peculiar roof shape. That peculiar shape is visible in an aerial view from 1946, when the theater was in operation. The front of the building in street view is a bit taller than the neighboring buildings, as it was when the theater was in operation. Had the old building been demolished and replaced, there would have been no reason to make the new building as tall as the old one, or to replicate that peculiar configuration of the roof. I suspect that it’s the same building, however much it may have been altered.
This 2015 article from the Crestview News Bulletin says that the Crestview Theatre and the Crestview Cinema 3 were different theaters. The Cinema 3 opened in the mid-1970s at Mariner Mall, while the single-screen Crestview Theatre, opened around 1932, was located on Main Street. There is a small, early photo of the old theater.
Warner’s had an interest in the Griswold Theatre, according to this item from Motion Picture Herald of March 6, 1943:
The December 3, 1949 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review carried this brief item in its “Openings” column: “Engler Bros.‘ Star (formerly Royal), Hopkins, Minn., after remodeling.” The Englers were operating the Royal at least as early as 1943, when the house was mentioned in the March 20 issue of Motion Picture Herald. They also operated the Hopkins Theatre.
Due to some shifting of street names in Hopkins, the site of the Royal/Star Theatre is no longer on Excelsior Avenue, but on Mainstreet (spelled as one word.) The building currently at 805 Mainstreet is only one story, and it’s impossible to tell if it is what remains of the theater building or was new construction on the theater’s site. I haven’t been able to discover the year the fire took place.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two theaters at Hopkins: The Harrison Theatre on Excelsior Avenue and the Hopkins Theatre, no location given. I’ve been unable to discover if either house later became the Royal/Star.
The October 8, 1949 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review said that the house had been opened by owner Tom Baker on October 6.
The October 8, 1949 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review said that the new State Theatre in Nashville, Illinois had opened on September 29.
Several videos about the Tower Apple store have been uploaded to YouTube. Here is one of them. I don’t know if it’s the same one Rob found.
The Parkway Theatre was listed at 40th and Poplar Street in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Judging from the old signage, Barb’s Beauty Salon, Bob’s Deli, and the coin operated laundromat were all in operation at the same time. Very convenient. The ladies could get their hair done while their laundry was washing, then pick up some cold cuts and a pickle for lunch on their way out.
This CinemaTour Facebook post from Ty Nelson has a photo of the AMC Woodridge 18 being demolished. It’s undated, but I would assume recent or current, though I can’t find the event noted on any news web sites.
JRHagan: Cinema Treasures has a page for the Grand Stafford Theater. There’s a link to it in the “Nearby Theaters” field on the right side of this page.
The Arc Theatre was mentioned in the August 5, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World. The Arc and the Sourwine Theatre had been operated by the Brazil Theater Company, which had just sold its interest in the houses to Dr. T. A. Walsh.
Could this item from Motion Picture Daily of January 11, 1935 be about this theater?
The 1947 Film Daily Yearbook lists only four theaters at Brazil: The 400-seat Beverly, the 300-seat Fox, the 800-seat Lark, and the 800-seat Sourwine. As the locations of the Beverly, Lark and Sourwine are accounted for, by process of elimination 112 W. National must have been the Fox. The 1935 storefront remodeling might have been either the Fox or the Beverly, but the item’s claim of 500 seats might make the Beverly the more likely candidate, unless the 500 was a typo.The March 6, 1956 issue of Boxoffice said that the Lark Theatre in Brazil, Indiana had been reopened with a policy of excluding children of elementary school age and younger. Owner Stanley Cooper told Boxoffice that “[s]o far, the idea has been received with enthusiasm. We are getting out adults who haven’t been in a theater for years.” The house was not running adult or art films, just regular movies. I haven’t discovered how long the policy lasted. The house had been closed for two years when the experiment began.
Ashland Theatre is an aka for Ingram’s Theatre. A biography of E. A. Ingram says that he entered the theater business in Ashland when he was 19, which would have been 1920 or 1921, and that “[t]he theater was named ‘Ingram’s’ in the early years and later became the Ashland Theater.”
A biography of E. F. Ingram, operator of Ingram’s Theatre in Ashland says that “[i]n July of 1939, he also opened a second theater in Lineville, the ‘Lineville Theater.’” The 2014 obituary of E. F.’s son, Earnest Allen Ingram, says that “[a]fter military service he returned to Clay County to run the family theaters in Ashland and Lineville for another 30 years.” The military service referred to was during WWII, so at least one of the family theaters must have been open into the mid-1970s.
The December 15, 1934 issue of Motion Picture Herald published this comment on Cecil B. DeMille’s Cleopatra from the operator of Ashland’s Paramount Theatre:
I had occasion to travel along this stretch of Fair Oaks Avenue a number of times over the years, and I recall the Park Theatre building still standing in the early 1960s. I don’t recall what, if anything, occupied the building at that time. There has been some speculation that the theater was in the building now occupied by the Berry & Sweeney Pharmacy, but the Historic Aerials web site shows the building immediately south of the pharmacy, still standing in 1972 but gone in 1977, with what appears to be a small stage house at the rear. I’m pretty sure that’s where the Park Theatre was. It was somewhat larger than the pharmacy building, which looks too small to have housed a theater with 760 seats. The commercial building now on what I believe was the theater’s site appears in the aerial from 1980.
The old Mason City Opera House, long vacant, was demolished in the 1970s. It’s site is now part of a small public park and playground at the southeast corner of Main Street and Crawford Street.
An article on the Albion Recorder of May 19, 1997 says that this house actually opened in 1908 as the Temple Theatre, after the Temple’s original location was lost to a flood:
This is from the May 10, 1947 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “M. C. Kennedy, Port Hueneme, Calif., was to open his new 400-seat quonset theatre May 1.”
The original Bishop Theatre, also known as Holland’s Opera House, was a large, wood framed building that was destroyed by a fire on January 6, 1924. The present Bishop Theatre was the replacement for that house. In 1947, Harry Holland had the theater remodeled, as noted in the May 10 issue of Motion Picture Herald. Unfortunately, the impressive Streamline Modern front the house got at that time has since been covered by a false front featuring two upper floors of fake windows for rooms that don’t exist. Bishop is apparently one of those towns that destroys its real history and replaces it with an “olde timey” look that only the hopelessly naïve would mistake for actual historic design. Other buildings along Main Street appear to have suffered similar sad transformations.
Here is an item about Harry Holland from the April 14, 1945 issue of Boxoffice:
The March 1, 1924 issue of Motion Picture News listed Lone Pine Hall as one of the Southern California locations at which new Simplex projection equipment had recently been installed. Both Lone Pine Hall and the New Lone Pine Theatre were mentioned in the December 6, 1930 issue of the Big Pine Citizen. The October 3, 1932 issue of the Citizen said that the mystery thriller Dr. X would play at the Lone Pine Hall Theatre on October 4th, 5th, and 6th.
A July 23, 1932 Citizen article noted that Ray Pierson had leased the Lone Pine Hall in 1930. He was still operating the house in 1932. Mentions of Pierson (sometimes with the variant spelling Pearson) as operator of the Lone Pine Theatre appear in trade journals through the 1930s and 1940s, one in the May 29, 1948 issue of Motion Picture Herald, not long after the same publication noted that Western Amusement Company was building the new house that would open later that year as the Whitney Theatre. I haven’t been able to discover if the Lone Pine continued in operation after the Whitney opened.
Exhibitors Herald of October 18, 1930 reported that the New Lone Pine Theatre was one of 220 houses in which RCA Photophone equipment had been installed during August and September.
I’ve found another aka for the Gregg Theatre. The September 27, 1912 issue of the Caney News said that the new, 452-seat Hobson Theatre on 4th Avenue had opened the previous Monday (September 23.) The Hobson then advertised in the paper for several years. The house presented movies, vaudeville, frequent live theater productions, public meetings, and occasionally even wrestling matches, so it to have had a stage. In its early years, the Hobson’s competition was the Cozy Theatre, which appears to have been exclusively a movie house and which closed at the end of 1913. In 1917, ads for a new rival, the Strand Theatre, began to appear.
The last mention of the Hobson I’ve found is in the issue of September 27, 1918, six years after the house opened, and the article said that the Hobson was reopening that night under new management. The first mention of the Liberty Theatre I’ve found is from December 20, 1918, in an ad which includes the line “Formerly the Hobson.” Then the January 24, 1919 issue of the News had this item:
It is likely that the original operators of the Hobson were either unwilling or unable to renew their lease and the house fell into the hands of their competitor, Mr. Bisby.It seems quite likely that Tom’s Ice Cream is in the same building that housed the Eglin Theatre. Looking at Google’s satellite view, one can see that the building has a very peculiar roof shape. That peculiar shape is visible in an aerial view from 1946, when the theater was in operation. The front of the building in street view is a bit taller than the neighboring buildings, as it was when the theater was in operation. Had the old building been demolished and replaced, there would have been no reason to make the new building as tall as the old one, or to replicate that peculiar configuration of the roof. I suspect that it’s the same building, however much it may have been altered.
269 Main Street is now the location of a restaurant, Tom’s Main Street Ice Cream.
This 2015 article from the Crestview News Bulletin says that the Crestview Theatre and the Crestview Cinema 3 were different theaters. The Cinema 3 opened in the mid-1970s at Mariner Mall, while the single-screen Crestview Theatre, opened around 1932, was located on Main Street. There is a small, early photo of the old theater.