From the July 2, 1943 issue of Film Daily, news about the Prince Theatre:
“The Prince, Princeville, Ill., in the Peoria district, has been reopened by its new owner, Harold Bouton. House was damaged by fire several weeks ago and was later sold by Ernest Peltier to Bouton. It has been entirely repaired and redecorated.”
A piece about Princeville’s businesses says this:
“Variety stores-Golden Rule The Golden Rule Store was in business around in the 1920s-30s. It was located on the west side of Walnut where Cordis Law Office is now located. It was later converted into a movie theater.”
The current address of the law firm Cordis & Cordis is 129 N. Walnut Avenue. As tiny Princeville is unlikely to have had more than one movie theater during that period, this was most likely the location of the Prince. If it was, then the building appears to be still standing, but somewhat altered. I’ll upload a small photo of the Golden Rule store, which can be compared with a recent Bing Maps street view (Google doesn’t provide one.)
The August 5th, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that “W. R. Shafer has opened the Gray Theatre, Grayson, Ky.” Variant spellings of Shafer’s name (Schafer, Shaffer) turn up in other Boxoffice items, including one from September 23 which noted that he also operated the Strand Theatre at Irvine, Kentucky and the Trail Theatre at Morehead, Kentucky.
Prior to the construction of the Citadel Theatre in late 1921, the only theaters I’ve found mentioned in The Bloomfield News are the Opera House and a house called the Colonial Theatre. The Colonial is mentioned as far back as 1911, though, so if this building did not exist in 1913 then perhaps the Colonial’s original location was the unidentified storefront theater on the ground floor of the Opera House.
Construction was underway on the Citadel Theatre in the fall of 1921. The project was mentioned in the September 22 and October 20 issues of The Bloomfield News. I haven’t found the opening date, but the house was definitely in operation by January 26, 1922. John B. Flater was the owner of the Citadel, and his son Myers Flater was the first manager of the house.
Here is an item about the Lyric Theatre from the October 1, 1921 issue of Moving Picture World:
“The Lyric Theatre of Laurium has been entirely remodelled [sic] and will be opened after having been closed for three years. This town is in the upper peninsula but has harbored only one theatre because of the closing of the copper mines. The opening of the mines, however, is an indication of increased prosperity in many of the upper cities of Michigan.”
An article about three early St. Petersburg airdome theaters in the January 16, 2002 Tampa Bay Times gives four additional aka’s for the Patio: the Reno, the Ritz, Papa’s Dream, and the Golden Apple. The latter two sound like they might have been used during the theater’s years as an adult house. As of 2002, it was the home of a sports bar called the Extra Inning.
The Tampa Bay Times of January 16, 2002, had a brief history of three early airdome theaters in St. Petersburg. The article says that the Capitol opened by John Gillooly in June, 1925 as an airdome, but a mention of the house in the July 4, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News said that construction on John Gillooly’s airdome theatre was not quite complete and the opening was slated for August (rivest266 notes above that the first ad was dated September 23.) The Times said that a retractable roof was added in 1928. The house was later completely enclosed. The article also mentions that in 1965 it was briefly renamed the Family Theatre, which is noted in Nick DiMaggio’s comment above. However, the article didn’t mention the final name of 1st Street Theatre. It does say that the theater was demolished in 1968.
Here is an item from the “Chicago Letter” column of Moving Picture World, April 13, 1912:
“J. E. Becknell, manager of the Marion Theater, Iron Mountain, Mich., was a visitor at the office of the World last week. He will be remembered as the manager of the Merritt and Victoria theaters of Chicago. The Marion was opened January 1st. It has a capacity of 395, representing an investment of $5,000. It is owned by Mr. Becknell and Mrs. Marion Higgie.”
The item did not mention that for some years Mr. Becknell had been manager of the Bijou Theatre in Iron Mountain.
A rare mention of the Colonial in the trade journals appeared in the February 18, 1953 issue of The Exhibitor: “The Colonial, Iron Mountain, Mich., Thomas Circuit, reopened.”
A section of this PDF from the Dickinson County Genealogical Society says that the Braumart Theatre opened on April 21, 1925. A.E. Brauns was the owner of the theater and Thomas Martin the manager for the Colonial Theatre Group, which then also operated the Colonial and Bijou theaters in Iron Mountain and four theaters in Fond du Lac.
Studying the photos on the site robboehm mentioned I have concluded that the Ritz Theatre was on the northeast corner of Kaufman Street and San Jacinto Street, diagonally across the intersection from the square. It is now the location of a modern bank building with the address 201 E. Kaufman Street.
This web page says that the Ritz Theatre was opened on the north side of the town square in 1923 and operated for 35 years. The building has since been demolished. Unfortunately there’s no photo of the Ritz, though the page has photos of several other small town Texas theaters.
The history section of the web site of Ellettsville Christian Church says that “[o]n August 5th, 1928 services were first held in the Oriental Theater on the west side of Sale Street.” The “Closings” column for Indiana in the July 1, 1929 issue of The Film Daily lists a house at Ellettsville called the Orient. Given the low odds that such a short street in a such small town would have two theaters on its west side, the house at 203 Sale probably was the Oriental (or Orient.) The absence of any other theaters on the 1929 Sanborn map would pretty much clinch it.
34 and 36 E. Morgan Street have been combined into a single space for a law office using the address 36 E. Morgan. A photo on page 81 of Martinsville) by Joanne Raetz Stuttgen and Curtis Tomak (Google Books preview) shows the entrance to Blackstone’s Theatre at 34 E. Morgan, so so it appears that Blackstone’s and the State were the same theater, unless the original auditorium was demolished and replaced.
The Billboard of February 20, 1909 mentions a theater in Martinsville called the New Wigwam, showing movies and vaudeville. It doesn’t give a location, but Wigwam would be a likely name for a theater on the ground floor of the Red Men’s Hall. The Improved Order of Red Men fraternal organization called its lodges Wigwams.
An item in the April 7, 1917 issue of Motion Picture News gives the location of the Idylhour Theatre as West Elm Street. Manager Charles Kuchen had just renewed the lease on the building for five years, and had installed a new Motiograph projector.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only one movie house at Greensburg; the Palace, on the north side of the public square. The absence of the K of P Theatre suggests that it was presenting only live events at that time. Not everything in the theater was live by 1917, though, when the April 7 issue of Motion Picture News published this item:
“INDIANA. — Greensburg: Manager George Dunn has added a New Edison to the equipment of the K. of P, theatre, Greensburg, Indiana. A new repertoire will be used each evening.”
The New Edison referred to was that company’s most advance phonograph. The fact that the item appears in a movie industry trade journal suggests that the K of P was frequently running movies by then.
The 1914-1916 American Motion Picture Directorylists only one theater at Greensburg, a house called the Palace, situated on the north side of the public square. We don’t have a Palace Theatre listed in Greensburg, and the Vaudette is the only house we do have listed that was on the north side of the square. I wonder if there could have been a name change from Vaudette to Palace?
The Holiday Cinemas must have operated for no more than ten years at most. A 2003 Kitsap Sun article about the building referred to “…the 35,000 square-foot space that Holiday Cinema occupied over a decade ago.” The hotel, by 2003 branded as a Howard Johnson’s, had long been using the space for storage.
The new Omak Theatre was slated to open the following night, reported the July 11, 1939 issue of The Chronicle, the local newspaper. The house was located on the site of the Gem Theatre, and was the same width as the old building but was 40 feet longer. Owners Greime and Fasken had operated the Gem for seven years before rebuilding.
From the July 2, 1943 issue of Film Daily, news about the Prince Theatre:
A piece about Princeville’s businesses says this:The current address of the law firm Cordis & Cordis is 129 N. Walnut Avenue. As tiny Princeville is unlikely to have had more than one movie theater during that period, this was most likely the location of the Prince. If it was, then the building appears to be still standing, but somewhat altered. I’ll upload a small photo of the Golden Rule store, which can be compared with a recent Bing Maps street view (Google doesn’t provide one.)The July 2, 1942 issue of Film Daily noted that Midwest Theatre Supply had recently installed new carpet in the Clark Theatre at Grayson, Kentucky.
The August 5th, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that “W. R. Shafer has opened the Gray Theatre, Grayson, Ky.” Variant spellings of Shafer’s name (Schafer, Shaffer) turn up in other Boxoffice items, including one from September 23 which noted that he also operated the Strand Theatre at Irvine, Kentucky and the Trail Theatre at Morehead, Kentucky.
Prior to the construction of the Citadel Theatre in late 1921, the only theaters I’ve found mentioned in The Bloomfield News are the Opera House and a house called the Colonial Theatre. The Colonial is mentioned as far back as 1911, though, so if this building did not exist in 1913 then perhaps the Colonial’s original location was the unidentified storefront theater on the ground floor of the Opera House.
Construction was underway on the Citadel Theatre in the fall of 1921. The project was mentioned in the September 22 and October 20 issues of The Bloomfield News. I haven’t found the opening date, but the house was definitely in operation by January 26, 1922. John B. Flater was the owner of the Citadel, and his son Myers Flater was the first manager of the house.
Here is an item about the Lyric Theatre from the October 1, 1921 issue of Moving Picture World:
An article about three early St. Petersburg airdome theaters in the January 16, 2002 Tampa Bay Times gives four additional aka’s for the Patio: the Reno, the Ritz, Papa’s Dream, and the Golden Apple. The latter two sound like they might have been used during the theater’s years as an adult house. As of 2002, it was the home of a sports bar called the Extra Inning.
The Tampa Bay Times of January 16, 2002, had a brief history of three early airdome theaters in St. Petersburg. The article says that the Capitol opened by John Gillooly in June, 1925 as an airdome, but a mention of the house in the July 4, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News said that construction on John Gillooly’s airdome theatre was not quite complete and the opening was slated for August (rivest266 notes above that the first ad was dated September 23.) The Times said that a retractable roof was added in 1928. The house was later completely enclosed. The article also mentions that in 1965 it was briefly renamed the Family Theatre, which is noted in Nick DiMaggio’s comment above. However, the article didn’t mention the final name of 1st Street Theatre. It does say that the theater was demolished in 1968.
Here is an item from the “Chicago Letter” column of Moving Picture World, April 13, 1912:
The item did not mention that for some years Mr. Becknell had been manager of the Bijou Theatre in Iron Mountain.A rare mention of the Colonial in the trade journals appeared in the February 18, 1953 issue of The Exhibitor: “The Colonial, Iron Mountain, Mich., Thomas Circuit, reopened.”
A section of this PDF from the Dickinson County Genealogical Society says that the Braumart Theatre opened on April 21, 1925. A.E. Brauns was the owner of the theater and Thomas Martin the manager for the Colonial Theatre Group, which then also operated the Colonial and Bijou theaters in Iron Mountain and four theaters in Fond du Lac.
Studying the photos on the site robboehm mentioned I have concluded that the Ritz Theatre was on the northeast corner of Kaufman Street and San Jacinto Street, diagonally across the intersection from the square. It is now the location of a modern bank building with the address 201 E. Kaufman Street.
This web page says that the Ritz Theatre was opened on the north side of the town square in 1923 and operated for 35 years. The building has since been demolished. Unfortunately there’s no photo of the Ritz, though the page has photos of several other small town Texas theaters.
The history section of the web site of Ellettsville Christian Church says that “[o]n August 5th, 1928 services were first held in the Oriental Theater on the west side of Sale Street.” The “Closings” column for Indiana in the July 1, 1929 issue of The Film Daily lists a house at Ellettsville called the Orient. Given the low odds that such a short street in a such small town would have two theaters on its west side, the house at 203 Sale probably was the Oriental (or Orient.) The absence of any other theaters on the 1929 Sanborn map would pretty much clinch it.
34 and 36 E. Morgan Street have been combined into a single space for a law office using the address 36 E. Morgan. A photo on page 81 of Martinsville) by Joanne Raetz Stuttgen and Curtis Tomak (Google Books preview) shows the entrance to Blackstone’s Theatre at 34 E. Morgan, so so it appears that Blackstone’s and the State were the same theater, unless the original auditorium was demolished and replaced.
The Billboard of February 20, 1909 mentions a theater in Martinsville called the New Wigwam, showing movies and vaudeville. It doesn’t give a location, but Wigwam would be a likely name for a theater on the ground floor of the Red Men’s Hall. The Improved Order of Red Men fraternal organization called its lodges Wigwams.
The part of the building which housed the Bijou’s entrance is still standing, but the auditorium is long gone.
An item in the April 7, 1917 issue of Motion Picture News gives the location of the Idylhour Theatre as West Elm Street. Manager Charles Kuchen had just renewed the lease on the building for five years, and had installed a new Motiograph projector.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only one movie house at Greensburg; the Palace, on the north side of the public square. The absence of the K of P Theatre suggests that it was presenting only live events at that time. Not everything in the theater was live by 1917, though, when the April 7 issue of Motion Picture News published this item:
The New Edison referred to was that company’s most advance phonograph. The fact that the item appears in a movie industry trade journal suggests that the K of P was frequently running movies by then.The 1914-1916 American Motion Picture Directorylists only one theater at Greensburg, a house called the Palace, situated on the north side of the public square. We don’t have a Palace Theatre listed in Greensburg, and the Vaudette is the only house we do have listed that was on the north side of the square. I wonder if there could have been a name change from Vaudette to Palace?
The Holiday Cinemas must have operated for no more than ten years at most. A 2003 Kitsap Sun article about the building referred to “…the 35,000 square-foot space that Holiday Cinema occupied over a decade ago.” The hotel, by 2003 branded as a Howard Johnson’s, had long been using the space for storage.
A comment on the “If You Grew Up in Bicknell” Facebook page says that the Colonial Theatre was destroyed by a fire in 1971.
The Royal Theatre was advertised in the February 11, 1926 issue of the Cashmere Valley Record.
The Royal Theatre was mentioned in the July 8, 1927 issue of Motion Picture News. It was then owned by G. C. Fasken.
The new Omak Theatre was slated to open the following night, reported the July 11, 1939 issue of The Chronicle, the local newspaper. The house was located on the site of the Gem Theatre, and was the same width as the old building but was 40 feet longer. Owners Greime and Fasken had operated the Gem for seven years before rebuilding.