The first four-screen theater in the Roanoke area opened on January 30, 1976 as the Valley Cinema. The four auditoria were configured to radiate from the octagonal lobby, so they shared no common walls. The largest auditorium, with 350 seats, had its own projection booth, and the other three, with 300, 250, and 200 seats respectively, shared one booth. The Project architect was Bill Murphy of the Columbus, Georgia firm Brookbank, Murphy & Shields.
Knight, manager of the American Theatre, submitted multiple capsule movie reviews for the “What the Picture Did For Me” section of Motion Picture Herald in early 1934.
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 has a history of the town’s theaters, and says that the Lou Ana Theatre opened in 1951.
The July 8, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that the recently opened LaSalle Theatre in Kirkland Lake was one of several Ontario houses that was presenting live vaudeville shows along with their movies. The Cartier Theatre at Timmons had also adopted the combination house policy.
I believe this house might have opened in 1939 as the Macon Theatre. The Tennessee news column of the July 8, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that “[t]he Mason, [sic] a new theater at Lafayette, opened July 4.” Lafayette being such a small town it seems unlikely that two new theaters would have been opened there in the 1930s.
The Spanish Colonial Atmospheric auditorium the Aztec Theatre was the result of a remodeling that was done in 1939. The reopening of the house, which had taken place on June 7, was noted in the July 8 issue of Boxoffice. H. S. Leon had recently become the sole owner of the Aztec, in which he had acquired a part interest in 1932.
The Schine circuit had control of the State by 1926, when the March 13 issue of Moving Picture World said that the company planned a complete remodeling of the house. The $75,000 project was slated to begin on May 1.
When the Palace was taken over by Michaels Theatrical Enterprises in 1926, the March 13 issue of Moving Picture World said that the “…first-run picture hose was built a decade ago by the late Mitchell H. Mark and associates….” It added that “[t]he Palace was the second high-class picture house to be built in Buffalo.” The house probably opened in early 1915, as the February 6 issue of The Buffalo Times mentioned that an organist had been hired for “…the new Palace Theatre which will open soon in Buffalo.”
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 says that the Delta Grand Theatre opened on April 1, 1933 as the Conrad Theatre. It was renamed Delta Theatre in 1934.
Oops. Something from the article I left out of my comment is that in 1932 the Princess was sold to R. Bailey, who renamed it the Bailey Theatre. A Harold Bailey of Opelousas is mentioned as a recent visitor to film row in New Orleans in the January 7, 1936 issue of The Film Daily.
Something the Daily World article missed is another fire at the Princess, on February 4, 1926. The reopening of the house was mentioned in the March 13, 1926 issue of Moving Picture World.
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 has a history of movie theaters in Opelousas, and it says that a house called the Bon Ami Theatre had opened by 1911, with its entrance on Court Street. Some time later (before 1914) it was expanded into a building on Landry Street and renamed the Princess Theatre. It operated for a time with entrances on both streets.
In 1916, a new owner took over and built a new, brick building for the Princess at another location on Landry Street, and it was this 1916 building that eventually became the Rex. The Princess apparently started out as a reverse theater, as the article says that in 1923 it was remodeled and expanded, and the screen was moved to the rear of the building. In 1932, a fire caused about $8,000 of damage to the building, and it had to be partly rebuilt. By 1937 it had been renamed the Rex. In its later years the Rex was operated by the same company that owned the Delta Theatre.
The article doesn’t give the closing year for the Rex, but notes that the Rose Theatre opened on Market Street in 1947 and the Lou Ana Theatre opened on North Court Street in 1951, so it’s likely that the Rex closed not long after that, despite the 1951 remodeling project. With three other theaters in town, plus the drive-in, I doubt the Rex was ever outfitted with costly CinemaScope equipment, and most non-CinemaScope houses everywhere had been closed by the end of 1956.
Houses called the Yale Theatre and the Novelty Theatre are both listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Novelty is listed at 410 E. Douglas, but no address is given for the Yale.
The Star Theatre was listed at 221 E. Douglas in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The August 12 issue of The Western Contractor that same year said that a contract had been let for tile work in the Star Theatre building in Wichita, but it didn’t say if the building itself was new or if the theater was just getting an improvement. Either way, the place was definitely in operation by late 1914.
The February 4, 1915 opening of the Colonial must have been only the opening under the management of Fox’s “Box Office Attraction Company.” The Colonial was advertised in the Wichita Beacon of October 3, 1910, boasting of “…five big pictures, four of them comedies.” This ad was cited in Gerald R. Butters' book Banned in Kansas: Motion Picture Censorship, 1915-1966.
The corner building in the photo currently displayed is not the one that housed the Royal Theatre. 103 Main Street is around the corner to the right, and is currently occupied by a pet grooming salon called Pamper Cottage. We can partly see the upper floors of the theater building to the left of the corner building in the photo. CinemaTour has three photos of the Royal building’s exterior, from Matt Lutthens.
Laurel had a house called the Odeon Theatre in operation by 1914, and one called the Casino Theatre in operation by 1917. It’s possible that either of those names was an aka for the Royal, and perhaps both of them were. The building is certainly old enough, and I’ve been unable to find addresses for either of the earlier houses.
I’ve found the Strand mentioned twice in theater industry trade journals in 1922. The house changed hands that year, passing from C. L. Harvey to the partnership of Krone and MacArdle.
The tall building in the background of the photo of the Strand once housed the Royal Theatre. As the back of it looks like a stage house, I think it might have housed a theater earlier than the Royal, which supposedly opened in the early 1930s. The building might have been the Odeon, which was in operation by 1914, or the Casino, which was in operation by 1917, and those two might have been sequential names of the same house.
To add a bit more confusion, the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists a house in Pawtucket called the Scenic Theatre at 127 Mathewson Street. Also, a movie and vaudeville theater called the Scenic Temple opened in the Brownell Building in Pawtucket, noted in the April, 1911 issue of Motography. I’ve been unable to pin down the location of the Brownell Building. A different Brownell Building in Providence hogs all the search results.
The only movie house listed at Skiatook in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory was called the Lyric. The Palace was mentioned in the July 3, 1920 issue of Moving Picture World, along with a house called the Electric Theatre.
At least two sources (Film Daily of March 28, 1923 and Gary D. Rhodes' book The Perils of Moviegoing in America: 1896-1950) mention a theater fire at Skiatook in 1923 in which the projectionist was killed. Rhodes gives the cost of damages as $125,000. Three months later, the June 16 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review ran a brief item saying “[t]he New Palace Theatre, Skiatook, Okla., will be ready for opening shortly.” The name New Palace leads me to me suspect that it was the Palace that burned and had to be rebuilt.
The “Oklahoma City” column of Boxoffice for June 22, 1959 mentions the Palace. A new owner of the building planned to remodel it for another use, an the item mentions that the Palace was last operated by Bill Stricker and Bill Jones, operators of the Ritz. The closing date is not given, but the wording suggests that the house had been dark for quite some time.
Here’s evidence that the Elm once had a rival theater, noted in the February 25, 1928 issue of Movie Age: “Karl Green has opened a new theatre at Elm Creek, Nebr., and christened it the Oak.” I wonder if a third house would have been called the Ash?
A few photos of the Brokaw Theatre are found in the last part of this article about historic theater renovations in Indiana, posted at input Fort Wayne in 2018.
Oops, forgot the other thing I was going to link to. This article posted by input Fort Wayne in 2018 starts with the Clyde Theatre in Wabash, but then continues with the Eagles Theatre. There are several photos showing the renovations underway in both the theater and other parts of the building.
The Eagles Theatre is now operated under the auspices of the Honeywell Foundation, and has a new web site here.
Needless to say the July, 2020 target for reopening was missed. The earliest live performance currently scheduled for the Eagles Theatre is February 25, 2021, but personally I wouldn’t bet on it. No movies are currently scheduled, but management is hopeful that they will return this year.
This article from 2018 features four photos of the renovations then being carried out at the Clyde Theatre, followed by photos of several other Indiana theater renovations.
The first four-screen theater in the Roanoke area opened on January 30, 1976 as the Valley Cinema. The four auditoria were configured to radiate from the octagonal lobby, so they shared no common walls. The largest auditorium, with 350 seats, had its own projection booth, and the other three, with 300, 250, and 200 seats respectively, shared one booth. The Project architect was Bill Murphy of the Columbus, Georgia firm Brookbank, Murphy & Shields.
The manager’s name was G. C. Knight. I had it right, but it didn’t come through in the posting of the comment.
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 has a history of the town’s theaters, and says that the Lou Ana Theatre opened in 1951.
The July 8, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that the recently opened LaSalle Theatre in Kirkland Lake was one of several Ontario houses that was presenting live vaudeville shows along with their movies. The Cartier Theatre at Timmons had also adopted the combination house policy.
I believe this house might have opened in 1939 as the Macon Theatre. The Tennessee news column of the July 8, 1939 issue of Boxoffice said that “[t]he Mason, [sic] a new theater at Lafayette, opened July 4.” Lafayette being such a small town it seems unlikely that two new theaters would have been opened there in the 1930s.
The Spanish Colonial Atmospheric auditorium the Aztec Theatre was the result of a remodeling that was done in 1939. The reopening of the house, which had taken place on June 7, was noted in the July 8 issue of Boxoffice. H. S. Leon had recently become the sole owner of the Aztec, in which he had acquired a part interest in 1932.
The Schine circuit had control of the State by 1926, when the March 13 issue of Moving Picture World said that the company planned a complete remodeling of the house. The $75,000 project was slated to begin on May 1.
The March 13, 1926 issue of The Moving Picture World said that the Majestic Theatre would open in Rochester on March 17.
When the Palace was taken over by Michaels Theatrical Enterprises in 1926, the March 13 issue of Moving Picture World said that the “…first-run picture hose was built a decade ago by the late Mitchell H. Mark and associates….” It added that “[t]he Palace was the second high-class picture house to be built in Buffalo.” The house probably opened in early 1915, as the February 6 issue of The Buffalo Times mentioned that an organist had been hired for “…the new Palace Theatre which will open soon in Buffalo.”
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 says that the Delta Grand Theatre opened on April 1, 1933 as the Conrad Theatre. It was renamed Delta Theatre in 1934.
Oops. Something from the article I left out of my comment is that in 1932 the Princess was sold to R. Bailey, who renamed it the Bailey Theatre. A Harold Bailey of Opelousas is mentioned as a recent visitor to film row in New Orleans in the January 7, 1936 issue of The Film Daily.
Something the Daily World article missed is another fire at the Princess, on February 4, 1926. The reopening of the house was mentioned in the March 13, 1926 issue of Moving Picture World.
This article from the Opelousas Daily World of September 19, 2019 has a history of movie theaters in Opelousas, and it says that a house called the Bon Ami Theatre had opened by 1911, with its entrance on Court Street. Some time later (before 1914) it was expanded into a building on Landry Street and renamed the Princess Theatre. It operated for a time with entrances on both streets.
In 1916, a new owner took over and built a new, brick building for the Princess at another location on Landry Street, and it was this 1916 building that eventually became the Rex. The Princess apparently started out as a reverse theater, as the article says that in 1923 it was remodeled and expanded, and the screen was moved to the rear of the building. In 1932, a fire caused about $8,000 of damage to the building, and it had to be partly rebuilt. By 1937 it had been renamed the Rex. In its later years the Rex was operated by the same company that owned the Delta Theatre.
The article doesn’t give the closing year for the Rex, but notes that the Rose Theatre opened on Market Street in 1947 and the Lou Ana Theatre opened on North Court Street in 1951, so it’s likely that the Rex closed not long after that, despite the 1951 remodeling project. With three other theaters in town, plus the drive-in, I doubt the Rex was ever outfitted with costly CinemaScope equipment, and most non-CinemaScope houses everywhere had been closed by the end of 1956.
Houses called the Yale Theatre and the Novelty Theatre are both listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Novelty is listed at 410 E. Douglas, but no address is given for the Yale.
The Star Theatre was listed at 221 E. Douglas in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The August 12 issue of The Western Contractor that same year said that a contract had been let for tile work in the Star Theatre building in Wichita, but it didn’t say if the building itself was new or if the theater was just getting an improvement. Either way, the place was definitely in operation by late 1914.
The February 4, 1915 opening of the Colonial must have been only the opening under the management of Fox’s “Box Office Attraction Company.” The Colonial was advertised in the Wichita Beacon of October 3, 1910, boasting of “…five big pictures, four of them comedies.” This ad was cited in Gerald R. Butters' book Banned in Kansas: Motion Picture Censorship, 1915-1966.
The corner building in the photo currently displayed is not the one that housed the Royal Theatre. 103 Main Street is around the corner to the right, and is currently occupied by a pet grooming salon called Pamper Cottage. We can partly see the upper floors of the theater building to the left of the corner building in the photo. CinemaTour has three photos of the Royal building’s exterior, from Matt Lutthens.
Laurel had a house called the Odeon Theatre in operation by 1914, and one called the Casino Theatre in operation by 1917. It’s possible that either of those names was an aka for the Royal, and perhaps both of them were. The building is certainly old enough, and I’ve been unable to find addresses for either of the earlier houses.
I’ve found the Strand mentioned twice in theater industry trade journals in 1922. The house changed hands that year, passing from C. L. Harvey to the partnership of Krone and MacArdle.
The tall building in the background of the photo of the Strand once housed the Royal Theatre. As the back of it looks like a stage house, I think it might have housed a theater earlier than the Royal, which supposedly opened in the early 1930s. The building might have been the Odeon, which was in operation by 1914, or the Casino, which was in operation by 1917, and those two might have been sequential names of the same house.
To add a bit more confusion, the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists a house in Pawtucket called the Scenic Theatre at 127 Mathewson Street. Also, a movie and vaudeville theater called the Scenic Temple opened in the Brownell Building in Pawtucket, noted in the April, 1911 issue of Motography. I’ve been unable to pin down the location of the Brownell Building. A different Brownell Building in Providence hogs all the search results.
The only movie house listed at Skiatook in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory was called the Lyric. The Palace was mentioned in the July 3, 1920 issue of Moving Picture World, along with a house called the Electric Theatre.
At least two sources (Film Daily of March 28, 1923 and Gary D. Rhodes' book The Perils of Moviegoing in America: 1896-1950) mention a theater fire at Skiatook in 1923 in which the projectionist was killed. Rhodes gives the cost of damages as $125,000. Three months later, the June 16 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review ran a brief item saying “[t]he New Palace Theatre, Skiatook, Okla., will be ready for opening shortly.” The name New Palace leads me to me suspect that it was the Palace that burned and had to be rebuilt.
The “Oklahoma City” column of Boxoffice for June 22, 1959 mentions the Palace. A new owner of the building planned to remodel it for another use, an the item mentions that the Palace was last operated by Bill Stricker and Bill Jones, operators of the Ritz. The closing date is not given, but the wording suggests that the house had been dark for quite some time.
Here’s evidence that the Elm once had a rival theater, noted in the February 25, 1928 issue of Movie Age: “Karl Green has opened a new theatre at Elm Creek, Nebr., and christened it the Oak.” I wonder if a third house would have been called the Ash?
A few photos of the Brokaw Theatre are found in the last part of this article about historic theater renovations in Indiana, posted at input Fort Wayne in 2018.
Oops, forgot the other thing I was going to link to. This article posted by input Fort Wayne in 2018 starts with the Clyde Theatre in Wabash, but then continues with the Eagles Theatre. There are several photos showing the renovations underway in both the theater and other parts of the building.
The Eagles Theatre is now operated under the auspices of the Honeywell Foundation, and has a new web site here.
Needless to say the July, 2020 target for reopening was missed. The earliest live performance currently scheduled for the Eagles Theatre is February 25, 2021, but personally I wouldn’t bet on it. No movies are currently scheduled, but management is hopeful that they will return this year.
This article from 2018 features four photos of the renovations then being carried out at the Clyde Theatre, followed by photos of several other Indiana theater renovations.