The January 4, 1941 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review reported that demolition of the Grand Theatre in Memphis had begun, making way for a new theater to be built at 332 Beale Street. That project was the house that would be known as the New Daisy Theatre.
This item from the January 4, 1941 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review must be about the New Daisy project, despite the slight address discrepancy:
“Memphis, Tenn.— The city has authorized the first steps toward construction of what will be Memphis' largest negro theatre, a $75,000 structure to be built at 332 Beale St. Replacing an old theatre on that site, the Grand, it will contain 1,100 seats in main floor and balcony. Work of demolishing the present structure has started, and the new theatre is expected to be completed March 15. Owners of the project are Zerilla & Maceri, Memphis theatre firm.”
Here is an item from the January 4, 1941 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review:
“Port Henry, N. Y.— The Kallett Theatre
Circuit has leased the Empire Theatre here and will now proceed with plans to close the house and spend about $25,000 renovating the Star Theatre.”
The item might have been a bit belated, as they sometimes were in many of the trade journals of that period.
The December 27, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World said that architect Birge M. Clark was drawing plans for a 500-seat movie theater to be built at Menlo Park. I don’t know that this project was in fact the Menlo Theatre, but it might have been. It isn’t listed in the guide to Clark’s architectural records and personal papers, which are held by the Stanford University Library, but those records are incomplete. The papers do include material, including a façade drawing, relating to the Varsity Theatre in Palo Alto, which was designed by Reid Brothers in 1927. It’s possible that Clark, who was local, acted as a supervising architect for that project.
When the December 20, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World announced that bids were about to be taken for construction of what was then to have been called the State Theatre, it said that the architect for the project was Leon H. Lempert. Frank Keeney took a long-term lease on the house before it was completed and opened it under his own name.
The Ames Theatre was built a bit later than we thought, so the organ installed in 1920, mentioned in a now-vanished comment by Lost Memory, must not have been for this Ames Theatre, which actually didn’t get that name until 1950. Plans for a theater at Ames Avenue and 24th Street were announced in Moving Picture World of December 13, 1924. Originally to have been designed by George L. Fisher, the final plans were by architect Everett Sherwood Dodds, and some of his drawings appear on this web page, which features a fairly extensive history of the house.
The house opened as the North Star Theatre in August, 1925, and after a brief closure for renovations in late 1949 reopened on January 14, 1950 as the Ames Theatre. In 1958 it was acquired by the Cooper Foundation and converted for use as a live theater. It operated as a repertory house under the name Kingsmark Theatre for about two years before being converted into a supermarket in 1960. From 1970 to 1976 it housed a series of short-lived nightclubs, and since 1976 the building has served as a warehouse.
The building at this address now is apparently a rebuild. The November 15, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World said that “[a]rchitects have drawn plans for a handsome new theatre at Greenville, Texas, to replace the former Colonial Theatre there, which was destroyed by fire. The theatre will be two stories in height and will cost about $30,000.” The earlier Colonial Theatre had been listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The November 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World had this item that must have been about the Falls Theatre:
“Sam Trapasso and Company of Niagara Falls will build a new theatre at East Falls street and Portage road. The company now operates the Eugenia Theatre in the Cataract city. The plans, prepared by Albert Elia, architect and builder of the Amendola Theatre at Pine avenue and Fifteenth street, call for a house seating 1,400 and a 25-foot stage. There will be a mezzanine floor and a balcony.”
The November 1, 1924 issue of The Moving Picture World, had a short article about the proposed theater George J. Beihler planned to build at Hamburg. The 1,000 seat, $125,000 project was being designed by Buffalo architects Bley & Lyman (Lawrence Bley and Duane Lyman.)
Here is a brief item about the Liberty Theatre from the November 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
The Liberty Theatre, C. Sawyer, Manager; P. A. Hagen, Projectionist, seats 365. It uses Mazda equipped Simplex projectors. I enjoyed a pleasant chat with Manager Sawyer and Projectionist Hagen.“
An April 20, 2018 article in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader said that the Liberty Theatre opened on May 10, 1919. A projection booth fire on February 1st, 1920 closed the house until March 13 while repairs were made. Sawyer’s ten-year lease on the building ended in 1929, and it was not renewed, as the Liberty had closed in 1928, though the article doesn’t give a date for that event.
An item about the Walter Alschlager’s plans for this house in the November 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World said that the building would have an Adamesque façade and the auditorium would be decorated in the Spanish Renaissance style.
If the Universal was being advertised in 1926, there might have been more than one movie house to use that name in Hanford. This item is from the November 8, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
“Lewis & Byrd, who recently secured the lease on the Universal Theatre, Hanford, Cal., have closed and dismantled the house, formerly operated by a Japanese exhibitor.”
An ad for the Universal Theatre in the October 14, 1915 issue of The Hanford Morning Journal said that the house was presenting “…Its Seventh Great Broadway Universal Picture….” which suggests that the theater might have opened fairly recently. No theaters are listed at Hanford in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though there’s a god chance that was merely an oversight. It was already a good-sized town, and the County Seat of Kings County.
An item in the November 25, 1916 Moving Picture World said that the Universal Theatre in Hanford was being enlarged, and would now have an additional 200 seats.
An item about the new Hayden-Shaw Theatre, published in Exhibitors Herald and Motography of May 17, 1919, said that the architects and engineers of the new house, the W. S. Ferguson Co., had also designed the Euclid Theatre.
The May 17, 1919 issue of Exhibitors Herald and Motography had this item about the Rialto:
“The deal for the new Rialto theatre on West 25th street has been completed and work will start at once. This house will seat 1,100. Sam H. Weis is the architect.”
Boxoffice of April 24, 1948 reported that the Welling Theatre had reopened after renovations. The $5,000 project included new seats, carpeting, and screen, plus redecoration. The Welling closed and reopened more than once during the 1950s, and in 1966 the February 7 Boxoffice said that local merchants had reopened the house for Saturday shows only, but hoped to add Friday shows soon. That was the last mention of the Welling I’ve found in the trade journals.
From at least as early as 1925, Natoma had a 200-seat movie house called the Reel Theatre. Manager H. P. McFadden sent capsule movie reviews to Moving Picture World into 1927. Natoma then had a population of only about 600, but probably drew business from a significant rural population in the surrounding area. I’ve been unable to discover if the Welling was the same house as the Reel, but the Welling’s building looks like it dates from no earlier than the late 1930s, so if it was the same theater it must have been quite extensively remodeled.
I’ve seen a few references to an episode of a NPR radio show being broadcast from the Gold Pan Theatre in 1998, but I haven’t found the house mentioned in theater industry trade journals. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists a Nugget Theatre, Broadway and Third Street, as the only movie house in Skagway, and the January 13, 1945 Showmen’s Trade Review mentions a house in Skagway called the Broadway Theatre, apparently just closed for the winter, and except for a couple of mentions of the Coliseum, that’s it for Skagway in the trade journals. It’s a tiny little town that these days appears to live mostly on the tourist industry.
The July 7, 1928 issue of Exhibitors Herald World said that “[t]he Capitol at Morrison, Ill., is now under construction. It is being built by Smith & Potter of that place.” It was likely opened before the end of 1928.
A very small photo, left column, second from the bottom on this web page shows the block the the Capitol Theatre was on. As several buildings nearby it are still standing, it’s possible to calculate that the Capitol’s entrance was at 108 W. Main Street.
So, putting the information in all these comments together, the operation was opened by McCormick-Nace Enterprises sometime in 1951, probably late in the year, as either the Twin Drive-In, the Twin Open Air Drive-In, or the Twin Screen Drive-In, which was closed in early January, 1952. Then one screen was reopened April 11, 1952 by Crockett and Nace as either the Acres Drive-In or the Acres of Fun Drive-In, and then the second screen was reopened as the Peso Drive-In (or perhaps El Peso Drive-In) on July 18, 1952.
It sounds like the Peso (or El Peso) Drive-In might have shown Spanish language movies. That would have been a good move at that time. Phoenix probably already had two or three Anglophonic television stations by 1952, but probably didn’t get a Spanish language station until the 1960s at the earliest. Spanish language movies kept a lot of southwestern theaters open long after many theaters in other parts of the country lost their audience to television.
A vanished web page once provided by the Benson Chamber of Commerce, now found on the Internet Archive’s Wayback machine, says:“
"A motion picture theater opened in Benson in the Aldrich House in 1916. In 1925, John DeMarce purchased the theater. Today, the DeMarce Theater, operated by Larry DeMarce, is the only movie theater in Swift County.”
Apparently the house didn’t become the DeMarce Theatre until 1925, but so far I’ve been unable to discover any earlier name[s] for it.
There is no name given for the theater in this item from the March 10, 1923 issue of Moving Picture World, but if the DeMarce was the only house then operating in Benson it must have been the place:
“One hundred persons rushed from a picture theatre at Benson, Minn., Tuesday night when a fire which started in the operating booth threatened to spread to the auditorium of the theatre. The manager of the theatre was operating the picture machine when the fire started.”
The Theatre Historical Society’s data for Staten Island (PDF here) says that the Harbor Theatre was at 3005 Richmond Terrace, opened in January, 1914, and was still extant in 1925. It was designed (alterations of an existing building) by architect James Whitford.
The Harbor wasn’t listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, which listed only four theaters in Staten Island, including a house called the Apollo Theatre just up the road at 2951 Richmond Terrace. THS says the Apollo opened in 1911 and closed in 1914, so perhaps the Harbor was its replacement. In any case, it is evidence that the Harbor was not Staten Island’s first movie house.
A look back at some events in the Mohawk Valley, published in 2010 (Utica Observer-Dispatch), had this to say of the Bates Theatre:
“1935, 75 years ago
“Historic landmark razed
“The Bates Theater building in Mohawk – the village’s recreational center since 1845 – is razed.
“The brick building, with a seating capacity of 1,000, was built by the Hendrick Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. It not only served as the order’s meeting hall, but also had a large stage and was used as an opera house.
“It had various names through the years – including Varley Hall after one of its owners, Thomas Varley – and in 1914, Bates transformed it into a movie house. The last time the building was used was four months ago when it was a skating rink.”
The January 4, 1941 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review reported that demolition of the Grand Theatre in Memphis had begun, making way for a new theater to be built at 332 Beale Street. That project was the house that would be known as the New Daisy Theatre.
This item from the January 4, 1941 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review must be about the New Daisy project, despite the slight address discrepancy:
Here is an item from the January 4, 1941 issue of Showmen’s Trade Review:
The item might have been a bit belated, as they sometimes were in many of the trade journals of that period.The December 27, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World said that architect Birge M. Clark was drawing plans for a 500-seat movie theater to be built at Menlo Park. I don’t know that this project was in fact the Menlo Theatre, but it might have been. It isn’t listed in the guide to Clark’s architectural records and personal papers, which are held by the Stanford University Library, but those records are incomplete. The papers do include material, including a façade drawing, relating to the Varsity Theatre in Palo Alto, which was designed by Reid Brothers in 1927. It’s possible that Clark, who was local, acted as a supervising architect for that project.
An issue of the San Mateo Times from April, 1969 made reference to the “…newly opened Menlo Theater in Menlo Park….”
When the December 20, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World announced that bids were about to be taken for construction of what was then to have been called the State Theatre, it said that the architect for the project was Leon H. Lempert. Frank Keeney took a long-term lease on the house before it was completed and opened it under his own name.
The Ames Theatre was built a bit later than we thought, so the organ installed in 1920, mentioned in a now-vanished comment by Lost Memory, must not have been for this Ames Theatre, which actually didn’t get that name until 1950. Plans for a theater at Ames Avenue and 24th Street were announced in Moving Picture World of December 13, 1924. Originally to have been designed by George L. Fisher, the final plans were by architect Everett Sherwood Dodds, and some of his drawings appear on this web page, which features a fairly extensive history of the house.
The house opened as the North Star Theatre in August, 1925, and after a brief closure for renovations in late 1949 reopened on January 14, 1950 as the Ames Theatre. In 1958 it was acquired by the Cooper Foundation and converted for use as a live theater. It operated as a repertory house under the name Kingsmark Theatre for about two years before being converted into a supermarket in 1960. From 1970 to 1976 it housed a series of short-lived nightclubs, and since 1976 the building has served as a warehouse.
The building at this address now is apparently a rebuild. The November 15, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World said that “[a]rchitects have drawn plans for a handsome new theatre at Greenville, Texas, to replace the former Colonial Theatre there, which was destroyed by fire. The theatre will be two stories in height and will cost about $30,000.” The earlier Colonial Theatre had been listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
An item in the November 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World mentioned that Albert Elia had been the builder and architect of the Amendola Theatre.
The November 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World had this item that must have been about the Falls Theatre:
The November 1, 1924 issue of The Moving Picture World, had a short article about the proposed theater George J. Beihler planned to build at Hamburg. The 1,000 seat, $125,000 project was being designed by Buffalo architects Bley & Lyman (Lawrence Bley and Duane Lyman.)
Here is a brief item about the Liberty Theatre from the November 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
An April 20, 2018 article in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader said that the Liberty Theatre opened on May 10, 1919. A projection booth fire on February 1st, 1920 closed the house until March 13 while repairs were made. Sawyer’s ten-year lease on the building ended in 1929, and it was not renewed, as the Liberty had closed in 1928, though the article doesn’t give a date for that event.An item about the Walter Alschlager’s plans for this house in the November 1, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World said that the building would have an Adamesque façade and the auditorium would be decorated in the Spanish Renaissance style.
If the Universal was being advertised in 1926, there might have been more than one movie house to use that name in Hanford. This item is from the November 8, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:
An ad for the Universal Theatre in the October 14, 1915 issue of The Hanford Morning Journal said that the house was presenting “…Its Seventh Great Broadway Universal Picture….” which suggests that the theater might have opened fairly recently. No theaters are listed at Hanford in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though there’s a god chance that was merely an oversight. It was already a good-sized town, and the County Seat of Kings County.An item in the November 25, 1916 Moving Picture World said that the Universal Theatre in Hanford was being enlarged, and would now have an additional 200 seats.
An item about the new Hayden-Shaw Theatre, published in Exhibitors Herald and Motography of May 17, 1919, said that the architects and engineers of the new house, the W. S. Ferguson Co., had also designed the Euclid Theatre.
The May 17, 1919 issue of Exhibitors Herald and Motography had this item about the Rialto:
Boxoffice of April 24, 1948 reported that the Welling Theatre had reopened after renovations. The $5,000 project included new seats, carpeting, and screen, plus redecoration. The Welling closed and reopened more than once during the 1950s, and in 1966 the February 7 Boxoffice said that local merchants had reopened the house for Saturday shows only, but hoped to add Friday shows soon. That was the last mention of the Welling I’ve found in the trade journals.
From at least as early as 1925, Natoma had a 200-seat movie house called the Reel Theatre. Manager H. P. McFadden sent capsule movie reviews to Moving Picture World into 1927. Natoma then had a population of only about 600, but probably drew business from a significant rural population in the surrounding area. I’ve been unable to discover if the Welling was the same house as the Reel, but the Welling’s building looks like it dates from no earlier than the late 1930s, so if it was the same theater it must have been quite extensively remodeled.
I’ve seen a few references to an episode of a NPR radio show being broadcast from the Gold Pan Theatre in 1998, but I haven’t found the house mentioned in theater industry trade journals. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists a Nugget Theatre, Broadway and Third Street, as the only movie house in Skagway, and the January 13, 1945 Showmen’s Trade Review mentions a house in Skagway called the Broadway Theatre, apparently just closed for the winter, and except for a couple of mentions of the Coliseum, that’s it for Skagway in the trade journals. It’s a tiny little town that these days appears to live mostly on the tourist industry.
The July 7, 1928 issue of Exhibitors Herald World said that “[t]he Capitol at Morrison, Ill., is now under construction. It is being built by Smith & Potter of that place.” It was likely opened before the end of 1928.
A very small photo, left column, second from the bottom on this web page shows the block the the Capitol Theatre was on. As several buildings nearby it are still standing, it’s possible to calculate that the Capitol’s entrance was at 108 W. Main Street.
So, putting the information in all these comments together, the operation was opened by McCormick-Nace Enterprises sometime in 1951, probably late in the year, as either the Twin Drive-In, the Twin Open Air Drive-In, or the Twin Screen Drive-In, which was closed in early January, 1952. Then one screen was reopened April 11, 1952 by Crockett and Nace as either the Acres Drive-In or the Acres of Fun Drive-In, and then the second screen was reopened as the Peso Drive-In (or perhaps El Peso Drive-In) on July 18, 1952.
It sounds like the Peso (or El Peso) Drive-In might have shown Spanish language movies. That would have been a good move at that time. Phoenix probably already had two or three Anglophonic television stations by 1952, but probably didn’t get a Spanish language station until the 1960s at the earliest. Spanish language movies kept a lot of southwestern theaters open long after many theaters in other parts of the country lost their audience to television.
The architect of the Capitol Theatre was Eugene DeRosa.
Indeed, the Marquee is listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, so might well have been opened even earlier.
A vanished web page once provided by the Benson Chamber of Commerce, now found on the Internet Archive’s Wayback machine, says:“
Apparently the house didn’t become the DeMarce Theatre until 1925, but so far I’ve been unable to discover any earlier name[s] for it.There is no name given for the theater in this item from the March 10, 1923 issue of Moving Picture World, but if the DeMarce was the only house then operating in Benson it must have been the place:
The Theatre Historical Society’s data for Staten Island (PDF here) says that the Harbor Theatre was at 3005 Richmond Terrace, opened in January, 1914, and was still extant in 1925. It was designed (alterations of an existing building) by architect James Whitford.
The Harbor wasn’t listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, which listed only four theaters in Staten Island, including a house called the Apollo Theatre just up the road at 2951 Richmond Terrace. THS says the Apollo opened in 1911 and closed in 1914, so perhaps the Harbor was its replacement. In any case, it is evidence that the Harbor was not Staten Island’s first movie house.
A look back at some events in the Mohawk Valley, published in 2010 (Utica Observer-Dispatch), had this to say of the Bates Theatre: