The November 30, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the Arcadia Theatre in Bells, Texas had been badly damaged by a fire on November 4. At that time it was owned by a Mr. Coy Anderson.
I don’t know if the Grand Rich Theatre in Stamford, mentioned in this item from the September 5, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Herald, is this house or not, but it could be:
“Griffith Circuit Adds Four
“The Griffith Amusement Company, Oklahoma City, has opened its new Grand Rich theatre in Stamford, Texas, and has taken over the State in Odessa, the Texas in Ballinger and the Queen in Winners, all in Texas.
I haven’t found the name "Grand Rich Theatre” anywhere else on the Internet, so it might have been an error, or perhaps it was only used briefly. The Film Daily of September 12, 1924, said that a new theater was being erected in Stamford Texas, but no other details were given. I’ve found the name Alcove Theatre in the trade journals only once so far, dating from 1929, so it could have been the 1924 project.
Earlier theater names used at Stamford include houses called the Cozy, the Cozy Airdome, the Crystal, the Joyland, the Candy, the Dixie, the Ideal, and the Majestic Summer Garden, the latter two having been the only movie houses listed at Stamford in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
An article about theaters in Martins Ferry (PDF here) says that the Elzane Theatre occupied the location of a house called the Rex Theatre, which had opened in 1916 and closed around 1918-1919. An item from The Moving Picture World of May 8, 1926 confirms that a new theater was to be opened on the site of the Rex, but doesn’t make clear if it involved a remodeling of the old building or an entirely new structure. Given the cost of the project an entirely new building does seem likely:
“New Theatre For Martins Ferry, Ohio
“Moving Picture World
"Bureau, Cincinnati,
"April 26.
“ANNOUNCEMENT has been made by the Fenray Photoplay Co., Martins' Ferry, Ohio, that it will shortly begin the construction of a pretentious picture house in that city to occupy the old site of the Rex Theatre on Fourth street. The house will be equipped with a stage sufficiently large to accommodate vaudeville acts. The estimated cost is $30,000. The company now operates the Pastime Theatre at Martins Ferry.”
The October 16, 1915 issue of The American Contractor said that the theater building being erected for the Fenray Amusement Co. at Martins Ferry had been designed by architect Charles W. Bates of Wheeling, West Virginia.
This PDF (from DavidZornig’s link) has an article about theaters in Martins Ferry, and says that the Fenray opened on January 8, 1916, and operated until February 29, 1964. Although it reopened and closed a few more times in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was finally dismantled in 1972.
The Grand Opera House was still standing at least a late as 1979, when an article about it appeared in the October issue of Boone Magazine (PDF here), though it had not been used as a theater since 1918. It was quite a large theater, with 700 seats on the main floor and 300 in the gallery, with additional seating for 32 in the side boxes. The stage was 38 feet deep and 60 feet wide. I’ve been unable to discover to what extent movies were presented at the Grand, but its inclusion in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory would have been unlikely had they not been shown fairly often.
Here is an item about Brown’s Grand Opera House from the August 17, 1886 issue of The Indianapolis Journal:
“Lebanon’s New Opera-House.
"Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
“Lebanon, Aug. 16.— Brown’s new opera-house was opened to the public for the first time tonight, the Gilbert Comedy company giving the Inaugural performance to an audience numbering twelve hundred people. The occasion is a notable one, from the fact that the house is one of the handsomest places of amusement in Indiana. The work is, for the most part, that of Indianapolis artisans. The architect is R. P. Daggett. The brick and stone work was done by J. V. Woods, of Indianapolis, and the wood work by George W. Busby, of Lebanon. The decorating was done by Albert Gall, and the carpets and draperies are also from his house. The scenery and drop curtains are from the brush of Frank Cox, of New York. The theater is seated throughout, including the gallery, with folding opera chairs of the latest design, those on the lower floor being upholstered in cardinal plush. The proscenium and party boxes, of which there are ten, are also exquisitely draped and furnished. The house, which is provided with all modern conveniences and accessories, is a model in every respect, and is a monument to the energy and public spirit of J. C. Brown & Cos.”
Architect Robert Platt Daggett began practicing at Indianapolis in 1868, and the firm he established with junior partner James B. Lizius in 1880, R. P. Daggett & Company, continued operation after his death in 1915, run first by his son Robert Frost Daggett and then by his grandson Robert Frost Daggett Jr. until the latter’s retirement in 1977. The firm was one of the city’s most prolific, but unfortunately very little of its early work has survived.
The Olympic Theatre is listed at 122 S. Lebanon Street in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The only other theater listed at Lebanon was the Grand Opera House, 216-220 W. Main Street.
According to Indiana Memory, the Colonial Theatre was remodeled and renamed the Avon in 1936. The venerable house was still in operation when it was destroyed in a spectacular fire on February 26, 1999. In a photograph of the theater in flames, the marquee shows two titles: Payback and Message. The first was undoubtedly the Mel Gibson movie released that year, and the second was most likely Message in a Bottle, the Kevin Kostner-Robin Wright Penn romance. Since double features, especially of two recently released major titles, were very rare by 1999, I suspect the house had been twinned, though I don’t see any signage on the building indicating two screens.
As noted in my earlier comment, the Colonial Theatre was in operation by late 1914. The Colonial was not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, which listed only two movie houses at Lebanon: the Grand Opera House, 216-220 Main Street, and the Olympic Theatre, 122 S. Lebanon Street.
The September 9, 1950 issue of Boxiffice noted that the Warner Theatre in Lynchburg, formerly the Trenton, had recently opened following extensive renovations.
Patsy: Do you know if the May Theatre to the left was in the same building as the Carlson? The reason Blatt gave for closing was because new State fire regulations would have required extensive alterations to the old theater which would have been too costly. I’m wondering if perhaps one of the storefronts in the building was then converted into a small theater by the subsequent operators.
The September 9, 1950 issue of Boxoffice gives different dates than the real estate listing above does, and additional information. The headline is “Mayville Theatre Closed by Blatt” and the article says that the theater had opened in 1904 as the Swetland Opera House, with a live show featuring the young Al Jolson.
The theater was sold to A. A. Carlson around 1929, becoming the Carlson Theatre, and bought by the Blatt circuit in 1946, when it was renamed the May Theatre. The building was originally two stories, but a third floor was a dded a few years after it was built (this was probably the source of the real estate listing’s 1910 date for construction.) The 1950 article also noted that the theater had operated as a movie house for “…almost forty years.”
An April 5, 1952 Boxoffice article revealed that the house had been reopened for a while under different management, but was able to operate for only about a year. As of 1952, a plan was afoot to have the house opened again under the auspices of a local businessmen’s group and to have the actual operation handled by students from the local high school, but I’ve found nothing indicating that this plan ever came to fruition.
This closed real estate listing says that the three-story brick commercial block at 34 South Erie Street, “[k]nown as the former ‘THEATER’ building….” was sold for $206,000 on January 30, 2017. The building was erected in 1910. There is one photo. There are still four storefronts on the ground floor, and the upper floors now house sixteen apartments.
A post on the “Remember Connellsville” Facebook page says that the Colonial Theatre was designed by Pittsburgh architectural firm McCollum & Dowler (Jennings Moss McCollum and Press C. Dowler.)
The June, 1908 issue of Insurance Engineering noted a number of fires that year including this one: “May 10. Connellsville, Pa. Magic Land, vaudeville theater, Samuel Hantman, North Pittsburg street; also two stores. Total losses, $20,000.” I’ve been unable to discover if the theater was ever rebuilt.
The June 24, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about Wagner and Wishart’s new Paramount Theatre, which was soon to open. It said that the partners had “…conducted the Globe theater in Connellsville for the last four years….” so the Globe must have been in operation by 1912. The article also noted that the Globe would be closed when the Paramount opened and its space would be converted to retail use. The Paramount opened on July 18, so July 17 was most likely that last day of operation for the Globe.
Here is an item about the Paramount Theatre from the June 24, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Connellsville, Pa.—The attractive new theaters of Messrs. Wagner and Wishart, at Connellsville, Pa., is receiving the finishing touches of decorators and furnishers and will be ready for opening about July 1. It will be called the Paramount, and promises to establish a place among the foremost theaters in Western Pennsylvania. The building itself is fireproof and thoroughly up-to-date in every way, having cost about $30,000 to erect. The seating capacity will be 1,000. Among other features of the house the projection booth is built of steel and is located on the outside of the theater. Two Simplex machines are being Installed. Wagner and Wishart have conducted the Globe theater in Connellsville for the past four years with much success, and they are embodying in the Paramount the results of their experience. When the new house is opened the Globe theater will be discontinued and the building it occupies converted into storerooms. C. A. Wagner, who has personally looked after the Globe, will continue in the active management of the new house. The large patronage which the Globe has enjoyed will assure the popularity of the Paramount among the moving picture goers of Connellsville and vicinity.”
The fact that the article says the building had cost $30,000 to erect suggests that it was not a remodeling of the furniture store at 207 Pittsburgh Street, but a replacement for the house at 215 Pittsburgh.
The February 15, 1913 issue of Motography ran this somewhat sloppy notice in its “Ohio” section:
“Architect Anthony Kunz is receiving estimates for the Belvidere motion picture house to be built on the east side of Belvidere, north of Hatch, Mt. Adams, for Aloysium Schumaker.”
Misspellings and misdirection notwithstanding, the item clearly is about the Belvedere Theatre.
The Franklin might have closed for a while in the early 1930s but apparently reopened. A 908-seat Franklin Theatre is listed at Ensley, Alabama, in the 1950 Film Daily Yearbook.
The Ritz Theatre was at 216 Broad Street, and the theater operated from 1936 to 1972, according to this web page, which features many historic and recent photos of the Ritz building, along with much other information about the house. The entrance to the Ritz was in an existing building converted from a cafe, but the auditorium was newly built in 1936. The current occupant of the building is a sporting goods retailer
A twin indoor cinema was built for United Artists on the site of the Jet Drive-In in 1970. The Angelo Twin Drive-In was built as a replacement for the Jet Drive-In itself, according to Boxoffice of March 16, 1970.
Boxoffice of March 16, 1970 said that the Midtown Cinema 1 & 2 had opened “last month.” Each of the twin auditoriums had 220 seats. The opening features were Doctor Zhivago in Cinema 1 and Like Mother, Like Daughter in Cinema 2.
The November 30, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the Arcadia Theatre in Bells, Texas had been badly damaged by a fire on November 4. At that time it was owned by a Mr. Coy Anderson.
I don’t know if the Grand Rich Theatre in Stamford, mentioned in this item from the September 5, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Herald, is this house or not, but it could be:
I haven’t found the name "Grand Rich Theatre” anywhere else on the Internet, so it might have been an error, or perhaps it was only used briefly. The Film Daily of September 12, 1924, said that a new theater was being erected in Stamford Texas, but no other details were given. I’ve found the name Alcove Theatre in the trade journals only once so far, dating from 1929, so it could have been the 1924 project.Earlier theater names used at Stamford include houses called the Cozy, the Cozy Airdome, the Crystal, the Joyland, the Candy, the Dixie, the Ideal, and the Majestic Summer Garden, the latter two having been the only movie houses listed at Stamford in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
An article about theaters in Martins Ferry (PDF here) says that the Elzane Theatre occupied the location of a house called the Rex Theatre, which had opened in 1916 and closed around 1918-1919. An item from The Moving Picture World of May 8, 1926 confirms that a new theater was to be opened on the site of the Rex, but doesn’t make clear if it involved a remodeling of the old building or an entirely new structure. Given the cost of the project an entirely new building does seem likely:
The October 16, 1915 issue of The American Contractor said that the theater building being erected for the Fenray Amusement Co. at Martins Ferry had been designed by architect Charles W. Bates of Wheeling, West Virginia.
This PDF (from DavidZornig’s link) has an article about theaters in Martins Ferry, and says that the Fenray opened on January 8, 1916, and operated until February 29, 1964. Although it reopened and closed a few more times in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was finally dismantled in 1972.
The Grand Opera House was still standing at least a late as 1979, when an article about it appeared in the October issue of Boone Magazine (PDF here), though it had not been used as a theater since 1918. It was quite a large theater, with 700 seats on the main floor and 300 in the gallery, with additional seating for 32 in the side boxes. The stage was 38 feet deep and 60 feet wide. I’ve been unable to discover to what extent movies were presented at the Grand, but its inclusion in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory would have been unlikely had they not been shown fairly often.
Here is an item about Brown’s Grand Opera House from the August 17, 1886 issue of The Indianapolis Journal:
Architect Robert Platt Daggett began practicing at Indianapolis in 1868, and the firm he established with junior partner James B. Lizius in 1880, R. P. Daggett & Company, continued operation after his death in 1915, run first by his son Robert Frost Daggett and then by his grandson Robert Frost Daggett Jr. until the latter’s retirement in 1977. The firm was one of the city’s most prolific, but unfortunately very little of its early work has survived.The Olympic Theatre is listed at 122 S. Lebanon Street in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The only other theater listed at Lebanon was the Grand Opera House, 216-220 W. Main Street.
According to Indiana Memory, the Colonial Theatre was remodeled and renamed the Avon in 1936. The venerable house was still in operation when it was destroyed in a spectacular fire on February 26, 1999. In a photograph of the theater in flames, the marquee shows two titles: Payback and Message. The first was undoubtedly the Mel Gibson movie released that year, and the second was most likely Message in a Bottle, the Kevin Kostner-Robin Wright Penn romance. Since double features, especially of two recently released major titles, were very rare by 1999, I suspect the house had been twinned, though I don’t see any signage on the building indicating two screens.
As noted in my earlier comment, the Colonial Theatre was in operation by late 1914. The Colonial was not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, which listed only two movie houses at Lebanon: the Grand Opera House, 216-220 Main Street, and the Olympic Theatre, 122 S. Lebanon Street.
Boxoffice of September 9, 1950, said that John White had opened his new Lake Theatre on August 25 and closed the Jons Theatre.
The September 9, 1950 issue of Boxiffice noted that the Warner Theatre in Lynchburg, formerly the Trenton, had recently opened following extensive renovations.
Patsy: Do you know if the May Theatre to the left was in the same building as the Carlson? The reason Blatt gave for closing was because new State fire regulations would have required extensive alterations to the old theater which would have been too costly. I’m wondering if perhaps one of the storefronts in the building was then converted into a small theater by the subsequent operators.
The September 9, 1950 issue of Boxoffice gives different dates than the real estate listing above does, and additional information. The headline is “Mayville Theatre Closed by Blatt” and the article says that the theater had opened in 1904 as the Swetland Opera House, with a live show featuring the young Al Jolson.
The theater was sold to A. A. Carlson around 1929, becoming the Carlson Theatre, and bought by the Blatt circuit in 1946, when it was renamed the May Theatre. The building was originally two stories, but a third floor was a dded a few years after it was built (this was probably the source of the real estate listing’s 1910 date for construction.) The 1950 article also noted that the theater had operated as a movie house for “…almost forty years.”
An April 5, 1952 Boxoffice article revealed that the house had been reopened for a while under different management, but was able to operate for only about a year. As of 1952, a plan was afoot to have the house opened again under the auspices of a local businessmen’s group and to have the actual operation handled by students from the local high school, but I’ve found nothing indicating that this plan ever came to fruition.
This closed real estate listing says that the three-story brick commercial block at 34 South Erie Street, “[k]nown as the former ‘THEATER’ building….” was sold for $206,000 on January 30, 2017. The building was erected in 1910. There is one photo. There are still four storefronts on the ground floor, and the upper floors now house sixteen apartments.
A post on the “Remember Connellsville” Facebook page says that the Colonial Theatre was designed by Pittsburgh architectural firm McCollum & Dowler (Jennings Moss McCollum and Press C. Dowler.)
The June, 1908 issue of Insurance Engineering noted a number of fires that year including this one: “May 10. Connellsville, Pa. Magic Land, vaudeville theater, Samuel Hantman, North Pittsburg street; also two stores. Total losses, $20,000.” I’ve been unable to discover if the theater was ever rebuilt.
The Arcade Theatre opened on April 6, 1907, according to the April 14 edition of Connellsville’s The Weekly Courier.
The June 24, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about Wagner and Wishart’s new Paramount Theatre, which was soon to open. It said that the partners had “…conducted the Globe theater in Connellsville for the last four years….” so the Globe must have been in operation by 1912. The article also noted that the Globe would be closed when the Paramount opened and its space would be converted to retail use. The Paramount opened on July 18, so July 17 was most likely that last day of operation for the Globe.
Here is an item about the Paramount Theatre from the June 24, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World:
The fact that the article says the building had cost $30,000 to erect suggests that it was not a remodeling of the furniture store at 207 Pittsburgh Street, but a replacement for the house at 215 Pittsburgh.The February 15, 1913 issue of Motography ran this somewhat sloppy notice in its “Ohio” section:
Misspellings and misdirection notwithstanding, the item clearly is about the Belvedere Theatre.The Franklin might have closed for a while in the early 1930s but apparently reopened. A 908-seat Franklin Theatre is listed at Ensley, Alabama, in the 1950 Film Daily Yearbook.
The 1950 Film Daily Yearbook lists the Ritz with 500 seats.
The Ritz Theatre was at 216 Broad Street, and the theater operated from 1936 to 1972, according to this web page, which features many historic and recent photos of the Ritz building, along with much other information about the house. The entrance to the Ritz was in an existing building converted from a cafe, but the auditorium was newly built in 1936. The current occupant of the building is a sporting goods retailer
A twin indoor cinema was built for United Artists on the site of the Jet Drive-In in 1970. The Angelo Twin Drive-In was built as a replacement for the Jet Drive-In itself, according to Boxoffice of March 16, 1970.
Boxoffice of March 16, 1970 said that the Midtown Cinema 1 & 2 had opened “last month.” Each of the twin auditoriums had 220 seats. The opening features were Doctor Zhivago in Cinema 1 and Like Mother, Like Daughter in Cinema 2.
Boxoffice of March 16, 1970 said that the Tower Cinema, then under construction, had been designed by local architect Joe W. Hiller.