The recently opened St. Vincent 6 was American Multi Cinema’s first operation in the state of Louisiana, according to an item in the June 27, 1977 issue of Boxoffice.
Sterling Recreation Organization bought the Tacoma Mall Theatre in July, 1972. Boxoffice of December 2, 1974 reported that SRO had held the grand opening of the remodeled Tacoma Mall Twin on November 27.
The Kingsley Twin was opened by ABC-Florida State Theatres in December, 1976. It was designed by the Columbus, Georgia architectural firm Brookbank, Murphy & Shields.
The size of the building and the timing of its opening suggest that the Radium Theatre was this project noted in the April 30, 1921 issue of The American Contractor:
“Theatre (M. P.): $17,000. 2 sty. 40x 107. Cape Charles, Va. Archt. B. B. Spigel, 112 Main St.. Norfolk. Owner Frank Parsons, Cape Charles & Capeville. Brk., t. c. trim. Plans drawn. Archt. ready for bids on gen. contr.”
Architect Bernard B. Spigel was practicing in Norfok at least as early as 1909, and as late as 1970.
Slotnik Enterprises (Cinema National’s parent company) expected to open their new Westhill Theatre in August, 1967, according to an article in the July 4 issue of the Syracuse Post-Standard.
The Alamo was listed in the 1914-1916 American Motion Picture Directory, but it is possible that the building was demolished by 1918, the year a house originally called the Garden Theatre, later the Abbott Theatre, and finally the Mecca Theatre opened at the same address.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists 716 Main Street as the location of the Alamo Theatre. A brochure with a walking tour of downtown Stillwater has this brief history of the Mecca Theatre, but doesn’t mention the Alamo:
“716 South Main was the location of another downtown movie theatre. It began as the
Garden Theatre in 1918, and then changed to the Abbott Theatre in 1921. It was the Mecca from 1926-1954. While other theatres showed ‘class a’ movies, the Mecca was known for showing mysteries, science fiction, and westerns, and was popular with kids on Saturday afternoon.”
It’s possible that the Alamo was simply overlooked by the authors of the brochure, or it may be that the earlier theater’s building was replaced by a new structure in 1918. I’ve been unable to find confirmation of either surmise.
The “Selig Masterpiece” The Coming of Columbus was released in 1912. Major productions such as this sometimes circulated for years after their initial release, but it’s possible that the Fireboys Theatre, as a significant house in a good sized town, got it early in its run.
I’ve found a number of references to this house, and several others, as the Orphium Theatre, mostly in the 1907-1910 period. The references are too common and occur in to many different publications to have all been typos, so it looks like the spelling Orphium was actually used by quite a few theaters for a while. Most of the houses using the variant appear to have been part of Gus sun’s circuit. There might have been some legal conflict between Sun and Martin Beck’s Orpheum circuit over the use of the name.
The September 7, 1918 issue of The Moving Picture World noted a planned expansion of the Nemo Theatre: “L. W. Barclay, of the Grand Amusement Co., Johnstown, Pa., [says] that the Nemo will be shut down to permit a balcony to be built, adding materially to the capacity of this house, which already seats 1,000.”
I notice that the page uploaded by rivest266 includes a courtesy ad from Wooten & Wooten, the local architecture and engineering firm that designed the Belvedere Theatre. I’ve been unable to find anything about the firm, as there is now an auction house of the same name that dominates search results.
The Valley Theatre was on East Center Street, about half a block north of South Street. The building is still standing, minus its marquee, and looks to be in good condition. It says Valley Christian Center on the front, but I don’t think it’s in use as a church, as the Valley Christian Center’s church is on a different street about a block away. It might be offices, but I don’t know for sure.
This multiplex is slated for demolition in early January, 2020. According to this article from The Post and Courier of Dec 20, 2019, it will be replaced by a 300-unit apartment complex. Regal’s lease expires January 1, and demolition will begin January 6. It was a rather short life for so large a theater.
This article posted to the online edition of The Municipal magazine on January 17, 2019, has a brief history of the King Theatre, as well as photos of the recent restoration while it was underway. The house opened in 1914 as the Princess Theatre, and was renamed the King Theatre by new owner Frank King in 1917.
Bob Fridley took over the King in 1940 and remodeled extensively, adding a 100-seat balcony. Fridley Theatres operated the house until 1982. An independent operator, Fred Saunders, then took over, adding video rentals in the lobby but continuing to show movies, though less frequently as time passed. The King went dark in 2010, partly due to the prohibitive cost of installing the digital equipment that was by then becoming a necessity for theaters.
In 2015, a community organization was set up with the goal of restoring and reopening the theater. The deteriorating building was gutted and rebuilt inside, designed to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The project was nearly derailed when the back wall of the building collapsed after a major storm in June, 2017, but the community group persisted and the rebuilt house was reopened in October, 2019.
Cinema Flix has changed hands, and the new operators, Bison 6 Cinema of Jamestown, ND, have changed the name to Valley Twin cinema. Here is the new web site.
Early this year plans were afoot to turn the Squirrel Hill Theatre into a live music venue, but they never cane to fruition. Then on June 29 the Pittsburgh Patch web site posted a brief article leading with this news:
“Redevelopment plans for the old Squirrel Hill Theater site have advanced, with the site being sold and the building expected to be demolished soon for a new $27 million mixed-use development.
“A subsidiary of Action Housing and Brandywine Agency, partners in the redevelopment effort, has officially purchased the property. The sale clears the way for Flats on Forward, a six-story building that will have 24,000 square feet of office space, 42 apartments and first-floor retail space.”
I’ve found nothing more recent about the redevelopment project, so it’s possible that the theater building is still standing, though if so it probably won’t be for long.
Some years ago the late rapper Mac Miller, who had once lived in the neighborhood, considered buying the theater for use as a live performance venue, but that plan too failed to materialize. The growing popularity of the neighborhood has probably made the site too valuable for theatrical use.
Although the Knights of Pythias building, built in 1899, is still standing, the theater added at the back of the building in 1908 is gone. It appears in an aerial view made in 1998, but a view taken in 2003 shows a parking lot on the site.
The NRHP nomination form for the building (PDF here,) dating from 1975, describes the theater as a four-story brick structure with two balconies. The main floor seated 341 and the balconies accommodated another 350. The interior decoration of the auditorium was a simple Greco-Roman Classical, and featured Ionic columns and fluted pilasters.
Historic aerial views show that the stage house occupied about 2/5 of the theater’s shallow footprint, so the auditorium was wider than it was deep. Although movies were shown in the house as early as 1910, a proper projection booth was not installed until 1923. After the theater closed as a movie house in 1958, it remained dark except for two summers when local talent used it for live performances.
“The Paramount Building was built as the Capitol Avenue Theater in 1905…. Architect William DuBois designed the structure….” (Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Nov 29, 2017. Article here.) The article also notes a major fire in the theater section of the building in 1915 (this event was noted in the January 22, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World) and its renovation as the Paramount in the 1930s.
Here is an item from the September 10, 1927 issue of Moving Picture World:
“CRESCENT. OKLA. — George Graff, care Crescent Milling Company, has plans by P. H. Weathers, Old Exchange Building, Oklahoma City for one-story brick theatre, 50 by 140 feet.”
The January 8, 1928 issue of The Film Daily listed the Ritz Theatre in Crescent, Oklahoma as one of the new houses in which the National Theatre Supply Company had recently installed equipment.
Prior to its acquisition by Plitt Southern Theatres in 1978, the Terrace Theatre I and II was operated by ABC Southeastern Theatres.
The recently opened St. Vincent 6 was American Multi Cinema’s first operation in the state of Louisiana, according to an item in the June 27, 1977 issue of Boxoffice.
Sterling Recreation Organization bought the Tacoma Mall Theatre in July, 1972. Boxoffice of December 2, 1974 reported that SRO had held the grand opening of the remodeled Tacoma Mall Twin on November 27.
The Kingsley Twin was opened by ABC-Florida State Theatres in December, 1976. It was designed by the Columbus, Georgia architectural firm Brookbank, Murphy & Shields.
The size of the building and the timing of its opening suggest that the Radium Theatre was this project noted in the April 30, 1921 issue of The American Contractor:
Architect Bernard B. Spigel was practicing in Norfok at least as early as 1909, and as late as 1970.Slotnik Enterprises (Cinema National’s parent company) expected to open their new Westhill Theatre in August, 1967, according to an article in the July 4 issue of the Syracuse Post-Standard.
The Alamo was listed in the 1914-1916 American Motion Picture Directory, but it is possible that the building was demolished by 1918, the year a house originally called the Garden Theatre, later the Abbott Theatre, and finally the Mecca Theatre opened at the same address.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists 716 Main Street as the location of the Alamo Theatre. A brochure with a walking tour of downtown Stillwater has this brief history of the Mecca Theatre, but doesn’t mention the Alamo:
It’s possible that the Alamo was simply overlooked by the authors of the brochure, or it may be that the earlier theater’s building was replaced by a new structure in 1918. I’ve been unable to find confirmation of either surmise.Here is an updated link to the PDF of the Downtown Stillwater walking tour, which has information about the town’s theaters.
The “Selig Masterpiece” The Coming of Columbus was released in 1912. Major productions such as this sometimes circulated for years after their initial release, but it’s possible that the Fireboys Theatre, as a significant house in a good sized town, got it early in its run.
The Royal is one of the very early Lima movie houses mentioned in this article from The Lima News.
I’ve found a number of references to this house, and several others, as the Orphium Theatre, mostly in the 1907-1910 period. The references are too common and occur in to many different publications to have all been typos, so it looks like the spelling Orphium was actually used by quite a few theaters for a while. Most of the houses using the variant appear to have been part of Gus sun’s circuit. There might have been some legal conflict between Sun and Martin Beck’s Orpheum circuit over the use of the name.
The September 7, 1918 issue of The Moving Picture World noted a planned expansion of the Nemo Theatre: “L. W. Barclay, of the Grand Amusement Co., Johnstown, Pa., [says] that the Nemo will be shut down to permit a balcony to be built, adding materially to the capacity of this house, which already seats 1,000.”
I notice that the page uploaded by rivest266 includes a courtesy ad from Wooten & Wooten, the local architecture and engineering firm that designed the Belvedere Theatre. I’ve been unable to find anything about the firm, as there is now an auction house of the same name that dominates search results.
The Valley Theatre was on East Center Street, about half a block north of South Street. The building is still standing, minus its marquee, and looks to be in good condition. It says Valley Christian Center on the front, but I don’t think it’s in use as a church, as the Valley Christian Center’s church is on a different street about a block away. It might be offices, but I don’t know for sure.
This multiplex is slated for demolition in early January, 2020. According to this article from The Post and Courier of Dec 20, 2019, it will be replaced by a 300-unit apartment complex. Regal’s lease expires January 1, and demolition will begin January 6. It was a rather short life for so large a theater.
Forgot to add this: Here is the web site for the King Theatre.
This article posted to the online edition of The Municipal magazine on January 17, 2019, has a brief history of the King Theatre, as well as photos of the recent restoration while it was underway. The house opened in 1914 as the Princess Theatre, and was renamed the King Theatre by new owner Frank King in 1917.
Bob Fridley took over the King in 1940 and remodeled extensively, adding a 100-seat balcony. Fridley Theatres operated the house until 1982. An independent operator, Fred Saunders, then took over, adding video rentals in the lobby but continuing to show movies, though less frequently as time passed. The King went dark in 2010, partly due to the prohibitive cost of installing the digital equipment that was by then becoming a necessity for theaters.
In 2015, a community organization was set up with the goal of restoring and reopening the theater. The deteriorating building was gutted and rebuilt inside, designed to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The project was nearly derailed when the back wall of the building collapsed after a major storm in June, 2017, but the community group persisted and the rebuilt house was reopened in October, 2019.
Boxoffice of June 9, 1951 said that the Frisina Amusement Company had opened the new Skylark Drive-In on May 30.
Cinema Flix has changed hands, and the new operators, Bison 6 Cinema of Jamestown, ND, have changed the name to Valley Twin cinema. Here is the new web site.
Early this year plans were afoot to turn the Squirrel Hill Theatre into a live music venue, but they never cane to fruition. Then on June 29 the Pittsburgh Patch web site posted a brief article leading with this news:
I’ve found nothing more recent about the redevelopment project, so it’s possible that the theater building is still standing, though if so it probably won’t be for long.Some years ago the late rapper Mac Miller, who had once lived in the neighborhood, considered buying the theater for use as a live performance venue, but that plan too failed to materialize. The growing popularity of the neighborhood has probably made the site too valuable for theatrical use.
Although the Knights of Pythias building, built in 1899, is still standing, the theater added at the back of the building in 1908 is gone. It appears in an aerial view made in 1998, but a view taken in 2003 shows a parking lot on the site.
The NRHP nomination form for the building (PDF here,) dating from 1975, describes the theater as a four-story brick structure with two balconies. The main floor seated 341 and the balconies accommodated another 350. The interior decoration of the auditorium was a simple Greco-Roman Classical, and featured Ionic columns and fluted pilasters.
Historic aerial views show that the stage house occupied about 2/5 of the theater’s shallow footprint, so the auditorium was wider than it was deep. Although movies were shown in the house as early as 1910, a proper projection booth was not installed until 1923. After the theater closed as a movie house in 1958, it remained dark except for two summers when local talent used it for live performances.
Architect P. H. Weathers' full name was Patrick Henry Weathers.
“The Paramount Building was built as the Capitol Avenue Theater in 1905…. Architect William DuBois designed the structure….” (Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Nov 29, 2017. Article here.) The article also notes a major fire in the theater section of the building in 1915 (this event was noted in the January 22, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World) and its renovation as the Paramount in the 1930s.
Here is an item from the September 10, 1927 issue of Moving Picture World:
The January 8, 1928 issue of The Film Daily listed the Ritz Theatre in Crescent, Oklahoma as one of the new houses in which the National Theatre Supply Company had recently installed equipment.