An article about Typhoon fans published in the July 16, 1921 issue if the theater industry trade journal Exhibitors Herald included this paragraph: “During the course of the show a 12-ft. fan was disposed of to Mr. Joseph Stern for his Rivoli theatre at Newark, N. J. Typhoon equipment was specified for this theatre by the architects, Reilly & Hall, of New York, and purchased after a thorough investigation.”
So it appears that Henry Baechlin drew the preliminary plans for the Rivoli, the final plans were by Reilly & Hall, and Frank Grad acted as supervising architect during construction.
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World said that “[t]he Cohoes Amusement Company is busy these days completing the new theatre at Hudson Falls. The opening date has not yet been set.” The house had been in the planning and construction stages for a long time. An item datelined Hudson Falls in the July 9, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald had reported that “[a]rchitects Wetmore and Crandall of Glens Falls are preparing plans for an 8OO-seat theatre to be erected here by Cohoes Amusement Company.”
Hudson River Music Hall Productions opened the Strand’s renovated auditorium in October, 2019, with 350 seats. Here is the official web site.
A timeline of Marietta’s history has this line: “1913 – Italian immigrant Samuel Acri builds one of the earliest movie theaters in the country on Market Street and names it Acri’s Theatre, now known as the Historic Marietta Theatre.” Many capsule movie reviews by S. E. or S. A. Acri of the Acri Theatre can be found in various issues of Exhibitors Herald in July and August, 1921. Perhaps most interesting as an artifact of the small town exhibition business during that era is a letter from Mr. Acri that was published in the September 17, 1921 issue of the Herald:
“By S. A. ACRI (Manager, Acri theatre, Marietta, Pa.)
“I am in a town of 2,000 population and I find that by having certain nights for a certain class of patrons each week, the greatest amount of cash can be attracted to the box office, and the greatest number of satisfied patrons can be secured.
“In the cities, we have the great Stanley theatres catering largely to the better class and the Casinos and Bijous catering to lovers of serials and excitement. Both have their large clientele to draw from out of their respective classes and patrons attend their favorite theatre knowing what they are going to see.
“Here in Marietta on Mondays I give them a serial, a Semon, Chester or other big-league comedy as a short-stuff program full of pep at take-the-whole-family prices, 17 cents. I have the Casino patrons and
please them. While the boys are ‘bellyaching; about hard times and the 'freezing?’ temperature, I still have two Saturdays each week, as the
masses, considering the times, certainly do turn out for this kind of a program and it requires no advertising, as they have been getting it for the last six years every Monday.
“Tuesday, I am closed just now. Bear in mind that practically all of the males have been out of work here since Christmas.
“Wednesday and Thursday, we see the Stanley patrons gather, as they know it is going to be ‘The Miracle Man,’ ‘Madame X,’ or ‘Earthbound’
at 33 cents, which they pay without a murmur.
“Saturday, I give them a medium-priced picture, Hammerstein, Moore, Talmadge, and a serial to keep them coming. Then we have a western night, Mix, Jones, Farnum, which is not to be sneezed at.
“I have been in the screening business since I was 19 years old. Started in Middleton, Pa., and followed the letter ’M,‘ having operated in Mt. Carmel, Mt. Joy and Marietta, and I think I have the small town exhibiting end of it pretty well studied. I get results.”
News about the Garden Theatre from the December 8, 1923 issue of <em<Moving Picture World: “The Garden Theatre at 15411 Center, Harvey, has been leased by Gerald Scully and Mrs. W. L. Voss to the Garden Theatre Corporation for ten years at a term rental of $60,000.”
Plans for renovation and redecoration of the Queen Theatre by its new management were noted in this item from Moving Picture World of December 8, 1923: “Dallas
“The management of the Queen Theatre, Dallas, Texas, has recently been taken over by Lou Bissinger and Joe C. Singer. Bissinger was the first manager of the Queen after its completion several years ago, and since that time he has been with the Washington Theatre until taking over the lease on the Queen. He says he is glad to be back home again.
“Contract has been let for the re-decoration and renovation of this theatre. A new and comfortable smoking loge will be a feature of the Queen upon the completion of the re-decoration scheme. Mr. Bissinger
says it is their intention to bring back to the Queen that atmosphere of comfort and charm which made it popular in the past, to secure some of the biggest stars in the picture business, and to give the theatre-
going public a high-class theatre at popular prices.”
The April 1, 1927 issue of Motion Picture News reported that a new house called the Grand Theatre had been formally opened in Cedartown, Georgia on March 14. The Grand and a house called the Capitol first appear in the FDY’s 1928 edition, and are also in the 1929 edition, with no details either time, then both vanish. As noted in my earlier comment, the Princess first appears in the 1931 FDY. I’m wondering if the Grand (or the Capitol) became the Princess? Reopening an existing house with a new name seems more likely than creating an entirely new theater, especially at the beginning of the depression.
The 1923 Sanborn map of Cedartown shows that the movie house that was at 513 S. Main St. in 1915 has been expanded to include 515 S. Main as well. It is also the only movie house on the 1923 map, so there’s no doubt it was the Palace, which was mentioned frequently in trade journals during the early 1920s.
Please update to 4 screens and 336 seats, per the first of bvanwinkle’s two earlier comments. The current operating name is West Cinema. Here is the official web site.
The Princess Theatre that was operating in the 1930s had opened by 1931,the first year it appears in the FDY, when it was listed with 500 seats, but there was an earlier Princess Theater in Cedartown, which might or might not have been in the same location.
The Thursday, March 14, 1912 issue of the Cedartown Standard reported that the new Princess Theater had been opened the previous Monday (March 11) by G. G. Adams and C. A. Knight in the building owned by Mrs. R. A. Adams. The Princess was not one of the two movie houses listed at Cedartown in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory (the Palace and the Elite) and the last mention of the Princess I can find in the available pages of the Standard is from March, 1914. Since we have a photo of the Princess with cars from the late 1930s on the street, it obviously was in operation later than 1914, but an August, 1915 Sanborn Map shows 404 S. Main occupied by a hardware store, and the only movie theater on the map was in the 500 block and was probably the Palace.
The August 24, 1916 Standard has an article about the opening the previous night of the new Colpet Theater in Mrs. R. A. Adams building. The Colpet, operated by a company of that name from Nashville, was still in operation in late 1917, but I’ve found no later references to it. The 1926 FDY lists only the Palace Theatre at Cedartown. I have not been able to confirm that the building at 404 S. Main was in fact the Mrs. R. A. Adams building, but if it was then it housed at least two theaters before the later Princess that was opened by 1931.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two movie houses at Cedartown, with no details for either. They were the Palace and a house called the Elite. An August, 1915 Sanborn map of Cedartown shows only one movie house, that being at 513 S. Main Street. As the Palace continued in operation for many years and the Elite vanished, I think we can safely assume that the theater at 513 S. Main was the Palace.
The January 7, 1938 issue of Motion Picture Herald reported that the Cherokee Theatre in Monroe had been purchased by John W. Peck, Sr., owner of movie houses in Sparta and Eatonton, Georgia. The Cherokee was built by partners Henry McDaniel Tichenor and Robert L. Nowell, Jr.. Nowell had taken over a venerable house called the Idlehour Theatre in 1922, operating it for several years before partnering with Tichenor.
A December, 1938 newspaper item says that the Cherokee Theatre “…was built eight years ago….” The house is listed with 750 seats in the 1931 FDY, along with the 250-seat Idlehour, which was still a silent house, but Monroe itself is missing in 1930. A comment on a post on the Monroe Museum’s Facebook page indicates that the Cherokee was on Court Street, but I’ve been unable to narrow it down farther.
The Strand was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Peoples and the Pearce.
The Peoples was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Pearce and the Strand.
The Pearce was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Peoples and the Strand.
The January 7, 1937 issue if Film Daily had this brief item about the Castle Theatre: “Kansas City— The Athens Theater Corp. has purchased the Castle Theater, Negro house, from Bracanto & Domnici. The competitive house, the Hollywood, just two blocks away, will be closed.” If the Hollywood was closed it later reopened, as it operated into 1945. The correct spelling of the opening owner’s surname was Brancato. Jasper Brancato later served several terms in the State legislature. I’ve been unable to find anything about a John Domnici or Donici.
The Marvel Theatre is mentioned in the February 11, 1921 issue of the Winters Express. Winters did not appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
“A new wide screen has been installed at the Winters Theatre according to Manager R. E. Degner” said an item datelined Winters, California in Boxoffice of December 25, 1954. Someone interviewed for an oral history of Winters I came across said that Rod Degner’s theater was across the street from the City Hall. As City Hall is on the SE corner of the intersection, the theater must have been under the footprint of the municipal parking lot now on the northeast corner. City Hall is at 318 1st, so the theater must have been approximately 319 1st.
The 1914 Sanborn map of Adams shows a 2 and ½ story building called Kennewa Hall at 73 Summer Street. However, it was not the building that now has the T & A tool Company sign on it. It was on the site of the building that is bang up against Victory Street and now houses the Cutting Edge Martial Arts studio. This is a two story building (the upper floor has an entrance on Victory Street), and I don’t know if it is what is left of the building that was there in 1914 or not, but it could be.
Google searches bring no results for a Kennewa Hall in Adams, though the misspelled Kenewa Hall brings up a Newspaper Archive result also from 1914, noting that someone was considering putting two stores in the basement of Kenewa Hall on Summer Street in Adams. Apparently the 1914 building was some sort of multi-use hall that was later converted for use as a movie theater.
The “Renovations” page of the theater’s web site says that the multi-purpose auditorium can now accommodate a maximum of 380 seats, which is a considerable reduction from the 960 it once provided as a movie house. Modern photos show that nothing remains of the theater’s 1937 interiors.
65 Park Street is a Colonial Revival building originally built in 1883 as a town hall to house local government offices, the District Court, the State Registrar of Deeds and an auditorium. The Registrar of Deeds still occupies the building, so its current use can be classified as State (or Government) Offices.
The structure originally had a peaked roof, but that and the original tower were destroyed by a 1949 fire. As peaked roofs are not a feature of Colonial Revival architecture, it was likely built in the Romanesque Revival style and the Colonial features added as part of the post-fire rebuilding. I’ve been unable to find a photo of the building dating from the era when it housed the theater.
The theater obviously must have occupied the auditorium, but I don’t know if that space is still intact. It might have been carved up for more office space. It was not unusual in the silent movie era for local governments to lease underutilized public auditoriums to theater operators to get a bit of extra revenue, but in later years the spaces were frequently just converted for other uses.
The most recent Sanborn map of Adams, from 1914, shows the Town Hall but doesn’t indicate a theater operating in the building. The moly movie house on the map was the old Atlas Theatre on the site of the later Adams Theatre. The Photoplay Theatre was in operation by 1921, when it was advertised in the January 11 issue of the local newspaper.
According to its official web site, the Adams Theater (using the “er” spelling of the T word) now operates under its original name as a performing arts center that is also equipped to show movies. The Adams opened on January 14, 1938 and operated as a movie house until 1967. The web site doesn’t mention the Topia Arts Center era, noting only that the current owners, Adams Theater LLC, took over the vacant property in May, 2021 and began presenting performances in the partly renovated space in 2023. Renovations and upgrades are ongoing, but the house is fairly active already.
The January 5, 1935 issue of Motion Picture Herald published a list of theaters then being operated by Paramount. Two houses at Conroe were on the list; the 250 seat Gem and the 400-seat Liberty. The Gem was at 104 Simonton Street, and the building was standing as late as January, 2019, but had been demolished, along with its neighbors, by May of 2022.
A walking tour of downtown Conroe (PDF of the brochure here) says that William Conroe opened the Gem Theatre at this location by 1917, and that during the later 1930s it operated for a while as an African-American house called the Star Theatre.
In the 1920s, the Gem must have operated under two akas, as the 1927 FDY lists a 250-seat house called the Rex and the 1928 and later editions list a 250-seat house called the Palace. The Palace was listed as a silent house in 1931 (Conroe does not appear in the 1930 edition at all) and in 1932 as both silent and closed. The Gem name first appears in the 1933 edition, the house having reopened (as noted in the original description) by June 3, 1932.
The 1926 FDY lists only a 300-seat house called the Majestic, which continues to be listed at Conroe through 1932. In 1933, a 300-seat Palace is listed along with the 250-seat Gem, and in 1934 comes the first listing of the 400-seat Liberty. This might have been an expansion of the Majestic. Other sources indicate that the Liberty was at the corner of Main and Collins Street (which now might have been renamed Metcalf St.), and the building was demolished in 2006, having by then been used as a warehouse for a furniture store for many years. One anomalous listing of a 300-seat house called the Dugan appears only in the 1929 FDY.
A history of Manchester published in 1961 (Internet Archive scan) says that the Playhouse Theatre operating in 1961 had opened as the Arcade Theatre (“The Arcade opened in the Village. It later became the Playhouse and has survived a number of openings and closings.”) The 300-seat Arcade is listed in the 1926 FDY, at Manchester. In fact an “M. P. Arcade” (the M. P. probably for Motion Picture) is listed, on Main Street, in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, and if that was the same place, the Playhouse had a very long history.
Also listed at Manchester in the 1926 FDY was a 200-seat house called the Equinox. Listed at Manchester Depot were two 300-seat houses, the Colonial and the Old Depot.
A history of Manchester through 1961 that I came across on Internet Archive says that “…the Community Theater… closed in May 1955 after a disastrous fire.”
Eau Claire was skipped by the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture directory, but the 1926 FDY lists a 200 seat Opera House in operation at Eau Claire, though a history of the town published in 1961 says that the Opera House, opened in 1900, had burned to the ground in 1930. The history’s only other mention of any sort of theater in the town is a reference to classes being held temporarily in the “Picture Show” following a fire that destroyed the town’s school in 1918. The fact that Picture Show is capitalized suggests that this might have been the name under which the house operated.
The only reference to movies in the book is this: “Also during the great depression came the era of the village free shows. A full length movie was shown at an outdoor location during the summer months.
Sponsored by local merchants, a new film was shown each week. These free shows were perhaps the most successfully attended social gatherings in the history of the village.”
Free shows sponsored by local merchants suggests that the indoor theater had been closed by then. The fact that the 1926 FDY lists only the Opera House also indicates that an earlier closing date was likely for this house at 6608 E. Main.
An article about Typhoon fans published in the July 16, 1921 issue if the theater industry trade journal Exhibitors Herald included this paragraph: “During the course of the show a 12-ft. fan was disposed of to Mr. Joseph Stern for his Rivoli theatre at Newark, N. J. Typhoon equipment was specified for this theatre by the architects, Reilly & Hall, of New York, and purchased after a thorough investigation.”
So it appears that Henry Baechlin drew the preliminary plans for the Rivoli, the final plans were by Reilly & Hall, and Frank Grad acted as supervising architect during construction.
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World said that “[t]he Cohoes Amusement Company is busy these days completing the new theatre at Hudson Falls. The opening date has not yet been set.” The house had been in the planning and construction stages for a long time. An item datelined Hudson Falls in the July 9, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald had reported that “[a]rchitects Wetmore and Crandall of Glens Falls are preparing plans for an 8OO-seat theatre to be erected here by Cohoes Amusement Company.”
Hudson River Music Hall Productions opened the Strand’s renovated auditorium in October, 2019, with 350 seats. Here is the official web site.
A timeline of Marietta’s history has this line: “1913 – Italian immigrant Samuel Acri builds one of the earliest movie theaters in the country on Market Street and names it Acri’s Theatre, now known as the Historic Marietta Theatre.” Many capsule movie reviews by S. E. or S. A. Acri of the Acri Theatre can be found in various issues of Exhibitors Herald in July and August, 1921. Perhaps most interesting as an artifact of the small town exhibition business during that era is a letter from Mr. Acri that was published in the September 17, 1921 issue of the Herald:
News about the Garden Theatre from the December 8, 1923 issue of <em<Moving Picture World: “The Garden Theatre at 15411 Center, Harvey, has been leased by Gerald Scully and Mrs. W. L. Voss to the Garden Theatre Corporation for ten years at a term rental of $60,000.”
Plans for renovation and redecoration of the Queen Theatre by its new management were noted in this item from Moving Picture World of December 8, 1923: “Dallas
“The management of the Queen Theatre, Dallas, Texas, has recently been taken over by Lou Bissinger and Joe C. Singer. Bissinger was the first manager of the Queen after its completion several years ago, and since that time he has been with the Washington Theatre until taking over the lease on the Queen. He says he is glad to be back home again.
“Contract has been let for the re-decoration and renovation of this theatre. A new and comfortable smoking loge will be a feature of the Queen upon the completion of the re-decoration scheme. Mr. Bissinger says it is their intention to bring back to the Queen that atmosphere of comfort and charm which made it popular in the past, to secure some of the biggest stars in the picture business, and to give the theatre- going public a high-class theatre at popular prices.”
The April 1, 1927 issue of Motion Picture News reported that a new house called the Grand Theatre had been formally opened in Cedartown, Georgia on March 14. The Grand and a house called the Capitol first appear in the FDY’s 1928 edition, and are also in the 1929 edition, with no details either time, then both vanish. As noted in my earlier comment, the Princess first appears in the 1931 FDY. I’m wondering if the Grand (or the Capitol) became the Princess? Reopening an existing house with a new name seems more likely than creating an entirely new theater, especially at the beginning of the depression.
The 1923 Sanborn map of Cedartown shows that the movie house that was at 513 S. Main St. in 1915 has been expanded to include 515 S. Main as well. It is also the only movie house on the 1923 map, so there’s no doubt it was the Palace, which was mentioned frequently in trade journals during the early 1920s.
Please update to 4 screens and 336 seats, per the first of bvanwinkle’s two earlier comments. The current operating name is West Cinema. Here is the official web site.
The Princess Theatre that was operating in the 1930s had opened by 1931,the first year it appears in the FDY, when it was listed with 500 seats, but there was an earlier Princess Theater in Cedartown, which might or might not have been in the same location.
The Thursday, March 14, 1912 issue of the Cedartown Standard reported that the new Princess Theater had been opened the previous Monday (March 11) by G. G. Adams and C. A. Knight in the building owned by Mrs. R. A. Adams. The Princess was not one of the two movie houses listed at Cedartown in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory (the Palace and the Elite) and the last mention of the Princess I can find in the available pages of the Standard is from March, 1914. Since we have a photo of the Princess with cars from the late 1930s on the street, it obviously was in operation later than 1914, but an August, 1915 Sanborn Map shows 404 S. Main occupied by a hardware store, and the only movie theater on the map was in the 500 block and was probably the Palace.
The August 24, 1916 Standard has an article about the opening the previous night of the new Colpet Theater in Mrs. R. A. Adams building. The Colpet, operated by a company of that name from Nashville, was still in operation in late 1917, but I’ve found no later references to it. The 1926 FDY lists only the Palace Theatre at Cedartown. I have not been able to confirm that the building at 404 S. Main was in fact the Mrs. R. A. Adams building, but if it was then it housed at least two theaters before the later Princess that was opened by 1931.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two movie houses at Cedartown, with no details for either. They were the Palace and a house called the Elite. An August, 1915 Sanborn map of Cedartown shows only one movie house, that being at 513 S. Main Street. As the Palace continued in operation for many years and the Elite vanished, I think we can safely assume that the theater at 513 S. Main was the Palace.
The January 7, 1938 issue of Motion Picture Herald reported that the Cherokee Theatre in Monroe had been purchased by John W. Peck, Sr., owner of movie houses in Sparta and Eatonton, Georgia. The Cherokee was built by partners Henry McDaniel Tichenor and Robert L. Nowell, Jr.. Nowell had taken over a venerable house called the Idlehour Theatre in 1922, operating it for several years before partnering with Tichenor.
A December, 1938 newspaper item says that the Cherokee Theatre “…was built eight years ago….” The house is listed with 750 seats in the 1931 FDY, along with the 250-seat Idlehour, which was still a silent house, but Monroe itself is missing in 1930. A comment on a post on the Monroe Museum’s Facebook page indicates that the Cherokee was on Court Street, but I’ve been unable to narrow it down farther.
The Strand was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Peoples and the Pearce.
The Peoples was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Pearce and the Strand.
The Pearce was one of three Port Arthur houses operated by the Jefferson Amusement Company which the chain planned to remodel, according to an item in the April 13, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Daily. The other two were the Peoples and the Strand.
The January 7, 1937 issue if Film Daily had this brief item about the Castle Theatre: “Kansas City— The Athens Theater Corp. has purchased the Castle Theater, Negro house, from Bracanto & Domnici. The competitive house, the Hollywood, just two blocks away, will be closed.” If the Hollywood was closed it later reopened, as it operated into 1945. The correct spelling of the opening owner’s surname was Brancato. Jasper Brancato later served several terms in the State legislature. I’ve been unable to find anything about a John Domnici or Donici.
The Marvel Theatre is mentioned in the February 11, 1921 issue of the Winters Express. Winters did not appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
“A new wide screen has been installed at the Winters Theatre according to Manager R. E. Degner” said an item datelined Winters, California in Boxoffice of December 25, 1954. Someone interviewed for an oral history of Winters I came across said that Rod Degner’s theater was across the street from the City Hall. As City Hall is on the SE corner of the intersection, the theater must have been under the footprint of the municipal parking lot now on the northeast corner. City Hall is at 318 1st, so the theater must have been approximately 319 1st.
The 1914 Sanborn map of Adams shows a 2 and ½ story building called Kennewa Hall at 73 Summer Street. However, it was not the building that now has the T & A tool Company sign on it. It was on the site of the building that is bang up against Victory Street and now houses the Cutting Edge Martial Arts studio. This is a two story building (the upper floor has an entrance on Victory Street), and I don’t know if it is what is left of the building that was there in 1914 or not, but it could be.
Google searches bring no results for a Kennewa Hall in Adams, though the misspelled Kenewa Hall brings up a Newspaper Archive result also from 1914, noting that someone was considering putting two stores in the basement of Kenewa Hall on Summer Street in Adams. Apparently the 1914 building was some sort of multi-use hall that was later converted for use as a movie theater.
The “Renovations” page of the theater’s web site says that the multi-purpose auditorium can now accommodate a maximum of 380 seats, which is a considerable reduction from the 960 it once provided as a movie house. Modern photos show that nothing remains of the theater’s 1937 interiors.
65 Park Street is a Colonial Revival building originally built in 1883 as a town hall to house local government offices, the District Court, the State Registrar of Deeds and an auditorium. The Registrar of Deeds still occupies the building, so its current use can be classified as State (or Government) Offices.
The structure originally had a peaked roof, but that and the original tower were destroyed by a 1949 fire. As peaked roofs are not a feature of Colonial Revival architecture, it was likely built in the Romanesque Revival style and the Colonial features added as part of the post-fire rebuilding. I’ve been unable to find a photo of the building dating from the era when it housed the theater.
The theater obviously must have occupied the auditorium, but I don’t know if that space is still intact. It might have been carved up for more office space. It was not unusual in the silent movie era for local governments to lease underutilized public auditoriums to theater operators to get a bit of extra revenue, but in later years the spaces were frequently just converted for other uses.
The most recent Sanborn map of Adams, from 1914, shows the Town Hall but doesn’t indicate a theater operating in the building. The moly movie house on the map was the old Atlas Theatre on the site of the later Adams Theatre. The Photoplay Theatre was in operation by 1921, when it was advertised in the January 11 issue of the local newspaper.
According to its official web site, the Adams Theater (using the “er” spelling of the T word) now operates under its original name as a performing arts center that is also equipped to show movies. The Adams opened on January 14, 1938 and operated as a movie house until 1967. The web site doesn’t mention the Topia Arts Center era, noting only that the current owners, Adams Theater LLC, took over the vacant property in May, 2021 and began presenting performances in the partly renovated space in 2023. Renovations and upgrades are ongoing, but the house is fairly active already.
The January 5, 1935 issue of Motion Picture Herald published a list of theaters then being operated by Paramount. Two houses at Conroe were on the list; the 250 seat Gem and the 400-seat Liberty. The Gem was at 104 Simonton Street, and the building was standing as late as January, 2019, but had been demolished, along with its neighbors, by May of 2022.
A walking tour of downtown Conroe (PDF of the brochure here) says that William Conroe opened the Gem Theatre at this location by 1917, and that during the later 1930s it operated for a while as an African-American house called the Star Theatre.
In the 1920s, the Gem must have operated under two akas, as the 1927 FDY lists a 250-seat house called the Rex and the 1928 and later editions list a 250-seat house called the Palace. The Palace was listed as a silent house in 1931 (Conroe does not appear in the 1930 edition at all) and in 1932 as both silent and closed. The Gem name first appears in the 1933 edition, the house having reopened (as noted in the original description) by June 3, 1932.
The 1926 FDY lists only a 300-seat house called the Majestic, which continues to be listed at Conroe through 1932. In 1933, a 300-seat Palace is listed along with the 250-seat Gem, and in 1934 comes the first listing of the 400-seat Liberty. This might have been an expansion of the Majestic. Other sources indicate that the Liberty was at the corner of Main and Collins Street (which now might have been renamed Metcalf St.), and the building was demolished in 2006, having by then been used as a warehouse for a furniture store for many years. One anomalous listing of a 300-seat house called the Dugan appears only in the 1929 FDY.
A history of Manchester published in 1961 (Internet Archive scan) says that the Playhouse Theatre operating in 1961 had opened as the Arcade Theatre (“The Arcade opened in the Village. It later became the Playhouse and has survived a number of openings and closings.”) The 300-seat Arcade is listed in the 1926 FDY, at Manchester. In fact an “M. P. Arcade” (the M. P. probably for Motion Picture) is listed, on Main Street, in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, and if that was the same place, the Playhouse had a very long history.
Also listed at Manchester in the 1926 FDY was a 200-seat house called the Equinox. Listed at Manchester Depot were two 300-seat houses, the Colonial and the Old Depot.
A history of Manchester through 1961 that I came across on Internet Archive says that “…the Community Theater… closed in May 1955 after a disastrous fire.”
Eau Claire was skipped by the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture directory, but the 1926 FDY lists a 200 seat Opera House in operation at Eau Claire, though a history of the town published in 1961 says that the Opera House, opened in 1900, had burned to the ground in 1930. The history’s only other mention of any sort of theater in the town is a reference to classes being held temporarily in the “Picture Show” following a fire that destroyed the town’s school in 1918. The fact that Picture Show is capitalized suggests that this might have been the name under which the house operated.
The only reference to movies in the book is this: “Also during the great depression came the era of the village free shows. A full length movie was shown at an outdoor location during the summer months. Sponsored by local merchants, a new film was shown each week. These free shows were perhaps the most successfully attended social gatherings in the history of the village.”
Free shows sponsored by local merchants suggests that the indoor theater had been closed by then. The fact that the 1926 FDY lists only the Opera House also indicates that an earlier closing date was likely for this house at 6608 E. Main.