The interior does have some elements reminiscent of Elmslie’s designs, but the facade is way too classical for him. The Burns Building and theater were actually designed by Douglas & Hetherington (Walter Farquhar Douglas and Thompson Duncan Hetherington.) I’m now digging up a bit more information about them.
The Empire Theare was advertising in The Bakersfield Californian at least a early as July 2, 1907. The February 2, 1909 issue of the Californian said that the Empire was in its last week of operation at its then location. The space was to be converted into storefronts. The owners of the theater were negotiating with the owners of the Scribner Opera House and hoped to move their operations there, but I’ve been unable to find out if they ever did.
The Theatre Historical Society’s card for the Colonial says the building was built in 1910, and was called the Bronx Lyceum in September that year. It had 299 seats, expanded to 494 by 1921, and was listed with 600 seats later. The original architect in 1910 was Robert Lyons. Alterations were made in 1915, with plans by architect Maximilian Zipkes.
Another THS card says that the name Bronx Lyceum was in use by a theater on Courtlandt Avenue near 154th Street in 1912, so this house might have become the Colonial by that year.
Other sources, including a 1929 article in indicate that the name Bronx Lyceum belonged to yet another theater, this one on 170th Street, in the 1920s.
A Theatre Historical Society card cites a July 23, 1910 Bronx Star article saying that the annex at Niblo’s Gardens on 170th Street was to be converted into an airdome moving picture theater.
Niblo Garden Theatre was the name once used by an indoor house opened in 1870 as Zeltner’s Hall, but which later became known as the Bronx Lyceum. The building was adjacent to a large pleasure garden and picnic park originally operated as an adjunct of Zeltner’s brewery, located across the street. The complex appears to have been renamed Niblo Gardens sometime after an earlier complex of the same name, located in Manhattan, was closed and demolished in 1895.
The airdome was likely built on part of the pleasure garden site, and it may be that its opening under the name Niblo Garden Theatre was what occasioned the renaming of the indoor theater to Bronx Lyceum.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only two theaters at Boonville: the Stevens Opera House, and the Star Dome Theatre (which sounds like it might have been an outdoor house) but gives no addresses for either.
The Temple Theatre had a very brief afterlife as the Capri Theatre, which operated as an art house for a short time in late 1959 and early 1960 (undated article.)
The L.A. County Assessor’s office says that the building housing the billiard parlor was built in 1944. It is considerably wider than the building the Rose Theatre once occupied. The brick of the back wall and the style of the second floor windows as seen in this Google street view both strongly indicate mid-century construction, and the entire wall was clearly built at once.
The August 10, 1955 issue of The Portsmouth Times of Portsmouth, Ohio, reported that the stage of the Virginia Theatre at Wellston had partly collapsed during a storm the previous Sunday. Mrs. L. P. Guilfoile, owner of the building, had been ordered by the State Fire Marshall to have the remaining walls of the stage demolished. The item did not say whether the theater had still been in operation at the time of the collapse.
The Virginia Theatre was mentioned in the February 8, 1919 issue of the coal industry journal The Black Diamond, which said that the 1,000-seat house had the largest auditorium in the county.
The June, 1904 issue of Th Oho Architect and Builder had this item which might have been about the house that became the Virginia Theatre:
“Architect F. W. Elliott is preparing plans for a theater to be built for W. O. Yard at Wellston. Ohio, at a cost of $30,000. It will be a pressed brick structure, having a frontage of 60 feet and a depth of 120. The seating capacity will be 1,000.”
W. O. Yard was operating a theater in Wellston called the Grand Opera House at least as early as 1894. The 1909-1910 Cahn guide lists the New Virginia Theatre, W. O. Yard, proprietor, as a 1,200 seat, ground floor house. Yard was noted as manager of the Grand Opera House at Jackson, Ohio, that same year.
The Idle Hour is the only theater listed at Salisbury in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Mr. Carl A. Barnert had bought a theater at Salisbury, according to the April 18, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World, though the item did not give the theater’s name.
I noticed that in the photo of the tornado damage the name of the house on the marquee is Cinema. I suspect that it was twinned while being repaired after the tornado, since that was 1974 and a lot of old theaters were being twinned around that time.
This web page has two small, early 1940s photos (about halfway down the long page) showing the Strand Theatre in the background. It was a two-story building with a trapezoidal marquee. After a few more illustrations, the page has the line “[t]he theater ceased operations in the 1960s and was subsequently demolished.” The single-story building in the photos we currently display, with what looks to have been two large show windows flanking a rather narrow two-door entrance, was not the Strand.
I’ve found Friday and Saturday movies advertised at the Grand as late as September 5, 1957. The next issue of the Review available online, from October 24, lists only the Sparks Theatre.
The May 1, 1926 issue of The Moving Picture World reported that the Grand Theatre in Cooper was one of three Texas houses to have recently installed a “Celestam De Luxe organ.” The name was a typo.
“New Seeburg Celesta De Luxe Player Pipe Organ Creates Wide Attention” was the headline of an article in The Music Trade Review of June 26, 1926. The organ-piano hybrid was designed for use in small town theaters that couldn’t afford a full-sized organ or a full-time organist. The self-contained unit could be played automatically using music rolls, or manually from its single keyboard.
It also looks like Henry Sparks eventually reopened the Grand after closing it for a while on completion of the Sparks Theatre. Some capsule movie reviews published by Motion Picture Herald in January, 1953 were signed “Henry Sparks, Sparks and Grand Theatres, Cooper, Texas.” The December 4, 1953 issue of the Cooper Review advertises Sparks Theatres, and shows the Grand open on Friday and Saturday only, showing the 1948 western movie “Black Bart” with Dan Duryea and Yvonne De Carlo.
The Monroe Theatre’s Facebook page continues to be active, with a post from March 12 outlining the progress that has been made in preparing plans for the eventual renovation of the house by project architect Lauren Burge. One passage in the article cites Ms. Burge’s observation that “…the Monroe Theatre’s most unique feature from an architectural standpoint is the lack of corners anywhere in the interior of the original building; this is characteristic of the streamlined architecture of the 1930s.” The page also has links to three videos about the theater.
If that’s the case then the 1915 rebuilding project as a two-story theater must not have been carried out. I checked David and Noelle Soren’s list of Boller theaters and they list it as “Electric (Majestic) Theatre – 1915, 1926, 1946-47” so it’s still a Boller design, but they worked on it three times; probably a scaled down remodeling of the original 1910 Majestic in 1915, a rebuilding in 1926, and another remodeling or renovation in 1946-47. I wonder if they kept the lower parts of the original walls in the 1926 project?
SethG: Good catch. The Majestic was expended to become the Electric in 1915, and those cars parked in front of the smaller theater are from considerably later than 1915, so it can’t be the old Majestic.
In 1936 The Robstown Record was advertising a house called the New Palace Theatre. I wonder if that was a different theater or just an earlier aka for the Gulf?
The 1912-1913 Cahn guide lists the Empire Theatre as a ground floor house with 392 seats on the main floor, 238 in the balcony, and 10 in boxes. The stage was 35 feet from footlights to back wall, and 44 feet between the side walls.
The interior does have some elements reminiscent of Elmslie’s designs, but the facade is way too classical for him. The Burns Building and theater were actually designed by Douglas & Hetherington (Walter Farquhar Douglas and Thompson Duncan Hetherington.) I’m now digging up a bit more information about them.
The Empire Theare was advertising in The Bakersfield Californian at least a early as July 2, 1907. The February 2, 1909 issue of the Californian said that the Empire was in its last week of operation at its then location. The space was to be converted into storefronts. The owners of the theater were negotiating with the owners of the Scribner Opera House and hoped to move their operations there, but I’ve been unable to find out if they ever did.
This virtual historic tour of Malta says that the Palace Theatre was built in 1916.
The Theatre Historical Society’s card for the Colonial says the building was built in 1910, and was called the Bronx Lyceum in September that year. It had 299 seats, expanded to 494 by 1921, and was listed with 600 seats later. The original architect in 1910 was Robert Lyons. Alterations were made in 1915, with plans by architect Maximilian Zipkes.
Another THS card says that the name Bronx Lyceum was in use by a theater on Courtlandt Avenue near 154th Street in 1912, so this house might have become the Colonial by that year.
Other sources, including a 1929 article in indicate that the name Bronx Lyceum belonged to yet another theater, this one on 170th Street, in the 1920s.
A Theatre Historical Society card cites a July 23, 1910 Bronx Star article saying that the annex at Niblo’s Gardens on 170th Street was to be converted into an airdome moving picture theater.
Address should be 170th Street and Third Avenue.
Niblo Garden Theatre was the name once used by an indoor house opened in 1870 as Zeltner’s Hall, but which later became known as the Bronx Lyceum. The building was adjacent to a large pleasure garden and picnic park originally operated as an adjunct of Zeltner’s brewery, located across the street. The complex appears to have been renamed Niblo Gardens sometime after an earlier complex of the same name, located in Manhattan, was closed and demolished in 1895.
The airdome was likely built on part of the pleasure garden site, and it may be that its opening under the name Niblo Garden Theatre was what occasioned the renaming of the indoor theater to Bronx Lyceum.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only two theaters at Boonville: the Stevens Opera House, and the Star Dome Theatre (which sounds like it might have been an outdoor house) but gives no addresses for either.
The Temple Theatre had a very brief afterlife as the Capri Theatre, which operated as an art house for a short time in late 1959 and early 1960 (undated article.)
The L.A. County Assessor’s office says that the building housing the billiard parlor was built in 1944. It is considerably wider than the building the Rose Theatre once occupied. The brick of the back wall and the style of the second floor windows as seen in this Google street view both strongly indicate mid-century construction, and the entire wall was clearly built at once.
The August 10, 1955 issue of The Portsmouth Times of Portsmouth, Ohio, reported that the stage of the Virginia Theatre at Wellston had partly collapsed during a storm the previous Sunday. Mrs. L. P. Guilfoile, owner of the building, had been ordered by the State Fire Marshall to have the remaining walls of the stage demolished. The item did not say whether the theater had still been in operation at the time of the collapse.
The Virginia Theatre was mentioned in the February 8, 1919 issue of the coal industry journal The Black Diamond, which said that the 1,000-seat house had the largest auditorium in the county.
The June, 1904 issue of Th Oho Architect and Builder had this item which might have been about the house that became the Virginia Theatre:
W. O. Yard was operating a theater in Wellston called the Grand Opera House at least as early as 1894. The 1909-1910 Cahn guide lists the New Virginia Theatre, W. O. Yard, proprietor, as a 1,200 seat, ground floor house. Yard was noted as manager of the Grand Opera House at Jackson, Ohio, that same year.The Idle Hour is the only theater listed at Salisbury in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Mr. Carl A. Barnert had bought a theater at Salisbury, according to the April 18, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World, though the item did not give the theater’s name.
I noticed that in the photo of the tornado damage the name of the house on the marquee is Cinema. I suspect that it was twinned while being repaired after the tornado, since that was 1974 and a lot of old theaters were being twinned around that time.
This web page has two small, early 1940s photos (about halfway down the long page) showing the Strand Theatre in the background. It was a two-story building with a trapezoidal marquee. After a few more illustrations, the page has the line “[t]he theater ceased operations in the 1960s and was subsequently demolished.” The single-story building in the photos we currently display, with what looks to have been two large show windows flanking a rather narrow two-door entrance, was not the Strand.
I’ve found Friday and Saturday movies advertised at the Grand as late as September 5, 1957. The next issue of the Review available online, from October 24, lists only the Sparks Theatre.
The May 1, 1926 issue of The Moving Picture World reported that the Grand Theatre in Cooper was one of three Texas houses to have recently installed a “Celestam De Luxe organ.” The name was a typo.
“New Seeburg Celesta De Luxe Player Pipe Organ Creates Wide Attention” was the headline of an article in The Music Trade Review of June 26, 1926. The organ-piano hybrid was designed for use in small town theaters that couldn’t afford a full-sized organ or a full-time organist. The self-contained unit could be played automatically using music rolls, or manually from its single keyboard.
It also looks like Henry Sparks eventually reopened the Grand after closing it for a while on completion of the Sparks Theatre. Some capsule movie reviews published by Motion Picture Herald in January, 1953 were signed “Henry Sparks, Sparks and Grand Theatres, Cooper, Texas.” The December 4, 1953 issue of the Cooper Review advertises Sparks Theatres, and shows the Grand open on Friday and Saturday only, showing the 1948 western movie “Black Bart” with Dan Duryea and Yvonne De Carlo.
The Monroe Theatre’s Facebook page continues to be active, with a post from March 12 outlining the progress that has been made in preparing plans for the eventual renovation of the house by project architect Lauren Burge. One passage in the article cites Ms. Burge’s observation that “…the Monroe Theatre’s most unique feature from an architectural standpoint is the lack of corners anywhere in the interior of the original building; this is characteristic of the streamlined architecture of the 1930s.” The page also has links to three videos about the theater.
If that’s the case then the 1915 rebuilding project as a two-story theater must not have been carried out. I checked David and Noelle Soren’s list of Boller theaters and they list it as “Electric (Majestic) Theatre – 1915, 1926, 1946-47” so it’s still a Boller design, but they worked on it three times; probably a scaled down remodeling of the original 1910 Majestic in 1915, a rebuilding in 1926, and another remodeling or renovation in 1946-47. I wonder if they kept the lower parts of the original walls in the 1926 project?
SethG: Good catch. The Majestic was expended to become the Electric in 1915, and those cars parked in front of the smaller theater are from considerably later than 1915, so it can’t be the old Majestic.
St. Joseph Memory lane says the Fox East Hills Theatre opened on August 19, 1965 and closed on November 11, 1990. It had 712 seats.
In 1936 The Robstown Record was advertising a house called the New Palace Theatre. I wonder if that was a different theater or just an earlier aka for the Gulf?
Th Vogue was one of eight movie theaters listed at Springfield in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
Th Savoy was one of eight movie theaters listed at Springfield in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Casino was one of eight movie theater listed at Springfield in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Amuse-U was one of eight movie theaters listed at Springfield in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The 1912-1913 Cahn guide lists the Empire Theatre as a ground floor house with 392 seats on the main floor, 238 in the balcony, and 10 in boxes. The stage was 35 feet from footlights to back wall, and 44 feet between the side walls.