The West Theatre building was built in 1922 for Fred Farmer, and was designed by a well-known local architect, U. G. Charles. The project was noted in the July 15, 1922 issue of The American Contractor. Although designed as a theater, in early 1924 the building was occupied by a business called the West Side Racket Store. The April 29, 1924 issue of the Wichita Beacon said that B. R. Gundy, of Oklahoma, had leased the building from Farmer and would open it as a movie house called the West Theatre in July.
This history of Gothenburg’s theaters from the Gothenburg Leader says that from 1923 to 1927, this theater was owned by the city and was called the Community House.
A new lessee, Glen Van Wey, restored the name Sun Theatre and reopened the house as a movie theater on February 5, 1927. The city sold the building to Van Wey in 1938. It wasn’t until an extensive remodeling in 1948 that the flat main floor was removed and replaced with a sloped floor. The Van Wey family managed to keep the Sun open until December 31, 1981. The Gothemburg Community Playhouse then began a fund raising drive and were able to purchase the theater in 1983. Since then the non-profit organization has presented movies at least 48 weekends a year (Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays), and live events at other times.
From May through September, 2020, the Sun Theatre was closed for a $400,000 dollar renovation project, focused primarily on the front of the house. The Sun now boasts new, accessible rest rooms, and accessible seating in the auditorium. Total seating capacity is now 240.
robboehm: If you right click a photo at eBay and some other sites, and select “open in new tab” or “open in new window” from the drop-down menu, you will usually get a larger, higher resolution copy of the photo. Sometimes if you repeat the process with that larger photo you can get an even bigger one.
The Princess Theatre was at 260 West Main Street, and opened on July 3, 1909. After closing as a theater, the building was occupied for many years by an automobile repair garage. The theater and adjacent buildings have since been demolished, and replaced by a strip mall.
The Princess Theatre was mentioned in the July 20, 1918 issue of Exhibitors Herald Motography, which said that it and Plain City’s Wall Theatre had been taken over by S. H. Lawwill, manager of two movie houses in London, Ohio.
Here is an item from the July 5, 1930 issue of Exhibitors Herald World:
“Plain City Houses Merge
“(Special to the Herald-World)
"PLAIN CITY, O., July 1.— The Princess and the Rialto theatres have merged. The merger was brought about by H. C. Robey, who when manager of the Princess organized the Plain City Theatre Co. and bought the Rialto. The Princess will be closed and the Rialto will be remodeled. Sound installation will be rushed.”
The Rialto was most likely the proposed theater mentioned in an item from the July 14, 1927 issue of The Film Daily which said “Plain City Theater Co. will build a $50,000 theater and office building.” Names of earlier Plain City theaters mentioned in trade journals included the
Exhibit, the Star, and the Wall, as well as the Princess.
The Empire Theatre at Two Rivers is mentioned in the February 12, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World. Management of the house had just been taken over by Hans Henrickson & Son. An adjacent item noted that Samuel Nelson had just resigned as manager of the same town’s Armory Theatre.
Frankly, Waynesboro has me really confused. It’s possible that the It Theatre was next door to the building with the gable, and at some point that building was expanded onto the gabled building’s site. The gabled building looks to be wood framed, and the Strand’s building was brick.
robboehm: I didn’t have copies of those pictures, and have only found one of them (the one from around 1918) on the Internet. It’s the one that shows the gabled building with the It Theatre sign on it. It isn’t the building in the photo you uploaded, which was the Star Theatre, but was across Main Street from it. I think maybe the It wasn’t in that gabled building with the sign, but the one beyond it, which I believe is the building identified as the former Strand in this photo at CinemaTour.
The congratulatory ad placed by the Yost Lumber Company notes that the Plaza had been remodeled and redecorated. I’ve found C.W. “Wally” Johnson, owner of the Plaza, mentioned in trade journals from 1935 to 1953.
Friend’s theatrical history began with the opening of the Warren Opera House in 1886. The Warren, an upstairs venue, went into decline with the opening of the ground floor San Carlo Opera House in 1908. The town’s first regular movie theater, the Elite, opened a few years later. Both the San Carlo and the Elite were listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Either of those early houses might have become the Plaza. I’ve been unable to find addresses for either of them.
The Town Theatre was a replacement for an earlier house called the Roxy which was dismantled when the Town opened. The Flora Amusement Company announced plans for closing and dismantling the 360-seat Roxy as soon as their new, as yet unnamed, theater opened, according to Boxoffice of May 20, 1950. Flora Amusement also operated the Florine Theatre. No address was given for the Roxy. I wonder if it could have been an aka for the Casino Theatre?
Multiple sources indicate that the Prince Theatre was designed by the Houston architectural firm H. C. Cooke & Co.. Henry Collier Cooke was an English architect who began practicing in Galveston around 1891, then practiced in Corsicana for a while before establishing himself in Houston around 1901. His son William A. Cooke joined the firm in 1905.
The Prince became a full-time motion picture theater in September, 1916.
The history section of the Arlee Theatre web site says that at some time after arriving in Mason City in 1875, Lipman Frank operated the Frank Opera House, “…where grand balls were held and Ward Ackerman showed early movies.” The opera house was upstairs in the LaForge building, at the northwest corner of Chestnut and Tonica streets. The history also says that “[i]n 1917, Ackerman moved his movie business to the Pritchett Building at 132 S. Main St. and named it the Liberty Theater.”
This is where it starts getting complicated. The web site is fairly recent, and some history has apparently been missed (for example, that the 1914 Sanborn shows a movie theater already operating at 132 S. Main.) The 1913 Moving Picture World article I cited in my first comment on this theater says that Mr. and Mrs. Ackerman had just sold the Lyric Opera House, which they had operated for about five years. There is also this item datelined Mason City Ill. from the August 19, 1911 issue of The Motion Picture News: “A. W. Ackerman of the Lyric Theatre has leased the opera house and will manage same.”
Puzzling stuff. The map is surely the most reliable source, so it’s probably safe to assume that the theater at 132 Main was in operation in 1914. The 1911 MPN item is probably accurate, and Mr. Ackerman did lease the Opera House that year. The question then becomes where was the Lyric Theatre, and did Ackerman continue to operate it along with the Opera House? Mason City had a population of only about 1,800 at that time, though there were undoubtedly many rural families living round about who also would have attended the movies, but was the total market large enough to support two movie theaters?
Then we have the 1913 MPW item, which raises the question of how Ackerman’s two theaters of 1911, the Lyric and the Opera House, became the single Lyric Opera House which he sold in 1913? Or was he selling two theaters, and MPW just garbled the information (the same might account for the single listing in the 1914-1915 Directory?) Or had Ackerman closed one or the other theater and combined the names at the single location still operating? If so, which of the two was closed?
My best guess would be that the Lyric Theatre of 1911 and the Lyric Opera House of 1913 were both the theater at 132 S. Main, since it was shown still operating on the 1914 Sanborn. If the 1913 MPW claim that the Ackermans had been operating the theater for five years is correct, and we assume it means during at least parts of five years, not five entire years, then we can have the harness shop shown at 132 Main on the 1909 Sanborn converted into a theater before the end of that year, and then being run by the Ackermans, first as the Lyric Theatre (mentioned in 1911) and then perhaps as the Lyric Opera House, into late 1913. The 1913 item notes that “Mr. Ackerman will continue to Manage the Prospect Opera House at Greenview….” Then when he returned to Mason City in 1917 and opened the Liberty, he would actually have been re-acquiring the theater he had sold in 1913.
This is all somewhat speculative, of course, but it is plausible, and does accord with the limited facts we do have, as well as accounting for the apparent discrepancies in the sketchy historical record. In the absence of access to historic Mason City newspaper archives, these surmises are the best I can do.
This article about the Mayflower Theatre says that a Mr. Hunt opened Troy’s first movie theater in the fall of 1908. It was in a building next door to the one that would later be occupied by the Mayflower Theatre. That must have been the Star. The opening name was apparently Hunt’s Theatre.
This article about the Mayflower says that the house opened on January 31, 1928. The article does not mention the Mayflower’s “steam beams.” Perhaps they were only a local urban legend.
Although the Jewel is mentioned at least once in a trade journal in 1911 (The Moving Picture World, October 7,) and is mentioned in multiple issues of the trades after 1915, it is not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. This might have been an accidental omission from the directory, or the house might have been closed at the time the directory was being put together and then reopened later.
The Star was one of three movie theater listed at Troy in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. No details were provided but the location West Main Street. Also listed were the Gem Theatre, S. Market Street, and the New Theatre, no location given.
The description needs to be updated with the February, 1916 closing of this house, noted in an article of February 8 that year, cited in a comment by vokoban on January 2, 2006. The article noted the impending opening of the Palace Theatre on 7th Street by the operators of the Palace of Pictures, and the last line said that “[t]he present Palace of Pictures will cease to exist at the end of this week,” Its location was taken over by Innes Shoe Company.
I believe I saw the article I cited at newspapers.com, but since then that site has put its content behind a paywall, so I, not being a subscriber to their service, don’t have access to it anymore.
The principals of the firm of Washburn & Stookey were Clarence Washburn and his brother-in-law, Roy Stookey.
The West Theatre building was built in 1922 for Fred Farmer, and was designed by a well-known local architect, U. G. Charles. The project was noted in the July 15, 1922 issue of The American Contractor. Although designed as a theater, in early 1924 the building was occupied by a business called the West Side Racket Store. The April 29, 1924 issue of the Wichita Beacon said that B. R. Gundy, of Oklahoma, had leased the building from Farmer and would open it as a movie house called the West Theatre in July.
This history of Gothenburg’s theaters from the Gothenburg Leader says that from 1923 to 1927, this theater was owned by the city and was called the Community House.
A new lessee, Glen Van Wey, restored the name Sun Theatre and reopened the house as a movie theater on February 5, 1927. The city sold the building to Van Wey in 1938. It wasn’t until an extensive remodeling in 1948 that the flat main floor was removed and replaced with a sloped floor. The Van Wey family managed to keep the Sun open until December 31, 1981. The Gothemburg Community Playhouse then began a fund raising drive and were able to purchase the theater in 1983. Since then the non-profit organization has presented movies at least 48 weekends a year (Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays), and live events at other times.
From May through September, 2020, the Sun Theatre was closed for a $400,000 dollar renovation project, focused primarily on the front of the house. The Sun now boasts new, accessible rest rooms, and accessible seating in the auditorium. Total seating capacity is now 240.
robboehm: If you right click a photo at eBay and some other sites, and select “open in new tab” or “open in new window” from the drop-down menu, you will usually get a larger, higher resolution copy of the photo. Sometimes if you repeat the process with that larger photo you can get an even bigger one.
The Lyric Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Princess Theatre was at 260 West Main Street, and opened on July 3, 1909. After closing as a theater, the building was occupied for many years by an automobile repair garage. The theater and adjacent buildings have since been demolished, and replaced by a strip mall.
The Princess Theatre was mentioned in the July 20, 1918 issue of Exhibitors Herald Motography, which said that it and Plain City’s Wall Theatre had been taken over by S. H. Lawwill, manager of two movie houses in London, Ohio.
Here is an item from the July 5, 1930 issue of Exhibitors Herald World:
The Rialto was most likely the proposed theater mentioned in an item from the July 14, 1927 issue of The Film Daily which said “Plain City Theater Co. will build a $50,000 theater and office building.” Names of earlier Plain City theaters mentioned in trade journals included the Exhibit, the Star, and the Wall, as well as the Princess.The Empire Theatre at Two Rivers is mentioned in the February 12, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World. Management of the house had just been taken over by Hans Henrickson & Son. An adjacent item noted that Samuel Nelson had just resigned as manager of the same town’s Armory Theatre.
Frankly, Waynesboro has me really confused. It’s possible that the It Theatre was next door to the building with the gable, and at some point that building was expanded onto the gabled building’s site. The gabled building looks to be wood framed, and the Strand’s building was brick.
robboehm: I didn’t have copies of those pictures, and have only found one of them (the one from around 1918) on the Internet. It’s the one that shows the gabled building with the It Theatre sign on it. It isn’t the building in the photo you uploaded, which was the Star Theatre, but was across Main Street from it. I think maybe the It wasn’t in that gabled building with the sign, but the one beyond it, which I believe is the building identified as the former Strand in this photo at CinemaTour.
The congratulatory ad placed by the Yost Lumber Company notes that the Plaza had been remodeled and redecorated. I’ve found C.W. “Wally” Johnson, owner of the Plaza, mentioned in trade journals from 1935 to 1953.
Friend’s theatrical history began with the opening of the Warren Opera House in 1886. The Warren, an upstairs venue, went into decline with the opening of the ground floor San Carlo Opera House in 1908. The town’s first regular movie theater, the Elite, opened a few years later. Both the San Carlo and the Elite were listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. Either of those early houses might have become the Plaza. I’ve been unable to find addresses for either of them.
The Town Theatre was a replacement for an earlier house called the Roxy which was dismantled when the Town opened. The Flora Amusement Company announced plans for closing and dismantling the 360-seat Roxy as soon as their new, as yet unnamed, theater opened, according to Boxoffice of May 20, 1950. Flora Amusement also operated the Florine Theatre. No address was given for the Roxy. I wonder if it could have been an aka for the Casino Theatre?
A Pettigrew & Worley design.
Multiple sources indicate that the Prince Theatre was designed by the Houston architectural firm H. C. Cooke & Co.. Henry Collier Cooke was an English architect who began practicing in Galveston around 1891, then practiced in Corsicana for a while before establishing himself in Houston around 1901. His son William A. Cooke joined the firm in 1905.
The Prince became a full-time motion picture theater in September, 1916.
The Mayland Theatre is currently being demolished.
The history section of the Arlee Theatre web site says that at some time after arriving in Mason City in 1875, Lipman Frank operated the Frank Opera House, “…where grand balls were held and Ward Ackerman showed early movies.” The opera house was upstairs in the LaForge building, at the northwest corner of Chestnut and Tonica streets. The history also says that “[i]n 1917, Ackerman moved his movie business to the Pritchett Building at 132 S. Main St. and named it the Liberty Theater.”
This is where it starts getting complicated. The web site is fairly recent, and some history has apparently been missed (for example, that the 1914 Sanborn shows a movie theater already operating at 132 S. Main.) The 1913 Moving Picture World article I cited in my first comment on this theater says that Mr. and Mrs. Ackerman had just sold the Lyric Opera House, which they had operated for about five years. There is also this item datelined Mason City Ill. from the August 19, 1911 issue of The Motion Picture News: “A. W. Ackerman of the Lyric Theatre has leased the opera house and will manage same.”
Puzzling stuff. The map is surely the most reliable source, so it’s probably safe to assume that the theater at 132 Main was in operation in 1914. The 1911 MPN item is probably accurate, and Mr. Ackerman did lease the Opera House that year. The question then becomes where was the Lyric Theatre, and did Ackerman continue to operate it along with the Opera House? Mason City had a population of only about 1,800 at that time, though there were undoubtedly many rural families living round about who also would have attended the movies, but was the total market large enough to support two movie theaters?
Then we have the 1913 MPW item, which raises the question of how Ackerman’s two theaters of 1911, the Lyric and the Opera House, became the single Lyric Opera House which he sold in 1913? Or was he selling two theaters, and MPW just garbled the information (the same might account for the single listing in the 1914-1915 Directory?) Or had Ackerman closed one or the other theater and combined the names at the single location still operating? If so, which of the two was closed?
My best guess would be that the Lyric Theatre of 1911 and the Lyric Opera House of 1913 were both the theater at 132 S. Main, since it was shown still operating on the 1914 Sanborn. If the 1913 MPW claim that the Ackermans had been operating the theater for five years is correct, and we assume it means during at least parts of five years, not five entire years, then we can have the harness shop shown at 132 Main on the 1909 Sanborn converted into a theater before the end of that year, and then being run by the Ackermans, first as the Lyric Theatre (mentioned in 1911) and then perhaps as the Lyric Opera House, into late 1913. The 1913 item notes that “Mr. Ackerman will continue to Manage the Prospect Opera House at Greenview….” Then when he returned to Mason City in 1917 and opened the Liberty, he would actually have been re-acquiring the theater he had sold in 1913.
This is all somewhat speculative, of course, but it is plausible, and does accord with the limited facts we do have, as well as accounting for the apparent discrepancies in the sketchy historical record. In the absence of access to historic Mason City newspaper archives, these surmises are the best I can do.
The only theater listed at Mason City in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory was the Lyric Opera House.
The official web site says that the Arlee Theatre opened on November 19, 1936 with the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical “Swing Time.”
This article about the Mayflower Theatre says that a Mr. Hunt opened Troy’s first movie theater in the fall of 1908. It was in a building next door to the one that would later be occupied by the Mayflower Theatre. That must have been the Star. The opening name was apparently Hunt’s Theatre.
This article about the Mayflower says that the house opened on January 31, 1928. The article does not mention the Mayflower’s “steam beams.” Perhaps they were only a local urban legend.
Although the Jewel is mentioned at least once in a trade journal in 1911 (The Moving Picture World, October 7,) and is mentioned in multiple issues of the trades after 1915, it is not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. This might have been an accidental omission from the directory, or the house might have been closed at the time the directory was being put together and then reopened later.
The Star was one of three movie theater listed at Troy in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. No details were provided but the location West Main Street. Also listed were the Gem Theatre, S. Market Street, and the New Theatre, no location given.
The description needs to be updated with the February, 1916 closing of this house, noted in an article of February 8 that year, cited in a comment by vokoban on January 2, 2006. The article noted the impending opening of the Palace Theatre on 7th Street by the operators of the Palace of Pictures, and the last line said that “[t]he present Palace of Pictures will cease to exist at the end of this week,” Its location was taken over by Innes Shoe Company.
I believe I saw the article I cited at newspapers.com, but since then that site has put its content behind a paywall, so I, not being a subscriber to their service, don’t have access to it anymore.