A 1943 city directory places the Ritz at 101 Dick Street, which was probably right on the southeast corner of Person Street. The neighborhood has been redeveloped and streets realigned, that part of Dick Street and part of the theater’s site having been replaced by a small, triangular park, and the rest of the theater’s site must have been under what is now a street called Otis F. Jones Parkway.
The Noble Street Theatre began as an upstairs theater, but was rebuilt and expanded as a ground-floor house in 1909. The July 14 issue of The American Architect had this item:
“ANNISTON.-Architect Oakley, Montgomery, has prepared plans for the renovation of the Noble Street Theater so as to make it a ground floor theater.”
Editons of the Cahn guide starting in 1909-1910 listed the house as the New Noble Theatre. I haven’t found it listed in earlier Cahn guides. I’ve also been unable to find a first name for architect Oakley, and the only other project I can find on the Internet that was attributed to him is the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee, also built in 1909.
This PDF is a masters thesis, dated 1976, by Robert A. Ellis of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It is titled “The Bijou Theatre: 1909-1949” and has quite a bit of detail about the Bijou and its history.
Ellis gives the name of the Bijou’s architect only as Oakly of Montgomery Alabama. The only other reference to this architect I can find on the Internet is an item from the July 4, 1909 issue of The American Architect which again refers to him only as “Architect Oakley, Montgomery.” Perhaps he went by only the one name professionally, like Liberace.
Interestingly enough, the 1909 item said that Oakley had prepared plans for the renovation of the Noble Street Theatre in Anniston, Alabama, as a ground-floor house.
Vincent G. Raney designed the Alger Theatre. He was also the architect for a remodeling of Merle Alger’s other Lakeview house, the Marius Theatre, that same year.
TCM’s Ben Hur page says there were sneak previews in Denver, Dallas, and San Diego. They don’t give the names of the theaters, or the dates, but the Center would have been a likely choice. The reels would have been flown to Denver, then to Dallas, then to San Diego, then taken back to Culver City.
The Center’s ad for that day probably would have announced a sneak preview that night, but the name of the film would have been withheld, since that’s the point of a sneak preview— the audience (except for studio employees sent to observe audience response) wouldn’t know in advance what they would see. It might have been mentioned in the paper the next day, though.
A photo of the Rex Theatre appears on page 37 of a booklet commemorating Hunboldt’s 150th anniversary (scan at issue.com.) The caption says the house opened as Sharp’s Theatre in 1925, was renamed the Capitol Theatre in 1929, and became the Rex in the 1930s. It closed in the mid-1950s.
The November 25, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News ran a belated notice mentioning a visit to Atlanta by “…J. P. Sharp of Humboldt, Tenn., whose new theatre will open on November 1st….”
The Astor was not opened until 1948. The April 2, 1948 issue of The Film Daily has this item:
“CHARLOTTE, N. C, has a new theater. It’s the Astor, converted from a store building, and operated by the Colonial Theaters Corp. of Valdese, N. C. Modernized, in every respect, the house seats 446.”
The 1950 FDY listed the Astor Theatre in both their “Negro Theaters” section and the main theaters listing for Charlotte.
Even more information appears: This weblog post by Doug Taylor says that the house did open as the Paradise in 1937, but the structure as designed by Benjamin Brown included remains of a gutted earlier building that had housed the Kitchener Theatre, opened as a movie house in 1909.
This post from blogTO says that the Paradise, now under renovation, is slated to reopen later this year as an upscale multi-use event facility, with movies as part of the mix.
If the name Paradise Theatre appears only in 1944, this house must have operated under a different name earlier. This real estate listing (the property has sold, so the listing is likely to vanish soon) says that it was built in 1937, and was designed by architect Benjamin Brown.
The project was noted in the July 3, 1937 issue of The Film Daily:
“$40,000 House for Toronto
“Toronto, Ont. — A new $40,000 Theater and stores are to be erected at 1006 Bloor St. W. United Bricklaying Co., Ltd., of 276 Palmerston Ave., are general contractors.”
The remodeled and renamed Bob Burns Theatre opened in 1937, as noted in this item from The Film Daily of July 3:
“Bob Burns Theater Opens In Arkansas
“Van Buren, Ark. — The new 615-seat Bob Burns Theater here opened with the current Bob Burns picture, ‘Mountain Music.’ M. A. Lightman, president; and M. S. McCord, secretary-treasurer of Malco Theaters, Inc., were present. Exterior of the building is in white with a marquee indirect lighting sign in front. The name ‘Bob Burns’ and a large ‘bazooka’ are in neon. Harry Vise is manager.”
The Midwest Theatre was slated to open on August 1, according to this item from The Film Daily of July 3, 1937:
“Mid West’s Bethel Contract
“Cincinnati — New theater of Earl Hewitt at Bethal is being completely equipped by Mid West Theater Supply Co. with seats, projection and sound equipment. House will open on Aug. 1.
The Shores Theatre first appeared in the FDY in 1939, but was probably opened by 1938. This item from the July 17, 1937 issue of The Film Daily is probably about the Shores:
“Detroit — New theater building to seat 1,000, plus four stores — already leased — is to be erected by newly formed Joy Theater Corp. at a cost of $100,000, at Nine Mile and Mack Roads in St. Clair Shores, northeastern suburb.
“Project is based upon a year’s study of the location by George W. Sampson, former owner of the Dawn Theater, and former premium distributor, who is president and general manager of the company. C. E. Daniel, contractor, is vice-president; and J. E. Foster of the Commonwealth-Commercial Bank, is secretary-treasurer.
“House will be modernistic with Chinese red macotta front with blue background. Bennett and Straight, theatrical architects, are completing plans.”
The original Streamline Modern style of the Shores was characteristic of Bennett & Straight’s work in the late 1930s. At some point, probably in the 1970s, the original facade was disfigured by the removal of the small entrance tower and the addition of a fake mansard to the second floor. A ca. 1944 photo is among those that can be seen at Water Winter Wonderland.
This item is from the January 1, 1938 issue of Motion Picture Herald:
“Roy E. Syfert operates the Ainsworth theatre at Ainsworth, Nebraska. He is also the undertaker for that community, and if you will go to his theatre he will undertake to show you a good picture and you will undertake to express your appreciation for the courtesy shown.”
The Lyric is listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. This web page has a scan of a December 14, 1967 newspaper article about the closing of the house, with two photos.
The Altoona Tribune of March 18, 1921, said that the rebuilt Capitol Theatre building was designed by the local architectural firm Hersh & Shollar.
It should be noted that Frank Austin Hersh and Frederick James Shollar formed and disbanded their partnership more than once. From 1904 to about 1916 the firm was called Shollar & Hersh, and after a hiatus of a couple of years, they re-formed the firm but called it Hersh & Shollar. Thus Altoona’s Olympic Theatre of 1914 was designed by Shollar & Hersh, but the 1921 rebuild of the Capitol was by Hersh & Shollar.
This item is from the March 4, 1939 issue of Motion Picture Herald:
“John Lee has started construction of a motion picture theatre at Ephrata, Wash., 20 miles from the site of the Grand Coulee Dam. The house, which is to cost $20,000, will accommodate 350. Mr. Lee has theatres at Soap Lake, Quincy and Neppel, Wash., and at present is operating a theatre in the Ephrata locality.”
The document (now gone from the Internet) cited in my previous comment said that the MarJo opened in 1940, so the project must have suffered some delays. Lee’s earlier theater at Ephrata, mentioned in the Herald item, is also noted in my previous comment.
By the way, the PDF I linked to has a nice interior photo of the Nifty’s auditorium. It’s quite a handsome room, with some nice detailing very characteristic of the 1910s. No reclining seats, though. Sorry, kids.
Waterville probably isn’t a ghost town, given that Trulia currently lists several houses for sale at prices from $235,000 (new construction) up to $686,000. The census bureau estimated the population as of 2016 at 1,181. The town’s web site is certainly very much alive.
Although most web sites say that the Nifty Theatre was built in 1918 and opened in 1919, I found a brief item in Motography of November 4, 1916, saying “[t]he Nifty Theater in Waterville is installing new equipment.” Indeed, the Nifty Theatre was listed at Waterville in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
While it’s possible that the Nifty Theater of 1914 and 1916 was in a different location, it seems just as likely that the original theater could simply have been rebuilt in 1918. This PDF from the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, published in 2008, has information about many of the state’s historic theaters, and the section devoted to the Nifty says that “… according to the owner [the theater] was burned during construction. Portions of the stage framing and exterior walls are charred.” It seems entirely possible that the original Nifty suffered a fire in 1918 but its framing survived and the theater was rebuilt.
The official web site says the Roxy was built in 1935, and operated as a movie house until 1981. It was reopened for use as a live venue in the late 1980s, and since 2011 has been re-equipped to present movies again, as well as live events. The current seating capacity is 352.
This weblog post has a bit about Coulee City’s Lee Theatre. It was in a rebuilt building formerly called Gregg Hall (apparently a community center of some sort.) The entrance was on Third Street. Another page of the weblog has a note saying that that the Lee opened on June 13, 1947. The opening of the house was also noted in the July 5 issue of Boxoffice:
“COULEE CITY, WASH.— John Lee of Ephrata has put the Lee Theatre into operation here. The house was built out of the ruins of Gregg hall, which was gutted by fire several months ago. Kenneth Knight is managing.”
On the MarJo Theatre page I cited a PDF which has since vanished from the Internet. My comment of October 7, 2016 there says that the history of Ephrata’s theaters in the document said that the Lee Theatre opened in 1952. I don’t know why I didn’t cite it on this page then instead of waiting until now.
The August 21, 1919 issue of The Memphis Democrat (PDF here) has ads for both the Princess and a house called the Majestic Theatre (actually there are two ads for the Princess, and both theaters are mentioned several times in the text on the page.)
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two houses at Memphis, Texas: the Princess and the Opera House. I’m thinking it’s possible that the Opera House became the Majestic. Later either the Majestic or the Princess might have become a house called the Palace, and the other might have become the Gem
Issues of Exhibitors' Herald from early 1926 have capsule movie reviews from two Memphis exhibitors, W. H. Hall of the Gem Theatre and Mrs. Edgar Adams, of the Palace theatre. The Gem is also mentioned in the October 17, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News.
The 1926 FDY lists only the 500-seat Palace at Memphis, but the 1927 edition lists both the Palace and the 450-seat Gem. Those two continue to be listed through 1931. In 1932 the 450-seat Gem is gone and the 450-seat Ritz appears. The Palace and the Ritz both continue in the FDY listings through 1957, the last year the FDY listed all the theaters in the U.S. by town.
The Texas Theatre first appeared in the 1934 FDY, and was last listed in 1954. There is a possibility that the house on Main Street that we have listed as the Texas as actually the location of the Palace, but I’ve commented about that on the Texas Theatre page.
A 1943 city directory places the Ritz at 101 Dick Street, which was probably right on the southeast corner of Person Street. The neighborhood has been redeveloped and streets realigned, that part of Dick Street and part of the theater’s site having been replaced by a small, triangular park, and the rest of the theater’s site must have been under what is now a street called Otis F. Jones Parkway.
The Noble Street Theatre began as an upstairs theater, but was rebuilt and expanded as a ground-floor house in 1909. The July 14 issue of The American Architect had this item:
Editons of the Cahn guide starting in 1909-1910 listed the house as the New Noble Theatre. I haven’t found it listed in earlier Cahn guides. I’ve also been unable to find a first name for architect Oakley, and the only other project I can find on the Internet that was attributed to him is the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee, also built in 1909.This PDF is a masters thesis, dated 1976, by Robert A. Ellis of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It is titled “The Bijou Theatre: 1909-1949” and has quite a bit of detail about the Bijou and its history.
Ellis gives the name of the Bijou’s architect only as Oakly of Montgomery Alabama. The only other reference to this architect I can find on the Internet is an item from the July 4, 1909 issue of The American Architect which again refers to him only as “Architect Oakley, Montgomery.” Perhaps he went by only the one name professionally, like Liberace.
Interestingly enough, the 1909 item said that Oakley had prepared plans for the renovation of the Noble Street Theatre in Anniston, Alabama, as a ground-floor house.
Vincent G. Raney designed the Alger Theatre. He was also the architect for a remodeling of Merle Alger’s other Lakeview house, the Marius Theatre, that same year.
TCM’s Ben Hur page says there were sneak previews in Denver, Dallas, and San Diego. They don’t give the names of the theaters, or the dates, but the Center would have been a likely choice. The reels would have been flown to Denver, then to Dallas, then to San Diego, then taken back to Culver City.
The Center’s ad for that day probably would have announced a sneak preview that night, but the name of the film would have been withheld, since that’s the point of a sneak preview— the audience (except for studio employees sent to observe audience response) wouldn’t know in advance what they would see. It might have been mentioned in the paper the next day, though.
A photo of the Rex Theatre appears on page 37 of a booklet commemorating Hunboldt’s 150th anniversary (scan at issue.com.) The caption says the house opened as Sharp’s Theatre in 1925, was renamed the Capitol Theatre in 1929, and became the Rex in the 1930s. It closed in the mid-1950s.
The November 25, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News ran a belated notice mentioning a visit to Atlanta by “…J. P. Sharp of Humboldt, Tenn., whose new theatre will open on November 1st….”
The Astor was not opened until 1948. The April 2, 1948 issue of The Film Daily has this item:
The 1950 FDY listed the Astor Theatre in both their “Negro Theaters” section and the main theaters listing for Charlotte.The earliest announcement about the Vista Theatre might have been this item from the July 3, 1937 issue of The Film Daily:
Even more information appears: This weblog post by Doug Taylor says that the house did open as the Paradise in 1937, but the structure as designed by Benjamin Brown included remains of a gutted earlier building that had housed the Kitchener Theatre, opened as a movie house in 1909.
This post from blogTO says that the Paradise, now under renovation, is slated to reopen later this year as an upscale multi-use event facility, with movies as part of the mix.
If the name Paradise Theatre appears only in 1944, this house must have operated under a different name earlier. This real estate listing (the property has sold, so the listing is likely to vanish soon) says that it was built in 1937, and was designed by architect Benjamin Brown.
The project was noted in the July 3, 1937 issue of The Film Daily:
The remodeled and renamed Bob Burns Theatre opened in 1937, as noted in this item from The Film Daily of July 3:
The Midwest Theatre was slated to open on August 1, according to this item from The Film Daily of July 3, 1937:
The Shores Theatre first appeared in the FDY in 1939, but was probably opened by 1938. This item from the July 17, 1937 issue of The Film Daily is probably about the Shores:
The original Streamline Modern style of the Shores was characteristic of Bennett & Straight’s work in the late 1930s. At some point, probably in the 1970s, the original facade was disfigured by the removal of the small entrance tower and the addition of a fake mansard to the second floor. A ca. 1944 photo is among those that can be seen at Water Winter Wonderland.The Rex was one of two movie theaters listed at Albion in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The other theater was called the Lyric.
This item is from the January 1, 1938 issue of Motion Picture Herald:
The Royal Theatre, Main and 2nd Streets, was the only theater listed at Ainsworth in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Lyric is listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. This web page has a scan of a December 14, 1967 newspaper article about the closing of the house, with two photos.
The Altoona Tribune of March 18, 1921, said that the rebuilt Capitol Theatre building was designed by the local architectural firm Hersh & Shollar.
It should be noted that Frank Austin Hersh and Frederick James Shollar formed and disbanded their partnership more than once. From 1904 to about 1916 the firm was called Shollar & Hersh, and after a hiatus of a couple of years, they re-formed the firm but called it Hersh & Shollar. Thus Altoona’s Olympic Theatre of 1914 was designed by Shollar & Hersh, but the 1921 rebuild of the Capitol was by Hersh & Shollar.
This item is from the March 4, 1939 issue of Motion Picture Herald:
The document (now gone from the Internet) cited in my previous comment said that the MarJo opened in 1940, so the project must have suffered some delays. Lee’s earlier theater at Ephrata, mentioned in the Herald item, is also noted in my previous comment.By the way, the PDF I linked to has a nice interior photo of the Nifty’s auditorium. It’s quite a handsome room, with some nice detailing very characteristic of the 1910s. No reclining seats, though. Sorry, kids.
Waterville probably isn’t a ghost town, given that Trulia currently lists several houses for sale at prices from $235,000 (new construction) up to $686,000. The census bureau estimated the population as of 2016 at 1,181. The town’s web site is certainly very much alive.
Although most web sites say that the Nifty Theatre was built in 1918 and opened in 1919, I found a brief item inMotography of November 4, 1916, saying “[t]he Nifty Theater in Waterville is installing new equipment.” Indeed, the Nifty Theatre was listed at Waterville in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
While it’s possible that the Nifty Theater of 1914 and 1916 was in a different location, it seems just as likely that the original theater could simply have been rebuilt in 1918. This PDF from the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, published in 2008, has information about many of the state’s historic theaters, and the section devoted to the Nifty says that “… according to the owner [the theater] was burned during construction. Portions of the stage framing and exterior walls are charred.” It seems entirely possible that the original Nifty suffered a fire in 1918 but its framing survived and the theater was rebuilt.
The official web site says the Roxy was built in 1935, and operated as a movie house until 1981. It was reopened for use as a live venue in the late 1980s, and since 2011 has been re-equipped to present movies again, as well as live events. The current seating capacity is 352.
This weblog post has a bit about Coulee City’s Lee Theatre. It was in a rebuilt building formerly called Gregg Hall (apparently a community center of some sort.) The entrance was on Third Street. Another page of the weblog has a note saying that that the Lee opened on June 13, 1947. The opening of the house was also noted in the July 5 issue of Boxoffice:
On the MarJo Theatre page I cited a PDF which has since vanished from the Internet. My comment of October 7, 2016 there says that the history of Ephrata’s theaters in the document said that the Lee Theatre opened in 1952. I don’t know why I didn’t cite it on this page then instead of waiting until now.
The August 21, 1919 issue of The Memphis Democrat (PDF here) has ads for both the Princess and a house called the Majestic Theatre (actually there are two ads for the Princess, and both theaters are mentioned several times in the text on the page.)
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two houses at Memphis, Texas: the Princess and the Opera House. I’m thinking it’s possible that the Opera House became the Majestic. Later either the Majestic or the Princess might have become a house called the Palace, and the other might have become the Gem
Issues of Exhibitors' Herald from early 1926 have capsule movie reviews from two Memphis exhibitors, W. H. Hall of the Gem Theatre and Mrs. Edgar Adams, of the Palace theatre. The Gem is also mentioned in the October 17, 1925 issue of Motion Picture News.
The 1926 FDY lists only the 500-seat Palace at Memphis, but the 1927 edition lists both the Palace and the 450-seat Gem. Those two continue to be listed through 1931. In 1932 the 450-seat Gem is gone and the 450-seat Ritz appears. The Palace and the Ritz both continue in the FDY listings through 1957, the last year the FDY listed all the theaters in the U.S. by town.
The Texas Theatre first appeared in the 1934 FDY, and was last listed in 1954. There is a possibility that the house on Main Street that we have listed as the Texas as actually the location of the Palace, but I’ve commented about that on the Texas Theatre page.