The Scammon Theatre is listed in the 1909-1910 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 388 seats in the orchestra, 202 in the balcony, and a gallery seating 425. The stage was 34 feet from footlights to back wall and 53 feet between side walls, and the rigging loft was 48 feet above the stage floor. Quite a capacious theater for a town of 3000.
I am wondering if the Scammon Theatre could be this house mentioned in the September 10, 1921 issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Francis Hughes has purchased the Opera House at Scammon, Kas., from George Fichtner. Mr. Hughes will remodel and redecorate the theatre and open it as the Royal. Mr. Fichtner will go back to his Lyric Theatre, which he will remodel and reopen.”
Scammon’s decline must have been fairly rapid. The January 14, 1928 issue of Movie Age carried this advertisement in its “Theaters for Sale” column:
“BRICK BUILDING and equipment, population 1,700, seats over 600, the only show in town, a good Sunday town, will take one-half cash, balance to suit buyer. Write F. W. Hughes, Scammon, Kas.”
PG&E had power restored to most standing structures within just a few weeks of the fire. Other overhead utilities (telephone, cable) were also quickly restored. Water was a bit more of a problem as the system was already old and in need of constant repair, and many surviving pipes were contaminated by the fire. Most of the system serving structures that survived and new builds has now been restored, but some dead-end streets with no surviving structures or new builds remain to be repaired.
The town never had a sewer system, and was the largest community without one in the United States. A sewer system to serve primarily the main commercial corridors was in the preliminary planning stage at the time of the fire (and had been for years) and there are now plans to go through with that project if it can be financed. But rebuilding is proceeding very slowly, and as of April 6 this year only 81 houses had been rebuilt, though 883 additional permits had been issued. At the current pace it would probably take eight to ten years to replace the 8000 units lost in the fire, but I doubt that pace will continue. The burst was mostly the result of the fact that insurance companies will cover loss of use for only three years if you are rebuilding, and only two if you aren’t. A lot of the housing was not insured, and once everybody insured who intends to rebuild has done so the pace of rebuilding is bound to slow down.
The problem is that the town has lost its economic foundation, which was primarily pension and investment money. Over the decades a lot of retired people moved there because housing was cheap and the town was picturesque, and now both of those features are gone. It will be difficult to attract more retired people to replace those who are not returning, and with a smaller retired population there will be less economic activity to support working people. The hospital, for example, was the largest employer in the town, with over 1000 employees, but now that its patients are gone it is unneeded, and unlikely to fully reopen anytime soon. The school district was the next largest employer, but without the workers at the hospital and other businesses that lost their customers there are far fewer kids in town, and thus fewer teachers and other school personnel are needed.
To some extent the town was also a bedroom community for commuters from Chico and Oroville, but those commuters were attracted for the same reason the retirees had been— picturesqueness, relatively inexpensive housing, and a decent amount of goods and services available locally thanks to the spending of all those retired people, plus the economic multiplier effects of the employees of those goods and service suppliers themselves. So the place isn’t even as attractive as a bedroom community as it once was. The likely result of all this is that it will not be fully rebuilt anytime soon, unless somebody there can come up with a replacement for all that retirement income that was its economic foundation, and that too seems very unlikely. The owners of this theater would have been better off if the place had burned, assuming they were insured. They could have used their capital to build a theater somewhere else. Now they are probably stuck with a white elephant that might not be economically viable for a decade or more, and might never become viable again.
The November 30, 1912 issue of The Moving Picture News says that Mr. J. H. Hallberg had sold a Simplex moving picture machine to the Criterion Theatre, Rutherford, New Jersey. According to the book Rutherford: A Brief History, by William Neumann, the Criterion opened on January 27, 1912, and was destroyed by a fire in 1943.
Robert L. George and Mitchell T. Kinder’s book Cleveland says that the Princess Theatre opened on September 3, 1927. The Martin closed on October 14, 1972.
The November, 1922 issue of trade union journal American Federationist lists the Star Theatre as one of four Kokomo movie houses whose managers had signed agreements with musicians and projectionists. The Victory, Pictureland and Strand were also operating with union contracts, while workers at the Isis, Grand and Colonial were on strike.
The November, 1922 issue of the trade union journal American Federationist listed the Grand as one of three Kokomo houses at which projectionists and musicians were on strike. The others were the Isis and the Colonial. Managers had signed agreements with union members at the Victory, Pictureland, Star, and Strand.
Ned Booher’s Kokomo: A Pictorial History says that Pictureland was destroyed by fire in December, 1923. The building might have survived, but the theater apparently never reopened.
The 1912-1913 Kokomo city directory has a listing for the “Star Theatre, Etta M. Albaugh propr, 127 N. Buckeye.” The Star is not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, so if it was operating in 1916 it might have closed for a while and then reopened.
The October 19, 1975 issue of the Kokomo Tribune has an article about the Alhambra Theatre. It was built in 1903 as an arena for roller polo, a game that became popular around the turn of the century. The Kokomo team played its first game in the new arena on December 2, 1903.
The venture was not a great financial success, and in 1907 the owners of the building converted it into a theater, adding a stage and dressing rooms and replacing the skating area with seating. This venture too had only a brief life, the building being converted into a furniture store for Sailor Brothers by 1910. On December 9, 1960 the building was razed by a fire, and the following year a Woolworth store was erected on the site.
A May 11, 2006 article in the Kokomo Tribune says that the Isis Theatre was built in 1913. It was exclusively a motion picture house, and one of three Kokomo theaters to have a pipe organ. It was the last downtown theater operating in Kokomo, closing in the 1980s. The building was demolished in 1989 after having been vacant for some time.
The house at 110 N. Main was listed as the Ideal Theatre in the 1912 city directory. It suffered a fire on April 28, 1915 (July, 1915 issue of Safety Engineering.) It was reopened and renamed the Cort Theatre (mentioned in the January 1, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World.) The building was demolished in 1917 according to an article in the May 11, 2006 issue of the Kokomo Tribune.
Yarnelle is indeed the spelling used in both the Gus Hill guide and the American Motion Picture Directory. I’ve found the name used in local publications during the years 1913, 1914 and 1915.
The renovated Eagles Theatre was slated to reopen in March, 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, events have been rescheduled, the target for opening now being July. The renovated Eagles Theatre has 560 seats. The basement now features a new 50-seat venue designed for movies, called the Ferguson Theatre.
This brief video from Weather.com includes a shot of part of the State Theatre’s stage house collapsing. I don’t know how long it will be available, as I’m not familiar with the site’s policy.
Bad news from Marysville.The auditorium of the Avalon Theatre partly collapsed on June 3, 2020 during renovations. Fortunately the collapse took place overnight, and there were no reported injuries. Spokespersons say the renovation project will go ahead despite the loss.
The American Contractor of March 26, 1921, carried a notice about a project that was probably the Illinois Theatre:
“Centralia, Ill.– Theater (MP) $50 000, 2 sty., 138x50, Centralia. Archt. Gill & Fat [sic], 1329A Walnut St., Murphysboro I11. Owner Hall & Griffin, Centralia. Gen. contr. let to MJ Heaton, Centralia. Owner & Gen. contr. taking bids on subs.”
The correct name of the architectural firm was Gill & Fath, who also designed the Rodgers Theatre at Carbondale and Marlow’s Theatre at Murphysboro. Rudolph Zerses Gill was a well-known architect in the region, and several of his buildings have been nominated to the NRHP. I’ve been unable to find any information about Mr. Fath.
The Webb Theatre in Peru is listed in the Department of Inspection’s section of the Annual Reports of the Officers of State of the State of Indiana for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1904. The Webb was reported to be in good condition, not surprising since it must have been built after 1899 and was thus no more than four years old. I’ve searched construction journals for the period from 1899 to 1904, but haven’t yet found any notices for the theater project.
The news that the building would be converted into a YMCA was false. Only the front section of the building survives. The auditorium has been razed and a new structure erected in its place. The Lyric Theatre is gone.
I don’t seen any links in previous comments to this video about the restoration of Shea’s Buffalo, posted at YouTube in 2014. It’s worth a look, with lots of interesting details. I had no idea, for example, that the interior decoration was done by Tiffany Studios.
A book of Schuylkill County biographies published in 1916 says that Charles F. Kear had been the manager of the Opera House in Minersville since 1891. The Opera House was listed in the 1903-1904 Cahn guide as a second-floor house with 750 seats. Kear submitted capsule movie reviews that were published in several issues of The Moving Picture World in 1924, and listed the seating capacity of the Opera House as 450 at that time. Kear was also mentioned in the April 7, 1928 issue of Exhibitors Herald, when he was elected a vice-president of the regional exhibitor’s organization.
The July 16, 1937 issue of The Film Daily said that M. A. Lightman’s Malco Theatres had taken over Max Davitts' house at Winona, Mississippi, but this deal must have fallen through, as another notice appeared in Boxoffice of August 12, 1939, over two years later:
“Malco Adds Winona
“Memphis — M. A. Lightman, president of Malco Theatres, has added another theatre to his circuit. He advises that effective August 15 he is taking over the Winona Theatre at Winona, Miss. This theatre has been operated for the past 28 years by Max Davitts. Other houses operated by Lightman in Mississippi are located at West Point, Columbus and Tupelo”
The August 2, 1950 issue of Motion Picture Daily carried this notice about the Winona Theatre:
“New Orleans, Aug. 1. — Paramount Gulf Theatres has sold the Winona Theatre at Winona, Miss., to E. W. Clinton, exhibitor of Monticello, Miss. He also owns theatres in Georgetown and Summerall, Miss.”
The October 15, 1910 issue of The Moving Picture World had this item:
“Palestine. Tex. — Bell & Englebretch, of St.
Louis, have opened a new moving picture theater at 288 Oak street. It is known as the ‘Gem.’”
It’s possible that Palestine renumbered its lots at some point, accounting for the discrepancy in the address. It might also be that the building erected in 1908 did not become a theater until 1910, or perhaps Bell & Englebretch simply didn’t tell the magazine that they were taking over an existing theater when they sent in their notice to the editors.
By 1925 the Gem was being operated by Robb & Rowley Theatres, and that year it suffered a major fire, as noted in this item from the October 24 issue of Universal Weekly:
“H B. ROBB of the Robb and Rowley Enterprises announces that his firm is planning an extensive remodeling program for their theatres in Palestine, Texas. Besides remodeling and rebuilding the Gem, which was recently destroyed by fire, they contemplate spending $25,000 on the Best.”
The Hippodrome Theatre at Covington, Virginia, was listed as a subscriber to The American Motion Picture League in that outfit’s ad in The Moving Picture World of December 20, 1913.
The Scammon Theatre is listed in the 1909-1910 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 388 seats in the orchestra, 202 in the balcony, and a gallery seating 425. The stage was 34 feet from footlights to back wall and 53 feet between side walls, and the rigging loft was 48 feet above the stage floor. Quite a capacious theater for a town of 3000.
I am wondering if the Scammon Theatre could be this house mentioned in the September 10, 1921 issue of The Moving Picture World:
Scammon’s decline must have been fairly rapid. The January 14, 1928 issue of Movie Age carried this advertisement in its “Theaters for Sale” column:PG&E had power restored to most standing structures within just a few weeks of the fire. Other overhead utilities (telephone, cable) were also quickly restored. Water was a bit more of a problem as the system was already old and in need of constant repair, and many surviving pipes were contaminated by the fire. Most of the system serving structures that survived and new builds has now been restored, but some dead-end streets with no surviving structures or new builds remain to be repaired.
The town never had a sewer system, and was the largest community without one in the United States. A sewer system to serve primarily the main commercial corridors was in the preliminary planning stage at the time of the fire (and had been for years) and there are now plans to go through with that project if it can be financed. But rebuilding is proceeding very slowly, and as of April 6 this year only 81 houses had been rebuilt, though 883 additional permits had been issued. At the current pace it would probably take eight to ten years to replace the 8000 units lost in the fire, but I doubt that pace will continue. The burst was mostly the result of the fact that insurance companies will cover loss of use for only three years if you are rebuilding, and only two if you aren’t. A lot of the housing was not insured, and once everybody insured who intends to rebuild has done so the pace of rebuilding is bound to slow down.
The problem is that the town has lost its economic foundation, which was primarily pension and investment money. Over the decades a lot of retired people moved there because housing was cheap and the town was picturesque, and now both of those features are gone. It will be difficult to attract more retired people to replace those who are not returning, and with a smaller retired population there will be less economic activity to support working people. The hospital, for example, was the largest employer in the town, with over 1000 employees, but now that its patients are gone it is unneeded, and unlikely to fully reopen anytime soon. The school district was the next largest employer, but without the workers at the hospital and other businesses that lost their customers there are far fewer kids in town, and thus fewer teachers and other school personnel are needed.
To some extent the town was also a bedroom community for commuters from Chico and Oroville, but those commuters were attracted for the same reason the retirees had been— picturesqueness, relatively inexpensive housing, and a decent amount of goods and services available locally thanks to the spending of all those retired people, plus the economic multiplier effects of the employees of those goods and service suppliers themselves. So the place isn’t even as attractive as a bedroom community as it once was. The likely result of all this is that it will not be fully rebuilt anytime soon, unless somebody there can come up with a replacement for all that retirement income that was its economic foundation, and that too seems very unlikely. The owners of this theater would have been better off if the place had burned, assuming they were insured. They could have used their capital to build a theater somewhere else. Now they are probably stuck with a white elephant that might not be economically viable for a decade or more, and might never become viable again.
The November 30, 1912 issue of The Moving Picture News says that Mr. J. H. Hallberg had sold a Simplex moving picture machine to the Criterion Theatre, Rutherford, New Jersey. According to the book Rutherford: A Brief History, by William Neumann, the Criterion opened on January 27, 1912, and was destroyed by a fire in 1943.
Robert L. George and Mitchell T. Kinder’s book Cleveland says that the Princess Theatre opened on September 3, 1927. The Martin closed on October 14, 1972.
The November, 1922 issue of trade union journal American Federationist lists the Star Theatre as one of four Kokomo movie houses whose managers had signed agreements with musicians and projectionists. The Victory, Pictureland and Strand were also operating with union contracts, while workers at the Isis, Grand and Colonial were on strike.
The November, 1922 issue of the trade union journal American Federationist listed the Grand as one of three Kokomo houses at which projectionists and musicians were on strike. The others were the Isis and the Colonial. Managers had signed agreements with union members at the Victory, Pictureland, Star, and Strand.
Ned Booher’s Kokomo: A Pictorial History says that Pictureland was destroyed by fire in December, 1923. The building might have survived, but the theater apparently never reopened.
The 1912-1913 Kokomo city directory lists the “Lyric Theatre, W O Tarkington mngr, 103 E Sycamore.”
The 1912-1913 Kokomo city directory has a listing for the “Star Theatre, Etta M. Albaugh propr, 127 N. Buckeye.” The Star is not listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, so if it was operating in 1916 it might have closed for a while and then reopened.
The October 19, 1975 issue of the Kokomo Tribune has an article about the Alhambra Theatre. It was built in 1903 as an arena for roller polo, a game that became popular around the turn of the century. The Kokomo team played its first game in the new arena on December 2, 1903.
The venture was not a great financial success, and in 1907 the owners of the building converted it into a theater, adding a stage and dressing rooms and replacing the skating area with seating. This venture too had only a brief life, the building being converted into a furniture store for Sailor Brothers by 1910. On December 9, 1960 the building was razed by a fire, and the following year a Woolworth store was erected on the site.
A May 11, 2006 article in the Kokomo Tribune says that the Isis Theatre was built in 1913. It was exclusively a motion picture house, and one of three Kokomo theaters to have a pipe organ. It was the last downtown theater operating in Kokomo, closing in the 1980s. The building was demolished in 1989 after having been vacant for some time.
The house at 110 N. Main was listed as the Ideal Theatre in the 1912 city directory. It suffered a fire on April 28, 1915 (July, 1915 issue of Safety Engineering.) It was reopened and renamed the Cort Theatre (mentioned in the January 1, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World.) The building was demolished in 1917 according to an article in the May 11, 2006 issue of the Kokomo Tribune.
Yarnelle is indeed the spelling used in both the Gus Hill guide and the American Motion Picture Directory. I’ve found the name used in local publications during the years 1913, 1914 and 1915.
The renovated Eagles Theatre was slated to reopen in March, 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, events have been rescheduled, the target for opening now being July. The renovated Eagles Theatre has 560 seats. The basement now features a new 50-seat venue designed for movies, called the Ferguson Theatre.
This brief video from Weather.com includes a shot of part of the State Theatre’s stage house collapsing. I don’t know how long it will be available, as I’m not familiar with the site’s policy.
Judging from the automobiles and the skirt length of the woman pedestrian, I’d say this photo dates from the 1920s, and no earlier than 1922.
That should say June 4, not June 3.
Bad news from Marysville.The auditorium of the Avalon Theatre partly collapsed on June 3, 2020 during renovations. Fortunately the collapse took place overnight, and there were no reported injuries. Spokespersons say the renovation project will go ahead despite the loss.
The American Contractor of March 26, 1921, carried a notice about a project that was probably the Illinois Theatre:
The correct name of the architectural firm was Gill & Fath, who also designed the Rodgers Theatre at Carbondale and Marlow’s Theatre at Murphysboro. Rudolph Zerses Gill was a well-known architect in the region, and several of his buildings have been nominated to the NRHP. I’ve been unable to find any information about Mr. Fath.The Webb Theatre in Peru is listed in the Department of Inspection’s section of the Annual Reports of the Officers of State of the State of Indiana for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1904. The Webb was reported to be in good condition, not surprising since it must have been built after 1899 and was thus no more than four years old. I’ve searched construction journals for the period from 1899 to 1904, but haven’t yet found any notices for the theater project.
The news that the building would be converted into a YMCA was false. Only the front section of the building survives. The auditorium has been razed and a new structure erected in its place. The Lyric Theatre is gone.
I don’t seen any links in previous comments to this video about the restoration of Shea’s Buffalo, posted at YouTube in 2014. It’s worth a look, with lots of interesting details. I had no idea, for example, that the interior decoration was done by Tiffany Studios.
A book of Schuylkill County biographies published in 1916 says that Charles F. Kear had been the manager of the Opera House in Minersville since 1891. The Opera House was listed in the 1903-1904 Cahn guide as a second-floor house with 750 seats. Kear submitted capsule movie reviews that were published in several issues of The Moving Picture World in 1924, and listed the seating capacity of the Opera House as 450 at that time. Kear was also mentioned in the April 7, 1928 issue of Exhibitors Herald, when he was elected a vice-president of the regional exhibitor’s organization.
The July 16, 1937 issue of The Film Daily said that M. A. Lightman’s Malco Theatres had taken over Max Davitts' house at Winona, Mississippi, but this deal must have fallen through, as another notice appeared in Boxoffice of August 12, 1939, over two years later:
The August 2, 1950 issue of Motion Picture Daily carried this notice about the Winona Theatre:The October 15, 1910 issue of The Moving Picture World had this item:
It’s possible that Palestine renumbered its lots at some point, accounting for the discrepancy in the address. It might also be that the building erected in 1908 did not become a theater until 1910, or perhaps Bell & Englebretch simply didn’t tell the magazine that they were taking over an existing theater when they sent in their notice to the editors.By 1925 the Gem was being operated by Robb & Rowley Theatres, and that year it suffered a major fire, as noted in this item from the October 24 issue of Universal Weekly:
The Hippodrome Theatre at Covington, Virginia, was listed as a subscriber to The American Motion Picture League in that outfit’s ad in The Moving Picture World of December 20, 1913.