Movies were first presented at Clarksville in the Opera House, but I’ve been unable to determine it this was an aka for the Owens Theatre. Here is an item from the April, 1911 issue of em>Motography: “The opera house at Clarksville has been giving a moving picture program three nights in the week, which have been well patronized.”
The opening of this house was noted in the April, 1911 issue of Motogrpahy: “The Ozark Opera House, Ozark, has just been completed at a cost of $10,000 and opened to the public. The house will be used by operas and moving picture entertainments.”
This is the item about the imminent opening of the Star Theatre in the April, 1911 issue of Motography: “The Star is the name of a high-class moving picture and vaudeville theater to be opened at Carrollton, by G. N. Kelly and S. Waterson. No effort or expense have been spared to make their venture a success and one that will merit the approval of the public.”
The April, 1911 issue of Motography mentioned the Lyric Theatre: “Eddie McDade, proprietor of the Lyric theater, Cape Girardeau, will erect an airdome in that place which will be known as the Hippodrome. The program will consist of moving pictures and vaudeville. The airdome will be graded into a natural amphitheater and it is hoped to have it ready for opening the latter part of April.”
The Lyric was gone by August, 1915, as it does not appear on the Sanborn Map published that month. It might have closed not long before, as the space had it occupied is shown as vacant.
I’ve checked the 1908, 1909 and 1910 Gould directories for St. Louis, and this theater doesn’t appear in any of them. The only amusement company listed on Gravois Avenue in any of them is a Brune Henry J listed at 4532 Gravois in 1910. Either Gould’s got very careless or this house had such a brief life (less than a year, which is certainly not unthinkable) that it never made the listings, despite appearing on the 1909 Sanborn map. The prospects of ever discovering its name are thus quite poor.
A history of Nevada published in 1918 has a bit of information about the Opera House, the first location of the Majestic Theatre: “The Opera House block was built during the summer of 1907 on the corner of First and Fremont streets. Many remember that the freshly laid walls of this building, being unsupported by sufficient bracing, were partly thrown down by a severe windstorm which came up unexpectedly one night. However the damage was repaired and the building was long the principal structure of the town, the large hall being used for all public meetings and entertainments as well as by various lodges and for a time by the Majestic moving picture theatre. The building was finally purchased by M. C. Thomas and used exclusively by the Thomas Department store until it was destroyed by fire in May, 1912.”
I haven’t been able to discover if this item in the March 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon was about the house that became the Liberty or a different house: “COALINGA, CAL. The Star, a new moving picture theater, has been opened in this city by Frank O'Connell of Los Angeles.”
The March 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon ran a brief announcement about this theater: “ONTARIO, CAL.-George McKibben is making arrangements to erect a new moving picture theater at the corner of Euclid avenue and Transit street.”
The 1909 edition of Gould’s St. Louis City Directory lists the Alcazar Theatre. Gould’s directories ran through April of the following year, so editions must have been published by the first of May each year. The Alcazar must have have been open prior to May, 1909, to have been listed in that year’s directory. The house was not listed in the 1908 directory. I didn’t see a date on the Sanborn map page, though they sometimes have them.
The March 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon had this item: “LITTLE ROCK, ARK. -The Crystal theater will be remodeled and converted into one of the finest motion picture houses in the southwest.”
The Jo Jo Theatre was also mentioned, along with two other Little Rock houses, in the July 18, 1908 issue of Moving Picture World: “The Majestic, the Crystal and the Jo Jo use new pictures every week.”
This place is terribly obscure. The earliest FDY I’ve found Hagerman in is 1940, when the Crystal was listed as closed. I haven’t even found the theater mentioned on any Hagerman-related Facebook pages. It’s as though even the locals have forgotten it ever existed.
Although it spent much of the 20th century as a burlesque house, the Grand Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, indicating that it had begun its cinematic career by then.
This house must have lost the name Gayety by 1909, as that year’s Gould St. Louis directory lists a Gayety Theatre at 1403 Locust. No theaters are listed on 14th Street that year, so unless Gould’s simply missed it, this house must have gone dark for a while.
The Criterion Theatre was listed in Gould’s 1909 St. Louis City Directory, at 2644 Franklin Avenue, former name of this part of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
In 1926, the Criterion was involved in an odd experiment, reported in the January 23 issue of Moving Picture World: “Local exhibitors are watching with interest the results of an experiment by the Criterion Theatre, St. Louis. Under a schedule effective January 16, this house will be open nineteen hours daily, closing only from 11 p. m. to 12 p. m. and from 5 a. m. to 9 a. m. for cleaning. This theatre specializes on westerns and comedies, and is in the financial district.” I don’t know where the magazine got the idea that this neighborhood was the financial district, an area that in most cities is utterly deserted by night, when the banks and brokerage houses are closed.
A Compton Nickelodeon was listed at 3204 Easton Avenue in Gould’s 1909 St. Louis city directory. In the 1914-1915 AMPD it was listed as The Compton, Compton and Easton Aves. The AMPD listed the Knickerbocker Theatre, Park and Compton Aves. the original Compton must have closed by 1934 when the Knickerbocker/Park was renamed Compton.
Gould’s 1909 St. Louis Directory lists the Bijou Amusement Company at 606 Washington Avenue and at 716 Olive. Only the 606 Washington address remained in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
The 1914-1915 AMPD lists two addresses for the Ashland Theatre, at 3540 Newstead Avenue, and another at 3227 Ashland Street, which might have been around the corner.
Gould’s 1909 St. Louis Directory lists under the heading “Amusement Companies” 3560 Olive Street as the location of The Olive (Olive The, since it’s alphabetical by last name) with no indication of what sort of amusement it might provide, though if the same year’s Sanborn map says it was movies, it was probably movies. Most of the outfits listed under the category by Gould’s are not designated as theaters, but are often just names, such as “Propotnick Otto” at 1526 S. Broadway, and “Schmitt Christ” at 4500 S. Compton Av. Puzzling.
The Grand Avenue Hotel was built in 1885. In 1909, part of it was slated to be demolished to make way for the new Princess Theatre (listed at CT as Loews Mid-City Theatre.) The Princess, originally a vaudeville house, opened in 1910, but I don’t think the part of the hotel building along Olive Street had been razed for it, or at least not all of it was razed. Early photos of the Princess show part of the old hotel building still standing next door at the Olive street corner.
This house was in operation by November, 1907. That month’s issue of Up-to-the-Times magazine had an article on moving pictures which included this paragraph: “The moving picture theatres are known by many names. For instance, St. Louis has a ‘Theatorium,’ a ‘Scenic Theatre,’ a ‘Nickelodeon,’ a ‘World’s Dream,’ an ‘Orpheum,’ a ‘Historiograph,’ and numerous ‘Trips’ to everywhere, from ‘under the sea’ to Mars.”
An itinerant movie exhibition outfit called The Historiograph Company was founded in Montreal in 1897, and the founder, Marie de Kerstrat, exhibited movies in St. Louis, possibly at the World’s Fair, in 1904, and by 1907 was operating permanent movie theatres in New York. The biographical sketch of de Kerstrat" I found doesn’t say anything about her operating a theater in St. Louis, but it would be interesting if there were a connection.
I suspect that this storefront operation might not have been an actual movie theater, despite the appellation on the Sanborn map. The Mutoscope was a coin operated, hand-cranked machine allowing a single viewer to watch what was essentially a giant flip book. In other words, a rival to Edison’s Kinetoscope machines.
It might have been that there was a room at the back screening movies with a projector, but it would have been incredibly small, perhaps like the 7-person SRO room at Thomas Talley’s Vitascope Parlor on Spring Street in Los Angeles in 1896. But it seems unlikely such a back-room operation would have survived as late as 1909, by which time plenty of full-sized nickelodeons were operating.
Montgomery City got a second airdome in 1909, built by James Ferguson, presumably of Ferguson’s Opera House which closed that year. Construction on the new airdome, which was located on Railroad Street, began in June, 1909. In September, Ferguson announced plans to cover the place with a tarpaulin, to extend its season. I haven’t found out how long this operation lasted, but I don’t recall seeing it on the 1917 Sanborn.
That’s interesting about the Ritz location. I wonder if that could have been the Ferguson Opera House? It went back at least as far as 1893, and the last mention of it I’ve found is from January, 1909. Guides give the Ferguson a larger capacity than the house on Spurgeon Street– 600 or 550 to the other’s 450. The 1894 Donaldson guide lists it as Ferguson’s New Opera house. And the 1909 map does show that broad stairway going up from the Allen Street side, so the theater must have been only recently abandoned at that time.
The Opera House on Sturgeon Street must have been extensively altered, or might have been a replacement for an earlier house, as the earliest guides available, Henry Miner’s 1884 and 1887 editions, list it with 800 seats, way more than the 450 it has later.
Movies were first presented at Clarksville in the Opera House, but I’ve been unable to determine it this was an aka for the Owens Theatre. Here is an item from the April, 1911 issue of em>Motography: “The opera house at Clarksville has been giving a moving picture program three nights in the week, which have been well patronized.”
The opening of this house was noted in the April, 1911 issue of Motogrpahy: “The Ozark Opera House, Ozark, has just been completed at a cost of $10,000 and opened to the public. The house will be used by operas and moving picture entertainments.”
This house opened in 1911, when the April issue of Motogrpahy said “[t]he New Star, a high-grade moving picture house, has been opened at Milan.”
This is the item about the imminent opening of the Star Theatre in the April, 1911 issue of Motography: “The Star is the name of a high-class moving picture and vaudeville theater to be opened at Carrollton, by G. N. Kelly and S. Waterson. No effort or expense have been spared to make their venture a success and one that will merit the approval of the public.”
The April, 1911 issue of Motography mentioned the Lyric Theatre: “Eddie McDade, proprietor of the Lyric theater, Cape Girardeau, will erect an airdome in that place which will be known as the Hippodrome. The program will consist of moving pictures and vaudeville. The airdome will be graded into a natural amphitheater and it is hoped to have it ready for opening the latter part of April.”
The Lyric was gone by August, 1915, as it does not appear on the Sanborn Map published that month. It might have closed not long before, as the space had it occupied is shown as vacant.
I’ve checked the 1908, 1909 and 1910 Gould directories for St. Louis, and this theater doesn’t appear in any of them. The only amusement company listed on Gravois Avenue in any of them is a Brune Henry J listed at 4532 Gravois in 1910. Either Gould’s got very careless or this house had such a brief life (less than a year, which is certainly not unthinkable) that it never made the listings, despite appearing on the 1909 Sanborn map. The prospects of ever discovering its name are thus quite poor.
A history of Nevada published in 1918 has a bit of information about the Opera House, the first location of the Majestic Theatre: “The Opera House block was built during the summer of 1907 on the corner of First and Fremont streets. Many remember that the freshly laid walls of this building, being unsupported by sufficient bracing, were partly thrown down by a severe windstorm which came up unexpectedly one night. However the damage was repaired and the building was long the principal structure of the town, the large hall being used for all public meetings and entertainments as well as by various lodges and for a time by the Majestic moving picture theatre. The building was finally purchased by M. C. Thomas and used exclusively by the Thomas Department store until it was destroyed by fire in May, 1912.”
I haven’t been able to discover if this item in the March 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon was about the house that became the Liberty or a different house: “COALINGA, CAL. The Star, a new moving picture theater, has been opened in this city by Frank O'Connell of Los Angeles.”
The March 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon ran a brief announcement about this theater: “ONTARIO, CAL.-George McKibben is making arrangements to erect a new moving picture theater at the corner of Euclid avenue and Transit street.”
The 1909 edition of Gould’s St. Louis City Directory lists the Alcazar Theatre. Gould’s directories ran through April of the following year, so editions must have been published by the first of May each year. The Alcazar must have have been open prior to May, 1909, to have been listed in that year’s directory. The house was not listed in the 1908 directory. I didn’t see a date on the Sanborn map page, though they sometimes have them.
The March 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon had this item: “LITTLE ROCK, ARK. -The Crystal theater will be remodeled and converted into one of the finest motion picture houses in the southwest.”
The Jo Jo Theatre was also mentioned, along with two other Little Rock houses, in the July 18, 1908 issue of Moving Picture World: “The Majestic, the Crystal and the Jo Jo use new pictures every week.”
This place is terribly obscure. The earliest FDY I’ve found Hagerman in is 1940, when the Crystal was listed as closed. I haven’t even found the theater mentioned on any Hagerman-related Facebook pages. It’s as though even the locals have forgotten it ever existed.
This might have been a precursor to the Olive Theatre at 4023 Olive Street, opened in 1911, and listed at CT as the Congress Theatre.
Although it spent much of the 20th century as a burlesque house, the Grand Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, indicating that it had begun its cinematic career by then.
This house must have lost the name Gayety by 1909, as that year’s Gould St. Louis directory lists a Gayety Theatre at 1403 Locust. No theaters are listed on 14th Street that year, so unless Gould’s simply missed it, this house must have gone dark for a while.
The Criterion Theatre was listed in Gould’s 1909 St. Louis City Directory, at 2644 Franklin Avenue, former name of this part of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
In 1926, the Criterion was involved in an odd experiment, reported in the January 23 issue of Moving Picture World: “Local exhibitors are watching with interest the results of an experiment by the Criterion Theatre, St. Louis. Under a schedule effective January 16, this house will be open nineteen hours daily, closing only from 11 p. m. to 12 p. m. and from 5 a. m. to 9 a. m. for cleaning. This theatre specializes on westerns and comedies, and is in the financial district.” I don’t know where the magazine got the idea that this neighborhood was the financial district, an area that in most cities is utterly deserted by night, when the banks and brokerage houses are closed.
A Compton Nickelodeon was listed at 3204 Easton Avenue in Gould’s 1909 St. Louis city directory. In the 1914-1915 AMPD it was listed as The Compton, Compton and Easton Aves. The AMPD listed the Knickerbocker Theatre, Park and Compton Aves. the original Compton must have closed by 1934 when the Knickerbocker/Park was renamed Compton.
Gould’s 1909 St. Louis Directory lists the Bijou Amusement Company at 606 Washington Avenue and at 716 Olive. Only the 606 Washington address remained in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
The 1914-1915 AMPD lists two addresses for the Ashland Theatre, at 3540 Newstead Avenue, and another at 3227 Ashland Street, which might have been around the corner.
Gould’s 1909 St. Louis Directory lists under the heading “Amusement Companies” 3560 Olive Street as the location of The Olive (Olive The, since it’s alphabetical by last name) with no indication of what sort of amusement it might provide, though if the same year’s Sanborn map says it was movies, it was probably movies. Most of the outfits listed under the category by Gould’s are not designated as theaters, but are often just names, such as “Propotnick Otto” at 1526 S. Broadway, and “Schmitt Christ” at 4500 S. Compton Av. Puzzling.
The Grand Avenue Hotel was built in 1885. In 1909, part of it was slated to be demolished to make way for the new Princess Theatre (listed at CT as Loews Mid-City Theatre.) The Princess, originally a vaudeville house, opened in 1910, but I don’t think the part of the hotel building along Olive Street had been razed for it, or at least not all of it was razed. Early photos of the Princess show part of the old hotel building still standing next door at the Olive street corner.
This house was in operation by November, 1907. That month’s issue of Up-to-the-Times magazine had an article on moving pictures which included this paragraph: “The moving picture theatres are known by many names. For instance, St. Louis has a ‘Theatorium,’ a ‘Scenic Theatre,’ a ‘Nickelodeon,’ a ‘World’s Dream,’ an ‘Orpheum,’ a ‘Historiograph,’ and numerous ‘Trips’ to everywhere, from ‘under the sea’ to Mars.”
An itinerant movie exhibition outfit called The Historiograph Company was founded in Montreal in 1897, and the founder, Marie de Kerstrat, exhibited movies in St. Louis, possibly at the World’s Fair, in 1904, and by 1907 was operating permanent movie theatres in New York. The biographical sketch of de Kerstrat" I found doesn’t say anything about her operating a theater in St. Louis, but it would be interesting if there were a connection.
I suspect that this storefront operation might not have been an actual movie theater, despite the appellation on the Sanborn map. The Mutoscope was a coin operated, hand-cranked machine allowing a single viewer to watch what was essentially a giant flip book. In other words, a rival to Edison’s Kinetoscope machines.
It might have been that there was a room at the back screening movies with a projector, but it would have been incredibly small, perhaps like the 7-person SRO room at Thomas Talley’s Vitascope Parlor on Spring Street in Los Angeles in 1896. But it seems unlikely such a back-room operation would have survived as late as 1909, by which time plenty of full-sized nickelodeons were operating.
Montgomery City got a second airdome in 1909, built by James Ferguson, presumably of Ferguson’s Opera House which closed that year. Construction on the new airdome, which was located on Railroad Street, began in June, 1909. In September, Ferguson announced plans to cover the place with a tarpaulin, to extend its season. I haven’t found out how long this operation lasted, but I don’t recall seeing it on the 1917 Sanborn.
That’s interesting about the Ritz location. I wonder if that could have been the Ferguson Opera House? It went back at least as far as 1893, and the last mention of it I’ve found is from January, 1909. Guides give the Ferguson a larger capacity than the house on Spurgeon Street– 600 or 550 to the other’s 450. The 1894 Donaldson guide lists it as Ferguson’s New Opera house. And the 1909 map does show that broad stairway going up from the Allen Street side, so the theater must have been only recently abandoned at that time.
The Opera House on Sturgeon Street must have been extensively altered, or might have been a replacement for an earlier house, as the earliest guides available, Henry Miner’s 1884 and 1887 editions, list it with 800 seats, way more than the 450 it has later.