A quick FYI about the Esquire theatre. The theatre in Sacramento was twinned sometime in the 80s. After a few years it was gutted and the building converted to offices. The facade and marque were kept intact. In early 2000 the the theatre auditorium was demolished and replaced with an Imax auditorium. The builders retained the original facade along with the original Esquire sign. The Imax auditorium is huge and almost overwhelms the original facade and sign. Sacramento has restored the Crest Theatre which is a few blocks down from the Esquire.
Several shots of the exterior of the Conway Theatre can been seen in the film “September 30th, 1955” The exterior is used as the backdrop over the closing titles in the film. Pity it’s gone now, but since the motto for Arkansas is “four tooth minimum” it doesn’t surprise me.
An interior shot of the auditorium can be found here while the article remains on the internet. It will take a lot of work to bring this theatre back from the looks of it. View link
Click on photo to enlarge it.
Here is a postcard that includes the marquee for The Hunter theatre. The bank in the background is The Nevada Bank. I think it might be a valid assumption that this is the Hunter theatre in Elko.
This article from June 15th 2009 doesn’t bode well for the theatre. It may well be lost or significantly altered. The owner has not cooperated in efforts to save and restore the theatre.
Here is an ad for The Guild Theatre and Centre Theatres on Market Street from 1945. At the time the Theatres were called The Studio and The Roundup and showed western films exclusively.
Save a portion of the auditorium? This is like saving a portion of the Mona Lisa. San Francisco is proving once again that it places no value on the history of this once unique city. The so called preservation law is laughable. In essence it states a building’s facade may be considered historical but the interior has no value. At this rate San Francisco will look more like Los Angeles than Los Angeles before long. At the very least this is a shameful decision by a group of merchants on pissy Union Street who value nothing more than the almighty dollar. Shame on them as well as the nutless board of supervisors who let commerce slash through and destroy what few remnants of the past remain.
Here is a brief excerpt of an article on the history of Corsicana Theaters published by The Navarro County Historical Society in 1971
By 1912, Max Levine was ready to build a new theater. His Cozy Theater only had a seating capacity of 200, and when it was completed his Ideal Theater seated 500. On April 6, 1912, he purchased the property on which to build the new plant for $3,140, and the Ideal Theater opened its doors at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, 1913.
The theater boasted an orchestration as big as any church organ in town, and it also had a player piano equivalent to a ten-piece orchestra. John Remonte rigged an electric clock to operate a synchronized arrow outside the theater to indicate the point to which the program had progressed. Louis Levy was also one of the theater’s projectionists.
In July 1917, Levine hired architect M. T. Horn and J. E. Metcalf, contractor, to remodel the theater and add a roof garden at a cost of something over $29,000.
It was at this point, the beginning of a new era, that Lancaster chose to end his story. The Ideal Theater, now under condemnation, was the scene in his boyhood of many happy hours watching the adventures of Johnny Mack Brown and Randolph Scott.
The city of Baltimore is once again hoping to renovate the Parkway Theatre as a performance venue to help revitalize the downtown section north of Pennsylvania Station. In combination with two other buildings in the immediate area the total cost of the project is estimated at $1 billion dollars.
The city is discouraging proposals that rely on public funding.
The below article about the project appeared in The Baltimore sun Website on May 7 2009
The Times restrooms were to the left and right of the screen at the back of the theatre. Each was accessed by a four or five step stairway. I loved the times for the diversity and price but it was always so bizarre to exit the bathroom and face everyone in the auditorium staring at you as you came down the stairs. I really hated it when the times closed. The Times and the Powell were the best bargains in town for reruns and older films.
A little trivia for film fans, Andy Devine was born in Kingman. The hotel where he grew up is still there, including the staircase where he fell and drove a stick into his throat that caused that raspy sort of voice he has.
The restored Fox Oakland reopens 2/5/2009. It has been leased by Bill Graham productions for a year and will serve as a venue for live productions only. No plans for any use involved with films.
I occasionally went to this theatre in the early 1960s. It was pretty much a rat hole back then. The downtown area was mainly a bunch of closed stores and the area was really run down. It cost 50 cents to see a second run movie.
I saw a “special presentation” of “Thrillarama” in 1956 at the Tyler Theatre in Tyler Texas. It was a poor man’s version of Cinerama with a specially installed portable curved widescreen. It utilized the existing two 35 mm cameras instead of the three required to be installed for Cinerama. There was a visible join line down the middle of the presentation where the projection of both cameras running at once met.
After a scant few presentations the film disappeared. It most likely would have never played in Tyler except one of the sequences was a performance of the “Apache Belles”, an all girl sports support precision group that performed at sports functions representing Tyler, Tx. More info can be found about Thrillarama at the below webwsite
Several interior Views of the Liberty Theater posted on My Space. The proscenium looks intact but the rest of the theater appears to be a mess as far as structure. Could not connect the pictures with a date. There are two pages worth. Click on each picture to enlarge.
A quick FYI about the Esquire theatre. The theatre in Sacramento was twinned sometime in the 80s. After a few years it was gutted and the building converted to offices. The facade and marque were kept intact. In early 2000 the the theatre auditorium was demolished and replaced with an Imax auditorium. The builders retained the original facade along with the original Esquire sign. The Imax auditorium is huge and almost overwhelms the original facade and sign. Sacramento has restored the Crest Theatre which is a few blocks down from the Esquire.
Several shots of the exterior of the Conway Theatre can been seen in the film “September 30th, 1955” The exterior is used as the backdrop over the closing titles in the film. Pity it’s gone now, but since the motto for Arkansas is “four tooth minimum” it doesn’t surprise me.
This was destroyed by fire today. It was apparently a complete loss
View link
An interior shot of the auditorium can be found here while the article remains on the internet. It will take a lot of work to bring this theatre back from the looks of it.
View link
Click on photo to enlarge it.
A color photo of The Ocean Theatre’s marquee in 1971
View link
Here is a postcard that includes the marquee for The Hunter theatre. The bank in the background is The Nevada Bank. I think it might be a valid assumption that this is the Hunter theatre in Elko.
View link
This article from June 15th 2009 doesn’t bode well for the theatre. It may well be lost or significantly altered. The owner has not cooperated in efforts to save and restore the theatre.
View link
A photo of the World Premiere of Red River in Denison in 1948
View link
Here is an ad for The Guild Theatre and Centre Theatres on Market Street from 1945. At the time the Theatres were called The Studio and The Roundup and showed western films exclusively.
View link
Save a portion of the auditorium? This is like saving a portion of the Mona Lisa. San Francisco is proving once again that it places no value on the history of this once unique city. The so called preservation law is laughable. In essence it states a building’s facade may be considered historical but the interior has no value. At this rate San Francisco will look more like Los Angeles than Los Angeles before long. At the very least this is a shameful decision by a group of merchants on pissy Union Street who value nothing more than the almighty dollar. Shame on them as well as the nutless board of supervisors who let commerce slash through and destroy what few remnants of the past remain.
A photo of the theatre can be seen here:
View link
A photo of the current interior can be seen here:
http://www.westsidetheatre.org/inside.html
Here is a brief excerpt of an article on the history of Corsicana Theaters published by The Navarro County Historical Society in 1971
By 1912, Max Levine was ready to build a new theater. His Cozy Theater only had a seating capacity of 200, and when it was completed his Ideal Theater seated 500. On April 6, 1912, he purchased the property on which to build the new plant for $3,140, and the Ideal Theater opened its doors at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, 1913.
The theater boasted an orchestration as big as any church organ in town, and it also had a player piano equivalent to a ten-piece orchestra. John Remonte rigged an electric clock to operate a synchronized arrow outside the theater to indicate the point to which the program had progressed. Louis Levy was also one of the theater’s projectionists.
In July 1917, Levine hired architect M. T. Horn and J. E. Metcalf, contractor, to remodel the theater and add a roof garden at a cost of something over $29,000.
It was at this point, the beginning of a new era, that Lancaster chose to end his story. The Ideal Theater, now under condemnation, was the scene in his boyhood of many happy hours watching the adventures of Johnny Mack Brown and Randolph Scott.
A link to the complete article is at
View link
The city of Baltimore is once again hoping to renovate the Parkway Theatre as a performance venue to help revitalize the downtown section north of Pennsylvania Station. In combination with two other buildings in the immediate area the total cost of the project is estimated at $1 billion dollars.
The city is discouraging proposals that rely on public funding.
The below article about the project appeared in The Baltimore sun Website on May 7 2009
View link
The Times restrooms were to the left and right of the screen at the back of the theatre. Each was accessed by a four or five step stairway. I loved the times for the diversity and price but it was always so bizarre to exit the bathroom and face everyone in the auditorium staring at you as you came down the stairs. I really hated it when the times closed. The Times and the Powell were the best bargains in town for reruns and older films.
The following photo lists this theatre as the showcase. It may have been the State.
View link
Hey Jakeboy, thanks for the correction. Guess I’m having flashbacks to the 70s when I thought head bands and tie dyed tea shirts were cool!!!!!
philbert
A little trivia for film fans, Andy Devine was born in Kingman. The hotel where he grew up is still there, including the staircase where he fell and drove a stick into his throat that caused that raspy sort of voice he has.
The restored Fox Oakland reopens 2/5/2009. It has been leased by Bill Graham productions for a year and will serve as a venue for live productions only. No plans for any use involved with films.
I occasionally went to this theatre in the early 1960s. It was pretty much a rat hole back then. The downtown area was mainly a bunch of closed stores and the area was really run down. It cost 50 cents to see a second run movie.
I saw a “special presentation” of “Thrillarama” in 1956 at the Tyler Theatre in Tyler Texas. It was a poor man’s version of Cinerama with a specially installed portable curved widescreen. It utilized the existing two 35 mm cameras instead of the three required to be installed for Cinerama. There was a visible join line down the middle of the presentation where the projection of both cameras running at once met.
After a scant few presentations the film disappeared. It most likely would have never played in Tyler except one of the sequences was a performance of the “Apache Belles”, an all girl sports support precision group that performed at sports functions representing Tyler, Tx. More info can be found about Thrillarama at the below webwsite
View link
Here are some Cinerama related photos at The Orpheum in Cinerama
Cinerama sign being delivered to Orpheum View link
Auditorium of Orpheum being readied for Cinerama curved screen View link
Cinerama screen being installed in auditorium of Orpheum View link
Cinerama marquee at Orpheum during showing of (one strip) It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World View link
All photos from San Francisco Public Library on line photograph collection
The Woodstock Theatre can be seen in the 1993 film “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray. The theatre name was changed to The Alpine for the film.
The photos in the above comment section were taken inside the Liberty Theater in 2004.
Several interior Views of the Liberty Theater posted on My Space. The proscenium looks intact but the rest of the theater appears to be a mess as far as structure. Could not connect the pictures with a date. There are two pages worth. Click on each picture to enlarge.
View link