Princess Theatre
118 S. Main Street,
Greeneville,
TN
37743
118 S. Main Street,
Greeneville,
TN
37743
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Joe, Booth Enterprises did open a Booth Theatre in Knoxville in September 1928. Link They evidently had trouble competing with Publix because there was a notice in the Sept. 12, 1929 addition of Motion Picture News that the equipment was sold in bankruptcy court for $6000.
Chances are that there was no house called the Booth Theatre in Greeneville, or in Sweetwater. A company called Booth Enterprises operated theaters in Greeneville and other eastern Tennessee towns in the 1920s, and I suspect that Reproduco was using the company’s name, not the names of individual theaters, on its paperwork for the transactions. I’ve come across the names of several theaters operated by Booth Enterprises and none of them were called the Booth Theatre.
In 1926, Booth Enterprises were operating the Princess and Liberty Theatres in Greenville. In 1927 they demolished the Liberty and built the Palace Theatre on its site. They were planning to build a new theater on Main Street, after which the Princess, also on Main Street, would be redecorated, but I don’t know if the new Main Street house was ever built. The Princess was still operating in 1936 when it was taken over by Tony Sudekum’s Crescent Amusement Co., but it was being operated by Parrott & Hendron Amusement Co. by then, and I don’t know if Booth Enterprises existed any more in 1936.
The Reproduco might have been sent to the new Palace Theatre, or it might have been sent to the Princess, or, if Booth’s new theater on Main Street did eventually get built it might have been sent there. There is also the possibility that the Princess was remodeled and renamed the Capitol after Crescent took it over. The Film Daily Yearbooks might offer some clue.