A page about Bushnell on the Sumpter County web site says: “Bushnell had it’s own opera house. It was located on the corner of Main Street and McCollum Avenue. Local plays and occasional road shows were performed there. With the coming of motion pictures, patrons gathered to watch the early movie stars such as Charlie Chaplain and Mary Pickford.”
The Gem went back to at least as early as 1911, when a storefront labeled “Moving Pictures” appeared at 22 W. Court Square on the Sanborn fire insurance map. At that time, the theater occupied only half the width it would later occupy. At some point, it was expanded to the building’s central stairway. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists three movie houses at Newnan, those being the Halcyon, the Palace, and the Lyric. Only the Palace is listed with an address, and that address was 22 Court Square.
So we have an early name for this theater, the Palace, and the later name from the 1930s, the Gem, but what was it in between? Ads in The Newnan Herald in late 1916 tout the December 9 opening of the Alamo Theatre. Local sources claim that the current Alamo, at 19 West Court Square, opened there in 1928 in a building converted from retail space.
But there is an ad for the Hamrick & Couch grocery store which ran in The Newnan Herald of September 24, 1920. The ad gives the store’s location as 21 Court Square, “Next Door to Alamo Theatre.” 21 Court Square is not next door to today’s Alamo Theatre, at 19 Court Square. It is next door to the site of the Gem Theatre, at 22 Court Square. A July 2, 1920 ad for The Book Store soda fountain also tags itself as next door to the Alamo, and the Book Store’s address is 23 Court Square, which would be the other side of the theater from the grocery store. Those two ads confirm that the Alamo Theatre was at 22 West Court Square in 1920, which means it was almost certainly at that address from 1916 to 1928.
Palace Theatre and Alamo Theatre are both aka’s for the Gem.
I’ve come across an ad for the Hamrick & Couch grocery store which ran in The Newnan Herald of September 24, 1920. The ad gives the store’s location as 21 Court Square, “Next Door to Alamo Theatre.” The interesting thing is that 21 Court Square is not next door to today’s Alamo Theatre, at 19 Court Square, but next door to the site of the Gem Theatre, at 22 Court Square.
As local sources claim that the building at 19 Court Square was converted from retail purposes to a theater (the Alamo) in 1928, and movies were being shown at 22 W. Court by 1911 but it didn’t become the Gem until 1934, it seems possible that the Alamo was originally in the building at 22 W. Court, operating from 1916 until 1928, when the building at 19 W. Court was converted for its use.
A 1928 Sanborn map shows this building at what is now 215 W. Tom T. Hall Blvd. occupied by a Baptist church. The only movie theater on that map is on Railroad Street.
The July 10, 1915 Motion Picture News said that a new brick building, 100x35 feet, was being built for the Lyric Theatre at Olive Hill, Kentucky, replacing the old Lyric. It was expected to be ready by July 20. The earlier Lyric had suffered a fire on April 22, according to the July, 1915 issue of Safety Engineering.The May 29 issue of Motography reported the loss at $7,000.
The October 18, 1913 Moving Picture World had listed an unnamed house at Olive Hill to be “[a]mong the new houses started recently in Kentucky….” That was likely the original Lyric.
The Lyric is mentioned in the trade journals in 1916, but I don’t find any mentions of Olive Hill after that until 1923, when a house called the Dixie Theatre is mentioned. That was the theater on Railroad Street. The Lyric is mentioned in the local paper at least as late as 1919, but from 1923 on Dixie is the only theater name I find associated with Olive Hill.
Ramsey had both a Roxy Theatre and a New Roxy Theatre, the latter built after the war. Here’s an announcement from the October 23, 1946 Film Daily: “Proffers' New Roxy Open
“Ramsey, Ill.—The New Roxy Theatre, seating 300, has been opened by Mr. and Mrs. Woodrow Proffer.”
The April 20, 1946 Showmen’s Trade Review had said that Woodrow Proffer of the Roxy Theatre, Ramsey would build a new house as soon as material became available, and that it would be called the new Roxy.
The Independent Film Journal of February 5, 1955 reported that a wide screen and new projection and sound equipment had been installed in Woody Proffer’s 280-seat Roxy Theatre at Ramsey.
One problem is we don’t know what month the AMPD was published. It might have been fairly late in 1914, as it was copyrighted in 1915, or at least that’s what the copy at the Library of Congress which was scanned for the Internet Archive says on its title page.
The earliest reference to a Palace Theatre at Pana I’ve found in the trade journals is a mention of “Charles J. Law, New Palace Theater, Pana, Illinois….” in the July 2, 1916 issue of Motography. A Palace Theatre is listed at Pana in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though it is listed at 223 E. 2nd Street. Pana might have changed its numbering system after this date, but this could also have been an earlier Palace, coincidentally about one block away. The reason I suspect a second Palace is because Charles J. Law is also mentioned in the October 24, 1914 issue of Motion Picture News:
“Pana, Ill., Oct. 14. Charles J. Law, a prominent Illinois exhibitor, who owns a theatre in Nokomis, and one in Pana, has just built another in Pana. The new house in Pana is the third of Mr. Law’s.”
Odds are good that this was the beginning of the Palace, but an opening that late in 1914 means that it might have been too late to have been included in the <em<>AMPD. The fact that Mr. Law’s theater is being called the New Palace in 1916 also suggests that the Palace listed in 1914 might have been an earlier house.
An item in the October 31, 1914 issue of Motion Picture News indicates that the Palace had a smaller rival house opened at about the same time, or shortly after:
“Simon Calvin, manager of the New Joy Theatre, Pana, Ill., has just opened for business. The new house is modern and up to date, and seats three hundred people. Mr. Calvin expects to show only the best pictures.”
I found the Joy Theatre at Pana, owned by a C. J. and G. A. Sharrock, mentioned in the May 6, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World, but I’ve been unable to discover anything else about it. It, too, might have opened to late in 1914 to be listed in the AMPD. It also occurs to me that the Joy might have been the original Palace reopened with anew name.
The obituary of an Arnold D. Dickerson, in the October 17, 1947 issue of Film Daily said that he began his career as an exhibitor as the proprietor of the White Palace Theatre in Pana in 1907.
Here is an item from the February 11, 1922 Moving Picture World:
“PANA, ILL. — Tanner Amusement Company, 115 South Locust street, has been organized with $20,000 capital by Louis W. Lohr, Walter A. Amling, Lena Tanner.”
The Eagle Theatre itself I’ve found mentioned by name as early as the July 9, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald.
The appendix to a City of Miami Beach historic site designation report for the Hotel Mayflower has a list of other projects designed by the Mayflower’s architect, Martin Luther Hampton, and one of them is the Community Theatre. The book Lost Miami Beach, by Carolyn Klepser, also attributes the design to Hampton (Google Books preview.)
The appendix to a City of Miami Beach historic site designation report for the Hotel Mayflower has a list of other projects designed by the Mayflower’s architect, Martin Luther Hampton, and one of them is the Sheridan Theatre.
The August 30, 1923 issue of Manufacturers Record said that the Delray Theater Company would build a moving picture theater, 40x90 feet, at Delray. The fireproof, hollow clay tile building with concrete floors, metal ceilings and terra cotta trim was designed by Miami architect Martin L. Hampton. At least one other theater, the Sheridan in Miami Beach, is attributed to Martin Luther Hampton.
I believe we have the wrong opening year for the Sunset Theatre. It was 1923, not 1922. The November 23, 1923 issue of Moving Picture World said that the Sunset was one of the houses to which W. C. Burgert, of the Tampa Photo & Art Supply Company, of Tampa, Florida, had sold complete equipment, including projectors and Heywood-Wakefield chairs, over the previous two months. An announcement that the as yet unnamed house was under construction and expected to open in December had appeared in the November 3, 1923 issue of the same journal. The auditorium of the new house boasted a stage 33x22 feet, with dressing rooms and some scenery provided.
The Palace was one of four indoor theaters in Gatesville in 1947, according to this item from the April 4 issue of Film Daily: “Skeltons Add Two More. Gatesville, Tex.—Charles C. Powell has sold the Palace and Texas to Joe, Max and H. B. Skelton, owners of the town’s other two houses, the Ritz and Regal.”
This item is from the July 21, 1931 issue of Motion Picture Times:
“L. B. Brown of Gatesville, Tex. is advertising his Regal and Ritz theatres for sale. Brown has a mighty pretty proposition. He has been in Gatesville over ten years and wants to make a change. His holdings in the Rio Grande Valley have his eye. ‘You’ve got to advertise if you want to get attention,’ he says, and he backs up the statement with a display advertisement in this issue.”
An earlier mention of the Regal appears in the December 1, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World:
“Chris Ressing, of of the Regal, Gatesville, will move into his new house about Dec. 1. The new place will be very unique and is being planned with a view of giving Gatesville one of the most modern picture play houses in Texas.”
If the 1910 Sanborn is dated later than April then one of the unidentified theaters on it is probably the Colonial, a house whose recent opening was noted in the April 1, 1910 edition of The Nickelodeon. The Colonial might have been short-lived, as the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only two houses at Charleston, the Aereo on S. 6th Street and the Orpheum at 54 7th Street.
It’s certainly a possibility that the West End was the Cozy reopened, but buy the time the name West End shows up the Cozy had been closed for quite some time. This house (which was probably the Yale) at the west end of that little square opposite the courthouse, was still in operation into the early 1920s.
The likelihood that the 300-seat West End and the 300-seat West End Lyric were the same house adds another wrinkle. Shelbyville is in the St. Louis region, and local exhibitors would have been familiar with the West End Lyric Theatre in that city, one of the leading silent era movie houses there from 1914 on. The Shelbyville West End Lyric might well have been named for the one in St. Louis, and not for its position relative to Shelbyville’s other businesses. The original owners might even have been people formerly associated with the St. Louis house.
As for the Yale, I can now confirm that it was in operation under that name at least into 1923, as the January 23 issue of Film Daily noted that the Yale in Shelbyville was owned by the Illmo Amusement Company, who also owned the Yale in Macon, Missouri, and had recently taken over the Main Theatre at Anna, Illinois, and renamed it the Yale to match their other houses.
In 1924 this house was probably called the Yale Theatre, and it’s likely that it its name was changed by 1926. The June 7 and June 28, 1924 issues of Moving Picture World both mention a house in Shelbyville called the Yale Theatre, recently taken over by P. B. Russell, but the only theaters listed in the town in the 1926 FDY are the 390-seat Playhouse (later to become Boarman’s Roxy) and a 300-seat house called the West End. The same two are still listed in the 1929 Year Book. By 1931 the Playhouse is listed with 424 seats, and the rival house is listed as the West End Lyric, still silent. In 1932 it is the same, though the West End Lyric is listed as both silent and closed. The same listings repeat in 1933, but as the building housed a garage that year it seems likely that the West End Lyric last operated in 1931 as a silent house.
The origin of the Yale is a bit more of a puzzle. A Shelbyville house was operating under that name by January 1918 when, according to a book called Shelby County in the World War, its stage was used for public speeches sponsored by a patriotic organization. The book refers to the Yale as “…the sole public playhouse in Shelbyville….”
The 1914-1914 American Motion Picture Directory lists only two movie houses at Shelbyville, one being the Cozy, which we have identified, and the other being a house called the Rex, which I suppose might have been an indoor replacement for the Rex Airdome. It’s possible that the Yale was the indoor Rex renamed, but I’ve found no other references to either theater.
That /is/ confusing, and it doesn’t help that a Google search on the names generates exactly the same area map for both towns. FDY contributes to the confusion in 1947, listing the Windsor and the 275-seat Dutchess at Windsor and the 210-seat Duchess at New Windsor. That the Duchess was actually in New Windsor is confirmed by an item about the opening of the house in Film Daily of July 17, 1946, and a mention of a closing in Variety in July, 1952. The 1934 FDY listing of the Family was also New Windsor. Windsor itself wasn’t included in FDY that year.
Windsor (or New Windsor, as it is sometimes styled) is absent from the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but that is most likely an oversight. For what it’s worth, the only theater listed at Windsor in the 1926 FDY was called the Grand, for which no seating capacity was given. However, the April 26, 1924 issue of Exhibitors Herald featured a capsule movie review from George Roberts of the Cozy Theatre, New Windsor.
The Cozy must have been the unnamed theater that was being auctioned off for Mr. Roberts that year, as noted in this ad from the classified section of the September 18 issue ofExhibitors Herald:
“OPERA HOUSE AND MOVING PICTURE THEATRE at Auction at New Windsor, Ill. Building 110x28 ft. on Main street, A-l location. Complete equipment. Simplex machines. 250 chair capacity. 700 population in rich farming community. Best in Middle West. Auction held at premises Friday, September 17th, at one p. m. Possession January 1st, 1927, or immediately if purchaser assumes film contracts. 10% cash. Balance on possession. For particulars write or wire Geo. W. Roberts, Owner, or E. Boultinghouse & Son, Auctioneers, Aledo, Illinois.”
It’s probably too late to write or wire Messrs. Roberts or Boultinghouse about the details, but the dimensions of the building do just about match those of the theater on the Sanborn map– though probably a large percentage of the storefronts of that period did. It seems likely enough though that whoever bought the Cozy renamed it the Grand.
In the 1929 FDY the theater at Windsor was a 300-seeat house, again called the Cozy. In 1934 it was listed as a silent house called the Family, and was closed. In 1935 it was open again and called the Windsor. It was still operating as the Windsor in 1940, 1945, and 1946. Throughout this period it is listed with 300 seats. In the 1947 FDY the Windsor is joined by a 275-seat house called the Dutchess [sic], but the town being a small as it was I suspect the Windsor had merely been renovated and renamed and the Year Book just didn’t keep their records up-to-date. There is no way this tiny town could have supported two theaters in the 1940s, or probably any time in its history.
In any case, if the Cozy was the house that had been at 1218 Main in 1913 and 1922, then that was probably where Windsor’s movie houses were into the 1940s, at least.
The Temple Theatre was advertised in the Cass City Chronicle in the issue of December 10, 1954. The Strand already had CinemaScope equipment at that time, and the Cass Theatre had just installed it, but the Temple did not. The Temple was clearly the “B” house by then.
A house called the Illinois Theatre is listed (alone) at Newman in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. It listed neither address nor seating capacity, so I don’t know that it was this house.
A booklet published for the Centennial of Newman in 1957 (scan at Internet Archive) says that a new Opera House was built there in 1904, following the destruction of the old one by fire. This theater could have been that 1904 opera house.
A movie house called the Illinois Theatre was listed at Newman in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The centennial booklet makes references to a Mr. E. C. Root having bought a moving picture machine and shown movies in town in 1910, though it doesn’t say where, and there is another reference from the same year saying “Tom’s up-to-date theatre was showing the latest silent movies for 5 and 10 cents admission.” The booklet doesn’t say who “Tom” was, and makes no other references to his theater, but as the line is immediately followed by one talking about a stage show at the Opera House I get the impression that they were different theaters.
A Grand Theatre (airdome not mentioned) is one of three movie houses listed at Oakland in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The November 18, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World also mentions the Grand: “Oakland, Ill.—H. R. Barricklaw, a former exhibitor here, has purchased the Grand Theater.”
It’s possible that there was also an indoor Grand Theatre, as a house of that name with 250 seats is the only theater listed at Oakland in the 1926 through 1929 FDYs. Oakland vanishes from the year book from 1930 through 1933, with the exception of 1932 when the Grand is listed again, but as a silent house which is closed. The 150-seat Oakland Theatre appears in the 1934 edition. If there was an indoor Grand it’s possible that it was downsized and re-opened as the Oakland sometime in 1933.
A page about Bushnell on the Sumpter County web site says: “Bushnell had it’s own opera house. It was located on the corner of Main Street and McCollum Avenue. Local plays and occasional road shows were performed there. With the coming of motion pictures, patrons gathered to watch the early movie stars such as Charlie Chaplain and Mary Pickford.”
The Gem went back to at least as early as 1911, when a storefront labeled “Moving Pictures” appeared at 22 W. Court Square on the Sanborn fire insurance map. At that time, the theater occupied only half the width it would later occupy. At some point, it was expanded to the building’s central stairway. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists three movie houses at Newnan, those being the Halcyon, the Palace, and the Lyric. Only the Palace is listed with an address, and that address was 22 Court Square.
So we have an early name for this theater, the Palace, and the later name from the 1930s, the Gem, but what was it in between? Ads in The Newnan Herald in late 1916 tout the December 9 opening of the Alamo Theatre. Local sources claim that the current Alamo, at 19 West Court Square, opened there in 1928 in a building converted from retail space.
But there is an ad for the Hamrick & Couch grocery store which ran in The Newnan Herald of September 24, 1920. The ad gives the store’s location as 21 Court Square, “Next Door to Alamo Theatre.” 21 Court Square is not next door to today’s Alamo Theatre, at 19 Court Square. It is next door to the site of the Gem Theatre, at 22 Court Square. A July 2, 1920 ad for The Book Store soda fountain also tags itself as next door to the Alamo, and the Book Store’s address is 23 Court Square, which would be the other side of the theater from the grocery store. Those two ads confirm that the Alamo Theatre was at 22 West Court Square in 1920, which means it was almost certainly at that address from 1916 to 1928.
Palace Theatre and Alamo Theatre are both aka’s for the Gem.
I’ve come across an ad for the Hamrick & Couch grocery store which ran in The Newnan Herald of September 24, 1920. The ad gives the store’s location as 21 Court Square, “Next Door to Alamo Theatre.” The interesting thing is that 21 Court Square is not next door to today’s Alamo Theatre, at 19 Court Square, but next door to the site of the Gem Theatre, at 22 Court Square.
As local sources claim that the building at 19 Court Square was converted from retail purposes to a theater (the Alamo) in 1928, and movies were being shown at 22 W. Court by 1911 but it didn’t become the Gem until 1934, it seems possible that the Alamo was originally in the building at 22 W. Court, operating from 1916 until 1928, when the building at 19 W. Court was converted for its use.
A 1928 Sanborn map shows this building at what is now 215 W. Tom T. Hall Blvd. occupied by a Baptist church. The only movie theater on that map is on Railroad Street.
The July 10, 1915 Motion Picture News said that a new brick building, 100x35 feet, was being built for the Lyric Theatre at Olive Hill, Kentucky, replacing the old Lyric. It was expected to be ready by July 20. The earlier Lyric had suffered a fire on April 22, according to the July, 1915 issue of Safety Engineering.The May 29 issue of Motography reported the loss at $7,000.
The October 18, 1913 Moving Picture World had listed an unnamed house at Olive Hill to be “[a]mong the new houses started recently in Kentucky….” That was likely the original Lyric.
The Lyric is mentioned in the trade journals in 1916, but I don’t find any mentions of Olive Hill after that until 1923, when a house called the Dixie Theatre is mentioned. That was the theater on Railroad Street. The Lyric is mentioned in the local paper at least as late as 1919, but from 1923 on Dixie is the only theater name I find associated with Olive Hill.
Ramsey had both a Roxy Theatre and a New Roxy Theatre, the latter built after the war. Here’s an announcement from the October 23, 1946 Film Daily: “Proffers' New Roxy Open
“Ramsey, Ill.—The New Roxy Theatre, seating 300, has been opened by Mr. and Mrs. Woodrow Proffer.”
The April 20, 1946 Showmen’s Trade Review had said that Woodrow Proffer of the Roxy Theatre, Ramsey would build a new house as soon as material became available, and that it would be called the new Roxy.
The Independent Film Journal of February 5, 1955 reported that a wide screen and new projection and sound equipment had been installed in Woody Proffer’s 280-seat Roxy Theatre at Ramsey.
One problem is we don’t know what month the AMPD was published. It might have been fairly late in 1914, as it was copyrighted in 1915, or at least that’s what the copy at the Library of Congress which was scanned for the Internet Archive says on its title page.
The earliest reference to a Palace Theatre at Pana I’ve found in the trade journals is a mention of “Charles J. Law, New Palace Theater, Pana, Illinois….” in the July 2, 1916 issue of Motography. A Palace Theatre is listed at Pana in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though it is listed at 223 E. 2nd Street. Pana might have changed its numbering system after this date, but this could also have been an earlier Palace, coincidentally about one block away. The reason I suspect a second Palace is because Charles J. Law is also mentioned in the October 24, 1914 issue of Motion Picture News:
Odds are good that this was the beginning of the Palace, but an opening that late in 1914 means that it might have been too late to have been included in the <em<>AMPD. The fact that Mr. Law’s theater is being called the New Palace in 1916 also suggests that the Palace listed in 1914 might have been an earlier house.An item in the October 31, 1914 issue of Motion Picture News indicates that the Palace had a smaller rival house opened at about the same time, or shortly after:
I found the Joy Theatre at Pana, owned by a C. J. and G. A. Sharrock, mentioned in the May 6, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World, but I’ve been unable to discover anything else about it. It, too, might have opened to late in 1914 to be listed in the AMPD. It also occurs to me that the Joy might have been the original Palace reopened with anew name.The obituary of an Arnold D. Dickerson, in the October 17, 1947 issue of Film Daily said that he began his career as an exhibitor as the proprietor of the White Palace Theatre in Pana in 1907.
Here is an item from the February 11, 1922 Moving Picture World:
The Eagle Theatre itself I’ve found mentioned by name as early as the July 9, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald.The appendix to a City of Miami Beach historic site designation report for the Hotel Mayflower has a list of other projects designed by the Mayflower’s architect, Martin Luther Hampton, and one of them is the Community Theatre. The book Lost Miami Beach, by Carolyn Klepser, also attributes the design to Hampton (Google Books preview.)
The appendix to a City of Miami Beach historic site designation report for the Hotel Mayflower has a list of other projects designed by the Mayflower’s architect, Martin Luther Hampton, and one of them is the Sheridan Theatre.
The August 30, 1923 issue of Manufacturers Record said that the Delray Theater Company would build a moving picture theater, 40x90 feet, at Delray. The fireproof, hollow clay tile building with concrete floors, metal ceilings and terra cotta trim was designed by Miami architect Martin L. Hampton. At least one other theater, the Sheridan in Miami Beach, is attributed to Martin Luther Hampton.
I believe we have the wrong opening year for the Sunset Theatre. It was 1923, not 1922. The November 23, 1923 issue of Moving Picture World said that the Sunset was one of the houses to which W. C. Burgert, of the Tampa Photo & Art Supply Company, of Tampa, Florida, had sold complete equipment, including projectors and Heywood-Wakefield chairs, over the previous two months. An announcement that the as yet unnamed house was under construction and expected to open in December had appeared in the November 3, 1923 issue of the same journal. The auditorium of the new house boasted a stage 33x22 feet, with dressing rooms and some scenery provided.
The Palace was one of four indoor theaters in Gatesville in 1947, according to this item from the April 4 issue of Film Daily: “Skeltons Add Two More. Gatesville, Tex.—Charles C. Powell has sold the Palace and Texas to Joe, Max and H. B. Skelton, owners of the town’s other two houses, the Ritz and Regal.”
This item is from the July 21, 1931 issue ofMotion Picture Times:An earlier mention of the Regal appears in the December 1, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World:
If the 1910 Sanborn is dated later than April then one of the unidentified theaters on it is probably the Colonial, a house whose recent opening was noted in the April 1, 1910 edition of The Nickelodeon. The Colonial might have been short-lived, as the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only two houses at Charleston, the Aereo on S. 6th Street and the Orpheum at 54 7th Street.
It’s certainly a possibility that the West End was the Cozy reopened, but buy the time the name West End shows up the Cozy had been closed for quite some time. This house (which was probably the Yale) at the west end of that little square opposite the courthouse, was still in operation into the early 1920s.
The likelihood that the 300-seat West End and the 300-seat West End Lyric were the same house adds another wrinkle. Shelbyville is in the St. Louis region, and local exhibitors would have been familiar with the West End Lyric Theatre in that city, one of the leading silent era movie houses there from 1914 on. The Shelbyville West End Lyric might well have been named for the one in St. Louis, and not for its position relative to Shelbyville’s other businesses. The original owners might even have been people formerly associated with the St. Louis house.
As for the Yale, I can now confirm that it was in operation under that name at least into 1923, as the January 23 issue of Film Daily noted that the Yale in Shelbyville was owned by the Illmo Amusement Company, who also owned the Yale in Macon, Missouri, and had recently taken over the Main Theatre at Anna, Illinois, and renamed it the Yale to match their other houses.
In 1924 this house was probably called the Yale Theatre, and it’s likely that it its name was changed by 1926. The June 7 and June 28, 1924 issues of Moving Picture World both mention a house in Shelbyville called the Yale Theatre, recently taken over by P. B. Russell, but the only theaters listed in the town in the 1926 FDY are the 390-seat Playhouse (later to become Boarman’s Roxy) and a 300-seat house called the West End. The same two are still listed in the 1929 Year Book. By 1931 the Playhouse is listed with 424 seats, and the rival house is listed as the West End Lyric, still silent. In 1932 it is the same, though the West End Lyric is listed as both silent and closed. The same listings repeat in 1933, but as the building housed a garage that year it seems likely that the West End Lyric last operated in 1931 as a silent house.
The origin of the Yale is a bit more of a puzzle. A Shelbyville house was operating under that name by January 1918 when, according to a book called Shelby County in the World War, its stage was used for public speeches sponsored by a patriotic organization. The book refers to the Yale as “…the sole public playhouse in Shelbyville….”
The 1914-1914 American Motion Picture Directory lists only two movie houses at Shelbyville, one being the Cozy, which we have identified, and the other being a house called the Rex, which I suppose might have been an indoor replacement for the Rex Airdome. It’s possible that the Yale was the indoor Rex renamed, but I’ve found no other references to either theater.
That /is/ confusing, and it doesn’t help that a Google search on the names generates exactly the same area map for both towns. FDY contributes to the confusion in 1947, listing the Windsor and the 275-seat Dutchess at Windsor and the 210-seat Duchess at New Windsor. That the Duchess was actually in New Windsor is confirmed by an item about the opening of the house in Film Daily of July 17, 1946, and a mention of a closing in Variety in July, 1952. The 1934 FDY listing of the Family was also New Windsor. Windsor itself wasn’t included in FDY that year.
Windsor (or New Windsor, as it is sometimes styled) is absent from the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but that is most likely an oversight. For what it’s worth, the only theater listed at Windsor in the 1926 FDY was called the Grand, for which no seating capacity was given. However, the April 26, 1924 issue of Exhibitors Herald featured a capsule movie review from George Roberts of the Cozy Theatre, New Windsor.
The Cozy must have been the unnamed theater that was being auctioned off for Mr. Roberts that year, as noted in this ad from the classified section of the September 18 issue ofExhibitors Herald:
It’s probably too late to write or wire Messrs. Roberts or Boultinghouse about the details, but the dimensions of the building do just about match those of the theater on the Sanborn map– though probably a large percentage of the storefronts of that period did. It seems likely enough though that whoever bought the Cozy renamed it the Grand.In the 1929 FDY the theater at Windsor was a 300-seeat house, again called the Cozy. In 1934 it was listed as a silent house called the Family, and was closed. In 1935 it was open again and called the Windsor. It was still operating as the Windsor in 1940, 1945, and 1946. Throughout this period it is listed with 300 seats. In the 1947 FDY the Windsor is joined by a 275-seat house called the Dutchess [sic], but the town being a small as it was I suspect the Windsor had merely been renovated and renamed and the Year Book just didn’t keep their records up-to-date. There is no way this tiny town could have supported two theaters in the 1940s, or probably any time in its history.
In any case, if the Cozy was the house that had been at 1218 Main in 1913 and 1922, then that was probably where Windsor’s movie houses were into the 1940s, at least.
The Temple Theatre was advertised in the Cass City Chronicle in the issue of December 10, 1954. The Strand already had CinemaScope equipment at that time, and the Cass Theatre had just installed it, but the Temple did not. The Temple was clearly the “B” house by then.
The Cass Theatre showed its first CinemaScope movie, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” on December 12, 1954.
A house called the Illinois Theatre is listed (alone) at Newman in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. It listed neither address nor seating capacity, so I don’t know that it was this house.
A booklet published for the Centennial of Newman in 1957 (scan at Internet Archive) says that a new Opera House was built there in 1904, following the destruction of the old one by fire. This theater could have been that 1904 opera house.
A movie house called the Illinois Theatre was listed at Newman in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The centennial booklet makes references to a Mr. E. C. Root having bought a moving picture machine and shown movies in town in 1910, though it doesn’t say where, and there is another reference from the same year saying “Tom’s up-to-date theatre was showing the latest silent movies for 5 and 10 cents admission.” The booklet doesn’t say who “Tom” was, and makes no other references to his theater, but as the line is immediately followed by one talking about a stage show at the Opera House I get the impression that they were different theaters.
A Grand Theatre (airdome not mentioned) is one of three movie houses listed at Oakland in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The November 18, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World also mentions the Grand: “Oakland, Ill.—H. R. Barricklaw, a former exhibitor here, has purchased the Grand Theater.”
It’s possible that there was also an indoor Grand Theatre, as a house of that name with 250 seats is the only theater listed at Oakland in the 1926 through 1929 FDYs. Oakland vanishes from the year book from 1930 through 1933, with the exception of 1932 when the Grand is listed again, but as a silent house which is closed. The 150-seat Oakland Theatre appears in the 1934 edition. If there was an indoor Grand it’s possible that it was downsized and re-opened as the Oakland sometime in 1933.