The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Strand; it’s Card # 501. Address is Hanover St. Condition is Good. The report says it’s over 15 years old and shows MGM movies. There were 762 orchestra seats and 503 balcony, total 1,265. Competing theaters were the State, Crown and Palace.
Was there an indoor movie theater in the Pine Island complex at one time? The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for a “Pine Island Theatre” in Manchester; it’s Card # 499. But no one filled out the form so there is no information, only an undated photo probably made about 1950 out on a highway.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Palace; it’s Card # 498. Address is Hanover St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it was over 15 years old, and showing MGM movies. There were 612 seats on the main floor and 394 in the balcony, total 1,006. On the marquee is posted “Every Friday – Saturday Big Stage and Screen Shows”.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the Crown; it’s Card # 496. Address is Hanover St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says that the theater was over 15 years old, was showing MGM movies, and had 800 seats. Competing theaters were the Strand and the Palace.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Lyric; it’s Card # 497. Address is Hanover St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says the theater is over 15 years old, shows MGM films and had 310 seats. Competing theaters were the Palace, Rex, Globe, Empire and Modern, but the MGM agent did not fill out reports for the Rex, Globe and Modern. The 1940 population was 77,600.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Empire in “East Manchester”; it’s Card # 484. But no one filled it out so there is no info on it, only an undated exterior photo which was probably taken about 1950.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Casino Theatre at Hampton Beach; it’s Card # 488. But there is no information on it at all except for an undated exterior photo which was probably made about 1950.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Hampton Theatre; it’s Card # 487. But there is no information on it at all aside from an undated exterior photo. I suspect that the photo may have been taken about 1949-50.
When this theater opened on Feb. 19, 1910 it was called the New Bijou because it was a replacement for the original Bijou which had opened on March 23, 1907, with 250 seats. I don’t know what street the first Bijou was located on, or what happened to it. The New Bijou (on Worthington St.) was purpose-built for movies only, although it had a stage. The exits from the front of the auditorium went past the sides of the stage and out the rear, emptying towards Phelps Avenue. The theater had about 1,000 seats on the main floor plus about 300 in the balcony and 6 boxes. There was a “fireproof” projection booth. This info is from an article published in the July 15, 1910 issue of a trade magazine called “The Nickleodeon” which a friend sent me. The article contains a floor plan, plus the 3 photos which someone has posted above. This trade paper is among the show business trade papers which are now available on line.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Franklin; it’s Card # 483. Address is “Main St.” There is an exterior photo dated March 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it opened about 1925, shows MGM movies, and has 399 seats. It has a college student patronage, and closes summers. The 1940 population was 1,500.
Thanks to robboehm and Joe Vogel for jogging my memory. Yes, the Ogunquit Square Theatre is a remake of the first Ogunquit Playhouse. In 2005 I wrote some theater profiles for the June 2006 convention in Boston of the Theatre Historical Society. One of the theaters profiled was the Ogunquit Playhouse. Here’s a summary of parts of what I wrote: “10 Main Street, 688 seats, Opened July 17, 1937. Walter and Maud Hartwig were summer visitors to Ogunquit from New York City where they were active in off-Broadway theatre. They believed that a high-quality playhouse would prosper in Ogunquit. They acquired a commercial garage on Ogunquit Square and converted it into a theater, opening on July 1, 1933. They had brought to Maine their Manhattan Theatre Colony troupe. ..it became a success…they built a new, larger playhouse south of downtown which opened on July 17, 1937. Their original theater became a cinema, the Ogunquit Square Theatre.” No wonder, then, that the MGM agent graded the Ogunquit Square as in “Poor / Fair” condition: it was probably not in very good condition when it opened. So, it was an old garage converted to a live summer theater and then into a movie theater. As Robboehm points out, the Ogunquit Playhouse has never served as a movie theater, as far as I know.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Capitol; it’s Card # 477A. Address is “Concord St.” There is an exterior photo taken April 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it opened about 1925 and shows MGM films. There are 974 orchestra seats and 443 balcony, total: 1,417. Competing theaters were the Concord and the Star.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Star; it’s Card # 479. Address is Pleasant St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it’s over 15 years old, shows MGM films, and has 694 orchestra seats and 305 balcony seats, total 999. Competing theaters are the Concord Th., and the Capitol. 1940 population was 27,100.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Concord Th., it’s Card # 478. But there is no info on it at all, other than an exterior photo which was probably taken around 1950.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Bristol Th., it’s Card # 473. Address is “Main St.” There is an exterior photo dated April 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it opened about 1930, that it shows MGM films and has 403 seats. 1940 population was 1,600.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Colonial; it’s Card # 472. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated May 16, 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it was opened 1925 which is incorrect, that it shows MGM films, and has 470 seats. There is a note that it’s a summer operation, with an 11-week season. The 1940 population was 1,000.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Park; it’s Card # 489. Address is Main Street in “Jaffey NH”. There is an exterior photo taken March 1941. Condition is Good. The report says the Park opened in 1929, shows MGM films, and has 439 main floor seats and 100 in the balcony. The 1940 population was 2,800.
The entrance in 1941 was in a one-story building. And it looks good, not “Poor”/ “Fair”. One of the seating capacities in the Cinemadata listing is 465. I suspect that this is correct, and the 500 seats on the MGM report is a matter of rounding-up.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the Plymouth; it’s Card # 506. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo taken April 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it opened about 1931, is showing MGM movies, and has 723 seats. The 1940 population is 2,500.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the Gem; it’s Card # 505. Address is School St. There is an exterior photo taken February 1941. Condition is Good. It says it was opened about 1920, shows MGM films, and has 593 orchestra seats and 100 balcony. The 1940 population was 2,500.
The theater was on Water Street in Ogunquit. But as of 1976 there was an Ogunquit Square Theatre showing movies in the summer located at 5 Shore Road. Was Water Street renamed Shore Road ?? If not, then the 1976 operation was a different building using the old name. That cinema apparently lasted into the 1990s.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Tremont; it’s Card # 476. Address is “Square” (I assume they meant Tremont Square ?) There is an exterior photo dated March 1941. Condition is Poor. The report says that it opened about 1925, was not showing MGM films, and had 450 seats.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Ogunquit Square Th.; it’s Card # 418. Address is Water St. There is an exterior photo dated March 30, 1941. Condition is Poor (but “Fair” is also written on the card). The report says it was opened in 1939, was not showing MGM films, and had 500 seats. In these reports most new theaters were said to be in Good, Excellent, or DeLuxe condition, so it’s unusual for them to describe a 2-year-old theater as Poor or Fair. The report also points out that it was a Summer operation. It later was part of the Levinson circuit of Boston.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Latchis, it’s Card # 475. Address is Pleasant St. There is an exterior photo dated March 1941. Condition is Good. The report says that the theater opened about 1925 and was showing MGM films. There were 790 orchestra seats and 360 in the balcony, total 1,150 seats. Competing theater is hard to read but looks like “Magnet”; however, instead of making out a Report card for the Magnet, the MGM agent made one out for the Tremont Theatre. The 1940 population was 12,100.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Majestic, it’s Card # 480. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo taken May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says that it opened in 1935, but someone crossed that out and wrote in “1930-31”. It was showing MGM films, and had 480 seats. The 1940 population was 3,600.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Strand; it’s Card # 501. Address is Hanover St. Condition is Good. The report says it’s over 15 years old and shows MGM movies. There were 762 orchestra seats and 503 balcony, total 1,265. Competing theaters were the State, Crown and Palace.
Was there an indoor movie theater in the Pine Island complex at one time? The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for a “Pine Island Theatre” in Manchester; it’s Card # 499. But no one filled out the form so there is no information, only an undated photo probably made about 1950 out on a highway.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Palace; it’s Card # 498. Address is Hanover St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it was over 15 years old, and showing MGM movies. There were 612 seats on the main floor and 394 in the balcony, total 1,006. On the marquee is posted “Every Friday – Saturday Big Stage and Screen Shows”.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the Crown; it’s Card # 496. Address is Hanover St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says that the theater was over 15 years old, was showing MGM movies, and had 800 seats. Competing theaters were the Strand and the Palace.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Lyric; it’s Card # 497. Address is Hanover St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says the theater is over 15 years old, shows MGM films and had 310 seats. Competing theaters were the Palace, Rex, Globe, Empire and Modern, but the MGM agent did not fill out reports for the Rex, Globe and Modern. The 1940 population was 77,600.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Empire in “East Manchester”; it’s Card # 484. But no one filled it out so there is no info on it, only an undated exterior photo which was probably taken about 1950.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Casino Theatre at Hampton Beach; it’s Card # 488. But there is no information on it at all except for an undated exterior photo which was probably made about 1950.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Hampton Theatre; it’s Card # 487. But there is no information on it at all aside from an undated exterior photo. I suspect that the photo may have been taken about 1949-50.
When this theater opened on Feb. 19, 1910 it was called the New Bijou because it was a replacement for the original Bijou which had opened on March 23, 1907, with 250 seats. I don’t know what street the first Bijou was located on, or what happened to it. The New Bijou (on Worthington St.) was purpose-built for movies only, although it had a stage. The exits from the front of the auditorium went past the sides of the stage and out the rear, emptying towards Phelps Avenue. The theater had about 1,000 seats on the main floor plus about 300 in the balcony and 6 boxes. There was a “fireproof” projection booth. This info is from an article published in the July 15, 1910 issue of a trade magazine called “The Nickleodeon” which a friend sent me. The article contains a floor plan, plus the 3 photos which someone has posted above. This trade paper is among the show business trade papers which are now available on line.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Franklin; it’s Card # 483. Address is “Main St.” There is an exterior photo dated March 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it opened about 1925, shows MGM movies, and has 399 seats. It has a college student patronage, and closes summers. The 1940 population was 1,500.
Thanks to robboehm and Joe Vogel for jogging my memory. Yes, the Ogunquit Square Theatre is a remake of the first Ogunquit Playhouse. In 2005 I wrote some theater profiles for the June 2006 convention in Boston of the Theatre Historical Society. One of the theaters profiled was the Ogunquit Playhouse. Here’s a summary of parts of what I wrote: “10 Main Street, 688 seats, Opened July 17, 1937. Walter and Maud Hartwig were summer visitors to Ogunquit from New York City where they were active in off-Broadway theatre. They believed that a high-quality playhouse would prosper in Ogunquit. They acquired a commercial garage on Ogunquit Square and converted it into a theater, opening on July 1, 1933. They had brought to Maine their Manhattan Theatre Colony troupe. ..it became a success…they built a new, larger playhouse south of downtown which opened on July 17, 1937. Their original theater became a cinema, the Ogunquit Square Theatre.” No wonder, then, that the MGM agent graded the Ogunquit Square as in “Poor / Fair” condition: it was probably not in very good condition when it opened. So, it was an old garage converted to a live summer theater and then into a movie theater. As Robboehm points out, the Ogunquit Playhouse has never served as a movie theater, as far as I know.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Capitol; it’s Card # 477A. Address is “Concord St.” There is an exterior photo taken April 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it opened about 1925 and shows MGM films. There are 974 orchestra seats and 443 balcony, total: 1,417. Competing theaters were the Concord and the Star.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Star; it’s Card # 479. Address is Pleasant St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it’s over 15 years old, shows MGM films, and has 694 orchestra seats and 305 balcony seats, total 999. Competing theaters are the Concord Th., and the Capitol. 1940 population was 27,100.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Concord Th., it’s Card # 478. But there is no info on it at all, other than an exterior photo which was probably taken around 1950.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Bristol Th., it’s Card # 473. Address is “Main St.” There is an exterior photo dated April 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it opened about 1930, that it shows MGM films and has 403 seats. 1940 population was 1,600.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Colonial; it’s Card # 472. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo dated May 16, 1941. Condition is Fair. The report says it was opened 1925 which is incorrect, that it shows MGM films, and has 470 seats. There is a note that it’s a summer operation, with an 11-week season. The 1940 population was 1,000.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Park; it’s Card # 489. Address is Main Street in “Jaffey NH”. There is an exterior photo taken March 1941. Condition is Good. The report says the Park opened in 1929, shows MGM films, and has 439 main floor seats and 100 in the balcony. The 1940 population was 2,800.
The entrance in 1941 was in a one-story building. And it looks good, not “Poor”/ “Fair”. One of the seating capacities in the Cinemadata listing is 465. I suspect that this is correct, and the 500 seats on the MGM report is a matter of rounding-up.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the Plymouth; it’s Card # 506. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo taken April 1941. Condition is Good. The report says it opened about 1931, is showing MGM movies, and has 723 seats. The 1940 population is 2,500.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the Gem; it’s Card # 505. Address is School St. There is an exterior photo taken February 1941. Condition is Good. It says it was opened about 1920, shows MGM films, and has 593 orchestra seats and 100 balcony. The 1940 population was 2,500.
The theater was on Water Street in Ogunquit. But as of 1976 there was an Ogunquit Square Theatre showing movies in the summer located at 5 Shore Road. Was Water Street renamed Shore Road ?? If not, then the 1976 operation was a different building using the old name. That cinema apparently lasted into the 1990s.
The Theatre Historical Society on-line archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Tremont; it’s Card # 476. Address is “Square” (I assume they meant Tremont Square ?) There is an exterior photo dated March 1941. Condition is Poor. The report says that it opened about 1925, was not showing MGM films, and had 450 seats.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Ogunquit Square Th.; it’s Card # 418. Address is Water St. There is an exterior photo dated March 30, 1941. Condition is Poor (but “Fair” is also written on the card). The report says it was opened in 1939, was not showing MGM films, and had 500 seats. In these reports most new theaters were said to be in Good, Excellent, or DeLuxe condition, so it’s unusual for them to describe a 2-year-old theater as Poor or Fair. The report also points out that it was a Summer operation. It later was part of the Levinson circuit of Boston.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Latchis, it’s Card # 475. Address is Pleasant St. There is an exterior photo dated March 1941. Condition is Good. The report says that the theater opened about 1925 and was showing MGM films. There were 790 orchestra seats and 360 in the balcony, total 1,150 seats. Competing theater is hard to read but looks like “Magnet”; however, instead of making out a Report card for the Magnet, the MGM agent made one out for the Tremont Theatre. The 1940 population was 12,100.
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Majestic, it’s Card # 480. Address is Main St. There is an exterior photo taken May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says that it opened in 1935, but someone crossed that out and wrote in “1930-31”. It was showing MGM films, and had 480 seats. The 1940 population was 3,600.