The town of Ozark, Missouri, also had several silent era venues including the Gem, the Club Theatre and the Radio Theatre. Also, the New Theatre opened namelessly on April 5, 1929 with the John Ford film, “Four Sons.” The theatre replaced the Cliffhaven Theatre, Cliff Woody’s venue that had suffered a fire ending its operation on January 7, 1929. A naming contest offering ten free tickets for the best name for the New. The winner was not “Ozark” but “Safety-Nook” then Safetynook. The name appears to have been conjured up because the projection booth at the new theatre was completely fireproof.
This entry, however, definitely opened as the Civic Theatre for Paul Bloomer and Lloyd Lee who transformed an existing retail building into a theatre for $4,500. It opened on October 9, 1936. The venue closed in 1937. But P.M. Soutee took on the venue relaunching on September 11, 1937 as the Ozark Theatre with Tyrone Power in “Love is News.” At that time, the venue was using portable projection equipment. But Harve Nokes showed more love to the venue, expanding it to 450 seats and going with a permanent and fireproof projection booth. The “new” Ozark Theatre relaunched on May 31, 1938.
The Lancaster Center Mall launched theatre-less on November 28, 1968. By 1971, an expansion to the slightly renamed Lancaster Mall brought twenty new retailers to the thriving shopping center. One of those was the 740-seat, the Lancaster Mall Theatre at 3790 D. Street N.E. The new “Lancaster Mall” has a Grand Opening on August 26, 1971 but the theater was delayed. Since the Lancaster Mall Theatre was the first new-build indoor theatre in more than thirty years in Salem, it was likely worth the wait.
The theatre launched as a single screen theatre on November 24, 1971 with Walter Matthau in “Kotch” and “How I Love Thee” with Maureen O'Hara and Jackie Gleason. The theatre announced that a second screen would be added to the operation in 1972 and would soon be known as the South Screen. That plan was put on hold.
General American Theatres Circuit then constructed a three-screen addition to its facility -two “mini-theaters” with 250 seats each and a 450-seat auditorium - relaunching as the Lancaster Mall Quad Cinema. The facility had reached its 1,690 seat total. It relaunched on January 17, 1975 with “Airport 1975,” and double-features in cinemas 2-4 with “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Alice’s Restaurant”; “The Dove” and “Walkabout”; and “Freebie and the Bean” and “Bullitt.”
The venue passed from Salem Theatres to Luxury Cinemas to Regal. The venue’s name was slightly shortened to the Lancaster Quad Cinemas. When Regal launched its Lancaster Mall Stadium 11 opening on October 27, 2006, it closed the Lancaster Quad on October 22, 2006.
The Rex appears to have launched with vaudeville on April 6, 1914. Movies took over as the primary programming. The Rex discontinued films in December of 1935. The final event was live - a local amateur show on May 14, 1936. A news note in March of 1937 said the former Rex Theatre was being remodeled for different retail purposes.
The State Theatre closed at the end of a 20-year lease on April 24, 1953. Its seats were removed in 1956. Vandals broke in and did damage in 1957 to the interior and turned on the exterior marquee lights. Surprisingly, after four years, the marquee lit up. An exploitation double feature of “Cocaine” and “Secrets of a Model” was the final booking.
Silver Cinemas was the final operator here playing sub-run, discount films from 2001 until closing it on February 9, 2017 after an impressive run. That took Silver Cinemas down to just three locations: Madison (closing in 2022), Phoenix (closing in 2020), and Denton, TX. Silver would disband with its final open location in Denton officially becoming part of its Landmark Theatre circuit.
The final operator here, Carmike Cinemas, closed the Village 5 on August 17, 1997 tlo create the 10-screen theater that it launched on July 10, 1998 in the same spot.
he Jefferson Theatre shuttered following a four-wall exploitation film about syphilis in the classic, “Damaged Goods” with Pedro de Cordoba on February 12, 1938. Its address was 116 Easton Street. Status - demolished
At the far left and right are the owners of the Sanford Shopping Plaza, Donald Jacques and Samuel Schwartz. Second on the left is Lloyd Woodman, franchisee and operator of the new Sanford Jerry Lewis Cinema and in the third spot is Roger P. Wedge of Network Cinemas that operated the failed Jerry Lewis Cinema Circuit.
The final show for the State Theatre took place Easter Sunday, April 1, 1956 and during a showing of “Ransom!” the theatre suffered a major fire and was closed permanently. Hoses were challenging to get to the burning theater but quick thinking by the fire department taking the hoses to the roof of the neighboring W.T. Grant store save not only the neighboring Grant and bank building, but the theater, itself.
The 260-seat Casino Theater was an early nickelodeon in the East Liberty area of Pittsburgh. It was sold in May of 1912 and refreshed retaining its Casino nameplate though now self-designated as “the coolest theater in the East End.”. It relaunched after a change of management and a refresh as the Busy Theater beginning on April 27, 1913. The Busy apparently did not live up to its moniker and was converted to a restaurant in 1914.
John and Thomas Windle launched Windle’s Variety Theater in 1907 at 1715-1719 Beaver Avenue in a converted livery. The theater was located in the Manchester neighborhood of Pittsburgh and featured live local talent and movies. The building had two small storefronts one of which was a long-standing barber shop. The other was a music store. John died while working at his Variety Theater on January 28, 1914. J. Walter Lowenhaupt and H.E. Grieder took on the venue on a sublease or lease renaming it as the Comique from 1915 to 1917 with a lean toward live entertainment. They dissolved the Comique Theater at the end of 1917 apparently in debt.
Mary Windle took on the venue enlarging it months later resuming as the New Variety Theater. The New Variety was purchased outright from the Windle estate for $39,000 in January of 1919. It switched primarily to feature length films. A connected confectionery served as the de facto concession stand. It appears to have closed in 1929 as the Variety not converting to sound. It became the Variety Bowling Alleys from March of 1934 to 1954 likely on a 20-year leasing agreement. During that leasing period, in 1944, the theater seats were sold off ending hopes of a theatrical encore.
Manchester and a segment of the Beaver Avenue Business District was targeted for urban renewal in 1951. The building was later demolished as part of the project that improved the highway that sliced Beaver Avenue in two and uprooted its former business district.
The Sunshine Theater launched in September of 1909. Operator Harry Kemp apparently wanted to murder the 16-year old ticket taker and end his life in what was some form of tryst. Kemp was successful in ending his life but only wounded the female ticket taker. A new operator renamed the venue but the next operator converted it back to the Sunshine Theater. It closed permanently on January 1, 1916.
A 1909 ad for the Palm Garden is in photos. The Theater appears to have shuttered in June of 1918 and offered in an ad for lease at $150. Its most likely operational cycle was 1908 to 1918 on a ten-year lease.
William F. Hammel constructed the new-build Royal Theater for just $4,500 in 1913 with the Royal launching there in 1914. The venue was changed to the Novelty Theater in 1918 and workers had to speak Polish and English. The novelty had apparently worn off as fun 1922 it was rechristened as the Royal Theater and in 1925 as the theatre was closed and sold off. In 1926, it became a retail store. Still standing in the 2020s, the building’s original Royal name is still atop the building.
The diminutive 250-seat South Side Hippodrome opened at this address in 1907. A neighboring confectionery - the only such confectionery in a three block radius (according to its operator) - appears to have been the S.S. Hipp’s de facto concession stand. The Southern Lanes duckpin bowling center was also housed here. The Hipp became the Grand Theatre under William Schell in 1915.
In 1920, all four buildings - 1915, 1917, 1919, and 1921 Carson Street were sold including the Grand Theatre and became home to the All-Nations Arcade Company. The arcade operation housed the Arcade Theater at least as of 1922, the Arcade Music Company, and the Arcade Drug Company and Confectionery - which became a de facto concession stand for the early days of the Arcade Theatre through the mid-1930s. Duckpin bowling also continued on another floor of the building in the 1920s and 1930s. The Arcade also housed religious services as of early 1923.
The Arcade Theater added sound and air conditioning in 1929 under an arrangement with Rowland and Clark. Manager William Finkel was offered the venue outright in 1935 by Warner Bros. Circuit. Finkel took sole possession of the venue and gave it another extensive remodeling in 1939 relaunching as the New Arcade Theatre on October 30th with Bing Crosby in “The Star Maker” for Finkel’s Carson Amusement Company. (That opening ad is in photos.) The theater was expanded to 1,400 seats and its transfer away from an arcade seems to spell the end of the music shop and the drug store/confectionery. The bowling center, however, reportedly survived until 1963. An impressive run.
Finkel twice sold the operation in the 1970s. The second and final operator, Stanley “Zundy” Kramer, reopened it with live entertainment and second-run films on April 12, 1979. He switched to art and foreign films in 1980 starting with “The Tin Drum” and even hosting Jean Luc-Goddard with a live, in person appearance for “Every Man for Himself” in 1981. The theatre’s run ended with “The Grey Fox” on February 4, 1984. The theatre burned down about five hours after that show on February 5, 1984 and was razed.
There was a arsonist loose in the neighborhood. Finkel, in debt to the City of Pittsburgh for $30,000 in amusement taxes came up with a final act for the Arcade. He paid a man $10,000 to make it look like a torch job. A subpar job of breaking and entering combined with the use of paint thinner as an accelerant gave the fire chief all of the evidence needed to claim arson. The police arrested two folks pinning the arsons on them. In a bad TV episode-like twist, the person who actually paid the $10,000 Arcade job then testified against the pair in court. But the case went sideways quickly and the two folks falsely accused were cleared during the trial. The case then boomeranged back to the perjured finger-pointer who went to jail for the arson he doesn’t appear to have committed.
In the final act related to the fire at the Arcade in 1993, a new appeal freed the presumed arsonist after serving eight years toward his multi-decade term. The picture seemed much clearer to the judges involved in the two different cases - one criminal of arson and one civil on insurance collection. The judge in the civil case “overwhelmingly” denied Kramer’s final appeal to have a new trial for the insurance money denied and conclusions about the real story of the Arcade fire seemed to now go in one direction to the courts. The singular bottom line here was that the Arcade - whose roots dated back almost 80 years as the Southside Hippodrome - was no more. And based on the evidence, there would be no insurance paid out.
The Adarry Theatre and neighboring Adarry Confectionery opened at tue 4801-4803 Penn Avenue building that housed the Verner Athletic Club and the Mathilda Bowling Alley. The bowling operation continued but the Adarry launched in 1912 New operator W.O. Bacon, Jr. took on the venue giving it a refresh in 1916. However, a new interest offered $50,000 for the entire corner lot and the Adarry and the Mathilda Lanes were no more. A new building replaced the former theater.
The town of Ozark, Missouri, also had several silent era venues including the Gem, the Club Theatre and the Radio Theatre. Also, the New Theatre opened namelessly on April 5, 1929 with the John Ford film, “Four Sons.” The theatre replaced the Cliffhaven Theatre, Cliff Woody’s venue that had suffered a fire ending its operation on January 7, 1929. A naming contest offering ten free tickets for the best name for the New. The winner was not “Ozark” but “Safety-Nook” then Safetynook. The name appears to have been conjured up because the projection booth at the new theatre was completely fireproof.
This entry, however, definitely opened as the Civic Theatre for Paul Bloomer and Lloyd Lee who transformed an existing retail building into a theatre for $4,500. It opened on October 9, 1936. The venue closed in 1937. But P.M. Soutee took on the venue relaunching on September 11, 1937 as the Ozark Theatre with Tyrone Power in “Love is News.” At that time, the venue was using portable projection equipment. But Harve Nokes showed more love to the venue, expanding it to 450 seats and going with a permanent and fireproof projection booth. The “new” Ozark Theatre relaunched on May 31, 1938.
The Lancaster Center Mall launched theatre-less on November 28, 1968. By 1971, an expansion to the slightly renamed Lancaster Mall brought twenty new retailers to the thriving shopping center. One of those was the 740-seat, the Lancaster Mall Theatre at 3790 D. Street N.E. The new “Lancaster Mall” has a Grand Opening on August 26, 1971 but the theater was delayed. Since the Lancaster Mall Theatre was the first new-build indoor theatre in more than thirty years in Salem, it was likely worth the wait.
The theatre launched as a single screen theatre on November 24, 1971 with Walter Matthau in “Kotch” and “How I Love Thee” with Maureen O'Hara and Jackie Gleason. The theatre announced that a second screen would be added to the operation in 1972 and would soon be known as the South Screen. That plan was put on hold.
General American Theatres Circuit then constructed a three-screen addition to its facility -two “mini-theaters” with 250 seats each and a 450-seat auditorium - relaunching as the Lancaster Mall Quad Cinema. The facility had reached its 1,690 seat total. It relaunched on January 17, 1975 with “Airport 1975,” and double-features in cinemas 2-4 with “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Alice’s Restaurant”; “The Dove” and “Walkabout”; and “Freebie and the Bean” and “Bullitt.”
The venue passed from Salem Theatres to Luxury Cinemas to Regal. The venue’s name was slightly shortened to the Lancaster Quad Cinemas. When Regal launched its Lancaster Mall Stadium 11 opening on October 27, 2006, it closed the Lancaster Quad on October 22, 2006.
The Rex appears to have launched with vaudeville on April 6, 1914. Movies took over as the primary programming. The Rex discontinued films in December of 1935. The final event was live - a local amateur show on May 14, 1936. A news note in March of 1937 said the former Rex Theatre was being remodeled for different retail purposes.
The State Theatre closed at the end of a 20-year lease on April 24, 1953. Its seats were removed in 1956. Vandals broke in and did damage in 1957 to the interior and turned on the exterior marquee lights. Surprisingly, after four years, the marquee lit up. An exploitation double feature of “Cocaine” and “Secrets of a Model” was the final booking.
Closes permanently at the end of the 2022 season.
The theatre’s closing date was announced as September 26, 2022.
Carmike
Silver Cinemas was the final operator here playing sub-run, discount films from 2001 until closing it on February 9, 2017 after an impressive run. That took Silver Cinemas down to just three locations: Madison (closing in 2022), Phoenix (closing in 2020), and Denton, TX. Silver would disband with its final open location in Denton officially becoming part of its Landmark Theatre circuit.
The final operator here, Carmike Cinemas, closed the Village 5 on August 17, 1997 tlo create the 10-screen theater that it launched on July 10, 1998 in the same spot.
he Jefferson Theatre shuttered following a four-wall exploitation film about syphilis in the classic, “Damaged Goods” with Pedro de Cordoba on February 12, 1938. Its address was 116 Easton Street. Status - demolished
Demolished late in 2015/early 2016
The Grand Opening of the De Soto Theatre took place with “Red Salute” on October 1, 1935.
The Jefferson Theatre shutters following a four-wall exploitation film about syphilis in the classic, “Damaged Goods” on February 12, 1938.
At the far left and right are the owners of the Sanford Shopping Plaza, Donald Jacques and Samuel Schwartz. Second on the left is Lloyd Woodman, franchisee and operator of the new Sanford Jerry Lewis Cinema and in the third spot is Roger P. Wedge of Network Cinemas that operated the failed Jerry Lewis Cinema Circuit.
The final show for the State Theatre took place Easter Sunday, April 1, 1956 and during a showing of “Ransom!” the theatre suffered a major fire and was closed permanently. Hoses were challenging to get to the burning theater but quick thinking by the fire department taking the hoses to the roof of the neighboring W.T. Grant store save not only the neighboring Grant and bank building, but the theater, itself.
E.M. Loew’s closed the Capitol following the June 2, 1968 double feature of “Valley of the Dolls” and “The Anniversary.” Demolition occurred in 1969.
The 260-seat Casino Theater was an early nickelodeon in the East Liberty area of Pittsburgh. It was sold in May of 1912 and refreshed retaining its Casino nameplate though now self-designated as “the coolest theater in the East End.”. It relaunched after a change of management and a refresh as the Busy Theater beginning on April 27, 1913. The Busy apparently did not live up to its moniker and was converted to a restaurant in 1914.
John and Thomas Windle launched Windle’s Variety Theater in 1907 at 1715-1719 Beaver Avenue in a converted livery. The theater was located in the Manchester neighborhood of Pittsburgh and featured live local talent and movies. The building had two small storefronts one of which was a long-standing barber shop. The other was a music store. John died while working at his Variety Theater on January 28, 1914. J. Walter Lowenhaupt and H.E. Grieder took on the venue on a sublease or lease renaming it as the Comique from 1915 to 1917 with a lean toward live entertainment. They dissolved the Comique Theater at the end of 1917 apparently in debt.
Mary Windle took on the venue enlarging it months later resuming as the New Variety Theater. The New Variety was purchased outright from the Windle estate for $39,000 in January of 1919. It switched primarily to feature length films. A connected confectionery served as the de facto concession stand. It appears to have closed in 1929 as the Variety not converting to sound. It became the Variety Bowling Alleys from March of 1934 to 1954 likely on a 20-year leasing agreement. During that leasing period, in 1944, the theater seats were sold off ending hopes of a theatrical encore.
Manchester and a segment of the Beaver Avenue Business District was targeted for urban renewal in 1951. The building was later demolished as part of the project that improved the highway that sliced Beaver Avenue in two and uprooted its former business district.
The Sunshine Theater launched in September of 1909. Operator Harry Kemp apparently wanted to murder the 16-year old ticket taker and end his life in what was some form of tryst. Kemp was successful in ending his life but only wounded the female ticket taker. A new operator renamed the venue but the next operator converted it back to the Sunshine Theater. It closed permanently on January 1, 1916.
A 1909 ad for the Palm Garden is in photos. The Theater appears to have shuttered in June of 1918 and offered in an ad for lease at $150. Its most likely operational cycle was 1908 to 1918 on a ten-year lease.
William F. Hammel constructed the new-build Royal Theater for just $4,500 in 1913 with the Royal launching there in 1914. The venue was changed to the Novelty Theater in 1918 and workers had to speak Polish and English. The novelty had apparently worn off as fun 1922 it was rechristened as the Royal Theater and in 1925 as the theatre was closed and sold off. In 1926, it became a retail store. Still standing in the 2020s, the building’s original Royal name is still atop the building.
Became the Grand Theatre in 1915
The diminutive 250-seat South Side Hippodrome opened at this address in 1907. A neighboring confectionery - the only such confectionery in a three block radius (according to its operator) - appears to have been the S.S. Hipp’s de facto concession stand. The Southern Lanes duckpin bowling center was also housed here. The Hipp became the Grand Theatre under William Schell in 1915.
In 1920, all four buildings - 1915, 1917, 1919, and 1921 Carson Street were sold including the Grand Theatre and became home to the All-Nations Arcade Company. The arcade operation housed the Arcade Theater at least as of 1922, the Arcade Music Company, and the Arcade Drug Company and Confectionery - which became a de facto concession stand for the early days of the Arcade Theatre through the mid-1930s. Duckpin bowling also continued on another floor of the building in the 1920s and 1930s. The Arcade also housed religious services as of early 1923.
The Arcade Theater added sound and air conditioning in 1929 under an arrangement with Rowland and Clark. Manager William Finkel was offered the venue outright in 1935 by Warner Bros. Circuit. Finkel took sole possession of the venue and gave it another extensive remodeling in 1939 relaunching as the New Arcade Theatre on October 30th with Bing Crosby in “The Star Maker” for Finkel’s Carson Amusement Company. (That opening ad is in photos.) The theater was expanded to 1,400 seats and its transfer away from an arcade seems to spell the end of the music shop and the drug store/confectionery. The bowling center, however, reportedly survived until 1963. An impressive run.
Finkel twice sold the operation in the 1970s. The second and final operator, Stanley “Zundy” Kramer, reopened it with live entertainment and second-run films on April 12, 1979. He switched to art and foreign films in 1980 starting with “The Tin Drum” and even hosting Jean Luc-Goddard with a live, in person appearance for “Every Man for Himself” in 1981. The theatre’s run ended with “The Grey Fox” on February 4, 1984. The theatre burned down about five hours after that show on February 5, 1984 and was razed.
There was a arsonist loose in the neighborhood. Finkel, in debt to the City of Pittsburgh for $30,000 in amusement taxes came up with a final act for the Arcade. He paid a man $10,000 to make it look like a torch job. A subpar job of breaking and entering combined with the use of paint thinner as an accelerant gave the fire chief all of the evidence needed to claim arson. The police arrested two folks pinning the arsons on them. In a bad TV episode-like twist, the person who actually paid the $10,000 Arcade job then testified against the pair in court. But the case went sideways quickly and the two folks falsely accused were cleared during the trial. The case then boomeranged back to the perjured finger-pointer who went to jail for the arson he doesn’t appear to have committed.
In the final act related to the fire at the Arcade in 1993, a new appeal freed the presumed arsonist after serving eight years toward his multi-decade term. The picture seemed much clearer to the judges involved in the two different cases - one criminal of arson and one civil on insurance collection. The judge in the civil case “overwhelmingly” denied Kramer’s final appeal to have a new trial for the insurance money denied and conclusions about the real story of the Arcade fire seemed to now go in one direction to the courts. The singular bottom line here was that the Arcade - whose roots dated back almost 80 years as the Southside Hippodrome - was no more. And based on the evidence, there would be no insurance paid out.
In July of 2022, B&B Theatres announced that it will reopen the North Richland Hills location as early as December of 2022
The Adarry Theatre and neighboring Adarry Confectionery opened at tue 4801-4803 Penn Avenue building that housed the Verner Athletic Club and the Mathilda Bowling Alley. The bowling operation continued but the Adarry launched in 1912 New operator W.O. Bacon, Jr. took on the venue giving it a refresh in 1916. However, a new interest offered $50,000 for the entire corner lot and the Adarry and the Mathilda Lanes were no more. A new building replaced the former theater.