‘Motor City Marquees’ book about Detroit theatres by Stuart Galbraith IV (1965) lists: Loyal, 13803 Grand River, Detroit. 1926; 550 seats
‘The Loyal just missed the attendance boom during World War II. The theatre was re-named Alvin in 1940, but closed before the end of the year.’
The Film Daily Yearbook 1941 lists the ‘Alvin, Grand River, 440 seats’, but no mention of a Loyal Theater. I think FDY’s were typeset the previous year to their published year, so it could have closed after it went to press.
The street address of the Astoria is 10-13 Gloucester Place. It opened on 21st September 1933, the architect being Edward A Stone with interior decorations in a French Art Deco style by interior designers Henri & Laverdet (who had worked with Stone on his other Astoria Theatres in London at Streatham and Finsbury Park and at the Whitehall Theatre, London).
The Astoria Brighton was built for E.E. Lyons who was starting up a chain of Astoria Cinemas in southern England at the time, but he died in 1934 and the Astoria Brighton (together with several others of his cinemas) was taken over by the ABC chain of theatres. The final film shown was Barbra Streisand in “A Star is Born on 7th May 1977.
The Academy Cinema was re-modelled both externally and interally in 1938/39 by Gaumont British house architect W.E. Trent supervising local architect A.E. Potter. Work was done in the mornings and overnight without closing the cinema.
It was demolished in 1974, a block of offices Academy House was built on the site.
Warren:
According to Charles Francisco’s bok “The Radio City Music Hall-An Affectionate History of the World’s Greatest Theater” (1979) the next time that RCMH played a movie that wasn’t first-run there (after Cavalcade in 1933) was in early 1975 when it played “Gone With the Wind”
This is performance of G&S “Iolanthe” performed by the Ridgewood Gilbert & Sulivan Opera Co.. Sunday 21st November 2004 at 2:00pm Admision is FREE. A great opportunity to see the Loew’s and also see the stage being used. I wish I could be there.
According to Larry Widen and Judi Anderson’s book ‘Milwaukee Movie Palaces’ (1986) the architects of the Airway Theatre were Peacock & Belognia. It operated from 1949 until 1967 and seated 550.
The street address of the Savoy Cinema is 1649-1651 Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham. It originally opened in 1923 as a silent cinema and music hall known as the Kings Norton Palace of Varieties (later known as the Palace Cinema).
In 1933 it was refurbished and modernised and re-opened as the Savoy Cinema. A monthly programme for 1938 is headed ‘The Savoy, Kings Norton’. It closed on 2nd February 1958 and was converted into industrial use, known as Savoy Works.
Strangely, the only ‘Savoy Cinema’ I have records of in my listings of Birmingham cinemas (various Kine Yearbooks) is the Savoy, Breedon Cross, Kings Norton which had a seating capacity of 950.
The King’s Norton Cinema opened in September 1938. The architect was Harold Seymour Scott and it seated 1,142. It closed in June 1983 and sheltered flats for the elderly have been built on the site.
There is a photo of the exterior taken in 1967 in the book ‘Birmingham Cinemas’ by Christine Wilkinson and Margaret Hanson published in 2003 by Tempus Publishing Ltd ISBN 0 7524 3080 7
The Majestic Theater, Dallas was used as an extensive film location shoot soon after closing in 1973. The theatre is seen to great advantage in many scenes of Brian De Palma’s “Phantom of the Paradise” (1974) starring Paul Williams. It is available on DVD.
Film Daily Yearbooks only give seating capacities and sometimes adresses. Opening and closing dates can only be determined by having the complete run of them and researching year by year for a particular theatre.
Regarding the Square Theatre, a seating capacity of 568 is given. The address given is 58 Westchester Square (has there been a re-numbering since the 1940’s-50’s?)
The Gaumont Cinema opened as the Gaumont Palace on 9th February 1931. The street address was Steelhouse Lane/Colmore Circus on the corner of Weaman St. Built for the Gaumont British Film Corporation the architect was William T. Benslyn who designed this Art Deco styled 2,034 seat cinema. (Cinerama is not an architectural style). It was re-named Gaumont in 1937 and was closed for a month in August 1942 when it suffered bomb damage.
In the summer of 1961 it was modernised and completely reconstructed internally when Cinerama was installed in 1963. Later showing 70mm prints of Road Show releases (“The Sound of Music” played for 168 weeks during 1965-1968). Seating was reduced to 1,212, in the curtain-walled auditorium. The Gaumont closed on 29th October 1983.
The Empire Cinema opened in 1912. The street address is 1250 Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham. It was taken over by ABC Theatres in 1932 and closed about 1943.
The Bristol Cinema opened on 16th May 1937, the architect was Hurley Robinson, built and decorated in an Art Deco style it had a seating capacity of 1,712 seats. It was taken over and operated by ABC Cinemas in 1944 and was re-named ABC Bristol Rd in 1959.
It was closed briefly in 1963 to be converted into a Cinerama Theater, re-opening as ABC Cinerama with 1,232 seats. It closed in 1972 for tripling, was later re-named Cannon and closed in September 1987 and was immediately demolished.
The Odeon Cinema opened as the Paramount Theater on 4th September 1937. The architects were Frank Verity & Samuel Beverley (Cinerama is not a style of architecture) the Paramount was Art Deco. It was one of several Paramount Theaters built by Paramount Pictures in major cities in the United Kingdom. The Birmingam Paramount had a seating capacity of 2,441. The organ was a Compton 4 manual/10 rank which was still in use occasionally into the mid-1980’s.
It was taken over by Odeon Theatres and re-named Odeon in August 1942. It was never part of the ABC Theatres chain. In 1965 it was closed for a few months for a major modernisation which stripped the building of many of its original decorative features. Until it was split up into four screens the huge original seating capacity served well as a venue for pop concerts as well as films.
The Other Cinema closed its doors on 14th November 2004. Though still popular with film fans and doing good business with its ‘art house’ programming, the crunch came with a rent hike from the landlords of the Trocadero Centre in which it is located.
This theater opened in 1914 as the Royal Theater. In 1921 it was re-vamped to provide facilities for vaudeville shows and was re-named Regent Theater and it started showing silent movies from the mid-1920’s. Fox took over the building in 1955, re-named it the Fox Theater and cut away the proscenioum opening to install a Cinemascope screen. It closed in 1999 showing Ron Howard’s film “EDtv”.
‘Motor City Marquees’ book about Detroit theatres by Stuart Galbraith IV (1965) lists: Loyal, 13803 Grand River, Detroit. 1926; 550 seats
‘The Loyal just missed the attendance boom during World War II. The theatre was re-named Alvin in 1940, but closed before the end of the year.’
The Film Daily Yearbook 1941 lists the ‘Alvin, Grand River, 440 seats’, but no mention of a Loyal Theater. I think FDY’s were typeset the previous year to their published year, so it could have closed after it went to press.
The street address of the Astoria is 10-13 Gloucester Place. It opened on 21st September 1933, the architect being Edward A Stone with interior decorations in a French Art Deco style by interior designers Henri & Laverdet (who had worked with Stone on his other Astoria Theatres in London at Streatham and Finsbury Park and at the Whitehall Theatre, London).
The Astoria Brighton was built for E.E. Lyons who was starting up a chain of Astoria Cinemas in southern England at the time, but he died in 1934 and the Astoria Brighton (together with several others of his cinemas) was taken over by the ABC chain of theatres. The final film shown was Barbra Streisand in “A Star is Born on 7th May 1977.
The Academy Cinema was re-modelled both externally and interally in 1938/39 by Gaumont British house architect W.E. Trent supervising local architect A.E. Potter. Work was done in the mornings and overnight without closing the cinema.
It was demolished in 1974, a block of offices Academy House was built on the site.
Warren:
According to Charles Francisco’s bok “The Radio City Music Hall-An Affectionate History of the World’s Greatest Theater” (1979) the next time that RCMH played a movie that wasn’t first-run there (after Cavalcade in 1933) was in early 1975 when it played “Gone With the Wind”
This is performance of G&S “Iolanthe” performed by the Ridgewood Gilbert & Sulivan Opera Co.. Sunday 21st November 2004 at 2:00pm Admision is FREE. A great opportunity to see the Loew’s and also see the stage being used. I wish I could be there.
According to Larry Widen and Judi Anderson’s book ‘Milwaukee Movie Palaces’ (1986) the architects of the Airway Theatre were Peacock & Belognia. It operated from 1949 until 1967 and seated 550.
The architect of the Avon Theatre was R.O. Rosen, who designed the theatre to seat 1,080 in orchestra stalls and balcony levels.
The Film Daily Yearbook 1941 lists the seating capacity of the Morse Theatre as 800.
The Film Daily Yearbook 1941 lists the seating capacity as 750.
The Film Daily Yearbook 1930 gives a seating capacity of 762.
Thank’s for clarifying that Derek.
The street address of the Savoy Cinema is 1649-1651 Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham. It originally opened in 1923 as a silent cinema and music hall known as the Kings Norton Palace of Varieties (later known as the Palace Cinema).
In 1933 it was refurbished and modernised and re-opened as the Savoy Cinema. A monthly programme for 1938 is headed ‘The Savoy, Kings Norton’. It closed on 2nd February 1958 and was converted into industrial use, known as Savoy Works.
Strangely, the only ‘Savoy Cinema’ I have records of in my listings of Birmingham cinemas (various Kine Yearbooks) is the Savoy, Breedon Cross, Kings Norton which had a seating capacity of 950.
The King’s Norton Cinema opened in September 1938. The architect was Harold Seymour Scott and it seated 1,142. It closed in June 1983 and sheltered flats for the elderly have been built on the site.
There is a photo of the exterior taken in 1967 in the book ‘Birmingham Cinemas’ by Christine Wilkinson and Margaret Hanson published in 2003 by Tempus Publishing Ltd ISBN 0 7524 3080 7
The Majestic Theater, Dallas was used as an extensive film location shoot soon after closing in 1973. The theatre is seen to great advantage in many scenes of Brian De Palma’s “Phantom of the Paradise” (1974) starring Paul Williams. It is available on DVD.
dave-bronx:
Film Daily Yearbooks only give seating capacities and sometimes adresses. Opening and closing dates can only be determined by having the complete run of them and researching year by year for a particular theatre.
Regarding the Square Theatre, a seating capacity of 568 is given. The address given is 58 Westchester Square (has there been a re-numbering since the 1940’s-50’s?)
The Gaumont Cinema opened as the Gaumont Palace on 9th February 1931. The street address was Steelhouse Lane/Colmore Circus on the corner of Weaman St. Built for the Gaumont British Film Corporation the architect was William T. Benslyn who designed this Art Deco styled 2,034 seat cinema. (Cinerama is not an architectural style). It was re-named Gaumont in 1937 and was closed for a month in August 1942 when it suffered bomb damage.
In the summer of 1961 it was modernised and completely reconstructed internally when Cinerama was installed in 1963. Later showing 70mm prints of Road Show releases (“The Sound of Music” played for 168 weeks during 1965-1968). Seating was reduced to 1,212, in the curtain-walled auditorium. The Gaumont closed on 29th October 1983.
The Empire Cinema opened in 1912. The street address is 1250 Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham. It was taken over by ABC Theatres in 1932 and closed about 1943.
The Bristol Cinema opened on 16th May 1937, the architect was Hurley Robinson, built and decorated in an Art Deco style it had a seating capacity of 1,712 seats. It was taken over and operated by ABC Cinemas in 1944 and was re-named ABC Bristol Rd in 1959.
It was closed briefly in 1963 to be converted into a Cinerama Theater, re-opening as ABC Cinerama with 1,232 seats. It closed in 1972 for tripling, was later re-named Cannon and closed in September 1987 and was immediately demolished.
The Odeon Cinema opened as the Paramount Theater on 4th September 1937. The architects were Frank Verity & Samuel Beverley (Cinerama is not a style of architecture) the Paramount was Art Deco. It was one of several Paramount Theaters built by Paramount Pictures in major cities in the United Kingdom. The Birmingam Paramount had a seating capacity of 2,441. The organ was a Compton 4 manual/10 rank which was still in use occasionally into the mid-1980’s.
It was taken over by Odeon Theatres and re-named Odeon in August 1942. It was never part of the ABC Theatres chain. In 1965 it was closed for a few months for a major modernisation which stripped the building of many of its original decorative features. Until it was split up into four screens the huge original seating capacity served well as a venue for pop concerts as well as films.
Bill:
The answer is Barbara Streisand.
The Other Cinema closed its doors on 14th November 2004. Though still popular with film fans and doing good business with its ‘art house’ programming, the crunch came with a rent hike from the landlords of the Trocadero Centre in which it is located.
The Globe Bronx Theater is listed as having 600 seats in 1950.
This theater opened in 1914 as the Royal Theater. In 1921 it was re-vamped to provide facilities for vaudeville shows and was re-named Regent Theater and it started showing silent movies from the mid-1920’s. Fox took over the building in 1955, re-named it the Fox Theater and cut away the proscenioum opening to install a Cinemascope screen. It closed in 1999 showing Ron Howard’s film “EDtv”.
The original seating capacity was 780.