The earliest mention of a movie theater in Northwood that I’ve found is in the October 7, 1916 Moving Picture World which has an item datelined Northwood and reading “[t]he Slosson theater is now owned and controlled by George Haight.” I’ve found no other mentions of a Slosson Theater at Northwood, but a G. L. Haight, probably George, appears as the owner of the Northwood Theatre in the January 2, 1932 Motion Picture Herald, which says he had closed the house due to “…poor returns at the box office over an extended period.” It must have reopened before the end of the year, though, as it is listed without any notations in the 1933 FDY. I’ve found no further mentions of Mr. Haight though.
The earliest mention of the name Northwood Theatre I’ve found is its listing in the 1926 FDY, which gives it a seating capacity of 300. After that it is mentioned a few times in trade journals, usually when it changes hand or a new manager is appointed. The most significant of these items is in the May 15, 1949 Boxoffice, which tells of a major remodeling and expansion planned for the house which will add 200 seats. The 1950 FDY lists the house with only 400 seats though, an increase of 100.
The Northwood is mentioned a few times in the 1950s, including a 1955 item about the installation of wide screen equipment. The last mention I’ve found is in the May 27, 1959 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor, which published a short letter from then-owner Charlie Jones, responding favorably to an editorial the journal had published.
The October 12, 1916 issue of Motography mentioned the Lyric and two Mr. Birums: “Claude Page has sold his interest in the Lyric Theater in Osage to A. G. Birum, father of Fred Birum, his partner.”
The November 4 issue of the same journal had information that might (or might not) shed a bit of light on the Lyric’s history: “Birum & Birum have opened the new Lyric Theatre at Osage.” New? A bit of a complication if we take that literally.
Then the November 11 issue had more news about Osage and Fred Birum: “Beginning November 1, the Sprague Theater in Osage will be under the management of Fred Birum, owner of the Lyric. Mr. Birum will operate both theaters, bringing the larger productions to the Sprague, as its seating accommodations are better.”
The “Theater Changes Reported By the Film Boards of Trade” section of the October 28, 1933 issue of Film Daily listed the Plaza Theatre at Brownsville as a new theater.
The “Theater Changes Reported By the Film Boards of Trade” section of the October 28, 1933 issue of Film Daily listed the Sylvan Theatre at Rutherfordton as a new theater.
The name Lyric Theatre goes back to at least as early as 1909 in Osage, when the May 15 issue of Moving Picture World said that H. E. Baumgartner had sold the Lyric Theater at Osage to W. L. Kennedy and H. G. Atherton. Mr. Baumgartner was back in the theater business at Osage with a house called the Lyric (maybe the same one, maybe a different one) by 1912, when the August 31 issue of MPW mentioned them.
In 1913, the July 12 issue of MPW reported that Mr. Baumgartner of the Lyric at Osage had been elected as a delegate to represent the Iowa Exhibitor’s League at a national convention in New York. The Lyric alone was mentioned in the March 14, 1916 issue ofMPW. In April, Mr. Baumgartner sold the Lyric to Fred Birum an Claude Page, according to MPW of April 29. The very last mention of the Lyric I’ve found is from the August 24, 1918 MPW.
I haven’t found the name Imperial Theatre connected with Osage in any of the trade journals, nor the name Guy Alchon, which I did find in his widow’s obituary from 1965, but that contains no mention of a theater. The NRHP registration form that mentions the Imperial and Alchon, oddly fails to mention the Lyric at all. The only theaters listed at Osage in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory are called the Bijou, no location given, the Sprague, which was the old Opera House, and the Lyric, listed at 7th and Main Streets.
It might be that Mr. Alchon never operated the Imperial himself, but was only the owner of the building, and it became the second location of the Lyric by 1912. That would not speak very well for the researches who put together the NRHP registration form, but I’ve found that errors and omissions are, sadly, not a rare failing in such publications.
This web page from the City of Norfolk says that the Rosna Theatre building has been acquired by the City and is to be renovated for use as a specialized gymnasium for Team Norfolk Boxing. The former lobby will become a community meeting room, and the commercial space in the building will house a restaurant. It’s not a theater, but at least the building is being saved for public use, and the marquee is to be restored.
Opera House is the name of the only theater listed at Garner in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the November 9, 1918 Moving Picture World mentions a house called the Garner Theatre. I haven’t found the name Electric Theatre associated with Garner in the trade journals. The 1926 FDY lists a 190-seat house called the Lyric Theatre. No clue yet if Garner and/or Lyric were aka’s for the Opera House.
The Sun Theatre at Woodward, Iowa had installed new projection and sound equipment, according to an item in <em<Boxoffice of October 16, 1948. Improvements scheduled for the near future by owner Lorena Hanson included a new canopy, new carpeting, new lighting throughout the building, and the addition of 30 more seats on each side of the balcony.
An interesting item appeared in Boxoffice on October 16, 1948. It said that the old Congregational Church in Mundelein had been converted into a theater. It didn’t give the theater’s name, but said that it seated 100, so it was quite small. I suppose there is a fitting symmetry to Mundelein’s later theater becoming a church.
What Cheer’s theatrical history appears to be richer and more complex than even local people remember. An article datelined What Cheer and headed “What Cheer is Rebuilt and Renamed Tic-Toc” appeared in Boxoffice March 20, 1948. The article said that the theater had been destroyed by a fire on November 6, 1947, but the building had been renovated and the theater and would soon open with 300 new seats, new carpeting, and new sound equipment, plus a nursery for children.
It was to be called the Tic-Toc Theatre and would be operated by the son and daughter-in-law of Mrs. Dorothy Fritz, who had operated the What Cheer for the previous eleven years. The FDY continued to list the What Cheer Theatre, with 225 seats, in its 1949 and 1950 editions, but the name Tic-Toc appears in a few items in trade journals over the years, the last being an item about the closing of the house which was published in the May 22, 1978 issue of Boxoffice. That means the Tic-Toc had a run of thirty years, on top of whatever time it spent as the What Cheer Theatre. One particularly interesting item, in The Exhibitor of November 7, 1951, said “Richard Fritz, owner, Tic-Toc, What Cheer, Ia., purchased the Masonic, What Cheer.” Mr. and Mrs. Fritz still owned the Tic Toc when it closed in 1978.
The history on the Opera House web site doesn’t mention a 1947 fire, or any alternate names for that theater, saying only that it operated as a movie house from sometime in the silent era until 1953. It seems strange that a town as small as What Cheer would have had two movie theaters in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but that’s what the evidence so far seems to be pointing to to: the Masonic Opera House and the What Cheer/Tic Toc were two different theaters.
This house opened on June 27, 1940, and the theater’s advertisements and the newspaper headlines about the event used the spelling Hazle Theatre. This was apparently the correct spelling, despite the variant sometimes used by the FDY.
An item headlined “Rebuild Closed Theatre” in the October 16, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the Cozy Theatre, recently closed by order of the state fire Marshall, would be rebuilt by Marcus Theatres, who had obtained a new lease on the structure. Improvements would include fireproofing, new seating and projection booth equipment, and a new ticket booth.
My surmise that the Margie Grand might have been the old Cumberland Theatre renamed turned out to be wrong. I came across a book published in 1922 that revealed that Harlan’s Cumberland Theatre was located on Main Street. A 1925 Sanborn map shows the site of the Margie Grand vacant, so it now seems likely that the Margie Grand probably did open in 1929, but after that year’s FDY was compiled. The rather old fashioned look of the building can probably be attributed to the aesthetic conservatism of the region.
A building at 108 (modern 107) S. Main Street is labeled “Movies” on the 1925 Sanborn map, and must have been the location of the Cumberland Theatre. It still stands, occupied by an attorney’s offices. The considerably larger Harlan Theatre is named on the map at 107-109 (modern 108-110) S. Main Street. The site is now part of a parking lot.
The Margie Grand Theater first appears in the FDY’s 1930 edition. Prior to that, there was a house called the Cumberland Theatre. No seating capacities were given for either house, so we can’t be sure if Margie Grand was a new name for the Cumberland, but it is a possibility. The Cumberland was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The town also had a house called the New Harlan Theatre, which several sources indicate was the town’s “A” house, but it appears to have been closed following a severe flood that struck the town in 1963, and it’s building was destroyed by a fire in 1970. The Margie Grand was still in operation at least as late as 1977. The New Harlan was built in 1922, and was listed in FDY editions from 1926 on.
The mid-year theater building report in the July 22, 1950 issue of Boxoffice listed the Cumberland Amusement Company’s 750-seat Alene Theatre at Whitesburg, Kentucky as one of the 327 indoor theaters started or opened in the United State since the beginning of the year. The Alene was one of the six (out of ten total) projects in Kentucky that had already opened.
An article in the March 16, 2016 issue of The Mountain Eagle says that the theater closed in the mid-1980s. Part of the ground floor is now occupied by a florists shop, and the remainder of the building has been converted into apartments. On opening, the Alene was the fourth house for the Isaacs family’s Cumberland Amusement Company. They had theaters in Cumberland and Benham, as well as the Kentucky Theatre in Whitesburg.
No theaters were listed at either Cumberland or Valley Falls in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the 1926 FDY lists a 500-seat Strand at Valley Falls.
CinemaScope equipment was installed at the Model Theatre in 1954, and the house had several more years of life before its building was converted into a bakery in 1962. The interior was gutted at the time of the conversion, and the streamline modern exterior of the house has since been entirely concealed behind a “vintage” false front. The bakery still occupies the violated premises.
The correct address of the Model Theatre is 419 Phoenix Street.
An item about the opening of the Michigan Theatre at South Haven that appeared in the July 11, 1947 issue of Film Daily noted that the house was a replacement for the Center Theater which had burned on January 2. However, local newspaper articles published on March 28 and June 20, 1947, both say that the Centre Theatre had burned on February 1, 1945, and Butterfield was unable to rebuild right away due to restrictions by the War Production Board. The newspaper articles are on display at the Michigan Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland.
In any case, it appears that the Phoenix Theatre is a phantom. The Centre (the most common spelling of the name) Theatre was entirely destroyed in 1945 and replaced on the same site by the Michigan Theatre in 1947. South Haven’s only other theater of the period, the Model on Phoenix Street, opened in 1938. Neither CinemaTour nor Water Winter Wonderland lists a Phoenix Theatre at South Haven.
As for the Centre, Water Winter Wonderland has this page for it. It opened on April 13, 1920, originally seating 652 (the 1926 FDY says 438) but expanded to 731 in a 1934 remodeling. Destroyed by a fire on February 2, 1945.
Info from the July 11, 1947 Film Daily: “Butterfield Theaters opened the New Michigan Theater, South Haven, on Wednesday, July 2. With a seating capacity of nearly 1,000, the Michigan seats more than the old Center, which burned down Jan. 2, 1945.”
Like many theaters, the Roxy had CinemaScope equipment installed in 1954, and inaugurated the new format with biblical epic “The Robe.” The October 30 edition of Motion Picture Herald noted the event.
Okay, I checked the article again and it does say the second location of the Cozy was also on Front Street. I must have mistaken the newspaper’s address for the theater address when looking at the Google results summary.
Is there a paywall on my link? I’m still not getting one. It might be because my browser has a VPN setting I’m using. That cab confuse some websites into not blocking access.
The January 2, 1962 issue of Boxoffice had news about this house that had been owned by the local government:
“Plum City Theatre Sold
“PLUM CITY, WIS.—The Plum City Theatre, built in 1938, has been sold by village trustees to Jim Glaus, a local merchant, who plans to remodel the upstairs into a store. The village will have free use of the basement for elections and meetings for 20 years. The theatre has been closed for several years.”
An item in the June 18, 1955 Boxoffice had said that “[t]he theatre at Plum city is being kept open through the sponsorship of the local businessmen.” Such sponsorship must have failed not long after that. It seems unlikely that anybody would have been willing or able to underwrite the expense of converting the house for the wide screen formats that were rapidly displacing the standard 35mm films.
In 1914 Hampton had a house called the Lyric Theatre, but it was at 119 Main Street. Perhaps this item from the January 10, 1919 issue of Film Daily is a clue, or maybe not: “Hampton, Iowa—The Star has been leased to James Keefe, who will operate it in connection with the Windsor.” The only theater listed at Hampton in the 1926, 1929 and 1938 FDYs is the Windsor, and I’m not hopeful that we’d find the Star listed if we checked more of them.
However, there is a second house listed at Hampton in the 1944 FDY, the 280-seat Lido. If no other theaters (but the Windsor) appear on the 1944 map, at least we’ve got a late name for this house. Whether or not it was earlier the Star remains moot, but does seem likely. It might be that once it came under the control of the operators of the Windsor they just kept it mothballed for a long time.
There is a Belleview Iowa in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no Bellevue. It’s undoubtedly an error by the Directory. The house listed at “Belleview” was called the Cozy Theatre. The 1926 FDY still lists a 350-seat house called the Cozy as the only theater at Bellevue. The 1926 house was at a different location, though.
This article from the July 5, 2023 Bellevue Herald-Leader discusses both locations. The Front Street (apparently another former name of Riverview Street) Cozy Theatre opened on May 19, 1913. The Cozy moved to its second location, at 118 S. 2nd Street, in 1916, and operated there into the 1970s. Both buildings are still standing.
The earliest mention of a movie theater in Northwood that I’ve found is in the October 7, 1916 Moving Picture World which has an item datelined Northwood and reading “[t]he Slosson theater is now owned and controlled by George Haight.” I’ve found no other mentions of a Slosson Theater at Northwood, but a G. L. Haight, probably George, appears as the owner of the Northwood Theatre in the January 2, 1932 Motion Picture Herald, which says he had closed the house due to “…poor returns at the box office over an extended period.” It must have reopened before the end of the year, though, as it is listed without any notations in the 1933 FDY. I’ve found no further mentions of Mr. Haight though.
The earliest mention of the name Northwood Theatre I’ve found is its listing in the 1926 FDY, which gives it a seating capacity of 300. After that it is mentioned a few times in trade journals, usually when it changes hand or a new manager is appointed. The most significant of these items is in the May 15, 1949 Boxoffice, which tells of a major remodeling and expansion planned for the house which will add 200 seats. The 1950 FDY lists the house with only 400 seats though, an increase of 100.
The Northwood is mentioned a few times in the 1950s, including a 1955 item about the installation of wide screen equipment. The last mention I’ve found is in the May 27, 1959 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor, which published a short letter from then-owner Charlie Jones, responding favorably to an editorial the journal had published.
The October 12, 1916 issue of Motography mentioned the Lyric and two Mr. Birums: “Claude Page has sold his interest in the Lyric Theater in Osage to A. G. Birum, father of Fred Birum, his partner.”
The November 4 issue of the same journal had information that might (or might not) shed a bit of light on the Lyric’s history: “Birum & Birum have opened the new Lyric Theatre at Osage.” New? A bit of a complication if we take that literally.
Then the November 11 issue had more news about Osage and Fred Birum: “Beginning November 1, the Sprague Theater in Osage will be under the management of Fred Birum, owner of the Lyric. Mr. Birum will operate both theaters, bringing the larger productions to the Sprague, as its seating accommodations are better.”
The “Theater Changes Reported By the Film Boards of Trade” section of the October 28, 1933 issue of Film Daily listed the Plaza Theatre at Brownsville as a new theater.
The “Theater Changes Reported By the Film Boards of Trade” section of the October 28, 1933 issue of Film Daily listed the Sylvan Theatre at Rutherfordton as a new theater.
The name Lyric Theatre goes back to at least as early as 1909 in Osage, when the May 15 issue of Moving Picture World said that H. E. Baumgartner had sold the Lyric Theater at Osage to W. L. Kennedy and H. G. Atherton. Mr. Baumgartner was back in the theater business at Osage with a house called the Lyric (maybe the same one, maybe a different one) by 1912, when the August 31 issue of MPW mentioned them.
In 1913, the July 12 issue of MPW reported that Mr. Baumgartner of the Lyric at Osage had been elected as a delegate to represent the Iowa Exhibitor’s League at a national convention in New York. The Lyric alone was mentioned in the March 14, 1916 issue ofMPW. In April, Mr. Baumgartner sold the Lyric to Fred Birum an Claude Page, according to MPW of April 29. The very last mention of the Lyric I’ve found is from the August 24, 1918 MPW.
I haven’t found the name Imperial Theatre connected with Osage in any of the trade journals, nor the name Guy Alchon, which I did find in his widow’s obituary from 1965, but that contains no mention of a theater. The NRHP registration form that mentions the Imperial and Alchon, oddly fails to mention the Lyric at all. The only theaters listed at Osage in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory are called the Bijou, no location given, the Sprague, which was the old Opera House, and the Lyric, listed at 7th and Main Streets.
It might be that Mr. Alchon never operated the Imperial himself, but was only the owner of the building, and it became the second location of the Lyric by 1912. That would not speak very well for the researches who put together the NRHP registration form, but I’ve found that errors and omissions are, sadly, not a rare failing in such publications.
This web page from the City of Norfolk says that the Rosna Theatre building has been acquired by the City and is to be renovated for use as a specialized gymnasium for Team Norfolk Boxing. The former lobby will become a community meeting room, and the commercial space in the building will house a restaurant. It’s not a theater, but at least the building is being saved for public use, and the marquee is to be restored.
Opera House is the name of the only theater listed at Garner in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the November 9, 1918 Moving Picture World mentions a house called the Garner Theatre. I haven’t found the name Electric Theatre associated with Garner in the trade journals. The 1926 FDY lists a 190-seat house called the Lyric Theatre. No clue yet if Garner and/or Lyric were aka’s for the Opera House.
The Sun Theatre at Woodward, Iowa had installed new projection and sound equipment, according to an item in <em<Boxoffice of October 16, 1948. Improvements scheduled for the near future by owner Lorena Hanson included a new canopy, new carpeting, new lighting throughout the building, and the addition of 30 more seats on each side of the balcony.
An interesting item appeared in Boxoffice on October 16, 1948. It said that the old Congregational Church in Mundelein had been converted into a theater. It didn’t give the theater’s name, but said that it seated 100, so it was quite small. I suppose there is a fitting symmetry to Mundelein’s later theater becoming a church.
What Cheer’s theatrical history appears to be richer and more complex than even local people remember. An article datelined What Cheer and headed “What Cheer is Rebuilt and Renamed Tic-Toc” appeared in Boxoffice March 20, 1948. The article said that the theater had been destroyed by a fire on November 6, 1947, but the building had been renovated and the theater and would soon open with 300 new seats, new carpeting, and new sound equipment, plus a nursery for children.
It was to be called the Tic-Toc Theatre and would be operated by the son and daughter-in-law of Mrs. Dorothy Fritz, who had operated the What Cheer for the previous eleven years. The FDY continued to list the What Cheer Theatre, with 225 seats, in its 1949 and 1950 editions, but the name Tic-Toc appears in a few items in trade journals over the years, the last being an item about the closing of the house which was published in the May 22, 1978 issue of Boxoffice. That means the Tic-Toc had a run of thirty years, on top of whatever time it spent as the What Cheer Theatre. One particularly interesting item, in The Exhibitor of November 7, 1951, said “Richard Fritz, owner, Tic-Toc, What Cheer, Ia., purchased the Masonic, What Cheer.” Mr. and Mrs. Fritz still owned the Tic Toc when it closed in 1978.
The history on the Opera House web site doesn’t mention a 1947 fire, or any alternate names for that theater, saying only that it operated as a movie house from sometime in the silent era until 1953. It seems strange that a town as small as What Cheer would have had two movie theaters in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but that’s what the evidence so far seems to be pointing to to: the Masonic Opera House and the What Cheer/Tic Toc were two different theaters.
This house opened on June 27, 1940, and the theater’s advertisements and the newspaper headlines about the event used the spelling Hazle Theatre. This was apparently the correct spelling, despite the variant sometimes used by the FDY.
Since 2016, the Goodhand Theatre has been operated by a nonprofit 501 © corporation called Friends of the Goodhand. The organization bought the building from the City some time after taking over management. The theater is staffed by volunteers. Movies are presented two weekends a month. Here is the official web site.
An item headlined “Rebuild Closed Theatre” in the October 16, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that the Cozy Theatre, recently closed by order of the state fire Marshall, would be rebuilt by Marcus Theatres, who had obtained a new lease on the structure. Improvements would include fireproofing, new seating and projection booth equipment, and a new ticket booth.
My surmise that the Margie Grand might have been the old Cumberland Theatre renamed turned out to be wrong. I came across a book published in 1922 that revealed that Harlan’s Cumberland Theatre was located on Main Street. A 1925 Sanborn map shows the site of the Margie Grand vacant, so it now seems likely that the Margie Grand probably did open in 1929, but after that year’s FDY was compiled. The rather old fashioned look of the building can probably be attributed to the aesthetic conservatism of the region.
A building at 108 (modern 107) S. Main Street is labeled “Movies” on the 1925 Sanborn map, and must have been the location of the Cumberland Theatre. It still stands, occupied by an attorney’s offices. The considerably larger Harlan Theatre is named on the map at 107-109 (modern 108-110) S. Main Street. The site is now part of a parking lot.
The Margie Grand Theater first appears in the FDY’s 1930 edition. Prior to that, there was a house called the Cumberland Theatre. No seating capacities were given for either house, so we can’t be sure if Margie Grand was a new name for the Cumberland, but it is a possibility. The Cumberland was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The town also had a house called the New Harlan Theatre, which several sources indicate was the town’s “A” house, but it appears to have been closed following a severe flood that struck the town in 1963, and it’s building was destroyed by a fire in 1970. The Margie Grand was still in operation at least as late as 1977. The New Harlan was built in 1922, and was listed in FDY editions from 1926 on.
The mid-year theater building report in the July 22, 1950 issue of Boxoffice listed the Cumberland Amusement Company’s 750-seat Alene Theatre at Whitesburg, Kentucky as one of the 327 indoor theaters started or opened in the United State since the beginning of the year. The Alene was one of the six (out of ten total) projects in Kentucky that had already opened.
An article in the March 16, 2016 issue of The Mountain Eagle says that the theater closed in the mid-1980s. Part of the ground floor is now occupied by a florists shop, and the remainder of the building has been converted into apartments. On opening, the Alene was the fourth house for the Isaacs family’s Cumberland Amusement Company. They had theaters in Cumberland and Benham, as well as the Kentucky Theatre in Whitesburg.
No theaters were listed at either Cumberland or Valley Falls in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the 1926 FDY lists a 500-seat Strand at Valley Falls.
CinemaScope equipment was installed at the Model Theatre in 1954, and the house had several more years of life before its building was converted into a bakery in 1962. The interior was gutted at the time of the conversion, and the streamline modern exterior of the house has since been entirely concealed behind a “vintage” false front. The bakery still occupies the violated premises.
The correct address of the Model Theatre is 419 Phoenix Street.
An item about the opening of the Michigan Theatre at South Haven that appeared in the July 11, 1947 issue of Film Daily noted that the house was a replacement for the Center Theater which had burned on January 2. However, local newspaper articles published on March 28 and June 20, 1947, both say that the Centre Theatre had burned on February 1, 1945, and Butterfield was unable to rebuild right away due to restrictions by the War Production Board. The newspaper articles are on display at the Michigan Theatre page at Water Winter Wonderland.
In any case, it appears that the Phoenix Theatre is a phantom. The Centre (the most common spelling of the name) Theatre was entirely destroyed in 1945 and replaced on the same site by the Michigan Theatre in 1947. South Haven’s only other theater of the period, the Model on Phoenix Street, opened in 1938. Neither CinemaTour nor Water Winter Wonderland lists a Phoenix Theatre at South Haven.
As for the Centre, Water Winter Wonderland has this page for it. It opened on April 13, 1920, originally seating 652 (the 1926 FDY says 438) but expanded to 731 in a 1934 remodeling. Destroyed by a fire on February 2, 1945.
Info from the July 11, 1947 Film Daily: “Butterfield Theaters opened the New Michigan Theater, South Haven, on Wednesday, July 2. With a seating capacity of nearly 1,000, the Michigan seats more than the old Center, which burned down Jan. 2, 1945.”
Like many theaters, the Roxy had CinemaScope equipment installed in 1954, and inaugurated the new format with biblical epic “The Robe.” The October 30 edition of Motion Picture Herald noted the event.
Okay, I checked the article again and it does say the second location of the Cozy was also on Front Street. I must have mistaken the newspaper’s address for the theater address when looking at the Google results summary.
Is there a paywall on my link? I’m still not getting one. It might be because my browser has a VPN setting I’m using. That cab confuse some websites into not blocking access.
The January 2, 1962 issue of Boxoffice had news about this house that had been owned by the local government:
An item in the June 18, 1955 Boxoffice had said that “[t]he theatre at Plum city is being kept open through the sponsorship of the local businessmen.” Such sponsorship must have failed not long after that. It seems unlikely that anybody would have been willing or able to underwrite the expense of converting the house for the wide screen formats that were rapidly displacing the standard 35mm films.In 1914 Hampton had a house called the Lyric Theatre, but it was at 119 Main Street. Perhaps this item from the January 10, 1919 issue of Film Daily is a clue, or maybe not: “Hampton, Iowa—The Star has been leased to James Keefe, who will operate it in connection with the Windsor.” The only theater listed at Hampton in the 1926, 1929 and 1938 FDYs is the Windsor, and I’m not hopeful that we’d find the Star listed if we checked more of them.
However, there is a second house listed at Hampton in the 1944 FDY, the 280-seat Lido. If no other theaters (but the Windsor) appear on the 1944 map, at least we’ve got a late name for this house. Whether or not it was earlier the Star remains moot, but does seem likely. It might be that once it came under the control of the operators of the Windsor they just kept it mothballed for a long time.
There is a Belleview Iowa in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no Bellevue. It’s undoubtedly an error by the Directory. The house listed at “Belleview” was called the Cozy Theatre. The 1926 FDY still lists a 350-seat house called the Cozy as the only theater at Bellevue. The 1926 house was at a different location, though.
This article from the July 5, 2023 Bellevue Herald-Leader discusses both locations. The Front Street (apparently another former name of Riverview Street) Cozy Theatre opened on May 19, 1913. The Cozy moved to its second location, at 118 S. 2nd Street, in 1916, and operated there into the 1970s. Both buildings are still standing.