The end of one brief episode in the Star’s history was noted in the May 7, 1952 issue of The Exhibitor: “Newmarket: The Star invited the Newmarket Boys’ Club to be guests at the last performance before the theatre shut down. The Star, owned by Arthur J. Turcotte, has been operating since August, 1951.”
This item from the November 6, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News might have been about the project that eventually operated as the first Cameo Theatre in Deering: “Lee Gorman will shortly open a
theatre in Deering, Me. He operates a circuit in Maine and plans to present films exclusively.”
This house was still listed as Hoegg’s Opera House in the 1909-1910 Cahn guide.
The October 16, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that when M. A. Moriabto took over the Deering Theatre he changed policy to art house fare and renamed the theater the Doll House. (The surname Moriabto does not appear to exist. Google’s AI suggests that this was most likely a typo for the Italian surname Morabito.)
The final chapter in the theater’s history is covered at the web site of Portland’s Lyric Music Theatre company. It says in part: “The group moved to a vacant movie theater on Stevens Avenue in Portland. The theater, known as the Doll House, and formerly Hoegg Hall, became the first permanent home for the Lyric Theater troupe and many successful shows were produced. At the close of the 1971 season, disaster struck when an explosion and fire destroyed the Doll House and its contents. Costumes, lights, flats, drapes, and the entire music and script library were lost.” The first photo on the linked page shows the Doll House during the period when it housed the Lyric Music Theatre.
An item datelined Augusta, Kansas in the May 24, 1952 issue of Boxoffice said that “Mrs. D. A. Bisagno opened her 250-car drive-in theatre here May 15 with Columbia’s ‘The First Time.’”
Boller Brothers lost the contract to design the Augusta Theatre to architect Larry Larsen in 1935, but an article in Boxoffice of October 29, 1949 about the reopening of the house after the rebuilding necessitated by a major fire that July says that the plans for the restoration had been prepared by Robert Boller and Dietz Lusk. The reopening took place on October 21.
Numerous items from Boxoffice in the 1940s and ‘50s confirm that the Isis was still operated by the Bisagno family during that period. It was probably operated as their “B” house when it was open, except during the period following the 1949 fire that gutted the Augusta Theater, when it would have served as the town’s only theater.
An October 29, 1949 Boxoffice item about the reopening of the Augusta said that the Isis would be closed for structural changes and redecoration. I’m not sure how much longer the Isis operated, but it was mentioned in passing in a January 26, 1957 Boxoffice article about Bob Bisagno’s hobby of restoring player pianos. It is mentioned in passing again in an item about Mrs. D. A. Bisagno in Boxoffice of February 24, 1958, so it might have been open that late.
Here’s the earliest mention of Augusta’s Idle Hour I’ve found in the trade journals. It’s from the February 17, 1917 issue of Motion Picture News: “KANSAS.— Augusta: Mrs. Jack Reinbold accompanied her husband to Kansas City last week, as usual, to select pictures for the Idle Hour at Augusta, Kan. Mrs. Reinbold does most of the selecting; in fact, frequently making trips by herself for the purpose. She has been markedly successful. Augusta is a raining town, and she seems to hit off its tastes well. Billie Burke has made a hit there, and has been one of the most successful bookings made by the Idle Hour.”
An October 16, 1920 Moving Picture World item mentions a C. H. Barron who owned “…the only two theaters in Augusta, Kan….” By that date, one of those theaters would have been the Isis and the other would have been the Idle Hour. Then the December 10, 1921 issue of Moving Picture World mentioned “Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Barron, who formerly operated the Isis and Mecca theatres in Augusta, Kas….” I’d say that’s a pretty strong indication that the Idle Hour became the Mecca, probably sometime during Mr. Barron’s ownership.
Further evidence that the Isis dated from 1916 is this item from the February 12 issue of Moving Picture World that year: “AUGUSTA, KANS.-G. M. Smith has the contract to erect a moving picture theater for F. G. Yates. The structure will cost about $10,000.”
The Augusta Theatre was built in 1935 by Dave Bisagno, who had operated the Isis for some time. The Isis was listed as closed in FDYs for 1938 and 1939 (I don’t have access to 1936 or 1937,) but was opened again in the 1940s and was still listed in 1951. It was probably still operated by the Bisagno family during those years, as they operated the Augusta until selling it to the Augusta Arts Commission in 1985.
Thanks for the additional information and the images, toasterking. Here is a hyperlink to your video at YouTube. From the description in Boxoffice I thought this might have been a system like the ones used in old atmospheric theaters in the 1920s, but fiber optics makes much more sense for the beginning of the 21st century.
This must have been the house that opened in 1907 as the Nickelodeon, noted in Douglas Gomery’s 1992 book Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States. It later moved and was renamed the Idle Hour, and was still in operation under that name in 1916 when the larger Isis Theatre opened. Gomery doesn’t give addresses, or say if the Nickelodeon was renamed before or after it moved to its new location, but the new location appears to have been 511 State Street.
If the building was built between 1915 and 1917 it’s the history that is wrong, not the address. Douglas Gomery’s 1992 book Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States Actually devotes three short paragraphs to the early theaters in Augusta, and says that the Isis opened in 1916, supplementing an earlier movie house four doors down the block called the Idle Hour. That had to have been the theater at 511.
Gomery further notes that the Idle Hour began at a different location in 1907 under the name The Nickelodeon. I’m thinking that was most likely the storefront theater at 518 State Street. Gomery doesn’t say when the Nickelodeon changed its name (before or after the move) or when it moved, but I’m wondering if that very specific date Bryan gave for the opening of the Isis might actually have been the date for the opening of the new Idle Hour?
If anyone wants to see the three paragraphs about Augusta in Gomery’s book, it’s at Google Books. Here is a link (I hope.)
The January, 2001 issue of Boxoffice said that Eastern Federal had installed a device called a Tivoli Starlight Panel in their Starlight Cinema at Anderson. It projected star patterns on the ceiling of the lobby, including signs of the zodiac. The theater held a weekly contest in which the first patron to identify which constellation was being displayed received a free movie pass.
News that ABC-Southeastern Theatres had leased space in the new Anderson Mall for an 800-seat theater appeared in the March 20, 1972 issue of Boxoffice. The house most likely didn’t open until the second half of the year, but I’ve been unable to find any announcement of that event.
An announcement by Frederick Mercy Jr. of a 1,000-seat twin theater to be built near the Yakima Theatre Company’s Tower Drive-In at Union Gap appeared in the January 3, 1972 issue of Boxoffice. This was the first phase of a project that would later include the demolition of the drive-in and its replacement by retail space. The entire project was being designed by Yakima-based firm Doudna-Williams Architects (Richard Miles Doudna and Arthur Robert “Bob” Williams.)
An item in the March 15, 1976 issue of Boxoffice told of three projects then underway for the Fairlane-Litchfield circuit (mistakenly called Fairlane-Ritchfield in the article) including this house in Anderson. The three auditoriums on the Anderson location were to seat 400, 300, and 200.
The timing and description of this project noted in the August 7, 1918 issue of Building and Engineering News makes it a very good candidate to have been the Strand: “Contract Awarded. THEATRE Cost, 25,000 PHOENIX, Arizona. Washington St. Two-story Class ‘B’ moving picture theatre. Owner — A. C. Hubbard, Redlands. Cal. Architects— Alfred W. Rea and C. E. Garstang, 720 Black Bldg., Los Angeles. Contractor— A. E. Taylor, Redlands, Cal. and Y. M. C. A. Bldg., Phoenix.”
Architects Alfred W. Rea and Charles E. Garstang began their practice in Joplin, Missouri, in 1901, but were working in Los Angeles by 1914, when they designed a building for the Standard Oil company in Whittier.
Movies in Victoria predate this building. The April 1, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World mentioned “R. A. Caldwell, of South Hills, Va., who is operating a string of small houses at South Hill, Blackstone, Lawrenceville, Clarksville, Burkesville, and Victoria, Va.”
This item from the June 3, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World might be about the Cameo Theatre’s origin: “Will Build in Lawrenceville, Va.
“Lawrenceville, Va.—This place is soon to have a new and modern motion picture theater as a result of a fire in the operating room of the Opera House during which the five reel subject ‘The Sins of the Mothers,’ V-L-S-E., and a single reel Universal was destroyed. The owners of the building, which also houses a bank, refuse to allow the exhibition of motion pictures there in the future. E. K. Fox, who has been operating in the Opera House and who also has the Opera House at Snow Hill, Va., is fixing up a tent to use during the summer. He expects to have his new house ready early in the fall.”
A lawsuit underway in 1955 revealed that the Victoria Theatre occupied half of the ground floor of a three-story brick building, 50'x88, erected in 1922 as the Patrick Henry Hotel. This Facebook page has a photo. Comments below it say the house closed around 1955 or 1956, and that the building was demolished in 1973. The timing of the closure suggests that the Victoria was one of those numerous small town theaters that were unable to afford installing wide-screen equipment in the mid-1950s.
Blackstone had a house called the Bijou theatre in 1913, advertised as part of the American Motion Picture League in the December 20 issue of Moving Picture World.
I don’t know if this is the same place or not, but the September 5, 1930 issue of The National Exhibitor reported that the newly remodeled and redecorated Nottoway Theatre in Blackstone, Virginia, had reopened for the fall and winter season. Three shows a week would be presented.
The April, 1905 issue of The New York Clipper contained an ad from manager William Harris soliciting attraction for the Blackstone, Virginia Opera House, touting “new scenery, new management.” Seating capacity of the upstairs house was 606. Could that have been this place? The second floor Opera House at Blackstone, Virginia, was also listed in the 1910-1911 Cahn guide with 600 seats.
A second floor theater managed by an R. D. Patterson was listed at Chase City in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide, but no name was provided. An “Images of America” series book has a photo of the Town Hall and the caption mentions the theater, calling it the Opera House. It says that in June, 1909 it was leased to a Mr. Stearms who presented movies one or two nights a week. It also says that in 1920 (but perhaps 1916?) it was leased to C. E. Geoghegan for use as a movie house until the one he was building was completed.
The July 7, 1935 Film Daily ran this notice: “Frisco, Tex.—T. J. Farrington has opened the Frisco theater, a new house seating 200.”
The end of one brief episode in the Star’s history was noted in the May 7, 1952 issue of The Exhibitor: “Newmarket: The Star invited the Newmarket Boys’ Club to be guests at the last performance before the theatre shut down. The Star, owned by Arthur J. Turcotte, has been operating since August, 1951.”
This item from the November 6, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News might have been about the project that eventually operated as the first Cameo Theatre in Deering: “Lee Gorman will shortly open a theatre in Deering, Me. He operates a circuit in Maine and plans to present films exclusively.”
This house was still listed as Hoegg’s Opera House in the 1909-1910 Cahn guide.
The October 16, 1948 issue of Boxoffice said that when M. A. Moriabto took over the Deering Theatre he changed policy to art house fare and renamed the theater the Doll House. (The surname Moriabto does not appear to exist. Google’s AI suggests that this was most likely a typo for the Italian surname Morabito.)
The final chapter in the theater’s history is covered at the web site of Portland’s Lyric Music Theatre company. It says in part: “The group moved to a vacant movie theater on Stevens Avenue in Portland. The theater, known as the Doll House, and formerly Hoegg Hall, became the first permanent home for the Lyric Theater troupe and many successful shows were produced. At the close of the 1971 season, disaster struck when an explosion and fire destroyed the Doll House and its contents. Costumes, lights, flats, drapes, and the entire music and script library were lost.” The first photo on the linked page shows the Doll House during the period when it housed the Lyric Music Theatre.
An item datelined Augusta, Kansas in the May 24, 1952 issue of Boxoffice said that “Mrs. D. A. Bisagno opened her 250-car drive-in theatre here May 15 with Columbia’s ‘The First Time.’”
Boller Brothers lost the contract to design the Augusta Theatre to architect Larry Larsen in 1935, but an article in Boxoffice of October 29, 1949 about the reopening of the house after the rebuilding necessitated by a major fire that July says that the plans for the restoration had been prepared by Robert Boller and Dietz Lusk. The reopening took place on October 21.
Numerous items from Boxoffice in the 1940s and ‘50s confirm that the Isis was still operated by the Bisagno family during that period. It was probably operated as their “B” house when it was open, except during the period following the 1949 fire that gutted the Augusta Theater, when it would have served as the town’s only theater.
An October 29, 1949 Boxoffice item about the reopening of the Augusta said that the Isis would be closed for structural changes and redecoration. I’m not sure how much longer the Isis operated, but it was mentioned in passing in a January 26, 1957 Boxoffice article about Bob Bisagno’s hobby of restoring player pianos. It is mentioned in passing again in an item about Mrs. D. A. Bisagno in Boxoffice of February 24, 1958, so it might have been open that late.
Here’s the earliest mention of Augusta’s Idle Hour I’ve found in the trade journals. It’s from the February 17, 1917 issue of Motion Picture News: “KANSAS.— Augusta: Mrs. Jack Reinbold accompanied her husband to Kansas City last week, as usual, to select pictures for the Idle Hour at Augusta, Kan. Mrs. Reinbold does most of the selecting; in fact, frequently making trips by herself for the purpose. She has been markedly successful. Augusta is a raining town, and she seems to hit off its tastes well. Billie Burke has made a hit there, and has been one of the most successful bookings made by the Idle Hour.”
An October 16, 1920 Moving Picture World item mentions a C. H. Barron who owned “…the only two theaters in Augusta, Kan….” By that date, one of those theaters would have been the Isis and the other would have been the Idle Hour. Then the December 10, 1921 issue of Moving Picture World mentioned “Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Barron, who formerly operated the Isis and Mecca theatres in Augusta, Kas….” I’d say that’s a pretty strong indication that the Idle Hour became the Mecca, probably sometime during Mr. Barron’s ownership.
Further evidence that the Isis dated from 1916 is this item from the February 12 issue of Moving Picture World that year: “AUGUSTA, KANS.-G. M. Smith has the contract to erect a moving picture theater for F. G. Yates. The structure will cost about $10,000.”
The Augusta Theatre was built in 1935 by Dave Bisagno, who had operated the Isis for some time. The Isis was listed as closed in FDYs for 1938 and 1939 (I don’t have access to 1936 or 1937,) but was opened again in the 1940s and was still listed in 1951. It was probably still operated by the Bisagno family during those years, as they operated the Augusta until selling it to the Augusta Arts Commission in 1985.
Thanks for the additional information and the images, toasterking. Here is a hyperlink to your video at YouTube. From the description in Boxoffice I thought this might have been a system like the ones used in old atmospheric theaters in the 1920s, but fiber optics makes much more sense for the beginning of the 21st century.
This must have been the house that opened in 1907 as the Nickelodeon, noted in Douglas Gomery’s 1992 book Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States. It later moved and was renamed the Idle Hour, and was still in operation under that name in 1916 when the larger Isis Theatre opened. Gomery doesn’t give addresses, or say if the Nickelodeon was renamed before or after it moved to its new location, but the new location appears to have been 511 State Street.
Okay, the link only goes to the front cover. The three paragraphs start on page 28.
If the building was built between 1915 and 1917 it’s the history that is wrong, not the address. Douglas Gomery’s 1992 book Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States Actually devotes three short paragraphs to the early theaters in Augusta, and says that the Isis opened in 1916, supplementing an earlier movie house four doors down the block called the Idle Hour. That had to have been the theater at 511.
Gomery further notes that the Idle Hour began at a different location in 1907 under the name The Nickelodeon. I’m thinking that was most likely the storefront theater at 518 State Street. Gomery doesn’t say when the Nickelodeon changed its name (before or after the move) or when it moved, but I’m wondering if that very specific date Bryan gave for the opening of the Isis might actually have been the date for the opening of the new Idle Hour?
If anyone wants to see the three paragraphs about Augusta in Gomery’s book, it’s at Google Books. Here is a link (I hope.)
The January, 2001 issue of Boxoffice said that Eastern Federal had installed a device called a Tivoli Starlight Panel in their Starlight Cinema at Anderson. It projected star patterns on the ceiling of the lobby, including signs of the zodiac. The theater held a weekly contest in which the first patron to identify which constellation was being displayed received a free movie pass.
News that ABC-Southeastern Theatres had leased space in the new Anderson Mall for an 800-seat theater appeared in the March 20, 1972 issue of Boxoffice. The house most likely didn’t open until the second half of the year, but I’ve been unable to find any announcement of that event.
An announcement by Frederick Mercy Jr. of a 1,000-seat twin theater to be built near the Yakima Theatre Company’s Tower Drive-In at Union Gap appeared in the January 3, 1972 issue of Boxoffice. This was the first phase of a project that would later include the demolition of the drive-in and its replacement by retail space. The entire project was being designed by Yakima-based firm Doudna-Williams Architects (Richard Miles Doudna and Arthur Robert “Bob” Williams.)
An item in the March 15, 1976 issue of Boxoffice told of three projects then underway for the Fairlane-Litchfield circuit (mistakenly called Fairlane-Ritchfield in the article) including this house in Anderson. The three auditoriums on the Anderson location were to seat 400, 300, and 200.
The timing and description of this project noted in the August 7, 1918 issue of Building and Engineering News makes it a very good candidate to have been the Strand: “Contract Awarded. THEATRE Cost, 25,000 PHOENIX, Arizona. Washington St. Two-story Class ‘B’ moving picture theatre. Owner — A. C. Hubbard, Redlands. Cal. Architects— Alfred W. Rea and C. E. Garstang, 720 Black Bldg., Los Angeles. Contractor— A. E. Taylor, Redlands, Cal. and Y. M. C. A. Bldg., Phoenix.”
Architects Alfred W. Rea and Charles E. Garstang began their practice in Joplin, Missouri, in 1901, but were working in Los Angeles by 1914, when they designed a building for the Standard Oil company in Whittier.
Movies in Victoria predate this building. The April 1, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World mentioned “R. A. Caldwell, of South Hills, Va., who is operating a string of small houses at South Hill, Blackstone, Lawrenceville, Clarksville, Burkesville, and Victoria, Va.”
This item from the June 3, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World might be about the Cameo Theatre’s origin: “Will Build in Lawrenceville, Va.
“Lawrenceville, Va.—This place is soon to have a new and modern motion picture theater as a result of a fire in the operating room of the Opera House during which the five reel subject ‘The Sins of the Mothers,’ V-L-S-E., and a single reel Universal was destroyed. The owners of the building, which also houses a bank, refuse to allow the exhibition of motion pictures there in the future. E. K. Fox, who has been operating in the Opera House and who also has the Opera House at Snow Hill, Va., is fixing up a tent to use during the summer. He expects to have his new house ready early in the fall.”
A lawsuit underway in 1955 revealed that the Victoria Theatre occupied half of the ground floor of a three-story brick building, 50'x88, erected in 1922 as the Patrick Henry Hotel. This Facebook page has a photo. Comments below it say the house closed around 1955 or 1956, and that the building was demolished in 1973. The timing of the closure suggests that the Victoria was one of those numerous small town theaters that were unable to afford installing wide-screen equipment in the mid-1950s.
Blackstone had a house called the Bijou theatre in 1913, advertised as part of the American Motion Picture League in the December 20 issue of Moving Picture World.
I don’t know if this is the same place or not, but the September 5, 1930 issue of The National Exhibitor reported that the newly remodeled and redecorated Nottoway Theatre in Blackstone, Virginia, had reopened for the fall and winter season. Three shows a week would be presented.
The April, 1905 issue of The New York Clipper contained an ad from manager William Harris soliciting attraction for the Blackstone, Virginia Opera House, touting “new scenery, new management.” Seating capacity of the upstairs house was 606. Could that have been this place? The second floor Opera House at Blackstone, Virginia, was also listed in the 1910-1911 Cahn guide with 600 seats.
A second floor theater managed by an R. D. Patterson was listed at Chase City in the 1912-1913 Cahn guide, but no name was provided. An “Images of America” series book has a photo of the Town Hall and the caption mentions the theater, calling it the Opera House. It says that in June, 1909 it was leased to a Mr. Stearms who presented movies one or two nights a week. It also says that in 1920 (but perhaps 1916?) it was leased to C. E. Geoghegan for use as a movie house until the one he was building was completed.