In 1912, L. C. Stevens was manager of the Crescent Theatre. His letter to the IMP film company, dated February 8, 1912, was printed in the March 2 issue of the company’s magazine, The Implet.
Although the Star Theatre was not one of the three houses listed at Ann Arbor in the 1914-1915 AMPD, it remained in operation following the riot in 1910. The Star’s manager, B. E. Reynolds, wrote a letter dated February 2, 1912, to The Implet, the magazine published by the IMP film company, and it was printed in the March 2nd issue.
A letter from J. H. Grady of the Lyric Theatre, Sumter, S. C., appeared in the February 24, 1912 issue of The Implet, the magazine published by the IMP (Independent Moving Pictures) films company. Mr. Grady was offering praise for the company’s films, especially one called “From the Bottom of the Sea” which he singled out as “…one of the best and most instructive films ever shown here.”
IMP had been founded in 1909 by Carl Laemmle as one of the independent production companies operating in defiance of the Motion Picture Patents Company, the trust controlled by the Edison interests, which since being formed in 1908 had attempted to establish a lasting monopoly over the movie industry. In 1912 Laemmle formed the Universal Film Company, into which IMP was folded, though the name remained in use for some time as a brand under Universal’s control.
Although the Colonial Theatre with its (mostly) Romanesque Revival style building did look like something that would have been built in the 19th century, it was in fact erected in 1900 as the Florence City Hall, with municipal offices in the front, the police station at the rear, and a public auditorium in between. The auditorium was leased to various operators, and from 1911 to 1919 it came under the control of J. M. O'Dowd. It was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD as the Auditorium, but often appeared in trade journals as the O'Dowd Theatre or O'Dowd’s Theatre.
In 1919, O'Dowd lost the lease on the auditorium to rivals Schnibben and Howard. The Schnibben family operated the house for decades and eventually took over the other theaters in Florence as well. By 1926 it was listed in the FDY as the Opera House, a name it still bore in 1929, but by 1933 it had been renamed the Colonial.
The 1933 newspaper article claiming that the second O'Dowd Theatre was built in 1913 was mistaken. No theaters are located on South Dargan Street on the 1918 Sanborn map of Florence, and the Auditorium on W. Evans Street is still clearly labeled O'Dowd Theatre. The Carolina Theatre does appear on the 1924 Sanborn, and under that name, though the house is listed in the 1926 FDY as the O'Dowd, while the former O'Dowd on Evans Street is listed as the Opera House.
Mr. J. M. O'Dowd held the lease on the auditorium in the Florence City Hall from 1911 to 1919, when it was lost in a competitive bid to a rival. It appears that Mr. O'Dowd built his new house on Dargan Street following that event, and a 2024 article about the theater in the local Post and Courier does say that the Carolina opened in 1919 as O'Dowd’s Theatre. O'Dowd ran the theater until 1933, when he sold it to the Schnibben family, the rivals who had outbid him for the lease on the auditorium in 1919.
The Imp Theatre was still in operation in 1921, as noted in this item from the November 5 issue of Moving Picture World: “C. Fred Garwood, formerly of Fredonia, Kan., has bought the Imp Theatre at Syracuse, Kan., from H. H. Beebe, opening his new house on October 11. The Imp seats 249.”
I haven’t found any more references to a new theater being opened by Mr. Beebe, but a newspaper article from earlier in 1921 indicates that he was then operating the Imp Theatre and ice cream parlor, which seems to me a strong indication that this house at 12 Main Street was indeed the Imp, as the Sanborn map indicates that it was a theater and confectionary.
In a letter published in The Implet (a house organ of the IMP moving picture company) and dated February, 1912, Mr. W. T. Frayback, manager of the Imp Theatre at Syracuse, Kansas, says that he had been using IMP movies since “last May” and was very pleased with them. It would appear that this house opened, or at least adopted the name Imp Theatre, in May, 1911.
The December 3, 1949 issue of Boxoffice had an article about the dismantling of the Rio Theatre. It said that the Rio had been closed since the opening of the new Charm Theatre, which had taken place in November, 1948.
The December 11, 1948 issue of Boxoffice noted the recent opening of the Charm Theatre in Payette, Idaho, but did not give the exact date. The 680-seat house had been designed by Fruitland, Idaho architect I. C. Whitley for owner William B. Blackaby. I haven’t found a closing date, but the obituary of a woman born in 1945 said that in her youth she had worked at the theater’s candy counter and in the ticket booth, so it had to have been open at least into the early 1960s.
The October 8, 1949 issue of Boxoffice reported that the Cimarron Theatre at Cimarron, Kansas, owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Blakeman, would close for a month for modernization. The $8,000 project would include new restrooms and improvements to the front of the house.
The Cimarron was back in Boxoffice on August 4, 1951, which said that the Blakemans had bought the house back from Mr. and Mrs. John Boehm, to whom they had sold it the previous August.
An F. D. Morris of the Iris Theatre, Cimarron, Kansas, authored three capsule movie reviews that were published in the March 3, 1928 issue of Movie Age. That’s pretty much all I’ve been able to find about Cimarron in the trade journals until the 1940s. I have found the Iris Theatre mentioned in the newspaper as early as September, 1920.
Oddly, Maggie Valentine’s history of movie theater architecture “The Show Starts On the Sidewalk” includes a small photo of Hopper’s Opera House in Cimarron, ca.1911, but doesn’t say anything about that house running movies.
The Vaudette Theatre that opened in 1907 was in a different building, at 303 N. Main Street. It was still listed at that address in the 1914-1915 AMPD, and appears there on the 1913 Sanborn map of Rushville. The Masonic Lodge building which holds the current theater was still under construction in May, 1914.
Another error in the description is that the Masons own the building. The Masons owned the building until 2014, when it was sold to the City of Rushville, who carried out the renovations and converted the upstairs lodge rooms into their new City Hall.
The December, 1916 opening of the Poplar Theatre was a re-opening following reconstruction. The June 24 issue of Moving Picture World that year had reported that plans had been prepared by architect Carl Berger for a large, brick addition to the house that would double its seating capacity. The Poplar Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, and the announcement of plans for its original construction (also by Carl Berger) appeared in the July 12, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World.
The August 19, 1950 issue of Boxoffice said that the new, 450-car Cheyenne Drive-In at Hoisington had opened on July 15. The drive-in was operated by Jake Manweiler and his sons Edwin and August.
A 600-seat Opera House is listed at Hoisington in the 1904 Polk Kansas Gazetteer. A history published in 1912 says that the Peoples State Bank purchased the J. B. McCauley Opera House Building in May, 1904, installing their office on the ground floor and immediately expanding the Opera House itself. I haven’t found Hoisington listed in any editions of the Cahn guide other than 1913, which says only “details not at hand.” The Crystal is listed in the 1914 Gus Hill guide, but that appears to be Hoisington’s only other appearance in a theatrical guide.
In addition to the Crystal, Elite and Magic, the AMPD lists a house called the Bijou which is the only one of the four not yet listed at Cinema Treasures. I wonder if it could have been an earlier name for the Strand?
This item is from the February 2, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World: “E. E. Lucy and W. S. Wilkinson have purchased the Crystal Theatre at Hoisington, Kas., and have started dismantling it to be
used for other purpose. The passing of the Crystal leaves only the Royal Theatre at Hoisington.”
Back in 1914, the 300-seat Crystal was the only house in Hoisington listed in that year’s edition of Gus Hill’s theatrical guide.
And in 1911, the February 25 issue of The Nickelodeon said that the Crystal and a house called the Pastime Theatrium had been consolidated. The Crystal would continue to operate, but the Pastime had been closed “…for the time….”
If this was in fact the first Odeon, which does seem likely, it was in operation by 1909, when the October 21 issue of The Lyons Daily News reported that a stage was being built at the house so vaudeville could be presented as well as movies. Since the house didn’t even get a sloped floor until the 1911 rebuild, it must have been a pretty primitive theater in its early years. The Odeon is also mentioned in the Daily News in 1915 and 1917, but I’ve found no mentions in between 1909 and 1915.
In fact I’ve found no mentions of any theaters in Lyons during that period in either the newspaper or trade journals, though the Lyric was listed in the 1914 AMPD, and I know there was a Butler Opera House listed in the 1897 and 1900 Cahn guides (a 500-seat upstairs house.) The opera house building was still standing in 1924, when it suffered damage in a fire, but by then the theater was gone. The remodeled building might have been largely intact until 2023, when the roof collapsed and the upper floor was subsequently removed (Reddit post.) The absence of the Odeon from the AMPD might have been an oversight. Clearly it existed in late 1911 when its photo appeared in The Billboard, and it existed in one location or the other in 1915, when it was mentioned in the newspaper.
I’m going to upload the 1911 photo here. If we discover that the first Odeon was somewhere else the photo can be removed.
Here is an item about the Lawrence Theatre from the January 7, 1937 issue of Film Daily: “Bedford, Ind.—The Lawrence Theater, dark for many years and recently acquired by Theatrical Managers, Inc., has been renovated and reopened by H. E. McCarrell.”
I don’t know if it was the same theater or not, but by 1940 the FDY is listing a 300-seat house called the Claflin Theatre at Claflin. This house was probably also the one that was later called the Lux Theatre. A Boxoffice item from 1948 mentions a theater owner named Wheatcraft at Claflin, and a Google Books snippet view of an item from a 1960 issue of Independent Film Journal says that “…Wm. Wheatcraft closed his Lux Theatre in Claflin, Kans., and operation was taken over by the junior class of the local high school. Wheatcraft, who manages the Moore in Plainville, is buying and booking for the …” (snippet ends.) A 1963 newspaper item says that the public library at Claflin was moving out of the lobby of the Claflin theater (uncapitalized) where it had been for several years. I don’t know if this indicates a return to the name Claflin Theatre or not, and there’s no clear indication that the house was even still open that late.
The earliest mention I’ve found of the Odeon in movie industry trade journals is from the January 13, 1923 issue of Moving Picture World, which said that owner J. H. Townsley had recently given a free show to demonstrate his appreciation for the patronage the house had received over the previous year. However, the local Lyons daily News had mentioned the Odeon at least as early as February 26, 1915.
But here is the most interesting (and puzzling) bit: The December 9, 1911 issue of The Billboard has a photo of the front of a theater titled “ODEON THEATRE, LYONS, KANSAS” and the May 31 issue of The Western Contractor that same year had published this item: “LYONS, KANS.-The Odeon theatre is to be completely remodeled this summer. A new stucco front, inclined floors, ventilating system, fire exits, seats, decorations, etc., will be installed and a 40x24 foot addition to rear of building erected. Manager Skilkett owns the house.”
As the premises at 115 West Avenue S. were occupied by a hardware store in 1912, the earlier Odeon must have been at a different location, but I’ve been unable to discover where, or what became of it. An item in the February 25, 1913 issue of a trade publication called The Furniture Journal said that J. P. Blevins' furniture store at Lyons, Kansas had been completely destroyed on the night of January 29 by a fire which began when a stove exploded in an adjoining moving picture theater. Though it doesn’t give the name of the theater, it does seem quite possible that it was this earlier Odeon, and that the theater was also completely destroyed by the fire, forcing its relocation to 115 West Avenue.
There was a listing for the “Music Hall or Opera House, National Bank Bldg., Main Street” in the 1914-1915 AMPD. The only other house listed at Keyser was called the Pickwick, which might have been an earlier name for the Liberty Theatre. The National Bank Building was built at the corner of Main and Center streets in 1888, with a hall on the top floor.
The Music Hall, managed by J. T. Carskadon, is listed in the 1900-1901 Cahn guide with 800 seats. The building suffered a major fire in February, 1919, but the theater was back in operation by the early 1920s, when trade journals published many capsule movie reviews by an N. R. Carskadon, manager of the house.
The Liberty and the Music Hall were the two theaters listed at Keyser in editions of the FDY in the later 1920s. Keyser does not appear in the 1926 edition, though the Music Hall is mentioned in trade journals in the early 1920s. Both houses are listed in 1927. The 1914-1915 AMPD lists the Music Hall and a house called the Pickwick, which might have been an earlier name for the Liberty.
The May 27, 1959 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor reported that the Liberty Theatre in Keyser, West Virginia, had been closed.
The February 1, 1923 opening of the Tivoli was just a few days short of the second anniversary of the destruction of its predecessor, the Garden Theatre, by a fire on February 4, 1921. The Tivoli’s last show was presented on November 30, 1972.
The Garden Theatre came to the end of its career in 1921, not long after being acquired by the Wallerstein brothers. Two trade journal items noted the events. The March 5, 1921 Moving Picture World had this somewhat belated item headed “$100,000 Sale:”
“Jacob Wallerstein, of Michigan City, and Abe Wallerstein, of Laporte, his brother, have bought the Garden Theatre Building at Michigan City from the Central States Theatre Company, of Chicago, for the reported sum of $100,000. Its seating capacity will be increased from 1,400 to
1,800. The Wallersteins now own every theatre in Michigan City.”
The March 26 issue of the same publication brought this news, headed “Are Rebuilding Theatre:”
“Wallenstein Brothers are reconstructing their theatre, formerly known as the Garden, in Michigan City, Ind., which burned down about a month ago. Plans for a fine 1,500-seat house, thoroughly modern and attractive, are being carried out. The building is of concrete and steel. A beautiful balcony and mezzanine, and comfortable retiring rooms are provided for, and the balcony is equipped with a tier of smoking boxes and family loges.”
The fire that destroyed the Garden Theatre took place on February 4, 1921. The replacement house was of course the Tivoli Theatre, opened in 1923, closed in 1972 and demolished in 1973.
In 1912, L. C. Stevens was manager of the Crescent Theatre. His letter to the IMP film company, dated February 8, 1912, was printed in the March 2 issue of the company’s magazine, The Implet.
Although the Star Theatre was not one of the three houses listed at Ann Arbor in the 1914-1915 AMPD, it remained in operation following the riot in 1910. The Star’s manager, B. E. Reynolds, wrote a letter dated February 2, 1912, to The Implet, the magazine published by the IMP film company, and it was printed in the March 2nd issue.
A letter from J. H. Grady of the Lyric Theatre, Sumter, S. C., appeared in the February 24, 1912 issue of The Implet, the magazine published by the IMP (Independent Moving Pictures) films company. Mr. Grady was offering praise for the company’s films, especially one called “From the Bottom of the Sea” which he singled out as “…one of the best and most instructive films ever shown here.”
IMP had been founded in 1909 by Carl Laemmle as one of the independent production companies operating in defiance of the Motion Picture Patents Company, the trust controlled by the Edison interests, which since being formed in 1908 had attempted to establish a lasting monopoly over the movie industry. In 1912 Laemmle formed the Universal Film Company, into which IMP was folded, though the name remained in use for some time as a brand under Universal’s control.
Although the Colonial Theatre with its (mostly) Romanesque Revival style building did look like something that would have been built in the 19th century, it was in fact erected in 1900 as the Florence City Hall, with municipal offices in the front, the police station at the rear, and a public auditorium in between. The auditorium was leased to various operators, and from 1911 to 1919 it came under the control of J. M. O'Dowd. It was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD as the Auditorium, but often appeared in trade journals as the O'Dowd Theatre or O'Dowd’s Theatre.
In 1919, O'Dowd lost the lease on the auditorium to rivals Schnibben and Howard. The Schnibben family operated the house for decades and eventually took over the other theaters in Florence as well. By 1926 it was listed in the FDY as the Opera House, a name it still bore in 1929, but by 1933 it had been renamed the Colonial.
The 1933 newspaper article claiming that the second O'Dowd Theatre was built in 1913 was mistaken. No theaters are located on South Dargan Street on the 1918 Sanborn map of Florence, and the Auditorium on W. Evans Street is still clearly labeled O'Dowd Theatre. The Carolina Theatre does appear on the 1924 Sanborn, and under that name, though the house is listed in the 1926 FDY as the O'Dowd, while the former O'Dowd on Evans Street is listed as the Opera House.
Mr. J. M. O'Dowd held the lease on the auditorium in the Florence City Hall from 1911 to 1919, when it was lost in a competitive bid to a rival. It appears that Mr. O'Dowd built his new house on Dargan Street following that event, and a 2024 article about the theater in the local Post and Courier does say that the Carolina opened in 1919 as O'Dowd’s Theatre. O'Dowd ran the theater until 1933, when he sold it to the Schnibben family, the rivals who had outbid him for the lease on the auditorium in 1919.
The Imp Theatre was still in operation in 1921, as noted in this item from the November 5 issue of Moving Picture World: “C. Fred Garwood, formerly of Fredonia, Kan., has bought the Imp Theatre at Syracuse, Kan., from H. H. Beebe, opening his new house on October 11. The Imp seats 249.”
I haven’t found any more references to a new theater being opened by Mr. Beebe, but a newspaper article from earlier in 1921 indicates that he was then operating the Imp Theatre and ice cream parlor, which seems to me a strong indication that this house at 12 Main Street was indeed the Imp, as the Sanborn map indicates that it was a theater and confectionary.
In a letter published in The Implet (a house organ of the IMP moving picture company) and dated February, 1912, Mr. W. T. Frayback, manager of the Imp Theatre at Syracuse, Kansas, says that he had been using IMP movies since “last May” and was very pleased with them. It would appear that this house opened, or at least adopted the name Imp Theatre, in May, 1911.
The December 3, 1949 issue of Boxoffice had an article about the dismantling of the Rio Theatre. It said that the Rio had been closed since the opening of the new Charm Theatre, which had taken place in November, 1948.
The December 11, 1948 issue of Boxoffice noted the recent opening of the Charm Theatre in Payette, Idaho, but did not give the exact date. The 680-seat house had been designed by Fruitland, Idaho architect I. C. Whitley for owner William B. Blackaby. I haven’t found a closing date, but the obituary of a woman born in 1945 said that in her youth she had worked at the theater’s candy counter and in the ticket booth, so it had to have been open at least into the early 1960s.
The October 8, 1949 issue of Boxoffice reported that the Cimarron Theatre at Cimarron, Kansas, owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Milton Blakeman, would close for a month for modernization. The $8,000 project would include new restrooms and improvements to the front of the house.
The Cimarron was back in Boxoffice on August 4, 1951, which said that the Blakemans had bought the house back from Mr. and Mrs. John Boehm, to whom they had sold it the previous August.
An F. D. Morris of the Iris Theatre, Cimarron, Kansas, authored three capsule movie reviews that were published in the March 3, 1928 issue of Movie Age. That’s pretty much all I’ve been able to find about Cimarron in the trade journals until the 1940s. I have found the Iris Theatre mentioned in the newspaper as early as September, 1920.
Oddly, Maggie Valentine’s history of movie theater architecture “The Show Starts On the Sidewalk” includes a small photo of Hopper’s Opera House in Cimarron, ca.1911, but doesn’t say anything about that house running movies.
The Vaudette Theatre that opened in 1907 was in a different building, at 303 N. Main Street. It was still listed at that address in the 1914-1915 AMPD, and appears there on the 1913 Sanborn map of Rushville. The Masonic Lodge building which holds the current theater was still under construction in May, 1914.
Another error in the description is that the Masons own the building. The Masons owned the building until 2014, when it was sold to the City of Rushville, who carried out the renovations and converted the upstairs lodge rooms into their new City Hall.
The December, 1916 opening of the Poplar Theatre was a re-opening following reconstruction. The June 24 issue of Moving Picture World that year had reported that plans had been prepared by architect Carl Berger for a large, brick addition to the house that would double its seating capacity. The Poplar Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, and the announcement of plans for its original construction (also by Carl Berger) appeared in the July 12, 1913 issue of Moving Picture World.
The August 19, 1950 issue of Boxoffice said that the new, 450-car Cheyenne Drive-In at Hoisington had opened on July 15. The drive-in was operated by Jake Manweiler and his sons Edwin and August.
A 600-seat Opera House is listed at Hoisington in the 1904 Polk Kansas Gazetteer. A history published in 1912 says that the Peoples State Bank purchased the J. B. McCauley Opera House Building in May, 1904, installing their office on the ground floor and immediately expanding the Opera House itself. I haven’t found Hoisington listed in any editions of the Cahn guide other than 1913, which says only “details not at hand.” The Crystal is listed in the 1914 Gus Hill guide, but that appears to be Hoisington’s only other appearance in a theatrical guide.
In addition to the Crystal, Elite and Magic, the AMPD lists a house called the Bijou which is the only one of the four not yet listed at Cinema Treasures. I wonder if it could have been an earlier name for the Strand?
This item is from the February 2, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World: “E. E. Lucy and W. S. Wilkinson have purchased the Crystal Theatre at Hoisington, Kas., and have started dismantling it to be used for other purpose. The passing of the Crystal leaves only the Royal Theatre at Hoisington.”
Back in 1914, the 300-seat Crystal was the only house in Hoisington listed in that year’s edition of Gus Hill’s theatrical guide.
And in 1911, the February 25 issue of The Nickelodeon said that the Crystal and a house called the Pastime Theatrium had been consolidated. The Crystal would continue to operate, but the Pastime had been closed “…for the time….”
If this was in fact the first Odeon, which does seem likely, it was in operation by 1909, when the October 21 issue of The Lyons Daily News reported that a stage was being built at the house so vaudeville could be presented as well as movies. Since the house didn’t even get a sloped floor until the 1911 rebuild, it must have been a pretty primitive theater in its early years. The Odeon is also mentioned in the Daily News in 1915 and 1917, but I’ve found no mentions in between 1909 and 1915.
In fact I’ve found no mentions of any theaters in Lyons during that period in either the newspaper or trade journals, though the Lyric was listed in the 1914 AMPD, and I know there was a Butler Opera House listed in the 1897 and 1900 Cahn guides (a 500-seat upstairs house.) The opera house building was still standing in 1924, when it suffered damage in a fire, but by then the theater was gone. The remodeled building might have been largely intact until 2023, when the roof collapsed and the upper floor was subsequently removed (Reddit post.) The absence of the Odeon from the AMPD might have been an oversight. Clearly it existed in late 1911 when its photo appeared in The Billboard, and it existed in one location or the other in 1915, when it was mentioned in the newspaper.
I’m going to upload the 1911 photo here. If we discover that the first Odeon was somewhere else the photo can be removed.
Here is an item about the Lawrence Theatre from the January 7, 1937 issue of Film Daily: “Bedford, Ind.—The Lawrence Theater, dark for many years and recently acquired by Theatrical Managers, Inc., has been renovated and reopened by H. E. McCarrell.”
I don’t know if it was the same theater or not, but by 1940 the FDY is listing a 300-seat house called the Claflin Theatre at Claflin. This house was probably also the one that was later called the Lux Theatre. A Boxoffice item from 1948 mentions a theater owner named Wheatcraft at Claflin, and a Google Books snippet view of an item from a 1960 issue of Independent Film Journal says that “…Wm. Wheatcraft closed his Lux Theatre in Claflin, Kans., and operation was taken over by the junior class of the local high school. Wheatcraft, who manages the Moore in Plainville, is buying and booking for the …” (snippet ends.) A 1963 newspaper item says that the public library at Claflin was moving out of the lobby of the Claflin theater (uncapitalized) where it had been for several years. I don’t know if this indicates a return to the name Claflin Theatre or not, and there’s no clear indication that the house was even still open that late.
The earliest mention I’ve found of the Odeon in movie industry trade journals is from the January 13, 1923 issue of Moving Picture World, which said that owner J. H. Townsley had recently given a free show to demonstrate his appreciation for the patronage the house had received over the previous year. However, the local Lyons daily News had mentioned the Odeon at least as early as February 26, 1915.
But here is the most interesting (and puzzling) bit: The December 9, 1911 issue of The Billboard has a photo of the front of a theater titled “ODEON THEATRE, LYONS, KANSAS” and the May 31 issue of The Western Contractor that same year had published this item: “LYONS, KANS.-The Odeon theatre is to be completely remodeled this summer. A new stucco front, inclined floors, ventilating system, fire exits, seats, decorations, etc., will be installed and a 40x24 foot addition to rear of building erected. Manager Skilkett owns the house.”
As the premises at 115 West Avenue S. were occupied by a hardware store in 1912, the earlier Odeon must have been at a different location, but I’ve been unable to discover where, or what became of it. An item in the February 25, 1913 issue of a trade publication called The Furniture Journal said that J. P. Blevins' furniture store at Lyons, Kansas had been completely destroyed on the night of January 29 by a fire which began when a stove exploded in an adjoining moving picture theater. Though it doesn’t give the name of the theater, it does seem quite possible that it was this earlier Odeon, and that the theater was also completely destroyed by the fire, forcing its relocation to 115 West Avenue.
There was a listing for the “Music Hall or Opera House, National Bank Bldg., Main Street” in the 1914-1915 AMPD. The only other house listed at Keyser was called the Pickwick, which might have been an earlier name for the Liberty Theatre. The National Bank Building was built at the corner of Main and Center streets in 1888, with a hall on the top floor.
The Music Hall, managed by J. T. Carskadon, is listed in the 1900-1901 Cahn guide with 800 seats. The building suffered a major fire in February, 1919, but the theater was back in operation by the early 1920s, when trade journals published many capsule movie reviews by an N. R. Carskadon, manager of the house.
The Liberty and the Music Hall were the two theaters listed at Keyser in editions of the FDY in the later 1920s. Keyser does not appear in the 1926 edition, though the Music Hall is mentioned in trade journals in the early 1920s. Both houses are listed in 1927. The 1914-1915 AMPD lists the Music Hall and a house called the Pickwick, which might have been an earlier name for the Liberty.
The May 27, 1959 issue of Motion Picture Exhibitor reported that the Liberty Theatre in Keyser, West Virginia, had been closed.
The theater in Washington Park, Michigan City, is mentioned in the July 20, 1912 issue of The Billboard as playing movies, and vaudeville sometimes.
The February 1, 1923 opening of the Tivoli was just a few days short of the second anniversary of the destruction of its predecessor, the Garden Theatre, by a fire on February 4, 1921. The Tivoli’s last show was presented on November 30, 1972.
The Garden Theatre came to the end of its career in 1921, not long after being acquired by the Wallerstein brothers. Two trade journal items noted the events. The March 5, 1921 Moving Picture World had this somewhat belated item headed “$100,000 Sale:”
“Jacob Wallerstein, of Michigan City, and Abe Wallerstein, of Laporte, his brother, have bought the Garden Theatre Building at Michigan City from the Central States Theatre Company, of Chicago, for the reported sum of $100,000. Its seating capacity will be increased from 1,400 to 1,800. The Wallersteins now own every theatre in Michigan City.”
The March 26 issue of the same publication brought this news, headed “Are Rebuilding Theatre:”
“Wallenstein Brothers are reconstructing their theatre, formerly known as the Garden, in Michigan City, Ind., which burned down about a month ago. Plans for a fine 1,500-seat house, thoroughly modern and attractive, are being carried out. The building is of concrete and steel. A beautiful balcony and mezzanine, and comfortable retiring rooms are provided for, and the balcony is equipped with a tier of smoking boxes and family loges.”
The fire that destroyed the Garden Theatre took place on February 4, 1921. The replacement house was of course the Tivoli Theatre, opened in 1923, closed in 1972 and demolished in 1973.