This Facebook post from the Eveleth Heritage Society says the Grant Theatre opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1938 (November 24 that year.) The first movies shown were “Gangster’s Boy” with Jackie Cooper and a western called “Romance of the Limberlost.”
The local paper described the façade as featuring an ivory and blue Vitrolite finish with a granite base. The lobby had a terrazzo floor, and the auditorium was 48 x 75 feet, with 606 red, black and green seats. The house was designed by local architect Elwin Harris Berg. At the time of its closing, the Grant was Eveleth’s last traditional indoor cinema, the Regent and State Theatres having both closed in 1955.
A notice about plans for this house appeared in Moving Picture World of April 8, 1916: “DETROIT, MICH. -Christian W. Brandt is preparing plans for a moving picture theater to be erected at the corner of Mack and Holcomb avenues, with seating capacity of 1,000.”
I’ve managed to find a few trade journal items about the Holbrook-Grant Theatre: The October 14, 1922 issue of Universal Weekly had this news from the house: “THE Holbrook Theatre, Detroit, managed by R. S. Fisher will be redecorated and remodeled, making it a first class house in every respect, Mr. Fisher has decided.”
In 1937, the Holbrook was apparently struggling. The January 14 Film Daily had this to say: “Detroit — Holbrook Theater, north end Negro house, recently opened by Lee Carrow and Carl Retter, has been closed again.”
The February 13 issue had more news: “Detroit—Latest house change is the Holbrook Theater reported taken over by Anthony Klein and Carl Reiter from Lee Carrow.”
February 16 brought this information: “Detroit—Carl Reiter and Anthony
Klein have reopened the Holbrook Theater, north end Negro house, Klein taking over half interest from Lee Carrow. The house is operating three gift nights.”
In March, 1942, the Grant Theatre’s manager provided several capsule movie reviews for Motion Picture Herald, including this rather drolly unimpressed March 7 review of a now well-known classic: “CITIZEN KANE: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten— High priced picture. But I made a little money on my help. They took off three days because they were afraid of being all alone in the theatre. Running time, 120 minutes. Played February 17-19. —Saul Korman, Grant Theatre, Detroit, Mich. General patronage.”
Detroit related items in the October 22, 1943 Film Daily included a reference to “Stanley Anushko, former manager of the Grant Theater”
A Pasadena Theatre is listed at Mack Avenue and Belvedere Street in the 1914-1915 AMPD. It appears at 9232 Mack in the 1926 FDY, which is closer to McClellan Avenue than to Belvedere Street, so the house might have moved to a new building at some point during that period. From 1916 it had to compete for neighborhood patrons with the larger, architect-designed Delthe Theatre two blocks down Mack Avenue.
This house was still listed as the Caniff Theatre in the 1927 FDY. No theaters were listed on Caniff Street in the 1928 edition, but the Eagle Theater is listed at 2026 Caniff in 1929 (an Eagle was listed in 1928, but at 6345 Michigan.) In 1930 and 1931 no houses are listed on Caniff Street, but in 1932 a 360-seat New Eagle Theatre makes an appearance on Caniff Avenue, though without a street number.
A 360-seat Caniff Theater reappears on Caniff Avenue in 1933, but is listed as closed. The names Caniff, Eagle and Poland are all conspicuously absent from the 1934,‘35 and '36 FDYs. I haven’t checked later editions. If this house was ever called the Poland Theatre, I haven’t found when. It might have operated under that name too briefly to have made an appearance in the FDY.
The 375-seat Campau Theater at 9643 Joseph Campau is listed in the 1929 FDY. The 1926 FDY had listed the same address for the Free Poland Theatre, with the same capacity. The Free Poland Theatre is listed at old address 2181-83 (corresponding to modern address 9643) Joseph Campau in the 1919 Polk Michigan Gazetteer. The lot was vacant on the 1915 Sanborn map of Hamtramck.
A June 22, 1933 article in the Detroit Free Press concerned a fire in the 9700 block of Joseph Campau Avenue which “…badly scorched the New Campau Theater….” across the street.
The formal opening of the Ishpeming Theatre took place on December 15, 1903. Walker Whiteside and his company of players opened the house with the satirical comedy “We Are King.” The local Elk’s club had been a major force behind the project to build the theater. The architect was M. E. Bell (probably Mifflin Emlen Bell, a well-established Michigan architect of the period.)
Despite an auspicious beginning, the playhouse was suffering financial difficulty by 1913, and manager Ed Butler turned to movies to improve revenues. This led to the demise of the Royal Theatre, one of Ishpeming’s two regular movie houses of the time. The 1914-1915 AMPD listed only the Ishpeming and the Lyric Theatre for the town.
Judging from this item that appeared in the October 30, 1915 issue of Michigan Contractor and Builder, the Butler Theatre might have been completed before the end of that year: “Ishpeming-According to the pace thus far followed in the construction of the Butler theater on Main street, Contractor J. S. Wahlman will make a record in building construction on the job. Within two weeks the building will be enclosed. The construction of the building will be of brick and steel. Charlton & Kuenzli, architects.”
An item in the October 16 issue of the same publication had said that the foundations for the building were in and that Mr. Butler hoped to have the theater open in time for the holidays. I haven’t found any source confirming a December opening, or giving an exact date, but it does seem possible. No 1915 newspapers from Ishpeming are available online.
The Strand was open in time to be listed in the 1926 FDY. It was listed with 800 seats, and was the only theater in St. Charles through the rest of the decade.
The July 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon published an article about F. O. Weber’s plans to build a new theater, which turned out to be the Comet. The article also had a bit of information about Mr. Weber’s first Amuzu Theatre, saying that “[t]he Amuzu has never known a losing week since its opening, June 15, 1909, and it will also be continued on the same high plane.” The Amuzu had been operated by Weber since its opening.
This item from the July 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon must be about the Comet Theatre, though it had not yet been given a name: “ROANOKE, VA.-F. O. Webber, proprietor of the Amuzu Theater, will erect a new theater at 309 South Jefferson street, which will be completed about September 1st, and will have a seating capacity of 400. When the theater is completed it will be one of the handsomest in the city. The entire front of 40 feet will be plaster relief with designs symbolic of the theater. A mass of electric lights will bring out every line of the building and a big flashing sign spell the name to all parts of the city. The front lobby will be tile with walls of patented marble effect, giving the place a rich and appropriate setting for the handsome interior. A small stage will fill the rear of the theater, which is for variety acts and illustrated song singers. The policy of the theater will be moving pictures and songs, the same as Mr. Webber has given so successfully at the Amuzu, which he has been operating for the past year, although the performance at the new theater will be more extensive than the Amuzu. The Amuzu has never known a losing week since its opening, June 15, 1909, and it will also be continued on the same high plane. Mr. Webber has always catered to ladies and children, and always offered a large amount of highgrade amusement for a nominal sum. He will soon open a new theater at Bluefield.”
Bad news for Roanoke’s Paramount Theatre from Moving Picture World of July 31, 1915: “The Paramount theater of this city has closed its doors. This theater was formerly the Jefferson and has been termed a lemon by the local showmen for a good many years, stock, vaudeville and pictures being tried with little success.”
A September 29, 2010 article in The Oberlin Herald said that the roof of the former bottling plant in which the original Sunflower Cinema was located became unrepairable and funds were raised to demolish the building and replace it. At the time the article was published funds were still being raised to complete the blowing alley section of the project (probably just outfitting, but the article didn’t specify), but the theater was apparently already open.
So the current theater is the second of its name. The new building was designed by architect Rex Olson of Boulder, Colorado.
Although there are no current movie listing for the house available on any of the movie listing web sites I’ve checked, and so far no Yelp reviews of the facility, there are a number of Google reviews, the most recent of which says it was posted “five months ago,” and the reviewer said the ticket price was seven dollars for a first run movie (which he failed to name) so the place has been in operation at least that recently. The majority of the reviews have five stars, and none fewer than four, so the place appears to be well liked.
I just found this PDF (one page) with a 2010 Oberlin Herald article about the Opera House, which it says opened on December 31, 1906 with a performance of “The Mikado.” In March, 1928, the Opera House became the first theater west of Salina to present talking pictures. The Chief Theatre operated until the last weekend of September, 1973, when a major rainstorm caused the roof to collapse. It was subsequently demolished.
This house could have been the Wigwam Theatre. Its manager, Ross Riley, provided dozens of capsule movie reviews to Exhibitors Herald which appeared from early 1920 into late 1924. It was a rather primitive operation, Riley noting in one 1924 item that he had only one projection machine and would show slides while reels were being changed. An R. Ross Riley of Oberlin had a letter published in the July, 1918 issue of Photoplay, but it doesn’t mention a theater.
An October 24, 1925 Moving Picture World item said that the New Regent Theatre at Oberlin was scheduled to open the next week, but I’ve been unable to find anything more about it. I found one source saying that the Wigwam closed in 1928.
Oberlin Opera House is listed in the 1907-1908 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 797 seats. It had a good sized stage for a small town theater, too, 29 feet to the back wall and 54 feet between side walls.
Johnson’s obituary was from 2012, so details of how long he had run the house had probably gone fuzzy. I wonder if the Lakin of 1939 could have been one of the town’s older theaters renamed and reopened for a while?
That does seem plausible. Colby’s historical population was only 1,130 in 1910 and went down to 1,114 in 1920, so certainly not a two-theater town in that decade. It grew rapidly in the 1920s, though, almost doubling to 2,153 by 1930, so that’s likely when the new Lyric was built.
The Lyric and Colby appear to have both been under the Phillips family’s ownership, so having them adjacent would have been a great convenience for ease of operation.
The reopening of the Colby Theatre was to take place on Wednesday, October 27, 1971 according to the October 25 issue of Boxoffice. The opening feature was to be “Big Jake” with John Wayne. Seating capacity was now 430. The house had opened thirty years earlier, in 1941. A notice that construction on the original project was underway had appeared in the January 4, 1941 issue of Motion Picture Herald.
The Lyric might not have appeared on the 1918 map, but an earlier Lyric Theatre operated in Colby. The April 29, 1916 Moving Picture World said that J. P. Phillips, manager of the Lyric Theatre at Colby, would soon open another house, also to be called the Lyric, at Selden, Kansas.
Interestingly, the name Phillips is still associated with the later Lyric in this item from the January 4, 1941 Motion Picture Herald: “DON PHILLIPS who operates the Lyric at Colby, Kan., is building a new house there.”
Don Phillips was mentioned in the July 17, 1948 issue of Boxoffice as operator of the Lyric and Colby theaters in Colby, Kansas. As late as 1972 he was still being mentioned in Boxoffice as the owner of the Colby Theatre.
An item datelined Colby in the March 4, 1950 issue of Boxoffice said that the 350-car drive-in being built for Don Phillips was slated to open on May 23. The project had been designed by architect Truman Schlupp of Kansas City. I haven’t been able to discover if the target date for completion was met.
Here is something from the Hutchinson News of September 20, 1949: “Lakin Theater Changes Hands
“Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Johnson have purchased the Lakin theater here from Fred Munson, builder. Included in the transaction is the building which houses the movie, Brehm’s store, and the apartment above the two business locations.
“Munson built the theater less than three years ago and leased the other location to Brehm while operating the movie house himself. Johnson has been engaged in aerial crop spraying operations in Kearny and surrounding counties the past two years. He plans to continue this business during the spring and summer seasons while also operating the theater.”
The Kearny County Museum has a bit more information in a June, 2023 post on their web site: “The Lakin Theatre building on the east side of South Main was completed in 1947 by Fred Munson. He finished the building next door at 108 S. Main in early 1948, leasing it to Howard Brehm who operated Brehm’s Department Store there. The last business to operate at this site was Jim Powers’ barber shop.”
Jerry Johnson and the Lakin Theatre were mentioned in the December 16, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. He attended an exhibitors convention in Kansas City in 1954, noted in the May 15 issue of Boxoffice. An obituary for Gerald Lee Johnson says that he “…ran the Lakin Theater for many years….”
Here is the only trade journal reference to the Electric I’ve been able to unearth so far, from the November 10, 1917 Moving Picture World: “Lakin, Kan.—Frank Weber has been making some improvements in the Electric theater.”
The NRHP registration form for the Great Bend Central Business District says that the Plaza Theatre building was built in 1916 for Louis Zutavern, a member of an influential local family. It doesn’t give the name under which the house originally operated, but says that by 1920 it was operating as the Weber Theatre. By 1930 it had become the Plaza.
The Plaza was one of the earliest theaters in the Commonwealth chain, and remained in operation as part of the chain at least as late as 1954. I haven’t found a closing date, but it was definitely closed, yet still remembered and perhaps still intact, in 1968, when the September 11 Great Bend Tribune made reference to “…Republican headquarters, formerly the Plaza Theater.”
Sanborn maps from 1913 and 1927 show the McFerren Opera House upstairs at 224-226 Main Street. The 1904-1905 Cahn guide lists it as the New McFerren Opera House with 1000 seats, while the 1884 Harry Miner guide lists a smaller McFerren’s with only 600 seats and a much smaller stage. I would presume that the original house was probably replaced early in the 20th century. By 1913 the Cahn guide is calling it simply McFerren Opera House, with no “New.”
This Facebook post from the Eveleth Heritage Society says the Grant Theatre opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1938 (November 24 that year.) The first movies shown were “Gangster’s Boy” with Jackie Cooper and a western called “Romance of the Limberlost.”
The local paper described the façade as featuring an ivory and blue Vitrolite finish with a granite base. The lobby had a terrazzo floor, and the auditorium was 48 x 75 feet, with 606 red, black and green seats. The house was designed by local architect Elwin Harris Berg. At the time of its closing, the Grant was Eveleth’s last traditional indoor cinema, the Regent and State Theatres having both closed in 1955.
A notice about plans for this house appeared in Moving Picture World of April 8, 1916: “DETROIT, MICH. -Christian W. Brandt is preparing plans for a moving picture theater to be erected at the corner of Mack and Holcomb avenues, with seating capacity of 1,000.”
I’ve managed to find a few trade journal items about the Holbrook-Grant Theatre: The October 14, 1922 issue of Universal Weekly had this news from the house: “THE Holbrook Theatre, Detroit, managed by R. S. Fisher will be redecorated and remodeled, making it a first class house in every respect, Mr. Fisher has decided.”
In 1937, the Holbrook was apparently struggling. The January 14 Film Daily had this to say: “Detroit — Holbrook Theater, north end Negro house, recently opened by Lee Carrow and Carl Retter, has been closed again.”
The February 13 issue had more news: “Detroit—Latest house change is the Holbrook Theater reported taken over by Anthony Klein and Carl Reiter from Lee Carrow.”
February 16 brought this information: “Detroit—Carl Reiter and Anthony Klein have reopened the Holbrook Theater, north end Negro house, Klein taking over half interest from Lee Carrow. The house is operating three gift nights.”
In March, 1942, the Grant Theatre’s manager provided several capsule movie reviews for Motion Picture Herald, including this rather drolly unimpressed March 7 review of a now well-known classic: “CITIZEN KANE: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten— High priced picture. But I made a little money on my help. They took off three days because they were afraid of being all alone in the theatre. Running time, 120 minutes. Played February 17-19. —Saul Korman, Grant Theatre, Detroit, Mich. General patronage.”
Detroit related items in the October 22, 1943 Film Daily included a reference to “Stanley Anushko, former manager of the Grant Theater”
A Pasadena Theatre is listed at Mack Avenue and Belvedere Street in the 1914-1915 AMPD. It appears at 9232 Mack in the 1926 FDY, which is closer to McClellan Avenue than to Belvedere Street, so the house might have moved to a new building at some point during that period. From 1916 it had to compete for neighborhood patrons with the larger, architect-designed Delthe Theatre two blocks down Mack Avenue.
This house was still listed as the Caniff Theatre in the 1927 FDY. No theaters were listed on Caniff Street in the 1928 edition, but the Eagle Theater is listed at 2026 Caniff in 1929 (an Eagle was listed in 1928, but at 6345 Michigan.) In 1930 and 1931 no houses are listed on Caniff Street, but in 1932 a 360-seat New Eagle Theatre makes an appearance on Caniff Avenue, though without a street number.
A 360-seat Caniff Theater reappears on Caniff Avenue in 1933, but is listed as closed. The names Caniff, Eagle and Poland are all conspicuously absent from the 1934,‘35 and '36 FDYs. I haven’t checked later editions. If this house was ever called the Poland Theatre, I haven’t found when. It might have operated under that name too briefly to have made an appearance in the FDY.
The 375-seat Campau Theater at 9643 Joseph Campau is listed in the 1929 FDY. The 1926 FDY had listed the same address for the Free Poland Theatre, with the same capacity. The Free Poland Theatre is listed at old address 2181-83 (corresponding to modern address 9643) Joseph Campau in the 1919 Polk Michigan Gazetteer. The lot was vacant on the 1915 Sanborn map of Hamtramck.
A June 22, 1933 article in the Detroit Free Press concerned a fire in the 9700 block of Joseph Campau Avenue which “…badly scorched the New Campau Theater….” across the street.
The formal opening of the Ishpeming Theatre took place on December 15, 1903. Walker Whiteside and his company of players opened the house with the satirical comedy “We Are King.” The local Elk’s club had been a major force behind the project to build the theater. The architect was M. E. Bell (probably Mifflin Emlen Bell, a well-established Michigan architect of the period.)
Despite an auspicious beginning, the playhouse was suffering financial difficulty by 1913, and manager Ed Butler turned to movies to improve revenues. This led to the demise of the Royal Theatre, one of Ishpeming’s two regular movie houses of the time. The 1914-1915 AMPD listed only the Ishpeming and the Lyric Theatre for the town.
Judging from this item that appeared in the October 30, 1915 issue of Michigan Contractor and Builder, the Butler Theatre might have been completed before the end of that year: “Ishpeming-According to the pace thus far followed in the construction of the Butler theater on Main street, Contractor J. S. Wahlman will make a record in building construction on the job. Within two weeks the building will be enclosed. The construction of the building will be of brick and steel. Charlton & Kuenzli, architects.”
An item in the October 16 issue of the same publication had said that the foundations for the building were in and that Mr. Butler hoped to have the theater open in time for the holidays. I haven’t found any source confirming a December opening, or giving an exact date, but it does seem possible. No 1915 newspapers from Ishpeming are available online.
The Strand was open in time to be listed in the 1926 FDY. It was listed with 800 seats, and was the only theater in St. Charles through the rest of the decade.
The July 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon published an article about F. O. Weber’s plans to build a new theater, which turned out to be the Comet. The article also had a bit of information about Mr. Weber’s first Amuzu Theatre, saying that “[t]he Amuzu has never known a losing week since its opening, June 15, 1909, and it will also be continued on the same high plane.” The Amuzu had been operated by Weber since its opening.
This item from the July 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon must be about the Comet Theatre, though it had not yet been given a name: “ROANOKE, VA.-F. O. Webber, proprietor of the Amuzu Theater, will erect a new theater at 309 South Jefferson street, which will be completed about September 1st, and will have a seating capacity of 400. When the theater is completed it will be one of the handsomest in the city. The entire front of 40 feet will be plaster relief with designs symbolic of the theater. A mass of electric lights will bring out every line of the building and a big flashing sign spell the name to all parts of the city. The front lobby will be tile with walls of patented marble effect, giving the place a rich and appropriate setting for the handsome interior. A small stage will fill the rear of the theater, which is for variety acts and illustrated song singers. The policy of the theater will be moving pictures and songs, the same as Mr. Webber has given so successfully at the Amuzu, which he has been operating for the past year, although the performance at the new theater will be more extensive than the Amuzu. The Amuzu has never known a losing week since its opening, June 15, 1909, and it will also be continued on the same high plane. Mr. Webber has always catered to ladies and children, and always offered a large amount of highgrade amusement for a nominal sum. He will soon open a new theater at Bluefield.”
Bad news for Roanoke’s Paramount Theatre from Moving Picture World of July 31, 1915: “The Paramount theater of this city has closed its doors. This theater was formerly the Jefferson and has been termed a lemon by the local showmen for a good many years, stock, vaudeville and pictures being tried with little success.”
A September 29, 2010 article in The Oberlin Herald said that the roof of the former bottling plant in which the original Sunflower Cinema was located became unrepairable and funds were raised to demolish the building and replace it. At the time the article was published funds were still being raised to complete the blowing alley section of the project (probably just outfitting, but the article didn’t specify), but the theater was apparently already open.
So the current theater is the second of its name. The new building was designed by architect Rex Olson of Boulder, Colorado.
Although there are no current movie listing for the house available on any of the movie listing web sites I’ve checked, and so far no Yelp reviews of the facility, there are a number of Google reviews, the most recent of which says it was posted “five months ago,” and the reviewer said the ticket price was seven dollars for a first run movie (which he failed to name) so the place has been in operation at least that recently. The majority of the reviews have five stars, and none fewer than four, so the place appears to be well liked.
I just found this PDF (one page) with a 2010 Oberlin Herald article about the Opera House, which it says opened on December 31, 1906 with a performance of “The Mikado.” In March, 1928, the Opera House became the first theater west of Salina to present talking pictures. The Chief Theatre operated until the last weekend of September, 1973, when a major rainstorm caused the roof to collapse. It was subsequently demolished.
This house could have been the Wigwam Theatre. Its manager, Ross Riley, provided dozens of capsule movie reviews to Exhibitors Herald which appeared from early 1920 into late 1924. It was a rather primitive operation, Riley noting in one 1924 item that he had only one projection machine and would show slides while reels were being changed. An R. Ross Riley of Oberlin had a letter published in the July, 1918 issue of Photoplay, but it doesn’t mention a theater.
An October 24, 1925 Moving Picture World item said that the New Regent Theatre at Oberlin was scheduled to open the next week, but I’ve been unable to find anything more about it. I found one source saying that the Wigwam closed in 1928.
Oberlin Opera House is listed in the 1907-1908 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 797 seats. It had a good sized stage for a small town theater, too, 29 feet to the back wall and 54 feet between side walls.
Johnson’s obituary was from 2012, so details of how long he had run the house had probably gone fuzzy. I wonder if the Lakin of 1939 could have been one of the town’s older theaters renamed and reopened for a while?
That does seem plausible. Colby’s historical population was only 1,130 in 1910 and went down to 1,114 in 1920, so certainly not a two-theater town in that decade. It grew rapidly in the 1920s, though, almost doubling to 2,153 by 1930, so that’s likely when the new Lyric was built.
The Lyric and Colby appear to have both been under the Phillips family’s ownership, so having them adjacent would have been a great convenience for ease of operation.
The reopening of the Colby Theatre was to take place on Wednesday, October 27, 1971 according to the October 25 issue of Boxoffice. The opening feature was to be “Big Jake” with John Wayne. Seating capacity was now 430. The house had opened thirty years earlier, in 1941. A notice that construction on the original project was underway had appeared in the January 4, 1941 issue of Motion Picture Herald.
The Lyric might not have appeared on the 1918 map, but an earlier Lyric Theatre operated in Colby. The April 29, 1916 Moving Picture World said that J. P. Phillips, manager of the Lyric Theatre at Colby, would soon open another house, also to be called the Lyric, at Selden, Kansas.
Interestingly, the name Phillips is still associated with the later Lyric in this item from the January 4, 1941 Motion Picture Herald: “DON PHILLIPS who operates the Lyric at Colby, Kan., is building a new house there.”
Don Phillips was mentioned in the July 17, 1948 issue of Boxoffice as operator of the Lyric and Colby theaters in Colby, Kansas. As late as 1972 he was still being mentioned in Boxoffice as the owner of the Colby Theatre.
An item datelined Colby in the March 4, 1950 issue of Boxoffice said that the 350-car drive-in being built for Don Phillips was slated to open on May 23. The project had been designed by architect Truman Schlupp of Kansas City. I haven’t been able to discover if the target date for completion was met.
Here is something from the Hutchinson News of September 20, 1949: “Lakin Theater Changes Hands
“Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Johnson have purchased the Lakin theater here from Fred Munson, builder. Included in the transaction is the building which houses the movie, Brehm’s store, and the apartment above the two business locations.
“Munson built the theater less than three years ago and leased the other location to Brehm while operating the movie house himself. Johnson has been engaged in aerial crop spraying operations in Kearny and surrounding counties the past two years. He plans to continue this business during the spring and summer seasons while also operating the theater.”
The Kearny County Museum has a bit more information in a June, 2023 post on their web site: “The Lakin Theatre building on the east side of South Main was completed in 1947 by Fred Munson. He finished the building next door at 108 S. Main in early 1948, leasing it to Howard Brehm who operated Brehm’s Department Store there. The last business to operate at this site was Jim Powers’ barber shop.”
Jerry Johnson and the Lakin Theatre were mentioned in the December 16, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. He attended an exhibitors convention in Kansas City in 1954, noted in the May 15 issue of Boxoffice. An obituary for Gerald Lee Johnson says that he “…ran the Lakin Theater for many years….”
Here is the only trade journal reference to the Electric I’ve been able to unearth so far, from the November 10, 1917 Moving Picture World: “Lakin, Kan.—Frank Weber has been making some improvements in the Electric theater.”
The NRHP registration form for the Great Bend Central Business District says that the Plaza Theatre building was built in 1916 for Louis Zutavern, a member of an influential local family. It doesn’t give the name under which the house originally operated, but says that by 1920 it was operating as the Weber Theatre. By 1930 it had become the Plaza.
The Plaza was one of the earliest theaters in the Commonwealth chain, and remained in operation as part of the chain at least as late as 1954. I haven’t found a closing date, but it was definitely closed, yet still remembered and perhaps still intact, in 1968, when the September 11 Great Bend Tribune made reference to “…Republican headquarters, formerly the Plaza Theater.”
Sanborn maps from 1913 and 1927 show the McFerren Opera House upstairs at 224-226 Main Street. The 1904-1905 Cahn guide lists it as the New McFerren Opera House with 1000 seats, while the 1884 Harry Miner guide lists a smaller McFerren’s with only 600 seats and a much smaller stage. I would presume that the original house was probably replaced early in the 20th century. By 1913 the Cahn guide is calling it simply McFerren Opera House, with no “New.”