The Didsbury Theatre was listed in the 1906-1907 Cahn guide as an upstairs house with 1,050 seats, 500 on the main floor, 300 in the balcony and 250 in the gallery. The caption of a photo in Montgomery, New York, by Robert L. Williams refers to “…the Didsbury Theater, which dated to 1903….”
A William B. Didsbury was still operating the house as late as 1965, when the February 15 issue of Boxoffice published a letter from him in which he asked for advice from anyone who knew how to rid the theater of a bat who had taken up residence about a year earlier. The creature only appeared during shows, and all efforts to eliminate it had failed.
By 1968, Mr. Didsbury was gone. A Gus Kreykenbohm noted in the October 7 issue of Boxoffice that he had taken over operation of the old Didsbury Theatre in June. He had changed the name of the house to Viking Theatre. A June 5, 2025 article in the Hudson Valley Times notes the destruction of the building by fire in 1974, but does not mention the name change to Viking Theatre. It does, however, provide the useful information that projection equipment had first been installed at the Didsbury in 1907, and the reconstruction of the house as a ground floor theater had taken place in 1918. It also confirms 1903 as the original year of construction.
The April 27, 1967 issue of The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, MA., says that the Union Square Theatre in Pittsfield and the Lee Theatre in Lee had been bought by the Esquire Theatres chain of Boston, and the Union Square would be renamed the Paris Cinema and the Lee would be renamed the Tanglewood Cinema. Both houses would be renovated. The July 24 issue of Boxoffice that year said that Esquire was now operating the Tanglewood as the only cinema in Lee. The chain’s improvements to the house included a new marquee, repositioned box office, a new concession stand and re-carpeting. I’ve been unable to discover how long the house operated under its new name.
The description’s opening year of 1931 for the Roxy is mistaken. The Boxoffice item about the Roxy’s opening cited in my first comment is from 1941. The Arcadia was still listed in the FDY that year, though listed as closed. The date May 10 is probably correct though.
I wonder if this item from the August 9, 1913 issue of Motogrpahy was about the Fad Theatre? “C. C. Frie, formerly of Ida Grove, has sold out his moving picture show at Eldora and has gone to Brookings, S. D., to locate. He is erecting a new building for a show at Brookings and will have a fine little theater.”
The Camas Opera House is listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but was mentioned in the local paper at least as early as December 19, 1908. A 1922 Sanborn map of Camas shows the Opera House at what was then 305 Clarke Street, and today would be 305 NE Adams Street. The site is now a parking lot for the Fort James Paper Company’s mill. The house might have undergone expansion around 1913, as the 1912-1913 Cahn guide lists it with 300 seats, and the 1914 Gus Hill guide lists it with 600.
The Grand Theatre was listed at Camas, Washington in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The only other theater listed was the Camas Opera House. No details were provided for either venue. I’ve been unable to find any mentions of the Grand in theater industry trade journals.
A 1922 Sanborn map shows “Motion Pictures” in a good-sized building at 225-227 4th St. (now NE 4th Ave.) adjacent to the Grand Central Hotel. The building on the site now, housing Camas Vision Centre, may be the original structure, but I’m not positive. The theater building was wooden, but the current structure has at least a façade made of brick, which could have been added to the wooden building. The only other movie theater on the 1922 map is the Opera House, so 225-227 had to have been the Grand.
Comparison of the historic photo of the Broadway Theatre and current Google street view reveals that the theater entrance was at 360 S. Broadway Street, which is currently used as a co-working office space called Estacada Powerhouse. Views at Historic Aerials show that a building behind the existing structure did vanish sometime between 1994 and 2000. That must have been the auditorium.
There is no Ellensburg Avenue in Estacada. The Apple map is defaulting to Broadway and Third Avenue. Unless the Liberty had an earlier name, it wasn’t the town’s first movie house. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two theaters at Estacada: the Family Theatre on Broadway and the Star Theatre on Main Street.
The September 7, 1918 Motion Picture News said that “A. E. SPARKS plans leasing the Family theatre in Estacada, Ore., and having it reopened.”
The only mention of the Liberty I’ve found in the trade journals is from the May 9, 1925 issue of Universal Weekly in an article about the promotion of a Hoot Gibson movie at the house. The manager of the Liberty at that time had the surname Feyerabend.
Here is an announcement from the November 3, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World: “YORK, NEB.—Sun is the name of a new theater opened here by W. R. Ballinger & Sons, owners of the Opera House Motion Picture Theater.” I don’t know if MPW published the opening announcement prematurely, or if perhaps the house had a soft opening in November with a more formal event held on December 5.
The July 17, 1967 issue of Boxoffice ran an article about the recently expanded Lancaster Drive-In. The $160,000 project, designed by Los Angeles architect George Kirkpatrick, added a 600-car facility to the original 831-car drive-in opened in 1955. The article also mentioned the 400-seat indoor theater that presented the same program showing on the original screen. The entire complex was operated by Holiday Theatres Inc. and Griffith Grossman Enterprises.
An article about the planned expansion of the Lancaster Drive-In from two to three screens appeared in Boxoffice of December 9, 1974. The $250,000 remodeling and reconfiguration project was designed by architect Casey J. Saueres, and left the drive-in sections with capacities of 615, 595 and 506 cars, for a total capacity of 1716 cars. This article didn’t mention any changes to the indoor cinema.
I don’t find either the Rex or the Opera House mentioned in trade journals, but the Opera House is listed in a few editions of the Cahn Guide and in the 1906 Gus Hill guide, which was its earliest listing. It is listed with different seating capacities (400, 600, or 350.) The 1912-1913 Cahn guide gives no details, saying only “corrected details not at hand.”
One thing that might indicate that the Rex and the Opera House might not have been the same theater is a 1914 state publication rating the condition of public buildings which lists two theaters at Volga. They were the Opera House and Daum’s Theatre, so there was at least one other theater at Volga at one point. However, two editions of another state publication listing license fees charged for public buildings (in 1920 and 1921) don’t list any theaters other than the Opera House at Volga, so Daum’s appears to have been short-lived.
Wherever the Rex was, I can at least confirm that the Auditorium that replaced it did show movies. The October 3, 1947 issue of Film Daily ran an item headlined “Auditorium’s New Owner” saying: “Volga, S. D.— Mr. and Mrs. Carl Larsen have bought the Auditorium here from H. J. Givens. Larsens also operate in Onida.” That is the only mention of Volga I’ve found in the trade journals.
The December 8, 1911 Galveston Tribune featured adjacent ads for theaters called the Crystal and the New Majestic. No address is provided for either house. There is no house called the Crystal listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but it does list a Majestic Theatre at 2112 Market Street.
The Dixie Theatre ran an ad in the December 8, 1911 issue of the Galveston Tribune announcing the opening of the newly remodeled house on December 10 “…with a high class vaudeville from the Sullivan & Considine Circuit. In conjunction we will run the best that money can buy in first-run pictures.”
There was a movie theater shown at this address on the October, 1914 Sanborn map of Lincoln, and as a house called the Star is listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, I suspect this was it, and we have the opening year wrong. This house was on the ground floor of the building housing the Knights of Pythias lodge hall upstairs.
I’ve been trying to track down information about a movie house called the X-Ray Theatre, operating in Lincoln in 1911 and 1912, and suspect that it might have occupied this space before the Star. The January 28, 1911 issue of The Film Index had this item:
“X-RAY PHOTOPLAY THEATRE MOVES.
“The X-Ray theatre, owned by Meyer & Osterman, who have been operating a motion picture show on West Broadway, Lincoln, Ill., have closed a lease for the Bates room, on Broadway, near Kickapoo street, formerly occupied by the Racket store. Work has already commenced on repairs, which will be rushed so the new occupants of the room can take possession about Jan. 20. A new steel ceiling will be placed, the room repapered and painted, the floor raised and a new entrance built, so
the room will be up to date and equal to any in the city. With the moving of the X-Ray closer to the square the owners anticipate a
large increase of business.”
The October, 1914 Sanborn doesn’t show any other theaters but this one on Broadway near Kickapoo Street, but the October, 1909 Sanborn, shows a confectionery in the later theater space, not Racket store (which was apparently a kind of variety store.) It should also be noted that there were several suitable store buildings closer to Kickapoo Street which could have housed the X-Ray, but in the absence of any maps or other sources from between 1909 and 1914, I can’t say for sure that the Star/Vogue building ever housed the X-Ray Theatre, but it’s an interesting possibility.
There were movies at the Plumb Opera House at least as early as 1911, according to this item from the July 22 issue of Moving Picture World that year: “Charles Vance is giving pictures and vaudeville in the Plumb Opera House at Streator, Ill., for the summer season.”
The Casino was in operation by 1911, when the July 22 issue of Moving Picture World had this to say about it: “The Casino is a neat little house of 220 seats, located at 6014 Penn Avenue, and has been doing very well since its opening. The projection is done by two Motographs. Mr. Thomas McWaters is the proprietor. Mr. G. H. Hunt is the manager and is not a novice in the business, having run a model of one of the first motion picture machines at the Opera House, Orange, N. J., about eight or nine years ago. On his own hook he has operated a number of houses very successfully.”
This item from the July 22, 1911 issue of Moving Picture World gives a glimpse of the neighborhood’s first Liberty Theatre before it was renamed the Alhambra: “The Liberty, located at 6113-6115 Penn Avenue, has switched from popular vaudeville to straight pictures for the summer months. The seating capacity is 800 and it has a standing capacity enough to supply a good sized picture house. Having an arsenal of ventilating devices at its disposal, it may well be classed as one of the best ventilated houses in the city. The ventilators consist of two exhaust fans, six ceiling fans and about sixteen more revolving fans. At present five cents admissions is being charged, but when
vaudeville is used the admission is to be ten and fifteen cents. Mr. A. Conn is the manager.”
As Bijou Dream was a popular name for nickelodeons, it is difficult to track down information about this place, and much of what I have seen is inaccurate, but I did manage to find this paragraph from the July 22, 1911 issue of Moving Picture World
:“The Bijou Dream, at 6017 Penn Avenue, is the oldest house in East Liberty, being one of the first houses built by Mr. Harry Davis. No expenses were spared at its building and it is a veritable dream. The seating capacity is 275, but it has standing room for a hundred more. It is well ventilated and lighted, and last but not least, is very comfortable. Being the only theater in this city using a Mirror screen, the projection is exceptionally good. The projecting battery consists of two No. 6 Power’s machines and is well housed in one of the best ventilated booths in the vicinity. The program consists of three licensed reels from the General Film Co., 436 Fourth Avenue, and an illustrated song by Mrs. Garret Lehman’s locally noted soprano. Mrs. Flora Herrick is the proprietress. Mr. B. G. Ross, the manager, is, by the way, one of the first men to run a moving picture machine in that village. An additional musical feature is a $1,500 piano orchestra.”
If the MPW item is correct about the Bijou Dream being the first house in East Liberty, and they are including vaudeville houses, then it had to have been opened by September, 1907, which is when the first Liberty Theatre, later called the Harris Family Theatre, opened nearby.
In case this house turns out to have been the Imp, here is an item about that theater from Moving Picture World of April 1, 1916: “Features at Imp Theater. Irwin, Pa.—The Imp theater, Irwin, Pa., was taken over recently by the Parkdale Company, comprised of Messrs. McMillan, Elder and Parker. It will be conducted hereafter as the house of features. The new owners have installed an organ, in addition to other improvements.”
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World had this item about the end (and the beginning) of the Lyric Theatre at Irwin: “The Lyric Theatre, Irwin, Pa., which has been in continuous operation for twelve years, has closed its doors forever. The house is being dismantled and being remodeled into a storeroom, having been condemned some time ago.
I found a mention of R. C. Gibbs of the Strand Theatre at Huron in the April 9, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald, so Mr. Gibbs managed to keep the house going for at least five years.
It looks like this house was called the Strand. The January 31, 1907 issue of The Journal-World, Huron’s local paper, reported that plans had been completed for the R. C. Gibbs building, a 25x100 foot pressed brick and cut stone structure on Dakota Avenue, to house a confectionery store and ice cream parlor on the ground floor and dwelling space for the Gibbs family upstairs. Construction was probably completed fairly soon, as a listing for “Gibbs, Robert C. Confectionery, Cigars, 245 Dakota av.” appeared in the 1907 Huron city directory.
The confection business might not have worked out well for Mr. Gibbs, or perhaps he just saw a greater opportunity in movie exhibition, as the February 12, 1916 issue of The Billboard reported that, at Huron, “Harry Van and his son, Jimmie, are furnishing piano and trap drum music for the New Strand Theater, of which R. C. Gibbs is owner.” The Strand was still in operation in 1918, when it was mentioned in the August 31 issue of Moving Picture World, but it had closed by 1926.
The Cedar and Princess are both listed in the 1936 FDY, the Princess with 400 seats and the Cedar 578. Both were also listed that year as parts of the Lam Amusement Company. The Cedar had to have been the former Palace, which occupied a double lot at 513-515 Main Street. The Cedar was still listed, with 591 seats, in 1949.
Lam appears to have given up the Princess in 1941, when they opened the West. At least the Princess is no longer listed among the circuit’s houses, though it continues to be listed in the “theaters” section through at least 1943 (it is gone by 1949.) It might have operated independently for a few years, or FDY might simply have failed to update the listing.
An article about Typhoon fans published in the July 16, 1921 issue if the theater industry trade journal Exhibitors Herald included this paragraph: “During the course of the show a 12-ft. fan was disposed of to Mr. Joseph Stern for his Rivoli theatre at Newark, N. J. Typhoon equipment was specified for this theatre by the architects, Reilly & Hall, of New York, and purchased after a thorough investigation.”
So it appears that Henry Baechlin drew the preliminary plans for the Rivoli, the final plans were by Reilly & Hall, and Frank Grad acted as supervising architect during construction.
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World said that “[t]he Cohoes Amusement Company is busy these days completing the new theatre at Hudson Falls. The opening date has not yet been set.” The house had been in the planning and construction stages for a long time. An item datelined Hudson Falls in the July 9, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald had reported that “[a]rchitects Wetmore and Crandall of Glens Falls are preparing plans for an 8OO-seat theatre to be erected here by Cohoes Amusement Company.”
Hudson River Music Hall Productions opened the Strand’s renovated auditorium in October, 2019, with 350 seats. Here is the official web site.
The Didsbury Theatre was listed in the 1906-1907 Cahn guide as an upstairs house with 1,050 seats, 500 on the main floor, 300 in the balcony and 250 in the gallery. The caption of a photo in Montgomery, New York, by Robert L. Williams refers to “…the Didsbury Theater, which dated to 1903….”
A William B. Didsbury was still operating the house as late as 1965, when the February 15 issue of Boxoffice published a letter from him in which he asked for advice from anyone who knew how to rid the theater of a bat who had taken up residence about a year earlier. The creature only appeared during shows, and all efforts to eliminate it had failed.
By 1968, Mr. Didsbury was gone. A Gus Kreykenbohm noted in the October 7 issue of Boxoffice that he had taken over operation of the old Didsbury Theatre in June. He had changed the name of the house to Viking Theatre. A June 5, 2025 article in the Hudson Valley Times notes the destruction of the building by fire in 1974, but does not mention the name change to Viking Theatre. It does, however, provide the useful information that projection equipment had first been installed at the Didsbury in 1907, and the reconstruction of the house as a ground floor theater had taken place in 1918. It also confirms 1903 as the original year of construction.
The April 27, 1967 issue of The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, MA., says that the Union Square Theatre in Pittsfield and the Lee Theatre in Lee had been bought by the Esquire Theatres chain of Boston, and the Union Square would be renamed the Paris Cinema and the Lee would be renamed the Tanglewood Cinema. Both houses would be renovated. The July 24 issue of Boxoffice that year said that Esquire was now operating the Tanglewood as the only cinema in Lee. The chain’s improvements to the house included a new marquee, repositioned box office, a new concession stand and re-carpeting. I’ve been unable to discover how long the house operated under its new name.
The description’s opening year of 1931 for the Roxy is mistaken. The Boxoffice item about the Roxy’s opening cited in my first comment is from 1941. The Arcadia was still listed in the FDY that year, though listed as closed. The date May 10 is probably correct though.
I wonder if this item from the August 9, 1913 issue of Motogrpahy was about the Fad Theatre? “C. C. Frie, formerly of Ida Grove, has sold out his moving picture show at Eldora and has gone to Brookings, S. D., to locate. He is erecting a new building for a show at Brookings and will have a fine little theater.”
The Camas Opera House is listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but was mentioned in the local paper at least as early as December 19, 1908. A 1922 Sanborn map of Camas shows the Opera House at what was then 305 Clarke Street, and today would be 305 NE Adams Street. The site is now a parking lot for the Fort James Paper Company’s mill. The house might have undergone expansion around 1913, as the 1912-1913 Cahn guide lists it with 300 seats, and the 1914 Gus Hill guide lists it with 600.
The Grand Theatre was listed at Camas, Washington in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The only other theater listed was the Camas Opera House. No details were provided for either venue. I’ve been unable to find any mentions of the Grand in theater industry trade journals.
A 1922 Sanborn map shows “Motion Pictures” in a good-sized building at 225-227 4th St. (now NE 4th Ave.) adjacent to the Grand Central Hotel. The building on the site now, housing Camas Vision Centre, may be the original structure, but I’m not positive. The theater building was wooden, but the current structure has at least a façade made of brick, which could have been added to the wooden building. The only other movie theater on the 1922 map is the Opera House, so 225-227 had to have been the Grand.
Comparison of the historic photo of the Broadway Theatre and current Google street view reveals that the theater entrance was at 360 S. Broadway Street, which is currently used as a co-working office space called Estacada Powerhouse. Views at Historic Aerials show that a building behind the existing structure did vanish sometime between 1994 and 2000. That must have been the auditorium.
There is no Ellensburg Avenue in Estacada. The Apple map is defaulting to Broadway and Third Avenue. Unless the Liberty had an earlier name, it wasn’t the town’s first movie house. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two theaters at Estacada: the Family Theatre on Broadway and the Star Theatre on Main Street.
The September 7, 1918 Motion Picture News said that “A. E. SPARKS plans leasing the Family theatre in Estacada, Ore., and having it reopened.”
The only mention of the Liberty I’ve found in the trade journals is from the May 9, 1925 issue of Universal Weekly in an article about the promotion of a Hoot Gibson movie at the house. The manager of the Liberty at that time had the surname Feyerabend.
Here is an announcement from the November 3, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World: “YORK, NEB.—Sun is the name of a new theater opened here by W. R. Ballinger & Sons, owners of the Opera House Motion Picture Theater.” I don’t know if MPW published the opening announcement prematurely, or if perhaps the house had a soft opening in November with a more formal event held on December 5.
The July 17, 1967 issue of Boxoffice ran an article about the recently expanded Lancaster Drive-In. The $160,000 project, designed by Los Angeles architect George Kirkpatrick, added a 600-car facility to the original 831-car drive-in opened in 1955. The article also mentioned the 400-seat indoor theater that presented the same program showing on the original screen. The entire complex was operated by Holiday Theatres Inc. and Griffith Grossman Enterprises.
An article about the planned expansion of the Lancaster Drive-In from two to three screens appeared in Boxoffice of December 9, 1974. The $250,000 remodeling and reconfiguration project was designed by architect Casey J. Saueres, and left the drive-in sections with capacities of 615, 595 and 506 cars, for a total capacity of 1716 cars. This article didn’t mention any changes to the indoor cinema.
I don’t find either the Rex or the Opera House mentioned in trade journals, but the Opera House is listed in a few editions of the Cahn Guide and in the 1906 Gus Hill guide, which was its earliest listing. It is listed with different seating capacities (400, 600, or 350.) The 1912-1913 Cahn guide gives no details, saying only “corrected details not at hand.”
One thing that might indicate that the Rex and the Opera House might not have been the same theater is a 1914 state publication rating the condition of public buildings which lists two theaters at Volga. They were the Opera House and Daum’s Theatre, so there was at least one other theater at Volga at one point. However, two editions of another state publication listing license fees charged for public buildings (in 1920 and 1921) don’t list any theaters other than the Opera House at Volga, so Daum’s appears to have been short-lived.
Wherever the Rex was, I can at least confirm that the Auditorium that replaced it did show movies. The October 3, 1947 issue of Film Daily ran an item headlined “Auditorium’s New Owner” saying: “Volga, S. D.— Mr. and Mrs. Carl Larsen have bought the Auditorium here from H. J. Givens. Larsens also operate in Onida.” That is the only mention of Volga I’ve found in the trade journals.
The December 8, 1911 Galveston Tribune featured adjacent ads for theaters called the Crystal and the New Majestic. No address is provided for either house. There is no house called the Crystal listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but it does list a Majestic Theatre at 2112 Market Street.
The Dixie Theatre ran an ad in the December 8, 1911 issue of the Galveston Tribune announcing the opening of the newly remodeled house on December 10 “…with a high class vaudeville from the Sullivan & Considine Circuit. In conjunction we will run the best that money can buy in first-run pictures.”
There was a movie theater shown at this address on the October, 1914 Sanborn map of Lincoln, and as a house called the Star is listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD, I suspect this was it, and we have the opening year wrong. This house was on the ground floor of the building housing the Knights of Pythias lodge hall upstairs.
I’ve been trying to track down information about a movie house called the X-Ray Theatre, operating in Lincoln in 1911 and 1912, and suspect that it might have occupied this space before the Star. The January 28, 1911 issue of The Film Index had this item:
The October, 1914 Sanborn doesn’t show any other theaters but this one on Broadway near Kickapoo Street, but the October, 1909 Sanborn, shows a confectionery in the later theater space, not Racket store (which was apparently a kind of variety store.) It should also be noted that there were several suitable store buildings closer to Kickapoo Street which could have housed the X-Ray, but in the absence of any maps or other sources from between 1909 and 1914, I can’t say for sure that the Star/Vogue building ever housed the X-Ray Theatre, but it’s an interesting possibility.There were movies at the Plumb Opera House at least as early as 1911, according to this item from the July 22 issue of Moving Picture World that year: “Charles Vance is giving pictures and vaudeville in the Plumb Opera House at Streator, Ill., for the summer season.”
The Casino was in operation by 1911, when the July 22 issue of Moving Picture World had this to say about it: “The Casino is a neat little house of 220 seats, located at 6014 Penn Avenue, and has been doing very well since its opening. The projection is done by two Motographs. Mr. Thomas McWaters is the proprietor. Mr. G. H. Hunt is the manager and is not a novice in the business, having run a model of one of the first motion picture machines at the Opera House, Orange, N. J., about eight or nine years ago. On his own hook he has operated a number of houses very successfully.”
This item from the July 22, 1911 issue of Moving Picture World gives a glimpse of the neighborhood’s first Liberty Theatre before it was renamed the Alhambra: “The Liberty, located at 6113-6115 Penn Avenue, has switched from popular vaudeville to straight pictures for the summer months. The seating capacity is 800 and it has a standing capacity enough to supply a good sized picture house. Having an arsenal of ventilating devices at its disposal, it may well be classed as one of the best ventilated houses in the city. The ventilators consist of two exhaust fans, six ceiling fans and about sixteen more revolving fans. At present five cents admissions is being charged, but when vaudeville is used the admission is to be ten and fifteen cents. Mr. A. Conn is the manager.”
As Bijou Dream was a popular name for nickelodeons, it is difficult to track down information about this place, and much of what I have seen is inaccurate, but I did manage to find this paragraph from the July 22, 1911 issue of Moving Picture World
If the MPW item is correct about the Bijou Dream being the first house in East Liberty, and they are including vaudeville houses, then it had to have been opened by September, 1907, which is when the first Liberty Theatre, later called the Harris Family Theatre, opened nearby.In case this house turns out to have been the Imp, here is an item about that theater from Moving Picture World of April 1, 1916: “Features at Imp Theater. Irwin, Pa.—The Imp theater, Irwin, Pa., was taken over recently by the Parkdale Company, comprised of Messrs. McMillan, Elder and Parker. It will be conducted hereafter as the house of features. The new owners have installed an organ, in addition to other improvements.”
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World had this item about the end (and the beginning) of the Lyric Theatre at Irwin: “The Lyric Theatre, Irwin, Pa., which has been in continuous operation for twelve years, has closed its doors forever. The house is being dismantled and being remodeled into a storeroom, having been condemned some time ago.
I found a mention of R. C. Gibbs of the Strand Theatre at Huron in the April 9, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald, so Mr. Gibbs managed to keep the house going for at least five years.
It looks like this house was called the Strand. The January 31, 1907 issue of The Journal-World, Huron’s local paper, reported that plans had been completed for the R. C. Gibbs building, a 25x100 foot pressed brick and cut stone structure on Dakota Avenue, to house a confectionery store and ice cream parlor on the ground floor and dwelling space for the Gibbs family upstairs. Construction was probably completed fairly soon, as a listing for “Gibbs, Robert C. Confectionery, Cigars, 245 Dakota av.” appeared in the 1907 Huron city directory.
The confection business might not have worked out well for Mr. Gibbs, or perhaps he just saw a greater opportunity in movie exhibition, as the February 12, 1916 issue of The Billboard reported that, at Huron, “Harry Van and his son, Jimmie, are furnishing piano and trap drum music for the New Strand Theater, of which R. C. Gibbs is owner.” The Strand was still in operation in 1918, when it was mentioned in the August 31 issue of Moving Picture World, but it had closed by 1926.
The Cedar and Princess are both listed in the 1936 FDY, the Princess with 400 seats and the Cedar 578. Both were also listed that year as parts of the Lam Amusement Company. The Cedar had to have been the former Palace, which occupied a double lot at 513-515 Main Street. The Cedar was still listed, with 591 seats, in 1949.
Lam appears to have given up the Princess in 1941, when they opened the West. At least the Princess is no longer listed among the circuit’s houses, though it continues to be listed in the “theaters” section through at least 1943 (it is gone by 1949.) It might have operated independently for a few years, or FDY might simply have failed to update the listing.
An article about Typhoon fans published in the July 16, 1921 issue if the theater industry trade journal Exhibitors Herald included this paragraph: “During the course of the show a 12-ft. fan was disposed of to Mr. Joseph Stern for his Rivoli theatre at Newark, N. J. Typhoon equipment was specified for this theatre by the architects, Reilly & Hall, of New York, and purchased after a thorough investigation.”
So it appears that Henry Baechlin drew the preliminary plans for the Rivoli, the final plans were by Reilly & Hall, and Frank Grad acted as supervising architect during construction.
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World said that “[t]he Cohoes Amusement Company is busy these days completing the new theatre at Hudson Falls. The opening date has not yet been set.” The house had been in the planning and construction stages for a long time. An item datelined Hudson Falls in the July 9, 1921 issue of Exhibitors Herald had reported that “[a]rchitects Wetmore and Crandall of Glens Falls are preparing plans for an 8OO-seat theatre to be erected here by Cohoes Amusement Company.”
Hudson River Music Hall Productions opened the Strand’s renovated auditorium in October, 2019, with 350 seats. Here is the official web site.