The predecessor of the Hart Theatre was called the Valerie Theatre. The two houses had the same operators in 1920, Pollock & Boyd, and the Valerie was closed when the Hart opened, but the new house was named for Miss Frances Hart, the owner of the property on which the theater was built.
This clip from from the Ferndale Enterprise of July 9, 1918 turned up at a genealogy site: “R. Pollock, proprietor of the Valerie Theatre in Ferndale, will probably take possession of the Trilma Theatre in Fortuna on July 15th… W.E. Legg, proprietor of the Trilma, and formerly connected with The Enterprise, plans to go to work at the shipyards…”
I’m having a hard time reconciling the description of this theater with the geographical facts of Fargo. For one thing, the Leshkowitz tower that was demolished in 2023 was on 2nd St S. near downtown Fargo, miles east of West Acres. West Acres Mall itself is a long way south of Main Avenue. The theater could not possibly have been on Main Avenue, behind the senior citizens housing tower, and at the mall.
As near as I can find, the Cinema 1 & 2 opened at West Hills Mall in the 1970s and might have closed in the 1980s when a six-screen theater was opened, though it’s possible that the twin was incorporated into the six-plex. One source says that the six screen was later augmented by a three screen house in an adjacent building with its own entrance, and in the late 1990s these two buildings were combined, remodeled and enlarged to create today’s Marcus West Acres 14 Cinemas.
The earliest aerial view of the mall (1976) doesn’t show any outbuildings that might have housed a theater, but the 1984 view shows a small building that could have housed a twin, on part of the site of the current Marcus 14. It looks too small for six screens. The next available view, from 1991, shows the building expanded enough to house six screens. The 1997 view is essentially unchanged, but the 2003 shows the place almost as it is now, though at that time it was a 12-screen operation.
I suppose there is a possibility that the twin was originally inside the mall, and later moved into its own freestanding building, but I haven’t been able to find any evidence of this. Aside from that, it seems likely that the twin is still there as part of the Marcus 14 building.
Opened as an 800-seat single-screener by ABC Southeastern Theatres in 1971, the Pembroke Mall UltraVision Theatre was designed by the architectural firm Six Associates, based on a concept developed by the firm’s head, William Bringhurst McGehee, in conjunction with Wilby-Kincey Theatre Service, in 1967. A second screen in a building mirroring the first was added in 1974. The UltraVision houses were known for their very large, deeply curved screens and their continental seating formats.
The UltraVision theaters were a very late manifestation of the large cinema format, and within a few years were considered obsolete. The Pembroke Mall twin was closed and demolished in 1987, being replaced by an 8-screen multiples inside the mall in 1990. In 2024 the last surviving part of of the original Pembroke Mall was itself demolished, to be replaced by a modern mixed-use development.
Views at Historic Aerials show this cinema still standing in 2011 and replaced by a freshly paved parking lot in 2012. The views are dated only by year, so we don’t know when during that period the building was demolished, only that it was gone by the end of 2012.
This was one of ABC Southeastern’s UltraVision houses, though it lacked the elliptical design of many of the chain’s cinemas opened in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Still, I believe all of the ABC Southeastern houses of this period were designed by the architectural firm Six Associates.
An item datelined Columbus Junction in The Show World of July 3, 1909, said that “A. Westcott, Marshalltown, and G. G. Peck will open a picture theater here.” I’ve been unable to connect this project specifically to the Lyric, but it’s possible that it was the same house.
The 1918 Sanborn map of Fairmont shows a “Moving Picture Theater” at 316 Adams, just up the hill from the site of the Virginia. It wasn’t on the 1912 map. I haven’t been able to identify this mystery theater.
A history of theater concession stands by Lucy Hulls (PDF here) says that the Virginia installed a permanent stand on one side of its large lobby as part of major refurbishments in 1924, which would make it one of the earlier cinemas to provide such a facility.
The 1912 Sanborn map of Fairmont shows the Hippodrome at 413-415 Adams Street. It was the easternmost of four moving picture houses on the street, and was almost directly across the street from the vacant lot where the Fairmont Theatre would later be built.
The Princess Theatre opened on October 14, 1915. The Fairmont West Virginian reported that the planned 1:00 pm opening had to be delayed until 6:00 pm due to the failure of the film reels to arrive on time.
An item datelined Fairmont in the July 17, 1913 issue of Construction Record had said that “[w]ork will soon be started on erecting a one-story brick moving picture theatre on Jefferson street, for F J. Galliger, Main street, from private plans. Cost $10,000.” If that project was the Princess then Mr. Galliger’s plans took quite a while to come to fruition, and I’ve found no more mentions of him.
The Gazette article with the information is no longer available online, but it said that the Forest Theatre opened in 1927 as the Castle Theatre and was renamed Forest Theatre in 1940, so we can delete the redundant page for the Castle Theatre. The Forest operated until it was gutted by a fire in July, 1966. The theater’s site is now occupied by part of a bank. The bank uses the address 231 S. White Street, but the theater’s number was probably a bit lower, perhaps 225 S. White.
The correct address for the Collegiate Theatre is 214 S. White Avenue. Opened in 1939, the theater was destroyed by an explosion and fire on March 12, 1940. The building’s owner, local fast food purveyor Shorty Joyner, had the house rebuilt and it operated until shortly after Wake Forest College moved to Winston-Salem in 1956. At that time, Mr. Joyner moved his hot dog restaurant into the building, where it remains today.
The theater’s history is recounted on >this web page from the Wake Forest Historical Museum.
This is from the “Theatres Under Construction” column of Film Daily, December 16, 1938: “NORTH CAROLINA Wake Forest — Collegiate, 302 seats, White St.; Builder: T. C. Hester; Architect: C. C. Whitacre; Cost: $10,000; Operator: C. C. Whitacre.”
Imp was the name given for this house by an item in the November 4, 1922 Moving Picture World. The item was about the opening of the new State Theatre, and said that the State Amusement Co. also controlled the Penn and Imp Theatres. I think there’s enough evidence of its use to justify adding Imp Theatre as an aka for this house.
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World said that the formal opening of the new State Theatre in Uniontown had been held on October 30. The item noted that the state Amusement Company also controlled the Penn and Imp (an aka for the Imperial) Theatres. The State had been 18 months in building.
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World had this announcement: “F. E. O'Neil, of McMinnville, Oregon, opened a new theatre in that city September 15, and has been maintaining record attendance for his district since the opening. O'Neil’s new theatre is called ‘The Lark.’”
The Bedford Theatre opened in 1920 as the Richelieu Theatre. The Richelieu is last listed in the FDY in 1929, with 500 seats. The Bedford was first listed in 1930, without a seating capacity, but in 1931 it was listed with 440 seats. The renaming must have taken place sometime in 1929.
The October 9, 1920 Moving Picture World said that the Richelieu had opened on September 27. It was owned by Charles Richelieu, who would sell the house to Harry R. Cromwell in 1923, as reported in the July 27 issue of the Bedford Gazette. In 1925 he would build the similar but somewhat larger Richelieu Theatre in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, which was later renamed the Plaza Theatre.
The Bellefonte house was designed by architect Anna Wagner Keichline, and the Bedford Richelieu is of similar style, so it might be that she designed it as well, but I haven’t been able to confirm this.
Harry Cromwell operated the Bedford and Pitt Theatres until his death in April, 1951. His widow, Grace Cromwell, then operated the houses until selling them in November that year to B. J. Redfoot, owner of the Arcadia Theatre in Windber. The Bedford had been operating only on weekends for some time, though the Pitt was open every day. All this was reported in the November 24, 1951 issue of Boxoffice, which said that Redfoot planned changes of policy for the houses, but had not yet revealed what the new policies would be.
The January 14, 1937 issue of Film Daily had this item: “Clear Lake, Ia.—C. E. Carragher is remodeling and re-equipping his Park Theater.” Charles Carragher (sometimes misspelled as Caragher) was listed in Polk directories as early as 1918 as manager of the Electric Theatre in Clear Lake.
A December 25, 1915 Moving Picture World item datelined Clear Lake said that “C. E. Carragher, of Rudd, Iowa, who recently took over the Palm theater, is planning to make a number of improvements.”
An item in the local paper in November, 1916, said that D.C. Branson had sold the Electric Theatre to C. Carragher.
An item datelined Clear Lake in the April 9, 1927 issue of The Billboard says that “[t]he Park Theatre [is] to undergo alterations and improvements, C. E. Carragher is owner and manager.”
The 250-seat Park is the only theater listed at Clear Lake in the 1926 FDY, but then it vanishes in the next three editions, with 1927 and 1928 listing a 250-seat Electric Theatre and a house called the Garden with no capacity given, and the 1929 edition lists a 250-seat Uptown Theatre and the Palm Theatre, with no capacity given. In 1930, the Park is back, the only house in town, and listed as wired for sound. The Uptown rejoins the Park in 1931, but is listed as silent. After that, it’s only the Park through 1936.
Clear Lake is not listed in 1937 or 1938, and I have no 1939 edition, but in 1940 the 500-seat Lake is listed along with the 250-seat Park, which was closed. A local newspaper item in 1945 announced the grand opening of the Park Theatre, but I haven’t checked FDYs to see if it was listed as closed between 1940 and then.
A house called the Electric Theatre was in operation at Clear Lake by 1914 (listed in the American Motion Picture Directory) and still in operation in 1926 (mentioned in the July 15 issue of Film Daily even though not listed in that year’s FDY.) The AMPD listed in on “Main St.” I’ve also found the Palm mentioned in 1915 and 1918 and the Uptown mentioned in 1927. the earliest theater name I’ve found associated with Clear Lake is the Star, mentioned twice in 1907.
Moving pictures apparently began at the Perkins in 1908, as noted in this item from the May 7 issue of The Holton Recorder that year: “The Perkins theatre management has installed a moving picture machine of the latest make and will give popular exhibitions in the theatre at the price of 10 cents for adults and 6 cents for children. The moving picture craze is on in Holton, and the advantage of seeing them In the beautiful Perkins theatre will appeal to the public.”
At least in its early years the Gem appears to have operated seasonally. This is from the September 26, 1912 issue of The Holton Recorder: “The Gem picture house has been opened for the winter season. The house has been cleaned and renovated and will show fine [unreadable] of pictures this fall.”
Here is a 1921 item about the renaming of the Majestic, but it gives no reason why the particular name was requested: “At the request of the Erie Chamber of Commerce, James B. Clark, of the Rowland & Clark theatres will change the name of the Majestic Theatre, Erie, a house recently taken over by the Rowland & Clark interests, to the Perry Theatre.
“It is hoped to have the opening about October 1.”
The Strand Theatre is listed in the 1926 FDY with 416 seats, so it must have opened a bit earlier than we’d thought.
A May 6, 1935 item in Motion Picture Herald said that the 450-seat New Strand Theatre in Caro had recently been re-opened by Ashman Brothers.
The predecessor of the Hart Theatre was called the Valerie Theatre. The two houses had the same operators in 1920, Pollock & Boyd, and the Valerie was closed when the Hart opened, but the new house was named for Miss Frances Hart, the owner of the property on which the theater was built.
This photo shows the original Fortuna Theatre, demolished in 1937 to make way for the new house. The original theater was in operation by 1926.
This clip from from the Ferndale Enterprise of July 9, 1918 turned up at a genealogy site: “R. Pollock, proprietor of the Valerie Theatre in Ferndale, will probably take possession of the Trilma Theatre in Fortuna on July 15th… W.E. Legg, proprietor of the Trilma, and formerly connected with The Enterprise, plans to go to work at the shipyards…”
I’m having a hard time reconciling the description of this theater with the geographical facts of Fargo. For one thing, the Leshkowitz tower that was demolished in 2023 was on 2nd St S. near downtown Fargo, miles east of West Acres. West Acres Mall itself is a long way south of Main Avenue. The theater could not possibly have been on Main Avenue, behind the senior citizens housing tower, and at the mall.
As near as I can find, the Cinema 1 & 2 opened at West Hills Mall in the 1970s and might have closed in the 1980s when a six-screen theater was opened, though it’s possible that the twin was incorporated into the six-plex. One source says that the six screen was later augmented by a three screen house in an adjacent building with its own entrance, and in the late 1990s these two buildings were combined, remodeled and enlarged to create today’s Marcus West Acres 14 Cinemas.
The earliest aerial view of the mall (1976) doesn’t show any outbuildings that might have housed a theater, but the 1984 view shows a small building that could have housed a twin, on part of the site of the current Marcus 14. It looks too small for six screens. The next available view, from 1991, shows the building expanded enough to house six screens. The 1997 view is essentially unchanged, but the 2003 shows the place almost as it is now, though at that time it was a 12-screen operation.
I suppose there is a possibility that the twin was originally inside the mall, and later moved into its own freestanding building, but I haven’t been able to find any evidence of this. Aside from that, it seems likely that the twin is still there as part of the Marcus 14 building.
Opened as an 800-seat single-screener by ABC Southeastern Theatres in 1971, the Pembroke Mall UltraVision Theatre was designed by the architectural firm Six Associates, based on a concept developed by the firm’s head, William Bringhurst McGehee, in conjunction with Wilby-Kincey Theatre Service, in 1967. A second screen in a building mirroring the first was added in 1974. The UltraVision houses were known for their very large, deeply curved screens and their continental seating formats.
The UltraVision theaters were a very late manifestation of the large cinema format, and within a few years were considered obsolete. The Pembroke Mall twin was closed and demolished in 1987, being replaced by an 8-screen multiples inside the mall in 1990. In 2024 the last surviving part of of the original Pembroke Mall was itself demolished, to be replaced by a modern mixed-use development.
Views at Historic Aerials show this cinema still standing in 2011 and replaced by a freshly paved parking lot in 2012. The views are dated only by year, so we don’t know when during that period the building was demolished, only that it was gone by the end of 2012.
This was one of ABC Southeastern’s UltraVision houses, though it lacked the elliptical design of many of the chain’s cinemas opened in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Still, I believe all of the ABC Southeastern houses of this period were designed by the architectural firm Six Associates.
An item datelined Columbus Junction in The Show World of July 3, 1909, said that “A. Westcott, Marshalltown, and G. G. Peck will open a picture theater here.” I’ve been unable to connect this project specifically to the Lyric, but it’s possible that it was the same house.
The 1918 Sanborn map of Fairmont shows a “Moving Picture Theater” at 316 Adams, just up the hill from the site of the Virginia. It wasn’t on the 1912 map. I haven’t been able to identify this mystery theater.
A history of theater concession stands by Lucy Hulls (PDF here) says that the Virginia installed a permanent stand on one side of its large lobby as part of major refurbishments in 1924, which would make it one of the earlier cinemas to provide such a facility.
The Princess Theatre was at 220 Jefferson Street, just off Adams Street.
The 1912 Sanborn map of Fairmont shows the Hippodrome at 413-415 Adams Street. It was the easternmost of four moving picture houses on the street, and was almost directly across the street from the vacant lot where the Fairmont Theatre would later be built.
The Princess Theatre opened on October 14, 1915. The Fairmont West Virginian reported that the planned 1:00 pm opening had to be delayed until 6:00 pm due to the failure of the film reels to arrive on time.
An item datelined Fairmont in the July 17, 1913 issue of Construction Record had said that “[w]ork will soon be started on erecting a one-story brick moving picture theatre on Jefferson street, for F J. Galliger, Main street, from private plans. Cost $10,000.” If that project was the Princess then Mr. Galliger’s plans took quite a while to come to fruition, and I’ve found no more mentions of him.
The Gazette article with the information is no longer available online, but it said that the Forest Theatre opened in 1927 as the Castle Theatre and was renamed Forest Theatre in 1940, so we can delete the redundant page for the Castle Theatre. The Forest operated until it was gutted by a fire in July, 1966. The theater’s site is now occupied by part of a bank. The bank uses the address 231 S. White Street, but the theater’s number was probably a bit lower, perhaps 225 S. White.
The correct address for the Collegiate Theatre is 214 S. White Avenue. Opened in 1939, the theater was destroyed by an explosion and fire on March 12, 1940. The building’s owner, local fast food purveyor Shorty Joyner, had the house rebuilt and it operated until shortly after Wake Forest College moved to Winston-Salem in 1956. At that time, Mr. Joyner moved his hot dog restaurant into the building, where it remains today.
The theater’s history is recounted on >this web page from the Wake Forest Historical Museum.
This is from the “Theatres Under Construction” column of Film Daily, December 16, 1938: “NORTH CAROLINA Wake Forest — Collegiate, 302 seats, White St.; Builder: T. C. Hester; Architect: C. C. Whitacre; Cost: $10,000; Operator: C. C. Whitacre.”
Imp was the name given for this house by an item in the November 4, 1922 Moving Picture World. The item was about the opening of the new State Theatre, and said that the State Amusement Co. also controlled the Penn and Imp Theatres. I think there’s enough evidence of its use to justify adding Imp Theatre as an aka for this house.
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World said that the formal opening of the new State Theatre in Uniontown had been held on October 30. The item noted that the state Amusement Company also controlled the Penn and Imp (an aka for the Imperial) Theatres. The State had been 18 months in building.
The November 4, 1922 issue of Moving Picture World had this announcement: “F. E. O'Neil, of McMinnville, Oregon, opened a new theatre in that city September 15, and has been maintaining record attendance for his district since the opening. O'Neil’s new theatre is called ‘The Lark.’”
The Bedford Theatre opened in 1920 as the Richelieu Theatre. The Richelieu is last listed in the FDY in 1929, with 500 seats. The Bedford was first listed in 1930, without a seating capacity, but in 1931 it was listed with 440 seats. The renaming must have taken place sometime in 1929.
The October 9, 1920 Moving Picture World said that the Richelieu had opened on September 27. It was owned by Charles Richelieu, who would sell the house to Harry R. Cromwell in 1923, as reported in the July 27 issue of the Bedford Gazette. In 1925 he would build the similar but somewhat larger Richelieu Theatre in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, which was later renamed the Plaza Theatre.
The Bellefonte house was designed by architect Anna Wagner Keichline, and the Bedford Richelieu is of similar style, so it might be that she designed it as well, but I haven’t been able to confirm this.
Harry Cromwell operated the Bedford and Pitt Theatres until his death in April, 1951. His widow, Grace Cromwell, then operated the houses until selling them in November that year to B. J. Redfoot, owner of the Arcadia Theatre in Windber. The Bedford had been operating only on weekends for some time, though the Pitt was open every day. All this was reported in the November 24, 1951 issue of Boxoffice, which said that Redfoot planned changes of policy for the houses, but had not yet revealed what the new policies would be.
The January 14, 1937 issue of Film Daily had this item: “Clear Lake, Ia.—C. E. Carragher is remodeling and re-equipping his Park Theater.” Charles Carragher (sometimes misspelled as Caragher) was listed in Polk directories as early as 1918 as manager of the Electric Theatre in Clear Lake.
A December 25, 1915 Moving Picture World item datelined Clear Lake said that “C. E. Carragher, of Rudd, Iowa, who recently took over the Palm theater, is planning to make a number of improvements.”
An item in the local paper in November, 1916, said that D.C. Branson had sold the Electric Theatre to C. Carragher.
An item datelined Clear Lake in the April 9, 1927 issue of The Billboard says that “[t]he Park Theatre [is] to undergo alterations and improvements, C. E. Carragher is owner and manager.”
The 250-seat Park is the only theater listed at Clear Lake in the 1926 FDY, but then it vanishes in the next three editions, with 1927 and 1928 listing a 250-seat Electric Theatre and a house called the Garden with no capacity given, and the 1929 edition lists a 250-seat Uptown Theatre and the Palm Theatre, with no capacity given. In 1930, the Park is back, the only house in town, and listed as wired for sound. The Uptown rejoins the Park in 1931, but is listed as silent. After that, it’s only the Park through 1936.
Clear Lake is not listed in 1937 or 1938, and I have no 1939 edition, but in 1940 the 500-seat Lake is listed along with the 250-seat Park, which was closed. A local newspaper item in 1945 announced the grand opening of the Park Theatre, but I haven’t checked FDYs to see if it was listed as closed between 1940 and then.
A house called the Electric Theatre was in operation at Clear Lake by 1914 (listed in the American Motion Picture Directory) and still in operation in 1926 (mentioned in the July 15 issue of Film Daily even though not listed in that year’s FDY.) The AMPD listed in on “Main St.” I’ve also found the Palm mentioned in 1915 and 1918 and the Uptown mentioned in 1927. the earliest theater name I’ve found associated with Clear Lake is the Star, mentioned twice in 1907.
Moving pictures apparently began at the Perkins in 1908, as noted in this item from the May 7 issue of The Holton Recorder that year: “The Perkins theatre management has installed a moving picture machine of the latest make and will give popular exhibitions in the theatre at the price of 10 cents for adults and 6 cents for children. The moving picture craze is on in Holton, and the advantage of seeing them In the beautiful Perkins theatre will appeal to the public.”
At least in its early years the Gem appears to have operated seasonally. This is from the September 26, 1912 issue of The Holton Recorder: “The Gem picture house has been opened for the winter season. The house has been cleaned and renovated and will show fine [unreadable] of pictures this fall.”
The new owners of the Garden Theatre responsible for the 1936 remodeling were the A. G. Constant circuit of Steubenville, Ohio.
Here is a 1921 item about the renaming of the Majestic, but it gives no reason why the particular name was requested: “At the request of the Erie Chamber of Commerce, James B. Clark, of the Rowland & Clark theatres will change the name of the Majestic Theatre, Erie, a house recently taken over by the Rowland & Clark interests, to the Perry Theatre.
“It is hoped to have the opening about October 1.”