Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs
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Q. Why do many theatres have more than one record? For example, there was only one National Theatre in Washington, DC, yet it shows up 12 times. Why?
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A. There are many theaters in the database that have more than one entry, because each entry presents different information. For example, at one time the National was part of the Syndicate, at a later time it was a Shubert house. It was also independent for much of its history. To try to present all of these variations in just one record is way too confusing. Instead, we separated the time lines. Look for various date entries to put together a theater's history. But note there are always gaps.​​
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Q. I know what theatre I am looking for, why can't I find it?
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A. Try searching all the various likely names. Generally we entered information as we found it, and did not assume anything. For example, there may be a venue called The Grand, but was it the Grand Theatre or the Grand Opera House? We avoided guessing if the source was not specific. A place may change from " ... Theatre" to "New ... Theatre." So search for, e.g., Grand, Grand Theatre, Grand Opera House, and then add the word New and search for all of them again.
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An easier way may be to search by "contains" in the search filters. This way if any part of your theatre name contains the word you are looking for, they all should show up. But take note, there are more than 400 theatres with the word "Grand" in their name. Try to add a city and state.
If the theater was named for someone, try searching with and without a first name. "Smith Theatre" and "Joe Smith Theatre." Remember that "contains" Smith will find "Joe Smith Theatre" and "Bob Smith Theatre."
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Numbers can also be a problem. Is it the "42nd Street Theatre" or the "Forty-Second Street Theatre"? There is no AI involved with the search rules, so separate searches will be needed.
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Sometimes the word "The" was in integral part of the theatre's name. Try searching both using the word "The" and without "The."​
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When adding filters to your search, remember that "or" produces more results (because any one filter is sufficient), while "and" produces fewer results (because all filters must be met at the same time).
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Q: What if the theatre changed its name over the years?
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That's a problem. Sometimes there might be a mere change of names, particularly when the building was sold, or a new circuit took over. But without a street address, it is usually not possible to be sure if the "Grand Theatre" and the "Palace Theatre" are the same building.
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As noted elsewhere, theatre buildings came and went over the years. A theatre may burn down and be rebuilt at the same location. It may have the same name as the old building, or a new name. Or instead of rebuilding at the same location, a new theatre is built nearby, but has the same name as the destroyed theatre. If that happened, you might not be able to tell that there were two different buildings.
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Q: There are a lot of theaters named “?”. There are even a few theaters named “? #2” What does that mean?
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A: Many of our sources list circuit theaters only by location, such as city and state, sometimes only by city. Since names of those theaters are not identified, we just show them as “?”. Occasionally there would be more than one unnamed theater in a city, so we tried to give them unique identities. “? #2” means: ? = no name; and the #2 = means there is a second no name theater.
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Q: You have theaters with no name. Do you have circuits without names?
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A: We have two, which we designated as “Unnamed Circuit in the Northwest,” and “Unnamed Texas Circuit.” We discovered these from source materials that talked about circuits and their theaters, but never bothered to provide their name.
Q: I’m interested in circuits, not theaters. How can I research circuits?
A: The Circuit group includes a list of all the circuits in the database. You can browse through it and perhaps find what you are looking for. However, as mentioned elsewhere, names of circuits constantly changed. Moreover, sometimes circuits were known more by the people who ran them than by any organizational title that might have existed. In particular, the "Syndicate" was a common name, but since the Syndicate was a combination of each of the partners’ personal circuits, you are just as likely to find a listing by individual name.
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Most common searches:
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To find all the Syndicate theatres, filter for "Circuit Name" "contains" "Syndicate" and "Erlanger" and "Klaw" and "Nixon" and "Zimmerman" all in the same search. To find more theaters that were booked by the Syndicate, add Frohman and Hayman and Cahn. You could expand your search even farther by adding and Cort and Aaron's Associated Theatres and Stair & Havlin.
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Similarly, the Shuberts’ circuits went by various names, but almost all of them contained the name Shubert. In this database, most of their theaters are found under “Shubert Bros,” but their theaters are also found under “Sam S and Lee Shubert,” the “Shubert Theatrical Company,” the “Shubert Agency,” “Shubert Theatrical Agency,” "Shubert Theatrical Company,” and “Shubert, Cort & Kindt.” In 1972, the theatres that remained were all consolidated in one organization, and today they are called “The Shubert Organization.” When collecting data, we used whatever the source used. Still, there were numerous references merely to “the Shuberts.” Depending on the time period, we usually filed those under “Shubert Bros.” To do a comprehensive search, use the search filter "contains", that should find any circuit that had "Shubert" in its name. There are no Shubert circuits that were not connected to the Brothers.
The vaudeville circuits were not much different. We have the “B.F. Keith Corporation,” “B.F. Keith’s Theatres,” “Keith & Proctor,” “Keith Nickel Circuit,” “Keith Vaudeville Exchange,” “Keith-Albee,” and “Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corp.”
There is some limited textual information in the circuit Group (different from theater notes). To find that information, use the search group "Circuits."
Q: If a circuit only has one theater, is it really a circuit?
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A: Good question. Sometimes in our source materials, there is a line that reads something like, “The Majestic Theatre is a member of the Capital Amusement Company Circuit.” So evidently there was a circuit, but one theater is all we have been able to find.
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Q: There are some circuits that do not have any theaters listed. Why is that?
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A: Some textual information we have refers to circuits, but provides little to no information about what theaters they represented. We know there was such a circuit, but we don’t know much about it. We also consider it a place holder in the database. That is, eventually some theaters may be found.
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There are some circuits that were incorporated businesses, but we have no information whether they actually conducted any theatrical business. For the sake of inclusion, we listed all we found.
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Q: There are a lot of theaters with “No information” for a circuit. What does that mean?
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A. It means we have no information whether that theater was a member or part of any theatre circuit. It probably means there was no circuit affiliated with that theater, at least at that time. But that does not mean it was not connected to a circuit, it may have been. We just have no information about that at all.
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In an effort to be a little more precise, we also have a descriptor called "None Listed." This refers to a source where if there was a circuit, it would have been listed. This is like proving a negative.
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Q. If you do not know if a theatre was part of a circuit, why did you include it in the Theatre Circuit database?
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A: Early on we did not include those theaters. But questions quickly arose: did the absence of a theater mean it was not part of a circuit, or that we just had not gotten around to including that theater yet? So in order to provide more comprehensive information, we often now include theaters even if we have no information about their involvement – or lack thereof – in a circuit. There are over 1,000 theatres in the database that do not have circuits attached to them.
Note that some theaters specifically stated they were not part of any circuit. In those cases, we designated them as “Denies Membership” or “Independent of any circuit.” We included those theaters too.
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Please note that the Internet Theatre Circuit database does not attempt to include every single theater that ever existed in America.
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Q: Where do movie theaters fit in with all this?
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A: Mostly, they don’t. Generally, if a venue was built for the express purpose of being a movie theater, we did not include it. But many early theaters were actually mixed presenters. Some nights they would show movies, some nights, vaudeville, some nights straight plays. We usually included those theaters. Note also that many theaters, thousands, actually, eventually moved from stage to screen over the early years of the 20th Century. If the theater began for stage, we would include it, and even add a line or two to show transition to film. Look for an entry in the Notes field for any information on movies or moving pictures.
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Q: I love the images of old theatres, but I can't export them. Is there a way to do that?
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A: The Export features do not support export of images contained in a card. However, you can save or download images individually. Just click on the image.