by Ross Bloomquist
The first mention of pictures being projected on a screen one by one so rapidly that the illusion of motion is obtained was an exhibition at the Buchanan Opera House in November 1899 by the American Cineograph Company. An item in the Independent after the performance noted that, "A number of people attended and those who saw it were well satisfied." There is no mention of the nature of the pictures on the screen; the fact that the
images moved was probably novelty enough. A year passed before there was another: the May 10, 1900 newspaper announces: "At Buchanan's Hall on May 15 there will be given an exhibition of Edison's famous animated moving pictures representing scenes from large cities, different parts of the world, narrow escapes on the railroad, hurricanes at sea and other scenes of fun, interest and excitement, the Corbett‑Fitzsimmons fight, the battle of Santiago and many other war scenes." The admission was 25¢, children 15¢.
There is no mention of motion pictures in the press in 1901 but the next year, on May 22, 1902 the following notice appeared in the Independent: "Brady Brothers will give an entertainment of moving pictures in the Opera House next Saturday night. This is not to be confounded with the cheap movies heretofore but it is first class in every way. They show over $30,000 pictures and play in all the larger cities."
For the next several years there is no mention of motion pictures in the newspapers. Either there were none or the newspaper men were indifferent to this new form of entertainment. Also there is no indication that the editors of either of the two Carrington newspapers even were in attendance at any of the earlier exhibitions.
On November 14, 1904 Adjutant Wakefield of the Jamestown Salvation Army came to Carrington to show 3000 feet of moving pictures of the International Congress held in London, England at the Buchanan Opera House. In the next issue of the Independent it is reported that the "pictures were excellent."
Finally in 1907 motion pictures came to Carrington to stay although the going was not easy for the first few years. The first Saturday afternoon shows came that year: "On Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock on February 23, 1907 the performances were "arranged with the view to allow our little ones as well as the older ones to attend." The subjects were not announced and the theater or hall not specified but it was not the Buchanan Opera House. The newspaper remarked in the next issue; "The motion pictures was reported to be good." Later, in 1908 and 9 the Opera House was showing movies with illustrated songs three. nights a week during the Holiday Season, under the management of E. A. Cline of Iowa. He is quoted in the newspaper as stating: "Nearly every city in this state has theater of the sort which provide instructive and entertaining diversions at a reasonable rate. The pictures are the same as those shown in Fargo and Grand Forks and Minneapolis theaters and strictly high class." The first entertainment takes place this Thursday evening (December 31, 1908) and will continue for the rest of the week. The prices will be adults 25¢, school children 15¢.
In the same issue of the Independent, December 31, 1908, it is stated: "Carrington is going to have a "Builders of a Nation" play presented March 19, 1920 included Mrs. Harry Chaffee, Mrs. Jim Morris, Mrs. L.R. Putnam, Mrs. C. Carnahan, Miss Aiken, Mrs. Con Healy, Mrs. MacKenzie and Mrs. Hollett.
Bijou, we are right in line with the larger cities of the state." The last is a little confusing, it is not certain if the Opera House productions are being referred to or to the new theater which opened for business late in January 1909. It was not, however, called the Bijou, it was the "Unique." The first manager was A. E. Ireland, better known in town as a fuel, feed, lumber and coal dealer. The theater was located in the building on the lot later occupied by the Stambaugh Brothers Garage on Lot 8 Block 21 of the Original Townsite. Shows of a sort for several days a week continued intermittently through 1909 and the attendance was good during the first few months of the year. There were live features as well as motion pictures, vocalists, etc. and dances shown were not announced except in two instances. During the week of February 18, 1909 the program consisted of 3 two-reelers, "Life of Lincoln, " "Engaged Against His Will, " and "Troubles of a Coat." There was to be a new song, "Because You Were an Old Sweetheart of Mine." The following week, on Friday and Saturday, the program included "Grandfather's Pill, " "The Red Specter, " and "Honeymoon at Niagara" and the new song, "Only an Old-fashioned Cottage but it's All the World to Me." Amadon's orchestra played a concert after the shows with dancing following.
The Passion Play was scheduled to come on March 19 and 20, 1909 at 8 o'clock in the evening with a Saturday matinee at 2:30, with Amadon's Orchestra furnishing special music. The admission charged was 15 and 25 cents. This performance may not have come off since the feature was rescheduled for May 28 and 29 when it drew large crowds. "Talks by Father McDonald of Sacred Heart Church at the performances greatly added to the proper understanding of the picture."
Good patronage continued during the spring and early summer, an electric sign was placed over the entrance in June‑ "Upper Main Street is beginning to look like a Great White Way." In July 1909 Manager Ireland left town and was replaced by Charles Summers. The entertainment policy was changed somewhat in conjunction with the motion pictures vaudeville acts were added to the program. About this time the projector broke down and performances did not resume until about August 1 with lowered admission prices, now 151 and 201. A phonograph was installed at the front of the‑theater to attract customers. The newspaper states, "The management expects to put on first class pictures and eliminate much of the immoral French films." On August 19, 20 and 21st the Williams and Mayer Comedy performed and an acrobatic team was on the program a few weeks later. Either a lack of talent or lack of audiences caused the management to discontinue vaudeville at the end of October 1910. From then on the shows consisted of motion pictures and illustrated songs with 2 shows of silent motion pictures at 8 and 9 every evening. The accompaniment to the pictures was a single pianist. At the end of the year the theatre closed due to lack of patronage.
New owners of the Unique took over early in 1910 but Summers continued as manager. At first there were shows only on Wednesday and Saturday with roller skating on Thursday evenings. Ownership changed again in February with L. D. David and R. R. Mooney as the new proprietors. Shows continued with an orchestra to furnish the accompaniment, with dances after the show. The operation could not have been profitable since Mooney decided instead to show the wonders of the film world to the nearby towns. He bought an improved projector and a portable gasoline engine and dynamo to provide electric power for the film machine. Accompanied by a violinist and a pianist he gave shows, one night stands, in the villages north and south and along the Turtle Lake Branch. He returned to Carrington for Saturday night shows only. Nothing more appears in the newspapers until late in December when it is reported that the theatre had been sold to P. A. White of Williston and that it would be reopened with a new projection machine and two vaudeville acts would be booked each week. Apparently the deal was never consummated because the theatre never did reopen. In February 1911 the building which had housed the Unique was rented to the H. I. Baney Harness Company and remodeled into a retail establishment.
After the demise of the Unique the Buchanans tried again to promote picture shows. At first there were shows for three nights a week, then biweekly, they even bought a new projector but the effort was discontinued in September. When the Buchanan store and Opera House burned down on December 1, 1912, their entertainment enterprises came to an end.
In the meantime the old courthouse building had been purchased by Henry Bruening and moved to a location in the middle of the block on First Street South. The building was remodeled so that the second floor court room became an auditorium seating about 200. Some of the partitions of the first floor were removed and a new floor put in for a skating rink. Now named the Bruening Opera House it showed motion pictures occasionally during 1912 and 1913 interspersed with road shows of various kinds. Very little can be ascertained about the pictures shown. Only two are mentioned in the Independent: Dame's "Inferno" was shown ‑in February 1913 and in April scenes from the Ohio flood were on the program.
The Grand Theatre came into existence in March 1913 in the fairly new building on Main Street between the First National Bank and the Galehouse Drug Store (Lot 15, Block 29, of the Original Townsite) owned by the Wing estate. It was rented by Claud M. (Slim) Blaisdell of Luverne, Minnesota. He was a nephew of Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Baker longtime Carrington residents. The building had been built shortly after the March 26, 1908 fire and had been occupied by the A. J. Smith Hardware Store until he moved across the street to his newly built premises (Lot 10, Block 28) on January 1, 1913. Blaisdell remodeled and redecorated the interior of the building and the first picture (name not ascertained) was shown late in April 1913 after a long delay in obtaining seats. He announced that the theatre would be open six nights a week with changes in program on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Although no mention can be found of the titles of the pictures shown the patronage must have been satisfactory. In July he had an advertising curtain painted and a four piece orchestra (piano, violin, cornet and drums) accompanying the pictures in August. A little later the theater was remodeled to increase the seating by 25 seats and subsequently electric fans were placed along the walls to improve the ventilation during the hot summer months. An electric sign was installed over the entrance.
For the most part the pictures shows at the Grand were seldom advertised in the newspapers. On Tuesday, February 24, 1914 the four advertised in the newspapers. On Tuesday, February 24, 1914 the four reel feature "Absinthe" with King Biggot and Leah Baird was presented as a special attraction with reserved seats obtainable at the Galehouse Drug. In March "Ivanhoe" was featured and in May the four reel "Legend of Provence, " a reel adaptation of Adelaide Proctor's famous poem, and a comedy were shown. In June the "Mexican Picture" was described: "The pictures are the real thing and not set. The pictures depict the horrible conditions in Mexico and after looking at these pictures one has a better grasp of the Mexican problem and the utter hopelessness of trying to find a solution."
At this time the pictures were accompanied by a pianist and violinist. Different ones who kept coming and going are reported in the newspapers. One of them Marion Rude the daughter of John Rude, a Carrington plumber, married Blaisdell.
"Joan of Arc" in five parts was shown on July 24, 1914 and in August a three reel feature entitled "The Heart of a Woman, " a war drama of Revolutionary days, was shown together with a comedy "Fatty's Flirtation" on a Keystone reel. "There will also be music furnished by a five piece orchestra and the orchestra will give a thirty minute musical concert from 8 to 8:30. All adults will be given a souvenir." Another reserved seat show came on September 28, it was "A Stirring Story of Civil War Days" in five reels with five big acts, 215 thrilling scenes. An eight part photoplay de luxe "Anthony and Cleopatra" was shown in October.
In March 1915 a two reel serial became a part of the Friday and Saturday programs. "The Exploits of Elaine" starring Pearl White was shown in weekly installments for 10 to 12 weeks. Each episode always concluded at a most suspensful moment ‑ it was absolutely essential to be on hand next week to see how the hero and heroine escaped from their dire straits in the clutch of the villain. The serial was the second of this type, the first was "The Perils of Pauline", made in 1914 with the same star; there is no record of its being shown at the Grand.
A washed air cooling system was installed in May 1915 to improve the ventilation during the hot summer months. D. W. Griffith's six-reeler, "The Avenging Conscience or Thou Shalt Not Kill" was shown one night only on July 9, 1915. The ad states:
"The most mysterious masterful and sensational motion picture ever devised‑ taken from Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Telltale Heart'‑ photographic effects never before attempted."
In September 1915 Blaisdell took a position on the road with the Mutual Film Company to call on theater operators but he continued to manage the Grand until it was sold to Herman E. Poole of Enderlin, a man with some experience in theater management. Poole retained the ownership for a little over a year and in May 1916 he sold the Grand to John Lang, a Carrington barber and Ralph Botts, formerly of Arlington, Minnesota, who had come to town a year earlier to be leader of the Carrington band.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Botts were excellent musicians and she usually played the piano at the Grand. When there were special attractions he joined her on the violin. Besides leading the Carrington Band his dance orchestra played locally and elsewhere throughout the area. Botts managed the theater until 1925 except for approximately a year's time while he served in the army in World War I. During his absence Val Wagner who had been employed in the grocery department of Walker and Company was in charge of the theater.
When the Grand first opened in 1914 the program consisted of two or three 2‑ and 3‑ reel films with a short comedy. The films became longer as the years progressed and in the late teens and 20's the feature picture would consist of a six or eight reel picture with a two reel comedy or serial and a newsreel. There were always shows six nights of the week but never on Sunday. The first show started at about 7 to 7:30 in the evening and lasted until about 9:15 when the entire program was repeated after a short intermission. Usually there were only a scattering of early birds in their seats when the pictures started rolling but by the time the feature was half over most of the seats were well filled for weekend shows. A surge of people started leaving stumbling over the late comers when the picture reached the point when they could say, "Here's where I came in."
In the earliest years before electric current was available the projectionist in his little booth in the back of the theater had to crank the machine by hand and had to stop at the end of each reel to change to the next one. A slide, sometimes an advertisement for a local concern or a cartoon joke, was projected on the screen while the leader of the new reel was being threaded through the projector. Later it became possible to run two reels through without interruption and finally with two projectors the entire picture from opening title and credits to "THE END" or "FINIS", flowed without a break. Price in those days were 25 cents for adults and 10¢ to 15¢ for children and students. For an extra special attraction sometimes, a few occasions with reserved seats, the prices were as high as 50¢ and once or twice 75 cents.
On Friday and Saturday a western or an adventure story with stars such as Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Will Rogers and once in a while the Wonder Dog, Tin‑Tin‑Tin together with a serial and comedy would fill the house early in the evening. On Saturdays when the farmers and their families came to town the children were usually allowed to go to the movies while the weekly grocery shopping and other errands were attended to.
The story of the hundreds, maybe thousands of silent pictures shown, features, shorts, comedies, travelogues, news reels has already been the subject of many books and only a few of the high lights will be mentioned here. The names of many of the actors and actresses who played and starred in the years before the pictures began to talk mentioned in newspaper stories or advertisements are listed here in a somewhat chronological order starting with the earliest: Mary Pickford, Annette Kellerman, Anita Stewart, Theda Bara (The Vamp), William Farnum, Anna Q. Nilsson, Charlie Chaplin, Clara Kimball Young, Mae Marsh, Pearl White (the Serials star), Fatty Arbuckle, Mary Miles Minter, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Ben Turpin, Louise Fazenda, Charles Ray, Nazimova, Norma and Constance Talmadge, Wallace Reid, Mabel Normand, Sessue Hayakawa, Dustin Farnum, Mack Sennett Comedies, Bessie Barriscale, Blanche Sweet, Lon Chaney, Agnes Ayres, Colleen Moore, William S. Hart, Jackie Coogan, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich, Dorothy Devore, Ramno Novarro, Monte Blue, Marie Prevost, Ronald Coleman, Reginald Denny, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, John Gilbert, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Marion Davies, Eddie Cantor, Bebe Daniels, Gloria Swanson, Florence Vidor, Ricardo Cortez, Tom Mix, Adolph Menjou, Alice Joyce, Norma Shearer, John Barrymore, Ken Maynard, Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Hoot Gibson, Milton Sills, Clara Bow, Richard Dix, William Boyd (better known later as Hop‑a‑Long Cassidy), Greta Garbo, Will Rogers, and there were, of course, many others well known to the movie fans of the day.
In looking over the feature pictures mentioned or advertised in the Carrington newspapers during the silent film era it would appear that a number of the more famous and historically significant films passed the city by and were never shown at the Grand. For example, D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) was shown as a road show in Jamestown and later in a cut version in New Rockford but never at the Grand. Charlie Chaplin's feature length comedies, "The Kid" (1921), "The Gold Rush" (1925) and "The Circus" (1926) were never advertised in the Independent. The same is true of Harold Lloyd's "The Freshman" (1924), "The Covered Wagon" (1923) and Douglas Fairbanks "The Thief of Baghdad" (1924) to name only a few.
Ralph Botts sold the Grand theater to W. W. Arnold of Ellendale in October 1925. Botts continued to lead the boy's band and his dance orchestra and also sold Chrysler automobiles for a year or so before he and his wife moved to Medford, Oregon. Arnold managed the theater for a little over a year and then sold it to Don L. Tracy of Linton. Tracy had been the manager of a hotel and cafe in Linton which had burned down and there was no incentive for him to rebuild. He was looking around for an opportunity in North Dakota and the idea of managing a movie house in a prosperous town appealed to him. He bought the Grand late in 1925 and took over the management on January 17, 1926. He continued to operate the theater and be active in local affairs until he retired in 1954.
After the departure of Mr. and Mrs. Botts from the theater business the position of accompanist to the silent pictures was filled by local young people. Among them, at various times were Myrtle Buchanan, now Mrs. Otto Rogelstad, Myra Thurston now the late Mrs. Connie Smith and Bill Hensel. Theirs, however, was a dead‑end job since there were beginning to be rumors that the pictures were soon going to talk. Although the arrival of talking pictures was still several years in the future the first feeble effort in this direction came in an experiment in 1928. When Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" which was produced in both a silent and a part talking versions the silent one was shown at the Grand in this way: "Several of Jolson's records were played on a phonograph while he was shown on the screen singing the songs."
Nevertheless, changes in the Grand soon began after Tracy's purchase of the theater. The Sell Brothers, who had purchased the Walker and Company's hardware and furniture business some years previously, decided, as an investment, to construct a building 75 by 140 feet on the three lots facing the city park at the northwest corner of Main and Central (Lots 13, 14 and 15, Block 37 of the Original Townsite). These lots had been vacant for many years since the 1912 fire destroyed the former Guslander Hotel and some other business establishments. Before construction had started the double building at the corner had been leased to the J. C. Penney Company for 20 years and similarly to Tracy for the new Grand Theater on the 25 foot building between the Penney store and the bakery.
It was an opportune time to make the move since the old theater had become too small to handle the Saturday evening crowds; and the installation of the soon‑to‑come sound equipment would be difficult in the old structure. Construction began in September 1928 with Alex Nelson of Perham, Minnesota as the contractor. He was already well known locally as at the time he was the contractor for several other business buildings in town and had been in charge of the building of the Foster County Courthouse in 1909-10.
The New Grand Theater was ready for occupancy late in 1928 and opened with a gala performance on New Year's Eve, Monday, December 31, 1928. All the equipment and furnishings were new. The floor with the 400 leather upholstered seats sloped downward toward an orchestra pit and stage with additional gallery seats in the rear over the lobby. The stage was equipped and lighted for vaudeville acts and small road productions. There were dressing rooms beneath the stage.
The dedicatory program consisted of a speech by Mayor W. F. Boylan, a dance by Lila Meissen, daughter of the manager of the Carrington Mercantile store, saxophone music by four Shaeffer sisters, daughters of E. K. Shaeffer formerly of Barlow. The featured picture was the silent film "The Toilers" starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Robyna Ralston. It was advertised as a special production "where brawny men hew their livelihood out of the earth's bowels and women's happiness lives in the shadow of fear for the dangers the men flirt with." The cinema portion of the show also included a "Color Classic", "The Tenderfoot" and comedy "Felix the Cat."
Talkies in the true sense of the word had not yet arrived at the New Grand. The pictures shown during the first few months of 1929 were still of the silent variety such as "Wings" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", together with some photographed singing and dancing vaudeville acts with some sort of synchronized sound. The equipment (Vitaphone for projecting sound pictures came on May 28, 1929 and the first all talking picture "Submarine" was scheduled for three days starting on June 10. The premier did not take place as first advertised because of poor performance of the equipment and silent films continued to be presented for a month or so. The first 100% sound film, "Shopworn Angel" was finally shown during the week of July 4. It was only part talking with filmed music during the remainder of the feature. The next to come was Buster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill." The feeling of the exhibitors, including Tracy, that the rentals of these sound films were too high for the theaters in the small towns was one reason for the slow changeover to all talking films. Admission prices had to be raised to 25¢ and 60¢ but by the end of the year all the pictures were 100% sound and a new era of motion picture history had begun.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 425