Clint W. Kline built the Arcade Building in South Arkon in 1912 and 1913. The Arcade Theater launched there February 15, 1913 with motion pictures. The venue received a streamlined makeover in 1936 as the new-look New Arcade Theater. On October 9, 1938, the theatre rebranded as the Art Theater with a double feature of “Love Takes Flight” and “Killers of the Sea.” The theater’s movie run may have ended on March 6, 1939 as there are no further listings or ads until it is retrofitted as a house of worship. A Hungarian film with an appearance by Hungarian singer and Globe Records recording artist Margit Bodan may be the final Art Theater booking.
The venue became a house of worship in late 1939 and has retained that with a number of different host organizations from 1939 to the 2020s. Usage by the Southern Baptist Tabernacle suggests that the venue was renamed back to the Arcade Theater. The former Arcade Theater became the Akron Masjid Islamic Center in the 1990s to the 2020s.
The Grand Theater was opened in 1906 by Mary Spach, Akron’s first female movie theater operator and just the third moving picture show in the city behind the Unique Theater (later Grotto Theater) and the Luna Theater (later Victor Theater). The name was a little contentious one as the Grand Opera House had used the name Grand Theatre upon its destruction by fire in March of 1905. Spach came in and built a quick space calling it the Grand. And the Grand Opera House on Main Street launched in 1907 and ran to 1921.
The old address of the Grand Theater venue was at 42 South Howard. It was returned to retail operation. And, in its last stand against Urban Renewal, it had become the long-running Old Book Store from the 1940s until being razed in 1967. The last days of the bookstore were captured and two photos are posted.
The Portage Theatre was a new-build movie house that launched December 12, 1915 with Theda Bara in “A Fool There Was.” In 1924, the theatre closed for over one month as it got a major refresh and, under new operator Frank S. Falkenberg, reopened with Norma Talmadge in “The Song of Love” on September 6, 1924.
Late in 1929, the theatre was equipped with sound by operator William I. Foutts to remain viable. After a new operator took on the venue, the Portage name was dropped in favor of the neighborhood’s Five Points moniker. The Five Points Theatre launched on November 19, 1937 with “Broadway Melody of 1938” and “One Mile From Heaven.” The new operator was Lorenzo Bozzelli who operated it with his sons, Arthur and Tony. The Bozellis closed the venue on June 7, 1951 with “Inside Straight” and “Great Manhunt.” The former Five Points / Portage was used soon thereafter as a house of worship.
Architectural Style: French Renaissance Opening personnel included Catherine Bernower as organist and coming over from the Colonial Theatre after 11 years there was Orchestra Director “Professor” Roy Billings.
Indeed. I think C. Howard Crane might be deserving of minor credit here for designing the facade that was actually built for the theatre; although the Loew’s complex has nothing else in common with the Crane plans with Eberson designing 99% of the venue.
The venue had temporarily closed March 16, 2020 for COVID-19 along with virtually all other hardtop theater locations. The venue’s final stretch under Cineworld/Regal was from its reopening on May 21, 2021 to February 12, 2023.
Vernon E. Sager opened the new-build Southern Theater in 1917 and his confectionery experience was put to good use in the concession area. The theater was then operated by Elizabeth Sager who installed sound in 1930 to remain viable. She sold the theater to the Spayne family in 1932 who ran both it and, later, the neighboring tavern for decades. Nicolas and then Ray Spayne steered the theater to closing in the 1960s.
Continuous movie operation ended with German language films on July 31, 1963 playing “Der Traeumende Mund” and “Weisser Holunder.” The venue was then refreshed and had a grand reopening as the Southern Theatre playing live Country and Western music. A live simulcast on radio proved popular running to April 23, 1967 likely at the end of a second, 25-year leasing period. The theater appears to have had a period of vacancy thereafter. The Spaynes decided to raze the theatre’s auditorium in 1979 to provide parking for their tavern next door.
This project was announced in November of 1917 as the Hippodrome and Hippodrome Arcade. The Hippodrome would be a 3,000 seat theater at 182 South Main and shares of stock were sold to the public for $10 a share. But shares went to nothing in 1921 as the Hippodrome project stalled with the majority of the arcade completed but just the theater’s lobby completed on the exhibition side.
A sheriffs sale of the property in 1925 drew interest from Marcus Loew who bought the property. After much inspection, the existing Hipp (to be) lobby area and arcade entry were okayed for usage followed by the plans for a new Loews theater in 1928. After delays, Loews would eventually turn the venue into a modern talkie theater launching in 1929 - just 11 years after the building started. It was Akron’s first movie house built with the new medium of sound.
The Keith-Albee Palace Theatre was the third Palace Theatre in Akron and by far its most remembered. Rapp & Rapp went for a Louis XV design with interior colors of rose, blue, black and gold. The venue was actually two buildings - one was the lobby, arcade and passageway to the second building - the auditorium. Two levels below the auditorium was the venue’s and the arcade’s kitchen. Up one level was the stagehands, musician’s, and animal handler’s rooms. On the main floor were dressing rooms.
The venue would both get sound and - with the founding of RKO Pictures in 1929 - it would be renamed. The Albee name was retired in many Keith-Albee locations. The Akron venue was slightly renamed in 1930 as the RKO Palace Theater. It was a name that would be short-lived. The RKO nameplate was removed in 1933 when the venue was dropped by RKO and picked up by Chatfield Theaters as the Palace Theater. Monarch Theatres took on the venue shortly thereafter continuing it as the Palace Theater.
In 1945, Lou Gamble and Gamble Enterprises operated the venue also as the Palace Theater. Finally, on September 28, 1956, Smith Management / Midwest Drive-In Theaters (later General Drive-In and General Cinema) bought the lease of the venue from Gamble General Cinema Corp. closed the Palace Theater on March 1, 1966 at the end of a second 20-year leasing period with Karel Stepanek in “The Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World.” Manager Ernie Austgen had been the manager there since 1951 and was despondent by all reports.
The theater wasn’t quite done, however, reopening for live events as the Palace Theater into 1969. In 1969, it had a brief run as a house of worship as the Palace Club. But a broken water main in January of 1970 hastened the eventual course of the theater/club. The Palace was razed in October of 1970. The Palace had played host to Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby and many others. Even in demolition, one can see that the Palace had earned its moniker. The theater barely outlasted another of Akron’s long-standing downtown venues when the Colonial was also torn down earlier in 1970. Both the Colonial and the Palace became parking areas.
Obviously, the name of this entry should be the Palace Theatre… but because there were three Palace Theaters (see “Little Palace Theatre” for the second Akron Palace location), the RKO moniker does give it distinction.
The Allen Theater closed May 18, 1950 for the summer at the end of a 30-year lease. That summer was a long one lasting through 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1953. The Allen reopened on August of 1953 now equipped with widescreen projection equipment and likely on a 5-year sublease. It closed in 1958. Dr. Robert H. Merz salvaged the 40-year old venue and spent $200,000 on purchasing and refreshing the theater. It reopened as the Astor Theatre in 1960. Dropping burlesque it became the all new Astor Adult Cinema in 1978. The Astor closed permanently on August 30, 1981 with a double feature of Veronica Hart in “Touch Me In the Morning” and Kitty Shayne in “Three Ripening Cherries.” The building was sold for demolition in March of 1982.
Regal launched its Regal Lafayette Square 7 in 1991 and closed it at the expiry of a 20-year leasing period in 2011. Odyssey Entertainment took on the venue immediately thereafter giving it a refresh with new seating. It relaunched in March of 2011.
Odyssey temporarily closed in March 16, 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 21, 2020, the Odyssey Circuit reopened the Lafayette Square. But the business environment had changed. Odyssey closed permanently here on February 23, 2023. Bryan Sieve, President of Odyssey Theatres said simply, “We had hoped business levels in Marietta would have returned to pre-pandemic levels but they simply have not.” Lease negotiations did not result in a favorable outcome that might have provided a sustainable path forward. The Circuit that includes both the Odyssey and CineMagic brand was then reduced to just seven remaining theatre locations with 48 total screens across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and Ohio.
The Brannon Square Shopping Center was announced in 1977 and opened in 1978. The Septum Brannon Square Twin Cinema I & II launched with the Center showing “Oliver’s Story” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on December 15, 1979. The theatre was renamed as the Navrang Theatre and then the Digimax into the 2020s; it just seemed to be getting better all the time.
The Regal Interstate Parkway 14 launched at the beginning of the megalplex boom in cinema exhibition history. The venue launched December 21, 1994 with wall-to-wall screens, an unscale coffee stand in Café Gregory, and computerized ticketing in which credit card reservations could be made in advance.
The venue added four more screens beginning on January 8, 1999 to become the Regal Interstate Park 18.
Septum Cinemas originated out of Star Cinemas' reorganization of the failed Georgia Jerry Lewis Cinema locations in 1973. All of those venues were looking for new managerial help once Network Cinemas and Lewis had ceased operations in 1973. The Memorial Drive Cinema 5 opening in 1982 and the Holcomb Woods in 1985 were Septum’s / Robert Busman’s most ambitious projects with each featuring a 70mm auditorium. The David Blumenthal architectural style of the Memorial 5 was an Art Deco appeal to the 1930s including large posters of studio-era stars on the wall.
The Septum Memorial Drive 5 launched on on December 8, 1982 with “Another 48 Hours” as the only film. Two days later, the venue had another audi ready with “The Toy” and on December 17, 1982, all five scenes were functioning as the theater added “Tootise,” “Best Friends,” and “Trail of the Pink Panther.” In March of 1986, Cineplex Odeon’s then-subsidiary Plitt Theatres bought Septum’s 48 screens for $11 million. The theater, however, continued as the Septum Memorial Drive 5 for two more years until April 3, 1988.
On April 4, 1988, the venue became the Cineplex Odeon Memorial Drive 5 Cinema and the Septum name was retired. Cineplex closed the Memorial Dr. 5 on March 17, 1996 with “The Birdcage,” “Hellraiser 4,” “City Hall,” “Don’t Be a Menace,” and “Rumble in the Bronx.” After other uses, the venue was transformed to the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in 2005.
Opened as the Showtown USA Twin Drive-In and became the Showtown USA 3 Drive-In
Clint W. Kline built the Arcade Building in South Arkon in 1912 and 1913. The Arcade Theater launched there February 15, 1913 with motion pictures. The venue received a streamlined makeover in 1936 as the new-look New Arcade Theater. On October 9, 1938, the theatre rebranded as the Art Theater with a double feature of “Love Takes Flight” and “Killers of the Sea.” The theater’s movie run may have ended on March 6, 1939 as there are no further listings or ads until it is retrofitted as a house of worship. A Hungarian film with an appearance by Hungarian singer and Globe Records recording artist Margit Bodan may be the final Art Theater booking.
The venue became a house of worship in late 1939 and has retained that with a number of different host organizations from 1939 to the 2020s. Usage by the Southern Baptist Tabernacle suggests that the venue was renamed back to the Arcade Theater. The former Arcade Theater became the Akron Masjid Islamic Center in the 1990s to the 2020s.
Closed February 9, 2023 due to lack of patrons.
The Grand Theater was opened in 1906 by Mary Spach, Akron’s first female movie theater operator and just the third moving picture show in the city behind the Unique Theater (later Grotto Theater) and the Luna Theater (later Victor Theater). The name was a little contentious one as the Grand Opera House had used the name Grand Theatre upon its destruction by fire in March of 1905. Spach came in and built a quick space calling it the Grand. And the Grand Opera House on Main Street launched in 1907 and ran to 1921.
The old address of the Grand Theater venue was at 42 South Howard. It was returned to retail operation. And, in its last stand against Urban Renewal, it had become the long-running Old Book Store from the 1940s until being razed in 1967. The last days of the bookstore were captured and two photos are posted.
The Portage Theatre was a new-build movie house that launched December 12, 1915 with Theda Bara in “A Fool There Was.” In 1924, the theatre closed for over one month as it got a major refresh and, under new operator Frank S. Falkenberg, reopened with Norma Talmadge in “The Song of Love” on September 6, 1924.
Late in 1929, the theatre was equipped with sound by operator William I. Foutts to remain viable. After a new operator took on the venue, the Portage name was dropped in favor of the neighborhood’s Five Points moniker. The Five Points Theatre launched on November 19, 1937 with “Broadway Melody of 1938” and “One Mile From Heaven.” The new operator was Lorenzo Bozzelli who operated it with his sons, Arthur and Tony. The Bozellis closed the venue on June 7, 1951 with “Inside Straight” and “Great Manhunt.” The former Five Points / Portage was used soon thereafter as a house of worship.
JKRP Architects was tasked with the venue’s refresh and rejuvenation
Architectural Style: French Renaissance
Opening personnel included Catherine Bernower as organist and coming over from the Colonial Theatre after 11 years there was Orchestra Director “Professor” Roy Billings.
Indeed. I think C. Howard Crane might be deserving of minor credit here for designing the facade that was actually built for the theatre; although the Loew’s complex has nothing else in common with the Crane plans with Eberson designing 99% of the venue.
Final day of operation is February 12, 2023.
Final day of operation will be February 12, 2023.
The venue had temporarily closed March 16, 2020 for COVID-19 along with virtually all other hardtop theater locations. The venue’s final stretch under Cineworld/Regal was from its reopening on May 21, 2021 to February 12, 2023.
First day of operation: March 19, 1999. Closed temporarily: March 16, 2020 for COVID-19
Final day of operation is February 9, 2023
Final day of operation is February 9, 2023
Final date of operation is February 12, 2023.
Today (February 9, 2023) is the venue’s final date of operation.
Vernon E. Sager opened the new-build Southern Theater in 1917 and his confectionery experience was put to good use in the concession area. The theater was then operated by Elizabeth Sager who installed sound in 1930 to remain viable. She sold the theater to the Spayne family in 1932 who ran both it and, later, the neighboring tavern for decades. Nicolas and then Ray Spayne steered the theater to closing in the 1960s.
Continuous movie operation ended with German language films on July 31, 1963 playing “Der Traeumende Mund” and “Weisser Holunder.” The venue was then refreshed and had a grand reopening as the Southern Theatre playing live Country and Western music. A live simulcast on radio proved popular running to April 23, 1967 likely at the end of a second, 25-year leasing period. The theater appears to have had a period of vacancy thereafter. The Spaynes decided to raze the theatre’s auditorium in 1979 to provide parking for their tavern next door.
This project was announced in November of 1917 as the Hippodrome and Hippodrome Arcade. The Hippodrome would be a 3,000 seat theater at 182 South Main and shares of stock were sold to the public for $10 a share. But shares went to nothing in 1921 as the Hippodrome project stalled with the majority of the arcade completed but just the theater’s lobby completed on the exhibition side.
A sheriffs sale of the property in 1925 drew interest from Marcus Loew who bought the property. After much inspection, the existing Hipp (to be) lobby area and arcade entry were okayed for usage followed by the plans for a new Loews theater in 1928. After delays, Loews would eventually turn the venue into a modern talkie theater launching in 1929 - just 11 years after the building started. It was Akron’s first movie house built with the new medium of sound.
The Keith-Albee Palace Theatre was the third Palace Theatre in Akron and by far its most remembered. Rapp & Rapp went for a Louis XV design with interior colors of rose, blue, black and gold. The venue was actually two buildings - one was the lobby, arcade and passageway to the second building - the auditorium. Two levels below the auditorium was the venue’s and the arcade’s kitchen. Up one level was the stagehands, musician’s, and animal handler’s rooms. On the main floor were dressing rooms.
The venue would both get sound and - with the founding of RKO Pictures in 1929 - it would be renamed. The Albee name was retired in many Keith-Albee locations. The Akron venue was slightly renamed in 1930 as the RKO Palace Theater. It was a name that would be short-lived. The RKO nameplate was removed in 1933 when the venue was dropped by RKO and picked up by Chatfield Theaters as the Palace Theater. Monarch Theatres took on the venue shortly thereafter continuing it as the Palace Theater.
In 1945, Lou Gamble and Gamble Enterprises operated the venue also as the Palace Theater. Finally, on September 28, 1956, Smith Management / Midwest Drive-In Theaters (later General Drive-In and General Cinema) bought the lease of the venue from Gamble General Cinema Corp. closed the Palace Theater on March 1, 1966 at the end of a second 20-year leasing period with Karel Stepanek in “The Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World.” Manager Ernie Austgen had been the manager there since 1951 and was despondent by all reports.
The theater wasn’t quite done, however, reopening for live events as the Palace Theater into 1969. In 1969, it had a brief run as a house of worship as the Palace Club. But a broken water main in January of 1970 hastened the eventual course of the theater/club. The Palace was razed in October of 1970. The Palace had played host to Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby and many others. Even in demolition, one can see that the Palace had earned its moniker. The theater barely outlasted another of Akron’s long-standing downtown venues when the Colonial was also torn down earlier in 1970. Both the Colonial and the Palace became parking areas.
Obviously, the name of this entry should be the Palace Theatre… but because there were three Palace Theaters (see “Little Palace Theatre” for the second Akron Palace location), the RKO moniker does give it distinction.
The Allen Theater closed May 18, 1950 for the summer at the end of a 30-year lease. That summer was a long one lasting through 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1953. The Allen reopened on August of 1953 now equipped with widescreen projection equipment and likely on a 5-year sublease. It closed in 1958. Dr. Robert H. Merz salvaged the 40-year old venue and spent $200,000 on purchasing and refreshing the theater. It reopened as the Astor Theatre in 1960. Dropping burlesque it became the all new Astor Adult Cinema in 1978. The Astor closed permanently on August 30, 1981 with a double feature of Veronica Hart in “Touch Me In the Morning” and Kitty Shayne in “Three Ripening Cherries.” The building was sold for demolition in March of 1982.
1958
The theatre management changed their closing date to sometime in late April 2023.
Regal launched its Regal Lafayette Square 7 in 1991 and closed it at the expiry of a 20-year leasing period in 2011. Odyssey Entertainment took on the venue immediately thereafter giving it a refresh with new seating. It relaunched in March of 2011.
Odyssey temporarily closed in March 16, 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 21, 2020, the Odyssey Circuit reopened the Lafayette Square. But the business environment had changed. Odyssey closed permanently here on February 23, 2023. Bryan Sieve, President of Odyssey Theatres said simply, “We had hoped business levels in Marietta would have returned to pre-pandemic levels but they simply have not.” Lease negotiations did not result in a favorable outcome that might have provided a sustainable path forward. The Circuit that includes both the Odyssey and CineMagic brand was then reduced to just seven remaining theatre locations with 48 total screens across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and Ohio.
The Brannon Square Shopping Center was announced in 1977 and opened in 1978. The Septum Brannon Square Twin Cinema I & II launched with the Center showing “Oliver’s Story” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on December 15, 1979. The theatre was renamed as the Navrang Theatre and then the Digimax into the 2020s; it just seemed to be getting better all the time.
The Regal Interstate Parkway 14 launched at the beginning of the megalplex boom in cinema exhibition history. The venue launched December 21, 1994 with wall-to-wall screens, an unscale coffee stand in Café Gregory, and computerized ticketing in which credit card reservations could be made in advance.
The venue added four more screens beginning on January 8, 1999 to become the Regal Interstate Park 18.
Launched April 16, 1949 with Louis Jordan with “Beware!“ and Rocky Lane in "Oklahoma Badlands.”
Septum Cinemas originated out of Star Cinemas' reorganization of the failed Georgia Jerry Lewis Cinema locations in 1973. All of those venues were looking for new managerial help once Network Cinemas and Lewis had ceased operations in 1973. The Memorial Drive Cinema 5 opening in 1982 and the Holcomb Woods in 1985 were Septum’s / Robert Busman’s most ambitious projects with each featuring a 70mm auditorium. The David Blumenthal architectural style of the Memorial 5 was an Art Deco appeal to the 1930s including large posters of studio-era stars on the wall.
The Septum Memorial Drive 5 launched on on December 8, 1982 with “Another 48 Hours” as the only film. Two days later, the venue had another audi ready with “The Toy” and on December 17, 1982, all five scenes were functioning as the theater added “Tootise,” “Best Friends,” and “Trail of the Pink Panther.” In March of 1986, Cineplex Odeon’s then-subsidiary Plitt Theatres bought Septum’s 48 screens for $11 million. The theater, however, continued as the Septum Memorial Drive 5 for two more years until April 3, 1988.
On April 4, 1988, the venue became the Cineplex Odeon Memorial Drive 5 Cinema and the Septum name was retired. Cineplex closed the Memorial Dr. 5 on March 17, 1996 with “The Birdcage,” “Hellraiser 4,” “City Hall,” “Don’t Be a Menace,” and “Rumble in the Bronx.” After other uses, the venue was transformed to the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in 2005.