Akron Civic Theatre

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.

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.

Mid `60s photo added courtesy of Mike Mase Mason.

April 20th, 1929 grand opening ad in the photo section.

The Garfield’s machines were of the ordinary push-button type. I don’t recall ever seeing one with a dial selector anywhere. But the cups still came down crooked pretty often. The Garfield’s first machine had only ordinary soft drink brands, but it proved so popular that they installed a second machine, and that was the one that had the burgundy in it.

On weekend nights the theater was still very busy in those days- at least it was after they had dropped their ninety cent top price to fifty cents for all seats- and at intermission there were usually lines for both machines. But I don’t remember them ever running out of burgundy. Most of my fellow suburbanites probably weren’t adventurous enough to even try it.

Akronflicks: I’ve read tens of thousands of comments on Cinema Treasures over the years, and yours is the first in which anyone has mentioned burgundy pop (or soda, as we called it in California.) There was burgundy soda in the machine at the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, California, in the late 1950s. I don’t remember it being available in any of the other dozen or so theaters I frequented in those days, nor have I seen it anywhere since.

I’m glad to hear they also had it in Akron, as I was beginning to think I’d just imagined it. Burgundy soda must have been mass produced if it appeared in both Alhambra and Akron, but I can’t find it mentioned anywhere on the Internet. It was indeed tasty, and I always especially looked forward to going to the Garfield so I could get a cup or two of it. I wonder whatever became of it?

I didn’t get to complete my comment! Yes, DRIFTING CLOUDS!!! This was in the 1940s and 1950s! I have always wondered how they produced those clouds! One other commenter remarked about nearby restaurants. One correct spelling was Garden Grille. Correct for the other was Kaase’s, which was on Mill Street and where my aunt used to work, opposite the Colonial theater. One comment about the Colonial mentioned three steep balconies, but of three levels only two were balconies, and that second balcony really was steep! Another commenter thought downtown Akron’s Main Street was perhaps not as busy as he remembered it being…I say OH YES it was! The wide sidewalks were always full of people, both shoppers and people in between busses! All bus routes but one in Akron traversed Main Street and stopped in front of Polsky’s department store going one way, and across the street in front of 0'neil’s department store on their return trip. I know because as a young teen I used to use my mother’s weekly bus pass, ride any bus to end of line and coming back on the other side of the street I would get off and then get on next bus coming and ride it to end and back, and repeat! Other downtown theaters I did not see mentioned were Strand, Palace (had also a balcony-level entrance from High St.), and Forum. I know there was one more south of O'neil’s but don’t recall name. One other comment did mention the Orpheum which was at the north end of S. Main St. at East Market St. Someone mentioned population of I believe 200,000, but as I recall, Akron population in the busy 40s was 250,000, most of whom rode busses past all those theaters every week, except on the Crosstown route taking so many people with second jobs between Goodyear on the east side and Goodrich and Firestone on the west! One more Main St. theater was the Gaiety(sp?), but it did NOT show movies! There were probably about fifteen more neighborhood theaters in Akron at that time! I can only recall Norka, Rialto, Royal, Gem, Ellet, Highland?, Goodyear Heights?, Spicer. This has been fun to recall! Thanks for the opportunity!

Thanks for the clue about Street View, TivFan. I had no idea this was available. Everybody should check this out! You can go right down to the stage and use the zoom feature to get a close-up view of the organ console, and close-ups of all the decorations along the way.

A number of earlier comments have noted the narrowness of the Akron Civic Theatre’s entrance, but I don’t think anyone has commented on why it is so narrow, or why it is designed in such a different architectural style than Eberson’s Moorish-Spanish theater. In fact, the theater’s entrance was designed by a different architect, C. Howard Crane, and it was built about a decade before the theater itself.

Originally, the current theater entrance was intended to be only one entrance to a large project called the Hippodrome Arcade, which was to have included a glass-roofed galleria lined with thirty shops as well as a theater with some 3000 seats. As told in this Akron Beacon Journal article, the Hippodrome Arcade Company was founded in 1917 by L. Oscar Beck, but the project proved to be too ambitious, and the company collapsed in 1921. Only the entrance building with its Italian Renaissance facade was completed.

In late 1926, Marcus Loew bought the property at a sheriff’s auction. Crane’s original plans were abandoned, and Loew’s Akron Theatre was built on part of the site that Beck had intended for the shopping arcade (the original plans had the Hippodrome Theatre at the far end of the arcade, adjacent to Water Street, where there is now a parking lot.) Crane’s original entrance building was only slightly modified when the new theater was built, and thus retains its Italian style.

The lobby is built on concrete stilts over the Ohio canal. Mr. Loew did not live to see the opening on April 20, 1929. It contains a 3/13 Wurlitzer that is still used.

This theatre was going to be built as the Hippodrome,when it was still being built Marque Loew bought and finished it,Renaming it the Loews Akron.

Just looked at the interior photos again,very nice,good to see it still going.

Happy New Year Patsy.