Allen Theatre
1407 Euclid Avenue,
Cleveland,
OH
44115
1407 Euclid Avenue,
Cleveland,
OH
44115
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 71 comments
In the late 50s and early 60s the beautiful Allen had long runs of GIANT, AUNTIE MAME, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, A SUMMER PLACE, THE MUSIC MAN, GYPSY and BYE BYE BIRDIE. Great stuff.
BigDog: Click on the “Photos” button above the photo at the top of this page. 81 photos of the Allen have been uploaded here so far, a few of which show the marquee.
does anyone have a Marquee picture (the year is inconsequential, but I am a child of the 1955-69)downtown Cleveland theater-wise, and have almost assembled marquee pictures of all my youthful haunts and memories……if someone wants to share, ……I remembering going there to view “The Fall of the Roman Empire”, but later, missing the opportunity to see/hear THE WHO w/opening act JAMES TAYLOR….my date and I went to see “Little Big Man” at one of the other venues…..Stupid is as stupid does !
This theatre was owned and built for the theatre owning ALLEN family of TORONTO, Canada. Rapid over-expansion in the twenties caused the ALLEN THEATRES to go into receivership both in Canada and the United States. Their main competition in Canada, Famous Players Canadian Corporation squeezed them right out of business. The Allen family remained on as an operating partner of Famous Players right up until the mid-70’s!!!
Grand opening ad uploaded in the photo section.
Hi rivest266, please email me at Thank you
From the cited article: “An earlier renovation of the Allen in the 1990s by Playhouse Square preserved much of Crane’s design, but the organization decided this time around to sacrifice historic flavor in order to serve up the functionality desired by the Play House and CSU.
Bottom line: The new high-tech look at the Allen, which allows the original architecture to peek through here and there, was a fair price to pay for a theater that now works so well."
Appalling! Fortunately, from what I can see, much of the original look can be restored (which I hope it will be after a few money-losing seasons of the Cleveland Playhouse proves what boondoogle this was. I have lost all respect for the Playhouse Square Association.
Divided up into smaller auditoriums- http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2012/08/renovated_allen_theatre_at_pla.html
Holy shit. That really is desecration.
This webpage includes a photo (click upon it to enlarge it) which shows how the Allen’s auditorium has been remodeled (I would indeed say desecrated) to meet the needs of the Cleveland Playhouse:
http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/euclid-shuffle/Content?oid=2724702
I cant believe they are going to carve up this beautiful theater after spending so much money to restore it. Have they started this desecration yet? Horrible!
The Loews Ohio is also in this photo,its marquee was just in front of the Loews State.This theatre did not have a vertical sign.
From the late 1940s a postcard view of the Allen Theatre along with the Hanna and Lowe’s State Theatres.
The Grateful Dead played here on 10/29/71.
Thanks Joe,another real find.
A unique feature of the Allen Theatre in its early years was a soda fountain called the Tea Room, located on the main floor and open to the auditorium. The facility was for the exclusive use of theater patrons, and was without a separate entrance from the street.
The July, 1922, issue of a trade journal called The Soda Fountain featured this article about the operation. There is one photo. The article says that the idea for the Tea Room came from the theater’s architect, C. Howard Crane.
Thanks for the postcard veiw Don, a great find as always.
From the 1920s a postcard view of the Allen and Loews Theatres in Cleveland’s Theatre District.
A 1922 article on The Evolution of the Motion Picture Theatre, published by the journal Michigan Architect and Engineer, contains four early interior photos of the Allen Theatre.
True Mike, in all the photos I have seen of the CRESCENT sign you could not see the LOEWS NEON during the day if you did not know it was there you would not know it,I remember that I had to turn on I think it was 26 breakers to turn on all the signage and outside lights. I have seen a video of Church street when the sign was being turned of for the night, it when off in stages as you know not all the lights came on or off at the same time.I wonder if it was me turning them off in that clip.May have been I did it many,many times.Now back to the Allen Theatre.
Once Loews sold to Martin and they weren’t going to remove the LOEWS sign someone should have done like you said and disconnected the breakers.When ABC sold to Plitt the next day the ABC logo you see on TV was long gone!
I agree CWalzak,I was just pointing out the style of the vertical looked very much like many Loews verticals I have seen in photos I knew that Loews did not have this theatre in 1948.And the overlapping neon we had I thought looked cheap,but cheaper than building a new sign I quess.In fact I just remember after Loews closed the Crescent I drove down Church street one night after Martin theatres had taken over the Crescent and the LOEWS neon was still buring even though it had its own breakers,I guess who ever turned on the signs did not know, and this was like 2 years after Loews left.
Yes, but it would not have said “Loews” on the marquee in 1948 as it was under Warner control from 1932 on. Perhaps someone could locate a really clear photo of the marquee during the period from 1922-1932. There is one in the Allen timeline link I posted above on June 5, 2010. but I can not see “Loews” on the vertical, though it may have been in the black square at the top. I doubt if it was in overlapping neon though over “Allen”.
By the way the photo I was refering to was the 1948 shot.
In one of the photos in an earlier post the vertical sign looked like a LOEWS sign but it said ALLEN on it maybe they just changed the letters since Allen and Loews both have 5 letters each,after Loews left this theatre.A theatre I worked for in Nashville,Tenn, did that it was the Princess and later changed to Crescent in the same sign using as many of the old letters as possible to cut costs.This was also a LOEWS house when I worked there and they installed a flashing neon LOEWS sign over the Crescent upright that was already there.