The Mall was built in 1914 by real estate developer Joseph Laronge. In 1916 Laronge built the Stillman Theatre near 12th St. Later that year he formed a partnership with 2 guys named Strong and Desberg and a third guy, Marcus Loew. The partnership was called Loew’s Ohio Theatres. This may be when the Mall and Stillman became Loew’s houses. The partnership went on to develop the Loew’s State, Ohio, Park and Granada theatres.
According to the book “Guide to Cleveland Architecture” the Hanna was built by the Shubert Syndicate for its road show circuit. It is long and narrow with Corinthian capped pilasters, fresco paintings and coffered ceilings.
The local group that now owned it after it closed was trying to find funding to make it into a community center. I haven’t been back in town in a long time, so I don’t know what the current status is.
Warren, that interior shot of the Albee auditorium looks very similar to the auditorium of the RKO Palace in Cleveland. Check out the Palace and see what you think. View link
The World East, World West and the Severence Theatre (the original, not the current plex) were all built and operated by an outfit called Rappaport Theatres out of Baltimore.
The last manager of the Vogue was Sylvia Sheer, she had been there for years, and lived in the apartment above the theatre lobby. The film booker in the final days was Ralph Donnelly of RKO-SW in New York. Sylvia, Ralph and the theatre itself were all CLASS-ACTS!
The address in the previous post in incorrect – South Moreland Blvd. is off Shaker Square behind the Colony Theatre (now Shaker Sq. Cinemas – CinTreas #2872). In 1950 it may have been a booking or management office at that location – both theatres were Stanley-Warner operations at that time.
Apparently the theatre was getting tired and unless it was always packed, Simon figured they would get more money for the space from Barneys, a high-end store. A mall usually gets percentage-rent: a percentage of the gross revenue plus a rental fee per square foot.
Wasn’t there a relationship of some sort btwn the Warner Studios and the Stanley-Warner Theatres – possibly S-W taking over the Warner theatres after the Paramount Consent Decree or something like that?
This was a Warner Bros. Theatre, remodeled in 1949 with architect Victor A. Rigaumont, according to the site referenced by Lost Memory. It doesn’t state when it was originally built or when it was closed and demolished.
I’m familiar with the death fog – I hadn’t yet arrived on the scene, but my mother was living there then, and I’d been told all about it. Even as a kid in the 50s I can remember the town was full of smoke from the zinc works at the mill, not as bad as the death-fog, but it was pretty bad – and everything was filthy dirty. I would get up in the morning, take a bath, put on clean clothes, come downstairs and my grandmother would say “Davey, honey, run down to the mailbox and get the mail”. She lived in town, so it wasn’t far to the mailbox at the street. When I came back in I’d be filthy just from the soot on the stair railings and mailbox. The town is in the Monongahela River valley, and all the smoke was stuck there in the valley. You couldn’t get away from it in town because in those days nobody had air conditioning, not even the stores. Many of the towns in the river valley south of Pittsburgh had various US Steel or J&L Steel operations creating similar conditions, but none as bad as the death fog in Donora. I recall that even in downtown Pittsburgh at noon all the street lights would be on and the stores had their signs lit because it looked like dusk outside due to the smoke. Today, most of the mills are gone and the few that remain have heavy pollution controls on them, and now Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. BTW, the Loews Waterfront Theatre is build on the site of the US Steel Homestead Works – which was also spewing out a lot of smoke back in the day. The mill was dismantled except for the smokestacks, and redeveloped into a retail-entertainment-residential area called “The Stacks”.
Lost Memory, are you here in NY, or where? How do you find this stuff? You always come up with info on obscure theatres in obsure places, in addition to your wealth of NY info. My mother grew up in Donora and when I came along we lived in Pittsburgh and would go to Donora to visit my Grandmother. The town was a bustling place then, the mill (US Steel) was running and the people were working. I don’t remember this theatre or the Palace. I only remember the Liberty Theatre being open and operating – it had a lot of green neon and a small marquee. The Princess Theatre was still standing, but the lobby was being used as a cab-stand and bus station, and they stored school buses and taxi cabs in the auditorium. I can remember, as a little kid waiting with my mother for the bus back to Pgh, peeking through a doorway into the old auditorium, where there still a few theatre seats gripping the floor among the taxis. The stage draperies, filthy and tattered were still hanging by threads, and the old paint was peeling from the walls and ceiling. As time went by, the mill shut down and Donora fell on hard times. The relatives moved out (they had worked in the mill) and I haven’t been there in over 30 years.
The theatre, if booked right and the place was cookin', on a Friday or Saturday night would draw far more customers at any given time than Marshalls can, particularly now that there few theatres left in Brooklyn – hence, the parking issue. There’s a Marshalls over here by me and you could throw a bomb in there and not bother anybody…. Besides, Sony was not interested in the theatres – they were just part of the the baggage they got when they took over Columbia Pictures. Once they discovered they owned them they decided to use them as a petri dish for their experiments with cinema audio equipment and development of SDDS.
This page has the 2 General Cinema trailers that have already been posted, also some drive-in intermission countdown clocks from way back (not necessarily GCC). http://tulsatvmemories.com/gccvill.html
Warren is correct the theatre entrance was under the window. When it was first converted the store occupying the lobby area was “Parade of Shoes”, which has now apparently moved out. In the second photo, next to the ABC store is a $5 Store. The back of that store was knocked through into the former Colony auditorium. Between the ABC and $5 store is an alleyway, where the fire exits from the theatre were.
it’s not a double feature – “Miss Jones” is playing at the Avon 7, and “Throat” is at the Love Theatre on 42nd St. I don’t remember that one but that’s what the ad says….
Back in the day, at the Cinema where I ushered, they only had the females in the stand and the box office. The males ripped tickets and ushered. We went back there only to bring a case of soda cups from the stock room upstairs or to change a pepsi tank. It was a RARE occasion when they put one of us back there selling, and then we were there we were told to take off the blue jacket. If we slopped soda and butter on our white shirt, it was our problem. If it was super-busy, both sold out theatres coming in at the same time (total 2100 seats) there were 8 girls in there, plus they’d throw in a couple of ushers and the managers secretary. I think I still have a couple of those blue jackets in a closet in my mothers house in Ohio.
Take pictures of the place so you can remember what it was. Whatever Regal is paying for it is probably the last money that will be put into it – they’ll run it into the ground same as they have done with their theatres in New York.
The Mall was built in 1914 by real estate developer Joseph Laronge. In 1916 Laronge built the Stillman Theatre near 12th St. Later that year he formed a partnership with 2 guys named Strong and Desberg and a third guy, Marcus Loew. The partnership was called Loew’s Ohio Theatres. This may be when the Mall and Stillman became Loew’s houses. The partnership went on to develop the Loew’s State, Ohio, Park and Granada theatres.
According to the book “Guide to Cleveland Architecture” the Hanna was built by the Shubert Syndicate for its road show circuit. It is long and narrow with Corinthian capped pilasters, fresco paintings and coffered ceilings.
The local group that now owned it after it closed was trying to find funding to make it into a community center. I haven’t been back in town in a long time, so I don’t know what the current status is.
Warren, that interior shot of the Albee auditorium looks very similar to the auditorium of the RKO Palace in Cleveland. Check out the Palace and see what you think.
View link
Bryan, that’s a surprise to me. I thought the first movies there were in the late 80s.
Photos of the Hanna can be seen here:
View link
The World East, World West and the Severence Theatre (the original, not the current plex) were all built and operated by an outfit called Rappaport Theatres out of Baltimore.
The last manager of the Vogue was Sylvia Sheer, she had been there for years, and lived in the apartment above the theatre lobby. The film booker in the final days was Ralph Donnelly of RKO-SW in New York. Sylvia, Ralph and the theatre itself were all CLASS-ACTS!
The address in the previous post in incorrect – South Moreland Blvd. is off Shaker Square behind the Colony Theatre (now Shaker Sq. Cinemas – CinTreas #2872). In 1950 it may have been a booking or management office at that location – both theatres were Stanley-Warner operations at that time.
Apparently the theatre was getting tired and unless it was always packed, Simon figured they would get more money for the space from Barneys, a high-end store. A mall usually gets percentage-rent: a percentage of the gross revenue plus a rental fee per square foot.
Why did they want to break the glass?
Wasn’t there a relationship of some sort btwn the Warner Studios and the Stanley-Warner Theatres – possibly S-W taking over the Warner theatres after the Paramount Consent Decree or something like that?
This was a Warner Bros. Theatre, remodeled in 1949 with architect Victor A. Rigaumont, according to the site referenced by Lost Memory. It doesn’t state when it was originally built or when it was closed and demolished.
I’m familiar with the death fog – I hadn’t yet arrived on the scene, but my mother was living there then, and I’d been told all about it. Even as a kid in the 50s I can remember the town was full of smoke from the zinc works at the mill, not as bad as the death-fog, but it was pretty bad – and everything was filthy dirty. I would get up in the morning, take a bath, put on clean clothes, come downstairs and my grandmother would say “Davey, honey, run down to the mailbox and get the mail”. She lived in town, so it wasn’t far to the mailbox at the street. When I came back in I’d be filthy just from the soot on the stair railings and mailbox. The town is in the Monongahela River valley, and all the smoke was stuck there in the valley. You couldn’t get away from it in town because in those days nobody had air conditioning, not even the stores. Many of the towns in the river valley south of Pittsburgh had various US Steel or J&L Steel operations creating similar conditions, but none as bad as the death fog in Donora. I recall that even in downtown Pittsburgh at noon all the street lights would be on and the stores had their signs lit because it looked like dusk outside due to the smoke. Today, most of the mills are gone and the few that remain have heavy pollution controls on them, and now Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. BTW, the Loews Waterfront Theatre is build on the site of the US Steel Homestead Works – which was also spewing out a lot of smoke back in the day. The mill was dismantled except for the smokestacks, and redeveloped into a retail-entertainment-residential area called “The Stacks”.
Lost Memory, are you here in NY, or where? How do you find this stuff? You always come up with info on obscure theatres in obsure places, in addition to your wealth of NY info. My mother grew up in Donora and when I came along we lived in Pittsburgh and would go to Donora to visit my Grandmother. The town was a bustling place then, the mill (US Steel) was running and the people were working. I don’t remember this theatre or the Palace. I only remember the Liberty Theatre being open and operating – it had a lot of green neon and a small marquee. The Princess Theatre was still standing, but the lobby was being used as a cab-stand and bus station, and they stored school buses and taxi cabs in the auditorium. I can remember, as a little kid waiting with my mother for the bus back to Pgh, peeking through a doorway into the old auditorium, where there still a few theatre seats gripping the floor among the taxis. The stage draperies, filthy and tattered were still hanging by threads, and the old paint was peeling from the walls and ceiling. As time went by, the mill shut down and Donora fell on hard times. The relatives moved out (they had worked in the mill) and I haven’t been there in over 30 years.
They wear protective suits and respirators, though I wonder if all that is really necessary.
They are probably removing asbestos – it must be removed before any demolition begins, even if they were going to flatten the whole place.
The theatre, if booked right and the place was cookin', on a Friday or Saturday night would draw far more customers at any given time than Marshalls can, particularly now that there few theatres left in Brooklyn – hence, the parking issue. There’s a Marshalls over here by me and you could throw a bomb in there and not bother anybody…. Besides, Sony was not interested in the theatres – they were just part of the the baggage they got when they took over Columbia Pictures. Once they discovered they owned them they decided to use them as a petri dish for their experiments with cinema audio equipment and development of SDDS.
Photos of the Loews Port Chester Theatre exterior can be seen here:
View link
This page has the 2 General Cinema trailers that have already been posted, also some drive-in intermission countdown clocks from way back (not necessarily GCC).
http://tulsatvmemories.com/gccvill.html
Warren is correct the theatre entrance was under the window. When it was first converted the store occupying the lobby area was “Parade of Shoes”, which has now apparently moved out. In the second photo, next to the ABC store is a $5 Store. The back of that store was knocked through into the former Colony auditorium. Between the ABC and $5 store is an alleyway, where the fire exits from the theatre were.
Yup, the entrance was on the west side of Bway btwn 72 & 73 Sts.
it’s not a double feature – “Miss Jones” is playing at the Avon 7, and “Throat” is at the Love Theatre on 42nd St. I don’t remember that one but that’s what the ad says….
OMG! Regal in Hawaii! How did that happen??
Back in the day, at the Cinema where I ushered, they only had the females in the stand and the box office. The males ripped tickets and ushered. We went back there only to bring a case of soda cups from the stock room upstairs or to change a pepsi tank. It was a RARE occasion when they put one of us back there selling, and then we were there we were told to take off the blue jacket. If we slopped soda and butter on our white shirt, it was our problem. If it was super-busy, both sold out theatres coming in at the same time (total 2100 seats) there were 8 girls in there, plus they’d throw in a couple of ushers and the managers secretary. I think I still have a couple of those blue jackets in a closet in my mothers house in Ohio.
Take pictures of the place so you can remember what it was. Whatever Regal is paying for it is probably the last money that will be put into it – they’ll run it into the ground same as they have done with their theatres in New York.