State Theatre
213 W. Federal Street,
Youngstown,
OH
44503
213 W. Federal Street,
Youngstown,
OH
44503
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 129 comments
Took a look at our third venue – the Covelli Center schedule and they are having three major live events in December:
Dec. 7 – Guns N’ Roses concert
Dec. 9 – Mannheim Steamroller concert
Dec. 15 – Disney On Ice
Since this is not “movie palace” it can’t be given its own page here but the shows they bring in are big name acts and usually sold out.
Just took a quick look at the schedules for both venues and it seems that they well only have a couple of events each in December, but will keep watching for any additions for Powers.
If you go to the Youngstown Symphony web site you can find the schedule for the shows coming up at Powers. I would also suggest that if you can swing it pay a visit to Stambaugh Auditorium.
I wish I had photos to contribute but I didn’t even own a camera when these theaters were open. The only contribution I had to make was the Palace in Hubbard. I very much appreciate what you have been contributing. This Christmas I plan to visit family in Hubbard and hope to find a way to visit the Powers, the only place left I can actually visit.
As a history buff on Youngstown, I am admittedly bias in favor of Youngstown, so I would like as much information as I possably can get my hands on regarding the local theaters including as many photos as possable.
Running two web sites and being house historian for a third site leaves me little time to truely explore all the amazing theaters on this site, but really appreciate all the hard work that the many contributers do to preserve the memory of the many theaters around the world.
Sometimes though, I feel a wee bit lonely in that most of the Youngstown theaters cere were contributed by me which makes me a little sad that there aren’t more folks adding to my contributions.
My point about the pictures on-line is that some of them have very good details of the facade.
Thank you for posting photos of the interiors, even though so badly decayed. The big screen, big format films, made the State the most amazing film experience of my teens.
Three new pictures have been added showing the lobby and balcony before the theater was demolished. They are truely sad.
There are tons of pictures of the State Theater floating around the Internet but none showing the interior when it was operating as a movie theater, and that is what I’m looking for.
For a theater that was showing the big roadshow movies, the State had a smallish lobby area that wasn’t all that dramatic when you compare it to the Palace and Warner and somewhere in the thousands of pictures in my personal library I do hace a couple of lobby pictures that were taken just before the theater was demolished as well as a picyure of the balcony that are sad to look at, but none in its glory days.
I will try to locate them and put them up, but as for the demolition, no deal, it serves no purpose since it doesn’t give us an idea of what it looked like in its glory days.
There are tons of pictures of the State Theater floating around the Internet but none showing the interior when it was operating as a movie theater, and that is what I’m looking for.
For a theater that was showing the big roadshow movies, the State had a smallish lobby area that wasn’t all that dramatic when you compare it to the Palace and Warner and somewhere in the thousands of pictures in my personal library I do hace a couple of lobby pictures that were taken just before the theater was demolished as well as a picyure of the balcony that are sad to look at, but none in its glory days.
I will try to locate them and put them up, but as for the demolition, no deal, it serves no purpose since it doesn’t give us an idea of what it looked like in its glory days.
There are a number of photos (about30) posted on flickr of the State before and during demolition. You might have to ask permission to repost them here.
Two new photos os the Grand Opening ad have been posted. According to the ad the State had 2,500 seats when it first opened.
Didn’t mean to snub the Paramount. Mother took me to see GWTW at the Paramount and I was awe struck.
If I’m not mistaken the Warner ran the original GWTW, and it later moved to the Paramount and after a short run there, it was moved to the Park which at the time was owned by the same company that owned the Paramount.
Don’t forget that the Paramount also had the premier of “A Patch of Blue” since its star was a Youngstown girl.
Didn’t mean to snub the Paramount. Mother took me to see GWTW at the Paramount and I was awe struck.
If I’m not mistaken the Warner ran the original GWTW, and it later moved to the Paramount and after a short run there, it was moved to the Park which at the time was owned by the same company that owned the Paramount.
Don’t forget that the Paramount also had the premier of “A Patch of Blue” since its star was a Youngstown girl.
The Paramount played its share of roadshow movies in the 1960s as well. “My Fair Lady,” the 1967 “GWTW” reissue, “Camelot,” even “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.” The State did, however, have the majority of roadshow hits, including “The Sound of Music” (which ran seemingly forever back then), “Dr. Zhivago” and “Funny Girl.” Of course, the State also played “Dr. Dolittle” which was pretty much d.o.a. by the time they finally got it in June of 1968.
Actually I wan’t trying to hype any particular film one way or another but simply point out that the State and the State alone ran roadshow films which made local folks wonder why they went there and not the Palace or Warner. The Palace would have been better, but since they were also having live stage shows that might have been the reason. I suppose that by adding a Todd-A-O screen etc. would have precluded the use of the stage for live shows, but the Warner didn’t have that problem, but as with the Paramount by putting in a large screen other than Cinemascope would have meant defacing the stage area. This happened at the Paramount, but no real loss since it only had a very small stage that was never used to my knowledge. But then I’m no expert and gladdly admit it.
At the risk of turning this into a forum on “The Big Fisherman,” I can tell you that it was a rare roadshow flop in its day, as was “The Diary of Anne Frank” at about the same time. “Big Fisherman” had a modest 10-week run (none of them big) at Pittsburgh’s Warner Theatre, which was our Cinerama house and which had great long runs of two other religious-themed blockbusters, “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur.”
“The Big Fisherman” has never been available on home video, and I’ve never known it to be shown on cable. I’ve been trying to see it since missing it in theaters the first (and only) time around. It has had no “after life.”
It’s cool to see the ad mentioning the unreserved matinees and the tickets available at Sears for reserved. Thanks for finding that. I didn’t see the Big Fisherman there, however, but at the Hubbard Palace.
Picture of the first day ad now in photo section.
Should have been The first showing of the picture started exactly at 8:30 P.M.
According to The Vindicator “The Big Fisherman” ran for almost three months at the State – 1959-60. The last four weeks were discounted and didn’t require advanced purchase of tickets. Opened October 31, 1959 at the State. Shown in Panavision 70 on the Todd-A-O screen. The firat showing of the picture started exactly at 8:30 P.M.
“The Ten Commandments” was released Oct 5, 1956. “Ben Hur” was premiered in November of 1959. Both were originally released “roadshow” reserved seats, so I would imagine you’d find them booked into the State shortly after their release date. That’s all I have to offer.
Thanks for your memories of the State, but I really need month and year that these films were shown. I did find “The Big Fisherman” but a list in chronological order is really what I’m looking for so that I can find and save the opening ad and review for each film for my collection.
I saw “Ben Hur” at the State in 70mm. At that time MGM was using an UltraPanavision lens to get a wider picture (a 25% anamorphic), but they called it Camera 65. The stereo sound was very realistic. My own Grandmother had not seen a movie since silent days with a piano, since she thought movie people were sinful. Ben Hur was her favorite book, so her sons got her to go. You can imagine her shock at the difference between her silent movie experience and this road show experience. As I recall, you had to order your tickets in advance and got reserved seats. It ran that way for months before it was released to the other area theaters in 35mm.
My first memory of the State Theater was “The Ten Commandments”. It may have been the first movie to advertise on television. Believe it or not, the schools would arrange for whole classes to go on a field trip to see it. That wouldn’t happen today. That my second time to see it. The first was my sister taking me to see it as a birthday present. I went a third time, just before it closed and got to see the projection booth, when I mentioned my relationship to the Palace in Hubbard. I swear I saw real VistaVision projectors there, but they were installed in so few places, it’s hard to confirm that. A chat with someone at Paramount a few years ago, suggested Youngstown may have been a test installation.