Imperial Theatre
282 McMicken Avenue,
Cincinnati,
OH
45214
282 McMicken Avenue,
Cincinnati,
OH
45214
4 people
favorited this theater
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Imperial Theater was erected in 1913 and lasted as a functioning venue until 1978. It started as a family burlesque theater and moviehouse, then went to movies only, then finally strip show burlesque. It is our last and oldest movie marquee frontage, although badly damaged by a truck years ago.
Stubaby, that is the understatement of the year. It’s downright HORRIBLE in that area. I don’t know where you are from, but our city is on pace to break the all time record for murders and this area is the main one. And, the old Imperial Theater is the backdrop.
As i seem to recall, the Safari eventually (by the late 60’s-70’s?) became a low rent, sleazy largely black transvestite bar! ( : Times do change. Mohawk area indeed a dangerous place these days… hookers and heroin dealers abound…a black church group owns or leases the Imperial now, I believe, and occasionally has Gospel concerts and sets up “missionary” tables in Mohawk. Dangerous work!
The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
The Imperial was actually a burlesque house that hosted combo film and stage shows. It must have closed in the late ‘60’s and has never reopened — though signs were briefly posted in the late '70’s that it would be reopening “soon.” I never went there, but I can remember the “spicy” newspaper ads from the late '60’s, which usually referred to the theater as The Imperial Follies. That theater is actually the site of an important meeting between [my wife] Donna and I, so it has almost familial ties. Right around the corner from it there used to be a nightclub called The Safari Room or The Safari Club; local legend had it that Johnny Mathis used to sing there.
Also, I uploaded many of my theater photos on http://flickr.com/ if you can find them. Under Joethemusicguy511. If you want to see them.
Thanks, Chuck and Lost Memory. I have another pic of the Imperial but without all of the junk in front of it. If by some chance you want it, e-mail me at and I’ll reply with it. That neighborhood is now a hardcore ghetto and as I write this, our city is on pace to break the annual record of murders, most of them are in that area. That’s what the drug trade will get you.