This and the West Side Drive-In (and Carousel Lanes, Peter Pan Snack Shop and Amy Joy Donut Shops) were all General Cinema operations in town before they ever built their first indoor theatre here, the Southgate Cinema.
The first occupant of the retail building on the East Side’s site was Giant Tiger – when they went out of business Uncle Bill’s moved in.
The theatre and the shopping center of which it was part was built on a landfill, a former garbage dump. It suffered from structural problems throughout its life due to the settling of the ground beneath it. I believe the entire shopping center has been demolished.
Seat counts were 425? I thought it was about 450, but if I told you 425 then , that’s what it was. It was a long time ago. I hated that theatre, badly proportioned, never should have been split, plus it was in a dead mall. I hated that town, too. What a sorry-ass place that was.
Once upon a time, New York City had cable cars, like San Francisco still has. The building housing the Angelika was originally the headquarters for the cable car company and the basement that is now occupied by the 6 theatres was originally where the motors pulling the cables were located. The building, now known as the Cable Building, was built in 1894 to the designs of McKim, Mead & White.
A former doorman at City Cinemas, who had previously worked at the Selwyn in the late 80s-early 90s, told me that at some point while he worked there they closed the orchestra and made all the customers sit upstairs in the balcony. This was because the rats in the orchestra section were chasing the customers away.
The Continental, along with the Heights and Westwood were part of a chain of “art” theatres with other theatres in Columbus. I think it was called Bexley Theatres.
I remember taking a shortcut through the alley btwn Euclid and Prospect where the Hipp’s stage doors were – and that windowless auditorium structure was towering above the street, and was nearly as tall as the Hippodrome office building. It had stage doors that they could (and I’m sure at some point did) march elephants through.
I believe one of the last times that the Hipp was doing capacity business was in the 60s during Beatlemania and “A Hard Days Night” played there. It was packed to the rafters with screaming teenage girls.
I think the THSA figure may be incorrect. The 4500 seat figure is the ‘as-built’ capacity and came from the list in the back of ‘American Picture Palaces’. The Palace in Cleveland had 3600+ seats and the Hippodrome was way bigger, and always acknowledged locally as the biggest movie theatre in town with over four-thousand seats. Perhaps as the years went by it was re-seated with bigger seats, or official capacity reduced when they closed the upper balconies. Roger Stewart – how many seats in the Hipp when you worked there?
That figure is probably correct – there were several large theatres in this neighborhood, comparable to the big downtown theatres. A couple of blocks over was the Loew’s Park and Keith’s 105, and each of those had over 3000 seats.
City Cinemas only had a booking arrangement here, it was operated as a normal theatre by the porno people who owned it. It was called the West Side Cinema 1 & 2. The name Cine 1 & 2 was put on the Hollywood Twin on 8th Ave. for a while. When this theatre went back to porno the Cine 1 & 2 name came back here and West Side Cinema 1 & 2 name went out the window.
The Mayland had the World Premiere of the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” in about 1971. The boy who played Charley (I think that was the characters name) lived there in the neighborhood.
This should be listed under General Cinema.
This and the West Side Drive-In (and Carousel Lanes, Peter Pan Snack Shop and Amy Joy Donut Shops) were all General Cinema operations in town before they ever built their first indoor theatre here, the Southgate Cinema.
The first occupant of the retail building on the East Side’s site was Giant Tiger – when they went out of business Uncle Bill’s moved in.
There were only a few films made in the Cinerama process, not enough to justify the expense of a new installation.
This needs to be listed under General Cinema.
Cool, that’s an urban legend shot put to rest – I’d heard that one for years…..
Wasn’t the Pussycat chain owned by Rosemary Clooney’s husband? (I forgot his name)
This needs to be listed under General Cinema, who operated it for its entire run…….
We started having the ushers cleaning the auditoriums in cleveland around 1978, when they put out that ridiculous ‘Timmy the Trashcan’ trailer.
The Northpark Cinema closed in 1987.
The theatre and the shopping center of which it was part was built on a landfill, a former garbage dump. It suffered from structural problems throughout its life due to the settling of the ground beneath it. I believe the entire shopping center has been demolished.
I need to amend the location – the Cinderella City Mall was in Engelwood, Colorado. The Cinema opened in 1968 and was demolished in 1979.
As far as I know after GCC left it MJR Theatres took it over and was still calling it Livonia Mall and operating it as a bargain house.
Seat counts were 425? I thought it was about 450, but if I told you 425 then , that’s what it was. It was a long time ago. I hated that theatre, badly proportioned, never should have been split, plus it was in a dead mall. I hated that town, too. What a sorry-ass place that was.
Yup, thats me. 8/75 thru 2/77 at Dort…. where did you get my name?
When I worked there in 1975 the address on our stationary, my business cards and the incoming mail was 3600……
BTW, Camden: What theatres are in closed subway terminals?
Once upon a time, New York City had cable cars, like San Francisco still has. The building housing the Angelika was originally the headquarters for the cable car company and the basement that is now occupied by the 6 theatres was originally where the motors pulling the cables were located. The building, now known as the Cable Building, was built in 1894 to the designs of McKim, Mead & White.
A former doorman at City Cinemas, who had previously worked at the Selwyn in the late 80s-early 90s, told me that at some point while he worked there they closed the orchestra and made all the customers sit upstairs in the balcony. This was because the rats in the orchestra section were chasing the customers away.
Wasn’t the Cine 42 group of theatres run by Norman Adee?
The Continental, along with the Heights and Westwood were part of a chain of “art” theatres with other theatres in Columbus. I think it was called Bexley Theatres.
I remember taking a shortcut through the alley btwn Euclid and Prospect where the Hipp’s stage doors were – and that windowless auditorium structure was towering above the street, and was nearly as tall as the Hippodrome office building. It had stage doors that they could (and I’m sure at some point did) march elephants through.
I believe one of the last times that the Hipp was doing capacity business was in the 60s during Beatlemania and “A Hard Days Night” played there. It was packed to the rafters with screaming teenage girls.
I think the THSA figure may be incorrect. The 4500 seat figure is the ‘as-built’ capacity and came from the list in the back of ‘American Picture Palaces’. The Palace in Cleveland had 3600+ seats and the Hippodrome was way bigger, and always acknowledged locally as the biggest movie theatre in town with over four-thousand seats. Perhaps as the years went by it was re-seated with bigger seats, or official capacity reduced when they closed the upper balconies. Roger Stewart – how many seats in the Hipp when you worked there?
That figure is probably correct – there were several large theatres in this neighborhood, comparable to the big downtown theatres. A couple of blocks over was the Loew’s Park and Keith’s 105, and each of those had over 3000 seats.
City Cinemas only had a booking arrangement here, it was operated as a normal theatre by the porno people who owned it. It was called the West Side Cinema 1 & 2. The name Cine 1 & 2 was put on the Hollywood Twin on 8th Ave. for a while. When this theatre went back to porno the Cine 1 & 2 name came back here and West Side Cinema 1 & 2 name went out the window.
The Mayland had the World Premiere of the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” in about 1971. The boy who played Charley (I think that was the characters name) lived there in the neighborhood.
Where did the name ‘Ezella’ come from?