The this theater is now owned by the Auburn school district which continues to operate it as a commercial theater, recently raising $80,000 to help pay for upgrades. View link
Not too much should be made of this; apparently the break-away congregation from the Crystal Cathedral just rented one auditorium at this multiplex for a single Sunday morning; they appear to be moving on to a hotel conference room from then on. It was back in cinema use by noon on that particular day.
Organizations and churches rent movie theaters all the time. Many theaters and theater chains promote the rental of their theaters. This probably would have gone unnoticed by the papers that reported it except that this was connected to the news about the Crystal Cathedral’s problems.
The use of Theater 15 as a church appears to have been a one-time-only event, and wrapped up around 11 a.m. on Sunday 03-18-2013. The screening room was back in cinema use by noon. Apparently the congregation will be moving to a hotel conference room until it finds a permanent locale, according to the article cited above.
According to the history page on this theater’s official website, this theater was specifically built to house a “Cycloramic” screen and opened as the Rio Cycloramic Theatre. The screen was supposed to create the illusion of depth. It sounds a great deal like Cinerama. Does anyone know anything about these Cycloramic screens?
if you navigate to the upper center portion of this large photo, the Euclid Avenue entrance to Loew’s Mall Theater can be seen circa 1927, the date of release for the movie being shown.
So it did have a short life: it opens in 1919, and is gone by mid-1922 at the latest – and this in an era when theaters were not just made of cement block and sheetrock.
I did find a picture of the the Lennox Building, but it doesn’t show what is left or right of the building.
Now that I can more clearly see a 1921 ad posted on Mike Rivest’s Picasa photo site that lists all of the Cleveland theaters operated by Loew’s in that year for this theater, it is apparent that some information posted by a number of us, including myself, is most likely inaccurate.
This grand opening adindicates that the theater probably opened in 1919 rather than 1914, as “Eyes of the Soul,” according to the IMdB, opened in April of that year. The 1921 Loew’s ad indicates that the Loew’s Euclid was at 9th and Euclid so this has to be the same theater, unless there were two theaters named Euclid at 9th and Euclid. Therefore, the theater was operated by a major chain at least for some portion of its life.
What is not clear to me is when this theater closed. If it disappears by 1930 from the city directory, as indicated by one of the previous comments, and the other Euclid Theater in East Cleveland was open by then, then the closing occured sometime in the 1920’s.
I am wondering if the theater was demolished when the huge building now known as the Huntington Bank Building (formerly the Union Commerce Bank) was constructed, as the opening ad for this Euclid Theater indicates that it was next to the Lennox Building which was demolished for the construction of the bank building. However, construction of the bank building began in 1921, which would mean that this Euclid theater would have had a very short life. But that might have been the case if one considers Lost Memory’s comment about the installation of a Robert-Morton theater organ being installed in a Euclid Theater in 1925. My guess is that this organ went into the East Cleveland Euclid Theater, and that this Euclid Theater had closed by then. If this theater was not demolished to build the bank building, could the building that currently is to the immediate right of the Euclid Avenue frontage of the bank building once have been this Euclid Theater?
I am convinced that this theater was never known as Loew’s Euclid, based on this ad for Loew’s Theaters that appears on Mike Rivest’s Picasa photosite. The ad is from 1921 and shows the list of theaters operated by Loew’s since 1917.
If you zoom in, you can see that the Loew’s Euclid theater was at 9th and Euclid, which means that it is most likely, if not certainly the Euclid Theater built by Joseph Laronge; if the information for that theater is correct indicating that it opened in 1914, then Loew’s assumed control of it by 1921 at the latest, which would make highly unlikely that Loew’s ever had anything to do with this theater.
JeffinTX; I live in Saint Louis, MO. As far as I know, none of the folks you cite live in the Houston area but I could be wrong. I was only in Houston once, in 2005.
I am reluctant to post my email here as I had a real problem with spam some years ago, but I have a public profile on LinkedIn (I am the Christopher Walczak in Saint Louis) and if you set up a LinkedIn profile, you can ask to be connected to me.
No, the Warner Brothers Theater is a remodeling of the old Carmichael Auditorium within the National Museum of American History which is also on the Mall in Washington but not physically connected to the National Gallery of Art.
This article about theater restoration in Chicago’s neighborhoods in general and the Logan in particular includes a slide show of over twenty photos.
The theater’s official website is: http://www.auburnstatetheater.com/#!
The this theater is now owned by the Auburn school district which continues to operate it as a commercial theater, recently raising $80,000 to help pay for upgrades. View link
A recent photo essay that appeared in the Baltimore Sun.
The two additional Marquee Suites screening rooms will open on March 30, 2012 according to this article.
A photo of the building from 2011.
According to this article much of this theater will soon be occupied by a gym.
Not too much should be made of this; apparently the break-away congregation from the Crystal Cathedral just rented one auditorium at this multiplex for a single Sunday morning; they appear to be moving on to a hotel conference room from then on. It was back in cinema use by noon on that particular day.
Organizations and churches rent movie theaters all the time. Many theaters and theater chains promote the rental of their theaters. This probably would have gone unnoticed by the papers that reported it except that this was connected to the news about the Crystal Cathedral’s problems.
The use of Theater 15 as a church appears to have been a one-time-only event, and wrapped up around 11 a.m. on Sunday 03-18-2013. The screening room was back in cinema use by noon. Apparently the congregation will be moving to a hotel conference room until it finds a permanent locale, according to the article cited above.
This article has more about this theater’s history and includes a picture of the building as of 2012: View link
An old photo: Viewlink
According to the history page on this theater’s official website, this theater was specifically built to house a “Cycloramic” screen and opened as the Rio Cycloramic Theatre. The screen was supposed to create the illusion of depth. It sounds a great deal like Cinerama. Does anyone know anything about these Cycloramic screens?
This article includes two pictures showing the changed exterior signage and a picture of the remodeled lobby prior to the theater’s reopening.
This theater has reopened as the Sundance Cinemas Houston; the website is: https://www.sundancecinemas.com/houston.html
The theater now has a bar, available reserved seating, an art gallery, and enhanced concessions.
if you navigate to the upper center portion of this large photo, the Euclid Avenue entrance to Loew’s Mall Theater can be seen circa 1927, the date of release for the movie being shown.
According to the article about the fire, the theater opened in 1949.
The website for the Rotunda Cinemas is now http://www.therotundacinemas.com/
I was referring to the photo at the top of the page that is part of the photos gallery for this page, not any photo posted by bkrefft.
So it did have a short life: it opens in 1919, and is gone by mid-1922 at the latest – and this in an era when theaters were not just made of cement block and sheetrock.
I did find a picture of the the Lennox Building, but it doesn’t show what is left or right of the building.
Now that I can more clearly see a 1921 ad posted on Mike Rivest’s Picasa photo site that lists all of the Cleveland theaters operated by Loew’s in that year for this theater, it is apparent that some information posted by a number of us, including myself, is most likely inaccurate.
This grand opening adindicates that the theater probably opened in 1919 rather than 1914, as “Eyes of the Soul,” according to the IMdB, opened in April of that year. The 1921 Loew’s ad indicates that the Loew’s Euclid was at 9th and Euclid so this has to be the same theater, unless there were two theaters named Euclid at 9th and Euclid. Therefore, the theater was operated by a major chain at least for some portion of its life.
What is not clear to me is when this theater closed. If it disappears by 1930 from the city directory, as indicated by one of the previous comments, and the other Euclid Theater in East Cleveland was open by then, then the closing occured sometime in the 1920’s.
I am wondering if the theater was demolished when the huge building now known as the Huntington Bank Building (formerly the Union Commerce Bank) was constructed, as the opening ad for this Euclid Theater indicates that it was next to the Lennox Building which was demolished for the construction of the bank building. However, construction of the bank building began in 1921, which would mean that this Euclid theater would have had a very short life. But that might have been the case if one considers Lost Memory’s comment about the installation of a Robert-Morton theater organ being installed in a Euclid Theater in 1925. My guess is that this organ went into the East Cleveland Euclid Theater, and that this Euclid Theater had closed by then. If this theater was not demolished to build the bank building, could the building that currently is to the immediate right of the Euclid Avenue frontage of the bank building once have been this Euclid Theater?
I am convinced that this theater was never known as Loew’s Euclid, based on this ad for Loew’s Theaters that appears on Mike Rivest’s Picasa photosite. The ad is from 1921 and shows the list of theaters operated by Loew’s since 1917.
If you zoom in, you can see that the Loew’s Euclid theater was at 9th and Euclid, which means that it is most likely, if not certainly the Euclid Theater built by Joseph Laronge; if the information for that theater is correct indicating that it opened in 1914, then Loew’s assumed control of it by 1921 at the latest, which would make highly unlikely that Loew’s ever had anything to do with this theater.
JeffinTX; I live in Saint Louis, MO. As far as I know, none of the folks you cite live in the Houston area but I could be wrong. I was only in Houston once, in 2005.
I am reluctant to post my email here as I had a real problem with spam some years ago, but I have a public profile on LinkedIn (I am the Christopher Walczak in Saint Louis) and if you set up a LinkedIn profile, you can ask to be connected to me.
No, the Warner Brothers Theater is a remodeling of the old Carmichael Auditorium within the National Museum of American History which is also on the Mall in Washington but not physically connected to the National Gallery of Art.
A link to a photo from the Toronto archives.
A USA Today article about the theater: View link