When it closed, the RKO Palace was the last remaining first-run screen in downtown Columbus. Only the Southern Theatre continued operating downtown, showing second- and third-run double features, after the RKO Palace closed.
For at least some short time in the early 1970s, the Southern was renamed the Towne Cinema. An advertisement in the Columbus Dispatch in late December, 1972, announced the new name, as well as a new policy of first-run films. The first movie booked under the new name and policy was the blaxploitation film Trouble Man.
I don’t know how long the new name and policy lasted, but by 1975, it was back to the Southern Theatre, once again showing second- or third-run double features.
This building now contains two side-by-side restaurants, Penn Station East Coast Subs and Moe’s Southwest Grill. It is no longer easily recognizable as a former theatre.
After reviewing some Columbus Dispatch microfilm archives, I have to retract an earlier statement. This theatre was renamed from ‘University Theatre’ to ‘University Flick’ some time before it was sold to General Cinemas. The chain that owned this theatre, as well as the Northland and Eastland mall cinemas, used a distinctive hexagonal logo in its newspaper ads.
And yes, movies are coming back to North High Street. The ‘Gateway’ cinema, which will be part of the local Drexel chain, is now under construction on the east side of High, opposite 10th Street. It will be next door to the new Barnes & Noble which is replacing Long’s Bookstore next week.
The RKO Palace closed as a movie theatre in September, 1975, not quite reaching its 50th anniversary. From looking at the Columbus Dispatch microfilm archives, it appears that the last movie to show here was the X-rated Emmanuelle. The last day’s newspaper to carry the ad was published on Tuesday, September 9.
Emmanuelle was not a typical booking for the RKO Palace. The week before, they had shown Take a Hard Ride, a ‘spaghetti Western’ made in Italy. Its last day was Tuesday, September 2. Back then, movie theatres usually changed their films on Wednesdays, rather than on Fridays as they do now.
Now I have to correct myself. KenRoe is right — for at least some short time, the Southern Theatre was indeed renamed the Towne Cinema. I just looked at a Columbus Dispatch microfilm from the last week of December, 1972. It had an ad for the Towne with its “new first-run policy”, initially showing the blaxploitation film Trouble Man.
I did not have time to look through later microfilms to see how long the new name and policy lasted — but I don’t think it was very long.
The adjoining Great Southern Hotel has unfortunately been renamed the Westin. The hotel looks fine, but this insensitive renaming destroys a treasured bit of Columbus history.
This cinema was at the intersection of East Broad Street and Robinwood Avenue, on the south side of Broad Street.
A few blocks further east, also on the south side of Broad, was the Cinema East. Its address was 4177 East Broad Street in Whitehall. It was a large first-run single-screen theatre, probably built in the early to mid 1960s.
I’m in Columbus for a few days so I have some time to look at the Dispatch archives at a local library. The Esquire’s address was 3016 East Broad Street. That address is now a small strip mall which contains, among other things, the Bexley Kosher Market. I can’t tell whether the strip mall retains any of the structure of the old theatre, or is a completely new building. If someone has a photo of the Esquire, I might be able to tell.
The original agreement to save this theatre included a stipulation that Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston be granted the right to continue staging operas here for several weeks each year. However, the company doesn’t exist anymore, and Sarah Caldwell is quite old now.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino is quietly blocking plans to stamp the corporate logo of Citizens Bank on Boston’s historic Opera House.
Four months after the bank and Clear Channel Entertainment announced plans to rename the newly reopened Washington Street landmark, it remains the Opera House — a name the theater is likely to keep, in one way or another, as long as the mayor has any say in the matter.
Citizens reportedly paid Clear Channel less than $4 million for the seven-year naming rights agreement. Soon after the April 1 announcement of the deal, the bank expected to unfurl banners and to launch a series of promotions touting the showplace as the Citizens Bank Theatre.
But shortly after the deal was announced, Menino and his point man in the Opera House project, Boston Redevelopment Authority executive director Harry Collings, expressed their displeasure to Citizens and Clear Channel.
City officials and bank and Clear Channel executives have been meeting on and off since, trying to come to some resolution, Collings said. Compromises have been floated — calling the theater the Citizens Opera House, for instance — and sunk.
‘'The mayor feels that the Opera House is a very significant landmark, and that we need to do everything possible to protect this historic building,“ Collings said yesterday. ’‘The city and the BRA have worked for years with the preservation community and the arts community to save and restore these three crown jewels — the Opera House, the Paramount, and the Modern Theater.
‘'The Opera House on its own is a very strong Boston identity and brand,“ Collings said.
Menino spent seven years maneuvering and cutting deals to pave the way for Clear Channel to purchase and begin refurbishing the decaying Opera House in 2002. When the theater reopened, following a $37 million restoration last summer, the mayor cut the ribbon and led the first official tour.
‘'The Opera House would be falling down right now" if it weren’t for Boston’s mayor, Clear Channel Theatrical president David Anderson said before the opening ceremony last July. ’‘We owe him. We will help him however we can."
But Menino was not consulted about the Citizens/Clear Channel plans, and the notoriously thin-skinned chief executive was said to have been infuriated. The fact the mayor and his staff learned about the naming rights deal only when they were invited to a press announcement added insult to a sense of injury.
A Citizens spokeswoman declined comment yesterday on the dispute. Anderson of Clear Channel was traveling and could not be reached for comment.
Asked how changing the name of a theater could harm it, Collings said that the Opera House bears a singular Boston identity and brand.
‘'People may say the Opera House used to be the Keith or the Savoy,“ Collings said. But artists who used the theater and the disparate interests who struggled to save it have always referred to the building as the Opera House. ’‘It’s always going to be the Opera House.”
Drew Murphy, recently named president of Clear Channel Entertainment/Broadway in Boston, said yesterday the company is still working with Citizens, its bank, and the mayor’s office to resolve the dispute.
After only three months of organizing at the Kendall Square Cinema, the Landmark Theatre chain’s biggest theatre, employees voted 17 to one to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 791 on July 30.
…
The vote comes as a result of recent management changes, lack of full-time status even for employees who average over 35 hours per week, small and sporadic raises, and a starting wage of $7.25 that hasn’t changed since 2002, according to employee and organizer Lauren Ryder.
I don’t know the street address, but it is on the east side of Main Street (Route 38) just south of the intersection with Church Street (Route 62). You can see it from the train if you know exactly where to look.
When it closed, the RKO Palace was the last remaining first-run screen in downtown Columbus. Only the Southern Theatre continued operating downtown, showing second- and third-run double features, after the RKO Palace closed.
The Esquire became the Carousel East in 1972, at the same time as the Beechwold became the Camelot North.
For at least some short time in the early 1970s, the Southern was renamed the Towne Cinema. An advertisement in the Columbus Dispatch in late December, 1972, announced the new name, as well as a new policy of first-run films. The first movie booked under the new name and policy was the blaxploitation film Trouble Man.
I don’t know how long the new name and policy lasted, but by 1975, it was back to the Southern Theatre, once again showing second- or third-run double features.
This building now contains two side-by-side restaurants, Penn Station East Coast Subs and Moe’s Southwest Grill. It is no longer easily recognizable as a former theatre.
After reviewing some Columbus Dispatch microfilm archives, I have to retract an earlier statement. This theatre was renamed from ‘University Theatre’ to ‘University Flick’ some time before it was sold to General Cinemas. The chain that owned this theatre, as well as the Northland and Eastland mall cinemas, used a distinctive hexagonal logo in its newspaper ads.
And yes, movies are coming back to North High Street. The ‘Gateway’ cinema, which will be part of the local Drexel chain, is now under construction on the east side of High, opposite 10th Street. It will be next door to the new Barnes & Noble which is replacing Long’s Bookstore next week.
The RKO Palace closed as a movie theatre in September, 1975, not quite reaching its 50th anniversary. From looking at the Columbus Dispatch microfilm archives, it appears that the last movie to show here was the X-rated Emmanuelle. The last day’s newspaper to carry the ad was published on Tuesday, September 9.
Emmanuelle was not a typical booking for the RKO Palace. The week before, they had shown Take a Hard Ride, a ‘spaghetti Western’ made in Italy. Its last day was Tuesday, September 2. Back then, movie theatres usually changed their films on Wednesdays, rather than on Fridays as they do now.
In its final declining years as an X-rated house, the Markham was actually renamed to “Adult Theatre”.
Now I have to correct myself. KenRoe is right — for at least some short time, the Southern Theatre was indeed renamed the Towne Cinema. I just looked at a Columbus Dispatch microfilm from the last week of December, 1972. It had an ad for the Towne with its “new first-run policy”, initially showing the blaxploitation film Trouble Man.
I did not have time to look through later microfilms to see how long the new name and policy lasted — but I don’t think it was very long.
The adjoining Great Southern Hotel has unfortunately been renamed the Westin. The hotel looks fine, but this insensitive renaming destroys a treasured bit of Columbus history.
Columbus still has a Free Christian Drive-In. It has been running for at least 35 summers, and is a unique operation that deserves its own entry here.
This cinema was at the intersection of East Broad Street and Robinwood Avenue, on the south side of Broad Street.
A few blocks further east, also on the south side of Broad, was the Cinema East. Its address was 4177 East Broad Street in Whitehall. It was a large first-run single-screen theatre, probably built in the early to mid 1960s.
The address was 480 Ackerman Road.
The address was 1980 North High Street.
This was located at the intersection of West Broad Street and Wilson Road.
The address of this theatre was 1000 Morse Road.
I’m in Columbus for a few days so I have some time to look at the Dispatch archives at a local library. The Esquire’s address was 3016 East Broad Street. That address is now a small strip mall which contains, among other things, the Bexley Kosher Market. I can’t tell whether the strip mall retains any of the structure of the old theatre, or is a completely new building. If someone has a photo of the Esquire, I might be able to tell.
This theatre opened yesterday.
However, I don’t see what it adds to the local movie scene. The first week’s bookings look the same as many other Columbus-area cinemas.
No, it has never had the word “Boston” in its name.
The original agreement to save this theatre included a stipulation that Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston be granted the right to continue staging operas here for several weeks each year. However, the company doesn’t exist anymore, and Sarah Caldwell is quite old now.
From today’s Boston Globe:
Mayor fighting effort to rename Opera House
Mayor Thomas M. Menino is quietly blocking plans to stamp the corporate logo of Citizens Bank on Boston’s historic Opera House.
Four months after the bank and Clear Channel Entertainment announced plans to rename the newly reopened Washington Street landmark, it remains the Opera House — a name the theater is likely to keep, in one way or another, as long as the mayor has any say in the matter.
Citizens reportedly paid Clear Channel less than $4 million for the seven-year naming rights agreement. Soon after the April 1 announcement of the deal, the bank expected to unfurl banners and to launch a series of promotions touting the showplace as the Citizens Bank Theatre.
But shortly after the deal was announced, Menino and his point man in the Opera House project, Boston Redevelopment Authority executive director Harry Collings, expressed their displeasure to Citizens and Clear Channel.
City officials and bank and Clear Channel executives have been meeting on and off since, trying to come to some resolution, Collings said. Compromises have been floated — calling the theater the Citizens Opera House, for instance — and sunk.
‘'The mayor feels that the Opera House is a very significant landmark, and that we need to do everything possible to protect this historic building,“ Collings said yesterday. ’‘The city and the BRA have worked for years with the preservation community and the arts community to save and restore these three crown jewels — the Opera House, the Paramount, and the Modern Theater.
‘'The Opera House on its own is a very strong Boston identity and brand,“ Collings said.
Menino spent seven years maneuvering and cutting deals to pave the way for Clear Channel to purchase and begin refurbishing the decaying Opera House in 2002. When the theater reopened, following a $37 million restoration last summer, the mayor cut the ribbon and led the first official tour.
‘'The Opera House would be falling down right now" if it weren’t for Boston’s mayor, Clear Channel Theatrical president David Anderson said before the opening ceremony last July. ’‘We owe him. We will help him however we can."
But Menino was not consulted about the Citizens/Clear Channel plans, and the notoriously thin-skinned chief executive was said to have been infuriated. The fact the mayor and his staff learned about the naming rights deal only when they were invited to a press announcement added insult to a sense of injury.
A Citizens spokeswoman declined comment yesterday on the dispute. Anderson of Clear Channel was traveling and could not be reached for comment.
Asked how changing the name of a theater could harm it, Collings said that the Opera House bears a singular Boston identity and brand.
‘'People may say the Opera House used to be the Keith or the Savoy,“ Collings said. But artists who used the theater and the disparate interests who struggled to save it have always referred to the building as the Opera House. ’‘It’s always going to be the Opera House.”
Drew Murphy, recently named president of Clear Channel Entertainment/Broadway in Boston, said yesterday the company is still working with Citizens, its bank, and the mayor’s office to resolve the dispute.
The Kingsley Montessori School has begun advertising this new location in neighborhood newspapers. So it’s time to change the Function to “School”.
From Boston Indymedia:
Kendall Square Cinema employees join union
After only three months of organizing at the Kendall Square Cinema, the Landmark Theatre chain’s biggest theatre, employees voted 17 to one to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 791 on July 30.
…
The vote comes as a result of recent management changes, lack of full-time status even for employees who average over 35 hours per week, small and sporadic raises, and a starting wage of $7.25 that hasn’t changed since 2002, according to employee and organizer Lauren Ryder.
(read the article for much more)
… which, I should add, is titled:
“Hollywood’s Death Spiral, Part 2: Are movie theaters facing extinction?”
Slate posted part 2 of this article today.
Yesterday’s Lowell Sun says that the Billerica Mall is about to receive a $20 million renovation. It will no longer be an enclosed mall, and all stores will open out into the parking lot. The new anchor will be a Home Depot.
Presumably whatever remains of the old movie theatre will be demolished, or unrecognizably renovated.
I don’t know the street address, but it is on the east side of Main Street (Route 38) just south of the intersection with Church Street (Route 62). You can see it from the train if you know exactly where to look.