Have not lived in Cleveland for many years, but lived on Inglewood Drive, about 2-3 miles from the Center Mayfield in the 1950’s. Went there often in the summer months to get out of the heat (“Cooled by Refrigeration”), as none of the older houses in Cleveland Heights had air conditioning. The Center Mayfield was still in pretty good shape in those days, though the seats were likely original, and were pretty worn. In my High School years, I lived in Pepper Pike, and one of my neighborhood friend’s dad used to leave for work a bit after we got home from school everyday. He always wore a Tux to work, so finally asked my friend, Bill, what he did for a job. Turns out he was the Manager of the Center Mayfield!
Though there were theaters closer to home, went to the Center Mayfield several time in the 1960’s, watching the movie from the projection booth several times. As I recall, the had two older projectors (either Century or Simplex, and an pretty old Altec sound system (likely feeding one or two Altec Voice-of-the-Theater speakers). In 1964, I was actually able to (secretly) plug into that sound system and record the entire soundtrack of Goldfinger on Reel-to-Reel tape (Goldfinger was likely in it’s 2nd or 3rd run by then)… Also was able to get two large Goldfinger posters, as the movie was old enough that distributer wasn’t too picky about getting them back. Of course, the poster that I really wanted was the 3-D acrylic poster for 2001, but that one, they definitely wanted back.
My most vivid memory of the Center Mayfield was going to see “A Hard Days Night” the 2nd or 3rd day after it opened. This was the only time I can remember the C-M actually being sold out! We sat through the movie twice (you could do that in the 1960’s), but still had absolutely no idea of any of the dialog of the movie. The volume of a packed house of screaming girls totally drowned out the little Altec sound system!
Sorry for getting carried away with this commentary, but seems such a shame that most of these classic movie houses are in ruins. Here in Orange County, California, the Fox in Fullerton, is slowly coming back to life. It had four feet of water in the “pit” when they started!
Any of you still in the area have an update on Cleveland Heights or the Center Mayfield????
Have not lived in Cleveland for many years, but lived on Inglewood Drive, about 2-3 miles from the Center Mayfield in the 1950’s. Went there often in the summer months to get out of the heat (“Cooled by Refrigeration”), as none of the older houses in Cleveland Heights had air conditioning. The Center Mayfield was still in pretty good shape in those days, though the seats were likely original, and were pretty worn. In my High School years, I lived in Pepper Pike, and one of my neighborhood friend’s dad used to leave for work a bit after we got home from school everyday. He always wore a Tux to work, so finally asked my friend, Bill, what he did for a job. Turns out he was the Manager of the Center Mayfield!
Though there were theaters closer to home, went to the Center Mayfield several time in the 1960’s, watching the movie from the projection booth several times. As I recall, the had two older projectors (either Century or Simplex, and an pretty old Altec sound system (likely feeding one or two Altec Voice-of-the-Theater speakers). In 1964, I was actually able to (secretly) plug into that sound system and record the entire soundtrack of Goldfinger on Reel-to-Reel tape (Goldfinger was likely in it’s 2nd or 3rd run by then)… Also was able to get two large Goldfinger posters, as the movie was old enough that distributer wasn’t too picky about getting them back. Of course, the poster that I really wanted was the 3-D acrylic poster for 2001, but that one, they definitely wanted back.
My most vivid memory of the Center Mayfield was going to see “A Hard Days Night” the 2nd or 3rd day after it opened. This was the only time I can remember the C-M actually being sold out! We sat through the movie twice (you could do that in the 1960’s), but still had absolutely no idea of any of the dialog of the movie. The volume of a packed house of screaming girls totally drowned out the little Altec sound system!
Sorry for getting carried away with this commentary, but seems such a shame that most of these classic movie houses are in ruins. Here in Orange County, California, the Fox in Fullerton, is slowly coming back to life. It had four feet of water in the “pit” when they started!
Any of you still in the area have an update on Cleveland Heights or the Center Mayfield????