Before the Dabel was built between Brownies Market and Steberal’s Market on Smithville, there was an open air “farmer’s type” market on the spot with a big tent in the middle. The tent pole had a telephone on it and when we would come home from downtown (the bus line loop was on Wayne Ave at Smithville), we would call mom to pick us up using that phone. Then they demolished the market place to build the Dabel in 1947. I was eight and joined the “booster” club with my sisters and we all got a badge with a number on it. Every Saturday (no TV!) we would get a quarter and a penny to go to the Dabel and watch the serials and superman (the original) and all of the other 1940 movies. When we bought our tickets for 20 cents, we would have six cents left to buy a candy bar. Sometimes our booster club number would appear on the window of the ticket booth and we would get in free with 26 cents to buy candy and popcorn!
The Northtown Shopping Center is located at 4215 North Main Street in Dayton, Ohio. If you go to MapQuest and enter that address and then magnify the results to the largest image before running out of images you will see the Ames Theater Building as the light blue roofed rectangular building with a triangular front just south of the Northtown Shopping Center and “across the driveway” that separates the Ames' parking from the shopping centers. Also it is the large building just north of Melford Ave. My grandfather was manager of the Ames in the early 1950’s and I worked there taking tickets and selling popcorn, etc. My dad also modified the theater to demonstrate a single camera method for 3D movies to Arch Oboler, producer of Bwana Devil, the first 3D movie in color.
Before the Dabel was built between Brownies Market and Steberal’s Market on Smithville, there was an open air “farmer’s type” market on the spot with a big tent in the middle. The tent pole had a telephone on it and when we would come home from downtown (the bus line loop was on Wayne Ave at Smithville), we would call mom to pick us up using that phone. Then they demolished the market place to build the Dabel in 1947. I was eight and joined the “booster” club with my sisters and we all got a badge with a number on it. Every Saturday (no TV!) we would get a quarter and a penny to go to the Dabel and watch the serials and superman (the original) and all of the other 1940 movies. When we bought our tickets for 20 cents, we would have six cents left to buy a candy bar. Sometimes our booster club number would appear on the window of the ticket booth and we would get in free with 26 cents to buy candy and popcorn!
The Northtown Shopping Center is located at 4215 North Main Street in Dayton, Ohio. If you go to MapQuest and enter that address and then magnify the results to the largest image before running out of images you will see the Ames Theater Building as the light blue roofed rectangular building with a triangular front just south of the Northtown Shopping Center and “across the driveway” that separates the Ames' parking from the shopping centers. Also it is the large building just north of Melford Ave. My grandfather was manager of the Ames in the early 1950’s and I worked there taking tickets and selling popcorn, etc. My dad also modified the theater to demonstrate a single camera method for 3D movies to Arch Oboler, producer of Bwana Devil, the first 3D movie in color.