The Tower theatre is currently being leased by Apple who are restoring the theatres architecture and seismically retrofitting it to become the downtown Apple store. They are restoring all of the original interior and exterior architecture and decor but using the theatre main floor as the helloing floor but still available as a performance space (they say). it’s better than just seeing this great building sitting there crumbling. I hear the new marquee will be done in the style of the original, but lightbulb “Tower” blade sign will stay. Should open in 2020 I would think. Each corner of Broadway and 8th are being restored.
Great showmanship at the Times redoing the outside of the theatre for each long run. Signage, repainting. Big lines around the block on weekends in the mid-late 60s when we’d come down from college at Miami U. to see James Bond films, A SHOT IN THE DARK, THE PINK PANTHER and THE BOYS IN THE BAND. Sad to see all of the downtown Cincinnati theaters torn down when i visited last year. I was shocked. But glad to see Cleveland had saved most of theirs.
In the late 50s and early 60s the beautiful Allen had long runs of GIANT, AUNTIE MAME, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, A SUMMER PLACE, THE MUSIC MAN, GYPSY and BYE BYE BIRDIE. Great stuff.
Besides the Cinerama engagements the Palace was also home to reserved seat runs of SPARTACUS, PORGY AND BESS and CAN-CAN. Too bad they tore off the spectacular neon and light bulb marquee in the restoration. It was the greatest movie marquee in Cleveland. They must think the new one is more “tasteful” but the 1950s one was really dazzling.
Very sad that Cleveland lost this one, now right beside the reactivated 4th St. restaurants and bars. The Hippodrome would have been a great refurbished music/film/event venue like the United Artists Ace and Orpheum in downtown Los Angeles. I saw the first run of GOLDFINGER here with a packed house and when i was younger, BECAUSE THEY’RE YOUNg with Dick Clark and Tuesday Weld. I was too young but recall big premieres of IMITATION OF LIFE here with Lana Turner making an appearance since producer Ross Hunter was from Cleveland and later a PORTRAIT IN BLACK premiere. Glamour days on Euclid.
Home from college at Christmas, I saw BULLITT at the Embassy playing first run there for weeks. Too bad they tore it down and the stunning Moderne Art Deco Bond building on the corner for the bland death star National City Bank Tower and block. I suppose it couldn’t support showing films much longer but now it would be right near the bustling 4th St. restaurants and bars and could have possibly been used as a music venue. And at least save the beautiful marquee.
January, 2014. Check out downtown Los Angeles now. It’s on fire. Apartments going up everywhere. Whole Foods coming soon downtown. 7th St. at Grand is restaurant row. Hot downtown restaurants at 4th and Main (Baco Mercat, Bar Ama, Orsa & Winston)The Arts District is booming with construction and restaurants, huge One Santa Fe mixed use, coffee bars. Best of all, the Ace Hotel just opened on Broadway with the old adjacent United Artists Theatre restored, marquee lit and being booked for events and performances. The Rialto Theatre next to the Orpheum was taken over by Urban Outfitters but the marquee was restored to its neon glory. New Broad Museum opening soon. Upscale retail slowly opening around Broadway and 9th by the Orpheum, United Artists, Rialto axis. More new hotels, retail, housing, transit coming and the theatres slowly, steadily being restored or re-used. LA loves those 12 theatres on Broadway.
Yes, CLEOPATRA played road show at the Ohio. Others besides, SOUTH PACIFIC, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, the TEN COMMANDMENTS were BEN-HUR, WEST SIDE STORY, EXODUS, STAR!, DOCTOR DOLITTLE, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, KING OF KINGS. I think BEN HUR had the longest run.
If you’re at Sunset and Vine near the Cinerama Dome, the Hungry Cat up behind Borders Books on Vine is a great place to eat. Magnolia on Sunset is also good.
I was in college there in the 60’s and uI remember seeing MARNIE, THE PINK PANTHER, BONNIE AND CLYDE,etc. The original neon marquee and signage was beautiful. The new makeover looks like junk.
This was a very nice theatre with a huge screen. i saw BEN HUR and WEST SIDE STORY here with totally packed houses. They’d drop us kids off, and pick us up later after the show. ON THE BEACH, many others. It did have a great wide marquee.
I SAW MANY MOVIES AT THE mercury as a child and teen WAR AND PEACE (!) DADDY LONG LEGS, but usually went to the Berea. The Mercury had a nice style. What was really cool was the circular Peter Pan restaurant beside it in the parking lot. The Guggenheim of middleburg Hts. Too bad the only architecturally significant building in thne area are gone.Well, I hear Halle’s is still there at Souithgl;and. I’m in LA now so only occassionally get to check it out.
The Colony did not play “sub runs” before the reserved seat runs of MY FAIR LADY, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, FINIAN’S RAINBOW, THE BIG FISHERMAN etc. The Colony was the classy premiere showcase for the best foriegn films in Cleveland.It had a several month premiere run of LA DOLCE VITA as well as Antonioni’s LA NOTTE, PURPLE NOON and many others. It was then called the Colony Art for a few years. i remember seeing DOCTOR ZHIVAGO there dressed in a suit with my date home from college for Christmas, and then going to the super cool Stouffer’s Shaker square for dinner, worrying if i had enough money to cover our dinner.
I loved Loew’s Stillman.It was classy and luxurious.it closed because all of the downtown theatres were hurt by first run movies beginning to play the suburbs and then newer theatres, and white flight to the ‘burbs. All of downtown was dying by the late 60’s. The department stores closed year by year: Halle’s , Sterling Linder, Bailey’s, Taylor’s, Higbee’s, the May Co. I remember standing in a huge line going way down Euclid to see PSYCHO at the Stillman when i was a kid. Very exciting. the showings were sold out. Big showes at the Stillman besides GWTW, and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA were GIGI and long runs of BUTTERFIELD 8, THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG, THE APARTMENT, RAINTREE COUNTY.
I saw GOLDFINGER in those big crowds at the Hipp. i was home from college for Christmas i think. It was so packed we sat in the balcony. Also saw BECAUSE THEY"RE YOUNG there (Dick clark, Tuesday Weld, wow!) Big hits at the Hippodrome were IMITATION OF LIFE (World premiere), PILLOW TALK, PORTRAIT IN BLACK, TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR.
Sorry, I didn’t notice rivest266’s more complete update.
The Tower theatre is currently being leased by Apple who are restoring the theatres architecture and seismically retrofitting it to become the downtown Apple store. They are restoring all of the original interior and exterior architecture and decor but using the theatre main floor as the helloing floor but still available as a performance space (they say). it’s better than just seeing this great building sitting there crumbling. I hear the new marquee will be done in the style of the original, but lightbulb “Tower” blade sign will stay. Should open in 2020 I would think. Each corner of Broadway and 8th are being restored.
Great showmanship at the Times redoing the outside of the theatre for each long run. Signage, repainting. Big lines around the block on weekends in the mid-late 60s when we’d come down from college at Miami U. to see James Bond films, A SHOT IN THE DARK, THE PINK PANTHER and THE BOYS IN THE BAND. Sad to see all of the downtown Cincinnati theaters torn down when i visited last year. I was shocked. But glad to see Cleveland had saved most of theirs.
In the late 50s and early 60s the beautiful Allen had long runs of GIANT, AUNTIE MAME, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, A SUMMER PLACE, THE MUSIC MAN, GYPSY and BYE BYE BIRDIE. Great stuff.
Besides the Cinerama engagements the Palace was also home to reserved seat runs of SPARTACUS, PORGY AND BESS and CAN-CAN. Too bad they tore off the spectacular neon and light bulb marquee in the restoration. It was the greatest movie marquee in Cleveland. They must think the new one is more “tasteful” but the 1950s one was really dazzling.
Very sad that Cleveland lost this one, now right beside the reactivated 4th St. restaurants and bars. The Hippodrome would have been a great refurbished music/film/event venue like the United Artists Ace and Orpheum in downtown Los Angeles. I saw the first run of GOLDFINGER here with a packed house and when i was younger, BECAUSE THEY’RE YOUNg with Dick Clark and Tuesday Weld. I was too young but recall big premieres of IMITATION OF LIFE here with Lana Turner making an appearance since producer Ross Hunter was from Cleveland and later a PORTRAIT IN BLACK premiere. Glamour days on Euclid.
Home from college at Christmas, I saw BULLITT at the Embassy playing first run there for weeks. Too bad they tore it down and the stunning Moderne Art Deco Bond building on the corner for the bland death star National City Bank Tower and block. I suppose it couldn’t support showing films much longer but now it would be right near the bustling 4th St. restaurants and bars and could have possibly been used as a music venue. And at least save the beautiful marquee.
The Fairmount’s big first run engagement was for THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK in ‘59 and then went back to 2nd runs before eventually closing.
January, 2014. Check out downtown Los Angeles now. It’s on fire. Apartments going up everywhere. Whole Foods coming soon downtown. 7th St. at Grand is restaurant row. Hot downtown restaurants at 4th and Main (Baco Mercat, Bar Ama, Orsa & Winston)The Arts District is booming with construction and restaurants, huge One Santa Fe mixed use, coffee bars. Best of all, the Ace Hotel just opened on Broadway with the old adjacent United Artists Theatre restored, marquee lit and being booked for events and performances. The Rialto Theatre next to the Orpheum was taken over by Urban Outfitters but the marquee was restored to its neon glory. New Broad Museum opening soon. Upscale retail slowly opening around Broadway and 9th by the Orpheum, United Artists, Rialto axis. More new hotels, retail, housing, transit coming and the theatres slowly, steadily being restored or re-used. LA loves those 12 theatres on Broadway.
There’s a C I N E R A M A fest coming to the Dome in Hollywood in the fall of 2012? What? Wow! Ant dates? EVERYTHING???
In american classic images photos 1980’s new marquee really sucks. The 60’s one with JOANNA is so cool. How could they remove it?
Very cool nights at the Westwood in the 60’s; LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, BELLE DE JOUR, REPULSION, RED DESERT etc.
Yes, CLEOPATRA played road show at the Ohio. Others besides, SOUTH PACIFIC, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, the TEN COMMANDMENTS were BEN-HUR, WEST SIDE STORY, EXODUS, STAR!, DOCTOR DOLITTLE, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, KING OF KINGS. I think BEN HUR had the longest run.
If you’re at Sunset and Vine near the Cinerama Dome, the Hungry Cat up behind Borders Books on Vine is a great place to eat. Magnolia on Sunset is also good.
I was in college there in the 60’s and uI remember seeing MARNIE, THE PINK PANTHER, BONNIE AND CLYDE,etc. The original neon marquee and signage was beautiful. The new makeover looks like junk.
Sorry, but I think the original marquee was much nicer and historically significant. the new one is flashy but too plastic.
This was a very nice theatre with a huge screen. i saw BEN HUR and WEST SIDE STORY here with totally packed houses. They’d drop us kids off, and pick us up later after the show. ON THE BEACH, many others. It did have a great wide marquee.
I SAW MANY MOVIES AT THE mercury as a child and teen WAR AND PEACE (!) DADDY LONG LEGS, but usually went to the Berea. The Mercury had a nice style. What was really cool was the circular Peter Pan restaurant beside it in the parking lot. The Guggenheim of middleburg Hts. Too bad the only architecturally significant building in thne area are gone.Well, I hear Halle’s is still there at Souithgl;and. I’m in LA now so only occassionally get to check it out.
The Vogue was so cool! I saw first run of BLOW UP there in a packed house. lAlso saw ELVIRA MADIGAN and OLIVER! there among others
The Colony did not play “sub runs” before the reserved seat runs of MY FAIR LADY, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, FINIAN’S RAINBOW, THE BIG FISHERMAN etc. The Colony was the classy premiere showcase for the best foriegn films in Cleveland.It had a several month premiere run of LA DOLCE VITA as well as Antonioni’s LA NOTTE, PURPLE NOON and many others. It was then called the Colony Art for a few years. i remember seeing DOCTOR ZHIVAGO there dressed in a suit with my date home from college for Christmas, and then going to the super cool Stouffer’s Shaker square for dinner, worrying if i had enough money to cover our dinner.
I loved Loew’s Stillman.It was classy and luxurious.it closed because all of the downtown theatres were hurt by first run movies beginning to play the suburbs and then newer theatres, and white flight to the ‘burbs. All of downtown was dying by the late 60’s. The department stores closed year by year: Halle’s , Sterling Linder, Bailey’s, Taylor’s, Higbee’s, the May Co. I remember standing in a huge line going way down Euclid to see PSYCHO at the Stillman when i was a kid. Very exciting. the showings were sold out. Big showes at the Stillman besides GWTW, and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA were GIGI and long runs of BUTTERFIELD 8, THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG, THE APARTMENT, RAINTREE COUNTY.
I saw GOLDFINGER in those big crowds at the Hipp. i was home from college for Christmas i think. It was so packed we sat in the balcony. Also saw BECAUSE THEY"RE YOUNG there (Dick clark, Tuesday Weld, wow!) Big hits at the Hippodrome were IMITATION OF LIFE (World premiere), PILLOW TALK, PORTRAIT IN BLACK, TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR.