The Shubert played a significant role in the ‘70s obscenity case involving Kenneth Tynan’s “Oh! Calcutta!,” a musical revue that spotlighted sexually explicit themes and nude cast members.
Producers arranged in September 1970 for Broadway performance of the show to be telecast via closed circuit to theaters across the nation. While some 250 venues originally enlisted, about four-fifths of them backed down because of local opposition and restrictions including prosecutorial threats.
The Shubert, which later that fall would play host to a touring production of “Hair” that included brief nudity, wasn’t among them. The telecast went forward, and it was only afterward that a local judge viewed the videotape, found the production obscene, and issued a permanent injunction.
There the matter rested until October 1977 when Cincinnati’s Music Hall booked a two-night live presentation of the touring revue. On the date of the first scheduled performance and on the strength of the 1970 injunction, Hamilton County Prosecutor Simon Leis Jr. blocked the event. A federal judge overruled him the next day, and the show went on.
Mr. Leis’s aggressive stance in this and other cases led to Cincinnati’s frequent portrayal by elites as a graveyard for sexually explicit material. But it’s worth emphasizing that the city was among the minority where the “Oh! Calcutta!” telecast went forward in the first place. Even Los Angeles was among the locations that pulled the plug in the face of opposition.
Nor were the coasts immune to repercussions where the telecast took place. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of Harvard, a police raid led to the arrest of the theater owner and eight employees. As occurred in Cincinnati, charges were ultimately dismissed.
Similarly, while prosecutors in Cincinnati targeted graphic sadomasochistic photos from the Robert Mapplethorpe “Perfect Moment” exhibition in 1990, that’s because the city’s Contemporary Arts Center went ahead with showing it while some other venues, such as Washington D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery, declined to do so.
And of course it was jurors in Cincinnati who acquitted the CAC.
Here’s more regarding the 1936 world premiere of ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด at the Madison, and its personal appearance by rubber-faced leading man Joe E. Brown:
The slapstick comedy was based on stories by former Caterpillar mechanic William Hazlett Upson, with shooting locations that included Cat’s East Peoria assembly plant. The company also supplied tractors for use in the film.
What follows is from the Manhattan-based ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ, a weekly trade journal for the film industry, in an edition published a few weeks after the event.
“As Peoria is the home of the Caterpillar, around which the story of ‘Earthworm Tractor’ was written, good showmanship called for the premiere of the picture in that spot, the opening put over at the Madison Theatre in giant fashion under the wing of Len C. Worley, Great States [Theater Corp.] city manager, and E. G. Fitzgibbons, zone publicity director. Tractor company officials, newspapers and civic heads also came in on the campaign, topped by the personal appearance at the opening of Joe E. Brown.
“This event was of course made much of locally. Mayor [Edward Nelson Woodruff] proclaimed a Brown Day, streets were decorated and lighted, the festivities put on with all the premiere accessories, including lobby broadcast to introduce the celebrities. ‘Earthworm Black,’ new style color, was advertised by women’s stories in conjunction with the opening and many social gatherings duly publicised were held before and after the performance.
“Newspapers gave the star everything in the house, to judge from the tear sheets. In addition to the pages and pages of stories, interviews and art, autographed photos were given to those advertising on classified page and tickets to the opening offered for subscriptions. ‘Hyperbole’ contest for most exaggerated description of the star was also run for five days, paper carrying daily photos and two-column stories on the stunt. Co-op ‘welcome’ ads were numerous, especially five-column full taken by the tractor company.”
Yeah, lots of memories. A bat flapping around the rotunda during a show, a guy in a gorilla suit passing out free bananas with each admission to a “Planet of the Apes” sequel, and packed midnight movies on weekends during which a theater manager would make regular rounds ordering slumped-over miscreants to sit up straight and get their knees and feet off the seats in front of them.
The Oakley Drive-In’s screen snapped on September 9, 1992 when a thunderstorm pounded it with straight-line tornadic winds. As its supports fractured, a huge section of the structure pancaked and crashed into the parking lot.
Oakley fans naturally feared the owner, National Amusements, wouldn’t reopen in 1993 or ever, despite an outpouring of community appeals. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช ๐๐ฐ๐ด๐ต quoted Joe Bob Briggs, who was then the host of TNT’s ๐๐ฐ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฃ'๐ด ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ-๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ, saying he’d heard about the Oakley’s destruction and planned to monitor and support preservation efforts.
To the delight and surprise of many, however, National Amusements responded by building an updated, more heavily reinforced screen. One result was that the theater remained open for the 1995 release of Martin Scorsese’s ๐๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ฐ, whose cast included none another than Joe Bob himself.
All told, the Oakley continued in business for a dozen years after the deluge, before closing forever amid a perfect storm of economic realities.
Judging from the matched fonts, I assume it was the ad preparer who misspelled “Cemetery” rather than the movie producers, who undoubtedly had certain standards to uphold.
The Bijou Roxy Ritz suffered a famous raid by Cincinnatiโs Vice Squad in 1977.
The triple-threat theater specialized in a mix of arthouse films, midnight cult movies, and second-run features. It also featured a bar. Patrons were permitted to carry cocktails into viewing areas, an unusual amenity for its day.
Trouble began after the cinema booked ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ 2000, a sci-fi comedy directed by schlockmeister Al Adamson. Because the movie contained nudity and suggestive themes, it was rated R (or in some markets, self-applied an X-rating for marketing purposes, though it wasnโt a hardcore film).
This led Cincinnatiโs Vice Squad to bust the theater under an old ordinance prohibiting adult films being shown where liquor was served. Although the lawโs original intent was to prohibit taverns from showing stag films, city officials applied it rigidly to the Bijou Roxy Ritz.
Charges resulted in the theater having to pay a nuisance fine, but the cityโs trump card was the future threat to the theaterโs liquor license if it continued showing films with โprovocativeโ or softcore content.
Regardless of whether the theater became more circumspect in its bookings as a result, it closed the following year, citing lack of business.
๐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฆ๐๐จ๐ ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ฆ owned the Deer Park Theater in the late 1960s. Saul was a Detroit native and onetime piano prodigy whose publicity materials boasted that he’d played three times with the Detroit Symphony at age 9.
His greatest success came as a pianist and singer with Somethin' Smith and the Redheads, an easy-listening trio that achieved modest national success in the Fifties. Saul co-founded the band as a music major at UCLA with two fellow students, banjoist Robert Hugh “Red” Robinson (aka “Somethin' Smith”) and violinist / bassist Major Short.
The group’s peak hit, a jaunty version of Billy Mayhew’s “It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie,” was released by Epic Records in 1955 and reached No. 7 on Billboard’s chart. Another cover, “In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town,” cracked the Top 30 a year later. The band appeared on the nationally televised ๐๐ช๐ค๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ in September 1958, a broadcast that included Fabian and Johnny Nash.
Also during the 1950s, Saul and his wife, Tulsa native Neva Thane Striks, operated Chez Neva, a lodge for touring actors and other theater personnel. The inn sat in Newport, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.
๐ฆ๐๐จ๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ critical injuries in November 1959 while piloting a private plane that crashed near Bloomington, Indiana, leaving him unable to tour or even play piano for a lengthy period. In the mid-‘60s, with the Somethin’ Smith band dissolved, he formed a duo called the Saloonatics with Ralph Guenther, Cincinnati-area banjoist and former bassist for King Records.
Together they released one album, 1969’s ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ป๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ป๐บ ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด on Bethlehem Records. Its liner notes, attributed to Dick Clark, announced that “Here are two experienced professionals finally getting the recognition they deserve.”
The men also shared business investments. Ralph, like Saul, was a WWII veteran and entrepreneur. As a lithographer, Ralph had founded Advance Litho Plate Co. in 1949. His partnership with Saul included buying The Old Saloon, a tavern in the Kenwood neighborhood near Deer Park, where the Saloonatics often entertained. Over the years the bar changed hands and was demolished in the mid 2010s. Ralph died in 2006 at age 88.
๐ฆ๐๐จ๐ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ three times. He wed Neva in 1949, three years after his Navy service ended. They divorced and she died in 2001 at age 76. His second wife Mae Striks co-owned the Deer Park Theater with him. He was married to Deborah J. Pinkerton from 1977 until his death.
That death arrived on December 3, 1979, after a heart attack in a Chicago hotel. Saul was 54. He was in town to pitch his manuscript about music education methods to a prospective publisher and died only hours before that appointment. Saul’s remains were buried at Rest Haven Memorial Park in Cincinnati’s Evendale suburb.
In the photo section I’ve attached Saul’s obituary from ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช ๐๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ณ, along with some other Saul memorabilia. I cobbled this mini-bio from various Internet sources and sidestepped details where threadbare accounts differed, so corrections and additions are most welcome.
Buffalo’s original motion picture house was the Theatorium, which opened in 1909 at 1 North Main Street. It operated during the nickelodeon era when movies remained short attractions with screenings squeezed into standard retail spaces. The Theatorium moved next door before closing as a movie exhibitor in the late 1910s.
Supplanting it was the city’s first modern cinema, Bison Theatre, which opened in 1917 at 7 North Main and lasted until March 8, 1984. Buffalo then went without a local movie house until 1993 when Scully Theater opened at 235 South Main Street.
The business operated for several years before shuttering, after which community residents formed a management group that rebranded and reopened the location as The Buffalo Theater in February 2003. It closed on March 8, 2020 amid the Covid-19 outbreak. ๐ต๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ต๐ข๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ reported that the twin-screened venue’s final features were ๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ and ๐ผ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐.
A rebirth got underway when the property was acquired in 2021 by married couple Chris and Kira Wages. Their renovation plans drew national attention in the premiere episode of HGTV’s ๐ป๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ค๐ ๐พ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ก, a restoration project series co-presented by ๐๐๐๐๐๐ magazine. That segment followed hosts Jasmine Roth and Ty Pennington as they worked with Chris and Kira to ready the cinema for re-opening.
Upon arriving, Ty asked how many movie theaters existed nearby.
๐๐๐๐: In our whole county, which is the same size as Rhode Island, just this one.
๐๐: Wow …
๐๐๐๐: So we kind of had that as a motive to get a place where kids could hang out and it was safe and fun.
HGTV crews and local contractors gave the venue an extensive aesthetic and functional remodeling, with the aim of preserving its small-town appeal and what Chris called its “Western vibe.” After unveiling the completed upgrades, Jasmine said “It didn’t have any character before, it didn’t tell a story,” to which Kira agreed “It feels a lot warmer.”
HGTV aired the episode on April 24, 2022, four months after the cinema’s grand reopening offered showings of ๐๐๐๐ 2 ๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
The theater next changed hands in spring of 2025 when the Wages sold it to Barnum project manager Steve Fichter and local merchants Jim and Sara Stevens, who also obtained a liquor license for the business.
Although the Hyde Park was closed by then, its retro exterior provided a homey backdrop for a scene in the 1994 feature film ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ starring Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris. The setting was a fictional Pittsburgh suburb called Middleton.
The former Deer Park Theater survived into the โ70s under the name Beacon Hill Cinema by specializing in foreign and arthouse movies, as well as films deemed too hot to handle by other theaters.
I donโt mean porn and exploitative fare; I mean for example ๐ด ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ and Pasoliniโs ๐โ๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. Both carried X ratings from the MPAA upon release, which was enough to get them banned by many exhibitors. In fact the Cincinnati Enquirer, the cityโs morning daily, refused in those days to carry ads for X-rated movies, so youโd sometimes see Beacon Hill notices that said no more than โCall theater for title.โ
Other Beacon Hill features included ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐, Joseph Anthonyโs ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ค, and Buรฑuelโs ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐. The sleepy suburban location seemed unlikely enough that it prompted a headline from an alternative newspaper announcing, with evident surprise: โCincinnatiโs hippest movie theater is in Blue Ash [sic].โ
After closing, the building became a church for awhile.
Iโve posted a 1967 notice about the original Deer Park Theater hosting โa swinging teen clubโ where for 99 cents โteen customers first see a suitable teen-type movie, then they hear (and dance to) some of the areaโs best rock โn roll bands.โ
Holland’s Caramelcorn moved into the former home of the Tazewell Theatre in 2012 and remains open as of 2026. Exterior and interior photos can be found at the business’s website, hollandscaramelcorn.com.
The Shubert played a significant role in the ‘70s obscenity case involving Kenneth Tynan’s “Oh! Calcutta!,” a musical revue that spotlighted sexually explicit themes and nude cast members.
Producers arranged in September 1970 for Broadway performance of the show to be telecast via closed circuit to theaters across the nation. While some 250 venues originally enlisted, about four-fifths of them backed down because of local opposition and restrictions including prosecutorial threats.
The Shubert, which later that fall would play host to a touring production of “Hair” that included brief nudity, wasn’t among them. The telecast went forward, and it was only afterward that a local judge viewed the videotape, found the production obscene, and issued a permanent injunction.
There the matter rested until October 1977 when Cincinnati’s Music Hall booked a two-night live presentation of the touring revue. On the date of the first scheduled performance and on the strength of the 1970 injunction, Hamilton County Prosecutor Simon Leis Jr. blocked the event. A federal judge overruled him the next day, and the show went on.
Mr. Leis’s aggressive stance in this and other cases led to Cincinnati’s frequent portrayal by elites as a graveyard for sexually explicit material. But it’s worth emphasizing that the city was among the minority where the “Oh! Calcutta!” telecast went forward in the first place. Even Los Angeles was among the locations that pulled the plug in the face of opposition.
Nor were the coasts immune to repercussions where the telecast took place. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of Harvard, a police raid led to the arrest of the theater owner and eight employees. As occurred in Cincinnati, charges were ultimately dismissed.
Similarly, while prosecutors in Cincinnati targeted graphic sadomasochistic photos from the Robert Mapplethorpe “Perfect Moment” exhibition in 1990, that’s because the city’s Contemporary Arts Center went ahead with showing it while some other venues, such as Washington D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery, declined to do so.
And of course it was jurors in Cincinnati who acquitted the CAC.
Here’s more regarding the 1936 world premiere of ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด at the Madison, and its personal appearance by rubber-faced leading man Joe E. Brown:
The slapstick comedy was based on stories by former Caterpillar mechanic William Hazlett Upson, with shooting locations that included Cat’s East Peoria assembly plant. The company also supplied tractors for use in the film.
What follows is from the Manhattan-based ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ, a weekly trade journal for the film industry, in an edition published a few weeks after the event.
“As Peoria is the home of the Caterpillar, around which the story of ‘Earthworm Tractor’ was written, good showmanship called for the premiere of the picture in that spot, the opening put over at the Madison Theatre in giant fashion under the wing of Len C. Worley, Great States [Theater Corp.] city manager, and E. G. Fitzgibbons, zone publicity director. Tractor company officials, newspapers and civic heads also came in on the campaign, topped by the personal appearance at the opening of Joe E. Brown.
“This event was of course made much of locally. Mayor [Edward Nelson Woodruff] proclaimed a Brown Day, streets were decorated and lighted, the festivities put on with all the premiere accessories, including lobby broadcast to introduce the celebrities. ‘Earthworm Black,’ new style color, was advertised by women’s stories in conjunction with the opening and many social gatherings duly publicised were held before and after the performance.
“Newspapers gave the star everything in the house, to judge from the tear sheets. In addition to the pages and pages of stories, interviews and art, autographed photos were given to those advertising on classified page and tickets to the opening offered for subscriptions. ‘Hyperbole’ contest for most exaggerated description of the star was also run for five days, paper carrying daily photos and two-column stories on the stunt. Co-op ‘welcome’ ads were numerous, especially five-column full taken by the tractor company.”
Yeah, lots of memories. A bat flapping around the rotunda during a show, a guy in a gorilla suit passing out free bananas with each admission to a “Planet of the Apes” sequel, and packed midnight movies on weekends during which a theater manager would make regular rounds ordering slumped-over miscreants to sit up straight and get their knees and feet off the seats in front of them.
The Oakley Drive-In’s screen snapped on September 9, 1992 when a thunderstorm pounded it with straight-line tornadic winds. As its supports fractured, a huge section of the structure pancaked and crashed into the parking lot.
Oakley fans naturally feared the owner, National Amusements, wouldn’t reopen in 1993 or ever, despite an outpouring of community appeals. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช ๐๐ฐ๐ด๐ต quoted Joe Bob Briggs, who was then the host of TNT’s ๐๐ฐ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฃ'๐ด ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ-๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ, saying he’d heard about the Oakley’s destruction and planned to monitor and support preservation efforts.
To the delight and surprise of many, however, National Amusements responded by building an updated, more heavily reinforced screen. One result was that the theater remained open for the 1995 release of Martin Scorsese’s ๐๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ฐ, whose cast included none another than Joe Bob himself.
All told, the Oakley continued in business for a dozen years after the deluge, before closing forever amid a perfect storm of economic realities.
Judging from the matched fonts, I assume it was the ad preparer who misspelled “Cemetery” rather than the movie producers, who undoubtedly had certain standards to uphold.
The Bijou Roxy Ritz suffered a famous raid by Cincinnatiโs Vice Squad in 1977.
The triple-threat theater specialized in a mix of arthouse films, midnight cult movies, and second-run features. It also featured a bar. Patrons were permitted to carry cocktails into viewing areas, an unusual amenity for its day.
Trouble began after the cinema booked ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ 2000, a sci-fi comedy directed by schlockmeister Al Adamson. Because the movie contained nudity and suggestive themes, it was rated R (or in some markets, self-applied an X-rating for marketing purposes, though it wasnโt a hardcore film).
This led Cincinnatiโs Vice Squad to bust the theater under an old ordinance prohibiting adult films being shown where liquor was served. Although the lawโs original intent was to prohibit taverns from showing stag films, city officials applied it rigidly to the Bijou Roxy Ritz.
Charges resulted in the theater having to pay a nuisance fine, but the cityโs trump card was the future threat to the theaterโs liquor license if it continued showing films with โprovocativeโ or softcore content.
Regardless of whether the theater became more circumspect in its bookings as a result, it closed the following year, citing lack of business.
๐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฆ๐๐จ๐ ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ฆ owned the Deer Park Theater in the late 1960s. Saul was a Detroit native and onetime piano prodigy whose publicity materials boasted that he’d played three times with the Detroit Symphony at age 9.
His greatest success came as a pianist and singer with Somethin' Smith and the Redheads, an easy-listening trio that achieved modest national success in the Fifties. Saul co-founded the band as a music major at UCLA with two fellow students, banjoist Robert Hugh “Red” Robinson (aka “Somethin' Smith”) and violinist / bassist Major Short.
The group’s peak hit, a jaunty version of Billy Mayhew’s “It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie,” was released by Epic Records in 1955 and reached No. 7 on Billboard’s chart. Another cover, “In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town,” cracked the Top 30 a year later. The band appeared on the nationally televised ๐๐ช๐ค๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ in September 1958, a broadcast that included Fabian and Johnny Nash.
Also during the 1950s, Saul and his wife, Tulsa native Neva Thane Striks, operated Chez Neva, a lodge for touring actors and other theater personnel. The inn sat in Newport, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.
๐ฆ๐๐จ๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ critical injuries in November 1959 while piloting a private plane that crashed near Bloomington, Indiana, leaving him unable to tour or even play piano for a lengthy period. In the mid-‘60s, with the Somethin’ Smith band dissolved, he formed a duo called the Saloonatics with Ralph Guenther, Cincinnati-area banjoist and former bassist for King Records.
Together they released one album, 1969’s ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ป๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ป๐บ ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด on Bethlehem Records. Its liner notes, attributed to Dick Clark, announced that “Here are two experienced professionals finally getting the recognition they deserve.”
The men also shared business investments. Ralph, like Saul, was a WWII veteran and entrepreneur. As a lithographer, Ralph had founded Advance Litho Plate Co. in 1949. His partnership with Saul included buying The Old Saloon, a tavern in the Kenwood neighborhood near Deer Park, where the Saloonatics often entertained. Over the years the bar changed hands and was demolished in the mid 2010s. Ralph died in 2006 at age 88.
๐ฆ๐๐จ๐ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ three times. He wed Neva in 1949, three years after his Navy service ended. They divorced and she died in 2001 at age 76. His second wife Mae Striks co-owned the Deer Park Theater with him. He was married to Deborah J. Pinkerton from 1977 until his death.
That death arrived on December 3, 1979, after a heart attack in a Chicago hotel. Saul was 54. He was in town to pitch his manuscript about music education methods to a prospective publisher and died only hours before that appointment. Saul’s remains were buried at Rest Haven Memorial Park in Cincinnati’s Evendale suburb.
In the photo section I’ve attached Saul’s obituary from ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช ๐๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ณ, along with some other Saul memorabilia. I cobbled this mini-bio from various Internet sources and sidestepped details where threadbare accounts differed, so corrections and additions are most welcome.
Wonderful theater, specializes in family movies. Great sports pub part of the building.
Hometown connection to its ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ opening: Tyrone Power was a Cincinnati native.
Buffalo’s original motion picture house was the Theatorium, which opened in 1909 at 1 North Main Street. It operated during the nickelodeon era when movies remained short attractions with screenings squeezed into standard retail spaces. The Theatorium moved next door before closing as a movie exhibitor in the late 1910s.
Supplanting it was the city’s first modern cinema, Bison Theatre, which opened in 1917 at 7 North Main and lasted until March 8, 1984. Buffalo then went without a local movie house until 1993 when Scully Theater opened at 235 South Main Street.
The business operated for several years before shuttering, after which community residents formed a management group that rebranded and reopened the location as The Buffalo Theater in February 2003. It closed on March 8, 2020 amid the Covid-19 outbreak. ๐ต๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ต๐ข๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ reported that the twin-screened venue’s final features were ๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ and ๐ผ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐.
A rebirth got underway when the property was acquired in 2021 by married couple Chris and Kira Wages. Their renovation plans drew national attention in the premiere episode of HGTV’s ๐ป๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ค๐ ๐พ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ก, a restoration project series co-presented by ๐๐๐๐๐๐ magazine. That segment followed hosts Jasmine Roth and Ty Pennington as they worked with Chris and Kira to ready the cinema for re-opening.
Upon arriving, Ty asked how many movie theaters existed nearby.
๐๐๐๐: In our whole county, which is the same size as Rhode Island, just this one.
๐๐: Wow …
๐๐๐๐: So we kind of had that as a motive to get a place where kids could hang out and it was safe and fun.
HGTV crews and local contractors gave the venue an extensive aesthetic and functional remodeling, with the aim of preserving its small-town appeal and what Chris called its “Western vibe.” After unveiling the completed upgrades, Jasmine said “It didn’t have any character before, it didn’t tell a story,” to which Kira agreed “It feels a lot warmer.”
HGTV aired the episode on April 24, 2022, four months after the cinema’s grand reopening offered showings of ๐๐๐๐ 2 ๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
The theater next changed hands in spring of 2025 when the Wages sold it to Barnum project manager Steve Fichter and local merchants Jim and Sara Stevens, who also obtained a liquor license for the business.
Although the Hyde Park was closed by then, its retro exterior provided a homey backdrop for a scene in the 1994 feature film ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ starring Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris. The setting was a fictional Pittsburgh suburb called Middleton.
The former Deer Park Theater survived into the โ70s under the name Beacon Hill Cinema by specializing in foreign and arthouse movies, as well as films deemed too hot to handle by other theaters.
I donโt mean porn and exploitative fare; I mean for example ๐ด ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ and Pasoliniโs ๐โ๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. Both carried X ratings from the MPAA upon release, which was enough to get them banned by many exhibitors. In fact the Cincinnati Enquirer, the cityโs morning daily, refused in those days to carry ads for X-rated movies, so youโd sometimes see Beacon Hill notices that said no more than โCall theater for title.โ
Other Beacon Hill features included ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐, Joseph Anthonyโs ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ค, and Buรฑuelโs ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐. The sleepy suburban location seemed unlikely enough that it prompted a headline from an alternative newspaper announcing, with evident surprise: โCincinnatiโs hippest movie theater is in Blue Ash [sic].โ
After closing, the building became a church for awhile.
Iโve posted a 1967 notice about the original Deer Park Theater hosting โa swinging teen clubโ where for 99 cents โteen customers first see a suitable teen-type movie, then they hear (and dance to) some of the areaโs best rock โn roll bands.โ
Holland’s Caramelcorn moved into the former home of the Tazewell Theatre in 2012 and remains open as of 2026. Exterior and interior photos can be found at the business’s website, hollandscaramelcorn.com.
Added photo of Square taken within five years of Tazewell’s closing.
New photos added.
A few new photos added.
The Dent left an impression.
Added: 1951 newspaper ad
1948 photo added
The closing date provided, 1987, is incorrect. The Cincinnati Post published an article on the Dent in ‘88, when it remained open.
Mid-Forties photo added