Capitol Theatre
1 E. 7th Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
1 E. 7th Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 21 comments
Cincinnati’s Capitol Theatre was opened by the Ascher Bros. circuit on April 2, 1921.
P.S. I forgot. Saw “House on Haunted Hill” at the Grand complete with the special effect, “Emergo,” which was a cheap skeleton on a wire that was run overhead toward the end of the movie. Lots of candy wrappers and popcorn bags were thrown at it.
New Showcase Presentations in Cincinnati article includes mention of the numerous Cinerama engagements here at the Capitol (along with large format and roadshow engagements at other Cincinnati area cinemas).
1944 photo added courtesy of Phil Lind‎.
Ads for all the Cinerama films that played at the theatre – http://incinerama.com/capitol11.htm
Uploaded a nighttime photo from the past.
6 grand opening ads in the photo section for this theatre.
The architect of the Capitol theater may have been Henry Newhouse of Chicago, as he designed the South Bend State (orig. Blackstone) theater.You can see some period and current photos of the State theater at :dtsbpitch.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer did an article Nov. 13 of last year entitled “Taft theater sole survivor of bygone era. In that article, they included a set of photos which showed many of that cities old palaces, including this one. Also, you can get a good idea of what the exterior of the Capitol looked like, by viewing the South Bend, Ind. State theater, here on Cinema Treasures. The 2 are so similar,they could almost be twins. I Accessed the article by using Cincinnati.com, and then typed in Keith Albee theater in the site’s search engine. If it works o.k., you should find a nice set of historical shots of a number of this city’s lost movie palaces. Happy New Year! == Sam ==
I saw my first Cinerama films at the Capitol, “How the West Was Won” Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" and “The Best of Cinerama” in three strip. The last film I saw there was the 70mm Cinerama film of “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” Had the pleasure of being shown the projection booths and the separate sound player up in the old projection room. I believe the manager was named Beman Richey, and he invited me into the Cincinnati home movie club.
Film Daily of 1927 lists this cinema as having 1,200 seats.
Sadly the former site of the Capitol theater remains a parking lot since 1976. This means there aren’t any downtown movie theaters for urban residents to enjoy, unless you count the movies which are shown on a huge video screen on Fountain Square and these usually fall into the classic catagory.
Here is a photo, circa 1940:
http://tinyurl.com/acc6sw
The ,“Capitol Th.”, was built in 1921 by the Wurlitzer family of organ fame on land owned by the Provident Bank. In later years that land was purchased by Barney Kroger founder of the present Grocery Empire. The Capitol Th. was leased to the Asher Brothers of Chicago who ran it for a few years until R.K.O. bought it from the Libson chain of theaters.The interior house had an orchestra pit and two small prologue stages for early silent movie entertainment purposes.The Capitol was a Cinerama house in its final stage and remained in superb condition until it was demolished.
hi Scott to answer your question of April 5,2005 the Capitol Th. in Cinnati was located at the corner of 7th and Vine Street, the northeast corner which is today a parking lot.
Sorry about the egregious spelling. I hit submit instead of preview.
Hereare pootos from 1940:
http://tinyurl.com/opp6v
http://tinyurl.com/pxyun
Do any of you know exactly where the Capitol was located? I live in Cincinnati and work downtown and am curious where it actually sat. Thanks.
The Capitol Theatre was built for the Ascher Bros. and opened in 1921. It had the first Wurlitzer Style 260 Special theatre organ ever built.
It became the twelfth theatre in the USA to be converted to a Cinerama theatre and it finally closed in 1967, remaining shuttered until it was demolished in 1970.
I have a picture of the Capitol with “Grand Prix” on the marquee. If you want it, e-mail me at and I will attach it to the reply.
The Capitol was originally a part of the RKO chain. In 1953 it was purchased by the Stanley Warner chain and converted to Cinerama. At the time, it was one of two Cinerama theaters in Ohio – the other being in Cleveland. All of the Cinerama travelogues played at the Capitol. In the late 50’s, after the Cinerama travelogues had run their course, a “flat” CinemaScope screen was installed in front of the deeply curved Cinerama screen. 70mm projectors were installed in the booth over the balcony. Several “roadshow” attractions played at the Capitol during this time, the most notable being “Ben-Hur”. When MGM revived the 3-strip Cinerama process with “Brothers Grimm”, the flat CinemaScope screen was removed and Cinerama returned to the Capitol. After “How The West Was Won” ran its course, the Capitol was converted to single-strip 70mm Cinerama with “Mad, Mad World”. The last film to play at the Capitol was in 1967. The “Super Cinerama” presentation of “Grand Prix” was cut short by the theater loosing its lease. The Capitol has since been demolished for office development.