Raintree Cinemas 1, 2,3
2438 E. Dublin-Granville Road,
Columbus,
OH
43229
2438 E. Dublin-Granville Road,
Columbus,
OH
43229
3 people
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News About This Theater
- May 24, 2012 — Celebrating the Original STAR WARS on its 35th Anniversary
Built in Northeast Columbus by owner Glenn Ackerman in 1974, this theatre was Columbus' premier theatre touting the only private screening room with private entrance, wet bar, Dolby stereo/surround sound, privacy glass and twelve luxury rocker/swivel seats. The Raintree Cinemas 1, 2, 3 opened on February 13, 1976 with A. Martinez in “Starbird and Sweet William”, Glenda Jackson in “The Romantic Englishwoman” & John Wayne in “Rooster Coburn”. There was also a special midnight matinee screening of Ted Neeley in “Jesus Christ Superstar” . It was closed temporarily in January 1978 and was reopened in February 1978 under new ownership.
In 1988, the theatre transferred hands again and was a ‘beer and movie’ house until permanently closing it’s doors in 1997. In 1998 a fire in the 500 seat auditorium (set by vagrants using the theatre as a shelter) and the theatre was razed in 1999 to make way for a Suburban Lodge Hotel.
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
I was involved in the original projection & sound equipment installation consisting of 3 sets of dual projector “Ballantyne Pro35 VIP’s with 6000' Magazines. Cinema 1 was equiped with 35mm magnetic sound. Cinema 2&3 were Ballantyne Tube Mono Pat 50’s
I was again involved in adding “DOLBY” CP-50 processors to the existing stereo system also including CAT 160 Card with the addition of the “KINTEK KT-90 Subwoofer! Additional "DOLBY” systems were added under new ownership.
Does anyone have any pictures of this theater? I can’t help but feel like I missed out on a great theater.
What I remember about Raintree is that Star Wars ran there for a long, long time. Not quite as long as Rocky Horror ran at Graceland, but it was a very long time!
I remember seeing many movies here… Glenn had brought into the lobby the revolving hologram from the end of Logan’s Run while it was shown there. I also got to see Star Wars from the upstairs private area. A fantastic place.
RAINTREE CINEMA was the first place I saw STAR WARS and I saw it twice the first time and more than 10 times overall. Raintree was not a great theater not like CINEMA EAST, but it had STAR WARS so it holds a special place in my heart.
Then again I don’t recall seeing too many films there…so I might be wrong.
Well I posted this once and never showed up Worked at Raintree during the Star Wars year (s). Such a great group of people to work with, with some very fond memories. Although we had a union member on call a few of us were lucky enough to learn the dual projector system. Glenn was a great guy to work for and his wife and daughters were part of the theatre family. Does anyone remember “Alice in Wonderland Rated X”(rated R by todays standards) Glenn was one of the few mainstream theatre owners that took in an “X” rated movie. Very bold. Loved Thursday night build and preview in the screening room. Did anyone find Glenn? Did a quick search and didnt find anything. Still the central Ohio area and would love to say hi
this opened on February 13th, 1976. Grand opening ad posted.
Saw quite a few off-beat movies there in the 70’s and 80’s. “Dawn of the Dead” and “Polyester” come to mind.