Movie House
117 Pinckney Street,
Circleville,
OH
43113
117 Pinckney Street,
Circleville,
OH
43113
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Circleville auto dealer Harry E. Clifton opened the $100,000 Spanish motif, 800-seat Cliftona Theatre in 1928. Harry Holbrook of Columbus architected the project that was constructed by Van Gundy-Beck 3,500 people answered a call for the theater’s name and one of the seven who chose “Cliftona” got $10 in gold. A Robert Morgan pipe organ was there at the grand opening on October 11, 1928 with “Oh Kay”. Just three years into the operation, Clifton sold to a circuit with operations in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The theatre announced its closure in 1971 but was taken over and renamed the Cinema Theatre that year. Operated by the Teicher Circuit for years as Cinema Theatre and simply The Cinema.
Changing finally to the Movie House, owner John Rankin closed the two-screen operation – a small screen called “The Screening Club” and the larger screen — in February of 2013 when the theatre couldn’t afford to changed over to digital presentation.
I just visited this theater while attending the famous Circleville Pumpkin Festival. What a cool find!
I stopped in to ask some questions, and the owner ended up giving us a tour of the projection room. The theater was built in the 1920’s with two screens. The building is in great shape, with new carpet and brand-new modern seats.
In addition, they’ve transformed the storage room in the back into what they’ve titled the “Screening Room”: a more modern smaller- screened theater space with a full bar capable of showing conventional films, dvds, and television. When I visited, the owners were letting people in for free to watch the Ohio State University football game.