Ohio Theatre

I would like to make a correction to Chuck’s comment. The theater actually closed sometime in the late 60’s or early 70’s. My father was a projectionist there until the late 50’s and I can remember as a married adult in the late 60’s that the theater was open. In fact, it was only a half-block from where I lived. My best (or worst) memory of the theater was when they got their 3D projector and dad took me to the theater to test it out. I was about 7 or 8 and of course, with nobody in the theater, I sat in the front row. There I was with those goofy cardboard glasses on when the movie fired up. The very first thing was a leopard leaping at me out of the screen. I was out of my seat and up in the projection booth in 3 seconds flat. It scared the ever lovin buJesus out of me. Those were the days.

The headline of a brief item datelined Franklin, Ohio in the May 18, 1970 issue of Boxoffice reads “Police Raid Franklin Cinema.” The story says that the 18 year old manager (unnamed) of the house had been arrested for being in possession of an obscene movie. About 55 people had been in the theater at the time of the arrest, watching the 1969 Great Empire Films release “The Calico Queen” (aka The Hanging of Jake Ellis.“) Hint: the movie was not about a feline mother.

The cinema had recently been remodeled by a new owner, Pete Gall, who, true to his surname, told Boxoffice the house would be reopened the next weekend. I have not discovered how long the citizens of Franklin and vicinity were treated to such titillating fare, but hey, it was the seventies, so maybe quite a while.