Broadvue Theatre
4172 Pearl Road,
Cleveland,
OH
44109
4172 Pearl Road,
Cleveland,
OH
44109
2 people
favorited this theater
This theatre opened January 16, 1927 with Marceline Day in “College Days” aka “The Younger Generation”. It was a neighborhood movie theatre with 2,100 seats and was equipped with an organ that was opened by organist Walter Trimmer.
It started showing porn movies in the 1970’s. The theatre, after several vice squad raids, closed in the early-1980’s, then briefly reopened by a community group that brought in sub-run films for $2 admission.
The theatre closed again on March 28, 1987, and had since been demolished to make way for a retail store (first Medic Drug, now a Family Dollar).
Contributed by
Toby Radloff
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
I was a volenteer back during the 80’s when OBCDC was trying to renovate and have many pictures of the interior. I will be glad to upload a few when the option is turned back on. Otherwise I believe the style was Greco-Roman, but the exterior was definatly Art-Deco.
It’s seating capacity when it opened was 2100, and she first opened her doors on January 15, 1927 as a movie / vaudeville house.
I put some interior shots on flickr, hopfully I did this right.
Here is a pic of the ceiling
View link
Always hate to see a theatre go the smut route.
I do too; however, it has to be remembered, as it was pointed out to us who part of a historic theater tour in Detroit some years back, that whether it was porn or chop-socky films or explotaion fare, that these types of films kept a number of classic theaters operating, with the HVAC and other systems running and in some degree of repair in most cases so that, when the time came and resources became available, they could be restored to a nobler use.
linking
More pic’s coming to the flickr link, stay tuned…
Unforchantly in the Broadvue’s case the operators of the porn theater stole & sold pices of, and generaly disrespected the place.
For example:
They painted porn red over the white marble in the ladies room, when we stripped the paint the marble was stained pink. This was a grand lady waiting for a rescue that never truely happened. Now 25 years later, the renovation of neighborhood theaters is thr new “thing” in Cleveland, go figure.
January 16th, 1927 grand opening ad in photo section.
To my recollection, this was the first Cleveland theatre to run hard-core porn films in the early 70’s. They gradually merged with a XXX bookstore next door to create a 24/7 porn complex by the 80’s. Video viewing booths were set up in the lobby of the original theatre. I used to have one of their T-shirts.
Ran 60 years from January 16th, 1927 to March 28, 1987 with final days as a live concert venue following community repertory screenings.
At least when an old theatre is showing ‘smut’ we can get in to see the once grand place. It’s better than having it shuttered and demolished.