Livingston Theatre
1567 E. Livingston Avenue,
Columbus,
OH
43205
1567 E. Livingston Avenue,
Columbus,
OH
43205
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 43 comments
This became the Gayety showing adult movies on July 9th, 1965. Grand opening ad posted.
The facade has been restored. New paint new Neon and classic movie posters hung up.
I drove past yesterday. Construction has begun on a low income senior appartment complex called The Livingston. The theaters facade has been saved and will be incorporated into the design. Uploaded photo.
Yes, the Theater still has its performance stage. Central Ohio Sober Living will not be changing the theater portion of the building. We are currently seeking ideas for use of the theater portion of the building. if you have any ideas or would like to submit a proposal for usage, send to
Will it still have a performance stage?
The building is now undergoing renovations to open a 57 bed sober living/recovery center. Grand Opening slated for November 21, 2015. For more information contact: 614-725-2005 or email
That would probably include the old drug store and the Livingston Enterprises building also.
For sale. 349 grand.
The theatre became the GAYETY for the first time on 7/9/65.
I’m very sad that the theatre is in such bad shape. I was hoping that I could get inside one more time before it goes away.
Well, if it does come down, I hope someone saves all that beautiful glass block, recycles it in another building. Dammit.
In 2011;the new occupants of the bathhouse portion (H2O Spa) along with community leaders created a non-profit (Livingston Theater Association) to raise money to restore and preserve the building. Several fund raisers were held; the last of which was in November 2012. Unfortunately; the new owner of the building pocketed all of the revenue from the events and left the organization with all of the debts. The owner is on trial for unrelated criminal activity and the building is currently in foreclosure by the Franklin County Treasurer for unpaid taxes. Unfortunately, the deteriorating condition of the building will only certainly assure that the building is condemned and torn down. H2O moved due to a roof collapse and severe water damage in the building after City engineers deemed it unsafe.
What organization is trying to restore it, and what sort of entertainment do they plan to have?
Nov 10 2012 a show what held at the theater to help raise funds to restore it. Good to hear.
Does it still look like a movie or stage theatre inside, with the original raked seating? What sort of events will it host once it is restored?
To be fair I should elaborate, Flex is still in business, just not in Columbus any longer. They do operate a facility in Cleveland.
Ownership of The Livingston Theater has once again changed hands and is in the process of holding events that will go towards the restoration of it. As the last post suggested it is indeed true that the Flex bathhouse did in fact close. The other end of the building adjacent to the theater is a bathhouse currently, called H2O Spa, however The Livingston Theater is a separate establishment. Various events will be held at the theater and it is available to be rented for those looking for a large capacity facility in order to hold events. It hosts a huge stage area as well as a balcony area.
Property was taken over in 2/11 by a local man who owns a variety of properties. He now owns the entire block that houses the Livingston and the parking lot west of the building. I can’t find any recent occupant, and I did find a site confirming that Flex Baths had closed.
This location is no longer listed at flexbaths.com . Is it still open as a gym or has it been converted to a different use now?
Mark your absolutely right. Joe Shade operated it when it re-opened in ‘73. He had real problems as he was a pharmacist and had no theater experience. When Carl & I took over the previous owners main complaint was that he couldn’t make any money in he concession stand. Come to find out, when the stand needed candy he let then come over to the drug store and get what ever they needed from the back room with no supervision. Needless to say we initiated an inventory, watched the stand, and made money. The double feature policy is what killed us. We ran all of the black product and all of the ‘kung-fu’ pictures we could find and ran ourselves out of product.
The Livingston reopened on July 6, 1973, showing THE MACK with Max Julien, Don Gordon and Richard Pryor, and BLACK GIRL with Leslie Uggams and Brock Peters (“She’s got to cut it…or cut out.”)
The last ad I could find for the theatre was August 4, 1974, showing TRUCK TURNER with Isaac Hayes and SCREAMING TIGER.
Marty Hart’s WIDESCREEN MUSEUM site has a page on the Scanoscope process. It includes a film-clip that would be rated PG-13.
View link
Sorry, the film process was called ScanOscope-35 (Panoscope was a typo) – John Williamson
A projectonist named Carl Leigh and I (John Williamson) were the last folks to operate the Livingston in 1974. We ran black and action product (“The Mack”, “Coffee”, “Big Bad Momma”) exclusively. I remember it having around 1100 seats including the cry room. The auditorium was parallel to the street behind the sporting goods store with the screen on the east end. During the porno days, a large screen (20'x40') was installed for a short lived process called “Panasccope 35”. The screen covered the proscenium completely. “The Gayety†name came from one owner who tried to present live burlesque. The code enforcement people made him install an asbestos fire curtain along with many other improvements. He opened with a stripper, a whistle blew and the cops closed the place. The Livingston had one live show that lasted about 5 minutes.
As for the film aspects, it had an RCA booth with Brinkert BX60’s, RCA 9030 soundheads and Strong 135 lamps burning 11mm carbons. At the time the building owner was also the owner of the drug store next door (Joe Shade in 1970’s). We closed due to lack of product. After we closed, the Livingston was out of the entertainment business. Shade turned it into a doctor’s office catering to Medicaid recipients. The entrance to the waiting room was the theatre entrance and the exit was through a door cut in the west lobby wall into the drug store (traffic went right by the pharmacy counter). I later partnered with Frank Marzetti on a deal to purchase the equipment. It was later sold and scattered all over the Mid-west. After the Dr’s office closed it became a bath house which closed. It is now vacant and has been for some time.
No.
Don’t forget the Paris Theatre, the former Parsons Theatre that also showed “adult” films.
As an early teenager reading these ads, I found it strange that ‘art’ was used as a synonym for ‘porn’ — not just here, but also at the Little Art Theatre and the chain that owned the Bexley and World.
I know that the Bexley and World did for a while legitimately show foreign art films that were not porn. Did the Livingston Art and Little Art ever do so?
Sure with this site had an edit function! The above post should, of course, be “Entertainers”.