Royal Theatre

The original 200-seat Royal Theatre was opened in 1915 as a silent motion picture operation in downtown Oak Harbor. The operation converted to sound and new operator John Knopp and H.E. Smith had more business than the aging theatre could handle. So Knopp built a new 400-seat Royal Theatre in 1933 and it launched on December 15, 1933.

Unfortunately for Knopp, H.O. Thomas of Toledo’s Shoreway Theatre took on the former Royal Theatre and renamed it as the Portage Theatre. It opened almost three months before the Royal and led to a competitive theatre situation in the small town of 2,000 residents. Knopp bought out Thomas in 1935.

In 1936, the Oak Harbor Theatre Company, a subsidiary of the Lion Theatre Company of Bellevue, took on the Royal and opened the Erie Theatre in downtown Port Clinton on September 1, 1936. By year’s end they were bought out of the Erie Theatre and Knopp re-assumed control of the Oak Harbor Royal.

Surprisingly, Oak Harbor supported the two theatre operation of Knopp’s Portage and Royal into 1948. The Portage was reduced to twice a week operation and appears to have closed in 1948 likely at the end of a 15-year lease.

In 1959, the Royal Theatre was reduced to just twice a week operation. The ‘new’ Royal Theatre would continue to operate until Knopp closed it on January 4, 1964. He stated that the population wasn’t large enough to keep it operational.

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