Historic Movie Theaters of Downtown Cleveland

by Alan F. Dutka

Overview

The first movie theaters in Cleveland consisted of converted storefronts with sawed-off telephone poles substituting for chairs and bedsheets acting as screens. In 1905, Clevelanders marveled at moving images at Rafferty's Monkey House while dodging real monkeys and raccoons that wandered freely through the bar. By the early 1920s, a collection of marvelous movie palaces like the Stillman Theater lined Euclid Avenue, but they survived for just two generations. Clevelanders united to save the State, Ohio and Allen Theaters, among others, as wrecking balls converged for demolition. Those that remain compose one of the nation's largest performing arts centers. Alan F. Dutka shares the remarkable histories of Cleveland's downtown movie theaters and their reemergence as community landmarks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467136464
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	07/04/2016
Series:	Landmarks
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	796,103
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Native Clevelander Alan Dutka is the author of five other Cleveland history titles: Misfortune on Cleveland's Millionaires' Row; AsiaTown Cleveland: From Tong Wars to Dim Sum; Cleveland Calamities: A History of Storm, Fire and Pestilence; East Fourth Street: The Rise, Decline, and Rebirth of an Urban Cleveland Street and Cleveland's Short Vincent: The Theatrical Grill and its Notorious Neighbors.

Table of Contents

Foreword David Horan 7

Preface 9

Acknowledgements 11

Introduction 13

1 Vaudeville Embraces the Movies 17

2 The Nickelodeon Era 25

3 Second-Generation Movie Theaters 29

4 Road-Show Presentations 35

5 The Hippodrome Theater 43

6 The Family/Orpheum/Roxy Theater 61

7 The Priscilla/Bandhox/Little Theater 67

8 The Miles/Carter Theater 73

9 The Standard and Strand Theaters 77

10 The Mall and Lower Mall Theaters 83

11 The Stillman Theater 89

12 The Euclid Theater 99

13 The State Theater 103

14 The Ohio Theater 121

15 The Hanna Theater 135

16 The Allen Theater 147

17 The Palace Theater 159

18 The Cinema/Lake/Esquire Theater 179

19 The Embassy Theater Site 185

20 The Telenews/Tower Theater 191

21 Later Downtown Cinemas 195

Appendix: Theater Locations and Current She Usage 199

Bibliography 203

Index 205

About the Author 208