The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
Further up Vine Street, where it begins its steep ascent into Clifton, there used to be another theater called the Uptown. I love my memory of this theater, which was like the Empire in that it hosted a day of movies only on the weekends for 75 cents. The big difference was, the Uptown didn’t have a telephone OR a marquee! You couldn’t find out what was showing till you plunked your three bits down! I went several times in 1966-67 with an older friend — the first time was one of those unforgettable days at the movies. We walked in on the last two reels of GIRL HAPPY (which I’d seen before), which was followed by INSIDE DAISY CLOVER and…THE EMBALMER!!! I can’t TELL you how high my heart soared as that title filled the screen!
The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
Cincinnati’s OTHER adult movie theater was the Royal. It used to stand on Vine Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, right across the street from a bus stop that used to take me to my apartment. The Royal showed ALL the Harry Novak stuff — it was torn down in the mid ‘70’s. I used to be very shy around that theater, never wanting to be caught looking across the street at it while waiting for my bus, and I’m ashamed to say I never bought a ticket or went inside. People who did tell me it smelled like one big [possibly rude term deleted]. It is one of the two Cincinnati theaters that inspired The Eros in my novel THROAT SPROCKETS. I will never forget the week they played Roberta Findlay’s (now apparently lost) TEENAGE MILKMAID, with its outrageous Vargas-like “No One Outgrows Their Need For Milk” poster, which didn’t look quite so Vargas-like when I saw it again years later at a movie convention. What the hell, I bought it anyway.
The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
The Empire closed in the mid-‘70’s as a movie theater. At that time, it was basically a ghetto theater open only on the weekends; on Saturday and Sunday, you could see a whole day of movies there for only 75 cents! A friend of mine and I decided to give it a chance and went there together around 1973. We saw JEREMY, THE SCARS OF DRACULA (a cut print), and TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS. A nice memory. I’m glad we went. After closing as a theater, it reopened as a makeshift church and stayed that way for a couple of years. It’s been boarded up ever since [until its 2005 demolition].
The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
The Imperial was actually a burlesque house that hosted combo film and stage shows. It must have closed in the late ‘60’s and has never reopened — though signs were briefly posted in the late '70’s that it would be reopening “soon.” I never went there, but I can remember the “spicy” newspaper ads from the late '60’s, which usually referred to the theater as The Imperial Follies. That theater is actually the site of an important meeting between [my wife] Donna and I, so it has almost familial ties. Right around the corner from it there used to be a nightclub called The Safari Room or The Safari Club; local legend had it that Johnny Mathis used to sing there.
The current L.A. Weekly paper has a long essay by writer Erin Aubry Kaplan about the city of Inglewood, what it used to represent, and its current hardships. The online version of this story has color photographs of the Imperial, Academy, and Fox theatres that can be enlarged with a mouse click. The story is at this address: View link
The current L.A. Weekly paper has a long essay by writer Erin Aubry Kaplan about the city of Inglewood, what it used to represent, and its current hardships. The online version of this story has color photographs of the Imperial, Academy, and Fox theatres that can be enlarged with a mouse click. The story is at this address: View link
Some fleeting research says that Avco was initially some sort of aviation science/manufacturing concern (AV – aviation, CO – company, something like that) that broadened their reach into financial interests like insurance and credit, and then of course the decade or so they operated Avco Embassy Pictures and the radio/TV production bloc that included the mighty WLW in Cincinnati. The TV stations were sold to Multimedia, who also took over production of then-locally produced syndicated shows like PHIL DONAHUE, SALLY JESSY RAPHAEL and JERRY SPRINGER. The radio stations were spun off into a local company called Jacor, which of course now has become the ginormous Clear Channel company.
Urban legend has it that while they were essentially a hands-off corporate parent, Avco may have had a hand in the initial failure of the controversial political satire WINTER KILLS, since its plot involved the ever-popular “military-industrial complex” and Avco would have had fat government contracts for jet technology.
William’s comment I think has a misspelling and a couple small errors.
What I recall is that THE GRADUATE went out first independently through Embassy Pictures, before they were acquired by the Avco company. After which, for a brief time, United Artists picked up the theatrical rights: there are posters touting the Academy Award nominations with the Transamerica UA logo on them. Then, the combined Avco Embassy would have taken over distribution until their demise in the ‘80’s.
The company William is likely thinking of is Paravision or Parafrance, not the Panavision camera company. That company inherited the Embassy library for reasons too convoluted to explain, but now that company’s holdings, including the Embassy titles, are controlled by StudioCanal, a subsidiary of the French cable outfit Canal+. They would be the first stop for any research on Avco Embassy movies.
Another place you may try for materials is Strand Releasing. I don’t know if the deal is still in effect, but back in the mid-'90’s when Mike Thomas was launching the Rialto Pictures reissue company with Strand’s help, they did a major theatrical reissue of THE GRADUATE complete with posters and trailers. Maybe they will have some historical photos of significance.
Casper, I’m a little confused by your post. Are you saying that at one time the Royal did use the name “Cinema X?” Or just acknowledging that there were once two places to see adult movies in the Cincinnati area. Because unless there is documentation otherwise, I’m maintaining that this entry be corrected to reflect that this description is of the Royal, not the Cinema X/State in Newport.
I visited the theatre a couple times when it was a single-screen. Unfortunately, it was when I was a teenager and I can’t recall much concrete detail about seating capacity or interior design. But I remember it was nice and big, and while I’m glad to have it open, can’t stand the thought of it as a twin.
Before the Cinema Grill concept, it had functioned for a while as a really nice arthouse — ATLANTIC CITY and LOCAL HERO had really long runs there. (Not as long as, say, HAROLD AND MAUDE in Mt. Adams, but longer than the average film nowadays.) I saw THE QUIET EARTH there on my birthday, and a girl I was infatuated with met me outside afterward for a late dinner. Then they went to standard second-run films. I remember seeing STAKEOUT there, and I think it was over Xmas break, which shows you how long movie legs used to be, as that was an August release that year.
So many Cincy neighborhoods had wonderful theatres. No one as of yet has posted about the Hyde Park, which is gone too. I don’t have the street address, or else I’d do it myself.
I could be wrong, but isn’t what was the World Theatre now a performance space called Q-Topia? I went to a rave-like event there, and the layout of the place looked like it could have been a big theatre at one time.
Actually, this listing is incorrect. The theatre described here is the Royal Theatre. The Cinema X was across the river in Covington, KY, and lasted a little bit longer than the Royal in showing adult movies, but they too also succumbed to closure.
I’ve always heard Johnny Legend and others refer to this theatre as the “Hawaiian Gardens” (which always threw me because this place is nowhere near the actual L.A. suburb of Hawaiian Gardens). I suppose that was a tie-in to the popular Florentine Gardens nightclub next door.
Now that there is a dustup involving the city wanting to seize the Florentine Gardens property for a new fire station, does anyone know if that would include this building as well?
This and the Vogue theatre have had their leases taken over by club owner and film producer Elie Samaha, and he is not interested in reopening them as theatres, sad to say.
I guess it can be told now. Elie Samaha, who created White Lotus and the Sunset Room (and owns Franchise Pictures), bought the remaining years of the original leases that Mann had on both the Vogue and the Iris (a/k/a Fox) on Hollywood Blvd. I think this covers only the theatres, not the actual land; that may still be tied up with the Mann heirs. And he is dead set on turning them into nightclubs; he even turned down an offer from Sage Stallone (co-owner of repertory company Grindhouse Releasing, and son of Sylvester, who has made films for Samaha) to rehab one or both of them.
These are actually two separate theatre buildings in separate shopping centers that, in their last decade of operation, were deceptively linked together as “one theatre” by then-operators Mid-States Theatres, maybe for the purpose of simplifying their location in the public mind.
Originally, the Tri-County Theatre at 11500 Princeton Pike was a three screen theatre near the Cassinelli Square shopping center, and the twin down the street at 11670 Princeton Pike was part of the Princeton Plaza shopping center and called the Princeton. In 1980, two additional screens were added to the Tri-County and it was rechristened the 1-5, while the Princeton’s name was changed to the Tri-County 6-7.
The 1-5 has been demolished. The 6-7 was gutted and a chain bookstore now occupies that space.
In it’s final days, it had changed it’s name to the Roxy, and operated as a sort of second-tier art house, playing movies that either the Drexel Theatres (Columbus' prime art theatres) didn’t want to play, or had already played out but still had a little business left in them. They also did a lot of interesting midnight movies, premiereing many Troma films. The last movie they played was Vincent Ward’s VIGIL.
In the early ‘90’s, cult musician/wrestling promoter/Andy Kaufman collaborator Johnny Legend presented movie events on one of the screens of the X, which I believe was renamed the Hawaiian Gardens to tie in with the Florentine Gardens nightclub that was next door. Legend says that at least once, the manager of the place got violent with him, which explains why his movie nights did not go on for very long.
At last look, the building is still standing, if someone felt brave enough to give it another go. No clue on who owns the property though.
I don’t have the exact street address, but it was in the Bexley/Whitehall neighborhood of Eastern Columbus on Broad Street, near a shopping center also called Town & Country.
It’s last attempt at operation was in the mid-90’s, when the Cinema'n'Drafthouse chain remodeled and reopened it as a second-run movie restaurant. It closed in six months.
Actually, the Florence Mall complex was originally built by Mid-States. (National Amusements ultimately bought out all their theatres in the Greater Cincinnati area, which may be the cause of confusion here) It started out as a (for the era) state of the art 6 plex, then expanded to it’s current 8.
The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
Further up Vine Street, where it begins its steep ascent into Clifton, there used to be another theater called the Uptown. I love my memory of this theater, which was like the Empire in that it hosted a day of movies only on the weekends for 75 cents. The big difference was, the Uptown didn’t have a telephone OR a marquee! You couldn’t find out what was showing till you plunked your three bits down! I went several times in 1966-67 with an older friend — the first time was one of those unforgettable days at the movies. We walked in on the last two reels of GIRL HAPPY (which I’d seen before), which was followed by INSIDE DAISY CLOVER and…THE EMBALMER!!! I can’t TELL you how high my heart soared as that title filled the screen!
The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
Cincinnati’s OTHER adult movie theater was the Royal. It used to stand on Vine Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, right across the street from a bus stop that used to take me to my apartment. The Royal showed ALL the Harry Novak stuff — it was torn down in the mid ‘70’s. I used to be very shy around that theater, never wanting to be caught looking across the street at it while waiting for my bus, and I’m ashamed to say I never bought a ticket or went inside. People who did tell me it smelled like one big [possibly rude term deleted]. It is one of the two Cincinnati theaters that inspired The Eros in my novel THROAT SPROCKETS. I will never forget the week they played Roberta Findlay’s (now apparently lost) TEENAGE MILKMAID, with its outrageous Vargas-like “No One Outgrows Their Need For Milk” poster, which didn’t look quite so Vargas-like when I saw it again years later at a movie convention. What the hell, I bought it anyway.
The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
The Empire closed in the mid-‘70’s as a movie theater. At that time, it was basically a ghetto theater open only on the weekends; on Saturday and Sunday, you could see a whole day of movies there for only 75 cents! A friend of mine and I decided to give it a chance and went there together around 1973. We saw JEREMY, THE SCARS OF DRACULA (a cut print), and TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS. A nice memory. I’m glad we went. After closing as a theater, it reopened as a makeshift church and stayed that way for a couple of years. It’s been boarded up ever since [until its 2005 demolition].
The following was written by VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher and lifelong Cincinnatian Tim Lucas at the old Mobius Home Video Forum board (a server crash lost all posts prior to a year and a half ago):
The Imperial was actually a burlesque house that hosted combo film and stage shows. It must have closed in the late ‘60’s and has never reopened — though signs were briefly posted in the late '70’s that it would be reopening “soon.” I never went there, but I can remember the “spicy” newspaper ads from the late '60’s, which usually referred to the theater as The Imperial Follies. That theater is actually the site of an important meeting between [my wife] Donna and I, so it has almost familial ties. Right around the corner from it there used to be a nightclub called The Safari Room or The Safari Club; local legend had it that Johnny Mathis used to sing there.
The current L.A. Weekly paper has a long essay by writer Erin Aubry Kaplan about the city of Inglewood, what it used to represent, and its current hardships. The online version of this story has color photographs of the Imperial, Academy, and Fox theatres that can be enlarged with a mouse click. The story is at this address:
View link
The current L.A. Weekly paper has a long essay by writer Erin Aubry Kaplan about the city of Inglewood, what it used to represent, and its current hardships. The online version of this story has color photographs of the Imperial, Academy, and Fox theatres that can be enlarged with a mouse click. The story is at this address:
View link
Some fleeting research says that Avco was initially some sort of aviation science/manufacturing concern (AV – aviation, CO – company, something like that) that broadened their reach into financial interests like insurance and credit, and then of course the decade or so they operated Avco Embassy Pictures and the radio/TV production bloc that included the mighty WLW in Cincinnati. The TV stations were sold to Multimedia, who also took over production of then-locally produced syndicated shows like PHIL DONAHUE, SALLY JESSY RAPHAEL and JERRY SPRINGER. The radio stations were spun off into a local company called Jacor, which of course now has become the ginormous Clear Channel company.
Urban legend has it that while they were essentially a hands-off corporate parent, Avco may have had a hand in the initial failure of the controversial political satire WINTER KILLS, since its plot involved the ever-popular “military-industrial complex” and Avco would have had fat government contracts for jet technology.
As of May 19, 2005, this theatre is now closed. No word as to whether this is temporary or permanent.
I’m sorry, the theatre I was referring to as a neighbor of the Skywalk was the Place, not the Palace. Could a moderator correct this for me?
William’s comment I think has a misspelling and a couple small errors.
What I recall is that THE GRADUATE went out first independently through Embassy Pictures, before they were acquired by the Avco company. After which, for a brief time, United Artists picked up the theatrical rights: there are posters touting the Academy Award nominations with the Transamerica UA logo on them. Then, the combined Avco Embassy would have taken over distribution until their demise in the ‘80’s.
The company William is likely thinking of is Paravision or Parafrance, not the Panavision camera company. That company inherited the Embassy library for reasons too convoluted to explain, but now that company’s holdings, including the Embassy titles, are controlled by StudioCanal, a subsidiary of the French cable outfit Canal+. They would be the first stop for any research on Avco Embassy movies.
Another place you may try for materials is Strand Releasing. I don’t know if the deal is still in effect, but back in the mid-'90’s when Mike Thomas was launching the Rialto Pictures reissue company with Strand’s help, they did a major theatrical reissue of THE GRADUATE complete with posters and trailers. Maybe they will have some historical photos of significance.
Casper, I’m a little confused by your post. Are you saying that at one time the Royal did use the name “Cinema X?” Or just acknowledging that there were once two places to see adult movies in the Cincinnati area. Because unless there is documentation otherwise, I’m maintaining that this entry be corrected to reflect that this description is of the Royal, not the Cinema X/State in Newport.
I visited the theatre a couple times when it was a single-screen. Unfortunately, it was when I was a teenager and I can’t recall much concrete detail about seating capacity or interior design. But I remember it was nice and big, and while I’m glad to have it open, can’t stand the thought of it as a twin.
Before the Cinema Grill concept, it had functioned for a while as a really nice arthouse — ATLANTIC CITY and LOCAL HERO had really long runs there. (Not as long as, say, HAROLD AND MAUDE in Mt. Adams, but longer than the average film nowadays.) I saw THE QUIET EARTH there on my birthday, and a girl I was infatuated with met me outside afterward for a late dinner. Then they went to standard second-run films. I remember seeing STAKEOUT there, and I think it was over Xmas break, which shows you how long movie legs used to be, as that was an August release that year.
So many Cincy neighborhoods had wonderful theatres. No one as of yet has posted about the Hyde Park, which is gone too. I don’t have the street address, or else I’d do it myself.
If you look at the font of the marquee name in the Marianne photo, it looks almost exactly like the font for the Esquire Theatre in Clifton, Ohio.
http://www.esquiretheatre.com
I wonder if the same architect or operator built both theatres?
I could be wrong, but isn’t what was the World Theatre now a performance space called Q-Topia? I went to a rave-like event there, and the layout of the place looked like it could have been a big theatre at one time.
Sorry, I meant Newport, KY, not Covington.
Actually, this listing is incorrect. The theatre described here is the Royal Theatre. The Cinema X was across the river in Covington, KY, and lasted a little bit longer than the Royal in showing adult movies, but they too also succumbed to closure.
Was this theatre in any way connected to the Realart Films company that did reissues of the old Universal monster movies in the ‘50’s?
I’ve always heard Johnny Legend and others refer to this theatre as the “Hawaiian Gardens” (which always threw me because this place is nowhere near the actual L.A. suburb of Hawaiian Gardens). I suppose that was a tie-in to the popular Florentine Gardens nightclub next door.
Now that there is a dustup involving the city wanting to seize the Florentine Gardens property for a new fire station, does anyone know if that would include this building as well?
This and the Vogue theatre have had their leases taken over by club owner and film producer Elie Samaha, and he is not interested in reopening them as theatres, sad to say.
I guess it can be told now. Elie Samaha, who created White Lotus and the Sunset Room (and owns Franchise Pictures), bought the remaining years of the original leases that Mann had on both the Vogue and the Iris (a/k/a Fox) on Hollywood Blvd. I think this covers only the theatres, not the actual land; that may still be tied up with the Mann heirs. And he is dead set on turning them into nightclubs; he even turned down an offer from Sage Stallone (co-owner of repertory company Grindhouse Releasing, and son of Sylvester, who has made films for Samaha) to rehab one or both of them.
These are actually two separate theatre buildings in separate shopping centers that, in their last decade of operation, were deceptively linked together as “one theatre” by then-operators Mid-States Theatres, maybe for the purpose of simplifying their location in the public mind.
Originally, the Tri-County Theatre at 11500 Princeton Pike was a three screen theatre near the Cassinelli Square shopping center, and the twin down the street at 11670 Princeton Pike was part of the Princeton Plaza shopping center and called the Princeton. In 1980, two additional screens were added to the Tri-County and it was rechristened the 1-5, while the Princeton’s name was changed to the Tri-County 6-7.
The 1-5 has been demolished. The 6-7 was gutted and a chain bookstore now occupies that space.
In it’s final days, it had changed it’s name to the Roxy, and operated as a sort of second-tier art house, playing movies that either the Drexel Theatres (Columbus' prime art theatres) didn’t want to play, or had already played out but still had a little business left in them. They also did a lot of interesting midnight movies, premiereing many Troma films. The last movie they played was Vincent Ward’s VIGIL.
In the early ‘90’s, cult musician/wrestling promoter/Andy Kaufman collaborator Johnny Legend presented movie events on one of the screens of the X, which I believe was renamed the Hawaiian Gardens to tie in with the Florentine Gardens nightclub that was next door. Legend says that at least once, the manager of the place got violent with him, which explains why his movie nights did not go on for very long.
At last look, the building is still standing, if someone felt brave enough to give it another go. No clue on who owns the property though.
I don’t have the exact street address, but it was in the Bexley/Whitehall neighborhood of Eastern Columbus on Broad Street, near a shopping center also called Town & Country.
It’s last attempt at operation was in the mid-90’s, when the Cinema'n'Drafthouse chain remodeled and reopened it as a second-run movie restaurant. It closed in six months.
Actually, the Florence Mall complex was originally built by Mid-States. (National Amusements ultimately bought out all their theatres in the Greater Cincinnati area, which may be the cause of confusion here) It started out as a (for the era) state of the art 6 plex, then expanded to it’s current 8.