Allen Theatre

The Allen was originally operated by RKO Stanley Warner.

Does anyone have information on a movie theatre called the Hippadrome operated by Loews in downtown Cleveland in the 30's? I need a photograph of the theatre if possible.

The Hippodrome closed in the 70's and, unfortunately, was torn down. I believe it was Cleveland's largest theatre. Five large theatres still remain in Playhouse Square. One of the last managers of the Hippodrome, Jack Silverthorne, died on April 16. His obituary is in the April 24 Plain Dealer. The Cleveland Public Library may be able to help you locate a photograph.

The Allen was built for movies only and did not have a working stage, only space for the horns between the screen and the back wall. The recent renovation included construction of a large stagehouse to accommodate touring stage productions. Upon completion of the restoration, The Cleveland Orchestra was performing here while it's home, Severance Hall, was undergoing its own renovation.

An unusual element of this theatre was the transition from the lobby to the auditorium. The lobby had (has) a 1-story ceiling, and walking towards the auditorium you enter a 2 1/2 story colonaded rotunda, which at the second floor is open to the mezzanine lobby. As you went through the columns on the opposite side of the rotunda you entered the auditorium at the head of the aisles under the balcony. In the low ceiling there, the underside of the balcony, there was an eliptical dome over the seating area. This dome was also open to the mezzanine lobby area upstairs. The recent renovation, sadly, saw this dome filled in and a bar installed upstairs.

The architects of the Allen Theater were C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim

When I visited the booth in the 60s, I found two Philips/Norelco 35/70mm projectors and a 35mm Century projector. The sound system was by Century.

Lamps were Ashcraft Super Cinex.

There was a B&W RCA Theatre projector also.

The ALLEN THEATRE, 1501 Euclid Ave., opened on 1 Apr. 1921. It joined the Ohio, State, and Hanna theaters, which had debuted only weeks before. The Allen was constructed in conjunction with the Bulkley Bldg., an 8-story office building on Euclid Ave., just east of E. 14th St. Designed by architect C. Howard Crane, the $1 million showplace was developed by 2 Canadian theater impresarios, Jules and Jay Allen of Toronto.

An ornate lobby led to a pillared Italian Renaissance rotunda, its dome 33' high. The balcony seating area was reached from another domed entrance hall, while yet a third dome graced the main arena. Altogether, the Allen could seat 3,003 in opulent surroundings. Because the Allen brothers were not affiliated with a major motion-picture circuit, they experienced difficulty in securing first-run features.

In 1932 RKO took over. In 1949 Warner Bros. joined in the theater's management, and finally, in 1953 Stanley-Warner Theatres assumed the lease. Despite the expenditure of $500,000 in 1961 to renovate the Allen, diminishing audiences led to Stanley-Warner's decision to close the theater on 5 Mar. 1968.

Although the Allen hosted some of the earliest events in the campaign to restore Cleveland's PLAYHOUSE SQUARE, it was nearly lost amid the subsequent festivities surrounding the reopening of its 3 neighbors, the OHIO THEATER, STATE THEATER, and PALACE THEATER. For several years it housed a restaurant in its lobby, but demolition had already begun in Jan. 1993, when the Playhouse Square Assn. signed a long-term lease to preserve the Allen as part of its downtown theater complex.

It's interesting that the Allen brothers holdings extended to Cleveland. So far all I've been able to learn about them is that they began building their empire with their first major house in Calgary in 1913, followed by others all across Canada. Apparently they were overextended and forced into bankruptcy. Since they operated as an independent chain they could not compete with the much better funded Famous Players corporation. Most, if not all, their theaters in Canada were taken over by Famous Players. According to sources C. Howard Crane was the architect for all the Allen theaters. The c1920 Allen theater in Winnipeg still stands, renamed the Metropolitan in 1923 after Famous Players took over, but has been shuttered since 1988. I believe the city owns it now, with no plans for it's future. It is still a single screen theater.

Photos at this link:
http://www.rinestock.com/allen.html

More photos of the Allen Theater are here:
http://www.wagnersign.com/allen01.html

Click on each photo to expand it.

Does anyone know if there was a bowling alley under the Hippodrome theatre in Cleveland around 1938? I need to know exactly where it was located if possible and how did you enter the building, was the entry off the alley that ran alongside the building? Thanks.

I don't know about 1938, but in the 1960s there was a billiard hall downstairs. At the Hipp's Prospect entrance, under the marquee but before you got to the theatres doors there was a stairway down to the billiard hall entrance. I suppose it could have been a bowling alley at one time.

The Allen actually was originally operated by a Canadian company run by Jules and Jay J. Allen.about a year after it opened it became a Loew's theatre, later becomming a Warner Bros. theatre. It closed as a film house in 1968 and was occasionally used for rock shows over the next several years. It became the first theatre to be opened by the Playhouse Square Assoc in November 1971 opening with a performance by the Budapest Symphony Orch.Over the next several years it hosted a variety of shows by Lily Tomlin, Richard Harris, and numerous rock shows, like The Pink Floyd, The Jeff Beck Group, etc. In 1976 the owners of the building MilCapIncleased the theatre lobby to a restaurant operator who ran it for a couple years

Here are some photos of the Allen from the early 1970s:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b123/dave-bronx/Cleveland%20Theatres/RKO%20Allen/

Its too bad they had to install a bar in the dome under the balcony. Beautiful.

I was in the Allen once, possible several times as a kid in the 60's but I dont remember much about what it looked like, unfortunately. It was dark and we arrived whenever and sat through the next show until we saw what we missed. I did eat in the Rotunda restaurant once many years later. That was impressive.

A before and after interior photo of the Allen Theater can be seen here.

The Canadian Allen Circuit gained a foothold in the United States with their beautiful Allen Theatre in Cleveland but failed to further penetrate the American Market.
Unfortunately, although there were plans to build new theatres and take over existing theatres in the United States, England and Russia, disaster struck the Allen Circuit shortly after the opening of the Cleveland Allen. While Mr. Allen was vacationing in Hawaii, he received a telegram stating that, because his theatre empire had overextended itself, and because of the difficulty in obtaining new movies for the circuit (due to the blocking efforts of Paramount Pictures of New York), Allen Theatres were were left with insufficiant product and a staggering bank loan. In the end, Allen lost the entire circuit and Allen theatre enterprise. The Allen circuit was replaced by Famous Players of Canada Ltd. in 1923.
I could not find what company operated the theatre between the demise of the Allen circuit and when RKO took over operations in 1932.

Warner Bros. had it for a short time...

The Allen circut only ran the Allen in Cleveland for about a year. It then becam a Loew's Theatre. The stage was extended about 4-5 feet to accomodate the Vaude/Pix policy that Loew's had found successful in its other venues.

Here is a 1932 photo from the Cleveland Public Library:
http://tinyurl.com/f5glm

This is a 1968 ad for the Allen Theater.

I heard this was one of the first wide screen theaters built in the 1920s.

C.Howard Crane may have been a visionary regarding screen width because he designed the Capitol in London Ontario which opened in 1920 and was also called the Allen originally.

I forgot to mention Londons Capitol had extreme width!

"......was only spared at the last minute from being bulldozed for a parking lot. Workers had already begun dismantling the interior when the word came to halt demolition." Thank goodness as I will be touring this theatre along with the Ohio, State and Palace in Playhouse Square in the near future.

A Kimball theater organ KPO 60578 size 3/23 was installed in the Allen Theater in 1921.

Lost Memory: Great to read about the many organs that were installed in many theatres during the 20's and 30's. Great research!

Dave-Bronx: Are your pictures of the Cleveland Allen Theater at Photobucket from '71 or '72? If so can I use one of them on a non-commercial site?

My father Elmer Thomas Davis worked for the Allen Theater from September 1934 to January 1937. At that time all the first run theaters had one or more full time artists that produced beautiful posters of the upcoming attractions. They also created other lobby displays appropriate for the movie of the day. My father was a talented artist and worked for a number of theaters in this capacity in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Cleveland in the thirties. He was known as a lobby display man (per the union). I wonder what happened to all these wonderful posters that were made during this time?

A book entitled "Cleveland's Playhouse Square" by Patricia M. Mote chronicles in words and photographs the Loew's State & Ohio, RKO Allen & Palace and Hanna theaters from their opening in the 1920s through 2006. It can be found in the Local Interest section of Cleveland area bookstores, and for those not in the area it can be ordered from the publisher at the following website:
http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=arcadia&Product_Code=0738540137&Product_Count=&Category_Code=

continued:Re - Elmer Thomas Davis. In addition to painting wonderful huge posters of the old silent stars and the new talkies these artists had to be excellent lettering men. All the posters were hand lettered with the stars names, the movie title, the co-stars, the directors, etc. This was a special talent my dad worked hard to perfect.

dave-bronx: I have ordered the Patricia Mote book and can't wait to receive it in the mail!

Book Description:

"In the early 1920s, five opulent theaters—the Allen, the Ohio, the State, the Palace, and the Hanna—opened on a stretch of Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. They offered legitimate theater, vaudeville, name bands and entertainers, and films for the affluent and hardworking citizens of this booming industrial city. Unfortunately, the introduction of television and the flight to the suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s turned the theaters into ghost palaces destined for the wrecking ball. In 1970, a bold group of planners led by Raymond K. Shepardson formed the Playhouse Square Association, a nonprofit group dedicated to saving the theaters. A 25-year restoration endeavor emerged that raised $53 million, culminating in the largest theater restoration project in the world. Today Playhouse Square Center ranks second only to New York’s Lincoln Center as North America’s largest performing arts complex."

ÏÏ ALLEN THEATRE С HOWARD CRANE By I T Irary Architectural Record

1948 photo of the Allen Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c35%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=31752
1969 photo of the Allen Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c35%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=31753

Recent (post-renovation) photo of the Allen Theatre Lobby:

http://blog.cleveland.com/onstage_impact/2008/07/allenb.jpg

Here are some new photos I took July 2009 of the Allen Theatre:

Lobby and Rotunda:
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen04.jpg
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen09.jpg
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen11.jpg
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen24.jpg

Auditorium:
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen31.jpg
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen28.jpg
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen30.jpg

Exterior, front and back:
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen39.jpg
http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/theatres/clevelandallen38.jpg

Allen Theater movie ad from 1932:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/modestospeed/544206362/

and one from 1960:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/modestospeed/1050756482/in/set-72157594571697814/

Renewing link.