Commodore Theatre

When the Commodore first closed in 1971, it was made into a roller-skating rink....

A Wurlitzer organ Opus 1673 Style 190 was installed in the Commodore Theater on 7/19/1927.

This is a recent close-up view of the Commodore Theater building. It looks like its bingo days are over.

It looks pretty small for a skating rink. They must have been bumping into the walls a lot.

I don't know if the market is a renovation or a replacement:
http://tinyurl.com/5arc9h

Its difficult to tell since there is no photo of the Food Mart at that link yet. Maybe they will add a photo after the Food Mart opens.

According to a satellite photo on Microsoft Virtual Earth, the old Commodore theatre building is still there, but there is no indication of what is inside, if anything.

While we're waiting for that site to post a photo of the Food Mart, enjoy this ad dated February 26, 1965.

Sure, take the kids to see wild animals being shot to death. Nice.

Thats funny.

Family Entertainment...."Sponsored by the Cleveland Custom Gun Shop".

This link has two photos of the Lake Shore Food Mart. It doesn't look like a new building to me. What do you think?

OK, I get it. Look at your September photo. The market is on the left.

Okay, if the address of the Food Mart to the left of the Commodore Theater in the above photo is 15208 Lake Shore Blvd, then the address of this theater is incorrect.

That is a reasonable assumption.

And the address is:

St Jerome's Church
15000 Lake Shore Blvd
Cleveland, OH 44110

The church site lists a separate number for the Commodore, so I guess they are adjunct buildings. The church photo doesn't look like the theater.
http://tinyurl.com/6nl6ea

That's a weird intersection there - it's not really on Lake Shore, the theatre is actually on the south-east corner of E. 152nd and Macauley Ave., probably with a mailing address of E.152nd St. As I recall, when the theatre was open, back in the last century, the location was advertised as Lake Shore Blvd. & E.152nd. Perhaps the guy who posted the theatre originally used the nearest address since there is no longer a phone book listing, and probably no address on the building itself. St. Jerome's is further west, at the corner of E.150th.

Apparently St. Jerry's is using the Commodore as a parish hall or something. I'll have to go over there and snoop around.

This is an area I know well from my childhood and I think I can help sort this out or least shed some light on why there may be confusion. The address for the theater is most likely incorrect or may have been changed.The theater is actually on the corner of East 152nd Street and McCauley Avenue, exactly at the point where East 152nd Street ends; it should have a an address on E. 152nd Street. From the west, Lakeshore Boulevard makes a ninety-degree turn to the left at exactly that point. So,if one is walking in front of the theater, one only has to walk straight across McCauley (which is just a side street) to go from walking on E. 152nd St. to walking on Lakeshore Blvd.; the same thing happens when one crosses E. 152nd in front of the theater. I remember that when one looked in the movie directory in the Cleveland Plain Dealer or the Cleveland Press in the 1950s and 60s, the address for the Commodore read either"East 152nd St. at Lakeshore Bl." or "Lakeshore Blvd. at E. 152nd St."

St. Jerome is on Lakeshore, facing Lakeshore, just before the turn; it certainly would have a Lakeshore Boulevard address. The Food Mart, a former 7-Eleven, is almost exactly on the corner of McCauley and Lakeshore, across from the left side of the theater; but it's just after the turn, so it too should have a Lakeshore Boulevard address. Perhaps the Post Office allowed or assigned a Lakeshore Boulevard address to the theater after St. Jerome acquired the theater for Bingo so as to better associate the building with the rest of the St. Jerome's complex right across 152nd St. The theater would be, after all, in the elbow of the turn and giving it an even-numbered Lakeshore Boulevard address between that of St. Jerome and the Food Mart wouldn't be illogical.

I used to work at a Lawson's on Lakeshore which would have been just a few doors further north from the Food Mart.

Dave-Bronx: Sorry to replicate much of what you said; it llks like we must have submitting right around the same time as yours wasn't up when I was writing mine.

no prob - the site is acting up today - running very sluggishly...

I think that we can all agree that the above address is incorrect since that is the address of the Food Mart.

Looks like the building days are numbered. It was comdemed four years ago and is now in housing court in Cleveland. Pieces of the stone facade have been falling off and it sits at a school cross walk. The buliding has become a home to vandals and junkies and the wrath of the councilman in the ward.It is currently by a bank in Boston. The court has ordered the exterior cleaned up and secure with fences and barricades by Sept. 2 2008 and to decide by Sept 5, 2008 whether to demolish or repair the building. A lawyer for the bank says they are leaning towards demolition.
The theater closed in 1971. Windows are smashed, the basement full of water and littered with beer cans. It was a church for a while but that project fizzeled.

339 is the correct address. The whole thing is a little confusing because of a quirk in the street numbering system. All of the East-West streets in Cleveland are named streets (Lakeshore Boulevard, etc) and the North-South streets are numbered streets. (First Street, Second Street and so on) The numbers on the north-south streets start from Lake Erie on the north and progress south. The numbers on the east-west streets start at the center of town, Public Square, and in this case progress east. Lake Shore Boulevard moving east takes a 90 degree right turn north at 152nd street. In this rare instance the street numbers continue north bound 15201, 15202 and so on. Turning right (south) on the corner of east bound Lake Shore puts you on the begining of 152nd street where the street numbers progress south 339, 340 and so on. Picture a cross with the bottom arm being Lakeshore east, the left arm being Lakeshore North, the right arm being 152nd south and the top arm being Macauly. The marque in the photo is the on the begining of the right arm (152nd) and the street number is 338. There are six store fronts to the right of the marque on 152nd and the theatre auditorium is behind those running north-south with the back end on Macauly. I hope I did not add to the confusion with this explanation. In any event, it looks like the local sentiment seems to be strongly in favor of tearing the Commodore down.

The Commodore has been demolished and, as of today, is a pile of rubble on the site. I don't know what the future plans for the land are.

I was sorry to read that the Commodore is no more, though its demise was probably inevitable, given the decayed state of the building and the general decline of the neighborhood over the years. I recall seeing many films there while growing up in Cleveland, among them an odd, Canadian-made, partial 3-D film called "The Mask" (not the one with Jim Carey) and "Mysterious Island". I think the seat count of 650 may not be accurate; I remember it being larger than that, but the last time I was there was over 35 years ago. The ceiling was dominated by a huge light fixture, like a large, thick wheel divided into pie-like wedges of red glass.

Here is a 1971 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/c53s3m

1971 photo of the Commodore Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c35%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=13&catpagesize=25&ProductID=31781