Dabel Cinema

1920 S. Smithville Road,
Dayton, OH 45403

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Chuck1231
Chuck1231 on April 27, 2009 at 1:09 am

1987 photo of the Dabel Theatre.
View link

lostmemory
lostmemory on February 23, 2009 at 3:19 am

I’m sure thats true but dingoman can best answer the question.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on February 23, 2009 at 3:13 am

He’s talking about the Kubrick film 2001.

ZookieFreddie
ZookieFreddie on February 23, 2009 at 2:18 am

Please help me here. Dingoman says he actually saw a movie here in 2001 even though it was torn down in 1992! I moved out of Dayton in 1999 after the drug store had replaced the theater with their own building and it, after that, became a Family Dollar store. Maybe he meant another year for sure?

TerryBear
TerryBear on November 10, 2008 at 2:03 am

Gee…
How The West Was Won
Sound of Music
Circus World
2001: A Space Odyssey
Ice Station Zebra
Grand Prix
Krakatoa East of Java
I’ll never forget going in and sitting down, listening to the overture, and then watching those curtains pull back to reveal that huge curved screen as the movie began. This movie palace gave me my love for movies.

JimBernier
JimBernier on August 29, 2007 at 8:57 am

Before the Dabel was built between Brownies Market and Steberal’s Market on Smithville, there was an open air “farmer’s type” market on the spot with a big tent in the middle. The tent pole had a telephone on it and when we would come home from downtown (the bus line loop was on Wayne Ave at Smithville), we would call mom to pick us up using that phone. Then they demolished the market place to build the Dabel in 1947. I was eight and joined the “booster” club with my sisters and we all got a badge with a number on it. Every Saturday (no TV!) we would get a quarter and a penny to go to the Dabel and watch the serials and superman (the original) and all of the other 1940 movies. When we bought our tickets for 20 cents, we would have six cents left to buy a candy bar. Sometimes our booster club number would appear on the window of the ticket booth and we would get in free with 26 cents to buy candy and popcorn!

thedingoman
thedingoman on August 15, 2007 at 6:05 pm

Saw the Sound of Music there when they took all the paperboys to a special morning showing. Also saw How the West Was Wong and 2001 in Cinerama. The last film I saw there was Tommy in “quintrophonic sound.” Nice and loud and great sound for all the shows on the big screen!

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on March 18, 2007 at 10:06 pm

Here is a 1948 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2ohlea

ZookieFreddie
ZookieFreddie on July 12, 2006 at 2:31 am

When I lived in Dayton from 1963 to 1999, I attended this theater many times. It was directly across from the end of Wayne Avenue and had ‘rocking chair’ seats. It was torn down to build a Revco Drug store, which went bankrupt. The drug store, of course, closed and was later taken over as a Family Dollar store.