Albee Theatre
12 E. 5th Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
12 E. 5th Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
5 people
favorited this theater
At a cost of $4 million, the Albee Theatre was considered Cincinnati’s finest movie palace. Opened in 1927, this Thomas Lamb palace was named after its builder, E. F. Albee, noted vaudville theater owner and a relative of famous playwright Edward Albee.
The first movie to be shown in its 3,500-seat auditorium was “Get Your Man!” with Clara Bow starring.
Until 1960, the theater booked stage show acts in addition to showing movies. Another source says the stage shows stopped as early as 1957.
It was torn down in 1977 and a hotel was constructed in its place. Some portions of the theater were saved and are now located in other buildings including Music Hall and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
The facade was also later duplicated on the 5th Street side of the Albert B. Sabin Convention Center — about 3 blocks from where the original theater once stood.
Contributed by
Ray Martinez, Anna Horton, John Ryan
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Recent comments (view all 58 comments)
CWalczak,All i know it was located near the Tri-County Shopping Center near I-275. So this 4 plex could be 10 screens,Just don’t know. It was a major theatre complex when it opened in the 70’s.Thanks,For the help. Chuck1231 it was called in 1974, SHOWCASE CINEMAS 1.2.3.4.
This Cincinnati Mills Mall is right off I-275. According to the Rivest List, the theater was opened as the Forest Fair Cinemas and was rebranded as a Showcase when National Amusements acquired it.
Thanks Cwalczak,As i told Chuck1231 a few times I hate it when they Change names. I bet when they added the other screens they ruined a right nice 4-plex. Personally,once they go over 4 screens i don’t consider them cinema treasures.
There were seven Showcase Cinemas in Cincinnati, listed here: http://www.cincyworldcinema.org/linkscwc.php
The Showcase Cinemas “Cincinnati” was the 12-screen unit that was constructed on the site of the old Twin Drive-In on Reading Road. The Twin closed circa ‘87 and is listed on CT.
This Showcase was (and still is) listed as house #4030 on movietickets.com, although I believe it closed sometime in the the mid ‘90s.
The Showcase units were named after neighborhoods – Showcase Cinemas Eastgate, Erlanger, Florence, etc., but the locals often referred to the location in question as the Showcase Norwood or Showcase Central.
Correction — in the post above I should have written that seven Showcase Cinemas in Cincinnati are “closed.”
There were eleven, with four others still open – Kings Island, Milford, Sprindale and Western Hills.
Also, although the original SC in Florence closed, as cited, a new one was opened across the street and down the road — the Showcase Cinema de Lux Florence
I wonder if the poster was referring to the Skywalk cinemas (I don’t know the true name of the theater, but there was a Showcase on the Skywalk in downtown Cincinnati at one time)
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I am writing a book about running a movie palace in the nineteen seventies, and I am a native Cincinnatian (living currently in New York City). My favorite movie palace of all times was and is The Albee, and I remember with great sadness its demolition.
Does anyone remember what the policies were towards black patrons in movie theaters, in the years when the Albee was an active theater? Some theaters were segregated, with black patrons required to go to the balcony; in other cases, there were movie houses in black neighborhoods. I was a child at the time I went to the Albee, naive and unaware , but I need to be enlightened on what black patrons were doing.
armleder I saw a number of films at the Albee in the early sixties. Gorgeous wonderful palace of a theater, including “The Music Man” in stereo sound. I attended a couple times with a black friend and have no memory of any racial discrimination.
when I would visit relatives in Cincinnati as a youngster from Chicago in the 50’s, there was definitely de facto segregation in public places, like movie theaters and the Coney Island amusement park.
No surprises here. In his autobiography, the comedian Dick Gregory wrote about having to sit in the segregated balcony of a Carbondale Illinois movie theater. Illinois and Ohio did not have Jim Crow laws on the books, but they existed in unofficial practice,nonetheless.