Cinema East

J. Sittig,

Was SAND PEBBLES shown in 70mm out there? I wasn’t sure, and I haven’t added it to my films I’ve seen in 70mm list.

That was a very nice theatre. As time wore on, it became a bit rundown. I don’t think they ever replaced those small surround speakers, and toward the end, they really sounded bad. But those Norelco’s were things of beauty!

In its April 1, 1990 edition, Boxoffice announced the 1/7/1990 closing of the theatre by Chakeres due to loss of lease. This article incorrectly states that the theatre had 1,600 seats. Former Cinema East manager, John Sittig, states in his post of 9/1/2008 the correct seat count of 998.

Charlie Sugarman would be smiling about all the attention his old theatre is getting.

The projectors were incredible to operate and outclassed anything coming out in the mid 80’s/early 90’s. I suspect they might still be running. I can’t remember if Chakeres moved them to another newer theatre, or sold them. This may be around the time Chakeres decided to sell the chain.

While the sound suffered due to the surround speakers, the screen and theatre size overcame any shortcomings, and made any movie watched at Cinema East an experience.

I interviewed Charlie Sugarman and also Jerry Knight, another great Columbus showman who managed the Drexel before it was sold to Jeff Frank (whom I knew in his two earlier jobs, at the Columbus Museum of Art and at the Ohio Theater) for a feature in COLUMBUS MONTHLY (Mar. 1980). This was in the late ‘70s just before I left town for the next five years and Charlie sold the CINEMA EAST. By this time, he simply could not outbid the Loew’s, General Cinema, and AMC chains for films for this cinema and the twinplex he opened on Morse Road in 1974. It was sad.

The first movie I saw at CINEMA EAST was THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING in July 1966, when I was 12. I recall seeing THE ODD COUPLE, HELLO DOLLY (in 70mm—Eye-popping!), THE CANDIDATE, and Ross Hunter’s LOST HORIZON (Yes, Charlie played turkeys like everybody else.) In October 1979, Richard Rush previewed THE STUNT MAN, at a time when he and his producer, Melvin Simon, were taking it around the country, trying a populist approach to finding a distributor (Now Toronto would probably do the trick for him). The highlight of the late-‘80s period for me at CINEMA EAST was in 1989 when it presented the reconstruction of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA—one of the most glorious things I’ve ever seen. in a movie theater!

I live out of state now, but I visit my mother in Reynoldsburg and drive by the lot that used to be CINEMA EAST. What a shame, but what wonderful memories!

Cool, Mark L. I stayed for 10 also—never passed up the chance for a double feature. I forgot—I also had my first screening of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY at Cinema East, in a reissue in the fall of 1971. Not the severely curved Cinerama screen experience I would have had at the film’s first-run at the Grand downtown in 1968, but close. My virgin 2001 voyage was followed a few weeks later by another MGM re-release (part of the same package): DOCTOR ZHIVAGO—also my first time. I saw that again around 1990 at the Ohio Theater Summer Movies and it didn’t look as clear and vivid.