Showcase Cinemas Toledo
3500 Secor Road,
Toledo,
OH
43606
3500 Secor Road,
Toledo,
OH
43606
1 person
favorited this theater
The Showcase Toledo opened in December 1964 with twin screens, premiering one of the year’s biggest hits, “Mary Poppins”. It added a 900-seat auditorium, one of the biggest in the National Amusement chain, and subsequently two screens were divided to make five.
The theatre was closed on May 5, 2005 and was converted into retail use. That day also marked the closing of Franklin Park Cinemas.
The Showcase Cinemas Tolado was demolished in December 2010.
Contributed by
DANNY
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Recent comments (view all 29 comments)
Regarding above comment on Battle of the Bulge…this was shown in 70mm Ultra Panavision which was advertised to be in “Super Cinerama”. This was not a 3D film but gave you the effect of dimension. Ultra Panavision was NOT Cinerama it was only marketed as a Cinerama film when the 3 strip process proved to be too costly to make and Cinerama needed a new single lens venue to remain competitive.
Cinema I was not a genuine Cinerama installation but by coincidence had a similar curved screen and traveller curtain, which was spectacular and nearly identical to the Cinerama specifications, what is the chances of that happening? Cinema II had a “shadow box” flat screen with no curtains which was lit by colored light and a horrible thing to look at. Later the curved screen in Cinema I was replaced with a much smaller flat screen so it could be equally bad as the other auditoriums. I saw 2001 a Space Odyssey there opening week and there were only 5 other people in the house, it instantly became one of my top films of all time and a typical Stanley Kubrick film, which is to say nothing like any other Stanley Kubrick film.
After the Paramount theater closed in 1963 Cinerama was given a new home at the Valentine a block away. They recycled two of the three lamp housings from the Paramount and attached them to 35/70mm projectors. The screen at the Valentine was impressive. They made the screen as large as possible and made two custom lenses for 70mm “Cinerama” presentations. The sound system was tube driven amplification and blew Cinema I away. When Cinema I got the rights to show Cinerama in 1966 the Valentine, having lost it’s bid to show 70mm Cinerama films, mothballed it’s curved screen and 70mm projection equipment and used a conventional screen which sat in front of the now unused Cinerama screen. In 1973 they brought it back, albeit for a short period, and began showing 70mm films on occasion once again. Due to lack of patronage downtown (go figure), the theater eventually closed for good. Cinema I kept the Cinerama screen at least up to 1977 when they showed 2001 Space Odyssey one last time in 70mm Super Panavision (Cinerama). It wasn’t bad but still did not compare to the Valentine’s 70mm installation.
Thanks for the update..bdzmusic.
I’ve never had a chance to see what the inside of those big screens looked like, nobody ever took pictures while they were still operating. So it makes me sad that the first time I’ve seen inside, they’re being demolished.
The installation of a Cinerama strip screen at the Showcase Cinema Toledo was not a “coincidence.” According Sharon Redstone, daughter of the chains father, Sumner Redstone, Showcase Cinemas, in their earlier years, deliberately installed louvered Cinerama screens (built by Hurley Screen which built most of them – and still can if you can afford one) in a number of their early twin and triplex theaters and had an agreement with Cinerama to be an exhibitor.
The curve of the Showcase louvered screens was shallower than the original Cinerama screens as 70mm Cinerama was now standard, and as the original release of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, World” proved, there was more distortion of the image on the original Cinerama screens than on the later ones with a shallower curve.
Also, in regard to another comment, I may be wrong, but I don’t recall this theater ever been used for retail; from the theater’s closing until its demolition, I was in Toledo several times staying at a hotel just a few yards up Secor Road, and during that period it just sat there, boarded up. There was a plan to incorporate it into a new retail/shopping complex, but nothing came of that. The demolition photos show clearly that the auditoriums at least weren’t converted to anything but rubble.
The original opening features as a two screen operation were as follows: Cinema 1 “The Outrage” with Paul Newman, Cinema 2 “Send Me No Flowers” with Doris Day. Saw both of them there.
The Showcase complex was indeed vacant and unused up to the time of demolition. It remains vacant although I do recall seeing a “sold” sign on the for sale sign. Of note the Super Cinema complex at Spring Meadows has been sold and they are going to demolish it for a furniture store. It was a"shoebox cinema" with small auditoriums and flat screens. I am guessing that the curved screen at Cinema 1 was curved to approx. 120 degrees for 70mm TODD-AO, Super Panavision etc. According to Stanley Kramer who directed It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World the film was marketed as a “Cinerama” film and filmed in Ultra Panavision…he said that they had trouble trying to make it fit on some Cinerama screens and was not impressed with the fact that they promoted it as a Cinerama film when in fact it wasn’t.
I remember going to the sneak of E.T. when Universal showed it with DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID. The theater was packed and we had to go in halfway through the Steve Martin movie if we wanted good seats. It was in the big theater and we managed to score terrific seats about 1/3 from the front and in the center. Before it started, people were chanting “E.T.! E.T.!” But before it ended, those same people were crying their eyes out and cheered at the end. This was one of the best big screen theaters from my college days at BGSU in Ohio, and I am sad to see that it is gone.
Uploaded the grand opening ad from Dec 17,1964