Showcase Cinemas Toledo
3500 Secor Road,
Toledo,
OH
43606
3500 Secor Road,
Toledo,
OH
43606
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 26 comments found
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 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.
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.
Thanks for the update..bdzmusic.
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.
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.
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.
The Showcase Toledo is no more: http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=13738380 Status should be changed to Closed/Demolished.
I was hired from RKO Theatre in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as an Assistant Mgr. for Redstone and I was amazed at this new idea in 3D without the use of glasses. When the curved screen was installed with strips of louverd cloth half the screen one way and the other way for the opposite half of the screen it was something to behold. I am to this day still amazed that since 1964 with all the new science avaliable since ‘64 that we have yet to discover this use again once more in our theatre’s for it was indeed a spectacular viewing pleasure. I remember that December opening where we all had to wear a Tux and the theatre was full of the curious and the excitement to watch The Battle of the Bulge in 3D. It was a memory I still treasure in my 30 years in this business.
Demolition is apparently imminent: View link
here are some pictures of the building
View link
According to a 1968 Boxoffice Magazine, Cinema III opened at this site on 2/27/1968 with a screening of CAMELOT.
Please don’t assume this was to be a multi-purpose venue. It was always planned to be for movies. I’m glad they dropped the “Theatre Arts Center” name before opening…I agree it is confusing.
My source for this was a 1963 issue of Boxoffice magazine.
That is very interesting; I am rather familiar with this theater and I did not know that. Certainly, as built, it showed no trace of ever being intended for the performing arts; it was a of design that William Riseman used, with minor variations, for a number of movie theaters built by Sumner Redstone and General Cinema of that era: two or three auditoriums with a common lobby built basically of white painted masonry block; no stages or stagehouses.
Construction was to start on this theatre in November, 1963. Original plan was to call this the Theatre Arts Center. Projected construction cost was $750,000
Did you the review on 2001?
I am back Mike been out of town and could not get on-line.
What great review! I saw it at the age of 12 and became my favorite film. I had a book on Kubrick that showed sets he had built on the space station that were never in the final cut. I guess Mr. Kubrick never would have made a Director’s cut,but it would have been great to see what went in the trash. i found the original 1968 one-sheet in a theatre basement. That was a great find> like 100 christmas'.
Here’s a link to the Toledo Blade review of “2001” on June 12, 1968. It’s the kind of rave review the picture deserved, and the kind I was hoping my local New York City critics would give it, but none of them did:
View link
It was still standing at least as of May of this year according to this item with picture:
View link
Boxoffice of January 4, 1965, reported that 1000 invited guests had attended the formal opening of the Cinema Theatre on December 16, 1964. The article said that Cinema 1 had 705 seats and Cinema 2 seated 1,100. The project was designed by architect William Riseman.
The January 15, 1968, issue of Boxoffice listed Redstone’s Cinema 3, with 1,140 seats, among theaters that had been opened in 1967.
The Toledo twin was not unique. An October 5, 1964, Boxoffice item said that Redstone Management was building a twin theater at Pontiac, Michigan, which “…will be identical with other Redstone projects at Toledo, Louisville, Washington, and Springfield, Mass.” All of Redstone’s theaters during this period appear to have been designed by William Riseman & Associates. The same firm designed a number of locations for General Cinema during this period, too, which probably accounts for the similarities noted by CWalczac.
The first item Boxoffice published about this theater, in 1963, gave the address where the project was to be built as 3436 Secor Road. An Internet search on that address today fetches various real estate web sites that say it is a 13 acre parcel of vacant land, being offered for sale at $7,000,000. Has the Showcase been demolished?
Correction, the 17th, ad at View link
This opened on December 18th, 1964, a grand opening ad for Cinemas 1 & 2 is at View link
Cinema 1 and 2, as they were originally known, opened with a lot of fanfare in 1964. They advertised uninterrupted site lines, spacious reclining seats, giant wall to wall screens and MOST important…acres of FREE parking! That alone spelled the ultimate demise of the downtown movie theater. The Valentine Theater downtown was the official 70mm Cinerama theater at the time. They lost their bid to this title in early 1966 when the Redstone chain secured the rights to show all future Cinerama films. The first 70mm Cinerama feature to be shown there was The Battle of the Bulge in 1966. The last time a Cinerama film showed there was around 1977 when they showed 2001 A Space Odyssey in “Cinerama” one last time. Cinerama was ultimately abandoned and the other theaters were twinned up untill it closed in 2005.
Here is the order form for “2001, A Space Odyssey” at Cinema 1,2,3.