Swissland Cinema
Main Street,
Woodsfield,
OH
43793
Main Street,
Woodsfield,
OH
43793
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That’s a nice 1930s Moderne facade, but the side wall looks like much older construction. Note the bricked-up arched window. It looks like the theater was built in an existing building, or using at least one surviving wall from an earlier building.
Here is a 1981 photo.
http://tinyurl.com/otjwdf
Second paragraph here says it’s a church.
http://cinematreasures.org/news/13436_0_1_0_C/
Better picture here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahkitj/2824617520/
There’s a New Life Church. Building sure looks like it could have been a theater.
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From the August 26, 1939, issue of Boxoffice Magazine: “At Woodsfield this week Jess Shannon, exhibitor there, was opening his new 600-seat house, known as the Life.”
In 1954, Joe Shannon of the New Life Theatre is quoted in several ads appearing in Boxoffice, praising the benefits of CinemaScope for small town movie houses.
From the January 7, 1956, issue: “J.J. Shannon, manager, reports the reopening of the Newlife Theatre, Woodsfield, Ohio….”
The December 11, 1978, issue of Boxoffice quotes a regional buyer and booker named Jack Talley as saying that the Swissland Cinema in Woodsfield was being opened.