Valentine Theatre
410 Adams Street,
Toledo,
OH
43604
410 Adams Street,
Toledo,
OH
43604
6 people
favorited this theater
Located on Adams Street at N. St. Clair Street. The Valentine Theatre opened on December 25 1895 with Joseph Jefferson in ‘Rip Van Winkle’. It was designed in a Sulivanesque style by architect E.O. Fallis. In 1918 Loew’s took over the lease and it became Loew’s Valentine Theatre. It was converted to an Art Deco/Oriental styled auditorium in a major overhaul of its interior in 1942 by the architectural firm of Rapp & Rapp.
Another remodeling took place in the 1960’s in which the theatre, at the time run by the Armstrong Theatre chain of Bowling Green, OH (which owned it for 10 years after Loew’s abandoned it), turned it into a 70mm-Cinerama house.
A new projection booth was built on the main floor, thus abandoning the upstairs booth, and a custom made Cinerama screen was installed, changing the front of the auditorium by removing the proscenium and stage. This turned the Valentine Theatre into a state-of-the-art cinema. The opening movie was “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”.
Another, interpretive renovation was completed in 1999 long after the Valentine Theatre had ceased showing movies.
Contributed by
Evan J. Chase, Sam Schad
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
Their webpage is:
http://www.valentinetheatre.com
The theatre was remodeled in 1999. They show some before & after photos. The 1942 renovation looked like a slightly squared off version of the Radio City Music Hall design – the radiating sunburst pattern with some art-moderne swirly decorations with an oriental motif on the sides. Not in very good shape. It has a new design now, from the small photo looks fairly modern, but with vibrant red and white colors, a fantastic fancy chandelier in the auditorium ceiling and new old-style side boxes. The lobby has some asian-themed paintings covered over in the renovation but the marble and gilt grand staircase has been nicely restored.
Here is a photo of the Valentine Theater building and this is a close-up view.
Great 1932 photo Chuck1231.
What a remake!
I just learned of this theatre through a former Toledo resident. You can hear a fascinating balcony story by clicking on this youtube link.
View link
The original entrance of the Valentine Theatre on St. Clair Street still exists, though it now has only an awning instead of the marquee seen in the 1932 photo Chuck linked to earlier.
The Valentine was showing movies as early as 1908, when it was mentioned in an item in the July 25 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The Valentine is listed under Toledo in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. It was run by the Valentine Company, Lee Boda, Mgr. Its seating capacity is listed as 1,904. It had electric illumination and was on the ground floor. The proscenium arch was 39 feet high and 37 feet wide, and the stage was 62 feet deep. There were 10 members of the house orchestra. There was also a People’s Theatre, with 2,080 seats, listed for Toledo. The 1897 population of Toledo was 125,000.
Here’s a link to a three-page article about the 1942 “modernization” of Loew’s Valentine Theatre: boxofficemagazine
In addition to the article Tinseltoes linked to, that issue of Boxoffice features a photo of the foyer and main stairways of the remodeled Valentine used as the cover plate of the magazine’s The Modern Theatre section.
This cover plate photo is awesome to say the least!