Shea's Theater
4632 Main Avenue,
Ashtabula,
OH
44004
4632 Main Avenue,
Ashtabula,
OH
44004
1 person
favorited this theater
The Shea’s Theater is attempting a comeback thanks to dedicated locals who, in 2001, are looking to restore and reopen the classic neighborhood movie house.
Originally opened in 1949, the theater will serve as Ashtabula’s civic center and could possibly seat over 1,500 people. Famed actor, Mickey Rooney, performed at the nearby Edgewood Auditorium in April 2001 in a benefit performance for the theater.
Contributed by
Ross Melnick
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Recent comments (view all 23 comments)
1979 photo of the Shea’s Theatre.
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1984 photo of the Shea’s Theatre.
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Here is another 1979 photo.
An article featuring photos of Shea’s Theatre in Ashtabula was published in Boxoffice, April 1, 1950. Written by the theater’s architect, Michael DeAngelis, and Roy Anderson, the acoustic engineer on the project, the article delves into the methods of providing proper acoustics in movie theaters, with particular emphasis on how the problem was dealt with in the design of Shea’s.
I saw this earlier today (favorite Husker Du song, and maybe one of my favorite songs ever). I bring this up because at 1:50 you’ll see the Shea’s marquee up and running in all it’s retro neon-and-chasers glory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtD4DEoEiqY
Good luck Tamara A.
I remember going to the Shea back when I was a kid. My family vacationed every summer at nearby Geneva-on-the-Lake, and Ashtabula wasn’t too far away. The theater was impressively grand like so many old theaters of its era (including several in downtown Youngstown).
Among the many films I saw there were “The Lion in Winter” (in 1969), and a double-feature of “Willard” and “10 Rillington Place” (in 1971).
Here’s a renewed link to a 1950 trade journal article: boxofficemagazine
The previous month, Shea’s was also featured on the front cover of the Modern Theatre section: boxoffice
A book in the Images of America series, Ashtabula: People and Places, by Evelyn Schaeffer and Richard E. Stoner (Google Books preview), has about a dozen photos related to Shea’s Theatre.
The book says that the senior center occupies the former lobby of the theater, which is a good-sized space in a building built in 1927 and converted for theater use when the auditorium was built behind it in 1949. The auditorium itself has apparently been dark since 1982, when the house closed after about six years of operation by a local nonprofit group.
Shea’s Theater is near and dear to my heart. I began working there as an usher in 1968 and soon moved to doorman. A young lady began working the candy stand in 1969 and although we were not immediately attracted to each other because we each had other “irons in the fire”, we did eventually fall in love and will celebrate our 40th year wedding anniversary this year. If it were not for Shea’s we may never have met. Thanks Shea’s Theater. You will always be near and dear to me.