Madison Theatre
9400 Madison Avenue,
Cleveland,
OH
44102
9400 Madison Avenue,
Cleveland,
OH
44102
3 people
favorited this theater
This was a neighborhood theatre that opened in the 1940’s and closed in the mid-1980’s. A lumber yard business occupies the former theatre now. The lobby was demolished, but the auditorium is being used as a storage area for lumber.
Contributed by
Toby Radloff
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
A Hillgreen-Lane organ Opus 623 Size 2/10 was installed in the Madison Theater in 1921 at a cost of $3,050.
Here is a 1957 ad.
There is a small photo on the lumberyard site:
http://tinyurl.com/5wo47e
Technically the function should be retail since a lumber yard sells lumber.
The Madison Theater had 1600 seats.
1984 photo of the Madison Theatre.
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1973 photo of the Madison Theatre.
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The Madison Theatre in which the organ was installed in 1921 (noted in Lost Memory’s first comment above) must have been a different theater, perhaps a predecessor to this house. This Madison Theatre opened September 1, 1949. Boxoffice of September 10 that year said that the new house for the Modern Theatres circuit (formerly Scoville, Essick & Reif) had been designed by Cleveland architects Matzinger & Grosel.
The Cleveland Landmarks Commission’s list of building designed by architect Nicola Petti includes an unnamed theater at Madison Avenue and W. 103rd Street, dated 1917. As that was only a few blocks west of this theater, perhaps it was the Madison Theatre that had the organ installed in 1921.
However, there was an earlier Madison Theatre, a 200 seat house opened in 1907 at Madison and W. 72nd Street. It seems unlikely that a 200-seat house would install a large organ, but the theater might have been expanded by 1921.
Wow, Talk about bringing back memories. My brothers and I use to go to the Madison Theater every Sunday. as we got older every Saturday!