Shoregate Cinema
29430 Lakeshore Boulevard,
Willowick,
OH
44095
29430 Lakeshore Boulevard,
Willowick,
OH
44095
1 person
favorited this theater
Originally a single screen theatre when it opened in the mid'1960’s, this General Cinema operation was twinned and closed in the mid-1990’s. A performing arts center then occupied the theatre space.
The building was demolished in 2005.
Contributed by
Toby Radloff
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Please update address to 29430 Lakeshore Blvd.
The theater is currently being demolished.
What are they replacing it with? Is the building being knocked down, or just the interior being ripped out and reconfigured for some other use? The Parmatown Cinema, mentioned above and opening at the same time, is also being gutted, along with several ajoining stores, to be reconfigured into a sporting goods store.
The buiding is being razed. Half of the Shoregate Shopping Center including the old Uncle Bills, the bowling alley and the Cinema are being demolished. A sign out front indicates that the land will be used for condominiums. The other half of the srip will be called Shoregate Town Center.
I went to the first movie ever at the Shoregate Cinema. It was Cool Hand Luke and they charged $.75 to get in
The shopping center was already there when the theatre was built. The theatre was part of an expansion that included Uncle Bill’s (later Cook’s/Hill’s), Kurtz Furniture, and a strip of small stores constructed in front of an existing bowling alley. I’ve never gotten confirmation of the “never had potential” story. The theatre did well in its early years—-I grew-up within walking distance. Shoregate and Parmatown were both owned by Forest City. General Cinema opened its first Cleveland area theatre at Southgate around 1964—it was the first twin theatre (other than a drive-in).
The Shoregate Cinema has plenty of competition, but all of it consisted of older theatres: the first run Lake, and second run Shore in Euclid and the Vine in Willoughby, initially. Still, people would occasionally go to the Richmond, Mayland, Richmond Mall, Center-Mayfield, and LaSalle, among others to see films. The coming of bigger cineplexes like the one at Great Lakes Mall, the second generation Lake, the expanded Loew’s Richmond mall, etc. created new competition, along with the dollar houses like the LaSalle.
Parmatown was the first twin theatre in the Cleveland area, Chapel Hill in Akron was the first twin theatre in Ohio. Southgate was built as a 12 or 1300 seat single screen. About 1971, at the same time the Westgate Cinema City under construction Southgate Cinema II with about 600 seats was built in the alley between the large cinema and the Cleveland Trust. The alley originally contained the auto-teller for the bank. The original auditorium was not divided until the early 1980s. The regional vp over the Cleveland division mgr. had been the opening manager of the Southgate Cinema, and as long as he was in charge of the area would nix any plans to divide that large theatre. Once he was switched to oversee the west coast instead of the midwest, the Southgate #1 was split.
1
This opened on November 14th, 1967 along with the Parmatown Cinemas.
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