Shaker Theatre
3535 Lee Road,
Cleveland,
OH
44120
3535 Lee Road,
Cleveland,
OH
44120
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The Shaker Theatre opened in the 1930’s, and closed in the mid-1980’s. The theatre was demolished to make way for Blaushild Chevrolet, which went out of business less than a year after their new showroom opened. A health care center occupies the former auto showroom now.
Contributed by
Toby Radloff
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
1971 photo of the Shaker Theatre.
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Another 1971 night photo of the Shaker Theatre.
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1978 photo of the Shaker Theatre.
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The Shaker Theater is listed in 1955 with 1,500 seats.
A September 12, 1942, Boxoffice article about the Fairmount Theatre mentions the Shaker as another of the many theaters designed by the Fairmount’s architect, George H. Burrows.
The Shaker opened in 1936, and the November 11 issue of Boxoffice that year published a photo of the auditorium, but the caption misspelled the architect’s name as Burroughs. Boxoffice described the style of the Shaker as “…predominantly Colonial… though with strong modern notes throughout.” The photo bears out the description.
Though the article does not give the Shaker’s seating capacity, the photo reveals a spacious, four-aisle auditorium that clearly would have accommodated well over 1000 patrons.
Here is a May 1977 newspaper ad:
http://tinyurl.com/yaeo88k
The Shaker was extensively remodeled in 1954, after suffering damage from a fire in an adjacent cafe that April. The house reopened on July 3. Architect Jack Alan Bialosky designed the remodeling, on which $125,000 was expended.
Boxoffice of September 4, 1954, devoted four pages to an illustrated article about the Shaker Theatre. It was no longer Colonial in style, but featured a casual modernism with many rustic touches such as exposed masonry, planter boxes, and wood with the grain exposed. This style had recently become popular in the west, where it was often called California Modern. It’s a bit surprising to see it in Cleveland.
Architect Bialosky used a more conventional modernism in his remodeling of the Granada Theatre some time later.
Here is a new link to the September 4, 1954, Boxoffice article about the new look at the Shaker Theatre. The subsequent three pages have additional photos of architect Jack Bialosky’s Midcentury Modern makeover of the damaged house.
May 6th, 1936 grand opening ad is at
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the movie theatre closed before the mid 80s! In fact it did not just close. If i remeber correctly, it caught on fire and had to be demolished and this had to be in the late 70s, 1980 at the latest. Somebody please verify me on that.
The original look of the Shaker Theatre’s auditorium can be seen in the photo at upper left of this page of Boxoffice, November 14, 1936.
Here is a 1959 photo showing the Shaker Theatre during a major flood on June 1. The name of the movie featured on the marquee is interesting.