Standard Theatre

811 Prospect Avenue,
Cleveland, OH 44114

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This downtown Cleveland theatre, which was sort of out of the way on Prospect Avenue, was opened in 1914 as the Standard Theatre. In later years it was mainly a venue for adult pornographic films, although it had shown mainstream films early in its life. The Standard Theatre closed in the mid-1980’s. The theatre had shown black-oriented action films briefly in the early-1980’s.

Contributed by Toby Radloff

Recent comments (view all 18 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on April 30, 2008 at 6:18 pm

Lido Theater should be listed as an aka.

lostmemory
lostmemory on April 30, 2008 at 7:17 pm

Was Lido its last name? If so, Lido should be its primary name.

Chuck1231
Chuck1231 on April 22, 2009 at 12:04 am

1962 photo of the Standard Theatre.
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Chuck1231
Chuck1231 on April 23, 2009 at 10:56 pm

1948 photo of the Standard Theatre.
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1982 photo of the Standard Theatre.
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Hibi
Hibi on April 24, 2009 at 6:54 am

LOL. By the 80’s unless you looked closely you wouldnt know a theater was there.

chspringer
chspringer on April 25, 2009 at 9:56 am

Posting to re-link notification :(

lostmemory
lostmemory on July 22, 2009 at 5:09 pm

The year given for this ad is 1961.

lostmemory
lostmemory on November 3, 2009 at 5:44 pm

This was also known as the Lido Art Cinema. Here is a 1979 photo.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 12, 2010 at 6:06 am

It must have been the Standard, as yet unnamed, that was the subject of an item in The Motion Picture World of January 3, 1914. It said: “The largest motion picture house in downtown Cleveland is planned by Joseph Grossman… who has arranged to lease a building to be erected for him… at the rear of the O'Brien Building, 813 Prospect Avenue. Architect M.B. Vorce is preparing plans for a structure that will accommodate between 700 and 800 persons.”

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on March 13, 2012 at 6:12 am

Here is a bit more information about the Standard Theatre, from the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:

“The Standard Theater, 813 Prospect avenue, is one of the largest and most popular of the downtown picture theaters in Cleveland. Joseph Grossman, who with his wife operates the theater, opened it just two years ago. The Standard was the first downtown house to charge ten cents admission, and is the only house which runs its entire program for a week. Grossman books Fox first run features with twenty-one days protection, and declares his S. R. O. sign works overtime. The Standard seats 700.

“When Grossman opened the Standard, failure was predicted because of the fact that the entrance to the house is one of the longest in the city. Grossman overcame this allegedly objectionable feature by artistic treatment of the entrance. In observance of his second anniversary, he has just had the lobby transformed into a rose bower, by the use of trellis work and thousands of artificial flowers.”

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