Northland Cinema
1865 Morse Road,
Columbus,
OH
1865 Morse Road,
Columbus,
OH
No one has favorited this theater yet
This was purchased by General Cinema from Modern Theatres around 1971 and was part of a package deal that included the Eastland and University Flick here in Columbus and the Mercury and Mayland in Cleveland.
Contributed by
dave-bronx
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
The Vaud-Villities website has conflicting information. One page says they are working to build their facility in the old GCC Northland 8 building. Another page says they are working now in the old JC Penney building which is about 200 yards from the theater.
An update on the Northland space:
According the THIS WEEK COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS, the Vaud-VIllities group (Now called the Northland Performing Arts Center) traded the old 8-plex theatre for space in the old JC Penney building. This gave the theatre group a larger and more open space. The Franklin County Animal Shelter is being built on the site of the theatre.
How many separate stage auditoriums will they have in the JC Penney building?
One 800 seat room, able to accomodate 1,500 standing
Can be configured in almost any way
1 – 50 seat room, possibly for children’s theatre
Article here:
View link
Opening this April, according to the article.
Northland Cinema (1964-c.early ‘80s) was not only Columbus’s first suburban first-run theater, it was also Central Ohio’s first mall cinema. It opened with the mall, which was enclosed in the early '70s. Its first attraction was GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM, a Columbia comedy starring Jack Lemmon. It got into the roadshow business in Jan. 1965 with MARY POPPINS, followed in April by THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which played Northland until Nov. 1966. The first film I saw at Northland, which for my family involved a trip far across town, was THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE in July 1967. I was 13.
These first suburban theaters were transitional—somewhere between a downtown movie palace and the multiplexes that would be everywhere ten years after these single-auditorium places were built The cinema was twinned in the mid-‘70s, around the same time it was bought from its local owners by General Cinema. GCC closed it in the '80s to open a free-standing eight-cinema multiplex in Dec. '85. The first film I saw there was THE COLOR PURPLE.
Dennis, my introduction to the new NORTHLAND 8 was also at COLOR PURPLE. First time in a THX theatre and first time hearing DEEP NOTE. I’ll try to get that location up on Cinema Treasures soon.
This cinema was among the first to have installed the “EPRAD” Sword System which was designed to run movies completely unatended. The film would be equally divided between two projectors on large reels then threaded onto the two projectors. After an automated changeover from projector 1 to projector 2, projector 1 remains threaded to reverse and stop at the begining of the feature and waits for the next timed restart cue from the program timer. Projectors are modified to release film tension in the film gate during reverse function. Also a 10% increased speed in reverse is available in case film is not equally biased. The automation had other capabilities outside the booth such as theatre lighting, popcorn warmers, sound systems, etc.
Canibfrankwithyou, are you mixing up Northland and Cinema North? I know there was a Sword system at Cinema North, and it was just east of Northland.
Northland Cinema closed on 4/21/1985 with showings of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Porky’s and Care Bears. The ad noted that this theatre was closing and that a new 8-plex would be opened later in the year.