Guild Theatre
782 E. McMillan Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45206
782 E. McMillan Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45206
4 people
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Eden Theater was build in 1939.
Eden Theater address was 782 East McMillian Avenue as of the 1944 Cincinnati,Ohio City Directory.Charles F.Clarke was its manager.
The earliest mentions of the Guild Theatre in Boxoffice are in 1949, when it was already running foreign films. The most recent mention of the Eden Theatre I’ve found is from March 30, 1946.
The November 16, 1935, issue of Boxoffice reported that Willis Vance would open a new theater at Peebles Corner to be called the Eden. It was to have about 300 seats.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyum/3871784609/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyum/3871782119/
Sound Electronics is at 782 E. McMillan:
http://tinyurl.com/lzqam8
That’s interesting but doesn’t give the address.
This is from the Lima (OH) News on September 30, 1969:
CINCINNATI (AP)-Obscenity charges against a movie operator for showing the film “Vixen” were returned to Hamilton county common pleas court today from U. S. District court. Judge Davis S. Porter said there were no federal or civil rights questions in the case and refused to hear it. But he ordered the film returned to the defendant, Malibu, Inc. operators of the Guild Theater in Cincinnati. The charges were brought by Charles Keating, founder of the Citizens for Decent Literature.
I don’t know. Here is the matching map.
Is this the theater? It would be around the 700 block of E. McMillan street.
http://tinyurl.com/lkmq2m
I think there was an attempt to reopen it as the Eden in the early/mid-70s, some kind of joint attempt between the Alpha Fine Arts and one of the local theatre bookers/owners. It didn’t last long.
At the beginning of Willis Vance’s management, this theatre was called the Eden, no doubt due to its proximity to lovely Eden Park. Vance also managed the State in Newport, KY, before it became Cinema X, and the Ohio in Norwood.
Being a member of the “counterculture” , and also somewhat “artsy”, I remember trekking to the Guild to see Andy Wharhol’s “TRASH” – a film that also caused some controversy in good ol' Cincy! Even conservative Enquirer columnist Frank Weikel devoted space in his column to film! (frankly, Frank just didnt get it – though he thought he did!)
To scottfavareille— The Guild was independently owned by an man whose name was Willis Vance. He owned it through the mid to late 60s. I don’t remember who it was sold to. Mr. Vance, at one time controlled the tickets sales for most of the live performances that came to Cinti—at Music Hall, Taft, etc. I worked there as usherett and my mom worked there for many years as cashier.
The Guild was formally called “The Guild Fine Arts Cinema.” Peebles Corner, like many other formerly vibrant neighborhoods in Cincinnati, has become a ghetto to the nth degree. Unless you are a little older, you would never know the Guild existed. As for Charles Keating, his self-righteous ass got his comeuppance. He cost many good people their life savings, but I digress.
The banning of the film Vixen is still in effect today in Cincinati. This was one of the first acts of Charles Keating, who became a fervent anti-pornography crusader (and later appointed by then-President Richard Nixon in his anti-smut campaign). Keating later went after Larry Flynt and his Hustler club in Cincinnati in the early 1970’s and then focused on the Mitchell Brothers for almost a decade (1975-1985, the Mitchell Brothers took over a former UA theater in an upscale mall in Santa Ana, CA and converted it to a XXX format—Keating had one of his Lincoln Savings and Loan Branches across the street. Keating, along with the city of Santa Ana, filed over 47 lawsuits against the Mtichells for showing obscene films. The Mitchells eventually won and the city of Santa Ana spent over $11 million trying to prosecute them.) Keating was later convicted for fraud in one of the largest savings and loan scandals in US history.
Was this theater part of Louis Sher’s Art Theater Guild empire?