Randall Park Cinema I-II-III
20801 Miles Road,
North Randall,
OH
44128
20801 Miles Road,
North Randall,
OH
44128
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 38 comments
Below link has more photos of the interior. Copy & Paste.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2903790/Inside-crumbling-Ohio-mall-biggest-WORLD-demolished.html
August 11th, 1976 grand opening ad also uploaded in the photo section
thanks Mike reminds me of my GCC days in the early eighties,when we still had movie ads.
August 11th, 1976 ad is at View link
Mike went to Southgate, the Parmatown and then to Mentor Mall. I last talk to him about a year before the theatre closed.
I figured out that posters for Bambi and The Rescue also appeared in some of the pictures with The Blob.
Renewing link.
Nice photos, Mr. Budnick. I’m guessing that the photos were mainly in Winter and Summer 1988 (since I can tell that posters for Eddie Murphy Raw and The Blob appear in them).
Is Jack Lynch still with us?
He was such a nice guy.
My most un-favorite marquee change was RPC. Three sets of double sided signage.
What happened to Mike? I know he went to Southgate but never talked to him after ‘82. He was always very cool with me. I liked his style.
The door to the cinema storefront entrance mentioned in a previous post currently stands open in what became a former Diamond’s display window. Unfortunately, the redolent air of heavy water damage emanates from said door, permeating the entire area of the mall. It must be a squishy mess in there.
I’m wondering if anyone has any pictures of the interior of the mall from the “read ramp year” (c 1980 – 1995) – after that it was a blue ramp and that was about the death of the mall. I’m working on a project and would love any stills anyone has managed to keep especially showing the common areas (concorse, store fronts (especially ones that don’t exist anymore), long shots, etc). Love the classic pics of the exterior of the theatre… forgot about Connie Shoes. Remember Davy Jones Locker, Chess King, Jeans West, County Seat… ah, those were the days… anyway, any help would be very much appreciated.
I was part of the management team in Cleveland from 1979 until 1986 when I moved to Boston to take a position at the next level within the company. The Randall Park was indeed built to keep the competition away from the Southgate twin, however, RPC soon outgrossed Southgate, much to GCCs chagrin. I recall sellouts for Start Wars, Animal House, Stir Crazy and Poltergeist, just to name a few. Yes, the footprint of the theatre left alot to be desired, but who cared back then. I remember catching alot of flack for the non-handicap friendly entrance though!
About Laurel Rans, she was an ex-women’s prison warden who drove a black 1970 Cadillac like she was a NASCAR champ. I rode with her to many a meeting and ALWAYS wore my seat belt. She was a shrewd business person with a poker face and kept her eye on the bottom line. CAPEX expenditures were scrutinized and nothing was purcahsed unless it had to be.
Around 1981-82 the company decided to stray from it’s usual blue and red wall theme and had 3 different the theatre designs mocked up. I recall that the ‘earth tone’ look was a popular choice of District Managers, however, in the end, not too many houses were facelifted.
Incidentally, most folks forget that GCC also owned a few radio stations. In Cleveland, it was WGCL 98.5. We tied in with them many times to promote the theatre.
About Bob Klaas, he had about as much charisma as a wet washcloth. I left the Cleveland market soon after he took over from Larry Bello and I don’t know of too many folks that liked his management style. Larry, on the other hand, made working in the business fun. He left GCC in 1985 and moved to Florida where he and his brother bought a couple of GCC houses and opened their own small chain. I think he’s still in FL but no longer in the theatre business.
I went to Boston once for a weekend..it was at some country club. No expedition. We toured Framingham and went to a ballgame at Fenway.
Bob Klaas was the DM for Cleveland. I’d love to know if he has any shots of the Erie PA theaters i started at.
Brian
Were you on the Laurel Rans team-building survival camp expedition to Camp Chewonki in Maine?
Does anyone have any photos on Southgate in Maple Height or Erie Millcreek 3 or 6?
Looking for some photos. I managed Erie and Southgate in the mid to late 80’s.
I opened Millcreek 6 and did a wonderful photo album…I always wondered where it went.
Lots of memories..very few pics!
Will be updating the Millcreek 3/6 site soon…it is blank. Not for long. One manager still in Erie running Cimemark Tinseltown 17.
Would love to hear from GCC mamager from the late 80’s.
Brian Z
btw, I did receive the Parmatown and Randall ads – Thanks –
hmmm – thats odd – try this one: (original, eh?) – thanks!
Dave-bronx,
Im sorry im taking so long to get back to you. I’ve tried twice to send you the ads, but they keep coming back to me saying your quota is full. Do you have an alternate e-mail I can send those to?
Please add me to the list… – thanks!
I’d love to see these pics too.
I am a student at Kent State, I used the newspaper archives and was able to scan two GCC ads announcing the “Gala Premiere” of the Randall Park Cinema. I also got a picture of the outside marquee as well. The first movies to play here were “The Gumball Rally”, a disney double feature of “Treasure of Matecumbe” and “The Apple Dumpling Gang”, and “Murder by Death”. Anyone wishing to see these pictures, let me know! These ads were printed on August 10th and 11th 1976
Thanks for doing the web page, it brought back some memories of a Cleveland Manager’s Meeting when GCC flew the entire northeast out there and we visited a bunch of theatres. I think during that meeting we also toured some old movie palaces that were in various stages of restoration, and had dinner at a restaurant that was themed on a WWII airfield.
OK, did one better.
The pics and some comments I made are available on line at;
http://otherworlds.homeip.net/Randall
Mark
BTW, I would like to see the pics too!