Mayland Theatre
5900 Mayfield Road,
Mayfield Heights,
OH
44124
5900 Mayfield Road,
Mayfield Heights,
OH
44124
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 59 comments
Boneyard photos on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/45yk7c
“Quite a cast of characters came and went under my employ, I won’t mention names but you know who you are. Projectionists who bar-b-q’d outside on the rooftop, cashiers and concession clerks who showed up when they wanted to and ushers who kept count of the beers they confiscated made the place interesting.”
I’m the staghand who painted that freekin dome in the lobby. Remember how much fun that was? I hope the years have been kind to you- you were always good to me
Kevin (‘79-'82)
What is in the former Mayland Theatre site now? And does anyone know if June 9th is the date of the annual Mayfield Heights car cruise-in? Sure would be nice to see this theatre and marquee operating for that event as it would certainly add to a nostalgic car weekend.
Scare: The old safe in the office came from the East Side Drive-In when it closed. It had been purchased for the drive-in after someone broke in during the night and jackhammered a floor safe out of the concrete and took it. At the Mayland it was in use until the new one, in the office closet, was purchased in about 1983 as i recall. There were also 2 wall safes in the north wall of the office that couldn’t be locked. I took the doors off them and covered them over when I put up the paneling on the walls in 1974.
I saw many movies at the Mayland Theater including the original Shaggy Dog and Parent Trap, Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, It’s a Mad (X4) World, and the original Superman with Christopher Reeves. As we were walking out of the theater after Superman, the wind blew the “M” from the title off of the marquee and it landed in front of my brother. Sure wish my dad wouldn’t have thrown that out years later. After Barnes and Noble bookstore opened there, we stopped with my own kids almost every Sunday after church. It was hard for them to understand how there used to be just one giant screen there with only one movie option, as opposed to the 10 or more they’re used to now. Great memories.
About the Mayland, I managed the theatre for GCC from 1980 until early 1982 when I left to take the manager’s job at Randall Park. The Mayland was a unique neighborhood theatre. Most nights during the week, you knew most everyone by name that came thru the door. Weekends could be alot busier, especially if a kid’s movie was running.
We also ran quite a few weekend midnite movies and kept a refrigerator behind the office for chilling the beer we confiscated from the incoming kids. Lots of variety, but it was free!
The safe in the office was an ancient unit…probably left over from the original owner…and one day when I gave the dial a spin, it came off in my hand! A quick call to a locksmith and a few hundred bucks later, we had it open and a new dial installed. I’m sure it was Rex’s doing!
Quite a cast of characters came and went under my employ, I won’t mention names but you know who you are. Projectionists who bar-b-q’d outside on the rooftop, cashiers and concession clerks who showed up when they wanted to and ushers who kept count of the beers they confiscated made the place interesting.
Yes, we had a leaky roof and basement and drafty auditoriums, but that just gave the place character. Speaking of drafts, I firmly believe that the place was (is) haunted. Many a night I caught up on paperwork only to feel the presence of someone else in the building. If it wasn’t Rex, then it must have been his stand-in!
To: NumberOneMan:
I was long gone from the Mayland when you started work there, so I’ve never heard about any concession stand worker who might have died of a “massive heart attack” in the ladies room. (I do remember a couple of fat old drunk broads who’d passed out in the ladies room. We had to wake ‘em up in order to close up the place for the night!)
As for Rex Anderson, he was a very close friend of mine — and one of the nicest guys I ever had the pleasure of working with. Back when I worked there, (1952-56), Rex was as sober as a judge. He was a member of AA, and yes, I do remember one time when he “fell off the wagon,” but that episode lasted only a day or two. His wife and a couple of other family members saw to that!
I remember Rex’s backstage “office” very well. It was the larger of the two dressing rooms upstairs on the east side of the building. On the other side of the stage was the “band room” — the subject of several popular stories which identified it as the site of numerous nocturnal romantic trysts involving certain Mayland employees. (But being the “choirboy,” innocent-type of kid that I was, I have no knowledge of this whatsoever!)
One more thing: I never knew a theatre manager who had “real work to do.” Cliff Pegg was the manager when I worked there, and I can tell you that he never worked up a sweat in the 4-plus year that I knew him! Assistant managers and head ushers did most of what little work was required.
As for your Rex quotation, yes, I’d say that could be something he'd
have said. Rex was a very good man. God rest his soul!
I worked at the Mayland from ‘66 thru '69. Great job for a high school kid – clean, and no heay lifting, although do I remember swabbibg out the men’s room many times after a hard rain. I left in early '69, and I’ve heard tales that one of the more elderly female concession stand workers had a massive heart attack and dropped dead on the sofa in the ladies room sometine in 1970. I remember this woman well and wonder if anyone on this board can verify that or is familiar with her.
I have heard all the stories about the place being haunted, and I was alone many times in the more inaccessible areas of the theatre, and never once had any sense of anything supernatural occurring.
By the way, Rex Anderson the stagehand quickly attained iconic status with the people that worked with hin during the time I was there. I can vividly remember him roaring up to the place about 3:30 pm in his Buick 225 (with a vinyl Landau roof, of course), retiring to the StageHand’s Room backstage for some liquid refreshment, emerging about 7:30 pm to pull the curtain, retiring to the StageHand’s Room backstage for some more liquid refreshment, and finally reappearing about 12:30 pm to close the curtain. He would occasionally emerge from his backstage habitat to irritate the Theatre manager (who actually had real work to do) with all sorts of spirit-fueled rantings and musings, such as:
“Just like the crack that never heals,
The more you rub it the better it feels.
But all the soap this side of Hell,
Won’t get rid of that codfish smell.”
I’m think anyone who knew Rex can confirm.
Mayland now open as ‘the Boneyard’, a rib restaurant. 2nd floor is the restaurant. First floor is all games. In the rear of the first floor is a bar 21 and over only. There is a stage in the front where the screen was for live performances.
2nd floor overlooks the stage on the first floor. Plasma TV’s all over the walls.
Nice to see it being used.
Just was in town at the Zoo for dinner with the family. Last time I was at the Mayland it was still a working theater in the 80’s. I managed GCC Southgate for a year in 1988 ( came to Cleveland from Erie GCC).
Sad to see it go but at least the building is in use.
BZ
Westwood, Westgate (the newer one outside the mall, now also demolished), Ridge Park, Plaza Chapel Hill and West Market are what I would call “second generation” GCCs – Their big push in the N.E.Ohio market started with Southgate and Chapel Hill Mall, followed a couple of years with Parmatown, Shoregate and Mellett Mall, then after a couple more years Westgate quad was built and the Mayland and Mercury were purchased and upgraded, and a little later Mentor Mall and Randall Park were added. They were all designed by Riseman Associates and the interiors had the same look and feel. The “second generation” cinemas were by a different architect and have a whole different character to them , including different signage and logos. And 3 of them were replacements for originals.
Roger-It’s great. Been to the one in Livonia. There is one in downtown Cleveland but have not heard if it’s good or not.
Dave-Bronx. What about the Westwood Town Center and the Ridge Park Square. Those were GCC theaters and they’re still going… for now.
Heard that AMC is planning a huge theater for Westgate or whatever they’re calling it now.
The sign for Manners Big Boy Restaurant, across from the theatre, had the plastic sign-face and fluorescent lights blown out by a heavy wind. They were not allowed to replace it as it was. They had to put up a sign not lit from within, and had to put spotlights on the ground that were aimed up at it.
Roger, you should have tried changing the pylon sign at the Westgate Cinema City – always an adventure – especially the #1 title near the top about 40' high – rocking and swaying in the cold winter wind, you’d need dramamine!
You’re right, Dave: The city of Mayfield Heights has always been stupid! Not just about marquees, either. I wonder if there’s something in the water up there! They should realize that at the time the theatre was built, that marquee was the largest one in the state of Ohio. They ought to be installing a historical marker on the front of the building to commemorate it. But I guess they’d rather show off monstosities like Golden Gate Shopping Plaza and the maze of ugly apartments that the city has allowed to encroach upon what was once a community of almost entirely single-family homes. I’m glad I lived in Mayfield Heights when it was still a nice place to live. (By the way: I’d like to have a nickel for every time I was up on the “rolling scaffold” changing the letters on the Mayland marquee – in rain, sleet, snow and high winds. Makes me cold just to think of it! But hey, they were fun times!)
Hey Brustar: Is the food any good at the Boneyard?
This is the only one of the original group of General Cinema theatres in the Cleveland area still standing – the Parmatown, Southgate, Shoregate, Westgate Quad (and its more recent replacement), Mercury and Mentor Mall Cinemas have all been demolished.
They have always been stupid about that marquee, and signs in general in Mayfield Heights. When General Cinema renovated and twinned the theatre in about 1972 or 73, they wanted to take the MAYLAND letters off the top of it and replace them with their usual style CINEMA letters – but the City of Mayfield Heights would not allow it – it had to stay as-is, the only changes allowed were removal. They gave them a hard time about the large ‘1’ and ‘2’ on the title boards. The marquee at one time had a lot of flashing neon that also had been a bone of contention with the city. One day when the sign company guy was there fixing something else, the clown from the city dept. of buildings was driving by, saw the sign man working on it and stopped and told the sign man to make it stop flashing – which he did – without asking me, or the division manager who had been fighting with them about it for years. Once the flashing was stopped we could not get it re-activated, even though the city had no business telling the sign contractor ANYTHING – he was suppose to deal with the property owner, General Cinema Corp.
BTW, what is ‘Boneyard’?
Rumor has it that Boneyard® wants to use the marquee to advertise specials, but the city will not allow it. They will only allow a permanent sign where the movies were previously advertised. Mayfield Heights has a strange sense of itself. They finally find a use for this abandoned theater building that surely would have declined further, and the city responds by restricting the use of a changeable sign.
The Mayland is not going to be vacant much longer. The Boneyard restaurant and bar is moving in there. Gone are the green tiles and decor that were present when Barnes and Noble occupied that site from 1992-2000. The outside now looks orange. Its going to be interested to see what it will look like when it is finished.
The church you are talking about is in the ezella. The Mayland building is still for rent. I go by there now and then. Just past there a couple days ago
Wow – they painted it!
Here’s a couple of pictures of it in 1975 when I worked there – it had a different color-scheme then.
View link
I grew up in rural Chesterland, Ohio, about six miles from the Mayland. As a kid, a distance of that sort was considerable, so any excursion to the Mayland (or to one of the movie palaces in downtown Cleveland) was an event.
My favorite Mayland Saturday matinee memory is paying 50 cents with my pals in 1963 to enjoy KING KONG VS. GODZILLA.
I was pleased by the Barnes & Noble takeover when I sought out the theater during a 1998 visit. Sorry to hear the business has moved. I hope the local zoning boys appreciate what a treasure the building is.
David J. Hogan
Chicagoland, USA
I believe this building is being used as a church now. It has a strange name, The International House of God, or something along those lines. I’m almost certain it’s the same theater. Can anyone else confirm this?
You can buy a print of the theater at this link:
http://www.georgerothacker.com/ga1.detail.7.html
The Mayland had the World Premiere of the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” in about 1971. The boy who played Charley (I think that was the characters name) lived there in the neighborhood.
Modern Theatres sold this theatre, and also the Mercury on the west side, and the Northland, Eastland & University Flick in Columbus, to General Cinema in the early 1970s.
The address in the heading should be changed to 5900 Mayfield Road.