Hippodrome Theatre
720 Euclid Avenue,
Cleveland,
OH
44114
720 Euclid Avenue,
Cleveland,
OH
44114
9 people
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Showing 26 - 50 of 121 comments
Re: Joe DeRita being married while playing at the Roxy. I have located a Marriage in July 1935, during Joe’s 31 week engagement at the Roxy. He was also in the area at the Columbia Theatre (Toledo?) working for Sam Manheim, and at the Cameo Theatre (Akron?) for Dick Ziesler. Does anybody have any information on Burlesque at those theatres, or any additional information on Joe DeRita?
You can email me direct at:
Thanks,
Frank Reighter
I’m trying to find information on the Roxy Burlesque in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Joe DeRita, the “last” third stooge of the Three Stooges, was featured there, and married a dancer/chorus girl there, Bonnie Brooks. The Three Stooges Fan Club is trying to find out whatever happened to Bonnie Brooks
You can email me direct at:
Thanks,
Frank Reighter
My grandfather (Sid Dannenberg) was the greneral manager of the Hippodrome for several years in the mid to late 1930’s. He personally hired Lew Wasserman as an usher, later to become the President/CEO of MCA then MCA/ Universal who for several decades was known as the most powerfull man in Hollywood.
My mother always had some great stories from her childhood!
Am anxious to see vintage photos of this one!
I may have posted this thought before, but wanted to say that I have a small EXIT sign that I believe came out of this theatre. At the time I received it I wasn’t into theatres so it means alot to me now!
Here’s some of the opening day news from the December 31, 1907 Cleveland Plain Dealer:
The Cleveland Hippodrome has cost $2,000,000. It is the first work of the kind of Knox & Elliot, Cleveland architects, who made a careful study of the chief theaters of the world before undertaking their task.
Two wide foyers with entrances on Euclid and Prospect-avs afford entrance to the Hippodrome. The main foyer, or promenade, is thirty-two feet wide and has two wide entrances to the staircases leading to the mezzanine floor above. This foyer is partitioned off from the main auditorium by a row of steel pillars, which support the balcony like a cantilever bridge.
The auditorium, upon which rest the seats of the main floor, resembles a shallow dish. The placing of each seat has been arranged with great care so that on the main floor and in the balcony there may be an uninterrupted view of the stage from every point.
The stage is the largest of any in the country save that of the New York Hippodrome. Measuring 104 feet from the rear wall to the footlights, it covers an area of 13,528 square feet. It is equipped with the largest electrical devices and can be raised or lowered to any degree desired by the mere touching of a lever. Beneath the stage is a huge tank of water, with a capacity of 455,000 gallons into which the floor can be lowered to a depth of ten feet for aquatic spectacles.
In the basement beneath the stage are stables for all the animals used in the productions, and quarters for forty men attendants. The dressing rooms for the actors are situated on floors above.
Including the fifty-one boxes and loges, the house has a total seating capacity of 4,500.
Also would love to see photos of the Hippodrome!
Now that exit sign has a very special meaning for me thanks to the CT knowledge that I have acquired over the past year since becoming a CT member in 11/04.
So sad that the Hippodrome in Cleveland is no longer with us and that the site is now a parking garage! So sad. I believe I have in my possession an Exit sign from the Hippodrome that was given to my husband many years ago and before I ever got the theatre ‘bug’!
Who owned the Hipp (the business, not the property) towards the end? And after all those years there, what did Silverthorn do after it closed – I don’t think he was retiring age at the time of the closing. Didn’t he pass away fairly recently?
The Hippodrome photos from Pres can be seen here:
View link
oops – its not there anymore –
Are you thinking of the Beachcliff, on Detroit Rd.?
Click on the blue ‘dave-bronx’ at the bottom of this post and it will take you to the page with my email – i’d rather not have it appear in the theatre comments – thanks –
Say, just in passing, is anyone familier with the small neighborhood theater that was in Rocky River, west of Lakewood. Back in the 50’s, I spent many a Saturday there enjoying the kids matinees. Two cartoons, a short and the feature. The good old days. Anyway, for the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the theater. Does anybody know it?
dave,I need you E-mail address to send you the pics.
Pres, if you want, I would be happy to post them on my photobucket page and post a link to them here. I have links on this site for pictures of the Playhouse Square theatres. The add-a-photo feature on this site hasn’t worked in ages….
Pres, I am interested in the photos you mentioned. If you can e-mail them to me I would be most greatful. I’m also looking for any photos of the theaters that used to be on Loraine Ave in the 1940’s and 50s.
I just recently discovered the Cinema Treasures website. As an ex-Clevelander, and one whose father was a senior publicist for Universal Pictures, I have fond boyhood memories of the Hippodrome; and enjoyed reading all the comments. I had many a visit to Jack Silverthorne’s office, and always enjoyed looking at all the pictures. I have a number of interior/exterior photos of the Hipp, commissioned by my father, which I have scanned. I attempted to post some here, but the function is apparently offline. I would be happy to share them with anyone interested.
There is an interior photo of the Hip auditorium in the 2nd quarter issue of Marquee (Vol. 32 #2) published by the Theater Historical Society of America. Not a good picture, but the only one I’ve seen. There is an exterior shot and story in Vol. 25 No.4
The Hip did have 2 balconies although I never saw the 2nd one open. The projection room was at the back of the first balcony.
I attended movies at the Hippodrome Theater in summers of 1953 and 1954 while attending college and working summer jobs in Cleveland. They had continuous showings and the house lights were never on. I can attest that it was a really big place. I don’t remember the balconies other than looking up and seeing at least one balcony. And, yes, it was very well air-conditioned. Too bad that there are no photographs readily available.
Robert Simpson
Contrary to what the news article about the Hipp’s demolition claims, the famous movies did indeed play at the Hipp. He names one of them: “Goldfinger.” I saw two other first run James Bond films there: the very first showing of “You Only Live Twice” on its opening day in June 1967 (the theater was packed) and “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” several weeks into its first run (it opened a week before Christmas 1969 and I saw it in mid-January). I also remember seeing a double feature of reissued Bond films, “Thunderball” and “You Only Live Twice” in January 1971. That was the last time I went to the Hipp.
The Hipp may have been somewhat less classy than the theaters in Playhouse Square, but it was more conveniently located near Public Square, and, as a result, probably attracted a more diverse clientele including people who would show up early in the day and sit through multiple showings of the same picture, due less to a love of movies than having nowhere else to go. As someone else said, it was a grind house, but so were the other downtown theaters unless they were showing a roadshow attraction with reserved seating, ala Loew’s State’s presentation of “2001: A Space Odyssey” in 1968, which was probably the last such attraction at any downtown Cleveland theater.
The closing of the theaters in Playhouse Square probably had a negative impact on the Hipp, and when they reopened for live theater, that didn’t help it any. By 1972, and maybe earlier, the black exploitation films took over along with the earliest kung fu potboilers. At that time, the classier first run movies, and even most of the non classy first run movies, opened in the suburban theaters, most of which had been second run movie houses in the early 60s and became first run as people moved to the suburbs and away from the cities.
As for the seating capacity, an ad that appeared in The Plain Dealer when “You Only Live Twice” opened at the Hipp in June 1967 said, “3500 seats. Don’t be disappointed.”
To Jim Somich: the microfilm machines at the Cleveland Public Library do print out copies in regular, as opposed to negative, form but you have to adjust the settings.
My grandfather, Bill Schnell worked as custodian at both the Madison Avenue and Hippodrome theatres after he retired from the Cleveland police force. He got a hand-carved table and 4 chairs that were imported from France in 1907 for the opening of the Hippodrome and were in the lobby for most of its years. Some of the original gilding is very faint on 2 of the chairs but the table and other 2 chairs my grandmother had refinished. I can furnish pictures if anyone is interested. I have fond memories of the Madison and spent most of my time there between the ages of 11 & 16 because my grandfather got me in free and I got free popcorn. Two of the movies I saw there were Cleopatra & The Sun Also Rises. I remember old women doing knitting & crocheting in the audience as they watched the movie. I wondered how they did that. Now I know because I crochet at movies whenever I go. I enjoyed reading all the posts.
To Neighborhoodtheaters: Sorry I forgot to include an address in the previous post. Anyone with photos of west side theatres can contact me at
I don’t have any photos to share, but I do have many memories to talk about.
To Neighborhoodtheaters: I too would like to see some of you pictures. I lived in Cleveland in the 1950s moving to Oregon in 1959. The theaters I went to as a kid were on the West side and included the Riversid, Variety, Lyric. All these were on Loraine. I also remember seeing other Loraine theatres as we would ride the bus to downtown. I’d love to see pictures of the Stork, Loraine, Loraine-Fullton. And there was one just a block off Loraine called the Alhambra. That one and the Stork closed in the early 50s, but the others were still operating. Any scans would be greatly appreciated. It would be great if a Cleveland Theatre web site good be opened to preserve the history of these great neighborhood theatres.
I remember the Hipp in the 1950’s. I was in my early teens at the time. As a big Pat Boone fan at the time I was determined to be the first person in Clealand to buy a ticket for “Bernardine”, his first film. I arrived about 4 hours before the box office opened and did in fact get the 1st ticket sold. In the fifties the Hipp was the first run house for Fox films and it was the Hippodrome that housed the first CinemaScope screen in Cleveland.