This was originally a Mid-States theatre, like most of the first-run houses in Cincinnati that were not Showcases. Mid-States' entire operation ultimately got folded into Loews, and then Loews sold them all to National Amusements.
It just hit me – Northgate, Tri-County, Kenwood, 275 East…all the multiplexes in Cincinnati that National Amusements inherited from Loews are gutted or demolished. Wow, I am really old!
“The neighborhood’s most anticipated opening is a 10,000-square-foot bar and restaurant named Mohawk Bend that is slated to open in February and occupies the nearly 100-year-old movie theater across the street from Nicole Daddio’s cozy wine bar City Sip.”
So I guess that’s what’s happening with the Ramona now.
They are also embarking on some first-run programming, opening Chris Morris' controversial comedy FOUR LIONS on Friday November 5th, and the Asian/Indian restaurant comedy TODAY’S SPECIAL two weeks later on the 19th.
Hank, I straighted out your article – it’s referring to the 275 East Cinema in Milford which I just added. It started with 4 screens, and 8 more were planned but never built. It was located on 5874 Montclair Blvd, which may be what’s getting it confused with this listing.
Does anyone know if this is the same location as the 275 East, a Mid-States 4-plex that opened in the late ‘70’s? It was intended to grow into a 12-plex, but never progressed further than 4 screens.
I’ve been told by one of the performers of the Cincinnati ROCKY HORROR shadowcast that the screen in the largest auditorium is being replaced with a silver screen and being converted to digital projection, no doubt to accomodate the 3-D craze. Thankfully, it sounds like only this house is dropping 35mm projection; the other five houses will still be film.
Strangely enough, I remember when a silver screen was installed here during the ‘80’s 3-D revival, though I never saw a 3-D show there.
Reportedly, the Crest has been sold by Bucksbaum. He has hinted that the neighborhood will be happy with the new proprietors, but did not say if that meant that the building will continue as a theatre or some other business. EAT PRAY LOVE will as such be the last film to play under his stewardship.
Mann probably would like to cut their Chinese showtimes down, but that would probably irritate the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who would want the place to retain normal and full theatre hours out of accomodation to the thousands of tourists that walk the streets, even though few of them are likely to buy a ticket.
In the case of Grandview, the Drexel operators had a dispute with the landlord and chose to leave the operation; a former employee decided to make a new deal with the owner of the building and renovate/reopen the theatre.
In the case of the Arena Grand and the Gateway, Jeff Frank was hired by the developers of those commercial districts to design the theatres, as well as book, staff, and run them. After a few years, I can only fathom that the developers thought they could find people to do the job better than Jeff, and dispensed with his services. Granted, I am prejudiced because I had a long and happy relationship working for him, but I have always felt it was rather rude and unceremonious of these consortiums to cut him out after he contributed so much time and energy in launching their theatres.
The Drexel Theatre facade also provides the base for the cover painting of the Mark Knopfler compilation album of movie score music “Screenplaying,” though specific details that would i.d. the theatre have been altered. When I worked there, I was flattered that somebody at the record label was a fan of the theatre, but annoyed that they never credited us as the source of the image.
Perhaps the motel operators had some sort of legal claim on their spelling of “carrousel,” and the theatre operators wanted to still try to piggyback on the perceived popularity of the motel, so they went to the single-r spelling.
Granted, because of its new name perhaps don’t recognize it as the Place or The Movies, but I’m surprised that years after my submission, no one has any comments about this longtime Cincinnati favorite.
Got it from the horse’s mouth – yes, sadly it’s true. A major retailer made an offer for the entire space, and the mall accepted. Their last night of operation will be Thursday, June 3rd. Better catch up on all those movies you missed in the next four days, because once this place is gone, finding anything resembling second-run in Los Angeles is going to get even harder. :(
For some reason, the server at the L.A. Times would not allow me to post this comment there, so I’ll do it here:
There’s one problem with your proposal for large-scale theatrical revival: the creative community doesn’t want it. When WB reissued THE EXORCIST on over 2000 screens, albeit the newly cut “The Version You’ve Never Seen,” it not only opened at #1, it outgrossed the previous six new films that WB released. The producers of those films were humiliated to see their new movies being beaten by something older, and made it clear to WB in no uncertain terms they would not stand for this in the future. So to protect those ongoing talent relationships, an already-planned reissue of the extended director’s cut of SUPERMAN was reduced to one screen in San Antonio, Texas, and no further simultaneous national reissues were done by any studio since. More recently, WB was enjoying solid revival business on the Final Cut of BLADE RUNNER, but producer Jerry Perenchio, who has never liked the film, has withdrawn his permission to screen it and so no more bookings can be taken on it.
The bottom line is that producers, talent agencies, venture capitalists – they make their money by making new product, no matter how crappy it is. And the studios would rather stay in business with them than alienate them by doing a large-scale revival of a bonafide classic, no matter how much in pure profit that, by the way, does not have to be shared with those parties, it could generate. The best we can hope for is the continued revival work of dedicated parties such as the New Beverly, CineFamily, and the American Cinematheque, and the occasional big event like the TCM festival.
That may be due to the fact that, as I understand, Rave bills itself as a “digital presentation” only chain, and when they acquire theatres that are not 100% digitally equipped, i.e. show actual film (!), they operate those theatres under a different name than Rave. For example, Rave picked up the Beverly Center 13 from Mann Theatres, but they are not advertised as Rave. I noticed some of the Cincinnati locations they picked up are still not on the Rave site, but are on the Showcase site.
So that’s what happened to the old AMC house that Laemmle pulled out of. Makes sense. Of course, right now is not the time I would open an ultra-pricey cinema lounge, but that’s just me.
I took a closer look at those two night photos of the Times – is that a female mannequin in the box office? One of those slow nights when they were selling tickets inside and needed a creative way to tell people to come in?
Last I heard, they were ceasing regular operation though there may be the occasional special event or premiere there. Apparently parent company Regent Entertainment is not doing well. The marquee was stripped of its Regent and Here!Network panels, but I understand all the seats and equipment are still intact.
This was originally a Mid-States theatre, like most of the first-run houses in Cincinnati that were not Showcases. Mid-States' entire operation ultimately got folded into Loews, and then Loews sold them all to National Amusements.
It just hit me – Northgate, Tri-County, Kenwood, 275 East…all the multiplexes in Cincinnati that National Amusements inherited from Loews are gutted or demolished. Wow, I am really old!
From a recent L.A. Times story on the new popularity of the Echo Park neighborhood:
View link
“The neighborhood’s most anticipated opening is a 10,000-square-foot bar and restaurant named Mohawk Bend that is slated to open in February and occupies the nearly 100-year-old movie theater across the street from Nicole Daddio’s cozy wine bar City Sip.”
So I guess that’s what’s happening with the Ramona now.
They are also embarking on some first-run programming, opening Chris Morris' controversial comedy FOUR LIONS on Friday November 5th, and the Asian/Indian restaurant comedy TODAY’S SPECIAL two weeks later on the 19th.
I could be mistaken, but isn’t this drive-in still open?
/theaters/18110/
Amelia is essentially the Cincinnati area after all.
Hank, I straighted out your article – it’s referring to the 275 East Cinema in Milford which I just added. It started with 4 screens, and 8 more were planned but never built. It was located on 5874 Montclair Blvd, which may be what’s getting it confused with this listing.
Never mind, I dug a little deeper – the address for that place was 5874 Montclair Blvd, now a church.
Does anyone know if this is the same location as the 275 East, a Mid-States 4-plex that opened in the late ‘70’s? It was intended to grow into a 12-plex, but never progressed further than 4 screens.
On a whim, I typed the address into Google, and Google Earth Maps yielded this photograph:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6163970
Where would the Paramount have been? Where the CVS drugstore is now?
I’ve been told by one of the performers of the Cincinnati ROCKY HORROR shadowcast that the screen in the largest auditorium is being replaced with a silver screen and being converted to digital projection, no doubt to accomodate the 3-D craze. Thankfully, it sounds like only this house is dropping 35mm projection; the other five houses will still be film.
Strangely enough, I remember when a silver screen was installed here during the ‘80’s 3-D revival, though I never saw a 3-D show there.
Reportedly, the Crest has been sold by Bucksbaum. He has hinted that the neighborhood will be happy with the new proprietors, but did not say if that meant that the building will continue as a theatre or some other business. EAT PRAY LOVE will as such be the last film to play under his stewardship.
Mann probably would like to cut their Chinese showtimes down, but that would probably irritate the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who would want the place to retain normal and full theatre hours out of accomodation to the thousands of tourists that walk the streets, even though few of them are likely to buy a ticket.
In the case of Grandview, the Drexel operators had a dispute with the landlord and chose to leave the operation; a former employee decided to make a new deal with the owner of the building and renovate/reopen the theatre.
In the case of the Arena Grand and the Gateway, Jeff Frank was hired by the developers of those commercial districts to design the theatres, as well as book, staff, and run them. After a few years, I can only fathom that the developers thought they could find people to do the job better than Jeff, and dispensed with his services. Granted, I am prejudiced because I had a long and happy relationship working for him, but I have always felt it was rather rude and unceremonious of these consortiums to cut him out after he contributed so much time and energy in launching their theatres.
The Drexel Theatre facade also provides the base for the cover painting of the Mark Knopfler compilation album of movie score music “Screenplaying,” though specific details that would i.d. the theatre have been altered. When I worked there, I was flattered that somebody at the record label was a fan of the theatre, but annoyed that they never credited us as the source of the image.
Perhaps the motel operators had some sort of legal claim on their spelling of “carrousel,” and the theatre operators wanted to still try to piggyback on the perceived popularity of the motel, so they went to the single-r spelling.
Granted, because of its new name perhaps don’t recognize it as the Place or The Movies, but I’m surprised that years after my submission, no one has any comments about this longtime Cincinnati favorite.
Duh, I’m an idiot; I wrote that listing!
/theaters/9122/
Not sure if these two should be merged, since the land is the same but the styles are different.
This was built on the site of what had been the Twin Drive-In – don’t recall if that had a listing here.
Got it from the horse’s mouth – yes, sadly it’s true. A major retailer made an offer for the entire space, and the mall accepted. Their last night of operation will be Thursday, June 3rd. Better catch up on all those movies you missed in the next four days, because once this place is gone, finding anything resembling second-run in Los Angeles is going to get even harder. :(
For some reason, the server at the L.A. Times would not allow me to post this comment there, so I’ll do it here:
There’s one problem with your proposal for large-scale theatrical revival: the creative community doesn’t want it. When WB reissued THE EXORCIST on over 2000 screens, albeit the newly cut “The Version You’ve Never Seen,” it not only opened at #1, it outgrossed the previous six new films that WB released. The producers of those films were humiliated to see their new movies being beaten by something older, and made it clear to WB in no uncertain terms they would not stand for this in the future. So to protect those ongoing talent relationships, an already-planned reissue of the extended director’s cut of SUPERMAN was reduced to one screen in San Antonio, Texas, and no further simultaneous national reissues were done by any studio since. More recently, WB was enjoying solid revival business on the Final Cut of BLADE RUNNER, but producer Jerry Perenchio, who has never liked the film, has withdrawn his permission to screen it and so no more bookings can be taken on it.
The bottom line is that producers, talent agencies, venture capitalists – they make their money by making new product, no matter how crappy it is. And the studios would rather stay in business with them than alienate them by doing a large-scale revival of a bonafide classic, no matter how much in pure profit that, by the way, does not have to be shared with those parties, it could generate. The best we can hope for is the continued revival work of dedicated parties such as the New Beverly, CineFamily, and the American Cinematheque, and the occasional big event like the TCM festival.
That may be due to the fact that, as I understand, Rave bills itself as a “digital presentation” only chain, and when they acquire theatres that are not 100% digitally equipped, i.e. show actual film (!), they operate those theatres under a different name than Rave. For example, Rave picked up the Beverly Center 13 from Mann Theatres, but they are not advertised as Rave. I noticed some of the Cincinnati locations they picked up are still not on the Rave site, but are on the Showcase site.
There is no “h” in Cecci Gori (though it is pronounced with one) – the spelling should be corrected.
They’re still trying to reopen:
View link
So that’s what happened to the old AMC house that Laemmle pulled out of. Makes sense. Of course, right now is not the time I would open an ultra-pricey cinema lounge, but that’s just me.
I took a closer look at those two night photos of the Times – is that a female mannequin in the box office? One of those slow nights when they were selling tickets inside and needed a creative way to tell people to come in?
This is the same theatre listed under it’s final name, the Alpha Fine Arts. These entries should be merged:
/theaters/23904/
Last I heard, they were ceasing regular operation though there may be the occasional special event or premiere there. Apparently parent company Regent Entertainment is not doing well. The marquee was stripped of its Regent and Here!Network panels, but I understand all the seats and equipment are still intact.