Ever since the cinema reached six screens, I always thought that this place would benefit from a restoration of the former main auditorium. It would only lose one screen (the cramped, diagonal Aud 2) and restore grandeur that this wonky property could have. I love the Cedar-Lee’s programming, but their theaters leave something to be desired, which is to say nothing of the often-substandard projection.
Barring a buyout, Randall Park Mall is set to close on the 9th of June this year. This was announced to tenants mid-week. This property probably will be able to choose to continue or fold, considering (possibly because) it is owned by another NC investor than the NC-based mall owner Whichard.
By the looks of the property, it appears to have been a National Amusements cinema originally. It is run independently now (by the same people who ran the old Kent Cinema on Main Street, now the Kent Stage), and perhaps was run as such since the early 90s when Regal took over certain National houses in NE Ohio (with the exception of Brookgate, for example, which was run as a budget cinema). This 70s, strip-shopping-plaza cinema remains first-run and popular, featuring auditoria added since the National days, particularly because it is the only movie house in the Kent area besides the Midway Drive-In between Kent and Ravenna.
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.
The Cuyahoga County Auditor shows the parcel of the land of the theatre and then retail to have been owned by GCC until 1997. Not a bad deal to lease drive-in land to people.
A “closed” shopping mall probably means that it is enclosed with a roof, as opposed to an outdoor esplanade or center. I know this is so old, but it seemed a source of confusion.
As of this week, a fence has been erected around the perimeter of the property, and all storefronts have been cleared Bobcat-style. The auditorium has an open section of its west wall, obscured by plastic sheeting, and construction equipment is on site. It doesn’t, unfortunately, look like a renovation, and if it is, it’s one where the end result is a shell.
The Fox currently stands in a sad state of repair. Constructed with a full stage system, the roof over the front of the house has caved in, turning the theatre into an enormous pigeon birdcage, its denizens circling the massive property as they enter and depart. Peering through the back stage-door, the damage is evident, with all remaining props, curtains, lights, seats, and other apparatus covered with guano. Otherwise, looking through yields a view of an impressive theatre with balcony, damask-patterned panels on the walls, and a facility that looks remarkably solid for one whose roof is partially missing. Someone with the funds to replace the roof and the interiors would do well to turn this into a performing arts facility/cinema. The current debate in this university town, however, does not deal with this issue, but rather whether the pigeons should be exterminated now and the roof patched, or just brought down with the building, although its out-of-town owner does not concern himself with any possibility, and the Fox sits empty.
The cinema’s demolition continues, although it’s interesting to see the building detached from the shopping center, as it existed from 1964-1971, and as it will exist for another week or so. Auditorium two has been taken out, its girders stacked neatly behind the site. At least the materials are being recycled. The main auditorium still stands, although the screen wall is gone, revealing the cavernous house and bridge-like support structure for the expansive roof. Why nothing else could have been put into this structure is beyond me; a call to the Southgate management indicated that nothing is going in the cinema’s space, but this leg of the shopping center is now completely vacant, save for the bank. Perhaps the developer wants to demolish this part and reuse this frontage of the center for big-box endeavors.
Regardless, it originally must have been similar to the Parmatown Cinema that Dave-Bronx describes, it also a Riseman-designed project. I just spoke to a friend’s mother about Southgate; she mentions the use of blue cove-lighting during intermissions and before and after screenings, a similarity with said cinema. She was there the opening weekend in 1964, and viewed “The Brass Bottle” with Tony Randall. If you’re in the area, drive by and see the facility for a last time; the sheer enormity of the house and the permanence of construction techniques is visible even from a distance.
This most unique property, if such a term can be ascribed to shopping-mall cinemas, is tucked into the upper level of the mall behind all retail in the area above the lower main entrance to the mall. From the outside on the Northfield Road side of the mall, the boxes that are the auditoria are visible, and on the inside, the service corridors encircle the rear of the property, with the emercency exits and behind-screen area access doors visible and marked (and replacement seat cushions stacked on top of the screen areas). The cinema is still intact, houses, concessions, restrooms and all (including some old take-up reels), and it has been used as storage by units in the mall in better times. Contractually, it can not re-open as a cinema, since the twelve-screen Lowe’s that opened in 1999 forbids that, but who knows how much longer the mall will last anyway.
Decor-wise, it’s typical mid-70s mall cinema…lots of red carpet and dim lighting, and due to the spatial constraints, lots of levels, long corridors, and stairs. Some thought was involved in the construction of this property; it was not just a typical box as GCC usually constructed at the time. The cinema was also one of the first theaters in the area where once a ticket was purchased, one could spend the entire day watching all screens, lest one be caught, which never happened. First shows when opening were Murder by Death and Wholly Moses. Also used to do midnight movies from late 70s to mid 80s, notably Dawn of the Dead, which was quite apropo, considering this cinema was in a huge, 70s shopping mall.
I believe that the space is now occupied by an Old Navy store, which is rather common practice…large space, few support columns. Makes for a good specialty retail. Although these old shopping mall/center cinemas are not ususally viable as first-run houses anymore, developers and real estate lessors are still aware of their architectural potential as open spaces that were/are not cheap to construct.
Fun fact about this mall…it has its own heating and chilled water plant, so none of the units, the old cinema included, has its own HVAC equipment. Mall owners quickly realized that this was too expensive and delayed the opening of a shopping center, but smaller, privately-owned shopping malls like Chapel Hill provided everything before packaged, drop-in HVAC took off in the 70s.
Ever since the cinema reached six screens, I always thought that this place would benefit from a restoration of the former main auditorium. It would only lose one screen (the cramped, diagonal Aud 2) and restore grandeur that this wonky property could have. I love the Cedar-Lee’s programming, but their theaters leave something to be desired, which is to say nothing of the often-substandard projection.
Barring a buyout, Randall Park Mall is set to close on the 9th of June this year. This was announced to tenants mid-week. This property probably will be able to choose to continue or fold, considering (possibly because) it is owned by another NC investor than the NC-based mall owner Whichard.
By the looks of the property, it appears to have been a National Amusements cinema originally. It is run independently now (by the same people who ran the old Kent Cinema on Main Street, now the Kent Stage), and perhaps was run as such since the early 90s when Regal took over certain National houses in NE Ohio (with the exception of Brookgate, for example, which was run as a budget cinema). This 70s, strip-shopping-plaza cinema remains first-run and popular, featuring auditoria added since the National days, particularly because it is the only movie house in the Kent area besides the Midway Drive-In between Kent and Ravenna.
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.
The “O” Theater is being managed by the group managing the Esquire in Cincy.
The demolition is now complete on this theatre. Two pictures are available if you mail to
The Cuyahoga County Auditor shows the parcel of the land of the theatre and then retail to have been owned by GCC until 1997. Not a bad deal to lease drive-in land to people.
A “closed” shopping mall probably means that it is enclosed with a roof, as opposed to an outdoor esplanade or center. I know this is so old, but it seemed a source of confusion.
As of this week, a fence has been erected around the perimeter of the property, and all storefronts have been cleared Bobcat-style. The auditorium has an open section of its west wall, obscured by plastic sheeting, and construction equipment is on site. It doesn’t, unfortunately, look like a renovation, and if it is, it’s one where the end result is a shell.
The Fox currently stands in a sad state of repair. Constructed with a full stage system, the roof over the front of the house has caved in, turning the theatre into an enormous pigeon birdcage, its denizens circling the massive property as they enter and depart. Peering through the back stage-door, the damage is evident, with all remaining props, curtains, lights, seats, and other apparatus covered with guano. Otherwise, looking through yields a view of an impressive theatre with balcony, damask-patterned panels on the walls, and a facility that looks remarkably solid for one whose roof is partially missing. Someone with the funds to replace the roof and the interiors would do well to turn this into a performing arts facility/cinema. The current debate in this university town, however, does not deal with this issue, but rather whether the pigeons should be exterminated now and the roof patched, or just brought down with the building, although its out-of-town owner does not concern himself with any possibility, and the Fox sits empty.
The cinema’s demolition continues, although it’s interesting to see the building detached from the shopping center, as it existed from 1964-1971, and as it will exist for another week or so. Auditorium two has been taken out, its girders stacked neatly behind the site. At least the materials are being recycled. The main auditorium still stands, although the screen wall is gone, revealing the cavernous house and bridge-like support structure for the expansive roof. Why nothing else could have been put into this structure is beyond me; a call to the Southgate management indicated that nothing is going in the cinema’s space, but this leg of the shopping center is now completely vacant, save for the bank. Perhaps the developer wants to demolish this part and reuse this frontage of the center for big-box endeavors.
Regardless, it originally must have been similar to the Parmatown Cinema that Dave-Bronx describes, it also a Riseman-designed project. I just spoke to a friend’s mother about Southgate; she mentions the use of blue cove-lighting during intermissions and before and after screenings, a similarity with said cinema. She was there the opening weekend in 1964, and viewed “The Brass Bottle” with Tony Randall. If you’re in the area, drive by and see the facility for a last time; the sheer enormity of the house and the permanence of construction techniques is visible even from a distance.
Correction—Wholly Moses was not released until 1980
This most unique property, if such a term can be ascribed to shopping-mall cinemas, is tucked into the upper level of the mall behind all retail in the area above the lower main entrance to the mall. From the outside on the Northfield Road side of the mall, the boxes that are the auditoria are visible, and on the inside, the service corridors encircle the rear of the property, with the emercency exits and behind-screen area access doors visible and marked (and replacement seat cushions stacked on top of the screen areas). The cinema is still intact, houses, concessions, restrooms and all (including some old take-up reels), and it has been used as storage by units in the mall in better times. Contractually, it can not re-open as a cinema, since the twelve-screen Lowe’s that opened in 1999 forbids that, but who knows how much longer the mall will last anyway.
Decor-wise, it’s typical mid-70s mall cinema…lots of red carpet and dim lighting, and due to the spatial constraints, lots of levels, long corridors, and stairs. Some thought was involved in the construction of this property; it was not just a typical box as GCC usually constructed at the time. The cinema was also one of the first theaters in the area where once a ticket was purchased, one could spend the entire day watching all screens, lest one be caught, which never happened. First shows when opening were Murder by Death and Wholly Moses. Also used to do midnight movies from late 70s to mid 80s, notably Dawn of the Dead, which was quite apropo, considering this cinema was in a huge, 70s shopping mall.
I believe that the space is now occupied by an Old Navy store, which is rather common practice…large space, few support columns. Makes for a good specialty retail. Although these old shopping mall/center cinemas are not ususally viable as first-run houses anymore, developers and real estate lessors are still aware of their architectural potential as open spaces that were/are not cheap to construct.
Fun fact about this mall…it has its own heating and chilled water plant, so none of the units, the old cinema included, has its own HVAC equipment. Mall owners quickly realized that this was too expensive and delayed the opening of a shopping center, but smaller, privately-owned shopping malls like Chapel Hill provided everything before packaged, drop-in HVAC took off in the 70s.