Shubert Theater
90 Seventh Street E,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
90 Seventh Street E,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
2 people
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I also saw Godspell at the Shubert Theatre in 1973 with my church group. Really good show and an absolutely beautiful venue. I remember the massive chandelier hanging in the theatre. One thing that really stuck in my mind was the lobby poster that advertised the effort to save the Union Terminal. It had an interesting by-line of “When it’s gone… it’s gone.” Anyone else remember that?
Opened with a live play, “The Passing Show,” on Sept. 25, 1921.
The Shubert closed after a March 23, 1975 magic stage show. The Shubert and its sister theater, the Cox, were demolished a year later.
Mr. Zorning, You are correct the triangular tower was removed because of poor maintenance over the years. The Cox Theater next door to the Shubert was a memorial to George B. Cox who had been associated with the Shuberts in many theaters. The Shuberts and he owned the largest theater in the world in 1905, The Hippodrome Theater in NYC., it seated 7,000. The Cox theater was built by Mrs. Cox as a tribute to her husband George who died in 1916, the Cox theater was erected in 1921. Today, of course,the Hippodrome Th. has suffered the fate of most Cincinnati downtown theaters….it is a parking lot!
Side by side photos of Shubert and previously as the YMCA added courtesy of Sharyn Lee M. Shows that part of the top floor was removed when converted into the theater.
My father, Ray Hall, was the one who demolished the Shubert/Cox theatres. He and Larry Trumbo were good friends. He saved a lot of materials from the job to build our home with. He had thousands of brick cleaned, marble was used in the kitchen as a breakfast bar and inlaid on 3 fireplace hearths and mantels, floor joists from the stage were used, colored concrete piece from outside of building inlaid in one fireplace in the creek rock and we have a couple of light fixtures. The house was awesome!
meheuck: The Cox Theatre doesn’t have a page at Cinema Treasures because it never showed movies.
I noticed that the Cox does not have its own listing. It seems to me that it was a substantial enough operation on its own from the Shubert that perhaps it should have a page.
When I went to see magician Harry Blackstone Jr. at the now-demolished Palace around 1980, he said that the last time he was in Cincinnati the Cox theatre was operating but was now gone. He then added that he hoped the next time he came to town he wouldn’t be performing in a parking lot.
Sadly, considering the fate of the Palace, he was not far off.
I saw Godspell, the broadway musical at The Shubert Theatre in 1973. It was a Beautiful Theatre, it is a shame that Cincinnati does not appreciate Theater like it should. Cincinnati has destroyed the Rko Albee, The Palace Theater, the Skywalk Cinema, The Times Theatre and others.
Thank you for your good words, Hank. I haven’t had time to link specific Cinema Treasures' theaters to corresponding photographs yet, but I should be able to do that within the next week or two.
Your mention in an earlier post of elephants falling through to the former YMCA swimming pool suggested to me posting a couple of photographs of vaudeville elephants at the Palace Theatre in Chicago in 1937. You can see the first photograph by clicking here and the second one by clicking here. Both of the photographs were taken by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Thanks Brad Smith for the heads up on the photos,what great shots!!!!
Click here for a photograph of the RKO Shubert taken in 1936.
According to an Enquirer paper article during the Shuberts times as a vaudeville theater one of the acts made a huge dent on its history. Apparently the Power’s Elephant Act fell through to the former YMCA swimming pool as the stage had been built over the original aquadic architectural feature.
From Boxoffice magazine, January 1938:
RKO Shubert Theater, Cliff Boyd, manager, has dropped its straight film policy and has extended upon an 18-week program of vaudeville and films. lack of super productions and roadshows, which this house featured, is given as the reason.
Here is a January 1976 article about the demolition of the Shubert:
Old Shubert Theater Torn Down
CINCINNATI (AP) â€" There has been little applause in the Shubert Theater in recent years and there was little mourning when it was razed by a wrecker’s ball along with the Cox Theater next door over the weekend. “I was a stage hand 22 years in there and now I’m tearing it down,” said Larry Trumbo, one of the wrecking crew. “I feel bad about it. But what can you do? They didn’t bring shows in there anymore ”.
The Cincinnati owners of the two downtown theaters said the land will be converted to a parking lot. The Theater Guild-American Theater Society canceled the 1975-76 season at the Shubert when touring companies refused to play Cincinnati because of financial losses in previous years. The 1,000 advance subscribers received refunds. The last two shows at the Shubert, however, were sellouts. Comedian Redd Foxx had two performances May 3, 1975, billed as “a black show for black people ”.
The Shubert Co. of New York spent $250,000 refurbishing the Shubert in 1964. The granite building was constructed by the YMCA in 1848 and Shubert converted it to a theater in 1921. Both theaters became vacant in the 1950s when the U.S. Department of Justice ordered them sold in an antitrust action. Shubert was allowed to reopen them in 1954 when no one bought the buildings. But productions there of “Misalliance,” “The Moon Is Blue” and “Dial M for Murder” played to almost empty houses.
Boss Cox at one time owned ,with the Shubert Brothers ,the largest theater in this country, the Hippodrome Theater in NYC. Boss Cox died in 1916.
That’s interesting. I never knew the Cox Theater was named after Boss Cox. Learn something new every day. I have a picture of the Cox Theater. Just e-mail me at and I’ll reply with it if you want it.
When the Shubert Theater opened in 1921 it ran competition with B.F.Keiths and the Lyric which both ran vaudeville shows and movies and were nearby on Walnut and Vine Streets respectively.Next door to the Shubert Th. was the Cox Theater also built in 1921 to memorialize the colorful politician George B. Cox who was known as the Boss Of Cincinnati for all the political patronage jobs he arranged for folks who tallied up proper amounts of cash to grace hispolitical war chests. The Cox Theater never ran movies,but it was used in later years to store excess scenery for touring road shows which played the Shubert Theater.
Here is a circa 1920s postcard:
http://tinyurl.com/e885c
*IN 1953, WHEN EVANGELIST EARL IVIE OWNED THE CINN, SHUBERT, …
MY FATHER (EVANG. BUFORD DOWELL SR AND OUR REVIVAL TEAM OF SINGERS
AND MUSICIANS) CAME TO THE SHUBERT THEATER …“REVIVAL TEMPLE”,
AS HIS CO-EVANGELIST!
THEY WE’RE BOTH PENTECOSTAL-PREACHERS AND GREAT MEN OF FAITH!
MULTITUDES CAME TO CHRIST…DURING THAT GREAT CRUSADE!
THOUSANDS WE’RE MIRACULOUSLY HEALED .. THRU THE PRAYER OF FAITH!
5 GREAT POWERFUL SERVICES DAILY! NATIONAL RADIO-DAILY!
GREATEST GOSPEL MUSIC! FRI-NIGHT WAS ALL NIGHT “MIRACLE NIGHT!”
DURING HIS OWNERSHIP, REV. IVIE COMPLETE PAINTED THE INSIDE
AND OUTSIDE OF THE SHUBERT…WHITE AND GOLD! IT WAS TRUELY
BEAUTIFUL!
*THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THOSE GREAT OLD THEATER PALACES, FOR A
WONDERFUL “CHURCH AUDITORIUM!”
*ANY MORE PICTURES ANYONE?
(BUFORD DOWELL JR / )
Joe: If you can post the photos you have and that you sent to me, please do so. Thanks.
There is now a 26-story office building on this site.
I have a couple of interior and exterior shots of the Schubert if you want them. Just e-mail me at and I’ll reply with them.