Loews Morse Road
1000 Morse Road,
Columbus,
OH
43229
1000 Morse Road,
Columbus,
OH
43229
2 people
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This and the Loew’s Arlington both opened on December 25th, 1966. Better quality grand opening ad posted.
The Loew’s Westerville Just Got Its CinemaTreasures Page. If You Know More Information About It, Comment On The Loew’s Westerville Section.
Loew’s Westerville was on the end of Westerville Square. The facade is almost the same as i remember seeing films as a kid. Blue roof with big red loews letters. now fake windows replace the loews sign.
I see that “BONNIE&CLYDE” played almost a month there.I have read several film histories,Including Warren Beatty’s Bio stating in alot of theatres in the U.S. said it was pulled because of poor grosses,put on the Drive-in circuit and it found an audience then re-released to first run theatre to do great business.This Columbus theatre was a rarity in the mid 60’s.
Loew’s opened both the Arlington and the Morse Road the week of 12/21/66. Below are the films which played at the theater from opening week in 1966 through 1969. Dates are the Wednesdays of the opening week. Research from microfilms of The Columbus Dispatch.
12/21/66 After the Fox
01/25/67 The Blue Max
02/08/67 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
03/22/67 How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
04/26/67 Hombre
05/17/67 Doctor Zhivago
06/14/67 The Honey Pot
06/28/67 A Guide for the Married Man
08/09/67 Barefoot in the Park
09/20/67 Luv
10/04/67 Bonnie and Clyde
11/08/67 Waterhole # 3
11/22/67 Cool Hand Luke
12/20/67 Fitzwilly
01/10/68 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
02/07/68 The Graduate
06/26/68 The Thomas Crown Affair
07/24/68 Rosemary’s Baby
09/25/68 The Producers
10/16/68 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
11/13/68 Duffy
11/20/68 West Side Story
12/25/68 The Impossible Years
04/02/69 Support Your Local Sheriff
06/25/69 True Grit
08/13/69 Midnight Cowboy
11/26/69 Alice’s Restaurant
12/24/69 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Some big exclusive first-runs at the this theater. More years will be added as I am able to get the information.
No pictures too bad, will check out the Loews Arlinton site.
“Opened in 1969” doesn’t sound right to me. See the 1966 annual report that I quoted above.
Building was torn down and a tile store was built in its place.
Thanks, Ron, for posting the Cinema East. I’ll check it out!
There WAS and still IS a Southland Mall. It is located on South High Street opposite Great Southern Shopping Center. I’m not surprised you have never heard of it…it’s pretty small.
Southland was a small enclosed mall with a grocery store on one end and a Gold Circle (a now-defunct discount store) on the other. The theatre sat in the middle. 3 screens, one fairly large and the other 2 smaller, with mono sound and basic amenities.
I don’t believe Loew’s ever installed a Dolby stereo unit in any of its theaters.
The mall is now the home of an online charter school and a flea market.
Loew’s Westerville was at 60 Schrock Road. It was a twin by 1980, as were Loew’s Morse Road and Loew’s Arlington.
Loew’s Southland 1-2-3 was at 3700 South High Street.
I never visited either Loew’s Westerville or Southland and know nothing more about them, so I won’t add either one to CinemaTreasures. I don’t even know if the buildings are still standing. Perhaps someone who has lived in Columbus more recently than me can add them. (Although I visit Columbus several times each year, I haven’t lived there since the summer of 1977.)
Columbus used to have a Northland Mall, and still has Eastland and Westland Malls, but it has never had a Southland Mall. Did Loew’s build their Southland cinema with the expectation that a mall would soon arise next to it?
I posted the Cinema East yesterday. You may have missed it because I put it in Whitehall rather than Columbus.
Loew’s Southland was built as a triplex, I believe. It was not in a nice area of town, and it was no surprise it didnt last.
They were both nice theaters before they were twinned. The seats/aisles were never aligned after the twinning. I believe a hotel went up after the theater went down and that was demolished too for the present building. Does anyone have enough info to post the Cinema East? That was a great Columbus theater that had 70mm capability and a huge screen, but I dont have enough info on it to post anything.
I’ve added a separate listing for Loew’s Arlington, which opened at the same time as Loew’s Morse Road.
Loew’s Westerville was built as a single screen, then twinned. The Loew’s Southland was always a triplex.
The location of Loew’s Morse Road is now a tile store. The theatre building was demolished before building the new structure.
The address of this theatre was 1000 Morse Road.
Loew’s Morse Road and Loew’s Arlington are mentioned in the 1966 annual report and the 1967 annual report of Loew’s Theatres, Inc. The 1966 report says that both theatres were expected to open around Christmas of 1966, and it has a photo of the exterior of the Arlington theatre.
“The accent is on luxury, comfort, color and modernity in all of Loew’s new Theatres. Each provides acres of free parking, rocking-chair seats, giant 60~foot screen, stereo sound, all-weather air conditioning, art gallery and attractive concession services.
“Each new Loew’s Theatre features an Art Gallery, in which the works of outstanding local artists are displayed. These galleries attract great interest.”
Loews actually has two theaters in Ohio, the 20-screen Loews at Richmond Mall in Richmond Heights, OH, and the Magic Johnson 12-plex at Randall Park Mall in North Randall, OH. The Magic Johnson theaters, which are primarily located in minority areas, are a joint venture with the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star and Loews. Loews (as well as Cineplex Odeon, Star, and Magic Johnson) often jointly advertise.
Around the same time, Loew’s also had a large single-screen theatre called Loew’s Arlington. I think it was around Henderson and Reed roads in Upper Arlington.
They later built Loew’s Westerville and Loew’s Southland, but I think those were multi-screen from the beginning. They’re all closed now, maybe even demolished.
Loew’s is now entirely gone from the Columbus area — in fact, they have only one theatre in all of Ohio.