McKinley Theatre
1317 W. Tuscarawas Street,
Canton,
OH
44702
1317 W. Tuscarawas Street,
Canton,
OH
44702
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Melba Theatre
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The Melba Theatre was located on the north side of West Tuscarawas Street. It was about 75 yards west of the intersection of Brown Avenue and West Tuscarawas.
The Melba Theatre was opened on November 25, 1920 with Gaston Glass in “Humoresque”. It was either built beside or into part of the old McKinley Hotel building that stood right next to the east side of the railroad tracks. The hotel and theatre complex was directly across Tuscarawas from the B & O Railroad Passenger Station. The passenger station was pulled down about 1944.
On June 11, 1921 it was renamed McKinley Theatre. I used to go to their Saturday afternoon showings for five cents. The theatre closed in 1955. It was then gutted and the space was turned into a drive-through convenience store. The McKinley Hotel and theatre building was destroyed about 1970.
Contributed by
Jim Bailey
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
The last mention I find of the McKinley Theatre in Boxoffice is in an item about the hospitalization of Jerry Reinhart who, the item said, had “until lately” been owner of the Mozart and McKinley theaters. This appeared in the issue of February 18, 1956. The McKinley had apparently been closed the previous year, along with the Mozart.
Jerry Reinhart’s father, Harry Reinhart, had died in 1946, and his death notice in Boxoffice of September 28 that year said that he had bought the McKinley Theatre about 20 years before, so it had to have been in operation by the mid-1920s.
A later McKinley Theatre opened at a different location in Canton about 1965, and was originally a Stanley Warner house.
This opened as the Melba theatre on November 25th, 1920. Grand opening ad posted.
June 11th, 1921, reopens as McKinley. Another ad posted.