Shaker Square Cinemas
13116 Shaker Square,
Cleveland,
OH
44120
13116 Shaker Square,
Cleveland,
OH
44120
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 36 comments
Fifty years ago today THE EXORCIST opened here. Colony was among only two-dozen cinemas in twenty-one North American markets to play the film at release launch.
Here’s a new 4-page 50th anniversary FIDDLER ON THE ROOF retrospective featuring a roadshow playdate chronology and historian Q&A. The Colony’s year-long run is mentioned in the piece.
The theater closed January 30, 2019, but is expected to reopen February 14, 2019 under the operation of Atlas Cinemas:
Cleveland, OH: Shaker Square Cinemas Closed, But Will Reopen Under New Management – Feb 4, 2019
My grandmother said she and my grandfather went there when they were dating, which would have been in the late 30s. She said they’d sit in the balcony. I asked her (teasingly) what she was doing in the balcony, and she said “smooching!”
radarKW is correct. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History provides this page about the Colony Theatre, and gives January, 1992, as the time of its reopening as a 5-screen house. I’m not sure what my source was for the claim of 1983 for the multiplexing, but it might have been the Mesbur+Smith page which is now gone. Or it could have been a typo. Spell check, alas, never finds mistakes in numbers.
Oops.. of Lawrence of Arabia that is…
Joe, I don’t think that the Colony was split into 5 theaters until 1992. I have a memory of seeing the restored 1989 version in the full Colony auditorium in 70mm complete with the full score. (overture, intermission, and exit music) Needless to say…it was a spectacular cinema experience.
Three photos of the Shaker Square Cinemas can be seen here, on the web site of Mesbur+Smith Architects, the Toronto firm responsible for the 1999 renovations.
The auditorium had been carved into five screens in 1983, and the original lobby had been destroyed by a fire at some point. When Cleveland Cinemas took control of the house in 1999, the earlier multiplexing was torn out and replaced with a new six-screen configuration with stadium seating, and John Eberson’s original Art Moderne lobby design was restored.
I worked this theater as part time Assistant Manager of The Colony in 1950. It was a beautiful place to work. Most of my time was spent at the Uptown Theater on St. Clair Ave. in Cleveland. hehrman28
This opened as Colony on December 27th, 1937
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Geez,Chuck.I don’t know if even IMPRESSIVE is the right word.what a Theatre!
According to the weblink in the second comment at top, the Shaker Square was renovated in 1999.
Here’s a recent exterior picture showing that the entrance has changed very little since the theater was known as the Colony:
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Wish this cinema would never have been made into 6. Was a great theater in its day has the colony. Cleveland Cinemas should have kept the Colony name
It was indeed the Colony Art Theater for while: Here’s an ad for the showing of “La Dolce Vita:"
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The Colony theater had about 1500 seats on the main floor and the balcony. On Saturday afternoons in the 1940’s, 50’s and early 60’s they had kids matinees with a feature, usually a western, a serial, five cartoons and a Three Stooges, Leon Erroll, Laurel and Hardy or Vera Vague comedy. There were two shows at 2 and at 4 pm. After six o'clock there was a single adult feature showing three times with the last showing about 11pm. News real, cartoon and trailers were also shown. The theater was operated by Warner Bros, then Stanley-Warner Theaters
Here is a 1984 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/c7tg54
I vaguely remember it being called the Colony Art for a time……
The Colony did not play “sub runs” before the reserved seat runs of MY FAIR LADY, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, FINIAN’S RAINBOW, THE BIG FISHERMAN etc. The Colony was the classy premiere showcase for the best foriegn films in Cleveland.It had a several month premiere run of LA DOLCE VITA as well as Antonioni’s LA NOTTE, PURPLE NOON and many others. It was then called the Colony Art for a few years. i remember seeing DOCTOR ZHIVAGO there dressed in a suit with my date home from college for Christmas, and then going to the super cool Stouffer’s Shaker square for dinner, worrying if i had enough money to cover our dinner.
The Sound of Music actually played at the Ohio theater downtown. My Fair Lady did play at the Colony along with Dr. Zhivago and many other roadshow engagements. Shaker Sq. was such and upscale area when I was younger. I’d hate to see what it looks like now. Such a shame…….
The Colony was where my family went to see all the big big box office pictures and movie spectaculars. Dinner at Stouffers and then the movie. As a kid, we always drove through Shaker Square to go downtown and I seem to remember commenting that movies such as the Sound of Music, King and I and My Fair Lady played there for months if not for years. The last time I was there was a family get together over winter holidays in the mid 70’s for the screening of the restored silent classic “Napolean”.
I was just a boy in the 50’s and 60’s but not too young to appreciate how wonderfully luxurious the Colony was. The lobby was palatial with it’s marble floor and columnsâ€"there seemed to be brass trim, chandeliers, lush carpet and velvet ropes all the way up to the balcony. The restrooms and waiting lobby were down a glorious flight of wide, red, carpeted stairs which also merged onto marble floors. Beautiful paintings, gold-leafed sconces and lavish mirrors adorned the walls. The huge 70mm Cinemascope screen was one of the first in Cleveland. The stereo sound was spectacular using Voice Of The Theatre boxes. The most memorable of the movies that I saw there were: The Big Fisherman, The Ten Commandments, The King and I, The Blob and The West Side Story. Uniformed ushers, equipped with flashlights were available to take you to a seat on crowded showings.
My friends and I loved to stroll around the square, window shopping while meeting other kids. We would spend our allowance money on shakes and treats at Miller or Marshals drug store while day-dreaming about what was going on in the theater. Shaker Square was truly magnificent up till the time when my parents moved us away to Austin, Texas. I never forgot the Colony Theater or my wonderful memories of the spectacular City of Cleveland… . My, I could write a book about it!
Vince Mariani
The Shaker Sq Cinema is not 6 screens and is own by Ckleveland Cinemas. From what I have read the lobby was refurbished in it original style. All the houses have stereo now. Whfen it was a five screen theatre the owner was Atlas cinemas.
Before it was a roadshow house, it showed mostly art movies from overseas and speicalty film.
When it reopen it ran mostly 2nd run films in 70mm. That was before other theatres in Cleveland would. Then the new owners of the Sq wanted it to be made into a 5 screen house and now to its present 6 screen
This wass my favoie movie house in the 70'. Last reserve seat movie was Fiddler on the Roof
In the early 70s, Shaker Square was an upscale shopping area, with a Halle Bros. store and a Stouffer’s restaurant. The nearby English Tudor style Moreland Court apartments on Shaker Boulevard were filled with “old money” people.
The Colony and the Vogue were both Stanley-Warner houses. I saw the original “Exorcist” here back in the early seventies. For that film, all the ushers were equipped with smelling salts, and in case someone tossed their cookies, there was a mop and wringer-bucket near the back of the auditorium. Today, “The Exorcist” seems fairly tame, but back then it was considered over the top.