Gloria Theatre
216 S. Main Street,
Urbana,
OH
43078
216 S. Main Street,
Urbana,
OH
43078
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The website has it now open with one screen only.
Became a twin on April 1st, 1977
Grand opening as cinema.
The 1910 map shows the ‘Billy S. Clifford Theatre’ had quite a large balcony. Perhaps this was torn out in the remodel. There is indeed an armory on the upper two stories.
The 1909-10 Cahn guide calls it the New Clifford Theatre, and gives the capacity as 1,200. Billy was the owner, while Ed. C. Clifford is listed as the manager.
The April 20, 1907, issue of the Chicago financial journal The Economist had this item:
As George Otis Garnsey (1840-1923) was a fairly well-known theater architect (some forty theaters and opera houses, mostly in smaller midwestern cities), it’s possible that he also designed the Clifford Theatre as it was originally built in 1905.Just uploaded some new pictures. I was passing through town.
GrandWorks Foundation has brought the name Gloria Theatre back to this house. A renovation project is ongoing. The venue is to be operated as a “…multi-purpose entertainment, business and community center….” Here is their web site.
The December 23, 1968, issue of Boxoffice has a brief notice about the two-screen Urbana Cinema, slated to be opened by Chakeres Theatres on Christmas Day. The opening would also mark the 27th anniversary of the opening of the house as the Gloria Theatre, on Christmas Day 1941.
An earlier Boxoffice item, from July 11, 1966, said that Chakeres Theatres had bought the Gloria, which the chain had operated under a lease for the previous twenty-five years, from Warren Grimes.
Gloria is re-opened since Oct. 2015. Opened with Ghostbusters! Grand works foundation, Urbana Methodist Church, & citizens have contributed to bringing back this now only in Champaign county gem! A large army of volunteers have been replairing & replacing the curtains, projection, stage and screen. Live venues too have been booked….
Facebook page: Remembering the Urbana Cinema / Gloria Theatre
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Remembering-the-Urbana-Cinema-Gloria-Theatre/576669955703067
Facebook page of the nonprofit group working to restore the theatre: https://www.facebook.com/grandworksorg
This is now closed.
The article RidgewoodKen linked to says that the theater was built “…in the early 1900s….” and notes that local resident John Carmazzi remembers going to the theater in 1939, the year before Warren Grimes bought the house and renamed it after his daughter.
Another article about the closing of the Urbana Cinema notes its connection to the Clifford Theatre, saying this: “In September of 1940, Urbana aviation lighting pioneer and industrialist Warren Grimes bought the building and tore out the decayed parts, remodeling the old structure into a premier motion picture house for Champaign countians.”
Mr. Carmazzi’s memory indicates that the Clifford Theatre was still operating (though he doesn’t mention the name) in the late 1930s. As I noted earlier, it’s pretty clear from the look of the building that it incorporates at least the side walls of the Clifford Theatre, built in 1905.
The side walls of the Urbana Cinema look much older than its 1941 build date. A number of sources indicate that the Gloria Theatre was on the site of an earlier house called the Clifford Theatre, which burned. A couple of sources say that the Gloria was rebuilt from the Clifford.
Judging from the apparent age of the side walls, at least parts of the Clifford must have survived the fire to be incorporated in the new structure, though the Clifford was a larger theater than the Gloria. The Cahn guide of 1910 said that the house seated 1,200, and its stage was 35 feet from footlights to back wall and 80 feet between its side walls. The proscenium was 40 feet wide and 30 feet high. The modern theater doesn’t appear to have a stage house at all.
This web page has a photo of the historical marker commemorating the Clifford Theatre. I’ve been unable to find any period photos of the outside of the Clifford Theatre, which opened in 1905, but a 1911 picture of the auditorium appears on page 2 of the May, 2008, issue of the Champaign County Historical Society’s newsletter, available in PDF format at this link.
http://ohiomemories.blogspot.com/2011/12/gloria-theatre-urbana-ohio.html
a view of the Gloria as it appeared at its opening on Christmas day 1941.
really what I meant was new Marquee letters.
According to Philip Chakeres, President, the theatre is closed while some exterior repairs are being undertaken, new seats are being installed, etc.
According to the Chakeres Theaters website, this theater is closed.
Thanks Chuck!
I’ll see if I can locate a night shot.
Well actually the marquee looks better (pretty cool actually) in person.
What to me is amazing is that a comparatively small town like Urbana, Ohio still has an operating movie theatre. The Urbana Twin has a very classy lobby with crystal chandeliers. I still like driving through a small town and find an OPEN theatre that is still close to the way it was in past years. If the predictions of people like Mark Lipsky (CT news item for Saturday 8/14/10) are correct, in short order there won’t be many theatres for us to see anywhere except our memories.
Pity they couldn’t invest in new marquee.Looks like a Drive-in.
In late 2004 Chakeres started playing first run films at Urbana (and Kettering) again.
The Gloria is owned by Chakeres Theatres a Springfield,Ohio theatre chain.The Gloria is now a sub-run movie house known as Urbana Twin Cinemas.