Clifton Theatre

Joe Vogel on November 8, 2014 at 12:41 am

A building permit for a moving picture theater at Clifton Heights was issued to a J. A. Simmons in 1920, but there is evidence that the Clifton Theatre was in operation prior to 1914. It is possible that the permit was for an expansion or rebuilding of the Clifton, or it might have been for a different theater that we do not have listed.

The pre-1920 existence of the Clifton Theatre is indicated by an article in Film Bulletin of November 13, 1934, about a church-led boycott of all movies that had been going on for five months, leading to the bankruptcy of several independent theater operators in the region:

“Perhaps the most pathetic situation is the case of Jim Dick, of the Clifton Theatre, Clifton Heights. For more than 20 years Dick had been supporting himself and family from earnings of the little Clifton Heights theatre. A bank crash took his savings but he continued to eke out a slender existence from the theatre. Along came the Ban cutting his receipts almost in half, causing him to lose his theatre and leaving him and a family of seven destitute.”

miragirl on September 18, 2012 at 2:11 pm

I checked, the movie on the marquee “The Walking Hills” came out in 1949!

Mikeoaklandpark on June 10, 2011 at 12:25 pm

There is no way this theater closed in the 1970’s. I grew up in Clifton Heights and it was not there even in the early 60s'. It is interesting to see the theater.