Mapletown Theatre
15716 Broadway Avenue,
Maple Heights,
OH
44137
15716 Broadway Avenue,
Maple Heights,
OH
44137
5 people
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Showing 16 comments
1955 photo added courtesy David Novak.
I,along with my friend John T.(Trzcinski)during the “Golden Era” of the late ‘60’s…..“Bonnie & Clyde”, “In The Heat Of The Night”, “Sand Pebbles”,“Bullitt”,“Wait Until Dark” et. al……We had a MANNERS'BIG BOY 'katy-korner’(across the bridge/street) from the theater, and we learned how to ‘inhale’ those “Big Boys”,Onion Rings, and I believe they also had battered Mushrooms too…..A British couple;Eric (?),w/wife and kids changed the marquee from withing the ‘housing’ of the sign itself,and also provided custodian service……prior to working there in HS,I was a customer since my childhood in the ‘50’s (I remember walking to the theater from Morgan Street across from Broadway Elementary School(defunct)after seeing “Jailhouse Rock” and at another viewing,“Rebel Without A Cause”…Or,being dropped off there on a Friday dusk hours in the early '60’s with $2….stopped at the drug store on the corner/by the bridge and boughts 20 candy bars for a NICKLE each….$.50 for the show, and I had $.50 left for Royal Castle across Broadway after the show (hamburgers were 15cents, and I believe a root beer was a dime)…btw, that Friday 'double bill’ was Bob Hope in “Call Me Bwana” and “Dr.No” with Sean Connery……….
November 23rd, 1949 grand opening ad uploaded here. it opened the same day as the Berea Theatre
The Google picture at the top shows the location of the old Maple Hts. Theater. The Mapletown was located across the street in the shopping center. Just move the cursor until you get to the other side of the street.
The opening ad lists 1800 luxurious seats.
Thats Art Deco alright!Very Nice.
Great looking pictures.looks like it became a dollar house.
November 23rd, 1949 opening ad is at View link
The Mapletown was located in a strip shopping center on Broadway. The center set back from the street and had four rows of parking in front of the building and the parking rows were parallel to the building. The center had approximately 20 stores including a Pick n Pay grocery store, a Kresge five and ten cent store and a drug store. There was a large parking lot in the rear of the center and a long arcade provided access for theater goers. I believe there was a bowling alley of the rear of the arcade. The theater seated about 1600 which was similar in size to the Yorktown, Vogue, Fairview and Richmond theaters.
The Mapletown Theatre was designed by Cleveland architect George Ebeling, and was one of several theaters of his design listed in his obituary in the November 21, 1951, issue of Boxoffice.
I’m jealous someone else got the fountain… I pulled two seats out of there but I remember that fountain. Grats on a great grab. I miss the awful deco-ish seats in the women’s powder room (one of my earliest memories was my grandmother taking me into the women’s room to go potty).
I loved the mapletown
I have the original blue porcelain water fountain and
the pink art deco ticket hopper
To me it was really special, going to the Mapletown, even though they showed “B” double features, not being on Cleveland’s “A” circuit as was my neighborhood’s theater, the Stillwell a few miles down the road. The Mapletown had deeper, plusher seats, a glass enclosed concession stand in the foyer from which one could see the screen, and as I recall, a dimmer on the lights-whoa! I barely remember it before a remodeling, when the entire auditorium was covered with gold colored curtains. Am I wrong, somebody? And, yes, it was way bigger than 850 seats! I guess that was the number after they divided it up. ‘Never got in there after that.
The Mapletown Theatre opened on November 22, 1949 after the old Maple Heights Theatre closed across the street the day before.
When I visited the Mapletown booth in the 60s, I found a typical Nabe booth of the era: 2 Simplex E-7 projectors, Simplex 4-star sound and Peerless MagnArc lamps.
This was a HUGE theatre and was later cut into a triplex before it closed.
Please contact me regarding this cinema.
Thank you