Continental Art Theatre
13931 Euclid Avenue,
East Cleveland,
OH
44112
13931 Euclid Avenue,
East Cleveland,
OH
44112
3 people
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Windermere Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Opened in the 1920’s as the Windermere Theatre, a neighborhood theatre, and was renamed the Continental Art Theatre in the late-1950’s. The Continental was a sister theatre to the Heights Art Theatre in Cleveland Heights and the Westwood Art Theatre in Lakewood.
Like the Heights and Westwood, the Continental Arts Theatre had shown art/foreign films; then porn. In its final years, the Continental Arts Theatre had shown black-oriented action films before closing for good around 1974. The theatre was torn down afterwards – a Wendy’s is on the site now.
Contributed by
Toby Radloff
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
Toby: A minor correction: The theatre opened as the “Windermere” and remained under that name until the early 1940s when the marquee was damaged by a truck, removed, and then replaced with a smaller version and the new name, “Wind-A-Meer.” When the Continental Art Theatre made its debut, I can remember the storm of controversy that erupted in East Cleveland over the scheduling of the Brigitte Bardot movie, “And God Created Woman.”
The Continental, along with the Heights and Westwood were part of a chain of “art” theatres with other theatres in Columbus. I think it was called Bexley Theatres.
The Continental was where manager Nico Jacobellis got in big trouble for showing the “dirty” movie, I Am Curious Yellow. Actually a very tame foreign pseudo-documentary in b&w.
Jacobellis was also the theater manager when the Louis Malle film Les Amants(The Lovers) got seized by authorities for obscenity. The case wound up going all the way to the US Supreme Court.
The Bexley and World theatres in Columbus were part of a chain called ‘Art Theater Guild’.
Yes, that’s it, Art Theatre Guild – I forgot, it was a long time ago…
Here is a 1970 ad:
http://tinyurl.com/ylag5xu
The theater’s original name was the Windermere, not Wind-A-Mere, corresponding to its location near the corner of Windermere Street and Euclid Avenue, and perhaps meant to evoke someone’s memory of the Lake Windermere area in England. The name survives as the location of a transit station in East Cleveland.
jsomich on January 10, 2005 …..
The Continental was where manager Nico Jacobellis got in big trouble for showing the “dirty” movie, I Am Curious Yellow.
Thanks, that confirms something for me. I was living on Euclid near Eddy Rd. when I turned 21, and one of the first things I did was go down the street there to see “I Am Curious Yellow”. I’d bet this is also the place that ran “The Lickerish Quartet” around that time.
I think they also ran second-run mainstream films, as I recall seeing “The Birds” there.