Fairy Theatre & Airdrome

The 41-year old Fairy Theatre & Airdrome closed on August 26, 1951 after showings of “Rawhide” and “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain.” The next two ads were “Closed for Repairs” and “Building for Sale.” Less than a year later, it became a garage. (The technically correct name is the Fairy Theatre & Airdrome.)

Actually, the Fairy was about a 10-block walk from the Victory Theatre in Wellston. The street numbers are misleading because a new set didn’t begin with each block. The blocks were short. The theaters in Wellston were considered big-league, the Fairy just a neighborhood place. The Airdome, when I saw “The Perils of Pauline” there, was actually folding chairs in the back yard. People living in adjacent flats watched the show from their porches. Free. You could watch the film inside or outside, or go back and forth, as the projectors were coordinated. I don’t think 800 people could have been accommodated outdoors; maybe more like 80. And there was no “airdome;” it was just a back yard. Maybe there was something more ambitious earlier in the game; I was there in the late 1940s. The neighborhood was already coming apart, alas.

The description for the Fairy co-mingles data from the Victory and suggests that both theaters were within doors of each other. They actually were three blocks apart and on opposite sides of the street. The Fairy st 5640 Easton Ave. was a non-descript Komm house which changed double bills three times weekly. At sundown in the summer months, patrons would file next door to the Fairy Airdome where the show would continue. Our family home was nearby, and we patronized the Fairy for 20 years. The Victory (aka Mikado)was at 5955 Easton Ave. in the busy Wellston Loop shopping district. A distinct feature of the theater were twin box offices. As a teenager I had a part-time job across the street at a mens clothing store. I never recalled more than one box office open at a time.
Ralgev