Pastime Theatre

Carl Fish operated the North Hills neighborhood silent-era movie house, the Pastime Theatre beginning on April 25, 1917. Fish launched the 400-seat venue with the first episode of “The Secret Kingdom” serial starring Dorothy Kelly. The Pastime Theatre operated at 727-729 Schiller Street in Akron. It had nothing in common with Akron’s original Pastime Theater at 86 S. Main Street (which has its own entry in Cinema Treasures) with the possible exception of that venue’s signage. Counting the Barberton Pastime Theater, it was one of three Pastime movie houses in the Akron area.

Mr. Fish would additionally operate the Alhambra Theatre and the Arlington Theatre across the street from each other in East Akron in the 1920’s. The Pastime Theatre closed April 28, 1929 without converting to sound. Amongst its last films was the locally-shot, “History of Acme Foods” about the local grocery store chain. The venue was next used as an auction house from 1929 to 1932.

The building was converted to a supposed garage in 1935 called North Akron Towing and Repair. But police were tipped off to a more nefarious operation going on in the former theatre. Behind the screen and behind a false wall was a giant still producing vast quantities of liquor (see photos). Had the distillers not also been tapping gas lines and stealing gas, they might have gotten away with their operation. The still was destroyed and the auto operation never started in earnest. The venue was used for a long-running meat packing operation from the 1940’s to the 1990’s. In the 2010’s, it was used as a “pop-up” warehouse for conducting estate and other sales.

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