Great Northern Theatre
26315 Brook Park Road,
North Olmsted,
OH
44070
26315 Brook Park Road,
North Olmsted,
OH
44070
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Expanded to seven screens on April 5, 1986.
List of Owners: 1966-1975 RKO 1980-1994 Armstrong Circuit 1994-2000 Regal Entertainment Group
Two screens on June 15th, 1977. Another ad posted
Final day of business at the Great Northern Theater was 10/22/2000. The final films shown were Get Carter, Meet The Parents, Remember The Titans, Urban Legends 2, The Watcher, Bring It On, The Replacements, and What Lies Beneath.
March 24th, 1966 grand opening ad uploaded here
Right on riausche.
This is the way movie theaters should be build. NOt this crazy multi theater they do now. And I hate that they paly all the movies in every theater now
Photos added for Great Northern. One from ‘Cleveland Press’ article published in 1966; better quality picture at: http://cinerama.topcities.com/great_northern.htm
Some black/white from 1973 during St. Richards Church services at theatre (was still single screened) due to church renovations.
Four color pictures taken on Oct. 23, 2000 day after theatre closed which by that time was a Seven screened theatre complex. Four of the Seven theatres were in the original auditorium. The remaining Three were in newer construction in the rear.
I have more pictures if any interest.
Multiplex opening ad from December 16th, 1982 (With Garfield Mall Movies) at View link
March 24th, 1966 ad is at View link
The architect of this theater was quite possibly, if not definitely, Drew Eberson. The archive of his and his father’s work indicates he drew up plans for a theater at the Great Northern Shopping Center in 1965 for Stanley-Warner which was the original operator.
The theater’s page on Roland Lataille’s Cinerama site which includes an interior image:
http://cinerama.topcities.com/great_northern.htm
RKO Stanley-Warner also considered installing Cinerama at the Vogue in Cleveland.
Every great SF premiere between 1984 and 1997, I saw at Great Northern, all the Star Trek films, etc. There was a Mr. Bulky’s al most next door, and we’d buy our munchies there, and sneak them in…sometimes, we’d go to the Finast supermarket across the parking lot-I remember smuggling a pound of keilbasa and a one liter bottle of Coke in to see “STAR TREK IV:THE VOYAGE HOME”.
This was a great theater to see films. Too bad Regal had to close it
I will scan some of the pictures of Great Northern Theatre and send. Sometimes my scanner acts up so it may be a week or so.
I will scan some of the pictures of Great Northern Theatre and send. Sometimes my scanner acts up so it may be a week or so.
I’d love to see the photos too. Thank you.
Tom, I’d like to see the pictures. Could you send them to me at ? Thanks
Steve
I worked at the Great Northern Theatre for about two years while in high school. I remember the huge overlapping ribbon screen and going into the projectionist booth. If anyone is interested I have pictures from the 1970’s of when St. Richards Church rented the theatre in the 1970’s for church services that shows the huge curtain and size of the auditorium. It was very sad when the theatre was doubled to see them tear up the screen.
One small correction. This site was never occupied by a Dunham’s. The Dunham’s was next to the theater, and in fact closed before the theater did. As for the Dick’s, it first opened on Great Northern Boulevard around 1999, in a former Giant-Eagle (which itself was a former Rini-Rego), and moved to a site in Great Northern Mall earlier this year. It never occupied the theater space. Toby is correct in that the space is now a K&G.
K & G Mens Wear currently occupies the space formerly occupied by the Great Northern Theatre.
This Cinerama theater opened to the public on March 24, 1966. It featured a 90-foot screen and contained 1346 seats.
A correction to my earlier post. The correct address of the former Grest Northern Theatre is at Lorain and Brookpark Roads (Plaza at Great Northern), North Olmsted, OH 44070. And the sporting goods store now occupying the theatre space is Dunham’s, not Dick’s.