Westgate Cinema City
3221 Westgate Mall,
Cleveland,
OH
44126
3221 Westgate Mall,
Cleveland,
OH
44126
2 people
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Seattleprojectionist — that’s amazing. Thank you! I grew up in San Diego so was not a GCC person. This was the first and only time I had seen a “screen” like this and I sometimes thought I must have dreamt it. Wow. Thanks!
General Cinema placed their screens within a reflective surround structure in their older theaters. It was called the “Shadow Box”. This design feature was dropped by the middle of the 1970’s. New houses and remodels after that time had the screen surrounded by black masking.
Back in 1987, I spent quite a few days here while working for the Cleveland Plain Dealer during a summer internship. My memory is perhaps failing me, but I swear one of the screens in this complex had no, well, screen. The film was projected against a reflective wall, but with no actual screen. Can anyone confirm this for me … or confirm that I’m hallucinating my memories now? Thanks!
Thanks for these ads MR – the CT page for the Westgate 6-plex is located here: /theaters/7738/
Westgate 6-plex opening on June 3rd, 1989: View link
This opened on June 30th, 1971 with the second cinema of the Southgate. View link
I have many fond memories of going to the Westgate in the 70s when I was home from college in the summer. I seem to remember more than 4 cinemas however. Werent more added as time went on? Sorry to hear it’s gone. The mall too! Awful.
Renewing link.
This theater closed in June 1988, exactly one day before Westwood Town Center up the road opened. The last films to play here were the first movies to show at the new Westwood Town Center. The new Westgate theater opened one year later.
I work for AMC at Ridge Park Square and I haven’t heard anything about a new Westgate Theatre (although that’s not to say that what you heard isn’t true).
The entire Westgate Mall (less Kohl’s) including the newer GCC/AMC Westgate Cinema 8 has been demolished. The cinema is a pile of bricks. AMC operates an identical cinema ¼ mile away called the Westwood. Never understood why GCC built two different theaters so close as they are of similar age. Rumor has it that AMC is planning a big multiplex in the the Westgate Center.
Yes, Parmatown was open-air. up as far as The May Co. When they roofed it over they also built the area where the Cinema and Higbees was. That section you’ll notice has no posts holding the roof up like the other areas of the mall where the roof was added.
Heard a rumor that Parmatown Mall was also open-aired until roofed. Is this true? If so, was the theatre there before or after the “roofing?”
Westgate was an open-air shopping center until about 1969-70 when they roofed it over.
Lifestyle center is just a fancy name for an open-air mall, built to look like it’s an organically developed downtown. The idea is to bring back areas with a retail/residential mix, although I’m not sure if the development at Westgate has a residential component.
What is a “lifestyle center”?
Westgate Mall is now in the process of being demolished. The plan is to build a new “lifestyle center” on the land.
WESTGATE CINEMA CITY (GC unit #661)
3221 Westgate Mall
Fairview Park, Ohio 44126
Opened 1971 – William Riseman Associates, Architects – GCC’s first “built-as” 4 screen theatre, not resulting from divisions or additions in a space previously occupied by a Kroger supermarket – Cinema I 350 Seats, Cinema II 300 seats, Cinema III 170 seats, Cinema IV 140 seats – an imaginative although impractical floor plan – closed by GCC 1991 – space now food court – new six-plex built in parking lot away from mall.