Northland Cinema I & II
1865 Morse Road,
Columbus,
OH
43229
1865 Morse Road,
Columbus,
OH
43229
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.
Previous Names: Northland Cinema
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News About This Theater
- Mar 2, 2010 — Happy 45th, "The Sound Of Music"
The Northland Cinema was opened as a single screen on August 13, 1964 with Jack Lemmon in “Good Neighbor Sam”. It was purchased by General Cinema from Modern Theatres around 1971 and was part of a package deal that included the Eastland Cinema and University Flick here in Columbus and the Mercury Cinema and Mayland Cinema in Cleveland. It was twinned becoming the Northland Cinema I & II on October 24, 1975 with David Niven in “Old Dracula” & Alain Delon in “No Way Out”. It was closed on April 21, 1985.
It was demolished and a new 8-screen Northland 8 theatre was built on the site which opened December 11, 1985 (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures)
Contributed by
dave-bronx
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Recent comments (view all 26 comments)
Opening this April, according to the article.
Northland Cinema (1964-c.early ‘80s) was not only Columbus’s first suburban first-run theater, it was also Central Ohio’s first mall cinema. It opened with the mall, which was enclosed in the early '70s. Its first attraction was GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM, a Columbia comedy starring Jack Lemmon. It got into the roadshow business in Jan. 1965 with MARY POPPINS, followed in April by THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which played Northland until Nov. 1966. The first film I saw at Northland, which for my family involved a trip far across town, was THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE in July 1967. I was 13.
These first suburban theaters were transitional—somewhere between a downtown movie palace and the multiplexes that would be everywhere ten years after these single-auditorium places were built The cinema was twinned in the mid-‘70s, around the same time it was bought from its local owners by General Cinema. GCC closed it in the '80s to open a free-standing eight-cinema multiplex in Dec. '85. The first film I saw there was THE COLOR PURPLE.
Dennis, my introduction to the new NORTHLAND 8 was also at COLOR PURPLE. First time in a THX theatre and first time hearing DEEP NOTE. I’ll try to get that location up on Cinema Treasures soon.
This cinema was among the first to have installed the “EPRAD” Sword System which was designed to run movies completely unatended. The film would be equally divided between two projectors on large reels then threaded onto the two projectors. After an automated changeover from projector 1 to projector 2, projector 1 remains threaded to reverse and stop at the begining of the feature and waits for the next timed restart cue from the program timer. Projectors are modified to release film tension in the film gate during reverse function. Also a 10% increased speed in reverse is available in case film is not equally biased. The automation had other capabilities outside the booth such as theatre lighting, popcorn warmers, sound systems, etc.
Canibfrankwithyou, are you mixing up Northland and Cinema North? I know there was a Sword system at Cinema North, and it was just east of Northland.
Northland Cinema closed on 4/21/1985 with showings of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Porky’s and Care Bears. The ad noted that this theatre was closing and that a new 8-plex would be opened later in the year.
It was 50 years ago today that “The Sound of Music” premiered at Northland. With a reserved-seat run of 84 weeks, it’s almost certainly the long-run record holder for this venue. (Anyone know of something that ran longer?) It was one of more than 70 engagements in North America that ran the movie longer than one year.
“The Sound of Music” also was the second of two consecutive long-running Julie Andrews movies to play this venue during 1965-66. That two-year period must’ve been bliss or hell for local moviegoers depending on whether or not they were a fan of Julie!
Boxoffice of August 24, 1964, said that the Northland Cinema in Columbus had held its public opening on August 13. Originally a single-screen house operated by Cincinnati Theatres Co., the Northland featured a screen 60x25 feet and planned to show first-run movies.
Two screens on October 24th, 1975. Another ad posted.
Rebuilt and reopened in a new building on December 11th, 1985 with 8 screens