Movie Palace
5589 Old Troy Pike,
Huber Heights,
OH
45424
5589 Old Troy Pike,
Huber Heights,
OH
45424
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 13 comments
Current street view uploaded.
George Gardner of Cinema Twenty launched what was to be the first of several Jerry Lewis Cinema locations in southern Ohio. It opened at the Imperial Shopping Center with its first film of “Airport” on September 13 1972. “The Poseidon Adventure” was the longest running film during the short run under the Jerry Lewis moniker. With the Jerry Lewis circuit going bankrupt and then defunct, the name was changed to the Huber Heights Cinema beginning May 10, 1974.
Randolph H. Haun took on the venue in February of 1976 running it as a family discount house closing it and the County Square Cinema in October of 1978. Carolee Austin took on the venue on November 3, 1978 as the Flicker Palace with “Hooper.” It ended on October 26, 1995 at end of lease with “Apollo 13.” It relaunched as the Huber Heights Movie Palace with a second run policy and “Independence Day” on October 18, 1996. It closed February 1, 2001 with “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
I was cleaning and found an article from when Carolee Austin reopened the theater. According to the article from the Dayton Daily News, Randolph Haun took ownership of the theater in May 1976 and opened the County Square Cinema in Englewood in 1977. Both theaters closed in 1978. Carolee Austin took over the theater and changed the name from the Huber Heights Cinema to the Huber Heights Flicker Palace. She also raised the prices to $2.50 for adults and $1.25 for children.
I would like to please add my comments. Back in the late 80s through the 90s, I was a single parent raising two kids. This was our most favorite theater and I knew Kirk well. He always spoke to us and made us feel welcomed. I distinctly remember the huge wall photo montage of all the movie stars very well. The kids and I went here just about every week through the time of the Danberry. This theater was on the RTA bus line and Danberry wasn’t. I remember it well and will always cherish the place.
Kirk who ran this theater from 1992 – 1995 was going to triplex it.
He had everything ready to do; however before work was to start Danbarry made news of them coming in 1996.
Kirk could not afford the current rent to stay open. The sad thing is he gave up on it before it closed.
He opened two failed Pizza Shops. One up the road from Flicker, which closed very fast. The other was Rudy’s named after his favorite movie at the time.
His time at the pizza shops left to mismanagement at the Flicker. Simco who took over the Flicker and renamed it Movie Palace were paying only $1,000 for rent.
And in the last seven months paid nothing, this is however mostly because they took over Beaver Valley 6 because the lease from Sony was up and the land lord wanted Beaver Valley to stay open.
But if Kirk would have had a rent deal like Simco for just $1,000 a month it may have been saved.
But Kirk had loyal patrons that may have stuck with Flicker even with Danbarry but when Kirk left it to go on to the pizza shops it was closed long before Apollo 13’s last credits rolled.
I worked for a company that serviced the projection and sound equipment for the Flicker Palace during the early 80’s. Carol Austin was indeed the owner before Barry Weaver.
I worked at the Flicker Palace for nearly 10 years. as Senior Projectionist and Ass. Mgr. I have pay check stubs signed by Carol Austin
Working for Barry Weaver as the manager of the Flicker Palace then having a chance to buy it were some of the best years of my life. I really do appreciate the nice comments here on this site. Thank you all very much. Kirk Brackman, manager, 1990-1992; owner, 1992-1995.
I am not sure when Weaver Cinemas took over the Flicker Palace but they did own it by 1984 before selling it to their manager in around 1992.
Weaver operated four theatres that I know of through the 1980’s. Huber Heights Flicker Palace, Englewood Cinema (they still own the building and shopping center it is housed in), The DaBel Cinema and Midtown Twin in Middletown. Brenda Baker who now owns Englewood Cinema was a general manager for the Weaver Cinemas chain.
I also now Huber Heights Flicker Palace name came after it was called first Jerry Lewis Cinema than Huber Heights Cinema.
I saw “Attack of Kiler Tamatoes” their for a midnight showing and Weaver Cinemas was operating it.
I did look up several newspaper ad yesterday from the early 80’s and infact it did read “Weaver Cinemas” Flicker Palace / Englewood.
DaBel at this time was still owned by Midstates Theatres.
FUN FACT
A lot of people think the Jerry Lewis was Huber Heights' first cinema … Not true! The Wayside North was opened in April 1962 by Charlie McCartney and is located on Brant Pike. It featured Disney cartoons on the lobby wall and the building still stands today. The Huber Heights Wayside played its final show in the fall of 1965. The building still stand today!
I started working at the Flicker Palace the day after I turned 16— May 1978. I worked there on and off for the next 5 years. Never met anyone named Weaver. There was a Weaver cinema in Englewood and I remember briefly in Huber- but not at that time. Carol Austin is the one who renamed it the Flicker Palace after her husband foreclosed on it. She would bring a tiny dog with her every night and put it in a cage in the lower level office. She always wore a smock- and drove a Vega- despite her wealth. After the weekend movies started, she would go to a local restaurant one strip mall over and smoke and talk to people. She was there nearly every single night for a long time. (Come on guys— I was there. This isn’t a recounting from a newspaper.)
Although there were midnight movies before her, she brought them into their heyday. I remember seeing Motel Hell on New Years Eve at the party she threw us at the theater. She turned weekend midnight shows it into cult hit nights— A Boy and His Dog, Eraserhead, Tomatoes, Motel Hell, The Hills Have Eyes— and even the Rocky Horror Picture Show. But she searched everyone who came into the theater to make sure they didn’t bring anything to throw at the screen. (Screens are expensive.)
I still have a scar on my lower right inside arm from cleaning the popcorn popper (made with solid coconut fat and Savorol) and I still have the red, cap-sleeved t-shirt we were required to wear that says “Huber Heights Flicker Palace” on the left breast. I also remember that’s where I was when there was a local earthquake. It was a Sunday matinee and the large glass windows in the front of the theater wavered like paper. I can still name most the people who worked there at the same time and run into them occassionally. We were a small group and made sub-minimum wage.
Weaver and his father owned the Huber Heights Movie Palace than Flicker Palace after independent operators opened it as Jerry Lewis Cinema in 1970.
They had hoped like many mom and pop operators back than when they bought franchises to Jerry Lewis Cinema to have multiple locations.
Plans called for at least 5 and up to 8 Jerry Lewis Cinemas in the Miami Valley.
When the Jerry Lewis Cinemas went belly up they never opened other area location.
They change the Jerry Lewis Cinema to Huber Heights Cinema in 1972.
The Huber Heights Cinema continues to loose money and the owners could never shake the money lost from the Jerry Lewis dreams.
Huber Heights Cinema became the Huber Heights Flicker Palace in late 1975 early 1976.
The Weaver Cinema chain which today own Weaver Properties in Dayton operated the Flicker Palace the longest from around 1979/1980 â€" 1992 continuing to playing family films and midnight movies on Friday and Saturday nights for mom and dads.
Kirk Brackman than manager of Flicker Palace bought the cinema in 1992 from Weaver. Weaver also closed the DaBel and sold MidTown Cinemas and Englewood Cinema about this time.
The Flicker Palace closed in Oct. 1995 because the landlord would not drop rent from $2,900 a month to $2,000 when DanBarry 12 was opening its first area discount cinema just up the road from Flicker in early 1996.
Mark and Scott Ballard of Huber Heights who’s Simco Refrigeration Inc has a lot of business when Lofinos Plaza Shopping Centers and stores that include Cub Foods and Save A Lot.
Mark and Scott Ballard paid only $1,000 a month to the fully equipped Flicker Palace
The cinema reopened in October 1996 as Huber Heights Movie Palace with ID4.
Huber Heights Movie Palace struggled as a second run cinema.
Huber Heights Movie Palace had also first run showings or several fox pictures.
They showed Titan A.E., Anastasia and Home Alone 3 to name a few.
Huber Heights Movie Palace showed first run for only $3.50.
This was because the two corporate billionaires that is Fox and Showcase Cinema’s owners have a long feud that still is going on and seems will never end.
The first runs still could not save the Huber Heights Movie Palace. The Huber Heights Movie Palace than would shift from a second run cinema for $1.00 to an intermediate cinema for $3.50.
They seemed to change formats weekly. This has memories of Chakeres and Washington Square when they really did not know what to do with that cinema.
Moving from second mainstream movies to first run art movies. Mark and Scott Ballard rented the cinema out to show Bollywood movies to make extra money.
Lofinos however asked Mark and Scott who took over the old Flicker Palace because they loved going there as kids and as a hobby to take over than Loews Beaver Valley Theatres.
Lofinos told them that Loews was not renewing the lease and he didn’t want the cinema closed.
Lofinos that it would be temporary until they (Lofinos) found a new operator.
Loews Beaver Valley Theatres was also fully equipped.
Loews Beaver Valley Theatres became Beaver Valley Cinema on December 9, 1999.
The first run Beaver Valley Cinema took a toll on Mark and Scott and on The Movie Palace.
Beaver Valley Cinema was costing $8,000 a month on rent another $5,000 in electric up to $12,000 in the winter. That was before film and other cost.
The Movie Palace was a dead horse by the summer of 2000. The Movie Palace was basically given to them rent-free as long as they kept Beaver Valley Cinema opened.
Lofinos could not find someone to operate Beaver Valley and Mark and Scott had enough.
The Movie Palace closed February 1, 2001 with The Grinch.
Beaver Valley followed in April 2001.
Lofinos gutted the Movie Palace in May 2001 and has been for lease for retail ever since.
reichspot The Flicker Palace history of the Huber Heights Flicker Palace is not flawed. It opened as Jerry Lewis Cinema. The theater was within a few years was the Huber Heights Cinema. Barry Weaver later operated the cinema and changed the name in last 1970’s to Flicker Palace. Weaver operated it throughout the 1980’s playing midnight movies like “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”. Go to the library in the ads from 1980’s you see “Weaver Cinemas” starting in 1980. Movie Palace name came in 1996 when it was reopened.
Your history of the Huber Heights Flicker Palace if flawed. I worked there in the mid to late 70’s as a “popcorn jockey” and occassional usher. I was also family friends of the owner, Carolee Austin. Carol acquired the cinema when a loan her husband made the the owner defaulted. She owned the theater for at least 10 years of it’s history. She made it extrememly successful, and was the one who re-named the theater “The Huber Heights Flicker Palace” from its past name of the Huber Heights Movie Palace. During Carol’s ownership, she ran week-end midnight movies of cult favorites such as “A Boy and His Dog”, “Eraserhead”, “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”,“Motel Hell” and other extreme “B” classics. She sold when her and her husband decided to leave the Dayton area and move to Arizona. I haven’t read the marquee lately to see if the name was changed back to the Huber Heights Movie Palace. I’ve never heard it referred to as just The Movie Palace as it is referenced in the title here.
I saw a place to add stories— oh my. After working there for several years, there are so many I’m sure your word count wouldn’t allow for them. The crowds at the midnight movies, Sunday matinees PACKED with kids, the large, wall-sized poster of all the old movie stars that graced the whole back of the lobby— and people came in from all over just to get the popcorn- that I still know how to make!