Mt. Adams Cinema
1136 Belvedere Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
1136 Belvedere Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
4 people
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Nitpicky thing, especially since I’m ultimately guilty of the mistake in my initial submission, but could the listing be changed to Mt. Adams instead of the full word Mount? Seeing as how that’s the manner of spelling it was always presented in, and it would bring it in line stylewise with other Greater Cincinnati towns like Mt. Healthy. I guess I’m compulsive like that. ;/
Rocky Horror originally attracted the Clifton arty punk hip types, but by the end of the show’s run it was drawing kids from Mt. Washington.
The February 15, 1913 issue of Motography ran this somewhat sloppy notice in its “Ohio” section:
Misspellings and misdirection notwithstanding, the item clearly is about the Belvedere Theatre.The Belvedere Theatre launched by Herman Heinrich and Bernadina Schumacher on September 20, 1913 as a 317-seat silent movie house. The theatre didn’t convert to sound and was offered for sale. The theatre catered to a neighborhood which had a Germanic clientele. The theater remained in operation to the end of the 1920s as a silent house but didn’t make the conversion to sound.
The theatre modernized in 1942 by operator George Buquo and his wife with a refresh and new sound system. Caroline K. Niedenthal , who operated the Evanston Theater, purchased the Belvedere continuing its operation into the TV age when the theatre was used for other purposes.
In 1971, Pat Montgomery took on the location and announced he would convert it into the Mt. Adams Cinema with 208 seats. It launched July 31, 1973 with repertory films, cult films and art films.
The venue became known for its regular weekend midnight screenings of “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” That film had played an unsuccessful two-week run at the Alpha Fine Arts in December of 1976. As the film gained cult status around the world, the Mt. Adams rebooked the film on its single-screen for the week of May 25, 1977 with three daily shows. The film found a cult audience and the Mt. Adams carried the show for five months. “Rocky Horror” would go on to runs at the Bijou, 20th Century and – perhaps most famously in Cincinnati – the Skywalk Cinema which carried the film from October 6, 1978 to January 5, 1991.
Parallax Theaters took on the Mt. Adams in the late 1970s closing it in March of 1979 citing lack of parking as the primary issue. The theater reopened in August of 1979 under new operators but appears to have closed in 1981 and offered for sale. It was said to have been vacant for most of the 1980s before being purchased in 1989 for $70,000 and used for other purposes.
I do know that “THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW” actually premieres at the Alpha Fine Arts Cinema in Northside. It played for one week and then went on to become the midnight favorite that everyone loves.
My Grandmother Bernadina Schumacher and her husband Herman Heinrich Schumacher and their (5) sins and (1) daughter lived in MT Adams from Approx. 1905 to 1946 +/–. It has been reported that my grandmother and her children after (Grandad passed, 1920) owned and ran the Belevedere Theater which was directly to the rear of their house on Fuller Street. I recall my dad and other family members talking about working at this Theater. I also recall seeing an article of the Schumacher involvement in this theater contained in a newspaper which was announcing the re-opening of the Belevedere many years ago. If anyone has any reliable knowledge as to how a German speaking widow with (6) children could have owned and or operated this theater so early in the film industry, I would appreciate it if you could report on this website or contact me directly, Larry Schumacher at Thanks
Yes, Monty Python and the Holy Grail had midnight showings in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Am I out of my mind or was this theater the midnight showing home of Monty Python & the Holy Grail???
Can’t add any new info, my family used to own The Belvedere Theater – remember it only as storage for WLW-TV set storage, I helped take out the old projectors in the late 50’s and donated them to my high school Andy
I live in one of the two condos that used to be the Belvedere Theater. I would love to find some old photos from its days as a theater, church or saloon. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Tricia: thank you for sharing your memories of your dad and his time with the Mt. Adams. It saddens me that I never got to see the place when I lived in Cincinnati.
I’m wondering if you can help me with a little ROCKY HORROR history though. You’re claiming that ROCKY showed first at the Adams – do your remember the dates? My earliest memories of the movie playing in Cincy was seeing newspaper ads for it at a short-lived mini-plex in Corryville near UC – each room had its own name, so it was called “The Bijou, the Roxy, and the Ritz” – and then after that, its long residency at the Skywalk downtown, where I ultimately saw it. I’d love to establish a timeline for the movie.
My father, Ray Williams, reopened this eclectic theatre in the 1970’s. Our large family has many happy memories of watching Harold and Maude, The Red Balloon, The Harder They Come, Amacord, etc. in this labor of love theatre my father created. It was the first Cincinnati theatre to show Rocky Horror. The best projectionist in town worked there, his name was Tuck. If anyone has any great stories of Ray Williams please share them.
According to a recent Enquirer news article the Mt. Adams (nee Belvedere Th.) has become a ritzy condo with full occupancy. Nice that they saved the structure even with the loss of the cinema. The building had also been used to store scenery for Ch.#5 NBC Television during some of its down years.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyum/3818093283/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyum/3818097581/
Sorry about the brevity, but there was no parking available and I was due to pick my daughter up from skating practice.
That place did have its charm…it was just off the corner of Belvedere and Hatch. Next to it on the corner was/is a corner store, and the guy who ran it at the time lived above it. He had a German shepherd whose bark you could hear on occasion inside the cinema. I miss the sandwiches at Pia’s…
I managed the Cinema when Parallax (actually based in Los Angeles) ran it from July 1978 to April 1979. Ray Williams, who owned the building, opened it up. I worked for Ray off and on, too, and for Michael Bazarri, who attempted to run it for a while in ‘77 before it closed, and then Parallax (now Landmark) attempted to run it. (They also had the Alpha for a while, from July '78 to December '78 but gave up on it. Northside then didn’t really support it as a repertory house.) After Parallax closed it another person gave it a run but closed it, too. It wasn’t the neighborhood (not entirely affluent back then)..it was parking parking parking – the great lack thereof that kept it from being successful. There were no lots or parking garages to speak of as far as I remember. That print of Harold and Maude slowly turned to dust as screened every night at 7:00 for a couple of years or so…and to call it splicy is an understatement. Mt. Adams also was the first home in Cincy for regular midnight screenings of Rocky Horror. And showing Eraserhead was a very happy time in my life!
The Belvedere Theater was built sometime between 1911 and 1913. It seated 205 people in a silent era ,in the sound era a hole was cut into the rear of the structure to mount exterior speakers inside a weather proof box to provide audio to its patrons.The building has also been a Beer Hall and a Church.The Mt. Adams Cinema adopted its name in July of 1973.They showed both 16mm and 35mm in their venue so lots of art films and small independant flicks got a screening here. The Mt. Adams closed in 1979.The last theater operators of note were Parallax a firm based in San Fransisco,Ca.
That’s correct stubaby because the theater was originally called the Belvedere Th. During later ww2 years it was used for storage of Ch.5 TV studio scenery.Of course what doomed the cinema was its lack of parking as its early patrons were all walkins.
Only visit to the Mt Adams that I recall, is when I saw David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” – many years ago! Nice little artsy theatre, but Eraserhead gave me serious nightmares! ( : I, too, agree that building still exists – though now entirely an apartment house, no doubt upscale condos! (On Belvedere Street, I think? not sure)
The building is still there. If memory serves it is on the SE corner of Hatch and Belvedre St. They did add a new story to the building, that might be why it was thought to be torn down.