Circle Arts Theatre

Closed September 29th, 1963

The obituary LouB linked to says that the Circle Arts closed in 1963. This matches up with the claim on this web page, which also supports Eastsidekid’s memory of the former Varsity Theatre having been called the Circle Arts for a while:

“In early 1962 Fred Keller leased the theatre and renamed it the Circle Arts, and, as the new name implied, he specialized in European films. A year or so later he lost the lease and moved to the Varsity Theatre on Bailey and took the Circle Arts name with him.”

We’ve been waiting a long time, but here it is: A photo of the Circle Theatre, from a portfolio of the works of architect G. Morton Wolfe in the August, 1916, issue of the trade journal The Ohio Architect, Engineer and Builder.

The architect appears to have been influenced by the arts and crafts and the prairie styles in designing the front of the Circle Theatre. It gives the building a vaguely Oriental look. It would be interesting to know what the original interior looked like.

But I’m not surprised that there has been some confusion over who actually designed the Circle Theatre. It is not at all characteristic of Wolfe’s work, most of which consisted of very strong, even austere, industrial buildings, and fairly straightforward commercial blocks with restrained detailing. Wolfe did design at least one other theater during this period, though; the first Strand Theatre in Erie, Pennsylvania, which had a splendid, ornate auditorium, though I haven’t found any photos of the front of that house.

A friend of mine worked as usher and snackbar attendant in the earty 60’s here and stated that he eventually became sick from the smell of the rancid butter that he had to continually put on the popcorn!

Yum!!!!

I am searching for photos of this beautiful Circle Arts Theater on Connectiuct Street and any stories or nostolgia you have for any shows. Please contact me at Vilardo

I know this is a year later than these posts, but here goes…
The Circle Art Theatre at 3170 Bailey Ave was run by a gentleman named Fred Keller. He bought/leased a theatre on Bailey about two doors from the corner of Berkshire and Bailey, and called it the Circle Art. This theatre was not the Varsity, that theatre was somewhere else in the same area. The last I saw, it had been turned into a plumbing supply house. If you turn on “street view” in Google, you can see that the building is still a theatre now called The Uptown Theatre. I will post more on Fred later. He was quite the guy!

No, I have trouble with NY theaters for some reason. Go ahead and add it since you put in the first one.

Capri Art and Circe both had the same address on Bailey Avenue, so I think they were referring to the same theater. I just don’t know if it’s the one on this page.

UPDATE

I asked my mother some days earlier. It turns out that my father ( John Raymond, who didn’t go by Avenia because know one could remember it ) was doing a play with Howard Keel called “Kiss Me Kate“, I think that my father was the goofball with the pots and pans making all the racket doing odd things like falling into the band, Keel would just stand there with his arms crossed and wait for my father to get done. Every night it was a different act according to my mother. I have a photo here someplace according to my mom, I’ve got to find it…

Please, if you all find out anything about this like more photos or flyers I would be most interested.

Renato

I was digging through my mothers stuff when I came across a pile of old papers, there were 19 flyers for the “Circle Arts Theatre” May 22nd thru September 23, 18 weeks of hit musicals, mixed in with it all. I found that my parents were featured in the pictures on the back of it, I don’t believe that they have even met yet, finding this to be very interesting, I looked this up here. My mother is still alive and living in my home town but is now asleep and I could not wait so I am writing this now. I will ask her in the morning about this, in the meantime, I would like to find out more information about this theater.

Renato Avenia