Always the Great White Whale of buildings in the stretch of Secor Road between Central and Monroe, and with a parking lot large enough for a battleship, anyone who went to a movie there can’t forget the Showcase Cinemas, which closed in 2005 and torn down in December, 2010.
Never split up into sixteen-plus theaters, Cinema I and II, as it was known when it opened December 17, 1964, was billed as “an entirely new concept in luxury entertainment”: stereo sound, sight-line picture viewing, reclining lounge rocking chairs, and if my memory serves me correctly, a curtain. And what did they get? A William Shatner movie.
The story about the gala preview the evening before noted that the Redstone brothers, Sumner and Edward, made no financial study of Toledo before deciding to build. “One of the brothers said they just looked at the size and nature of the city and decided it to give it a try,” which in this day and age sounds incredible.
Prior to Cinema I and II’s opening, a look at the Peach Section showed the area dominated by the downtown theaters – The Esquire, the Pantheon, the Valentine – a few away from downtown, like the Colony (and the Westwood!) and the drive-ins, which apparently stayed open year-round (since the above ad was competing with ads from the Franklin Park and Miracle Mile drive-ins on the same page, in December).
The review of the building itself was by The Blade’s Joan Anderson:
Champagne and hors d’oeuvres were served at the preview opening of Cinema I and II last night and seemed quite appropriate.
The vastness and luxury of the surroundings can make a person feel that going to a motion picture is actually a social event. Last night was social for the nearly 1,000 who attended but future audiences will find that the atmosphere of the theaters will make them feel a little special.
The St. Francis de Sales High School band greeted guests as they entered the great, white structure, and the school’s chorus sang Christmas carols from up on the mezzanine. People roamed this mezzanine, which skirts the lobby on all four sides, studying the works of local artists on display.
Edward and Sumner Redstone, theater representatives from Boston, watched as Vice Mayor Walinski cut the ribbons opening the two theaters. And then the guests were given the choice of seeing “The Outrage” or “Send Me No Flowers.” …
The theater seats, designed specifically by the Redstone chain, have high rocker backs and are quite comfortable. A most pleasant discovery of the movie-goers last night was that when the theater advertised sight-line viewing, it meant just that. Each seat has an unobstructed view of the large wrap-around screens.
Cinema I seated 705, Cinema II seated 1,100.
Sumner Redstone, of course, went on to not just bigger and better things but gigantic things through his company National Amusements, like Viacom, CBS Corporation, MTV Networks, BET, and Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks movie studios.
Since I am in my fifties, my memories of the downtown theaters are dim, if not gone. The Colony Theater was a nice place though, and showed a lot of kid movies. But Cinema I and II was the place to go. Kind of a refined atmosphere if you were a little kid, and I remember seeing a lot of movies there: My Fair Lady is probably the earliest one I can remember there, because I can remember how big the auditorium seemed. And the chairs were as advertised: really, really nice.
At some point, at least by 1971, the big theater was divided into two theaters, making it Cinema I, II and III, while Cinema IV and V (also known as the Franklin Park Cinemas) were built on Monroe St. They opened in the fall of 1971. I cannot determine when exactly, but shortly after the Franklin Park Mall opened.
Google Maps has an update picture now from 2013.
I was born in ’78, spent my first 8 years in Toledo (Upton/Sylvania Ave) and then moved out to Sylvania. I can remember going to this theater a few times…. most memorable would be seeing Jurassic Park when it first came out. You are spot on about the parking lot in back. At a time when the downtown theaters were still rockin’ with their limited parking space to this theater, it was a HUGE difference.
Great website.
“Never split up into sixteen-plus theaters, Cinema I and II, as it was known when it opened December 17, 1964, was billed as “an entirely new concept in luxury entertainment”: stereo sound, sight-line picture viewing, reclining lounge rocking chairs, and if my memory serves me correctly, a curtain. And what did they get? A William Shatner movie.”
A theater like this was worthy of “Roadshow” attractions but I guess nothing was around in ’64 to take advantage of it’s first day.
At present, the property is being redeveloped as a combination of two hotels with some strip plaza on the side. Why the area needs two more inns to accommodate the other three, I don’t know? Just seems like a waste of resources to me, though I wish the theater was still there (and the old Westgate, such a mess they did to that).
I remember” The Roadshow Entertainers” opened the theatres in a grand way. The Roadshow was the best entertainment that N.W. Ohio had ever seen, they could be seen every Fri.&Sat. at Niko’s Speakeasy at 5365 Monroe St. Sylvania, Ohio.
My dad played for the roadshow entertainers!
My father was the bass player for the RSE!
My father owned Niko’s Speakeasy ( Nick Hatzidakis) I remember when the Roadshow performed at the opening of Cinema 1&2. I did not attend but I remember my Dad telling me about the performance of the Roadshow. I was about 14 -15 years old when the Roadshow played at my dads place but I was there every Fri and Sat night because I worked with a school friend parking cars and directing cars and also cooking pizza’s in our small kitchen. I do remember all the members of the Roadshow along with your Dad John Thone who played the stand up bass with the Roadshow. Most of them have passed away which is very sad. I would love to see any memoribilia of the Roadshow or old pictures of niko’s. I sang with a band called The Young Folk Entertainers that was inspired by the RSE and also the Villagers that was a popular group that played at my Dads place Niko’s Speakeasy.If anyone has any memoribilia of those fond days please e-mail me at hatzidakisr@gmail.com. Thank-You for these fond memories.
I remember seeing The Shining with Jack Nicholson and Superman the movie at Showcase Cinemas awesome movies with my older brother. When the movie was over stepped outside to Total snow conditions totally nice great memories. I’m in my fifties now.
one dark, typically boring toledo Sunday evening, Linda Hoyt, Jerry Albright and i sat down together, with no one else in the bar, because I had a crush on Linda, and Jerry and I were good friends from toastmasters … as we talked and listened, Linda, with some easy frustration, said that there was nowhere in toledo where “entertainers” could perform, could sing or dance or tell jokes or whatever … Jerry and I looked at one another, shrugged and smiled and, when niko came back to our table to take new orders of alcohol, I got an idea and asked niko, in his simple, blue collar bar, if we could invite simply frustrated entertainers to perform their music on the next friday and Saturday evening, to maybe become part of a new toledo entertainment troupe … niko, with wide open eyes, said “yes!”
so that week Linda and I contacted people, quiet musical performers, to ask if they’d like to perform their music the coming Friday and Saturday evenings, at niko’s speakeasy, to compete, or explore, the possibilities of them performing at niko’s simple tavern …
the next Friday evening we had performers, allotted 20 minutes to display their musical skills, singing, playing instruments individually and as combos. comedians, dancers, etc from 7pm Friday evening until dawn the next morning … so many people were excited and interested that the same permances happened Saturday evening until dawn .., we had so much fun!
for the next few months people volunteered to perform on Friday or Saturday evenings at niko’s speakeasy until we ended with a core of 8 musicians and singers that became the “roadshow entertainers” performing at niko’s, and becoming so locally famous and popular that they performed before full houses in Ann Arbor at the university of Michigan, and in Columbus at Ohio state … we oroduced 2 “lo’s” and melted into obscurity …
don vonvolkenburg
po bos 65
lummi island, wa 98262
1-369-758-7244
lipotufu08@gmail.com
My mom became the assistant manager of Cinemas I, II & III in 1971 when they opened the Franklin Park IV & V. She worked every Saturday and, since my dad didn’t know what to do with me and my sisters without my mom there, we went to free movies every weekend (we saw “Cabaret” 11 times and, being 11, I still never exactly understood it but I liked the songs. “Billy Jack” was also a family favorite and we saw it literally dozens of times. I also missed quite a bit of the meaning in that one too, but also liked the music.) When we moved to Los Angeles in 1975, I was unimpressed by the theatres. Even the legendary Grauman’s (later Mann’s) Chinese theatre was not as luxurious as the old Cinemas I, II & III on Secor Road.
I worked at Cinema 123 in 1970 as an usher while I attended UofToledo. It didn’t pay much but it was so much fun! There were 15-20 of us. We had cool royal blue uniforms with brass buttons and golden epaulets. Also matching blue pants with a red stripe down the side. Kind of like the Marines!
Compared to the casual movie-going experience of today, it was a more formal thing. People dressed up and it was a big event. We ushers would escort you to your seat with little flashlights. Yes, there was a curtain! A plush red one. It would be open during the trailers but then would close and the movie music would start and then re-open for the movie.
These theaters were huge; more like concert halls with about 1,000 seats. The screens were the biggest in the city. Behind the screens were five huge speakers the size of a Cadillac stood up on end. We had movie premier nights with huge spotlights shining up in the sky. One of us would dress up in a formal doorman’s uniform with a calf-length overcoat that matched the blue uniform and open doors for arriving cars (and yes, limos too!).
The mezzanine that looked down on the huge lobby had beautiful original modern art that you could buy. The major movies had intermissions. The curtain would close, the lights would come up, and half the theater would empty out and it was all hands on deck at the candy/popcorn stand. Then we ushers would need to clean up the lobby from all the fallen popcorn after.
It was fun while it lasted. I miss it.