Allen Theatre: Beatles Away With Words

 This was a great attraction, nine SROs in three days, crazy weekend. The full story here.

From Scene, August 24 - 30, 1972.

Allen Theatre: ZZ Top

 The passing of Frank Beard had me recalling their Allen Theatre appearances.

From Scene, December 5 - 11, 1974.

This was the show when a leg of the power feed into the building blew out during the sound check, forcing stagehands to do a bunch of workarounds, and the show went on.

From Scene, June 27 - July 4, 1974.

This show was the source of numerous Lovomotiv GT longplayers which were handed out prior to the show. 

Loew's State

 Mezzanine stairs, June 2017.

RKO Palace

 Lobby RKO Palace last month.

RKO Palace

 Music alcove in the RKO Palace a couple weeks ago.

RKO Theatres

 RKO ad from the Plain Dealer, July 10, 1936.

Loew's Theatres

 From the Plain Dealer, July 10, 1956.

Loew's State

 Dome at Loew's State on Monday morning.

Playhouse Square

 Looking east on Euclid Avenue on Monday morning. Looks a lot different than it did in 1971. Many Thanks to Brian Adelson for the hospitality.

November 1971, Larry Nighswander photo. Didn't look much different four months later when I started work down there.

Bees

 Live bees displayed in the Palace lobby, from Motion Picture News, September 26, 1925.

Surrey With the Fringe on Top

 Palace bally for East Lynne, a surrey with the fringe on top at 19th & Euclid, from Motion Picture News, October 10, 1925.

Dave Mason

 The recent passing of Dave Mason had me reminiscing about the first rock show I worked at the Allen. It was my second day there, Sunday, March 26, 1972. The audience of 2,860 all looked like the bad guys on Adam-12. When the house lights went out, the marihuana was lit, for a brief few seconds the auditorium would be illuminated by hundreds of matches and lighters. When I asked a policeman about this, I was told, "not a big deal kid." Quite a different message than school and telly. I had no idea what loud was until that night, the sound was quite deafening, making hard to communicate with co-workers.

From the Plain Dealer Action Tab, March 17, 1972.

Allen Theatre: Parliament-Funkadelic

 An Easter Sunday with P-Funk at the Allen.

From The Plain Dealer Action Tab, April 2, 1976.

Allen Theatre: Patti Smith

 A half century ago... Patti Smith, with Nils Lofgren and Les Dudek on a Sunday night.

 

From Scene, March 18 - 24, 1976. 

From Scene, April 15 - 21, 1976.

 

This was much better than the previous attraction, Patti would later appear at the Palace on June 23, 1979. 

Allen Theatre: Bruce Springsteen

 A half century ago, Bruce Springsteen played to back to back SROs at the Allen. This was the third, and thankfully last, time he appeared here. Unlike the review below, I thought this show was dreadful, The only reason I was there was because the girl I was dating at the time wanted to go, she really enjoyed it, however I found him to be insufferable. Like the review, we were at the April 7th show, I'm sure the following night was again filled with his worshiping fans.

From Scene, April 15-21, 1976.

Happy Easter

 Happy Easter.

From the Plain Dealer, July 21, 1948.

Tris Speaker

 Tris Speaker and an Allen Theatre bally for "Where is My Wandering Boy?" From Exhibitor's Herald, May 20, 1922.

RKO Palace Blackbeard Bally

 Ballyhoo for Blackbeard at the RKO Palace, from Independent Film Journal January 21, 1953.

Playhouse Square

 Fifty four years ago.

From The Plain Dealer, March 17, 1972.

From The Plain Dealer, February 7, 1972.

Not sure what drove me to get involved with this, spirit of the times I guess, do something to help the community, and I did. Those places were cold, dirty, didn't pay much at all. Few thought the theatres were worth saving, most thought we were wasting out time. A handful of Clevelanders stepped up when no others did, Starting with Ray Shepardson and Ceil Hartman, Victor Villimas, Ralph Smith, Veralynne Bosco, Ken Plocica, Kevin McAndrew, Pete Weber, Chuck Fleming along with a few others. Other people got the glory later, but we were the people that actually did the work. 

Keith Building

 A candy Keith Building, from Billboard, January 13, 1923.