Art

 Sculpture in front of the Lakewood Public Library, last month.

Frank Arena

 Frank Arena was a longtime Loew manager whom we met on a trip to Buffalo in 1976.

From Motion Picture Herald, July 18, 1953. The Park was Loew's big uptowner at 10209 Euclid Avenue. Polly Bergen, on the ladder and co-star of the picture isn't mentioned in the caption.

I'd been following with interest stories in Variety about the rebirth of Shea's Buffalo, so in April 1976 I took a train ride with a friend and co-worker, Jed Ellis to go check it out. I'm not sure if the exact dates, but we left on a chilly Friday night. Trains still ran into Central Station, which required a cab ride into town. We stayed at the Hotel Lafayette, "cheapest of the best" according to the taxi driver. That Saturday morning we met with Curt Mangel who gave us an in-depth tour. We even helped hoist a chandelier before that evening's performance of LaBoheme, by the Royal Canadian Opera Company, which was quite outstanding. During a discussion of Loew's Inc., the name of Frank Arena came up, Curt gave him a lot of credit for keeping the theatre intact during the waning days of the Loew era. We found out that Arena was just down the street, at Loew's Teck, 766 Main Street. So after LaBoheme, we went down the street and met him, he was super nice, we talked for around an hour on that cold Saturday night. He was quite happy to hear of the ongoing restoration of Loew's Ohio and State in Cleveland. Later we walked back to Shea's and got a ride back to Central Station, arriving back in Cleveland on a chilly Sunday morning. Not sure how we got to/from the Amtrak station. We might have gotten a ride on Friday, but I think there was a shuttle bus to Public Square we rode on Sunday morning. Frank Arena remains as one of the two Loew era employees I've met over the years. Of course there was Nick Spontelli, whom we worked with for about a year back in 1973.

From Motion Picture Exhibitor, March 16, 1966.

From Exhibitor, July 15, 1953.

Cleveland Railway Powerhouse

 An old Cleveland Railway powerhouse at 1592 Coutant Avenue, once part of the large street railway yard across the street from this location.

Loew's Stillman

 Loew's Stillman, 1111 Euclid Avenue, cropped from an Ivanhoe ad, from Motion Picture Daily, August 15, 1952.

Saint Charles Borromeo Church

 Saint Charles Borromeo Church, 5891 Ridge Road, a couple weeks ago.

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. 

CULC Benefit

 This is the fiftieth anniversary of the first of two CULC benefits at the former Metropolitan Theatre at 5000 Euclid Avenue. I got dragged into this at the last minute, Thursday April 8th, if I remember correctly. The Cleveland Urban Learning Community was an experimental high school run by the good Jesuits of St. Ignatius. In typical fashion, I got no help from anyone at CULC, instead, I roped in a friend and co-worker, Jed Ellis to help. I borrowed a bunch of lighting equipment from the theatres, (under penalty of death if anything happened to it) and we dragged it all up Euclid Avenue on the number 6 bus. The show itself went off without a hitch, about 600 attended. The Met was an old theatre, about 1,400 seats, then known as the WHK Auditorium, and could be rented for $150 a night back then. Today it's known as the Agora. A second benefit a year later was somewhat similar.

Blurb from Jane Scott, The Happening, Plain Dealer Action Tab, March 26, 1976.