Allen Theatre: A Few Days in May, 1972

 I can't believe a half century has gone by...

These stickers came in sheets of six from Polydor Records, at one point my job was to stick these on flyers and posters.

From the Plain Dealer, April 30, 1972.

From the Plain Dealer, May 7, 1972.

From the Plain Dealer, May 4, 1972. The Next Generation was a group of seniors from Garfield Heights High School, this was the last weekend they worked as volunteers.

The first weekend in May 1972 was a big weekend for us. On Saturday, May 6, there was a double feature benefit for the Next Generation group, who got to use the Allen for a fundraiser since they had done a lot of volunteer work. Two films were shown that afternoon, “Dracula Prince of Darkness” and “The Devil’s Bride” for a dollar admission. I sold tickets out in the boxoffice, and it was a windy day. Some kid’s dollar blew away, but I gave him a ticket anyway. Ray said that was okay to do, however Ceil chided me for being a softy. There were a lot of small children there that afternoon. Following the films, we did a quick clean-up to prepare for the Jeff  Beck Group concert that night.  A little before 6 PM, as I was walking back into the Allen with my favorite meal, a Royal Castle Royal Trio, I noticed an altercation just inside the lobby doors. One of the Next Generation kids mouthed off to one of the off duty policemen who questioned him when he walked in. The kid said “Fuck you Pig,” and was getting the crap beat out of him as a result. I went and got Ray to intervene.

Glass Harp, from the Youngstown area, was the last minute opening act that night, followed by the main attraction Jeff Beck. This was a pretty wild night. One of the concert goers ripped a railing from the stairway going to the top balcony from the east side of the mezzanine, and snapped it in half.  I chased after the guy, luckily I didn’t catch him. Anyone who could snap one of those railings in half could have easily killed me. A few members of an Akron motorcycle gang tried to crash the show at the stage entrance, injuring a policeman in the process. Stagehands beat the bikers back with belaying pins from the pinrail on stage , leaving a pool of blood in the alley as evidence. Back up police came in through the front doors, and raced backstage down the house right aisle, startling a number of concert goers in the process.

From the Plain Dealer, April 30, 1972.

Flyer with sticker.

The following day, Sunday, May 7th, was one of great anticipation. For  weeks Ray kept saying "and that's the truth, ppllugghhh" doing his Lily Tomlin imitation. Ticket sales had been fairly brisk, we had tons of flyers and posters for the event. I remember cutting off the Allen Theatre part of the flyers and gluing them to the posters from Polydor Records. I remember someone cursing me out about a week before the show when I couldn’t sell him front row seats. Smitty scrounged up some mirrors from one of the Ohio Theatre restrooms and installed them in a newly painted dressing room. The massive clean-up effort from the Beck show was well underway when I got there that Sunday morning. The set for the show was pretty basic, a large piece of carpet, a stool and a mike stand. When Lily arrived she had much fun getting the stage hands to move the carpet repeatedly, much to their annoyance.  Not long after 7 PM, singer Ellen McIlwaine opened the sold out show. Things ran rather smoothly that night, quite different then the night before.

Cover of The Plain Dealer Action Tab, May 5, 1972.

From the Plain Dealer, May 8, 1972.

Things started to slow down a bit after this, A Count Basie/Austrid Gilberto show scheduled for Sunday, May 21, was cancelled. Then the bombshell came on May 25, with the Plain Dealer headline reading "Loew's Ohio and State Theaters to be Razed."