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.

RKO Palace

 Blue urn on the RKO Palace mezzanine.

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.

RKO Palace Blackbeard Bally

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

Keith Building

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

RKO Palace: Wartime Biz

 Came across this article on the early wartime biz at the RKO Palace. 

From Variety, March 11, 1942.

Palace Theatre

 Fifty-six years ago today the Palace closed "forever," reopened four years later.

From the Plain Dealer, July 20, 1969.

Much more can be found here. 

Palace Theatre: Marvin Hamlisch

 Hard to believe this was fifty years ago this weekend. It was quite the anticipated event, the first real show on the RKO Palace stage since 1968, The two previous shows we had done were both in the lobby. July 1975 was quite the month, incredible highs, devastating lows as well, this was one of the highs.

From the Plain Dealer, July 6, 1975.

Carnival Defense Fund Benefit

 Thursday was the 46th anniversary of the Carnival Defense Fund Benefit at the RKO Palace. The councilmen were the victims of lawfare waged by the Kucinich administration against his fiercest critics, including council president George Forbes. All of whom would be acquitted..

From the Cleveland Press, February 21, 1979.

Moonlight & Pretzels

 Moonlight & Pretzels bally, from Universal Weekly, August 12, 1933. Imagine getting pelted with pretzels at 17th & Euclid.

Beatlemania

 Forty-five years ago, Beatlemania opened at the Palace for a three-week run, Ray papered the house for the opening, I gave away 100 tix at my old high school, that made me very popular for a hot minute, lol.

From the Plain Dealer, September 23, 1979. A year earlier I had seen the show on B'way at the Winter Garden with my friend Denise.

From the Plain Dealer, September 21, 1979.

From the Cleveland State University Cauldron, September 27, 1979. The author of this review, Don Billie has a new book on Margaret Hamilton out now.

This show did boffo biz with many of the performances SRO, had some good radio tie-ins as well.

 

Playhouse Square

 This book, Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance is a must have. We caught John at the Lakewood Library the other night, great book, although it is odd reading about myself like I'm a historic figure. I've been in several books over the years, this one has an index and was written by an actual historian, so it seems more real.

Ray Shepardson

 Ten years gone...

Ray Shepardson in the RKO Palace ladies' room, from the Plain Dealer, March 19, 1972.

It's hard to believe over half a century has passed since I first walked into the Allen and encountered Ray's enthusiasm. There weren't many who thought those four theatres were worth saving, but Ray had a vision of a reborn theatre district and worked tirelessly towards that goal, with little help at first. I have many fond memories of the two of us cleaning the Allen after shows or climbing around Loew's Ohio and State, surveying the roof leaks, and Ray and Ceil playing badminton on the Allen stage. I can still picture him on that cold night at Loew's State running around the empty lobby explaining how we were going to transform it into the Playhouse Square Cabaret and run a show named Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris for a few weeks, then figure out what to stage next. No one could have imagined the runaway hit it would become, because after all "no one is going to go down there anymore." That show really quieted the crix as the Playhouse Square area started to slowly rebound.

Few now remember how bleak Playhouse Square looked back then, empty theatres, empty storefronts, even the streetlights didn't work. From The Plain Dealer, February 7, 1972, the RKO Palace is out of view on the right, shorn of its marquee, the front boarded up.

Early on, there weren't many others working to support the project, money was pretty much nonexistent, cash flowed from the few memberships Ray or Burt LeGrande could scrounge up along with the take from concessions at the many rock and roll shows booked at the Allen in the 1971-72 timeframe. There were few paid employees when I arrived on March 25th, 1972. Ceil Hartman was the business manager, Ralph D. Smith known by all as "Smitty," was a general handyman, Victor Villimas worked the BO and did other odd jobs such as walking up and down Euclid Avenue in a Yogi Bear costume to promo a show, Solomon "Bugs" Alexander who did general maintenance but was gone a few weeks after I got there. Weldon Carpenter had already been there and left, only to return a few months after Brel opened. In late 1972 Dennis Wild (sp?) would be hired to fill the void. The only people who hung around for more than a month or two really believed in Ray's vision, this job did not pay very well, often not at all, and the working conditions were horrendous, cold and dirty more often than not, but we persevered. A brief overview of the beginning of the rebirth can be found here.

Volunteers were few and far between, aside from Ray's college friend, Gordon Bell, Veralynne Bosko would have been the first, meeting Ray in 1970 at the law firm where she worked, when Ray had come to incorporate the Playhouse Square Association. Veralynne's friends would often come down to help out; "Poe" (pronounced Poe-ee) Ken Plocica probably the tallest person I've ever known at around 6'10", Kevin McAndrew, Pete Weber, and "Flemo" Chuck Fleming were the main ones helping usher shows at the Allen and clean up afterwards. Later on, these guys would help clean out the Loew's theatres as well as helping Smitty, Dennis and I take down the massive Cinerama screen in Loew's State. I have vivid memories of Veralynne, Ceil and a few others selling popcorn and soda at 25¢ to swarms of rock concert goers at the Allen throughout 1972. There was also a group of Garfield Heights High School kids known as the "Next Generation" that would help out at the Allen as ushers in 1971-72. Later on, my friend Russ Richards would come down to help out as well, then work on the run up to the Brel opening. Nick Spontelli, a retired Loew's engineer came down to put Loew's State's heating system back into order, without Nick's expertise we would have had no heat for the Cabaret.

Hard to believe now, but a very real possibility then, The Plain Dealer, May 25, 1972.

Aside from Ray, all of these people have been forgotten, there's fewer of us every year, only Ceil and I remain from the summer of 1972. From time to time, I still have some very vivid dreams about these theatres, and all these people from so long ago. It would be rather nice if some of us could get a look at the place every so often, without having to purchase tix. It's been impossible to get any kind of access the last few years, a condition not likely to change anytime soon, I fear.

Palace Theatre

 The Palace Theatre opened 100 years ago tonight.

From the Plain Dealer, October 30, 1922.

An overview can be found here.

17th Street

 17th Street, looking south along the outside of the Palace auditorium. The fire escapes were the ones that were installed in 1977. The original ones were removed following the 1969 closing, rendering the auditorium practically unusable.

Playhouse Square

 Fifty years ago, in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 19, 1972.

I started working at the Allen a week later, it was pretty bleak down there at the time.

From the Plain Dealer, February 7, 1972.

New Years Eve

 Can't remember when we last went out for New Year's Eve.

The Hotel Winton later became the Pick-Carter Hotel and is currently an apartment building. From the Plain Dealer, December 31, 1921.

Wille's Music Box was on the second floor of the Loew Building, from the Plain Dealer, December 31, 1931.

Chef Boiardi's, behind the Western Union office on 9th Street, from the Plain Dealer, December 30, 1934. Hector Boiardi is later known as Chef Boyardee purveyor of prepackaged Italian foods.

The Mayfair Casino (Ohio Theatre) from the Plain Dealer, December 29, 1935. The Mayfair was a short-lived operation in the transformed Ohio Theatre, closing in 1937.

From the Plain Dealer, December 23, 1973. The New Year's Eve parties at Playhouse Square were something of legend. I think it was in 1975 when a bus-pan filled with ice and champagne somehow got delivered to me....