“In one sense, it harked back to the Gilded Age and the glamorous opening of the Faurot Opera House,” Lackey wrote. Looking back on Lima entertainment during the 20th century, News columnist Mike Lackey in September 1999 noted that the opening was “a watershed event” in some ways. Lima businessman Max Bernstein, of the Gramm-Bernstein truck company, erected the theater and leased it to theater operators Schine Enterprises of Gloversville, New York. “Work on the new Schine Ohio theater, which is to be erected on West North Street between Main and Elizabeth streets at a cost of approximately $450,000 was started early Monday by the contracting firm of Green and Sawyer,” the News reported May 16, 1927. The auditorium proper was 80-by-115 feet with a 30-by-80-foot stage “equipped,” the magazine added “with the most modern counter-balanced stage rigging and electric switchboard equipment.”įrom the mezzanine, which Motion Picture News described as “in the form of an immense lounging room,” inclines led to the theater’s balcony, above which was “the great dome of the theatre.” The dome, the magazine wrote, was “carried out in a cloud effect so that when the lights are turned on the effect will be like looking at the sky.” The projection room, “one of the most commodious” in the state, according to the magazine, was 20-by-30 feet with “toilet facilities and outside windows for proper ventilation.”Īmazingly, construction of the theater, designed by local architect Peter M. The 28-by-34-foot lobby was “carried out in a color scheme of black and gold … the ceiling is vaulted and finished in gold,” the magazine wrote, noting that the lobby led to a “spacious foyer” with marble stairways leading to a mezzanine. “This de luxe playhouse takes rank with the finer examples of theatre buildings in the state,” the magazine Motion Picture News wrote in January 1928 of the theater, it described as “dedicated to pictures and road shows.” “to allow those interested in inspecting the building to do so” before the first show started at 7 p.m. Lima’s newest theater, however, was as much of an attraction as the entertainment, so much so, the Lima Star and Republican-Gazette reported, that the doors were opened at 6:15 p.m. Those fortunate enough to get a ticket for 25 cents or 50 cents were treated to a program featuring a 10-piece orchestra, two one-act plays and a silent photoplay. for the second show, patrons eager to get in on the opening night made an early appearance.” With the seats for the first performance sold out early Thursday afternoon, and half the number disposed of before 3 p.m. “West North Street took on the air of Broadway shortly after six o’clock when a line of ticket-seekers shoved their way in the direction of the box office. “It was a colorful gathering assembled under auspicious circumstances,” the News wrote the following day, Nov. On a cold Thursday night in November 1927, a chance to nab the hottest ticket in town brought a crowd estimated by The Lima News at 4,000 or more to the new Schine’s Ohio Theater in the 100 block of West North Street.
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