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Garden Theatre, 1916. PO1.1373

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Movie
Theatres.
From the first time the Warner Boys showed
silent ‘flickers’ at Deibel’s Grocery on Mill(State)
Street in 1896 with their sister, Rose, playing accompaniment
on the piano until the 1960s, Niles has had a variety of movie theatres
located throughout the downtown.
The Garden Theatre was a forerunner
of the modern drive-in theatre. It was located on North Main Street
about where Sparkle Market is now (2019).
Movies were shown in the evening,
weather permitting.
Later on this site, the McKinley Theatre
would be built, the McKinley Theatre closed in 1960.
The 1918 map shows the location of
the Garden Theatre and later, the McKinley Theatre.
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The McKinley Theatre was considered a 'B' movie
theatre, playing secondary movies.
The theatre regularly featured two main shows,
a newsreel and a cartoon show. PO2.32
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Niles Opera House with arched windows.PO1.1591 |
Exploding
film cannisters caused a fire in the Opera House on September 16,
1920.
Ben Warner, father of the Warner
Brothers, directed everyone to safety.
The third floor level was removed
when the Warner Brothers built their new theater on the same site
which opened in 1921. |

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PO1.1369 |
L- The Stafford Theatre was listed in the Burch
Directory of 1912 at 125-133 Furnace Street (East State).
R- Glass slides with campaign advertisements
were often projected onto the screen between movies. (The first
commercials?)
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PO1.1123 |
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L-The Butler Theatre on South Main Street would
later become the Robins Theatre. It also would close in the 1960s.
Photo ca 1935.
R-The Warner Theatre also fell into disrepair.
By the 1960s all the movie theatres in Niles
were closed. All were demolished except for the Robins Theatre
which stands empty and unused on Main Street (2023).
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PO1.167 |
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Howland Drive-In Screen and Marquee |
On the 422 corridor a different type of movie
theatre was built, an outdoor Drive-In theatre which projected
the movie onto a white background vertical surface. The Howland
Drive-In was located across from the main entrance to Eastwood
Mall and is no longer in operation.
In the earliest drive-in theatres the sound was
broadcast through directional speakers atop of a pole centrally
located in the parking area. Later technology had the sound supplied
to individual speakers the hung from each car window. Drive-in
theatres nowadays project the sound into each car radio on different
frequencies, this allows the playing of multiple movies in the
theatre parking lot.
Usually the price of admission offered prevues
of coming attractions, sometimes a short comedy and two different
main features with the first film being shown again.
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Playground Area |
Before the movie parents would take the children
to the play are where they could try the Round-about spinning
wheel.
The biggest source of income for the theatre
owners was the refreshment stand where popcorn, hot dogs, soft
drinks, ice cream, chips and more were sold.
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Food Service Area |
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