East 8 Theatres

700 Richmond Mall Richmond Heights OH 44143

Information for this tour was contributed by Dave Kingham.

Loews East opened in 1966 in the Richmond Mall in Richmond Heights. The original single screen theatre was twinned in the 1970s, and was decorated with attractive Hollywood graphics on the walls.

Loews East was one of their worst examples of twinning a theatre. It was a orchestra/stadium style auditorium with 1650 seats. The problem was that where the side-walls of the auditorium splayed in toward the 50-foot screen in the front, they were not false walls, as in most theatres. They were the exterior walls of the six-sided building. This was fine when it was one auditorium, but when it was split it ended up with 2 five-sided 700 seat auditoriums that were extremely narrow in the front with very small screens.

It was originally equipped with Norelco 35/70 projectors and mag stereo sound in the single auditorium. When it was being split and the RCA technicians were reconfiguring the the booth they asked Herb Brown, the division manager, which side he wanted the 70mm and stereo on, so they could run new wiring for the speakers. He said it doesn't matter, and not to bother running any wire, just put 1 speaker behind the screen and set it up for mono only.

In the early 1980s, a six-screen annex was built next door. It closed in 1997. Later on a 20-screen Loews plex was built elsewhere in the mall.

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Last featured 2002-12-27. Last edited 12/24/2008.