Plaza Theatre Advertisement from 1929

This advertisement appeared in the February 1, 1929 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal, on the day before the old Sandusky Bay Bridge was dedicated.

The ad pointed out that with the opening of the bridge across Sandusky Bay, Ottawa County residents could now easily travel to the Plaza Theater on Jackson Street in Sandusky, Ohio. The manager of the Plaza was A.C. Himmelein, the nephew of John A. Himmelein, who was also connected with the entertainment industry. Tickets to the Plaza ranged in price from ten cents for children to forty cents for adults on Sunday and holidays. According to the advertisement, Sandusky’s finest “photo-plays” were shown at the Plaza, sometimes even appearing in Sandusky before they were shown in Cleveland or Toledo. The Plaza Theater opened in 1914 as the Ivonhoe, and was located in the 200 block of Jackson Street, next to what is now the Sandusky Register building. The theater was razed in the 1960s. 

Here is a picture of the Plaza Theatre when the Walt Disney movie Snow White played there in the late 1930s:

Sandusky Has Loved Parades

With Sandusky's Bicentennial Parade soon to become part of history, it's a good time to share the stories of other parades in our history.

Pictured above is a scene from downtown Sandusky when Company B of the Sixth Ohio Regiment returned from the Spanish American War in May of 1899. Here is another view of the parade:

Parades have been held in Sandusky since the early days of the city. According to History of Erie County, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich, (D. Mason and Co., 1889), Washington Square was originally appropriated as a “public ground, parade and walk.” In the 1840s, members of the local militia drilled on Washington Square, accompanied by fife and drums. On Saint Patrick’s Day in 1844, a joint parade was sponsored by the Sons of the Emerald Isle and Washington Total Abstinence Society, "in celebration of the principles of temperance."

The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center has pictures of several parades in Sandusky's history. On April 30, 1938, thousands of people celebrated the 150th anniversary of the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which established the territory that included the future state of Ohio.  In the picture below, parade participants are seen proceeding north on Columbus Avenue.

      

At that time a Walgreen drugstore was located in the Cooke Block at the northeast corner of Columbus Avenue and East Market Street, and the S.S. Kresge store was on the southeast corner. 

A parade held in conjunction with the Buckeye League Band and Orchestra Festival took place in Sandusky on May 6, 1938. A band marched down Jackson Street; the Hotel Rieger is to the east and the Plaza Theater to the west.

A double feature was playing at the Plaza that day: I Was a Spy and Accidents Will Happen, starring future U.S. President Ronald Reagan. In 1938, our grandparents would probably never have guessed that Reagan would one day be the President.

Many local residents will recall when Gray Drugs was a busy store in downtown Sandusky, where the parking garage is now located. The Armed Forces Day parade was held on May 16, 1959.

Some of you may have attended this parade, which honored Jackie Mayer, Miss America of 1963.

   

Photographer Thomas Root took an aerial view of the Miss America Homecoming Parade held in November 1962. Providence Hospital was under construction at this time, seen on the right side of the picture above. 

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the history of Sandusky and Erie County. You may also browse through our historical photograph collection online.

The Ivonhoe Theatre

In 1914 and 1915, Charles L. Blatz was the owner and manager of the Ivonhoe Theatre, located on the west side of Jackson Street between Market and Washington Streets. An advertisement for the theatre stated that it was “built to conform to the Ohio State code, is absolutely fire and panic proof.”  Music was provided by a special musical instrument, the “American Photo Player,” which combined piano, organ, and musical and sound effects in one unit. In the lobby of the Ivanhoe, hung a painting by Ralph S. Tebbutt, said to be a rendition of a "Native American maiden." The model for the painting was Mr. Blatz’s niece, Ivon Gamble. Ivon was about nineteen years of age when Tebbutt did the painting.  

Ivon Gamble married Augustus Feick in September of 1921. Following the death of Mr. Feick in 1938, Ivon married John W. Campbell. Mrs. Ivon Gamble Feick Campbell passed away in 1985 at the age of 90. She is buried in Oakland Cemetery next to her first husband, Augustus Feick. Mrs. Ivon Campbell is pictured below in her later years.

Mr. Norbert Erney wrote a piece of sheet music entitled “Ivonhoe,” in honor of the theater. The sheet music is now located in the Arts Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research  Center. By 1916, the theater on Jackson Street became known as the Plaza Theater.

Warner Brothers Movie News

The movie Tarzan the Ape Man, starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, was playing at the State Theater in Sandusky, Ohio during the week of May 7, 1932. The Warner Brothers Movie News for that week listed several upcoming attractions for both the State and the Plaza Theaters. Local advertisements also appeared on the inside pages of the small newsletter.

It appears that Warner Brothers were the proprietors of both the State and Plaza Theaters in Sandusky in 1932. (Before a Supreme Court antitrust case in 1948 outlawed the practice, it was common for Hollywood movie studios to own theaters around the country, where only their own movies were shown.) The Plaza Theater, which opened in 1914 as the Ivonhoe, was located at 221-223 Jackson Street, adjacent to the Star-Journal building, now home of the Sandusky Register. (The theater was razed in the 1960s.) 

You can read the word Warner’s on the State Theater sign in this 1931 view of Columbus Avenue.

 Visit the Sandusky Library to learn more about the history of the residents and businesses of Sandusky and Erie County. The Archives Research Center has in its holdings thousands of vintage photographs, city directories, and many local history and family history books.