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.