During the Nineteen-Teens the number of silent picture theaters in downtown Mansfield took a quantum leap. After spending generations of life confined to one’s own mundane experience—seeing only one’s own town and experiencing one’s own not very exciting life—the opportunity to escape into all these new five-cent alternative realities was intoxicating.
To give an idea of how quickly the new craze evolved in American society all you have to do is look at Mansfield’s city directories. When the phenomenon began in 1906 the first cinemas in Mansfield were still being listed as ‘Opera Houses.’ By 1910 they were ‘Moving Pictures,’ and by 1915, when the 7-reel hour-long “features” were commonly being shown, the theaters were called ‘Motion Picture’ houses.
In the summer of 1913 there were no fewer than 9 different theaters to watch movies—all of them within a quick walk from the Square. Places like the Memorial Opera House and the Orpheum vaudeville theater still promoted stage shows on a regular basis, but they could see where the audience nickels and dimes were going and gradually included more and more movies in their season schedule as well.
Mansfield even had an experimental ‘outdoor’ movie house for about 5 years. With bleacher seating on the sides and rear, and chairs in the center—like a basketball arena—the films were projected onto a large screen mostly at night…because the Air Dome Theater had no roof. They advertised ‘See the Stars under the Stars.’ Somehow they were also able to show afternoon matinees, according to the ads. The Air Dome space was eventually enclosed within a few years to become the airy Third Street Market.
The Royal
The Majestic
There were other nickelodeons in Mansfield showing movies before the Majestic, but it was the first theater in town built specifically for watching “photoplays.”
Built at the corner of Walnut and Dickson, the raked auditorium held 800, and it had a theater organ with surround-sound pipes.
The Majestic had considerable competition from other movies houses in downtown Mansfield during the 1920s and 30s, but in the 1940s they all faltered. The theater was vacant in December 1944 when the roof collapsed under a load of snow and ice.
(Photo: Lori Dickson-Richter)
The Ritz
In 1938 the building was enlarged, and then in 1957 it was torn down to make way for the Eagles Annex on North Main St.
The Memorial Opera House
The theater entrance can be seen in this postcard, to the right and in the rear of the Memorial Building…behind the movie placard.
Finished in 1930, the Madison was a movie house that served to entertain generations of Mansfielders from plush seats and a raked balcony.
After struggling through its last decade on Park Avenue, the grand old relic was finally torn down in 1986 and its site repurposed as a micro park for urban downtown.
More on the Memorial Opera House
The Ohio
It is today the Renaissance Theatre, seen below.
The Park
A Flickering Fad
Every year brought new improvements to the quality of the pictures, and evolution of the movie houses trying to lure customers. The Majestic replaced their piano player with a small orchestra that played behind the screen, equipped with sound effects personnel who fired guns, slammed doors, and whirred sirens.
For folks in the 1910s—whose first glimpses into the hypnotic, flickering dream world were made by Charlie Chaplin and The Perils of Pauline—it seemed as if civilization was at its apex and life couldn’t get much better. Within a decade, however, most of Mansfield’s nickelodeons faded in the 1920s when movie palaces with velvet seats and chandeliers made the old picture houses look cheap. And shortly after the “talkies” hit the screen in 1927 all the old silent film houses went quiet for good.
Richland County History 
[…] Check out more photos of silent movie theaters from 1910-1928, including The Royal, The Ritz, The Madison and The Ohio in The Age of Nickelodeons: PART II […]
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