Belmont Theatre

The 1000-seat Belmont Theatre opened on Christmas Day in 1946.  The new $200,000 theatre had taken almost two years to build, but many thought that it was worth the wait.  The latest in projection and sound equipment brought the motion pictures to life, while the wide seats allowed patrons to enjoy the movie in comfort.  The opening attraction was Centennial Summer.  Disney cartoons were also a major attraction.

The Belmont’s opening ad extolled the virtues of the new theatre, from its “golden-voiced sound equipment” to the colorful, modernistic decorations and lighting.  It even mentioned that the theatre offered “automatically controlled modern air conditioning

The theatre was quite popular in the 1940s and 1950s with a policy of showing a double bill program, which usually consisted of a good second run film, followed by a B movie.  The shows varied over the years from westerns to Disney, as films became available.

The theatre was closed on August 1, 1965 for redecorating and on August 18, 1965, the theatre reopened with the movie Mary Poppins under the new name of Cinema East.  

On September 14, 1966, the Cinema East offered a new curved screen measuring 50’wide and 17’ high, one of the largest indoor screens in the area at the time.  Installation of the screen was coupled with a new process of showing films called the “Ultra Harveyscope Deep Dimension,” a process developed by Daytonian John Harvey.  The process allowed the use of a deeply-curved screen with conventional 35-mm motion picture film.  It was only the second time the new process had been offered to the public, and the first it was ever held in a large theater.  The first attraction on the new screen was The Russians Are Coming!  The Russians Are Coming!, which was said to have held the audience spellbound.

Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the theatre in the early hours of June 5, 1973.  The rear door was found to be open by fire inspectors, leading them to believe that the building had been broken into before the fire.  

The loss of the theatere was a blow to the Belmont area.  The Cinema East was well known for consistently showing both first-run and revival films.