Shubert Theater

90 Seventh Street E,
Cincinnati, OH 45202

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Dan
Dan on February 15, 2021 at 9:41 pm

I also saw Godspell at the Shubert Theatre in 1973 with my church group. Really good show and an absolutely beautiful venue. I remember the massive chandelier hanging in the theatre. One thing that really stuck in my mind was the lobby poster that advertised the effort to save the Union Terminal. It had an interesting by-line of “When it’s gone… it’s gone.” Anyone else remember that?

dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on March 18, 2020 at 1:28 pm

Opened with a live play, “The Passing Show,” on Sept. 25, 1921.

dallasmovietheaters
dallasmovietheaters on March 18, 2020 at 12:11 pm

The Shubert closed after a March 23, 1975 magic stage show. The Shubert and its sister theater, the Cox, were demolished a year later.

hanksykes
hanksykes on February 16, 2019 at 2:07 pm

Mr. Zorning, You are correct the triangular tower was removed because of poor maintenance over the years. The Cox Theater next door to the Shubert was a memorial to George B. Cox who had been associated with the Shuberts in many theaters. The Shuberts and he owned the largest theater in the world in 1905, The Hippodrome Theater in NYC., it seated 7,000. The Cox theater was built by Mrs. Cox as a tribute to her husband George who died in 1916, the Cox theater was erected in 1921. Today, of course,the Hippodrome Th. has suffered the fate of most Cincinnati downtown theaters….it is a parking lot!

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on February 15, 2019 at 7:55 pm

Side by side photos of Shubert and previously as the YMCA added courtesy of Sharyn Lee M. Shows that part of the top floor was removed when converted into the theater.

raejeanaustin
raejeanaustin on April 16, 2015 at 11:37 am

My father, Ray Hall, was the one who demolished the Shubert/Cox theatres. He and Larry Trumbo were good friends. He saved a lot of materials from the job to build our home with. He had thousands of brick cleaned, marble was used in the kitchen as a breakfast bar and inlaid on 3 fireplace hearths and mantels, floor joists from the stage were used, colored concrete piece from outside of building inlaid in one fireplace in the creek rock and we have a couple of light fixtures. The house was awesome!

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on February 21, 2015 at 10:19 am

meheuck: The Cox Theatre doesn’t have a page at Cinema Treasures because it never showed movies.

meheuck
meheuck on February 20, 2015 at 6:26 pm

I noticed that the Cox does not have its own listing. It seems to me that it was a substantial enough operation on its own from the Shubert that perhaps it should have a page.

When I went to see magician Harry Blackstone Jr. at the now-demolished Palace around 1980, he said that the last time he was in Cincinnati the Cox theatre was operating but was now gone. He then added that he hoped the next time he came to town he wouldn’t be performing in a parking lot.

Sadly, considering the fate of the Palace, he was not far off.

michaelhoopes1
michaelhoopes1 on January 21, 2013 at 3:01 am

I saw Godspell, the broadway musical at The Shubert Theatre in 1973. It was a Beautiful Theatre, it is a shame that Cincinnati does not appreciate Theater like it should. Cincinnati has destroyed the Rko Albee, The Palace Theater, the Skywalk Cinema, The Times Theatre and others.

Brad Smith
Brad Smith on April 21, 2010 at 8:20 pm

Thank you for your good words, Hank. I haven’t had time to link specific Cinema Treasures' theaters to corresponding photographs yet, but I should be able to do that within the next week or two.

Your mention in an earlier post of elephants falling through to the former YMCA swimming pool suggested to me posting a couple of photographs of vaudeville elephants at the Palace Theatre in Chicago in 1937. You can see the first photograph by clicking here and the second one by clicking here. Both of the photographs were taken by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.

hanksykes
hanksykes on April 21, 2010 at 4:22 pm

Thanks Brad Smith for the heads up on the photos,what great shots!!!!

Brad Smith
Brad Smith on April 3, 2010 at 3:11 pm

Click here for a photograph of the RKO Shubert taken in 1936.

hanksykes
hanksykes on August 5, 2009 at 1:50 pm

According to an Enquirer paper article during the Shuberts times as a vaudeville theater one of the acts made a huge dent on its history. Apparently the Power’s Elephant Act fell through to the former YMCA swimming pool as the stage had been built over the original aquadic architectural feature.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 16, 2008 at 6:03 pm

From Boxoffice magazine, January 1938:

RKO Shubert Theater, Cliff Boyd, manager, has dropped its straight film policy and has extended upon an 18-week program of vaudeville and films. lack of super productions and roadshows, which this house featured, is given as the reason.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on February 15, 2007 at 4:06 pm

Here is a January 1976 article about the demolition of the Shubert:

Old Shubert Theater Torn Down

CINCINNATI (AP) â€" There has been little applause in the Shubert Theater in recent years and there was little mourning when it was razed by a wrecker’s ball along with the Cox Theater next door over the weekend. “I was a stage hand 22 years in there and now I’m tearing it down,” said Larry Trumbo, one of the wrecking crew. “I feel bad about it. But what can you do? They didn’t bring shows in there anymore ”.

The Cincinnati owners of the two downtown theaters said the land will be converted to a parking lot. The Theater Guild-American Theater Society canceled the 1975-76 season at the Shubert when touring companies refused to play Cincinnati because of financial losses in previous years. The 1,000 advance subscribers received refunds. The last two shows at the Shubert, however, were sellouts. Comedian Redd Foxx had two performances May 3, 1975, billed as “a black show for black people ”.

The Shubert Co. of New York spent $250,000 refurbishing the Shubert in 1964. The granite building was constructed by the YMCA in 1848 and Shubert converted it to a theater in 1921. Both theaters became vacant in the 1950s when the U.S. Department of Justice ordered them sold in an antitrust action. Shubert was allowed to reopen them in 1954 when no one bought the buildings. But productions there of “Misalliance,” “The Moon Is Blue” and “Dial M for Murder” played to almost empty houses.

hanksykes
hanksykes on January 6, 2007 at 11:38 am

Boss Cox at one time owned ,with the Shubert Brothers ,the largest theater in this country, the Hippodrome Theater in NYC. Boss Cox died in 1916.

Joeallen
Joeallen on November 1, 2006 at 2:15 pm

That’s interesting. I never knew the Cox Theater was named after Boss Cox. Learn something new every day. I have a picture of the Cox Theater. Just e-mail me at and I’ll reply with it if you want it.

hanksykes
hanksykes on November 1, 2006 at 12:54 pm

When the Shubert Theater opened in 1921 it ran competition with B.F.Keiths and the Lyric which both ran vaudeville shows and movies and were nearby on Walnut and Vine Streets respectively.Next door to the Shubert Th. was the Cox Theater also built in 1921 to memorialize the colorful politician George B. Cox who was known as the Boss Of Cincinnati for all the political patronage jobs he arranged for folks who tallied up proper amounts of cash to grace hispolitical war chests. The Cox Theater never ran movies,but it was used in later years to store excess scenery for touring road shows which played the Shubert Theater.

EAGLE8
EAGLE8 on January 26, 2006 at 2:52 pm

*IN 1953, WHEN EVANGELIST EARL IVIE OWNED THE CINN, SHUBERT, …
MY FATHER (EVANG. BUFORD DOWELL SR AND OUR REVIVAL TEAM OF SINGERS
AND MUSICIANS) CAME TO THE SHUBERT THEATER …“REVIVAL TEMPLE”,
AS HIS CO-EVANGELIST!

THEY WE’RE BOTH PENTECOSTAL-PREACHERS AND GREAT MEN OF FAITH!

MULTITUDES CAME TO CHRIST…DURING THAT GREAT CRUSADE!

THOUSANDS WE’RE MIRACULOUSLY HEALED .. THRU THE PRAYER OF FAITH!

5 GREAT POWERFUL SERVICES DAILY! NATIONAL RADIO-DAILY!
GREATEST GOSPEL MUSIC! FRI-NIGHT WAS ALL NIGHT “MIRACLE NIGHT!”

DURING HIS OWNERSHIP, REV. IVIE COMPLETE PAINTED THE INSIDE
AND OUTSIDE OF THE SHUBERT…WHITE AND GOLD! IT WAS TRUELY
BEAUTIFUL!

*THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THOSE GREAT OLD THEATER PALACES, FOR A
WONDERFUL “CHURCH AUDITORIUM!”

*ANY MORE PICTURES ANYONE?
(BUFORD DOWELL JR / )

Patsy
Patsy on September 23, 2005 at 3:33 pm

Joe: If you can post the photos you have and that you sent to me, please do so. Thanks.

ballhatguy
ballhatguy on June 15, 2005 at 3:37 pm

There is now a 26-story office building on this site.

Joeallen
Joeallen on June 9, 2005 at 4:08 am

I have a couple of interior and exterior shots of the Schubert if you want them. Just e-mail me at and I’ll reply with them.