Royal Theatre
709 Vine Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
709 Vine Street,
Cincinnati,
OH
45202
1 person
favorited this theater
The Royal Theatre opened on June 9, 1910 and closed on 31st July 1979 making it the longest continuously operating movie theatre in downtown Cincinnati. It was operated throughout its life by Associated Theatres Inc. who over the years owned and operated 15 theatres, the Royal Theatre was the last one to go.
The Royal Theatre operated as a second run house, later going to third run and for the last 15 years of its life ran soft core X-rated sex movies.
It was demolished within a week of closing, together with adjacent buildings on the corner of 7th Street and Vine Street.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
The Royal Theater never carried any other name than Royal even when it showed soft porn.
The Royal was already showing soft porn the first time I saw it as a kid but it had that butterfly and the neighborhood was actually clean. Now it is a parking lot and part of the 7th St. Garage sits on the property. Wow, things surely change.
Well, up to the standards of the ROYAL is playing MADAME ZENOBIA. Rated X. Quote from Variety “Canny use of Sound.” Can’t make it up. ADULTS ONLY .
I remember a single-screen movie theater in downtown Cincy that was opened in the summer of 1975. They were playing “Revenge of the Pink Panther” at the time. Does anyone know whether it was the Royal? It looked lovely all lit up at night, but I didn’t have the chance to go inside unfortunately.
Also recall a really tiny downtown Cincy twin theater inside of an office building (or small shopping center) that was in operation in November ‘75. Anybody???
milamp: The twin in the office building might have been the Skywalk Cinemas. I’ve just posted a comment on that page with a hyperlink to a 1973 Boxoffice article about the twin. Maybe you’ll recognize it from the pictures in the article.
I’ve been unable to discover which downtown theater ran “Revenge of the Pink Panther” in 1975.
milap, try the Studio Cinemas on this web site in cincinnati for your twin screens. The Royal in the 1970’s played soft porn only.
milamp: 1975 was when RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER, not REVENGE, was released. (REVENGE was around 1979) As such, the downtown single screen you’re thinking of was probably the Times Towne Cinema – they got a lot of UA product back then.
I have 60 or so old silent movie actors and actress autographed photos addressed to A.J. Paul at the Royal Theater. Cincinnati, Ohio. Would anyone know if someone in the industry could use them. there all at least 8x10’s
Link to the 1939 Library of Congress photo of the Royal.
http://cinci.infohio.org/contents/unit2/primary-sources/31-content/unit2/primary-sources/82-the-royal-theatre-of-cincinnati
The Royal theatre opened on June 9th, 1910 per: