Tivoli Theater Manager Article – July 2, 1972

Do you remember the days when you could see a movie on the big screen in Lorain?

I do, although as a kid I remember that we saw most of our movies at Amherst Theatre. We did spend a summer or two seeing the Summer Movies that were shown as a package, with the locations rotating from one Lorain theater to another each week.

(Yes, the Lorain Palace Theater still shows a movie now and then (such as those that part of its free Summer Movie series). But I'm referring to the days when there were several theaters Downtown, and in central Lorain.) 

Fifty years ago, there were still a few movie houses hanging on in Lorain. The Palace and the Tivoli were the last two showing first-run flicks; the VL Cinema and Ohio Theater had already gone the adults-only route.

Speaking of the Tivoli, here's a great profile of John Tender, the manager of the theater. It ran in the Journal back on July 2, 1972 and tells the story of how his father bought the Pantheon Theatre in 1924 and eventually changed its name to the Tivoli. I also didn't know that the family also owned the Carlisle Drive-in Theater.

It's a great article, and tells several interesting tales including how John Tender acted in some school plays with Kirk Douglas at St. Lawrence College in New York, and the time when entertainer Danny Thomas performed at the Tivoli under unusual circumstances.

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The Tivoli has been the subject of several posts, including this Then & Now photo set, and this article about its 1985 demolition.