User talk:Bargoat0314

The Ohio Theatre (Known today as the Renaissance Theatre) was thought to be constructed in the late 1920’s. In the 1920’s, movies were a big part in the everyday lives of those living in the Mansfield area because of fast Hollywood movie productions. However, the Ohio Theatre was not a cheap building to be constructed. The Warner Management Company invested a little over $500,000 into the construction of The Ohio Theatre. The Ohio Theatre consisted of 1600 seats for the audience and what was known to be an extravagant interior design with its marble floors and stairways along with lead crystal chandeliers. When The Ohio Theatre was completed it was only one of seven available movie houses. However, soon after the opening of The Ohio Theatre, three different movie houses went out of business. One of the first performances of The Ohio Theatre was on January 19, 1928 which brought in a lot of people and attention. The people preferred The Ohio Theatre because it kept up to date high dollar films and it had one of the nicest interior designs. In the first 20 years of The Ohio’s life it had good performances and plenty of center stage acts. The Ohio Theatre played famous films such as: A Night at the Opera (one of the Marx Brother’s famous comedies), Casablanca, and The Wizard of Oz. Along with live performers such as Harry Blackstone, Will Rogers in the 1930’s, and even a professional whistler from Mansfield named Josephine Cook. In 1939 a movie known as The Rains Came played at both The Ohio Theatre and Madison Theatres receiving a world premiere. After the first 20 years had passed, The Ohio theatre spent the next 20 years virtually sitting. The building received very low amounts of maintenance within those next 20 years. In 1968 the Kimball theatre organ that was worth $40,000 was taken out and sold. The theatre turned into a downfall in 1979 when it was turned into a pornographic film theatre. Community activists and protesters were outraged by these X-rated films and soon put it to a stop and shutting down the theatre. The Ohio Theatre was heading for the worst, a full scale demolition. However, in 1980 The Miss Ohio Scholarship Pageant rented the theatre and cleaned up the building. The potential of the building was recognized and through the generosity of Fran and Warren Rupp, the theatre was sold with a new name called The Renaissance Theatre. In 1984 a campaign was launched to restore The Renaissance Theatre, it brought in a shocking $2.25 million. From there all the internals were refurbished and it became the theatre that we all know today.

I would like to thank anyone who took the time to read this article. There were no additional comments like I had hoped, but I understand there's not much information on the theatre. This is all I could find about the theatre, any additional information would still be appreciated.