On Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, you face the Mimi Ohio Theatre, part of Playhouse Square. This stagehouse was built by Marcus Loew's Loew's Theatres company and designed by Thomas W. Lamb in the Italian Renaissance style. It was intended to present legitimate plays and opened on February 14, 1921, with 1,338 seats.
Step inside in your mind: the original foyer featured three murals depicting the story of Venus and the balcony contained paintings of Arcadia. Through the 1920s the Ohio hosted a resident stock company and traveling Broadway plays. In 1935 the house was redecorated in an Art Deco style and transformed into a supper club called the Mayfair Casino; its owners hoped to turn it into an actual casino, but gambling was not allowed in Ohio and the Mayfair closed in 1936.
Loew's Theatres reopened the Ohio in 1943 as a first-run movie theater. A 1964 lobby fire damaged the auditorium interior; the lobby was rebuilt along modern lines and the auditorium was painted red to hide smoke damage. Decreasing patronage led the theater to close in early February 1969, along with the rest of Playhouse Square.
Notice the facade catching the light along Euclid Avenue, then follow Euclid Avenue on to Playhouse Square.