Qualla: Athena Cinema

Athena Cinema: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sporeilly94, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1941, after Ohio University won a basketball game, students celebrated by forming a conga line down Court Street, through the front doors of the Athena Theatre, down the aisle, across the front of the screen, back up the other aisle, and out onto the street again. The film stopped while they passed through. Then it resumed. That story, which feels too perfect to be true but apparently is, captures something essential about the Athena Cinema. The theater has been operating continuously on Court Street since 1915 - longer than nearly any other movie house in Ohio - and through every one of those years it has been entangled with Ohio University in ways that no chain multiplex ever could be. The students bought the tickets, picketed for lower prices, danced through the auditorium, and now, under the College of Fine Arts, they sell the popcorn.

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Image: Sporeilly94 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Athena Cinema: Five Cents for Four Reels

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Majestic Theater, Public domain. The theater opened in 1915 in a Court Street storefront that had previously housed the Bethel grocery store, under the name Majestic Theatre. A 'four reeler' cost five cents - dramatically less than the Athens opera house, which the Majestic was designed to undercut. The booking ...

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Image: Majestic Theater | Public domain

Athena Cinema: From Majestic to Schine to Athena

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit OHIO fan at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Majestic was renamed the Athena Theatre around 1935 when new owners took over, and by the early 1940s it was being operated by the Schine Circuit - one of dozens of small-town theaters the Schine family operated across upstate New York, Ohio, and Kentucky. The name Athena, ta...

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Image: OHIO fan at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Athena Cinema: The Picket and the Matinee Price

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chamberednautilus, CC BY-SA 4.0. Student involvement in the theater has often taken the form of friendly antagonism. In May 1968, the Athena announced that adult tickets would rise from $1.50 to $2.00. Two undergraduates began picketing the box office on a Friday night. By Monday, the picket line had grown to tw...

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Image: Chamberednautilus | CC BY-SA 4.0

Athena Cinema: Sin, Censorship, and A Clockwork Orange

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chamberednautilus, CC BY-SA 4.0. Scandals over content recurred. In 1972, the Athena pulled Sexual Freedom in Denmark after complaints from townspeople, replacing it with No Deposit, No Return; Mayor Donald Barrett sent the police captain to view the original to assess whether the complaints were warranted. In F...

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Image: Chamberednautilus | CC BY-SA 4.0

Athena Cinema: The Theater That Students Run

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chamberednautilus, CC BY-SA 4.0. Since September 2008, the Athena has been operated by Ohio University's College of Fine Arts. The director is Alexandra Kamody, herself an Ohio University alum and former Athena student worker. The theater employs more than forty students through Federal Work Study, who run proje...

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Image: Chamberednautilus | CC BY-SA 4.0

Athena Cinema: Flying Over the College Town

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chamberednautilus, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the air, the Athena reads as one storefront among many on Court Street - the main commercial spine of uptown Athens, three blocks long, lined with restaurants and shops. The theater's vertical marquee, illuminated at night, identifies the building from street level but disap...

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Image: Chamberednautilus | CC BY-SA 4.0