As the Stage Turned

Sammy Davis, Jr. opened it. Luther Vandross closed it. During the 19 years in between, a who’s who of the world’s top entertainers and speakers performed on the novel revolving stage of the Front Row Theatre, from Liberace to Alice Cooper, Jay Leno to Jerry Seinfeld, Marlene Dietrich to Dolly Parton, Presidents Ford and Carter and culinary grand dame Julia Child. Many were unknown opening acts, like Whitney Houston. Another, the legendary Roy Orbison, would unknowingly perform the final concert of his life there.

Cleveland Landmarks Press’ newest release, As the Stage Turned: A Front Row Theatre Memoir, captures the dynamic energy that sprung from one of the most unique entertainment venues in the country – a theater-in-the-round located in the sleepy suburb of Highland Heights, just outside of Cleveland.

Jeannie Emser Schultz, the venue’s longtime former director of marketing and publicity, has written a memoir capturing the star power and draw of the Front Row. It’s an homage to seemingly everything related to show business and the cultural significance of that famed theater that drew the biggest and brightest stars of its day.

For instance, where else would you learn that several days into Sammy Davis’s opening run at the Front Row in 1974, he received a phone call threatening his life? Or that the only way Frank Sinatra would agree to perform there was if he and his entire entourage could rent out the Shaker Heights home of Larry Dolin, the founder and president of the Front Row? Or that comedian Bob Newhart always kept a nude picture on his dressing room table of Anthony Newley looking backwards through his legs (Newhart told Emser Schultz it was one of the funniest pictures he ever saw)?

Emser Schultz’s narrative takes readers on a detailed and behind-the-scenes firsthand journey of the almost 20-year history of what was considered one of America’s most significant entertainment venues. Revisit your own fond memories of a lost Cleveland classic.