Local history: Carousel Dinner Theatre debuted 50 years ago

Celebrity sightings increased dramatically in Northeast Ohio when Carousel Dinner Theatre opened 50 years ago.

Popular stars of television, film and stage appeared in Broadway comedies at the entertainment complex at 960 E. Main St. in Ravenna.

“We’re a restaurant with a play,” founder David Fulford explained.

The theater premiered April 5, 1973, with bespectacled comedian Arte Johnson, a cast member of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” starring in the Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers.” 

Only three weeks earlier, the NBC-TV program had aired its final episode after a five-year run. In a recurring role as German soldier Wolfgang, wearing a helmet and trenchcoat, Johnson had started a national catchphrase with his line “Ver-r-r-ry in-te-res-ting.”

Johnson was an ideal celebrity for Carousel, a familiar face that everyone seemed to know in the 1970s. Star-driven vehicles were the theater’s early formula for success.

“The audience feels they know the star,” Fulford once told the Beacon Journal. “They really get excited.”

The producer and director paid big-name celebrities up to $5,000 a week (about $34,000 today) to appear in productions for a month or so. Fulford filled the rest of the cast with mostly unknown Equity actors.

Who was David Fulford?

Carousel’s impresario was a seasoned veteran of theater. Fulford grew up in Barberton, served in the Navy during World War II, studied drama at Yale and acted in summer stock.

In 1954, he founded Canal Fulton Summer Theater in a barn at Clay’s Park in Lawrence Township. Two years later, the company moved to another barn at 9460 Portage St. NW in Jackson Township. Well-known actors such as Edward Everett Horton, Dody Goodman and Agnes Moorehead were cast in lead roles.

Fulford produced and directed three off-Broadway plays in New York:  “Fashion” (starring Will Geer and Enid Markey), “Moon in the Yellow River” (starring Jonathan Frid and James Coco) and “Colombe” (starring Carol Teitel and Al Corbin).

While continuing to operate the Canal Fulton theater, Fulford opened a second venue in Ravenna. In the early 1970s, he spent $40,000 (more than $271,000 today) to turn a former Del Farm store into Carousel.

Productions ran Tuesday through Sunday at the 500-seat complex. Tickets, which included a meal and a play, ranged from $6.95 for a weekday matinee to $10.95 for a Saturday night show. Drinks cost extra.

Patrons sat at tiers of tables overlooking the stage, and filled plates with food from a salad bar and buffet table, where they could go back for seconds or thirds.

Entrees included roast beef, chicken almondine, ham steak, seafood casserole and similar fare. Side dishes included potatoes, vegetables, rice and noodles. Guests had 90 minutes to eat before each play.

For stage productions, Fulford favored light comedies. He didn’t much care for the “snob hits” of New York, the avant-garde plays that were “so intellectual they go beyond entertainment.”

“I just don’t think dinner theater audiences want to work,” he said. “They don’t want an algebra test after dinner.”

He produced the shows, auditioned the actors and directed half of the plays. Stars alone couldn’t make the plays a success, so Fulford carefully selected supporting actors.

“I have a couple thousand names in my casting file and the hardest to find are those with true comic ability,” he said.

Carousel welcomed stars

During its first year of operation, Carousel welcomed such celebrities as Mickey Rooney, Martha Raye, Pat Paulsen, Nanette Fabray, Van Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Tab Hunter, Loretta Swit and George Hamilton. The actors stayed for three or four weeks in motels like the Holiday Inn in Kent.

Audiences loved the experience at Carousel.

“We are getting more and more people who have never been in a theater before, and many are the people who used to go to nightclubs,” Fulford told the Beacon Journal.

“It’s like revisiting their youth when they can see someone like Van Johnson in person. Why, I can remember myself ushering in Barberton movie theaters during his movies.”

The 1970s brought a cavalcade of celebrities to Carousel: Phyllis Diller, Bob Crane, Cyd Charisse, Morey Amsterdam, June Lockhart, Bob Denver, Ann Miller, Robert Cummings, June Lockhart, Eddie Bracken, Jane Russell, Gig Young … the list went on and on.

In 1975, Fulford rebranded his first theater as Canal Fulton Dinner Playhouse, sharing many of Carousel’s stars. Prescott Griffith, a veteran of dinner theaters in Pennsylvania, joined Fulford in 1978 as managing producer.

Carousel gradually changed its formula from star comedy shows to well-known musicals, but the Canal Fulton theater closed in 1983 following years of financial troubles.

After a decade, the Ravenna theater had outgrown its quarters and needed $400,000 in upgrades.

“It would cost us that much, and we still don’t have the perfect location,” Griffith told the Beacon Journal in 1984. “The Ravenna facility was adequate when it was built, but now we want to do it right.”

Change was on the way. 

Theater moved to Akron

In 1986, Griffith bought the Carousel business from Fulford, who had relocated to New York. In 1987, Griffith paid $1 million to purchase the former Breakaway nightclub at 1275 E. Waterloo Road in Akron.

After $600,000 in renovations, it became a state-of-the-art theater with a 5,000-square-foot stage and seating for 1,300 guests.

“It’s going to be a true showplace dinner theater and the biggest in the United States,” Griffith predicted.

“Big Bad Burlesque” was the final show in February 1988 at the Ravenna theater. The new Carousel opened March 1 with the glitzy musical “42nd Street.”

For the next 20 years, Carousel remained a popular destination. Patrons arrived in busloads, enjoying dinner and a taste of Broadway. The theater staged everything from “The Sound of Music” to “Show Boat” to “My Fair Lady” to “Little Shop of Horrors” to “A Chorus Line” to “Hello, Dolly!”

In 2002, Griffith sold Carousel to associates Joseph Palmer and David Slaght. The glamour continued, but no one knew the United States was headed for economic recession.

The financial crisis began in 2007. The entertainment business imploded.

Carousel Dinner Theatre abruptly closed Jan. 4, 2009, throwing 150 employees out of work and leaving patrons in the lurch. Company officials cited the slow economy, weak ticket sales and $6.4 million in debt. 

The final show was titled “All Shook Up.”

With eerie timing, Carousel founder David Fulford, 83, died of natural causes Jan. 20 in New York City.

During a bankruptcy sale in May, everything had to go: Theatrical lights, sound equipment, ticket printers, pianos, kitchen appliances, beer coolers, office furniture and bar stools.

And that was the end.

No longer a theater, the Akron building still draws a crowd: Since 2011, it’s been home to Community Baptist Temple.

Carousel remains a pleasant memory for former guests. 

As Arte Johnson would say, that dinner theater was “Ver-r-r-ry in-te-res-ting.”

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.

Carousel’s first shows

The stars during Carousel Dinner Theatre's first year of shows:

“Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” Arte Johnson, April 5-27, 1973.

“Fiddler on the Roof,” Jerry Jarrett, May 5-June 3, 1973.

“Man of La Mancha,” Allan Jones, June 5-July 8, 1973.

“Goodbye, Charlie,” Jo Anne Worley, July 10-29, 1973.

“Everybody Loves Opal,” Martha Raye, July 31-Sept. 2, 1973.

“Play It Again, Sam,” Pat Paulsen, Sept. 5-Sept. 30, 1973.

“See How They Run,” Mickey Rooney, Oct. 2-Nov. 4, 1973.

“The Tender Trap,” Tab Hunter, Nov. 6-Nov. 25, 1973.

“There’s a Girl in My Soup,” Van Johnson, Nov. 27-Dec. 31, 1973.

“Plaza Suite,” Nanette Fabray, Jan. 15-Feb. 3, 1974.

“Paisley Convertible,” George Hamilton, Feb. 5-March 3, 1974.

“Any Wednesday,” Loretta Swit, March 5-31, 1974.

“Star Spangled Girl,” Bob Denver, April 2-April 28, 1974.

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