Plain Press

  • Cleveland moviemaking history begins with the Giant Coal Dumper and continues to evoke its lessons

    by Cameron Mays    (Plain Press April 2026) It is now probably accepted that the big bang that started our universe was not some great explosion but a simple happening. Thus, it is fitting that which started Cleveland film history was no epic tale but a routine industrial occurrence.    Giant Coal Dumper was the…

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  • Developments at Pearl and Memphis inch forward as former tenants seek new homes

    by Lynette Filips (Plain Press April 2026) Two months have passed since I last addressed the many issues facing the corner of Memphis Ave. and Pearl Rd. in the heart of Old Brooklyn. Seemingly more and more sidebars have come up while the major issues are still in limbo. To make processing all of them…

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  • “El Sueño Americano” exhibit at the Maltz Museum sheds light on the struggles of immigrants who risked their lives to reach the United States’ southern border

    PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN Friday, January 9, 2026; Candlelight vigil in memory of Renee Good, Market Square Park, W. 25th and Lorain Avenue: This woman expresses her patriotism through protest. by Lynette Filips The sign on the side of the building at 2929 Richmond Rd. in Beachwood says “Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage”, but since…

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  • Historic buildings still standing at Pearl and Memphis

    by Lynette Filips    The months (and years) go by quickly and thus another month has passed with seemingly nothing having moved forward with the projected demolition of the doomed buildings in the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation’s (OBCDC’s) revitalization plan for the northwest corner of Memphis Ave. and Pearl Rd.  Sheets of new plywood…

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  • Fairview Park cold case is still cold

       Authorities are still looking for any information to help find out what happened to the teenage girl that went missing in 1977 from Fairview Park. Yvonne Regler went missing from a Sunoco gas station located on Lorain Road. She was a resident of North Olmsted. It was early afternoon on August 8th when she…

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  • Developer of former Broadview Savings/Citizens Bank buildings awarded $6 million in Cleveland Port Authority bond funds

    by Lynette Filips      (Plain Press January 2026) December has just ten days remaining as this January issue of the Plain Press is prepared for the printer.  Based on the headline on the article in the Old Brooklyn News Winter issue, “Momentum Builds at Memphis & Pearl:  REMEDIATION ANTICIPATED TO BEGIN BY THE END OF 2025, I…

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  • Documentary airs in recognition of history Cleveland’s “Shock Theater”

    IMAGE CREATED BY KEVIN KELLY This January marks the 63rd anniversary of Shocker Theater where Ernie Anderson as the host “Ghoulardi” offered commentary on featured horror shows from 1963 to 1966 on WJW-TV8 in Cleveland.    (Plain Press January 2026) January 18, 2026, marks the 63rd anniversary of Shock Theater. The show aired in 1963, at 11:20…

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  • All storefronts in Greenline Buildings at Memphis and Pearl are empty

    HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF OLD BROOKLYN MUSEUM AND MARIA THE BARBERETTE WERE EVICTED LAST MONTH  by Lynette Filips(Plain Press December 2025) In the article about the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation’s (OBCDC’s) Memphis Pearl project in the April 2025, issue of the Plain Press, I wrote some commentary about Ward 13 Councilman Kris Harsh’s visit to…

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  • Trip to Montgomery commemorates Cleveland man murdered in 1911 over a handful of cherries

    by Randy Cunningham    (Plain Press December 2025) The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a project of the Equal Justice Institute in Montgomery, Alabama is a complex of sites dedicated to commemorating the black experience in America from slavery and segregation, up to today’s New Jim Crow of mass incarceration. I think it is…

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  • Tamir Rice Butterfly Memorial designated as Cleveland Landmark

       (Plain Press November 2025) At its October 20th meeting, Cleveland City Council approved designating the Tamir Rice Butterfly Memorial as a Cleveland Landmark (Ord. No. 1084-2025), sponsored by Councilmember Jenny Spencer.

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