Cinécraft Productions

[4][5] Promoting "Sound Business Pictures in Natural Color," the studio began in rental space in the Card Building on St. Clair Ave. in downtown Cleveland.

The studio assembled many early productions featuring Cleveland-based Louise Winslow, a pioneer in television programming focused on sewing, cooking, and crafts.

Hollywood actors that appeared in Cinécraft productions include Alan Alda, Don Ameche, Ernie Anderson, Joe E. Brown, Tim Conway, Joel Grey, Reed Hadley, Chet Huntley, Danny Kaye, Nelson Olmsted, Basil Rathbone, and James Whitmore.

[20] Together, they completed the change from film to broadcast-quality video as industrial and commercial clients demanded faster and easier ways to make effective motion pictures.

This early period of digital technology improved over the years as Cinécraft Productions became known for e-learning and producing national and international projects for Fortune 1000 companies.

[23] In 2023 the studio was still operating out of the John Eisenmann-designed building that had started as the home of the West Side Branch of the Cleveland Public Library in 1898.

[24][25] Cinécraft's major film client's included ALCOA, B. F. Goodrich, Bell Telephone, DuPont, General Electric, Hercules Inc., Libbey-Owens-Ford, Owens-Corning, Ohio Bell, Seiberling Rubber Company, Standard Oil of Ohio, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and Youngstown Sheet & Tube.

Betty and Ray Culley (behind the camera), founders of Cinecraft Productions, on a motion picture shoot in the 1940s. Photo courtesy of the Hagley Museum & Library.
Cast and Cinecraft Productions film crew on the set of Milestones of Motoring (1954).Photo courtesy of the Hagley Museum & Library.
The cast and crew of Cinecraft Productions filming Miracle on Mulberry Street (1948).Photo courtesy of the Hagley Museum & Library.