Theatres of a Bygone Era

And good morning. Welcome on this

freezing cold morning. It's

minus four. Jim Bessier is here

and we'd like to talk about

receiving the history we're

seeing. This is one of your

not only it's just a hobby

of yours, but it's you

carried it to the extreme

where you have your own

loft area at the

end of the year. And you

have the old sign is the

old neon signs. You got old

artifacts from the history

of recene. So this is beyond

and I'm sure your wife I

called her on the phone now.

I can find out what horrors

are going on at your house

with all this stuff. I mean

it's just you carried to the

extreme. You brought an

artifact in this morning.

We'll talk about that later

but it's it's here and it

looks like something out of

ancient Rome or Greece.

We'll talk about it later.

We're here to talk about the

theaters of downtown

recene. There are none

now, but there used to be a

lot of them because even

all across America, the

downtown theaters was where

it was happening. There were

no shopping mall theaters.

There were no suburban

theaters. It was all like the

song says. It's all

happening downtown. And that's

what we're here to talk about

today. Do you know how many

theaters by the way? There were

downtown at one time. Well

just from the 50s and 60s we

had four that were operating

inside the city. We're seeing

that's big. And these were

not like little tiny

theaters. These were big

theaters with over 1,000

some of them had over 1,000

seats in them. Yeah. Yeah.

It's not like today where you

get like a hundred seats in

a theater in these

multiplexes. But these were

huge. And the theaters were

innate. Oh beautiful. Let's

start with some of the

downtown theaters. Well sure.

Yeah. Well, we all remember

the fun and excitement we

had when we went to some of

the downtown theaters. I

personally remember the

Rialto in Venetian very, very

well. I mean, we were there

probably every weekend. But

we also had two smaller

downtown theaters done. The

main street and the

badger theaters. So join me

today as we take a walk

down memory lane. And we live

some of those pleasant

memories of our downtown

theaters. I have to say that

my partner Carol G and 40 is

bouncing back and forth

between Arizona and here. So

she will not be able to attend

today. But we'll be back

next month and we'll be

talking about. I think we're

going to be talking about part

three of some of our favorite

TV shows from the 50s and 60s.

Don't don't feel bad for it.

It's probably 75 degrees where

she is right now. Actually,

she's here. Oh, she is here.

Yeah, she's here. Okay. Yeah.

Oh, good. Good. Well, she's

in a nice warm house and a nice

warm bed probably. Okay. Yeah.

So we can start with the

badger theater done. That

opened as the Beeshoe in 1908.

I think every town had a Beeshoe

theater. Yeah. As a matter

of fact, on my wall, I have a

drawing of the Beeshoe. We had

framed. They brought it in an

art show over a gateway by wife

and my mother did and we had

had a frame for me and it's on my

wall in my living room of the

Beeshoe. No kidding. Was that

the one at this corner of

state in Maine? No, that was

the Main Street. We'll get to

that. The Beeshoe was on

400 block of Main Street. Okay.

Yeah. That had opened up in

1908, showing, of course,

silent movies and had vaudeville

acts. The name was changed to

a state theater in 1926 and

then renamed once again to the

Badger in 1941. It was

located at 421 Main Street.

Now that's the Northern

Lights gallery. Oh, really?

Yeah. The seating

capacity was only 975. So quite

quite small. They closed in

1952 because of its small size

and competition from the larger

Venetian and Rialto theaters. A

small part of it is still

standing. That's the entrance

to the Northern Lights gallery.

Oh, so if I go to Northern

Lights gallery, that's the actual

opening to the Beeshoe

theater. Yeah. Yeah. Or the

Badger theater. The correct.

Yeah. Right. Wow. I got to

check that on the way home. They

demolished the old theater

itself, the auditorium, but the

entrance is still there. Okay. And

then we will move on to the

Main Street theater. That opened

as the Orphium theater in 1912.

That was located on the

North West corner of state and

Maine, if you can picture where

that is, state and Maine in

Northwest corner. It was the

smallest of our downtown

theaters. And of course, it

also showed silent films and

vaudeville acts. It became the

Main Street theater in 1930. The

seating capacity was about

700. And did you know, Don,

that in the early 40s, that was

the home to the recene theater

guild? Oh, yeah. Okay. That's

good. Yeah. They closed in 1951

due to its small size. After

closing, and I think I heard

from somebody too that it was

infested with rats. Just before

it closed, and of course,

after it closed. And we're

now talking about the movie,

you know, Willard. Yeah. Yeah.

We're talking about real rats.

It's real. Yeah. So. And of

course, it was destroyed by

vandals after it closed too. It

was finally demolished in 1958

and it's now just a parking lot.

Is that right next to where

a conno print is? Yeah, not

too far from there. Yeah. Because

I, my other picture drawing is

that theater. It was an opera

house at one time. Was it not?

Am I talking about that? Well,

it was originally the signage

says, bait opera house. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I have a picture of that too.

A drawing, a drawing, a drawing,

a picture. Okay. Yeah.

Then let's move on to the

royale toe. And I think if you're

a baby boomer, everybody remembers

the royale toe theater. That

opened up in 1918. And of

course, prior to 1928, you just

showed silent movies or had

vaudeville acts. It was adapted

to talkies in 1928, as were all

the theaters that were built before

1928. Talkies came out then.

We'll get into that in a little

bit. Seating capacity was about

1,200. It was the largest

theater in Racine at the time.

It was once owned by Stanley

Warner. That was a large theater

chain. They also owned the

Badger end of Venetian. And

when the attendance started to

dwindle, they resorted to showing

x-rated films in their early 70s.

And they closed for good in 1974.

It was our last downtown theater

to close. You know what the last

movie was? I don't know. Do you

know? No. I'm big on movie

theaters. And a lot of the

theaters where I grew up, I know

what the last movie was. Yeah.

Like the peak with theater was

down the, you know, it was in our

hometown. I know the last movie

ever to play. There was Rainman.

No kidding. Yeah. The last movie

ever to play before they try

plex the big cinema, which was

a Stanley Warner theater in New

York. Yeah. Was the green

berets with John Wayne. Oh

sure. What 68 or so. Yeah.

So I just, I know what the last

movies were. I don't know why

why do I have this stuff in my

head? I get so much more. I've

got to do with my head. I have

that. But we're talking movie

theaters. We're going to get to

the Venetian next. Yes. Yeah.

The big one. Tiffany Sierra is

here at WRJ at 720. And we're

talking about the old movie

theaters of downtown Racine

before the break there during

the break. I was asking you about

the movie theater that used to

be inside the where gelato is

today downtown. And you were

telling me that was what? That

was the original B.U. Racine's

first movie theater as far as I

can determine. But yeah, that

was the original. And there's

remnants of it inside there. You

can still see some of the remnants

of it when it was a movie theater.

Yeah. Okay. We're talking about

the big one though. The Venetian

now. Yes. Yes. Well, the

Rialto was demolished in 1978.

So that takes care to write. So

that was like on a porno house.

We wouldn't say it was in the

early 70s. Yeah, it was.

That's it movies. That's sad

drive-ins and movie theaters

turned to pornos in the 70s.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were

out of fashion downtown. Yeah.

Well, it was a money maker, I

guess, the some people. But I've

saved the best for the end here.

And that's the Venetian

theater. That was built in 1928.

It was Racine's newest and

largest and actually close to

the Rialto. It was just on the

same block. Yeah. Yeah. On the

same block. Now that would see

2100 people done. And I'll

compare that to the Wisconsin

theater in Milwaukee downtown

Milwaukee. Their capacity was

3200. Can you imagine 3200

people? Radio City Music Hall

when they showed movies was

6,000. Oh my gosh. And the

lowest capital I believe was

close to the 4,000 in New

York. And the paramount was

10,000. Oh, wow. The rocks.

He was 5,000. And they were

big theaters back now theaters

100 200 seats. Yeah. That's

it. Yeah. That's that's too

bad. Yeah. Now the Venetian

was built because of talking

pictures or talkies. And that

was one of four theaters in

Racine that was built because of

talkies. Besides the Venetian,

the capital theater, which was

recently torn down in West

Racine, the uptown theater was

originally called the

Majestic. And the Grenada

Theater, which is still

standing too. Yeah. It's

we could see it. They still

have these. It looks like a

movie theater on the outside.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think

it's a garage door service

right now. But everybody

wanted to go see these new

fangled movies called

talkies. You could actually

hear the actors talk. Prior

to that, they just had like an

organ playing, you know, if it

was some exciting part, the

organ would, the organist would

play, you know, something, you

know, jumpy in that. But the

you just had to listen to an

organ or maybe a piano, just

accompaniment by those people

playing an organ. But that

changed when the talkies came.

Now, the interior of the

Venetian was considered to be

one of the most beautiful in

the entire Midwest. The entire

Midwest now has kids. Don, you

probably too. We didn't pay

attention to the architecture.

We went there to see a movie.

That's right. You know, it

could be the most beautiful

theater in the world and

like, hey, let's see the movie.

Who cares about what it looks

like? And that's how I was

too. I give anything to see

the Venetian again. But we

always want to go back and say,

oh, if I only had one more

chance. Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

And we didn't take the

chance when we had to. That's

right. It was Racine's best

remembered theater. Everybody

remembers the Venetian. Besides

being the largest, the largest

and the most beautiful, it had

Italian Renaissance plaster.

And many ornate statues. As a

matter of fact, I brought one

here to show Don. This is what

what would you describe this

Don? Gargoyle. These are the

things that were on the front

of the theater. They used to

have like a, um, I know what

you call them, like a ledge on

the theater on the up, you know,

by the way above me, maybe

25 feet up had a ledge. And

these were under the ledges.

Yes. And if you want to deal

Disney cartoons, they come to

life sometimes. But yeah, that's

what this was. This was hung

under the ledge. And Jim

snuck there in the middle of

the night with a ladder. Why

was at the bottom? He chiseled

it off and said here, catch

this. It actually looks like

it weighs more than it does.

It looks like stone, but it's

not. It's actually plaster and

and horse hair is what it is.

Um, how would you describe that

face? I mean, a tongue is hanging

out and, uh, not bossy or

the radio station. It's going

to say one of my, I had a blind

date that looks up like that

one. Yeah. Uh, the ceiling

was really nice. It was, uh,

complete with twinkling stars.

Yeah. Uh, and floating clouds.

Yeah. Yeah. On a blue

plaster sky. It was, it was

gorgeous. Hold it right there.

We're talking about the

Venetian theater now. Jim

Messier is here reminiscing

about movie theaters in

downtown Racine.

We're talking about the

downtown Racine scene.

John does it in the morning.

W R J N Jim Messier is here.

We're talking about the

downtown Racine theaters.

We've talked about a bunch

of them. And now we're down.

We're down to the big one,

right? We're talking about

a Venetian theater, which was

right literally across

monument square. Yes. And

correct. Right now that is,

is that the Johnson wax

going? That's all Johnson's.

Johnson Johnson. Yeah,

financial. All right. Go ahead.

But actually besides showing

movies at the Venetian, they

had many, many promotional

gimmicks, including beauty

contests, a talent shows,

animal acts, right on stage,

magicians, now get this,

even a cow milking contest,

right on stage, unbelievable.

But yeah, we left up here

talking about the clouds and

the stars. Yeah.

There were a lot of

theaters across America.

These movie palaces like

downtown Atlanta, the Fox

theater. Yep.

Had the clouds and the stars.

They had wonder theaters in

New York City that had that.

I'm sure there was

theaters in Chicago.

But that was all part of

the experience you go.

They feel like you're

outside. Yes.

With the clouds and the stars.

They made the whole movie

going the experience.

Mm hmm. And that was,

ours was the Venetian.

Yes. It did that.

Exactly. Yeah.

They must have stopped

that at a certain point.

I don't know if it was

profitable to keep doing that.

Yeah. I suppose you don't

know when they stopped it.

No, it wasn't quite expensive.

But back in the,

right, when the talk he started

in the 28th, all these

theaters were that were built

were so many were very,

very gorgeous and beautiful.

One, one tried to,

I'll do the next one, you know.

And, uh, big of architecture

firms made these theaters too.

Oh, yes. They were very

ornate. Yeah.

I love this thing.

You know, I get to take a

picture with you in this.

Oh, I mean, this is,

how did you get that?

By the way, this was the,

we were talking about this.

This was on under the

ledge of the Venetian.

They had different like,

like theatrical masks.

That's what they were.

Batman, you know, they had

the, the,

the masks of, you know,

whatever. Yeah.

Anyway, so how did you get

that?

I got a call from somebody

in Racine who was, uh,

involved in, uh,

the demolition.

This is not black market

stuff.

I don't know.

He had a dozen of them.

So I bought all 12.

Oh, yeah.

I'm in my basement.

Yes. Uh-huh.

So, uh,

I also have, uh,

another statue called the,

the Griffin.

It's, uh,

this is heavier.

It is heavier.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Another statue I have done.

It's, it's,

like I say, it's called the

Griffin.

Uh, that's four feet tall,

three feet long,

and two feet wide.

Uh, it's from Greek mythology,

again, called the Griffin.

There were six of them

gracing the interior of the

Venetian.

I have one.

If you want to see one,

there's one at, uh,

Marsh Meredith funeral

partner.

They have one on display.

And the estate of, uh,

Fred Hermes, he has three of them

in his basement.

When Fred was alive,

he was entertaining people.

He had an actual, uh,

theater in his basement.

Yeah.

I remember the organ and everything.

Right.

And most of that stuff came

from the Venetian.

It was unbelievable to see that.

You'd, you'd swear you're

sort of back at the Venetian.

Well, who else do you want

to go up in your house?

Yeah.

Right.

No, I just go to Marsh Meredith

funeral.

But, uh, also, who appeared

at the Venetian was my

favorites, the three stooges.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Now, the Venetian closed in

1971, uh, lack of parking,

you know, it was downtown.

We're going to talk about that

because when you did this

presentation, uh-huh,

uh, a lot of you guys were

talking about the Venetian

parking.

SC Johnson at the Golden

Rhondel.

I couldn't stop thinking about

that and I brought up to a bunch

of people and they kind of,

you know, what are you bringing

that up for?

It's not important.

But it was important.

Yes.

And then somebody came up with

some, you know, you talk,

can we talk about the parking

now for a second?

Sure.

Okay.

You get these theaters with a

thousand seats in them.

Let's just say around numbers.

Yeah.

And let's say half those people

show up.

So only 500 seats are taken

in each theater.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's a thousand seats.

Now you figure maybe everybody

maybe two or three people came

together in a car.

Yeah.

So maybe 300 cars amongst both

the, where do you put 300 cars?

Yeah.

And keep this in mind.

Yeah.

The next showing of the movie

would call for another 300 cars

and they would overlap

because people come a little

early.

Yeah.

So now you've got to have parking

from a 600 car.

Yeah.

That's, if it's a bad movie

and you don't fill up more than

half the theater.

Yeah.

Where does 600 cars park down

down?

Not down, down.

I don't know where you park

work.

But how did you get to the

theater?

Well, a lot of people I think

this took the bus for one thing

as kids.

We took the bus.

But adults.

Did adults take the bus on a

Saturday night?

Probably not.

Well, how did they park?

See, we're so used to go to

the Marcus Renaissance and

you have parking for the

half the world.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But downtown that doesn't

exist back back in the 40s and

the 50s.

No.

I remember parking on Lake Avenue

and walking maybe three blocks.

You know when it took us.

I just don't know how they did

the parking.

Yeah.

And then there were other things

downtown which took us parking

as well.

Which something.

And that's right.

Only half these theaters.

Yeah.

Only half were sold.

And they sold more than half.

There was a Saturday night.

I'm sure they were packed.

Yeah.

I don't know how they did it.

I just, I would love somebody

to give me an answer.

Nobody knows.

No.

Well, that was the factor in

that was in 1971 again because

of a lack of parking.

High maintenance costs.

That building was slowly

deteriorating.

And what happened was they

sent them a one and two

theater opened up on

Washington Avenue.

And like Donna was saying,

plenty of free parking.

You could park, you know,

within a block of the

of the entrance.

Now, where was that?

That was on Washington Avenue.

That would be between Ohio

and Highway 31 on the south side.

Yeah.

It's demolished now.

Yeah.

But that opened up, I think

in 68 and took a lot of

business away from the

downtown theaters.

So again, it was demolished in

1977, along with the old Ace

Grill.

Most of the blocks stood empty

for 25 years, except for the

in on the lake, the old hotel

recene.

But then SC Johnson built their

Johnson financial headquarters

there in 2002.

So the phrase they don't make

them like they used to done

certainly applied to

the Venetian theater.

Now, when you, uh,

what started this whole

adventure was the ticket booth.

Remember the ticket booth

done?

I remember these to be outside.

I remember seeing pictures

of them outside.

Yeah.

And they were standalone.

Yes.

That's right.

So if the ticket person had

a problem, they had a

leave the ticket booth and go

inside the theater.

Yeah.

20 below zero.

Yeah.

That's right.

The top of the ticket booth

was usually made a glass.

And the person inside talked

to us through the slats.

And that's where you got your

ticket as well.

Now, there were many movies

that had very, very long lines

outside.

I remember Old Yeller,

remember Old Yeller,

the Disney movie?

Yes.

I, and that's one of those

movies that had a cry at when

you sold Yeller at the end.

Yeah.

Don't make me think about

I'm going to cry.

1956, it came out.

Yeah.

The line went all the way

around the block, all the way

to Lake Avenue.

Now, where do these people

park?

That's a good question.

Other Disney movies, of course,

were very popular.

Snow White, Cinderella,

Lady in the Tramp.

They were all very popular

and had long lines too.

Here's the thing.

These older theaters, now,

Lady in the Tramp,

the only reason I bring this up

is they were the first

wide-screen cinema scope

movie Disney had.

Before them, they were

kind of the shape of almost

like the television.

They were that square look.

Yeah.

And then when movies had

to compete with TV,

they made wide-screen.

Because they didn't

see wide-screen on TV.

Now, these theaters had a

retrofit there.

It had to spend a lot of

money to retrofit the theaters

because they weren't built

for wide-screen movies.

The screens were square.

Yes.

So they had a retrofit

them. They had to get

new lenses.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They had to get new

lenses for the projectors

because the old lenses

didn't show cinema scope.

Yeah.

So it must have been a big

ordeal back in the late 50s

to retrofit these movie

theaters.

Oh, yeah.

And back then, Don,

as you probably remember,

it wasn't just one feature

movie. There were two.

We had two feature movies.

We had coming attractions.

We had something called a

short subject.

It was like a travel on.

Travel on.

Something interesting.

And, of course, the cartoons.

Always the road runner.

Remember, was it Wiley?

Wiley?

Wiley Coyote and the road runner.

Yeah.

Everything was at Mac Me.

Yeah.

He bought everything from Mac Me.

And there was no dialogue

in the entire cartoon.

Right.

Yeah.

How did he talk?

A lot of sound effects,

but no dialogue.

Well, here's something else.

You talk about the

double features.

Yeah.

Could you imagine sitting

through a double feature

today in the theater?

I can't imagine it.

No.

But we used to do it all the time.

As kids.

When I was growing up,

I spent some lot of time

and Iinal tear out for Bush

cash and see which we had used to

be to ourselves as much as

the Sunday ins surely kids

and the prime a

friend of MisterScene Brody.

Throughout the summer,

started to consult and

and felt they were

集ed up for us

specifically three or four hours

of my parents was

buhicastity and the Sunday

JK in the prime of

Miss Jean Brody,

each movie was two hours.

So I sat through over four hours

in fitness with my pit.

Yeah.

You would never dream about

doing that today.

I used to take girls there

and for the horror movies

because why?

Because they'd sit really

close.

Yeah.

You're the guy.

Maybe afraid, you know.

So later on, of course,

the beach movies were very popular

and that in Frankie.

You know, everybody wanted

to see them and it was a

series of those.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Beach blanket bingo.

Yeah.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But as we got older,

you know, we would take the

bus or walk downtown.

We talked about the parking.

That was one way to get around

that.

You just hop on the bus.

Take you right by the

theater.

Actually, every Saturday,

you could go to the theater

and probably spend, like

Don said, maybe five hours

there all day.

And including Sunday afternoon

too.

We would spend our allowance

at the dime store, you know.

And maybe go to the

QPs for lunch or maybe a

...

I thought you were going to say

you used to sneak candy in.

No.

Yeah.

We did, of course,

that too.

Yeah.

Or remember the dime store

counters?

Yeah.

Go have lunch there.

Well, the point is we'd

spend all day downtown on a

Saturday.

I'm talking about the old

downtown theaters that are no

longer there.

Some of them have still have

the like the Grenada.

The building is still there.

And it looks like a movie

theater on the outside.

You can see where the movie

posters used to be.

And I was in there.

It's a store.

In there now.

This is what the guy who

has it.

He had a lot of storage in

there.

And he let me walk around,

which was kind of nice.

And he said, yeah,

come on in.

And I was going to tell you

quick so because anyone

forget.

When I lived in Atlanta, I'm

walking through downtown.

And I see this facade of a

theater.

It's all boarded up.

It just does.

Looks like something similar,

but I can't put my fingers on

it.

So I peeked behind the

facade of this thing.

And I see, wow.

Pillars.

I look inside the window

and there's German

shepherds walking around

guarding whatever in there.

But it's all storage.

There's nothing, you know,

recognizable.

And I look behind the side.

And I see these pillars.

And then I know what it is.

It's the Lowe's Grand.

We're gone with the win

that it's world premiere.

With Clark Gable.

Yeah.

And who is the author?

I can't think of any

Margaret Mitchell.

She was there.

They were all there in

1939.

And that was the Lowe's Grand

Grand.

It's the Lowe's Grand.

We're gone with the win

that it's world premiere.

With Clark Gable.

Yeah.

And who is the author?

And who is the Lowe's Grand

theater?

Wow.

And I was, I said to somebody

on the street.

I said, well, this is the Lowe's

Grand.

He goes, yeah.

I said, when did it

close up?

He said back in the, you know,

late 60s early.

Because when I saw it, it was