The 15-day 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival Oct. 17-31 drew a record 87,618, up 12% over 2018. This year, the festival also expanded to the Rivoli Theatre and the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee … eight screens across six venues, the largest footprint in its history. The Oriental Theatre remains the anchor venue. Audiences voted at each screening to determine the three awards. “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” received the Allan H. (Bud) and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Award for Best Feature; “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins” won honors and a $2,500 prize for the Women in Film Audience Award; and “Tree #3” received the Selig Audience Award for Best Short.
The 15-day 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival Oct. 17-31 drew a record 87,618, up 12% over 2018. This year, the festival also expanded to the Rivoli Theatre in Cedarburg and the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee … eight screens across six venues, the largest footprint in its history. The Oriental Theatre remains the anchor venue. Audiences voted at each screening to determine the three awards. “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” received the Allan H. (Bud) and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Award for Best Feature; “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins” won honors and a $2,500 prize for the Women in Film Audience Award; and “Tree #3” received the Selig Audience Award for Best Short.
Plans to try to save the historic facade of the Fox Theater died this week. The group “CREATE Portage County” announced in a joint statement from Greg Wright, executive director, and Bill Schierl, board president and founder, that the entire Fox Theater will come down, abandoning plans to save and remodel portions of the historic building for its IDEA Center. “The razing of the building appears inevitable at this point,” the statement reads. Wright said in a interview with the Stevens Point Journal that the theater could come down in the coming months as a part of a July raze order. How the razing will play out is up in the air because the group needs to discuss who will pay for it, who will retain control of the property and what happens to the $250,000 in funding the city agreed to, Wright said. The group secured $250,000 from the city through tax increment funding in early September. Thursday’s announcement might end the $250,000 agreement, he said. Stevens Point Building Inspection Superintendent DJ Schneider said in an interview that Thursday’s announcement came as a surprise and creates confusion on who will take charge in leveling the theater.
Stevens Point issued a 90-day raze order for the Fox in July because of “health and safety concerns”. The order gave CREATE until late-October to address those issues and raise funds for the project. Issues with the building’s safety included failing trusses, a sagging roof and ceiling, and water leaking into the building. Schneider requested in a memo sent to CREATE on Thursday that the group provide the name of the contractor, a contract and a timeline for the teardown. Winter is approaching fast and determining who will take charge of the teardown needs to happen soon, he said. “I need to know if they aren’t going to do anything because the city has to step in and make it safe for the winter,” Schneider said in an interview. “I need time to get contractors and engineers lined up too if they’re just going to walk away from this thing.”
G.F. Andrae opened the theater on Sept. 19, 1894, as the Grand Opera House, which once featured a 23-year-old Harry Houdini in 1897 before he was a household name. The theater went through several openings and closing throughout its life. It reopened in 1929 as the Fox Theater. City officials battled with the theater’s owners from the 1970s until 1985 over where to build its now-demolished mall, which included part of the theater. The city won the right to tear off 40 feet from back of the theater, which closed permanently April 25, 1986.
Efforts to revive the Fox in the ensuing years failed. CREATE’s final plan to save the theater began April 1 when it launched a $3.5 million campaign to move its IDEA Center inside the salvaged Fox. The center started in 2016 to increase support for local entrepreneurship and innovation.
If the city demolishes the Fox, the city will assess the cost on the property’s tax bill.
“There wasn’t time to consider this strategy. It became clear that the raze order was forcing decisions that would affect the long-term success of the project and asking us to rush a process that requires informed decision-making. We couldn’t move forward in that way,” CREATE’s statement reads. Interviews with Wright and Schneider indicated a breakdown in communication and confusion on the expectations of deadlines and progress updates between CREATE and the city. Wright said they came back to the city with a change in plans for preserving parts of the Fox last week after working with the group’s architect and structural firms. The plans differed from what the city council based its approval of the $250,000 in funding. CREATE’s architect and structural engineer came back and said to gut the theater and keep the back half of the building up, including the roof. The city agreed to provide the funds on the condition CREATE tore down the back two-thirds of the Fox Theater. Wright said he was frustrated when the architect came back with those plans but tried to work with the city. The city informed CREATE it would need to appear before the city council again, Wright said, because of the change in plans. He said the also the city then gave him until Dec. 15 to secure the building ahead of winter. Schneider said the Dec. 15 deadline was set prior to CREATE coming back to the city. Wright said contractors the group spoke with said the Dec. 15 deadline wasn’t feasible. He said the earliest they could do was the first quarter of 2020.
“That Dec. 15 deadline is something our contractors cannot meet,” he said.
Wright said CREATE is circling back to consult with donors about the plans to abandon the Fox Theater. He said they would provide donors refunds if they no longer wish to support the project for the IDEA Center’s move.
“We are hearing from donors that, with rare exception, they are not investing in an iconic facade,” Wright and Schierl said in a statement. Mayor Mike Wiza said in a Thursday statement after CREATE’s announcement that the city could only wait so long on plans to fix the historic theater. “Deteriorating buildings can only wait for so long while various plans are developed and discussed.” The city remains open to discussing any 11th hour plans to save the building, Wiza said.
The theatre will be renamed the Milwaukee Symphony Center. The orchestra raised another $4 million over the past two months toward the $139 million campaign goal for its Warner Grand Theatre restoration project. The MSO today announced the campaign has brought in over $120 million to fund the project. Now, the MSO is beginning the final phase as it seeks to raise the last $19 million. Lead donations have come from Donna and Donald Baumgartner, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Murph and John Burke, Bobbi and Jim Caraway, Franklyn and Barbara Esenberg, Herzfeld Foundation, George and Donna Kaiser, The Estate of Jane Kaiser, Donald and JoAnne Krause, Billie Kubly, Arthur and Nancy Laskin, Sheldon and Marianne Lubar, The Marcus Corp., The Marcus Corp. Foundation, Mary Vandenberg and Keith Mardak, Rite-Hite Foundation, Michael and Jeanne Schmitz, Bud and Sue Selig, The Estate of Barbara Abert Tooman, David and Julia Uihlein and We Energies Foundation. Work is on schedule, with completion expected for September 2020. The initial $120 million fundraising goal was later raised to $139 million to include the cost of renovating the office tower. The campaign funds will also build up the organization’s endowment. Donors can sponsor a seat for gifts of $2,500 to $10,000 for 15-year naming rights.
Tonight marks the grand reopening of Eau Claire’s historic STATE Theatre, and while the doors are opening again, the shows won’t look quite the same as they did nearly 100 years ago. The STATE Theatre has stood in downtown Eau Claire since 1926, but last year it appeared to have its last curtain call. The property was purchased earlier this year, and since then renovations have been underway. “When we re-opened the building, I knew that I wanted it to be called the State Theatre and Community Center,” said Joe Luginbill, the CEO of the State Theatre and Community Center. “This isn’t just serving as a venue space for events; that’s one part of it, but it will also be a hub for non-profit activity.”
Luginbill said there’s a lot in store for the STATE. “All sorts of different kinds of fundraisers, whether different kinds of film screening with panels, or perhaps musical acts and concerts, or maybe even just having a reception and having some events here in the foyer in the lobby,” Luginbill said. “There are so many different things you can do with a space like this.”
Luginbill said they’ve already spent five figures working to update the nearly century-old historic site. He said they plan to continue to put time and money in it because he said the site is worth it.
“A place as special as this that has memories like that for so many of us really needs to be kept alive in some way,” Luginbill said. “It’s not only a really special part of childhood but now it’s a special part of my adulthood too, and I’m really excited for the rest of the community to feel that too.”
On this Grand Reopening night there’s an open house from 5 to 8:30 with pop-up shops, local music, and a film.
Tom McEvilly, the new CEO at the Al. Ringling Theatre, wants to involve the Baraboo community with new programs and shows. “These theaters don’t exist anymore, they’re made into parking lots, they’re made into multiplexes or they’re like antique malls,” said McEvilly. “I’m really glad that this community was wise enough and dedicated enough and passionate enough to save it.”
He plans to introduce youth theater classes including orientation and acting courses taught by theater professionals, and students will perform two shows a year. McEvilly says he plans to teach a couple of classes as well.
“You need to create that beginning base where they appreciate what we have, and they want to have the same passion to keep this place alive,” said McEvilly. “In our theater here, we have the high school and our parochial schools and our dance studios from the area that come and perform here. And when they come and have that opportunity here, they carry that love for this place throughout their entire lives.”
McEvilly looks forward to bringing many shows to the theater in the coming year, including live music performances, dance companies and comedic events that all generations can enjoy.
Al. Ringling Theater Board President Aural Umhoefer said McEvilly’s theater experience will help secure the future of the historic playhouse. “He’s very experienced, so he’s very good to work with, he knows how to manage all aspects of a theater, which will benefit the Al. in the future.”
Throughout October, the theater will host a variety of live events, with Pink Droyd, a Pink Floyd cover band performing Saturday, and Charlie Berenes from Manitowoc Minute on Oct. 26. At the end of October and beginning of November, a theater guild that has performed in the theater for almost 60 years will be perform the musical “Pippin.” The theater also will host comedic acts such as VODville, a group of Hollywood actors to recreate original slapstick comedy similar to the Three Stooges and Charlie Chaplin. The theater also will present an original version of “Saturday Night Live” with local actors in the comedic sketches.
McEvilly said theater has directed theater productions in Madison, Chicago and Germany, and written three musicals. Until recently he was a theater and communications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County. He also served as the youth theater director at Portage Center for the Arts from 2015 to 2017 and holds six degrees from UW-Madison, including a doctorate in education administration with a focus in fine arts administration and fundraising. He also worked as a teacher of theater with gifted and special needs students.
A group of about 40 Libertyville residents attended a Historic Preservation Commission meeting Monday to voice their dismay over a proposal to demolish the Liberty Theatre. Three spoke in favor of keeping the building, either as a theatre or a different type of entertainment venue.
The commission decided to table a vote on whether to approve a demolition request made by the owners of the theatre, the Libertyville Review reports. The public hearing came a month after the Rhyan family announced its plans to demolish the theatre. The Rhyan family has owned the downtown Libertyville building for more than 50 years. In recent years the theater has been operated by Scott Dehn, who hasn’t been able to earn enough revenue to pay for rent — even after rent had been reduced three times — and ongoing repairs are needed on the building.
The demolition request is the first being considered by the village since a moratorium on the razing of downtown buildings was lifted in April 2018.
The owners of the theatre said they are looking for interested buyers while pursuing its demolition request. Village officials have said they would like to see the building preserved — even if the building is used for something other than a theatre.
The Historic Preservation Commission plans to meet again on Oct. 28 to discuss the demolition request. The village board will have the final say on whether to demolish the theatre.
e Stevens Point City Council on Tuesday voted to contribute up to $250,000 to a nonprofit group’s efforts to renovate and repurpose the FOX Theatre. The efforts had been in peril after a city inspector in July gave owners 90 days to address structural issues with the building or see it demolished.
“This will allow us to go in and actually fix the problems that exist with the structure currently so that the building is prepared for development and can be used successfully in the future,” said Greg Wright, executive director of CREATE Portage County.
Wright said the group will use the infusion of city cash to address the immediate needs, which will allow the group to raise the remainder of a $3.5 million capital campaign. CREATE has raised about $1 million for the project.
In April, CREATE announced plans to turn the vacant theater into the home of its IDEA Center, a community hub that serves as a coworking space, a business incubator and a place for arts and community groups to meet.
The IDEA Center is about three years old, and Wright said it has launched some 50 new businesses and served as a home for groups of wood carvers, jewelry makers, fabric artists, video producers and more. About 200 people use the IDEA Center each month. It’s housed in a temporary space in Stevens Point owned by the county; the renovated Fox Theater would be its permanent home.
Dozens of community members, including those who’ve been involved in IDEA Center projects, spoke in support of the project at a city committee meeting and at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Wright said it was “humbling” to see a “diverse age group, racial group and interest group of people come together and say, ‘This is supporting us.’” The city’s financial backing will allow the group to move forward immediately with the first phase of the construction project, Wright said, and to address inspectors’ concerns. The fundraising campaign to complete the full project will continue.
“Our thing has always been, we wanted that money to be a long-term investment and not a short-term investment,” Wright said. “We wanted to make sure when we went to address the building, we addressed it in a way that positioned it well for construction in the future.”
A shimmy for the ages: how a burlesque dance rankled Milwaukee By Pete Ehrmann
Though tame by current standards, a shimmy dance performed on a downtown stage 86 years ago was considered “shocking, suggestive, immoral, indecent and highly improper” by the cop that arrested Mary Karras for doing it.
When a judge disagreed and dismissed the charges, outraged Mayor Daniel Hoan warned Milwaukeeans to “resign themselves to nakedness and debauchery in public places.” The one-day trial of the 20-year-old Karras in 1927 is now just a quaint, dusty footnote in the legal and cultural history of Milwaukee.
According to Mayor Hoan, citizen complaints about shocking goings-on at the city’s two best-known burlesque palaces impelled him to dispatch police to the Gayety Theater on 3rd Street and West Wisconsin Avenue, and the Empress Theater on nearby West Water Street (now North Plankinton Avenue) on the night of Feb. 24.
Arrested after their performances were Karras, on the Gayety bill as “RedHeaded Mitzi,” and, at the Empress, Catherine Wasauskas,aka “Hinda Wausau.” Also taken into custody were their stage costumes, which in Mitzi’s case consisted of “a red breastband, a flaming red loincloth and a few tassels, and a red shawl,” all apparently worn over a white leotard or oversized bloomers.
For the March 11 trial of Ms. Karras the courtroom of District Judge A.J. Hedding bulged with “church women, society women, actresses, police, attorneys, pastors and representatives of a dozen agencies on various sides of the theater reform question,” reported The Sentinel. Hinda Wausau, whose separate trial was scheduled for a week later, was also there.
Unfortunately for the prosecution, so was defense attorney William B. Rubin, ardent champion of labor unions and left wing causes, foe of censorship, passionate and glib like his friend Clarence Darrow – and, as noted by The Sentinel upon his death in 1959, “an impish critic, a needler at all times [who] let the air out of many a stuffed shirt in his day.”
(“The biggest thing in my life is that I have loved my fellow man,” proclaimed Rubin at a 1954 testimonial dinner tendered him. “I could see virtue in every client – and the bigger the fee the greater the virtue.”)
Atty. Rubin called 22 witnesses who had been in the Gayety audience for Red-Headed Mitzi’s three-minute performance. Among them were Deputy State Fire Marshal Conrad Asmuth; Civil Court Clerk E.J. Hertwig; Cy Rice, reporter for The Milwaukee Journal, several married couples and women. None of them found anything objectionable about it. “She had tights on all the time, anyhow,” groused one male witness.
The sole witness called by Assistant City Attorney Andrew Brunhardt was the policewoman who’d arrested Karras/Mitzi. Helen Lemmon testified that her brazen costume and her shimmy dance constituted immorality of the highest order and a threat to the “best interests of the community,” especially its impressionable and vulnerable youth.
The first thing Atty. Rubin did on cross-examination was call for Mrs. Lemmon to demonstrate the “wiggles and squeals” that had offended her so. The intrepid policewoman stood up to give it a shot, but Judge Hedding told her to forget it unless her imitation of Mitzi’s gyrations was spot-on. So Mrs. Lemmon described what she’d seen instead:
“She strutted back and forth and wiggled in a suggestive manner. She shook the lower part of her body and made little squealing noises. She unloosed (sic) certain parts of her scanty costume to suggest that she was going to let it drop to the floor.”
Did Mrs. Lemmon believe that “the body of a woman was the most beautiful thing in the world as glorified by artists and sculptors?” asked Rubin. “When exhibited in the proper surroundings,” she said.
“Do you consider the Bible immoral, remembering that it contains stories like the one about Lot and his daughter?”
“No, because I think the Bible is a book that teaches morals,” answered Mrs. Lemmon.
“Your own skirts are shorter than you wore them 10 or 20 years ago, aren’t they?” asked Rubin.
Mrs. Lemmon acknowledged that was so, though she was always careful not to expose her knees.
“She was asked if she thought there is anything immoral about the relations of married people,” reported The Sentinel, “and replied that the stage is no place for it to be suggested. ‘Oh, so sex without the canopy of a minister or a marriage license is immoral,’ observed the attorney.”
When she said she was “too busy” to attend many shows and that her standards concerning what was proper were “principally based upon opinions formed in the past,” Rubin tsked, “You’re a little bit behind the times, Mrs. Lemmon.”
He was even more cutting in his summation: “It is about time the living living escape the persecution of the living dead.”
Judge Hedding agreed, though he couched it differently. “I must be guided solely by the evidence in the case, not by my personal views,” he said. “If I decided that the defendant was guilty, I would be doing so on the testimony of one witness, whereas 22 witnesses have stated that they saw nothing offensive about the dance. Upon the facts I must find the young lady not guilty.”
“Applause and cheers greeted the decision,” reported The Journal, “and many spectators rushed forward to congratulate the youthful defendant, a quiet, mild looking girl, simply dressed, and devoid of any materials from the makeup box.”
At 10:45 that night, a much different looking Mary Karras danced on stage at the Gayety and triumphantly sang, “My name is Mitzi Brown, I’m the hottest girl in town!” After her three minutes were up, she took off for a new engagement in Cincinnati.
When he stopped hyperventilating about Hedding’s verdict, Mayor Hoan remembered that each July he had the sole power to grant or deny every city theater’s application for a license renewal.
“…Burlesque theaters will commit such offenses of indecency at their own peril,” he warned. “I want them to take this as a final notice that any acts which suggest indecency of the type that is unprintable and of which they have full knowledge are likely to have considerable influence on my actions in determining whether a renewal of a license will be granted.”
The message came through loud and clear. At Hinda Wausau’s trial on April 9, the only witnesses were Policewoman Emma Meyer, who said the defendant’s dance was an affront to decency, and Empress Theater co-owner Henry Goldenberg, who said he’d warned Wausau beforehand to tone it down.
Judge Hedding pronounced her guilty and fined her $50.
Those inclined to take this as proof there is no justice will be happy to know that while Red-Headed Mitzi danced off into oblivion, Hinda Wausau went on to fame as one of burlesque’s all-time greats and the inventor of the pole dance.
It is Small Business Saturday, and South Milwaukee’s downtown looks ready: holiday lights are strung from light posts on either side of the charming brick street, lined with storefronts dating back to the 1920s.
South Milwaukee is, not surprisingly, a city south of Milwaukee, about 10 miles from downtown. Just five square miles in size and with roughly 21,000 residents, South Milwaukee sits along the shores of Lake Michigan, east of the interstate linking Milwaukee to Chicago.
A movie made about South Milwaukee in the 1930s shows people streaming from the city’s Garden Theater, hats on men’s heads, women all in skirts, children neatly dressed, smiling and waving.
Today, that theater marquee still stands. It reads: Board Game Barrister, and no, that’s not the name of a movie.
It is a local retail chain owned by Gordon Lugauer, who has quickly stopped in at the South Milwaukee warehouse on the busiest shopping weekend of the year, as he makes his way among his other retail locations.
Board Game Barrister is a board game shop with three other locations in the Milwaukee area, two in thriving shopping malls and one along a retail corridor near a shopping mall. Those locations keep regular hours, of course. Games are displayed for people to touch, hold and examine. There are tables for people to play games, hold tournaments.
The South Milwaukee location, however, is not at all like the others. Among other things, it has irregular hours, and no board game tournaments. But that’s South Milwaukee, explains Lugauer. Lugauer’s family moved their carpet business, South Milwaukee Carpet and Vinyl, to the building when he was about three or four years old, in 1976. The family lived above the store. Next door, the once-thriving Garden Theater was by then operating as an arcade. One of the arcade games sparked a fire that destroyed the inside of the building. And so, the Lugauer’s carpet store took over the space, connecting the buildings and opening the former theater side as a warehouse.
Upstairs, the projection room of the theater became Lugauer’s bedroom, right behind the marquee. He and his brother played and invented board games together in that space above the family carpet store.
“That’s the romantic version,” Lugauer says, laughing. The other part of the story is that times were hard. The downtown that once had grocery stores and five-and-dimes and that movie theater now had just a handful of specialty stores. But in the late 1970s into the 1980s, that didn’t really seem to matter. Average middle class Midwestern families had cars and big box stores were only getting bigger. Who shopped local?
“The people in South Milwaukee stopped supporting local businesses 40 years ago,” Lugauer says. “An entire generation or more has grown up without shopping here. And that hasn’t changed.”
Lugauer’s father retired in 2014. At the time, he brought a friend, a commercial real estate agent, to the building. The friend looked around at the joined buildings, the additions, the alterations that spanned more than 100 years and a devastating fire. He said he couldn’t take the listing.
“And so I did what a good son would do so my parents could retire,” Lugauer says. He bought the building. And then he faced downtown South Milwaukee.
“I looked up and down the street and said: ‘What quality of tenant am I likely to be renting to? Oh man.’ And that’s how I became the tenant.”
Today, the former theater section serves as Board Game Barrister’s warehouse. The original carpet store serves as a small retail space displaying shelves of games rejected from the other stores, all at clearance prices.
“This is a masonry block shell with a roof,” he says. “I may want to do ‘x’ here, but the reality is different. And we have buildings like this all up and down Milwaukee Avenue.”
Lugauer does his best to keep reasonably regular hours. But this store is not where he earns his money. Instead, he says, its existence is more of a kindness to the city of South Milwaukee.
“It would really not be doing a justice to the city to have this boarded up,” he says. “So I keep it open as a retail space,” but he is not making even a tenth of what he first hoped for when he opened it.
Advocates of a plan to turn the FOX Theatre in downtown Stevens Point into a “maker space” are scrambling for more time in the wake of a surprise city order to demolish the building. Opened in 1894 as the Grand Opera House, the FOX has been vacant since the mid-1980s and the subject of planned renovation efforts that never quite launched. Greg Wright, executive director of the nonprofit CREATE Portage County, announced last April a $3.5 million plan to make the FOX into its “IDEA Center” … a business incubator and a meet-up place for arts and community groups. The nonprofit has raised nearly $1 million already.
But a city inspector in July issued a surprise order that unless CREATE can address structural concerns, the FOX will be demolished at the end of October. Wright said “We were surprised by the timing of the raze order given that we were actively in the process of the capital campaign when it came out. We are doing our best to both slow that process down and to raise as much money as quickly as we can because of that. It definitely was a hurdle we did not need.”
Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza, who’d told the Portage County Gazette that “safety is a huge concern right now” when the sudden order was first issued, didn’t immediately return requests for comments.
Wright said CREATE is exploring options for appeals, both locally and at the state level. The city’s Historic Preservation and Design Review Commission this month unanimously recommended that the city reverse its decision, but that recommendation is nonbinding … and they’re now trying to raise as much money as they can to save the FOX.
Still, Wright doesn’t seem to be a fan of restored theatres, saying “it’s commonly the case that they won’t work as self-sustaining businesses”, and “what we’re doing is the best way to honor the history of this building” he said. His IDEA Center project is about three years old and he said it has launched some 50 new businesses and served as a home for groups of wood carvers, jewelry makers, fabric artists, video producers and more with about 200 people using the IDEA Center each month in a temporary space owned by the county, an arrangement that won’t last forever. The new prospect of demolition of the FOX, he said, focused attention on those efforts and he hopes to use that to raise enough funding to keep his plans alive, though he admits concern that now “it’s shifted everyone’s attention to the building, and not the project. To read about his renovation plans, visit anewfox.com.
The 86-by-100-foot rear stage wall was shifted to the east by 35 feet into Second Street to accommodate a larger stage. That was expected to take five hours, but the construction schedule allows for up to three days, said Cory Henschel, project executive. International Chimney Corp. and Expert House Movers were subcontracted for the wall move.
Construction is on schedule, with completion expected in summer 2020.
The relocation of the 650-ton wall with its decorative terracotta exterior was required by the National Parks Service for the project to receive historic tax credits.
Four linked hydraulic rams were used. C.D. Smith Construction Inc. is the general contractor; Kahler Slater is the architect. International Chimney Corp. and Expert House Movers were subcontracted for the wall move.
Work is on schedule, with completion expected for September 2020. Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra raised $116 million to date toward its $139 million goal including building up its endowment.
“The Wizard of Oz” world-premiered at the GATEWAY Theatre on this night eighty years ago, and again, there’s been no observance of that history in any manner.
The owners of the LIBERTY Theatre in downtown Libertyville are requesting it be demolished, the Daily Herald is reporting. The building has been owned by the Rhyan family for more than 50 years and operated by Scott Dehn in recent years.
The theater first opened as Liberty Theatre in 1937 and in recent years has gone by the name of Liberty 1 & 2 Theatres, according to the article. The current tenant has not been able to make enough revenue to pay for rent — even after rent had been reduced three times — and ongoing repairs are needed on the aging building. The demolition request is the first being considered by the village since a moratorium on the razing of downtown buildings was lifted in April 2018.
The historic preservation commission will be the first to hear the matter and can recommend approval of the demolition, approve it with conditions, deny it or continue the matter to a future hearing, according to the Daily Herald. The village board would have the final say.
KENOSHA DRIVE-INS RUN GAMUT OF PROMOTION /// Kenosha, Wis. – The Macy-Gimbel price war and Bill Veeck’s recent baseball circus are “small potatoes” compared with the shenanigans of the managers of two outdoor theatres here. Word has traveled among theatregoers in this city that “you really get your money’s worth at the Mid-City on Highway 42, north of the city, and the Keno Family Drive-In on 42 south of the city. The two managers – William Wallos of Mid-City and Robert Peck of Keno Family – help spread the word in newspaper advertisements, radio announcements, posters, handbills and by sound truck. In addition to seeing a movie, or two movies, or sometimes three movies, the Kenosha patrons have been given wrestling, fireworks, bicycle racing on rollers, and a monkey village to watch. One or the other theatre has offered free cigars, parties, towing and repair service, baby bottle warming and guess-the-star contests. The managers even send scouts across town to see coming attractions at the rival theatres. The Keno scored a first when it presented first-run pictures at no increase in regular prices. Mid-City is close behind, scheduling a back-to-school and Christmas party both in September! Santa Claus himself will be on hand to greet the youngsters who come to the outdoor movie with their parents. Square dancing in front of the giant screens has already been introduced with midnight shows, pony rides, and playgrounds for the kiddies. For example, one of the theatres announced that it would bring a special super attraction to its grounds – a real live monkey village. A day or two later, the other theatre told the children to come and see real live bear cubs! It was the same way with wrestling. (Boxoffice Magazine, September 22, 1951)
A fire that started late on the Friday afternoon of August 10, 2018 and continued long into the night caused massive damage to the historic Brin Theatre building, a cornerstone for 90 years. Smoke and flames shot from the roof of the Brin shortly after 5:30 p.m. Firefighters from many departments battled the blaze deep into the night while onlookers came and went, many using their phones to record the damage.
No one was injured. Eight people in six apartments above the storefronts made it out safely. The American Red Cross set up a shelter at Menasha City Hall for them. Onlookers gathered on corners all around the fire. Smoke was so thick at times that it obscured the intersection and wafted down a nearby street. The retail spaces included Joshua’s Dream, a clothing shop, a computer repair store and a couple of vacant spaces. The Brin Building dates back to the late 1920s and housed numerous businesses through the years including a bowling alley.
When firefighters first arrived, flames were shooting through the roof in the middle of the building. They initially entered the building to try to attack it from the inside, but layers of ceiling above the second floor caused problems. By the time crews went to another section of the building flames had already run across the roof line inside the attic. Firefighters then left the building out of fears of a roof collapse, and continued to battle the blaze from outside. Most of the fire damage was contained to the roof, while the first and second floors sustained extensive water damage, Kloehn said. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known – a sad ending for a building that was a fixture for generations. The Wisconsin Historical Society gives it this nod: “Although altered, the Brin Building retains integrity of site and form and is historically significant as Menasha’s premiere commercial block.”
Among the onlookers Friday was John Barkhahn, 76, who reflected on downtown history as he watched the flames tear apart the theatre where he worked as an usher in the late 1950s. “It’s just a lot of memories that are going up in smoke,” he said about two hours after firefighters were called. Smoke still billowed from the building. By that time, the roof had largely collapsed and charred remains where it had been protruded from the top of the structure. The remaining section had been stripped of its tiles by the force of the water from the fire hoses.
Barkhahn said a friend at one point lived in the apartments above. He had been at home down the street Friday when he saw smoke blow past his window, so he came down the block to check it out. Gina Montonati, 52, rushed to the scene as soon as she heard the Brin was burning. Her parents met 60 years ago in the bowling alley that was once in the Brin Building. Her mom died about five years ago; her dad is now 85. “I think he’s going to be very sad when he finds out,” she said. “It’s sad to see the old buildings go. You can’t replace those.” Lifelong Menasha resident Joel Humski, 47, described sadness at seeing the historic building go up in flames.
The Rialto Square Theatre is vibrant and management firm VenuWorks continues to draw popular attractions on a regular basis which fill the seats and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. Financial data indicates that the Rialto Square’s events in March and April cost the Rialto about $235,500 and generated nearly $565,000 in revenue, constituting a profit margin of nearly $330,000. The Joliet City Council provides a $500,000 annual subsidy to the Rialto, and corporate sponsors also contribute.
Earlier this year, comedian Bill Engvall drew well, as did the KAR Dance Competition ($35,605) on March 15 and singer Aaron Lewis ($36,539) on March 27. On April 12, the Rainbow National Dance Competition cost the Rialto $13,216 and generated $54,494 in revenue, or a profit of $41,279.
Three weddings at the Rialto during March and April generated profits of between $6,000 and $8,000.
With big events, the Rialto aims to draw a profit of at least $10,000. The least successful this Spring was The Church Basement Ladies on April 9, which cost the Rialto about $7,000 but generated about
$10,800 in actual revenue for a profit of $3,800.
Last year the Rialto began a new monthly movie series with $5 general admission seating for weekday screenings. On March 14, the Rialto played Bohemian Rhapsody to a packed house, an incredible success which cost the Rialto about $4,510 but earned actual revenue over $16,560 and a profit of $12,050.
On March 21, Billy Idol played to a sellout crowd at the Rialto in a two-man performance with guitarist Steve Stevens. That cost the Rialto $29,180 and generated $56,232 in revenue. The Rialto turned a profit of $27,052.
The May 10 “I Left My Heart Tour” performance by Tony Bennett did well.
May and June are both busy months for the Rialto.
The 15-day 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival Oct. 17-31 drew a record 87,618, up 12% over 2018. This year, the festival also expanded to the Rivoli Theatre and the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee … eight screens across six venues, the largest footprint in its history. The Oriental Theatre remains the anchor venue. Audiences voted at each screening to determine the three awards. “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” received the Allan H. (Bud) and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Award for Best Feature; “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins” won honors and a $2,500 prize for the Women in Film Audience Award; and “Tree #3” received the Selig Audience Award for Best Short.
The 15-day 2019 Milwaukee Film Festival Oct. 17-31 drew a record 87,618, up 12% over 2018. This year, the festival also expanded to the Rivoli Theatre in Cedarburg and the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee … eight screens across six venues, the largest footprint in its history. The Oriental Theatre remains the anchor venue. Audiences voted at each screening to determine the three awards. “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” received the Allan H. (Bud) and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Award for Best Feature; “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins” won honors and a $2,500 prize for the Women in Film Audience Award; and “Tree #3” received the Selig Audience Award for Best Short.
The original name and spellings: “Keno Family Drive-In Theatre”.
Plans to try to save the historic facade of the Fox Theater died this week. The group “CREATE Portage County” announced in a joint statement from Greg Wright, executive director, and Bill Schierl, board president and founder, that the entire Fox Theater will come down, abandoning plans to save and remodel portions of the historic building for its IDEA Center. “The razing of the building appears inevitable at this point,” the statement reads. Wright said in a interview with the Stevens Point Journal that the theater could come down in the coming months as a part of a July raze order. How the razing will play out is up in the air because the group needs to discuss who will pay for it, who will retain control of the property and what happens to the $250,000 in funding the city agreed to, Wright said. The group secured $250,000 from the city through tax increment funding in early September. Thursday’s announcement might end the $250,000 agreement, he said. Stevens Point Building Inspection Superintendent DJ Schneider said in an interview that Thursday’s announcement came as a surprise and creates confusion on who will take charge in leveling the theater. Stevens Point issued a 90-day raze order for the Fox in July because of “health and safety concerns”. The order gave CREATE until late-October to address those issues and raise funds for the project. Issues with the building’s safety included failing trusses, a sagging roof and ceiling, and water leaking into the building. Schneider requested in a memo sent to CREATE on Thursday that the group provide the name of the contractor, a contract and a timeline for the teardown. Winter is approaching fast and determining who will take charge of the teardown needs to happen soon, he said. “I need to know if they aren’t going to do anything because the city has to step in and make it safe for the winter,” Schneider said in an interview. “I need time to get contractors and engineers lined up too if they’re just going to walk away from this thing.”
G.F. Andrae opened the theater on Sept. 19, 1894, as the Grand Opera House, which once featured a 23-year-old Harry Houdini in 1897 before he was a household name. The theater went through several openings and closing throughout its life. It reopened in 1929 as the Fox Theater. City officials battled with the theater’s owners from the 1970s until 1985 over where to build its now-demolished mall, which included part of the theater. The city won the right to tear off 40 feet from back of the theater, which closed permanently April 25, 1986.
Efforts to revive the Fox in the ensuing years failed. CREATE’s final plan to save the theater began April 1 when it launched a $3.5 million campaign to move its IDEA Center inside the salvaged Fox. The center started in 2016 to increase support for local entrepreneurship and innovation.
If the city demolishes the Fox, the city will assess the cost on the property’s tax bill. “There wasn’t time to consider this strategy. It became clear that the raze order was forcing decisions that would affect the long-term success of the project and asking us to rush a process that requires informed decision-making. We couldn’t move forward in that way,” CREATE’s statement reads. Interviews with Wright and Schneider indicated a breakdown in communication and confusion on the expectations of deadlines and progress updates between CREATE and the city. Wright said they came back to the city with a change in plans for preserving parts of the Fox last week after working with the group’s architect and structural firms. The plans differed from what the city council based its approval of the $250,000 in funding. CREATE’s architect and structural engineer came back and said to gut the theater and keep the back half of the building up, including the roof. The city agreed to provide the funds on the condition CREATE tore down the back two-thirds of the Fox Theater. Wright said he was frustrated when the architect came back with those plans but tried to work with the city. The city informed CREATE it would need to appear before the city council again, Wright said, because of the change in plans. He said the also the city then gave him until Dec. 15 to secure the building ahead of winter. Schneider said the Dec. 15 deadline was set prior to CREATE coming back to the city. Wright said contractors the group spoke with said the Dec. 15 deadline wasn’t feasible. He said the earliest they could do was the first quarter of 2020. “That Dec. 15 deadline is something our contractors cannot meet,” he said.
Wright said CREATE is circling back to consult with donors about the plans to abandon the Fox Theater. He said they would provide donors refunds if they no longer wish to support the project for the IDEA Center’s move.
“We are hearing from donors that, with rare exception, they are not investing in an iconic facade,” Wright and Schierl said in a statement. Mayor Mike Wiza said in a Thursday statement after CREATE’s announcement that the city could only wait so long on plans to fix the historic theater. “Deteriorating buildings can only wait for so long while various plans are developed and discussed.” The city remains open to discussing any 11th hour plans to save the building, Wiza said.
The theatre will be renamed the Milwaukee Symphony Center. The orchestra raised another $4 million over the past two months toward the $139 million campaign goal for its Warner Grand Theatre restoration project. The MSO today announced the campaign has brought in over $120 million to fund the project. Now, the MSO is beginning the final phase as it seeks to raise the last $19 million. Lead donations have come from Donna and Donald Baumgartner, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Murph and John Burke, Bobbi and Jim Caraway, Franklyn and Barbara Esenberg, Herzfeld Foundation, George and Donna Kaiser, The Estate of Jane Kaiser, Donald and JoAnne Krause, Billie Kubly, Arthur and Nancy Laskin, Sheldon and Marianne Lubar, The Marcus Corp., The Marcus Corp. Foundation, Mary Vandenberg and Keith Mardak, Rite-Hite Foundation, Michael and Jeanne Schmitz, Bud and Sue Selig, The Estate of Barbara Abert Tooman, David and Julia Uihlein and We Energies Foundation. Work is on schedule, with completion expected for September 2020. The initial $120 million fundraising goal was later raised to $139 million to include the cost of renovating the office tower. The campaign funds will also build up the organization’s endowment. Donors can sponsor a seat for gifts of $2,500 to $10,000 for 15-year naming rights.
Tonight marks the grand reopening of Eau Claire’s historic STATE Theatre, and while the doors are opening again, the shows won’t look quite the same as they did nearly 100 years ago. The STATE Theatre has stood in downtown Eau Claire since 1926, but last year it appeared to have its last curtain call. The property was purchased earlier this year, and since then renovations have been underway. “When we re-opened the building, I knew that I wanted it to be called the State Theatre and Community Center,” said Joe Luginbill, the CEO of the State Theatre and Community Center. “This isn’t just serving as a venue space for events; that’s one part of it, but it will also be a hub for non-profit activity.” Luginbill said there’s a lot in store for the STATE. “All sorts of different kinds of fundraisers, whether different kinds of film screening with panels, or perhaps musical acts and concerts, or maybe even just having a reception and having some events here in the foyer in the lobby,” Luginbill said. “There are so many different things you can do with a space like this.” Luginbill said they’ve already spent five figures working to update the nearly century-old historic site. He said they plan to continue to put time and money in it because he said the site is worth it. “A place as special as this that has memories like that for so many of us really needs to be kept alive in some way,” Luginbill said. “It’s not only a really special part of childhood but now it’s a special part of my adulthood too, and I’m really excited for the rest of the community to feel that too.” On this Grand Reopening night there’s an open house from 5 to 8:30 with pop-up shops, local music, and a film.
Tom McEvilly, the new CEO at the Al. Ringling Theatre, wants to involve the Baraboo community with new programs and shows. “These theaters don’t exist anymore, they’re made into parking lots, they’re made into multiplexes or they’re like antique malls,” said McEvilly. “I’m really glad that this community was wise enough and dedicated enough and passionate enough to save it.” He plans to introduce youth theater classes including orientation and acting courses taught by theater professionals, and students will perform two shows a year. McEvilly says he plans to teach a couple of classes as well.
“You need to create that beginning base where they appreciate what we have, and they want to have the same passion to keep this place alive,” said McEvilly. “In our theater here, we have the high school and our parochial schools and our dance studios from the area that come and perform here. And when they come and have that opportunity here, they carry that love for this place throughout their entire lives.”
McEvilly looks forward to bringing many shows to the theater in the coming year, including live music performances, dance companies and comedic events that all generations can enjoy. Al. Ringling Theater Board President Aural Umhoefer said McEvilly’s theater experience will help secure the future of the historic playhouse. “He’s very experienced, so he’s very good to work with, he knows how to manage all aspects of a theater, which will benefit the Al. in the future.”
Throughout October, the theater will host a variety of live events, with Pink Droyd, a Pink Floyd cover band performing Saturday, and Charlie Berenes from Manitowoc Minute on Oct. 26. At the end of October and beginning of November, a theater guild that has performed in the theater for almost 60 years will be perform the musical “Pippin.” The theater also will host comedic acts such as VODville, a group of Hollywood actors to recreate original slapstick comedy similar to the Three Stooges and Charlie Chaplin. The theater also will present an original version of “Saturday Night Live” with local actors in the comedic sketches.
McEvilly said theater has directed theater productions in Madison, Chicago and Germany, and written three musicals. Until recently he was a theater and communications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County. He also served as the youth theater director at Portage Center for the Arts from 2015 to 2017 and holds six degrees from UW-Madison, including a doctorate in education administration with a focus in fine arts administration and fundraising. He also worked as a teacher of theater with gifted and special needs students.
A group of about 40 Libertyville residents attended a Historic Preservation Commission meeting Monday to voice their dismay over a proposal to demolish the Liberty Theatre. Three spoke in favor of keeping the building, either as a theatre or a different type of entertainment venue. The commission decided to table a vote on whether to approve a demolition request made by the owners of the theatre, the Libertyville Review reports. The public hearing came a month after the Rhyan family announced its plans to demolish the theatre. The Rhyan family has owned the downtown Libertyville building for more than 50 years. In recent years the theater has been operated by Scott Dehn, who hasn’t been able to earn enough revenue to pay for rent — even after rent had been reduced three times — and ongoing repairs are needed on the building. The demolition request is the first being considered by the village since a moratorium on the razing of downtown buildings was lifted in April 2018. The owners of the theatre said they are looking for interested buyers while pursuing its demolition request. Village officials have said they would like to see the building preserved — even if the building is used for something other than a theatre. The Historic Preservation Commission plans to meet again on Oct. 28 to discuss the demolition request. The village board will have the final say on whether to demolish the theatre.
October 25, 1941.
e Stevens Point City Council on Tuesday voted to contribute up to $250,000 to a nonprofit group’s efforts to renovate and repurpose the FOX Theatre. The efforts had been in peril after a city inspector in July gave owners 90 days to address structural issues with the building or see it demolished.
“This will allow us to go in and actually fix the problems that exist with the structure currently so that the building is prepared for development and can be used successfully in the future,” said Greg Wright, executive director of CREATE Portage County.
Wright said the group will use the infusion of city cash to address the immediate needs, which will allow the group to raise the remainder of a $3.5 million capital campaign. CREATE has raised about $1 million for the project.
In April, CREATE announced plans to turn the vacant theater into the home of its IDEA Center, a community hub that serves as a coworking space, a business incubator and a place for arts and community groups to meet.
The IDEA Center is about three years old, and Wright said it has launched some 50 new businesses and served as a home for groups of wood carvers, jewelry makers, fabric artists, video producers and more. About 200 people use the IDEA Center each month. It’s housed in a temporary space in Stevens Point owned by the county; the renovated Fox Theater would be its permanent home.
Dozens of community members, including those who’ve been involved in IDEA Center projects, spoke in support of the project at a city committee meeting and at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Wright said it was “humbling” to see a “diverse age group, racial group and interest group of people come together and say, ‘This is supporting us.’” The city’s financial backing will allow the group to move forward immediately with the first phase of the construction project, Wright said, and to address inspectors’ concerns. The fundraising campaign to complete the full project will continue.
“Our thing has always been, we wanted that money to be a long-term investment and not a short-term investment,” Wright said. “We wanted to make sure when we went to address the building, we addressed it in a way that positioned it well for construction in the future.”
The Wisconsin Historical Society lists the architect as H. H. Bruns.
A shimmy for the ages: how a burlesque dance rankled Milwaukee
By Pete Ehrmann
Though tame by current standards, a shimmy dance performed on a downtown stage 86 years ago was considered “shocking, suggestive, immoral, indecent and highly improper” by the cop that arrested Mary Karras for doing it.
When a judge disagreed and dismissed the charges, outraged Mayor Daniel Hoan warned Milwaukeeans to “resign themselves to nakedness and debauchery in public places.” The one-day trial of the 20-year-old Karras in 1927 is now just a quaint, dusty footnote in the legal and cultural history of Milwaukee.
According to Mayor Hoan, citizen complaints about shocking goings-on at the city’s two best-known burlesque palaces impelled him to dispatch police to the Gayety Theater on 3rd Street and West Wisconsin Avenue, and the Empress Theater on nearby West Water Street (now North Plankinton Avenue) on the night of Feb. 24.
Arrested after their performances were Karras, on the Gayety bill as “RedHeaded Mitzi,” and, at the Empress, Catherine Wasauskas,aka “Hinda Wausau.” Also taken into custody were their stage costumes, which in Mitzi’s case consisted of “a red breastband, a flaming red loincloth and a few tassels, and a red shawl,” all apparently worn over a white leotard or oversized bloomers.
For the March 11 trial of Ms. Karras the courtroom of District Judge A.J. Hedding bulged with “church women, society women, actresses, police, attorneys, pastors and representatives of a dozen agencies on various sides of the theater reform question,” reported The Sentinel. Hinda Wausau, whose separate trial was scheduled for a week later, was also there.
Unfortunately for the prosecution, so was defense attorney William B. Rubin, ardent champion of labor unions and left wing causes, foe of censorship, passionate and glib like his friend Clarence Darrow – and, as noted by The Sentinel upon his death in 1959, “an impish critic, a needler at all times [who] let the air out of many a stuffed shirt in his day.”
(“The biggest thing in my life is that I have loved my fellow man,” proclaimed Rubin at a 1954 testimonial dinner tendered him. “I could see virtue in every client – and the bigger the fee the greater the virtue.”)
Atty. Rubin called 22 witnesses who had been in the Gayety audience for Red-Headed Mitzi’s three-minute performance. Among them were Deputy State Fire Marshal Conrad Asmuth; Civil Court Clerk E.J. Hertwig; Cy Rice, reporter for The Milwaukee Journal, several married couples and women. None of them found anything objectionable about it. “She had tights on all the time, anyhow,” groused one male witness.
The sole witness called by Assistant City Attorney Andrew Brunhardt was the policewoman who’d arrested Karras/Mitzi. Helen Lemmon testified that her brazen costume and her shimmy dance constituted immorality of the highest order and a threat to the “best interests of the community,” especially its impressionable and vulnerable youth.
The first thing Atty. Rubin did on cross-examination was call for Mrs. Lemmon to demonstrate the “wiggles and squeals” that had offended her so. The intrepid policewoman stood up to give it a shot, but Judge Hedding told her to forget it unless her imitation of Mitzi’s gyrations was spot-on. So Mrs. Lemmon described what she’d seen instead:
“She strutted back and forth and wiggled in a suggestive manner. She shook the lower part of her body and made little squealing noises. She unloosed (sic) certain parts of her scanty costume to suggest that she was going to let it drop to the floor.”
Did Mrs. Lemmon believe that “the body of a woman was the most beautiful thing in the world as glorified by artists and sculptors?” asked Rubin. “When exhibited in the proper surroundings,” she said.
“Do you consider the Bible immoral, remembering that it contains stories like the one about Lot and his daughter?”
“No, because I think the Bible is a book that teaches morals,” answered Mrs. Lemmon.
“Your own skirts are shorter than you wore them 10 or 20 years ago, aren’t they?” asked Rubin.
Mrs. Lemmon acknowledged that was so, though she was always careful not to expose her knees.
“She was asked if she thought there is anything immoral about the relations of married people,” reported The Sentinel, “and replied that the stage is no place for it to be suggested. ‘Oh, so sex without the canopy of a minister or a marriage license is immoral,’ observed the attorney.”
When she said she was “too busy” to attend many shows and that her standards concerning what was proper were “principally based upon opinions formed in the past,” Rubin tsked, “You’re a little bit behind the times, Mrs. Lemmon.”
He was even more cutting in his summation: “It is about time the living living escape the persecution of the living dead.”
Judge Hedding agreed, though he couched it differently. “I must be guided solely by the evidence in the case, not by my personal views,” he said. “If I decided that the defendant was guilty, I would be doing so on the testimony of one witness, whereas 22 witnesses have stated that they saw nothing offensive about the dance. Upon the facts I must find the young lady not guilty.”
“Applause and cheers greeted the decision,” reported The Journal, “and many spectators rushed forward to congratulate the youthful defendant, a quiet, mild looking girl, simply dressed, and devoid of any materials from the makeup box.”
At 10:45 that night, a much different looking Mary Karras danced on stage at the Gayety and triumphantly sang, “My name is Mitzi Brown, I’m the hottest girl in town!” After her three minutes were up, she took off for a new engagement in Cincinnati.
When he stopped hyperventilating about Hedding’s verdict, Mayor Hoan remembered that each July he had the sole power to grant or deny every city theater’s application for a license renewal. “…Burlesque theaters will commit such offenses of indecency at their own peril,” he warned. “I want them to take this as a final notice that any acts which suggest indecency of the type that is unprintable and of which they have full knowledge are likely to have considerable influence on my actions in determining whether a renewal of a license will be granted.”
The message came through loud and clear. At Hinda Wausau’s trial on April 9, the only witnesses were Policewoman Emma Meyer, who said the defendant’s dance was an affront to decency, and Empress Theater co-owner Henry Goldenberg, who said he’d warned Wausau beforehand to tone it down.
Judge Hedding pronounced her guilty and fined her $50.
Those inclined to take this as proof there is no justice will be happy to know that while Red-Headed Mitzi danced off into oblivion, Hinda Wausau went on to fame as one of burlesque’s all-time greats and the inventor of the pole dance.
(January 2nd, 2018, by Lisa Holewa)
It is Small Business Saturday, and South Milwaukee’s downtown looks ready: holiday lights are strung from light posts on either side of the charming brick street, lined with storefronts dating back to the 1920s.
South Milwaukee is, not surprisingly, a city south of Milwaukee, about 10 miles from downtown. Just five square miles in size and with roughly 21,000 residents, South Milwaukee sits along the shores of Lake Michigan, east of the interstate linking Milwaukee to Chicago.
A movie made about South Milwaukee in the 1930s shows people streaming from the city’s Garden Theater, hats on men’s heads, women all in skirts, children neatly dressed, smiling and waving.
Today, that theater marquee still stands. It reads: Board Game Barrister, and no, that’s not the name of a movie.
It is a local retail chain owned by Gordon Lugauer, who has quickly stopped in at the South Milwaukee warehouse on the busiest shopping weekend of the year, as he makes his way among his other retail locations.
Board Game Barrister is a board game shop with three other locations in the Milwaukee area, two in thriving shopping malls and one along a retail corridor near a shopping mall. Those locations keep regular hours, of course. Games are displayed for people to touch, hold and examine. There are tables for people to play games, hold tournaments.
The South Milwaukee location, however, is not at all like the others. Among other things, it has irregular hours, and no board game tournaments. But that’s South Milwaukee, explains Lugauer. Lugauer’s family moved their carpet business, South Milwaukee Carpet and Vinyl, to the building when he was about three or four years old, in 1976. The family lived above the store. Next door, the once-thriving Garden Theater was by then operating as an arcade. One of the arcade games sparked a fire that destroyed the inside of the building. And so, the Lugauer’s carpet store took over the space, connecting the buildings and opening the former theater side as a warehouse.
Upstairs, the projection room of the theater became Lugauer’s bedroom, right behind the marquee. He and his brother played and invented board games together in that space above the family carpet store.
“That’s the romantic version,” Lugauer says, laughing. The other part of the story is that times were hard. The downtown that once had grocery stores and five-and-dimes and that movie theater now had just a handful of specialty stores. But in the late 1970s into the 1980s, that didn’t really seem to matter. Average middle class Midwestern families had cars and big box stores were only getting bigger. Who shopped local?
“The people in South Milwaukee stopped supporting local businesses 40 years ago,” Lugauer says. “An entire generation or more has grown up without shopping here. And that hasn’t changed.”
Lugauer’s father retired in 2014. At the time, he brought a friend, a commercial real estate agent, to the building. The friend looked around at the joined buildings, the additions, the alterations that spanned more than 100 years and a devastating fire. He said he couldn’t take the listing.
“And so I did what a good son would do so my parents could retire,” Lugauer says. He bought the building. And then he faced downtown South Milwaukee.
“I looked up and down the street and said: ‘What quality of tenant am I likely to be renting to? Oh man.’ And that’s how I became the tenant.”
Today, the former theater section serves as Board Game Barrister’s warehouse. The original carpet store serves as a small retail space displaying shelves of games rejected from the other stores, all at clearance prices.
“This is a masonry block shell with a roof,” he says. “I may want to do ‘x’ here, but the reality is different. And we have buildings like this all up and down Milwaukee Avenue.”
Lugauer does his best to keep reasonably regular hours. But this store is not where he earns his money. Instead, he says, its existence is more of a kindness to the city of South Milwaukee.
“It would really not be doing a justice to the city to have this boarded up,” he says. “So I keep it open as a retail space,” but he is not making even a tenth of what he first hoped for when he opened it.
Advocates of a plan to turn the FOX Theatre in downtown Stevens Point into a “maker space” are scrambling for more time in the wake of a surprise city order to demolish the building. Opened in 1894 as the Grand Opera House, the FOX has been vacant since the mid-1980s and the subject of planned renovation efforts that never quite launched. Greg Wright, executive director of the nonprofit CREATE Portage County, announced last April a $3.5 million plan to make the FOX into its “IDEA Center” … a business incubator and a meet-up place for arts and community groups. The nonprofit has raised nearly $1 million already. But a city inspector in July issued a surprise order that unless CREATE can address structural concerns, the FOX will be demolished at the end of October. Wright said “We were surprised by the timing of the raze order given that we were actively in the process of the capital campaign when it came out. We are doing our best to both slow that process down and to raise as much money as quickly as we can because of that. It definitely was a hurdle we did not need.” Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza, who’d told the Portage County Gazette that “safety is a huge concern right now” when the sudden order was first issued, didn’t immediately return requests for comments. Wright said CREATE is exploring options for appeals, both locally and at the state level. The city’s Historic Preservation and Design Review Commission this month unanimously recommended that the city reverse its decision, but that recommendation is nonbinding … and they’re now trying to raise as much money as they can to save the FOX. Still, Wright doesn’t seem to be a fan of restored theatres, saying “it’s commonly the case that they won’t work as self-sustaining businesses”, and “what we’re doing is the best way to honor the history of this building” he said. His IDEA Center project is about three years old and he said it has launched some 50 new businesses and served as a home for groups of wood carvers, jewelry makers, fabric artists, video producers and more with about 200 people using the IDEA Center each month in a temporary space owned by the county, an arrangement that won’t last forever. The new prospect of demolition of the FOX, he said, focused attention on those efforts and he hopes to use that to raise enough funding to keep his plans alive, though he admits concern that now “it’s shifted everyone’s attention to the building, and not the project. To read about his renovation plans, visit anewfox.com.
Video: https://cbsloc.al/2ZiuZdv
The 86-by-100-foot rear stage wall was shifted to the east by 35 feet into Second Street to accommodate a larger stage. That was expected to take five hours, but the construction schedule allows for up to three days, said Cory Henschel, project executive. International Chimney Corp. and Expert House Movers were subcontracted for the wall move. Construction is on schedule, with completion expected in summer 2020. The relocation of the 650-ton wall with its decorative terracotta exterior was required by the National Parks Service for the project to receive historic tax credits. Four linked hydraulic rams were used. C.D. Smith Construction Inc. is the general contractor; Kahler Slater is the architect. International Chimney Corp. and Expert House Movers were subcontracted for the wall move. Work is on schedule, with completion expected for September 2020. Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra raised $116 million to date toward its $139 million goal including building up its endowment.
During restoration, 2019.
“The Wizard of Oz” world-premiered at the GATEWAY Theatre on this night eighty years ago, and again, there’s been no observance of that history in any manner.
The owners of the LIBERTY Theatre in downtown Libertyville are requesting it be demolished, the Daily Herald is reporting. The building has been owned by the Rhyan family for more than 50 years and operated by Scott Dehn in recent years.
The theater first opened as Liberty Theatre in 1937 and in recent years has gone by the name of Liberty 1 & 2 Theatres, according to the article. The current tenant has not been able to make enough revenue to pay for rent — even after rent had been reduced three times — and ongoing repairs are needed on the aging building. The demolition request is the first being considered by the village since a moratorium on the razing of downtown buildings was lifted in April 2018.
The historic preservation commission will be the first to hear the matter and can recommend approval of the demolition, approve it with conditions, deny it or continue the matter to a future hearing, according to the Daily Herald. The village board would have the final say.
August 17, 1914.
KENOSHA DRIVE-INS RUN GAMUT OF PROMOTION /// Kenosha, Wis. – The Macy-Gimbel price war and Bill Veeck’s recent baseball circus are “small potatoes” compared with the shenanigans of the managers of two outdoor theatres here. Word has traveled among theatregoers in this city that “you really get your money’s worth at the Mid-City on Highway 42, north of the city, and the Keno Family Drive-In on 42 south of the city. The two managers – William Wallos of Mid-City and Robert Peck of Keno Family – help spread the word in newspaper advertisements, radio announcements, posters, handbills and by sound truck. In addition to seeing a movie, or two movies, or sometimes three movies, the Kenosha patrons have been given wrestling, fireworks, bicycle racing on rollers, and a monkey village to watch. One or the other theatre has offered free cigars, parties, towing and repair service, baby bottle warming and guess-the-star contests. The managers even send scouts across town to see coming attractions at the rival theatres. The Keno scored a first when it presented first-run pictures at no increase in regular prices. Mid-City is close behind, scheduling a back-to-school and Christmas party both in September! Santa Claus himself will be on hand to greet the youngsters who come to the outdoor movie with their parents. Square dancing in front of the giant screens has already been introduced with midnight shows, pony rides, and playgrounds for the kiddies. For example, one of the theatres announced that it would bring a special super attraction to its grounds – a real live monkey village. A day or two later, the other theatre told the children to come and see real live bear cubs! It was the same way with wrestling. (Boxoffice Magazine, September 22, 1951)
As seen in 1943.
A fire that started late on the Friday afternoon of August 10, 2018 and continued long into the night caused massive damage to the historic Brin Theatre building, a cornerstone for 90 years. Smoke and flames shot from the roof of the Brin shortly after 5:30 p.m. Firefighters from many departments battled the blaze deep into the night while onlookers came and went, many using their phones to record the damage. No one was injured. Eight people in six apartments above the storefronts made it out safely. The American Red Cross set up a shelter at Menasha City Hall for them. Onlookers gathered on corners all around the fire. Smoke was so thick at times that it obscured the intersection and wafted down a nearby street. The retail spaces included Joshua’s Dream, a clothing shop, a computer repair store and a couple of vacant spaces. The Brin Building dates back to the late 1920s and housed numerous businesses through the years including a bowling alley. When firefighters first arrived, flames were shooting through the roof in the middle of the building. They initially entered the building to try to attack it from the inside, but layers of ceiling above the second floor caused problems. By the time crews went to another section of the building flames had already run across the roof line inside the attic. Firefighters then left the building out of fears of a roof collapse, and continued to battle the blaze from outside. Most of the fire damage was contained to the roof, while the first and second floors sustained extensive water damage, Kloehn said. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known – a sad ending for a building that was a fixture for generations. The Wisconsin Historical Society gives it this nod: “Although altered, the Brin Building retains integrity of site and form and is historically significant as Menasha’s premiere commercial block.” Among the onlookers Friday was John Barkhahn, 76, who reflected on downtown history as he watched the flames tear apart the theatre where he worked as an usher in the late 1950s. “It’s just a lot of memories that are going up in smoke,” he said about two hours after firefighters were called. Smoke still billowed from the building. By that time, the roof had largely collapsed and charred remains where it had been protruded from the top of the structure. The remaining section had been stripped of its tiles by the force of the water from the fire hoses. Barkhahn said a friend at one point lived in the apartments above. He had been at home down the street Friday when he saw smoke blow past his window, so he came down the block to check it out. Gina Montonati, 52, rushed to the scene as soon as she heard the Brin was burning. Her parents met 60 years ago in the bowling alley that was once in the Brin Building. Her mom died about five years ago; her dad is now 85. “I think he’s going to be very sad when he finds out,” she said. “It’s sad to see the old buildings go. You can’t replace those.” Lifelong Menasha resident Joel Humski, 47, described sadness at seeing the historic building go up in flames.
The Rialto Square Theatre is vibrant and management firm VenuWorks continues to draw popular attractions on a regular basis which fill the seats and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. Financial data indicates that the Rialto Square’s events in March and April cost the Rialto about $235,500 and generated nearly $565,000 in revenue, constituting a profit margin of nearly $330,000. The Joliet City Council provides a $500,000 annual subsidy to the Rialto, and corporate sponsors also contribute. Earlier this year, comedian Bill Engvall drew well, as did the KAR Dance Competition ($35,605) on March 15 and singer Aaron Lewis ($36,539) on March 27. On April 12, the Rainbow National Dance Competition cost the Rialto $13,216 and generated $54,494 in revenue, or a profit of $41,279. Three weddings at the Rialto during March and April generated profits of between $6,000 and $8,000. With big events, the Rialto aims to draw a profit of at least $10,000. The least successful this Spring was The Church Basement Ladies on April 9, which cost the Rialto about $7,000 but generated about $10,800 in actual revenue for a profit of $3,800. Last year the Rialto began a new monthly movie series with $5 general admission seating for weekday screenings. On March 14, the Rialto played Bohemian Rhapsody to a packed house, an incredible success which cost the Rialto about $4,510 but earned actual revenue over $16,560 and a profit of $12,050. On March 21, Billy Idol played to a sellout crowd at the Rialto in a two-man performance with guitarist Steve Stevens. That cost the Rialto $29,180 and generated $56,232 in revenue. The Rialto turned a profit of $27,052. The May 10 “I Left My Heart Tour” performance by Tony Bennett did well. May and June are both busy months for the Rialto.