An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace design which was popular in the late 1920s. Atmospheric theatres were designed and decorated to evoke the feeling of a particular time and place for patrons, through the use of projectors, architectural elements and ornamentation that evoked a sense of being outdoors. This was intended to make the patron a more active participant in the setting.Hoffman, Scott L. A Theatre History of Marion, Ohio: John Eberson's Palace and Beyond. Charlotte, NC: The History Press. 2015.
The most successful promoter of the style was John Eberson. He credited the Hoblitzelle Majestic Theatre (Houston, 1923, since demolished) as the first.Eberson, John. "New Theatres for Old." Motion Picture News, December 30, 1927. Before the end of the 1920s he designed around 100 atmospheric theatres in the U.S. and a few other countries, personally selecting the furnishings and art objects. His most notable surviving theatres in the United States include the Tampa Theatre (1926), Palace Theatre (1928), Majestic Theatre (1929), Paramount Theatre (1929), and the Loew's Theatre (1929). Remaining international examples include The Civic Theatre (1929, Auckland, New Zealand), The Forum (1929, Melbourne, Australia), as well as two theatres completed in Sydney, Australia, the Capitol Theatre (1928) and State Theatre (1929) (both designed by Henry Eli White with assistance from Eberson), and Le Grand Rex, (1932, Paris, France) which was designed by architect Auguste Bluysen with assistance from Eberson.
Surviving atmospheric theatres in the United States Designed by John Eberson
John Eberson was the most successful promoter and designer of the atmospheric style. His last atmospheric design in the US was the "Midwest Theatre" at 17 N. Harvey Ave., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which opened August 1, 1930, but was demolished in 1976. The following seventeen of his atmospheric theatres in the United States are still in operation.
Akron Civic Theatre (Akron, Ohio) The Akron Civic Theatre was built in 1929 by Marcus Loew and designed by theater architect John Eberson. It opened as Loew's Theatre, and later Cinema Theatre and seats 3,000 people. The auditorium is designed to resemble a night in a Moorish garden. Twinkling stars and drifting clouds travel across the domed ceiling. Located on Akron's South Main Street, the theater's entrance lobby extends over the Ohio and Erie Canal. The theater has a small multicolored terra cotta façade dominated by a large marquee. The interior of the entrance and lobby is designed to resemble a Moorish castle with Mediterranean decor, complete with medieval-style carvings, authentic European antiques and Italian alabaster sculptures. A grand full-sized Wurlitzer organ hidden beneath the stage rises to the stage level on a special elevator.Akron Civic Theatre (official theater website) In June 2001, the Akron Civic Theatre closed its doors for the most expensive and extensive renovation in its history in order to bring the theater up to modern performance and patron standards, and to restoring its failing 72-year-old infrastructure. The renovation cost just over $19 million, which included additional restroom facilities, new concession stands and expansion of the lobbies. The renovation allowed for the Civic to better serve customers with special needs by adding more handicapped seating and a new elevator. To bring the theatre up to new standards the dressing rooms were all redone and the stage was expanded from twenty-six feet to forty feet. Also added to the Civic was a freight elevator, a new loading dock and a cross-over space behind the stage's back wall."Capital Campaign" The Civic. Web. n.d. Other improvements included updating the sound system, HVAC, roof exterior, electrical service and modernizing the plumbing. The newly renovated Civic Theatre re-opened in November 2002.
Avalon Regal Theater (Chicago, Illinois) The Avalon Regal Theater opened in 1927 as the Avalon Theater, known later as the New Regal Theater, built in a Moorish Revival style. From 1927 to 1937 it was a live performing arts venue, and then a movie venue until first closure in 1967. By this time, more African Americans began to move into the area around the theater, transforming local culture and taking advantage of this historic gem for their musical and artistic ends. It reopened in 1970 as Miracle Temple Church and a meeting place for 15 years. It then closed for renovation, reopening in 1987 as a performing arts venue named the New Regal Theater, in homage to the Regal Theater in Bronzeville, which had been a celebrated cultural center for Chicago's African American community beginning in the 1920s until it caught fire in September 1971. In 2003, the New Regal Theatre closed due to insufficient attendance to cover running costs, but funds were obtained for renovation and it reopened in late 2008. Unfortunately, some of the funds were misapplied to the new owner's personal expenses, and it closed for the fourth time in 2011, due to foreclosure. Kanye West has pledged $1 million, and funding continues, to raise capital to reopen and run the venue, with possibilities including plans "to recreate pivotal moments in entertainment history using holographic stage technology".
Capitol Theatre (Flint, Michigan) The Capitol Theatre is a cinema and concert venue. It opened in 1928, designed to look like a Roman garden, was remodelled in 1957, but has had a major restoration to the original ambience but with up-to-date services, completed in 2011.
Carpenter Theatre (Richmond, Virginia) The Carpenter Theatre, originally Loew's Theatre and later the Carpenter Theatre Center for the Performing Arts, is the cornerstone of the Dominion Energy Center (previously Richmond CentreStage), which also includes three adjacent modern performance spaces, offices, and elsewhere the Altria Theater (none of which are atmospheric and all of which are by different architects). The Carpenter Theatre was built in 1927/28, giving a Spanish-Moorish ambience. It currently has about 1,800 seats and is said to be fully renovated and restored, but now with state-of-the-art lighting and world-class acoustics. It has "newly installed fiber optic stars twinkling overhead in the repainted midnight sky ceiling, one of the many preserved and enhanced elements of John Eberson's original theater design"
Indiana Theatre (Terre Haute, Indiana) The Indiana Theatre has a Spanish courtyard design and was one of the first Eberson theatres to exhibit atmospheric elements. While not fully atmospheric, the Indiana Theatre's original lighting system gave a blue hue to the auditorium ceiling and scattered light to simulate stars. The tile and terrazzo flooring, shapes of windows, prominence of Spanish coats of arms, Churrigueresque exterior, as well as numerous plaster designs that were seen first in the Indiana Theatre became a framework for later designs. Eberson stated, "Into this Indiana Theatre I have put my very best efforts and endeavors in the art of designing a modern theatre such as I have often pictured as what I would do were I given a free hand."
Palace (Louisville, Kentucky) (commonly known as the Louisville Palace) The Louisville Palace, with Spanish Baroque architecture, seats 2,700 and opened as Loew's Theatre in 1928, and was later called Loew's United Artist Theatre, and then United Artists Theatre. It closed from 1985 to 1994, and since reopening, refurbished and upgraded to a high standard, has been primarily a concert venue.
Majestic Theatre (Dallas, Texas) The Majestic Theatre, constructed in 1920 with Renaissance Revival ambience and, originally, with 2,800 seats, was the first Eberson theatre to use a simulated outdoor sky ceiling. It originally hosted a variety of live acts, adding movies from 1922, before changing to movies only from 1932 until closure in 1973. Passed to the City of Dallas, it was restored inside and out to its original glory, also adding a sprung floor on the stage for dancing, and advanced sound and lighting systems. It then re-opened in 1983, with 1,570 seats, as a Performing Arts Center, hosting musical productions, dramatic plays, national pageants, dance, and concerts.
Majestic Theatre (San Antonio, Texas) The Majestic Theatre opened in 1929, with the ambience of a Spanish courtyard, having 4,000 seats in the first fully air-conditioned venue in Texas, for both live and movie performances. After a period of closure, it reopened in 1989, continuing with a mix of live performances, including concerts, and movies, often musicals, but now with only 2,264 larger seats.
Olympia Theater (Miami, Florida) The Olympia Theater, previously the Olympia Theater & Office Building and then the Gusman Cultural Center, then Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, then Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, was built in 1925–6 in Moorish Revival style, with 2,170 seats, to replicate a Spanish garden. It originally showed silent movies, and by 1929 also talking pictures and vaudeville then, by the 1950s, many concerts. By the late 1960s, with declining use, the venue was to be demolished, but was bought by a philanthropist, Maurice Gusman who, during a closure from 1970 to 1972, restored the auditorium and reopened it as the home of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1975, he gifted the venue to the City of Miami as a rock concert venue. Renovations continued until 1977. In the late 80s, usage declined again, and the Gusman Estate stepped in again to save the building. After renovations from 1989, the building reopened as a performing arts center in 1994, including concerts by international stars, renovations continuing till 1996. There were more renovations 2000-02 and 2009–12, and by then, there were only 1,567 (more comfortable) seats. In 2014, the original "Olympic Theater" name returned. Closures due to COVID-19 were devastating to the small non-profit running the theater, and in 2020 they had to return management and operation to the City of Miami.
Orpheum Theatre (Wichita, Kansas) The Orpheum Theatre opened in 1922 with 1,700 seats and the auditorium emulating a Spanish garden, and having an unusually tall proscenium arch. Built as a vaudeville theatre, it was adapted in 1929 to also show movies, and mixed them with live entertainment until closure in 1976. Notably, with the economic boom brought on by 1940s defense spending, the Orpheum was kept open 24 hours a day to accommodate the many shifts of workers building airplanes for WWII. In 1976, the building was stripped of saleable items and abandoned. With most less notable cinemas and theatres also closing and being demolished, enough people rallied behind the Orpheum to prevent that fate, and in 1978, the City declared it a Historic Landmark, followed in 1980 by addition to the National Register of Historic Places. There were legal issues regarding the adjoining premises, and the non-profit formed to own the Orpheum did not receive clear title till 1992, by which time there were significant structural repairs required before normal restoration activities could commence. Safety-critical works continued up to 2022, but as of May 2023, the venue is operating and appears to have a fairly full calendar months in advance.
Palace Theatre (Canton, Ohio) The Palace Theatre opened in 1926, a million dollar gift from Harry Ink, a local industrialist, with decoration evoking a Spanish courtyard in the evening or morning. It was intended for vaudeville, other performing arts and (initially silent) movies, and the mix of live performances and movies continues to this day. The theatre did close, due to declining footfall, in 1976, but local people rallied to save it from demolition and make it viable, and it reopened in 1980, with restoration being ongoing since then.
Palace Theatre (Marion, Ohio)