- Pantheon Theatre
The Pantheon Theatre was constructed in 1919 on the corner of 5th and Main Street in
Vincennes, Indiana . It was built to hold 1200 people. One of the highest paid interior decorators in the world was hired to supervise the decorating of the theatre. The Pantheon's interior was highly embellished with ornamental plaster, draperies and painted details such as thebirds of paradise . Over six miles of electrical wiring and 15 miles of rope for rigging was installed. With its large stage,orchestra pit , eleven dressing rooms, and fifty-two curtains and backdrops the Pantheon was the only facility in the area that could handle Broadway shows. The Pantheon featured live shows from Broadway,vaudville , live music, cooking shows, fashion shows, and movies. At first the movies were silent and the Pantheon hadIndiana 's largestpipe organ to play along with thesilent movies . In 1929 the Pantheon showed the first "talkie" in Vincennes. The Pantheon was also the first building in Vincennes to be air-conditioned.Famous performers
The Pantheon had some of the greatest performers on its stage including
Red Skelton ,Duke Ellington ,Count Basie ,Ed Wynn ,Isaac Stern ,John Phillip Sousa ,Amos and Andy ,Hank Williams ,Minnie Pearl ,Roy Acuff ,Fay Wray ,Gene Autry ,Roy Rogers ,James Dean ,Bill Monroe ,Will Rogers ,Sally Rand ,Marx Brothers ,Red Grange ,Cecil B. DeMille ,Ivan Romanoff ,Eileen Farrell ,Spade Cooley ,Blanche Thebom ,David Rubinoff ,Bert Williams ,Edgar Bergmen andCharlie McCarthy ,W.C. Fields ,The Diamonds , andThe Kansas City Night Hawks .Final Show
By the
1960s attendance started to drop and the Pantheon was in need of many repairs, so after forty years of shows, the Pantheon closed in 1961. All twelve-hundred seats were removed and the orchestra pit was filled with sand and concrete. They also hung a fake dropped ceiling throughout the entire theatre and rented the building out for almost fifty years.New beginning
In 2006 Travis S. Tarrants purchased the Pantheon Theatre and started a 501(c)3
non-profit to restore the Pantheon to its original state.External links
[http://www.pantheontheatre.com Pantheon Theatre]
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