Al. Ringling Theatre
136 Fourth Avenue,
Baraboo,
WI
53913
136 Fourth Avenue,
Baraboo,
WI
53913
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 42 of 42 comments
I was in Baraboo back in the 80’s. There was a second vintage movie theatre building near the Ringling. It didn’t look nearly as ornamental. This is the web site’s only Baraboo entry. Maybe the great Wisconsin authority Jim Rankin has some idea of what this place was?
Brian: Thanks for the above site with photos. I’ve been to Sarasota FL and toured the Ringling Estate which is a MUST-SEE for anyone who is interested in the Ringling name and all that it represents.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.wi0059 is the HABS/HAER entry for the Ringling
Just revisited the official website for this theatre and was WOW-ed again!
ChicagoDan: Great review of a great theatre with lots of history and, of course, the Ringling name! And the fact that it is associated with the names Rapp and Rapp doesn’t hurt either!
I recently toured the theatre (they offer several). It was incredibly informative and included a tour of the backstage area and a demonstration of the organ. The theatre was originally built not strictly as a movie house, but as a Vaudeville house. You can still see first-run shows there at a discounted price and enjoy popcorn made in a machine that’s been in use since the 1940’s!
My only visit to the Al Ringling Theater was in 1964 as I was passing through on business. I stopped for the night and saw an odd double bill of Kubrick’s “Dr Strangelove” and Hammer’s “Evil of Frankenstein” along with some shorts and a newsreel (made for a long evening.) However I do recall the sleeping grandeur of the theater itself. It was in need of some careful renovation and I secretly hoped that someday it would be done. I’m happy to hear that much has been accomplished since those days.
I did notice that the theater had opted for a one-size-fits-all screen which many theaters of that era did. The shape of the screen was 2:1, width being twice the height. It fit the proscenium well, but this meant that all projected images would have been “formatted to fit the screen” (as they say on videos these days.) Cinemascope films would have their left and right edges clipped, while standard films had the tops and bottoms lopped off, approximating the 1.85:1 desired ratio.
I’d like to return someday to see what they’ve done to restore the theater.
After checking out www.alringling.com this theatre will be on my MUST-SEE list! What a treasure!
I just recently found this cinema website and can’t seem to get enough of it as so much great information about theaters is on it! Thanks to whomever started it though I do wish there were photos for each theater listed, but realize this is impossible. I would love to see the Ringling Theater someday!
Jim, I think it just shows that the movie palace as we know it today evolved, and didn’t really start with a particular theatre. Every theatre you could possibly claim to be the first palace could be traced to something before it. That’s why I would lean toward the Ringling as being the first, because, although it’s on a smaller scale, it most resembles what we think of today as a movie palace, and, at the time, was the most radical departure in movie presentation (at least that I know of). The Capitol in New York had many similar antecedents, and I don’t see it as ground breaking, though it was certainly beautiful and ornate.
By the way, I do indeed admire the Coronado. You and I traded comments on the Coronado page on this site. I grew up going to the Coronado, and I think it’s as magical a place as any I’ve been in. Especially during it’s movie-showing years. It doesn’t have quite the same feel anymore, but it is still gorgeous.
Hello, Scott: You noticed that I merely quoted the Society; I didn’t say I agreed with it. You could well be right, since Warren and others agree with you that there were other palaces antedating the CAPITOL that would qualify, and it is possible that the Chicago RIVIERA would be a likely contender for the honor, but I guess it all depends upon just how ornate in a thematic fashion it was originally. Rich Sklenar, Ex. Dir. of THSA, didn’t make that entirely clear on the “History Detectives” show in the time allotted, but I believe that he was thinking of a ‘theme’ being evident in a true movie palace, as opposed to merely greater ornament than a legit theatre. True, the Adam or Neoclassical themes are sometimes so mild as to not really be thought of as true ‘themes’ but evidently he or the Society feels that it is enough in the case of the CAPITOL in NYC to combine with its multi-thousand seat size so as to qualify. I guess you would have to ask him about it at his E-mail on the front page of their web site: www.HistoricTheatres.org Jim. P.S. I also note that while you do not give any contact information on your Members page, you do list the exotic CORONADO among your favorite theatres, as do I on my page. It is a ost wonderful melange of styles and delights, even down to the little niches in the walls under the balcony filled with illuminated glass flowers. I treasure such attention to detail and the extremes of scale in decor, don’t you?
Jim – using the Theatre Historical Society’s definition of movie palace that you presented, I would think that the Riveria in Chicago(and perhaps others) would be ahead of the Capitol in New York. As you probably know, the Riviera opened in 1918, and had over 2000 seats, and showed movies from the get-go. Chicago’s Central Park Theatre might also qualify, though I’m not sure about its stage capabilities. Certainly the Riviera had a workable stage. So I don’t believe New York’s Capitol to be the first movie palace. Not if the minimuim seating requirement is 1000.
I forgot to include the fact that the RINGLING’s web site is: http://www.alringling.com/
Was the AL RINGLING theatre the very first movie palace? That was the question asked of the “History Detectives” TV show in the autumn of 2003 (alluded to in the first Comment here), but an earlier TV program led one to believe that The NEW AMSTERDAM theatre of New York city was the first. In the VHS video “America’s Castles: Movie Palaces” produced in the year 2000, detailed at Amazon.com: ( View link ), several theatres are shown as examples of the American movie palace, and the impression is given that it was the NEW AMSTERDAM that was the first. Contrary to this idea (which suited the aims of the producers of this originally cable-TV program), the idea of what was the very first Movie Palace will depend upon just how one defines that phenomenon. When the producers of the 2003 PBS TV series “History Detectives” (viewable as a PDF file at: View link ) were asked if the AL RINGLING THEATRE in Baraboo, Wis. was the very first movie palace, they turned to the nationally recognized authority on the subject for the answer: The Theatre Historical Soc. of America ( www.HistoricTheatres.org ) and asked their Ex. Dir. what the Society’s standard was. Ex. Dir. Richard Sklenar replied that for a theatre to have been a movie palace it had to have been (1) built as a movie theatre, (2) have a workable stage, and (3) have more than 1,000 seats. By that composite standard neither the NEW AMSTERDAM nor the AL RINGLING qualify, and they determined that the CAPITOL THEATRE of New York City in 1919 was the first. Therefore, while the NEW AMSTERDAM did show movies for part of its life, it could not be called a “movie palace” by the usual and customary definition of the term, even if it is shown in a commercially produced video on the subject. Since the RINGLING’S seating is only 800, that would disqualify it on that basis alone, but its palatial decor was not lost on the Balaban&Katz theatre chain of Chicago when they were invited to see the RINGLING and were inspired by it to the extent of hiring its architects, Rapp&Rapp of Chicago, to do their forthcoming movie palaces, starting with the CHICAGO in 1921, followed by a great many others throughout the nation.
The AL RINGLING THEATRE is indeed a wonderful design, but it was never a true movie palace (though it WAS designed for movies, and it IS palatial) as confirmed by the ‘Detectives’ on that TV show in the autumn of 2003 on PBS, when they visited THE authority on theatres and movie palaces in the USA: The Theatre Historical Society of America in Elmhurst, ILL., which has since 1969 documented the facts of the theatres of our nation. That Society also produced in 1990 a 24-page ANNUAL of the theatre, with dozens of vintage b/w photos taken at opening. It was a favorite of the Editor Emeritus of their Marquee magazine, the late (B.) John (Andrew Corsini) Fowler, who thought that of the thousands of theatres he studied, this was perhaps the seed of the idea of the movie palace, if not actually a realization of that archetype to come. The Society has a tape copy of that show, as well as much other documentation of the RINGLING.
PHOTOS AVAILABLE:
To obtain any available Back Issue of either “Marquee” or of its ANNUALS, simply go to the web site of the THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA at:
www.HistoricTheatres.org
and notice on their first page the link “PUBLICATIONS: Back Issues List” and click on that and you will be taken to their listing where they also give ordering details. The “Marquee” magazine is 8-1/2x11 inches tall (‘portrait’) format, and the ANNUALS are also soft cover in the same size, but in the long (‘landscape’) format, and are anywhere from 26 to 40 pages. Should they indicate that a publication is Out Of Print, then it may still be possible to view it via Inter-Library Loan where you go to the librarian at any public or school library and ask them to locate which library has the item by using the Union List of Serials, and your library can then ask the other library to loan it to them for you to read or photocopy. [Photocopies of most THSA publications are available from University Microforms International (UMI), but their prices are exorbitant.]
Note: Most any photo in any of their publications may be had in large size by purchase; see their ARCHIVE link. You should realize that there was no color still photography in the 1920s, so few theatres were seen in color at that time except by means of hand tinted renderings or post cards, thus all the antique photos from the Society will be in black and white, but it is quite possible that the Society has later color images available; it is best to inquire of them.
Should you not be able to contact them via their web site, you may also contact their Executive Director via E-mail at:
Or you may reach them via phone or snail mail at:
Theatre Historical Soc. of America
152 N. York, 2nd Floor York Theatre Bldg.
Elmhurst, ILL. 60126-2806 (they are about 15 miles west of Chicago)
Phone: 630-782-1800 or via FAX at: 630-782-1802 (Monday through Friday, 9AM—4PM, CT)
The building does not nor did it ever have any frescoes or mosaics but rather paintings on canvas done by the G. A. Brand Co. of Chicago. As noted by Dave Wiegers the building was originally designed to be a movie house and play house. An organ was added to the plans during construction. The building owes much to Rapp and Rapp’s design for the Orhpeum in Champaign, Illinois which was built the year before. Ringling’s larger budget allowed for more ornament. The facade has recently been restored after the remanfacture of dozens of terra cotta pieces. The theatre has an extensive website at www.alringling.com
Recently, the Al Ringling was featured on a TV show for PBS. It was reported that the Al Ringling was one of the earliest theaters in the country that was originally designed with movie capabilities. This was based on analysis of the original Rapp and Rapp blueprints.
It also came out that the Al Ringling, eventhough technically a “movie palace” – too small", was a model for many of the movie palaces of the next 10-20 years.