Bradley Symphony Center

Did the Warner (or another Warner Brothers theater) suffer a fire in 1939— in very late April or maybe May? Three different film historians claim that some German-Americans in Milwaukee protested the screening of Warner Brothers' “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” (starring Edward G. Robinson) by burning down `the' Warner Brothers theater in Milwaukee, although Cinema Treasures lists 7 Warner theaters in Milwaukee. These claims, made in three different articles and books, are limited to one sentence each. No primary sources are cited. Appreciate any facts (or theories) any of you might have. I’m not in Milwaukee, but if anyone there is curious and has access to a local library, here’s an article that might have some info: “Milwaukee’s German-American Community and the Nazi Challenge of the 1930’s.” by Dieter Berninger in Wisconsin Magazine of History, 71:2(1987-88): pages 118-142.
Thanks, Bill S

The interior photos remind me of the Warner in Erie PA and the Warner in Youngstown Ohio. The Warner in Erie is still named the Warner as it should be, imo!

Here are 27 interior photos which I took in 1995 (at closing).
These were scanned and first appeared online in Sept 2006.
http://www.pbase.com/redfishpaw/warner

Miss Kari, I will privately E-mail you the E-mail address of Paul Bielik, the principal owner of the land under the theatre and he may possibly be willing to mail you a copy of his photo CD with some 30 images associated with the Warner/Grand. Note that he is a busy man and may not be able to respond to your request for a copy of the disc. But, he may also be able to put you in touch with someone at Marcus Theatres, which still owns the building, as to other images and data and possibly a tour.

Larry Widen may be reached in care of his web site: www.widenonline.com The 1980 Marquee article about the theatre is photographed on Mr. Bielik’s disc, but my article about the grillework is not on-line, but is available via the Back Issues link on the THSA’s web site: www.historictheatres.org where they sell it for $5 plus shipping; likely you can afford this small amount. My health is getting quite difficult where it is now impossible for me to walk to the mail box and I must sleep about 14 hours daily, so I hope that these others can provide the help I cannot. You might also contact Joeseph DuciBella who is supposedly doing a book about the Rapp brothers and their works, in care of THSA. A Master’s thesis was done about converting the theatre to new use, at the Univ. of Wis.-Milw. a few years back and you might find its 100 pages of some interest, though the author made many mistakes, not being a native Milwaukeean. He resides in New Jersey now and shows no interest in the subject now.

As to photos on Yahoo!, please read their Terms Of Service (a link in fine print at thge bottom of every page on their site) and allow me to direct your attention to Sections 10 and 13 where they make clear that they have the right to delete content that has long terms of inactivity. Thus they are no more gracious than the others who at least have the decency to explicitly state just how long a “period of inactivity” is that will result in deletion. Allow me to point out that any contract (TOS, Privacy Rules, and the like are “tacit contracts by default”) is only as good as your ability to enforce it, and very few people are willing and able to travel to California courts to sue for Breach of Contract. All business know this and so write these glowing ‘contracts’ on their sites. Yahoo! is no different from any other business: they will do ANYTHING, fair or foul to increase profits, and if my photos and others should take up space more profitably taken by others, they will not hesistate to delete such items and are completely guiltless in doing so, as their ‘contract’ makes clear. These are the ‘terms’ one agrees to upon using their site. Therefore I know of no site which guarantees that one’s efforts will be preserved for years, much less in perpetuity, and as soon as they delete my photos for their convenience, all the links to them that I have scattered about become worthless, and in sites such as CT, there is not even a means to change them.

Ken may graciously say that he is sorry the photo could not be better focused on the Warner on 2nd St. from this photo looking east from sixth street on Wis. avenue, but he really needn’t be. The sad fact is that in history if we want to see something, we must often put up with less than perfect views, and this nightime winter scene is a case in point. True, it tells us little about the Warner, and better photos do exist; I have a number of them. But in many cases across the country, such as this is all there is, and I applaud the men who bring them to us nonetheless.

Someday when CT has a new PHOTOS arrangement for permanent retention, I will take the great effort in time to upload my images, but until then there remain only the commercial photo exhibit sites, but for all one’s time and effort, they do not guarantee that one’s images will remain without a continual rental fee, and a rich man I am not. It would be too painful to leave a link to them here only to find in a year or so that they were deleted “Due to infrequent viewing.”

I’ll justify the addition of this photo by pointing out the Warner marquee at the far end, but I enjoyed the rest of the photo much more:
http://tinyurl.com/ofrmb

Yes Patsy, I intend to send an email when I get a spare weekend half-hour. It won’t be anything too complicated. It will be a short, respectful, carefully-worded note saying that I support reuse of the Warner Theatre in a historically-sensitive manner along with my contact information. I urge you and anyone else reading to do the same. This sort of action holds weight in political circles.

If the interior was a combination of art deco/french renaissance, it would be great to see an interior photo(s). Hope that someone can provide a photo(s).

Ken mc: great photo, we are supposed to play in that area real soon. I will have to check this out. Thanks again.
Norelco

Jim: do you have an email address for the Mayor’s Office handy?

ken mc: I’ve never visited Milwaukee though do know folks there and that the city has their annual Summerfest each June and that jazz singer, Al Jareau is from Milwaukee.

ken mc: What a wonderful photo with the vertical WARNER marquee, the trolley car and all of the people!

Jim: Thanks for this important information as I just knew you’d be able to shed some real light onto the subject.