Henry White was an Australian architect whom Eberson assisted in designing this theater and others in Australia and New Zealand, including the Ambassador in Perth, and apparently the Civic in Auckland. Shortly before taking on his projects in the southern hemisphere, Eberson had seen his Riviera Theater open in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He and White toured this theater, and used its design as inspiration for all their theaters in Australia and New Zealand. The Riviera was also renovated and reopened in 1995, and is now called the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center. I know the Rose well (perhaps too well?). Looking at photos of the Capitol, I see a definite family resemblance.
As an educated guess, the Capitol could conceivably have been similar in interior style to the Riviera (which is now the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center) in Omaha, as they both were designed in Eberson’s Moorish-hodgepodge style, and the opening dates for the two theaters are only two days apart (the Riviera opened on March 26, 1927)!
Yes, 40th and Farnam is the correct location. Officially, the address was 142 Farnam St. The Admiral was on the northwest corner. It opened February 4, 1942 as a 1000-seat, single-screen movie house in what was then a wealthy “suburb” of Omaha. As suggested by the name of the theater, the theme of its decor was nautical. There were ocean-wave murals on the walls of the auditorium. Uniforms worn by staff were inspired by Navy uniforms. A champagne bottle was supposed to have been smashed to “launch” the new theater, but the plans were scratched for safety reasons when opening night crowds proved larger than anticipated. From the 1940s through the early 1970s, the theater did well, hosting second-run films at first, then first-runs and local premieres. Like many older single-screen theaters, it fell out of favor in the mid-1970s as the public chose to see movies at the newer multiplexes. As beardbear31 remembers, it was the home base for Omaha’s rowdy, toast-throwing “Rocky Horror Picture Show” fans from the late 1970s into the early 1980s. In 1979, the Admiral was remodeled into a twin-screen theater. In 1983, it closed again for remodeling but never reopened. Plans for the site fell through one by one. Meanwhile, the building’s condition deteriorated until it was no longer practical to save it for any purpose. Neighborhood merchants raised the money for its demolition, which finally happened in early 1997. An office building now occupies the site.
The mosaic floors in the former lounges and in the lobby have all been restored. I heard that a vertical marquee had been in the original plans for the renovation, but it was not done, I believe because of cost. If you look closely, you can still see the places along the corner of the building’s exterior where the vertical marquee was attached. The original vertical marquee starred in a 1927 newspaper ad advertising the power of the electric sign to draw customers to one’s business. At the time, lighted signs were rare, and businesspeople actually had to be persuaded to add one! The ad appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, and possibly also the Omaha Bee, which is now defunct.
During the Depression, Rose Blumkin’s five-year-old daughter Frances won a five-dollar gold piece singing and dancing to the song “Am I Blue” in a talent show at the theater. This memory inspired Rose Blumkin to buy the theater for $200,000 in 1981, shortly after the Astro closed. The site was being considered for a new Federal Reserve building, but Mrs. Blumkin wanted to save the building. She held on to it for several years, waiting for a workable proposal for its use. Plans for a shopping center and nightclub fell through. The children’s museum and a historical museum considered moving in, but any plans they had also failed. When the children’s theater announced a fundraising campaign to buy the theater, Mrs. Blumkin donated the building and threw in the first $1 million toward the $9 million renovation. She was present at the grand reopening in November, 1995, as was the original five-dollar gold piece Frances had won. Frances repeated her talent-show act at the reopening gala, accompanied on ukulele by Warren Buffet, and received a standing ovation.
Speaking of what was done to these buildings…I had the intriguing experience of touring this theater pre-renovation. In the process of making this the Astro, the then-proprietors felt it necessary to “modernize” the theater. Mustard-colored draperies covered the alcoves on either side of the auditorium. The mosaic floors of the ladies' and gentlemen’s lounges were covered in brightly-colored shag carpeting. Most of the original gingerbread was removed, and the decorative upper corners of the proscenium were demolished to provide a better fit for the movie screen. One worker, ordered to destroy the statuary in the auditorium alcoves, instead hid them in the stalls of the ladies' restroom in the basement. (This is still, by the way, the current ladies' room.) Because the basement was not used during the Astro days, the statues were not discovered until years after the Astro closed, when the worker shared his secret. The savior of the statues, unfortunately, did not live to see the statues replaced in the alcoves when the theater was restored.
The Muse was built in 1916. After operating for some time as a movie house, it became an “adult” theater for a while in the 1970s, then sat vacant. A gentleman purchased it with the intent of refurbishing it into a Christian activity center, but sufficient funds never materialized. It was damaged by fire in the late 1990s and was then demolished. The site is now, of course, a parking lot.
Correcting my mention of the AmbassadorS Theatre in Perth…
Henry White was an Australian architect whom Eberson assisted in designing this theater and others in Australia and New Zealand, including the Ambassador in Perth, and apparently the Civic in Auckland. Shortly before taking on his projects in the southern hemisphere, Eberson had seen his Riviera Theater open in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He and White toured this theater, and used its design as inspiration for all their theaters in Australia and New Zealand. The Riviera was also renovated and reopened in 1995, and is now called the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center. I know the Rose well (perhaps too well?). Looking at photos of the Capitol, I see a definite family resemblance.
As an educated guess, the Capitol could conceivably have been similar in interior style to the Riviera (which is now the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center) in Omaha, as they both were designed in Eberson’s Moorish-hodgepodge style, and the opening dates for the two theaters are only two days apart (the Riviera opened on March 26, 1927)!
Yes, 40th and Farnam is the correct location. Officially, the address was 142 Farnam St. The Admiral was on the northwest corner. It opened February 4, 1942 as a 1000-seat, single-screen movie house in what was then a wealthy “suburb” of Omaha. As suggested by the name of the theater, the theme of its decor was nautical. There were ocean-wave murals on the walls of the auditorium. Uniforms worn by staff were inspired by Navy uniforms. A champagne bottle was supposed to have been smashed to “launch” the new theater, but the plans were scratched for safety reasons when opening night crowds proved larger than anticipated. From the 1940s through the early 1970s, the theater did well, hosting second-run films at first, then first-runs and local premieres. Like many older single-screen theaters, it fell out of favor in the mid-1970s as the public chose to see movies at the newer multiplexes. As beardbear31 remembers, it was the home base for Omaha’s rowdy, toast-throwing “Rocky Horror Picture Show” fans from the late 1970s into the early 1980s. In 1979, the Admiral was remodeled into a twin-screen theater. In 1983, it closed again for remodeling but never reopened. Plans for the site fell through one by one. Meanwhile, the building’s condition deteriorated until it was no longer practical to save it for any purpose. Neighborhood merchants raised the money for its demolition, which finally happened in early 1997. An office building now occupies the site.
The mosaic floors in the former lounges and in the lobby have all been restored. I heard that a vertical marquee had been in the original plans for the renovation, but it was not done, I believe because of cost. If you look closely, you can still see the places along the corner of the building’s exterior where the vertical marquee was attached. The original vertical marquee starred in a 1927 newspaper ad advertising the power of the electric sign to draw customers to one’s business. At the time, lighted signs were rare, and businesspeople actually had to be persuaded to add one! The ad appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, and possibly also the Omaha Bee, which is now defunct.
During the Depression, Rose Blumkin’s five-year-old daughter Frances won a five-dollar gold piece singing and dancing to the song “Am I Blue” in a talent show at the theater. This memory inspired Rose Blumkin to buy the theater for $200,000 in 1981, shortly after the Astro closed. The site was being considered for a new Federal Reserve building, but Mrs. Blumkin wanted to save the building. She held on to it for several years, waiting for a workable proposal for its use. Plans for a shopping center and nightclub fell through. The children’s museum and a historical museum considered moving in, but any plans they had also failed. When the children’s theater announced a fundraising campaign to buy the theater, Mrs. Blumkin donated the building and threw in the first $1 million toward the $9 million renovation. She was present at the grand reopening in November, 1995, as was the original five-dollar gold piece Frances had won. Frances repeated her talent-show act at the reopening gala, accompanied on ukulele by Warren Buffet, and received a standing ovation.
Speaking of what was done to these buildings…I had the intriguing experience of touring this theater pre-renovation. In the process of making this the Astro, the then-proprietors felt it necessary to “modernize” the theater. Mustard-colored draperies covered the alcoves on either side of the auditorium. The mosaic floors of the ladies' and gentlemen’s lounges were covered in brightly-colored shag carpeting. Most of the original gingerbread was removed, and the decorative upper corners of the proscenium were demolished to provide a better fit for the movie screen. One worker, ordered to destroy the statuary in the auditorium alcoves, instead hid them in the stalls of the ladies' restroom in the basement. (This is still, by the way, the current ladies' room.) Because the basement was not used during the Astro days, the statues were not discovered until years after the Astro closed, when the worker shared his secret. The savior of the statues, unfortunately, did not live to see the statues replaced in the alcoves when the theater was restored.
The Muse was built in 1916. After operating for some time as a movie house, it became an “adult” theater for a while in the 1970s, then sat vacant. A gentleman purchased it with the intent of refurbishing it into a Christian activity center, but sufficient funds never materialized. It was damaged by fire in the late 1990s and was then demolished. The site is now, of course, a parking lot.
The Rose Theater’s building history page has moved here: http://www.rosetheater.org/about-ourbuilding.asp