Venetian Theatre

LouRugani on November 18, 2024 at 6:03 pm

Milwaukee’s newest amusement center, the Venetian theater, located at Thirty-seventh and Center streels, is now open to the service of the public. It is one of the most modern and beautiful motion picture houses in the city. Built at a cost of over $500,000 it gives to the Northwest side an amusement house which is a credit to this populous and growing neighborhood. The Venetian theater is admirably named. Its architecture is of the Italian Renaissance period and its interior decorations bespeak the unsurpassing beauty of a summer night in ancient and romantic Venice.

Milwaukee’s newest theater is a tribute to the Universal Pictures, Inc., which owns it and the Milwaukee firms advertised on these pages, which had a part in its actual creation. It is a product of the combined efforts of expert craftsmen in stone, concrete, steel, lighting, ventilation and every other phase of the building art which is necessary to make up a complete, modern motion picture theater, which will give its patrons every comfort in a healthful and beautiful atmosphere.

The building is fireproof throughout. It is of the very newest de luxe type, with main floor and balcony seating 1600 persons. It has a 20 foot stage, permitting vaudeville performances and feature presentations in addition to the regular motion picture program.

The opalesque blue of a Venetian sky at dusk is represented on the arched ceiling and a special “cloud machine,” one of the few in the North-west, creates a soft cloud effect, while behind this screen of vapory light twinkling stars are created by still another device.

Along the walls are hung heavy wine-colored and blue drapes, that add an atmosphere of courtly splendor, and the walls are done in heavy panels, etched in gold. The auditorium itself is lighted by huge flood lamps, concealed in coves to give indirect reflecton and thus create a true night effect. Fresh air is drawn into the building by means of a special ventilating system, which also washes the air and changes it constantly.

Another feature of the theater is the inter- communicating telephone system which enables manager, projection machine operator, orchestra leader and ushers to keep in constant communication with one another.

In the basement will be two large rest rooms designed for the utmost comfort of patrons. The exterior of the building is done in buff terra cotta, making it one of the most beautiful buildings on the Northwest Side.

Over the sidewalk is suspended a huge canopy designed to offer adequate protection during inclement weather, and surrounding this is an electric sign which can be seen for blocks east and west along Center street.