Andalus Theater

never heard of it!

The Film Daily Yearbook for 1941 gives a seating capacity of 1,600. The F.D.Y 1950 gives a seating capacity of 752.

The Andalus Theater may have been our only atmospheric theater, I say may have been because I was only in the Andalus theater long after the church ceased to function there. The City had it on the sale block an our ATOS -OVC was looking for a new home for its 1927 Albee Th. Wurlitzer Organ which had been used for 20 years at the now closed Emery Theater. The entrance lobby was a moorish wow with a musicians balcony perched above the enterance doors to the orchestra seating. The Church had converted the stage to a baptismal pool for their service needs. The house was still in rather good shape when it was torn down ,however there was some roof water damage and a bit of falling plaster. The outer lobby still retained one of two Moorish 5 foot tall vases which had graced each side of the stage. Side walls of the inner house carried latticed screened areas giving the venue a trully Casbar feel. I write something further when i re-look at an interior shot of the place.

The interior of the Andalus auditorium had a balcony with side level exit halls that had open Moorish arches which looked down upon the orchestra seating. These open framed hallways probably led to stairways which led to exterior fire escapes. The ceiling was divided by shallow scalloped arch vaults which also had indented cove areas which may have had interior lighting. The procenium opening was square and carried a dark pelmet drape with a travelor of the same shade and a golden colored tassel fringe at the bottom. The side walls which flanked the stage have identical vaulted openings filled in with latticed mesh that may have been organ screens, but I'm not sure if the Andalus ever installed a house instrument. The paint color of the interior is not possible to dissern from the black&white photo. Two staircases lead up to the performing stage and a second curtain on the stage is fully closed, it is probably a second house travelor.

This was another of the local theaters that Louis Wiethe bought in 1943 to add to his chain.

Sadly this former theater site sits as a vacant lot awaiting the proposed building of the St. Bernard library branch which seems to be frozen in the current economic stagnation.

Theatre opened on 4 April 1931 and closed in 1958 according to THSA Archives and the architects were Paul H Jones and Clifford Clayton.

Hello atmos, Thanks for the architects names who created this venue .I've been looking for info about them, but all I found was Mr. Clayton's obit.He died in Oct.19,1949 at aged 63,he'd been born in Cincinnati,Ohio.and for the most part specialized in designing private homes.