Wayzata Theater
619 Lake Street East,
Wayzata,
MN
55391
619 Lake Street East,
Wayzata,
MN
55391
1 person
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The Wayzata Theater was opened in 1932, located on Lake Street and designed by the firm of Liebenberg & Kaplan in an Art Deco style. A highlight of the theater was its large, stylized sunburst style marquee. The Wayzata Theater orignally seated 500, but was reduced to 250 by the mid-1940s.
The theater was remodeled in the mid-1970’s, including new rocker-style seating. The Wayzata Theater closed in the 1980’s, and was converted over to retail use, but its great old marquee was retained and restored.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Here is a photo of the Wayzata Theater’s exterior from the Wayzata Historical Society’s website. The Historical Society places it in its “scrapbook” section from the 60s, but the film shown on the marquee, “The Joker is Wild”, which starred Frank Sinatra, originally came out in 1957.
A nice close-up of the Wayzata’s restored marquee:
http://www.agilitynut.com/08/8/wayzata.jpg
great picture of the theatre and the color picture is very nice for CT.thanks Bryan and northstar16.
My cousin lived in Wayzata for a couple of years in the early 1980s and went to this theatre somewhat regularly. He said that at the time the Wayzata name on the marquee lit up as did the bulbs on the soffit, but none of the decorative bulbs on the face of the marquee lit up. He also said there wasn’t much to see on the inside—I think it was all draped or painted over. I seem to recall him mentioning some ventilation grilles featuring some kind of Deco pattern, but that was all. It would be interesting if anyone else has memories of any kind of decorative scheme on the interior. I didn’t see the theatre myself until after its virtual demolition and the restoration of the original marquee on the new construction. I saw it in 2000.