Lyric Theatre

I worked at the Lyric Theatre from 1968 to 1970 as both an usher and later as a floor manager. Friday and Saturday night crowds waiting for an evening performance would often line up against the buildings heading towards Eighth Street and, at times, the line would reach all the way down to Eighth. As an usher I would often be called upon to wear the doorman coat and cap and shout out information to the crowds as well as ensuring that the line being formed would keep in order.
Some of the movies I remember are: Wait Until Dark, The Love Bug, The Green Beret Which was controversial because of the Vietnam War, and the Devils Brigade.
Both the Lyric Theatre and the State Theatre were owned and operated by the same mother company. Whenever we ran short of ice we would grab a cooler and hustle over to the State Theatre to pick up an ample supply to meet the evening needs.
An interesting thing about the Lyric was that there was a tunnel which ran the full distance of the theatre under the auditorium. The tunnel began off of the deep sink room which was at the bottom of the steps leading to the Men’s Room on the left side of the lobby as you might approach the candy counter. The Women’s restroom was down the stairs to the right.
There was a stage which was covered by the projection screen. It was quite interesting to stand on the stage during a movie and seeing the projected movie from the back side.
The female employee dressing room was located in the lower level near the Ladies' restroom/powder room area. The usher’s dressing room was located at the rear of the balcony across from the entrance to the projection room. Near the usher’s dressing room was the ladder leading to the roof access hatch.
The Manager’s Office was located on the lower level on the Men’s Room side and was located at the end of the hallway. Next to the Manager’s Office door was a door which lead to a workshop used by the maintenance man.
Stairs on both the right and left side of the lobby led up to the balcony. A storage room on the right stairway where the stairway took a 90 degree turn before leading up to the balcony was used to store extra popcorn, candy, etc.
There was an outer lobby with a full line of glass doors along Hennepin Avenue, an inner lobby which was just past the point where the ushers took tickets, and the lobby surrounding the candy counter and gave access to the two double doors leading into the lower level of the seating area.
To the left of the ticket cashier’s office [Hennepin Avenue] was a set of double doors used for exiting the theatre. Another set of double doors led off from the right side of the building and came down a slight ramp to the Hennepin Avenue sidewalk.
I hope that the above helps to paint somewhat of a picture to bring back into the memory of some concerning the Lyric Theatre during the end of the 60’s.
The architecture, the decor, the marquees, the red carpets, the uniformed ushers, and all the rest that made up the experience of attending a theatre made the experience a splendid memory. Today, with the multi-screen theatres, cable TV, and DVDs, the theatre of old is something to be held as a true treasure.

My grandfather was the projectionist at the Lyric Theatre until his death in 1963. I know he was a projectionist before his marriage in 1919, so it’s possible he was there since the beginning. He always referred to the theatre as the “Handsome Lyric”.
When he died, he had been napping, prior to going to work that night. When my grandmother found him, she called my father, also an operator, and he called the business agent, then raced to the theatre to get the show on the screen. The BA quickly found someone to cover that night’s shift, allowing my dad to get back to his family. Although that might seem odd today, the projectionists of their day took an enormous amount of pride in their work, and took their responsibilities very seriously. They truly believed that “the show must go on”.
A previous poster wondered if there was a roof garden in the early 20’s. A photo of my grandfather and another operator shows that to be very unlikely. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtmanning/5425674943/

Great vintage photo Mary T.Thanks for posting it,love those 20 minute reels.

An item in the September 13, 1919, issue of The American Contractor said that a new moving picture theater was to be built on Hennepin Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets in Minneapolis for the Blue Mouse Theater Corporation. The surprising thing is that the theater was being designed not by one of the well-known theater architects in the Great Lakes area, but by Harry Lawrie, whose office was in Omaha. Though Lawrie’s firm, Fisher & Lawrie (dissolved in 1913,) apparently designed the original Creighton Theatre in Omaha, and he drew plans for an Omaha house called the Princess Theatre in 1916, he was not known as a theater architect.

Itswagon — I believe your quote applies to the original Lyric theatre (http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7210), which was across the street from this namesake.