Babcock Theatre
2812 2nd Avenue North,
Billings,
MT
59101
2812 2nd Avenue North,
Billings,
MT
59101
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This theatre is one of some 200 that could be described as “Skouras-ized For Showmanship” which is the title of the ANNUAL of 1987 of the Theatre Historical Soc. of America. In the late-1930’s through the 1950’s, there occurred on the west coast of the United States a phenomenon known as the ‘Skouras style’ in recognition of the oversight of the Skouras brothers in their management of several cinema chains. They employed a designer by the name of Carl G. Moeller to render their cinemas/theatres in a new style best described as ‘Art Moderne meets Streamlined.’ The then new availability of aluminum sheeting at low cost was the principal material difference to this style allowing for sweeping, 3-dimensional shapes of scrolls to adorn walls and facades in an expression that would have been much more expensive and not at all the same in plaster. With the use of hand tinted and etched aluminum forms, the designers could make ornaments in mass production that allowed much greater economies of scale. The ANNUAL also show in its 44 pages how some 20 theatres were good examples of this combining of aluminum forms with sweeping draperies heavily hung with large tassels, and with box offices and facades richly treated with neon within the aluminum forms. Few of these examples survive today, but it was a glorious era while it lasted, and this collection of crisp b/w photos is a fitting epitaph by the late Preston Kaufmann.
Contributed by
Jim Rankin
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Recent comments (view all 18 comments)
Thursday Night Fights are still going on at the Babcock. Status should be open. Function would be…live performances?
1986 photo of the Babcock Theatre.
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Here is the Babcock Theater in 2008.
The Babcock Theater had 975 seats in 1955.
This was the Babcock in 1980.
Here is another 1986 photo.
The Anaconda Standard ran a small story on June 10, 1907 saying that articles of incorporation for the Babcock Theatre Building had been filed. Among the six shareholders in the $150,000 venture were A.L. Babcock and Louis C. Babcock. The Billings Gazette said in 2007 that the Babcock opened on December 23, 1907 with a stage play. The theater, designed by architect, Edwin W. Houghton, had two balconies, and 15 dressing rooms. The Gazette noted in 1927 that previously there was an original Babcock Theatre at 2517 Montana Avenue that had been destroyed by fire in 1906.
On January 16, 1927, the front page of the Gazette had the following headline: “Babcock Theater Building Changes Hands.†The Babcocks had sold the building to Hyme Lipsker, a local merchant for a quarter of a million dollars. Improvements to the theater building costing $90,000 were planned to the building, whose foundation was built for six stories. Seating was to be increased by one third and a projection booth was to be built on the roof. After being closed for much of the summer, the new Babcock opened on September 24, 1927, and the Gazette described the new Spanish Colonial, 1,200-seat palace in glowing terms. The Ben Shearer studio of Seattle was responsible for the interior design. Shearer, a former resident of Billings, was noted for his work on the Hollywood and Baghdad theaters in Portland.
On February 21, 1935, a fire evidently caused by a match dropped in an air space under the stage during a boxing match gutted the interior. Because of a firewall, the damage was limited to the auditorium and not the other 16 businesses or apartments in the building. Mr. Lipsker, who owned the theater and leased it to Fox West Coast, said the building was worth $350,000 and the fire damage was later estimated at nearly $52,000. The reconstructed Babcock, reduced to nearly 1,000 seats, reopened on August 6, 1935, with an interior design by A.B. Heinsberger. “Front Page Woman,†starring Bette Davis and George Brent was the opening attraction. The Gazette said in 2009, that it was previously thought that the upper balcony was removed in this reconstruction but evidence was found in old architectural drawings that it was removed during the 1927 remodeling. Fireproof features added after the fire included a sprinkler system and a concrete slab under the stage and a laminated roof that had a fire-testing capacity of several hours.
In 1955 it underwent a $130,000 remodeling and redecoration with screen, lighting and other technical changes. The Babcock was only closed for nine days and reopened on June 29 with 923 seats. Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in “Daddy Long Legs,†was the premiere attraction.
It was being run by Carmike Theaters in 1991 when it closed down. In 2008 the Babcock LLC group purchased the property and plan to restore it, with aspirations to add it to the National Register of Historic Places. $4 million would be the estimate to turn the 760-seat theater into a performing arts center of which the City would contribute $1.9 million. The theater currently hosts Thursday night boxing matches.
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2006 photo of the Basbcock Theatre courtesy of Tom Spaulding.
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This is another photo of the Babcock.
The PSTOS has some old photos of the Babcock Theater.
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