Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center
2001 Farnam Street,
Omaha,
NE
68102
2001 Farnam Street,
Omaha,
NE
68102
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 47 comments found
Renovation plans described in this 1962 trade article: Boxoffice
Also uploaded the June 15th, 1962 grand opening ad as Astro
I have uploaded the grand opening ads for the Riviera from March 26th, 1927 and as Paramount on May 9th, 1929.
A photo I took of this Beautiful Theatre back in Nov of 2007.. View link ..
RAC Photography
Building looks real nice but the plastic marquee looks out of place.
The Astro Theatre opened in June, 1962, according to the June 25 issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The theater had been mostly dark since 1952, with the exception of a few stage shows and the brief period when it had housed Omaha’s professional bowling league. In March, 1962, the theater was leased from Creighton University by Dubinsky Bros. Theatres of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Dubinskys were responsible for the hasty remodeling. As the Astro the house seated 1465, reduced from the nearly 3000 it had previously held.
1978 Photo of the Astro Theatre.
View link
Another photo is here.
Times were tough during the Depression.
From the LA Times, 10/8/29:
THEATER ROBBED
OMAHA, Oct. 7 – Ten thousand dollars, the weekend receipts of the Paramount Theater, were taken from Glen McDaniel, assistant manager, at the point of a pistol early today. The robber compelled McDaniel to put the money in a sack and then fled in an automobile.
Here is a 2008 photo.
Here is a 2008 photo.
A photo of the Riviera Theater can be seen here. Date given for photo is April of 1927. Use the rotate button on the Acrobat Reader toolbar to turn the photo.
This is another photo of the Rose Blumkin.
Here is a recent photo of the Rose Blumkin.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974
Astro Theater ** (added 1974 – Building – #74001108)
Also known as Riviera Theater
2001 Farnam St., Omaha
Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Unknown
Architectural Style: Exotic Revival, Other, Classical Revival
Area of Significance: Architecture, Social History
Period of Significance: 1925-1949
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Theater
Current Function: Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function: Theater
Thanks for the information and I’ll take a closer look at where the impressive vertical marquee once was attached.
The mosaic floors in the former lounges and in the lobby have all been restored. I heard that a vertical marquee had been in the original plans for the renovation, but it was not done, I believe because of cost. If you look closely, you can still see the places along the corner of the building’s exterior where the vertical marquee was attached. The original vertical marquee starred in a 1927 newspaper ad advertising the power of the electric sign to draw customers to one’s business. At the time, lighted signs were rare, and businesspeople actually had to be persuaded to add one! The ad appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, and possibly also the Omaha Bee, which is now defunct.
I just viewed the Nov.28,03 b/w photo that shows the original wrap around marquee and the vertical RIVIERA sign…wish it could look like that today as those vertical signs were most impressive and when lighted at night it would have been an awesome sight. At the Shea’s in Buffalo a reproduction vertical sign that reads BUFFALO has returned to its rightful place and I marvel at that sign each time I walk towards the theatre doors. I’m looking for an interior photo(s) now.
And it’s such a shame that the worker of whom you speak did not live to see the restoration of them for the reopening gala. Thank goodness he had the forethought to not destroy them, but to simply hide them. And “the mosaic floors of the ladies' and gentlemen’s lounges were covered in brightly-colored shag carpeting” is such a shame! Was the shag carpeting taken up in later years to expose the mosaic flooring? I hope so.
PleaseTurnOffStars: What a wonderful story about a wonderful lady named Rose who had a love for theatre and that love helped to save THIS theatre. Thank you Rose and I now stand and applaud you.
During the Depression, Rose Blumkin’s five-year-old daughter Frances won a five-dollar gold piece singing and dancing to the song “Am I Blue” in a talent show at the theater. This memory inspired Rose Blumkin to buy the theater for $200,000 in 1981, shortly after the Astro closed. The site was being considered for a new Federal Reserve building, but Mrs. Blumkin wanted to save the building. She held on to it for several years, waiting for a workable proposal for its use. Plans for a shopping center and nightclub fell through. The children’s museum and a historical museum considered moving in, but any plans they had also failed. When the children’s theater announced a fundraising campaign to buy the theater, Mrs. Blumkin donated the building and threw in the first $1 million toward the $9 million renovation. She was present at the grand reopening in November, 1995, as was the original five-dollar gold piece Frances had won. Frances repeated her talent-show act at the reopening gala, accompanied on ukulele by Warren Buffet, and received a standing ovation.
Speaking of what was done to these buildings…I had the intriguing experience of touring this theater pre-renovation. In the process of making this the Astro, the then-proprietors felt it necessary to “modernize” the theater. Mustard-colored draperies covered the alcoves on either side of the auditorium. The mosaic floors of the ladies' and gentlemen’s lounges were covered in brightly-colored shag carpeting. Most of the original gingerbread was removed, and the decorative upper corners of the proscenium were demolished to provide a better fit for the movie screen. One worker, ordered to destroy the statuary in the auditorium alcoves, instead hid them in the stalls of the ladies' restroom in the basement. (This is still, by the way, the current ladies' room.) Because the basement was not used during the Astro days, the statues were not discovered until years after the Astro closed, when the worker shared his secret. The savior of the statues, unfortunately, did not live to see the statues replaced in the alcoves when the theater was restored.
What a pity that the photo attached to this theater’s profile has to feature that horrid, mismatched “vintage” marquee. It is only vintage in that it represents a time in our architectural evolution when no thought or consideration was given to the historic nature of the building and the period, flavor or design that the architect intended. Why would anyone slap such an ill-matched marquee style onto a beautiful period building? It was done all the time – but how sad to look back at what was done to these buildings in the name of “modernization”!
The night photo of the Rose Theater is beautiful. I have neighbors whose daughter and family recently moved to Omaha so I will certainly tell them about the Rose and the Orpheum theatres. And the Rose has the Eberson connection!