Brian – so sorry I missed you! I will be around the theater today at about noon – perhaps you can come by? I will also be around next week most days as well- I know you still want to get in the electrical room and see the plaster lady. I still have some facade work that will occur over the next few weeks, and would love to see the photos you have before I finalize. Thanks! Tracy
Thanks for your feedback, Brian. There are a couple of points I would like to clarify. I am not sure what “ribbon” you mean, but it is my understanding have researched this that we have detailed it to the 30s look. The underside of the canopy is again a recreation of the 30s look. From all photos I saw the Essaness lettering did not look neonized, so we did not include neon in the Victory Gardens lettering. The lettering boards are an exact replica of the original lettering boards and use black channel letters that hook onto the sign. White letters would not show against the white background. No letters have been put up yet, as they arrived at the site approximately an hour ago. The areas that you refer to as gray texturized cement are not yet complete, so the current look does not relfect the finished look. The final look will be a black cement plaster with a high gloss finish, and yes, the poster cases are going back up. I don’t know where you saw the green pulsichrome terra cotta, there certainly was no evidence of it existing when we removed the metal panels that had been added in the eighties, and as we only have black and white photos available from that time, we can’t really speculate whether it may have been green at some point. Hope this helps!
Well as it turned out there was only ever on front face of the marquee, it was just painted over again and again. The sides and bottom were basically added onto twice, and punched through to get to the electrical feed. Those seem to have been recreated pretty close to what was there before, looking the same, but making the marquee wider and lower. The interior was very badly damaged from years of faulty roof drainage running through it. There was quite a lot of rust and it was structurally unsound. Interestingly, it was not actually attached to the building. It was mainly held up by the cables from above and the whole marquee slid into a pocket in the face of the building and just rested there.
The statue is in the electrical room in the south east corner of the building. We did not have a certificate of occupancy for that portion of the building, so you couldn’t get to it. It will not be in a public area, but I could walk you through if you’d like. And yes, that is the same area as the photos.
Sorry to have missed you Saturday, I was there from 3:30 on.
It is true that the interior has been completely redone and those features are gone (except for the two pieces Brian refers to above – the terra cotta statue he refers to is the last link he included in his comment, the lady with the shield – it is still in it’s original location. The facade is a different story – we are working to restore it in a historically accurate manner to the 1930s look. We are replacing the black tile that was added in the eighties with storefront as it originally was. The rest will be cleaned and repaired as needed to get us back to that 30s look.
I would love to see the photos! Early photos of the Biograph are very hard to come by and they would be most useful. As to your earlier questions about the second level – that space is in a separate building, and the two theories I have heard are that there was a ballroom or a pool hall up there. There will be a rehearsal room now and there is a studio theater to be built in a future project. Glad to see you’re being careful. Unfortunately this is a union project, so we cannot use volunteer labor. Please shoot me an email with the pics when you get a chance. Thanks!
The plaster pieces you refer to were from the auditorium, not the lobby and I was responding to your comment about the lobby. Much of the plaster like what you pulled from the dumpster had water damage, and more of it was damaged in earlier renovations. They did try to salvage it by prying it off the wall, but the pieces literally pulverized in the effort. (Please note – the debris in a dumpster is very unstable and it can be quite dangerous to dig around in one). I don’t know about the Biograph over the door – are you referring to the faux deco lettering that was added in the 80s? The renderings that you mention are conceptual sketches only and do not represent a completed design. Hope this helps!
There was very little in the lobby to preserve. That area of the theater had no detailed plaster work of any kind. There was one small wood section that had some painted detail, and a short run of carved wood that appears to have had lights in it at one time, but other than that, it was pretty much concrete and ductwork. The original bricks on the walls will be exposed and cleaned, it should be a nice restoration from the current drywall.
Brian – so sorry I missed you! I will be around the theater today at about noon – perhaps you can come by? I will also be around next week most days as well- I know you still want to get in the electrical room and see the plaster lady. I still have some facade work that will occur over the next few weeks, and would love to see the photos you have before I finalize. Thanks! Tracy
Thanks for your feedback, Brian. There are a couple of points I would like to clarify. I am not sure what “ribbon” you mean, but it is my understanding have researched this that we have detailed it to the 30s look. The underside of the canopy is again a recreation of the 30s look. From all photos I saw the Essaness lettering did not look neonized, so we did not include neon in the Victory Gardens lettering. The lettering boards are an exact replica of the original lettering boards and use black channel letters that hook onto the sign. White letters would not show against the white background. No letters have been put up yet, as they arrived at the site approximately an hour ago. The areas that you refer to as gray texturized cement are not yet complete, so the current look does not relfect the finished look. The final look will be a black cement plaster with a high gloss finish, and yes, the poster cases are going back up. I don’t know where you saw the green pulsichrome terra cotta, there certainly was no evidence of it existing when we removed the metal panels that had been added in the eighties, and as we only have black and white photos available from that time, we can’t really speculate whether it may have been green at some point. Hope this helps!
Well as it turned out there was only ever on front face of the marquee, it was just painted over again and again. The sides and bottom were basically added onto twice, and punched through to get to the electrical feed. Those seem to have been recreated pretty close to what was there before, looking the same, but making the marquee wider and lower. The interior was very badly damaged from years of faulty roof drainage running through it. There was quite a lot of rust and it was structurally unsound. Interestingly, it was not actually attached to the building. It was mainly held up by the cables from above and the whole marquee slid into a pocket in the face of the building and just rested there.
The statue is in the electrical room in the south east corner of the building. We did not have a certificate of occupancy for that portion of the building, so you couldn’t get to it. It will not be in a public area, but I could walk you through if you’d like. And yes, that is the same area as the photos.
Sorry to have missed you Saturday, I was there from 3:30 on.
It is true that the interior has been completely redone and those features are gone (except for the two pieces Brian refers to above – the terra cotta statue he refers to is the last link he included in his comment, the lady with the shield – it is still in it’s original location. The facade is a different story – we are working to restore it in a historically accurate manner to the 1930s look. We are replacing the black tile that was added in the eighties with storefront as it originally was. The rest will be cleaned and repaired as needed to get us back to that 30s look.
I would love to see the photos! Early photos of the Biograph are very hard to come by and they would be most useful. As to your earlier questions about the second level – that space is in a separate building, and the two theories I have heard are that there was a ballroom or a pool hall up there. There will be a rehearsal room now and there is a studio theater to be built in a future project. Glad to see you’re being careful. Unfortunately this is a union project, so we cannot use volunteer labor. Please shoot me an email with the pics when you get a chance. Thanks!
The plaster pieces you refer to were from the auditorium, not the lobby and I was responding to your comment about the lobby. Much of the plaster like what you pulled from the dumpster had water damage, and more of it was damaged in earlier renovations. They did try to salvage it by prying it off the wall, but the pieces literally pulverized in the effort. (Please note – the debris in a dumpster is very unstable and it can be quite dangerous to dig around in one). I don’t know about the Biograph over the door – are you referring to the faux deco lettering that was added in the 80s? The renderings that you mention are conceptual sketches only and do not represent a completed design. Hope this helps!
There was very little in the lobby to preserve. That area of the theater had no detailed plaster work of any kind. There was one small wood section that had some painted detail, and a short run of carved wood that appears to have had lights in it at one time, but other than that, it was pretty much concrete and ductwork. The original bricks on the walls will be exposed and cleaned, it should be a nice restoration from the current drywall.