La Vogue Theatre

LouRugani on November 30, 2024 at 3:07 am

Even today, passersby along busy 52nd Street might imagine, if they squint a bit, the old Vogue Theatre alive again with several hundred school-age kids in line for a 1940s Saturday double-feature Western show, each clutching his or her ten-cent admission, and a harried staff struggling to keep up with the crush.

The Vogue Theatre was an unpretentious neighborhood theatre that never attempted to outdo the bigger, grander movie palaces downtown. It fulfilled its modest role in Kenosha’s entertainment scene until the change in national trends that sealed not only the Vogue’s late but that of thousands of similar neighborhood movie houses Across America.

In 1913, most movies were brief little novelties shown in converted storefronts with blackened windows and rows of benches seating perhaps 75 people, with a sheet for a screen. (One of the first of those in Kenosha was the Electric Theatre operated by Adolph Alfieri on north Seventh Avenue east of Union Park.) But in the early 20s the movies were eager for respectability, so real movie theatres were being built everywhere by recently-formed chains or by single entrepreneurs eager to cash in on America’s growing love for the ever-improving medium.

Walker Schlager ran several taverns in Kenosha with his wife Rose. But prohibition was on, and those who once sold or made liquor and beer were looking to invest in other ventures. (Racine’s Klinkert Brewery had just built the Butterfly (later Hollywood) Theatre in Kenosha at 4902 Seventh Avenue.)

In 1923, Kenosha’s operating film theatres included the Rhode Opera House, the new Orpheum, the Butterfly, the Burke (later Cameo) at 618 56th Street, the Majestic on Main Street, the Lincoln at 6923 14th Avenue, the Strand (later Norge, demolished 1982) at 5611 22nd Avenue, and the Columbia at 2220 63rd Street. (The Kenosha, Gateway and Roosevelt Theatres were still four years in the future.) But in a time when people were much less mobile and by far more apt to function mostly within their home neighbor hoods, Kenosha’s central city had no movie house of its own.

Schlager selected some long-vacant property at 1820 52nd Street and had well-known Kenosha architect Charles Augustine design a state-of-the-art theatre for the site. Augustine lived then with his wife Lillian at 7428 22nd Avenue; his designs include the Terrace Court Apartments, the West Branch Library, the old Barden Store and the Roosevelt Theatre.) Then Schlager signed on long-time contractor George Lindemann of 4724 Fifth Avenue to build his new Vogue Theatre.

Work continued throughout the summer of 1923 as passing motorists and passengers on the Grand Avenue line of the Kenosha Electric Railway monitored the theatre’s progress. The final touch was the installation of the vertical VOGUE sign, visible for over ten blocks in either direction, the clue the Vogue Theatre was ready, and in early September small teaser ads appeared in the papers. A full-page ad appeared at 6pm on the opening night of Saturday, September 15, 1923, at which manager Clarence Eschenberg welcomed present and future patrons with “This is your theatre.” Adult tickets were 25 cents and children paid a dime

The opening program was modest; the Kenosha premier of Ralph Ince’s horseracing yarn “Counterfeit Love,” an Our Gang comedy “The Cobbler, an Aesop’s Fables short subject, a Pathe Newsreel, and solos from the Vogue’s new two-manual Moller pipe organ which Schlager had obtained through the Salak Bros. Piano Co. of Racine.

Schlager announced that the Vogue was fully equipped for live stage acts, but that only films would play the theatre for the foreseeable future. (The Vogue’s lifelong policy of second, third and fourth-run films were indeed matched with occasional stage shows through the 1920s and into the ‘30s.)

No doubt there are people today who gaze at the long-silent theatre and imagine all sorts of architectural wonders within. But Charles Augustine had to work within a budget, and saved most of the ornament for the outer facade, most of which is still visible. The Vogue Theatre got a well-proportioned face-brick facade trimmed in cream terra cotta above colored Irish tiles at ground level in American neo-classic architectural style. Inside though, the economies were apparent - a tiny lobby leading to the auditorium, straight walls were relieved only by pilasters, panels of fabric, and shaded double-candle light sconces of plaster. The lower walls were trimmed to resemble stone. The decorator, Eugene Potente of 7302 14th Avenue selected shades of deep cream for the interior, so patrons would be “bathed in a sunshine glow.” The lofty ceiling gave a feeling of more spaciousness than there reallly was. Unusual cast-plaster ceiling fixtures were shaped like six-pointed stars with a bare bulb at each point and a large bulb in the center. They had to be relamped from the floor with an immensely long wooden pole.

Advertising puffery was common in the 1920s; a total of 650 seats were promised but photos show no more than 560 and of those, 52 were in a tiny balcony. The seats themselves had wooden backs and raiseable padded seat cushions, much like in junior high school auditoriums. It was a classic little theatre like thousands of others in American neighborhoods or in the downtowns of small towns - comfortable, plain but pleasant, with just enough ornament to avoid boredom. Still, when those odd bare-bulb overhead lights went out and the Vogue’s chain-driven arc projectors ground into life, some will argue that there was as much magic on that screen as in the classiest Times Square movie palaces.

For firstnighters on that inaugural Saturday evening a century ago, it would be the Vogue’s finest hour.

LouisRugani on October 19, 2009 at 3:54 pm

In 1940 the VOGUE’s original marquee was replaced with a streamlined art-moderne marquee (which remained until 1960), the vertical sign was removed, the interior was redecorated and “freshened”, and Nick Coston was appointed manager by lessee Standard Theatres of Milwaukee.

LouisRugani on October 9, 2009 at 6:52 pm

(April 10, 1941:)
Dies of Injuries from Hit-Run Crash
Milwaukeeâ€"(AP)â€" Kenneth Hagberg, 35, of Kenosha, died at the
county emergency hospital last night of injuries sustained early Tuesday when his automobile plunged off Highway 41 into a ditch near the county line.
Hagberg, who was a projectionist at the Kenosha Vogue theater, told
deputies another car sideswiped his and then fled the scene.

wigginsray on August 28, 2007 at 11:23 pm

I’d love to see some interior photos – I’ve only heard about La Vogue from older friends.

LouRugani on November 19, 2005 at 11:06 pm

The Vogue Theatre opened in September 1923 and was operated by local barkeep Walter Schlager. It hosted second-run films and live acts into the 1930s. A random search turned up an appearance by Patsy Montana. There was a two-manual Wicks organ. Local exhibitor Bill Exton (who also operated the Roosevelt and Hollywood Theaters) leased the Vogue, which was part of Milwaukee’s Standard Theatres chain in the 1940s. The last regular double-feature program there was on the night of Monday, December 15, 1951, with the outside temperature at fifteen below zero.

gabber303 on January 16, 2004 at 1:30 am

there were 650 seats(or so they say)-the architect was charles augustine-at times it was leased under the united theaters chain-the style of the interior was modest. floral print fabric walls, the lower part trimmed to resemble stone, a few upright pilasters, and double-candle light sconces of plaster with small shades. unfortunately, by the time it fell into my family’s hands nothing of the interior survived.

sdoerr on January 15, 2004 at 3:16 pm

So the correct name is La Vogue, not Vogue?

gabber303 on January 15, 2004 at 3:33 am

address is: denise diorio
la vogue theatre
1820 52nd street
kenosha, wi, 53140

sdoerr on January 14, 2004 at 8:07 pm

Thanks for the info, if you have any more info you would like to add, let me know.
Sean