Capitol Theatre
211 State Street,
Madison,
WI
53703
211 State Street,
Madison,
WI
53703
5 people
favorited this theater
The Capitol Theatre opened on 21st January 1928. It was first a Fox house, then later operated by RKO Stanley Warner.
In 1980 it became part of the Madison Civic Centre and was re-named Oscar Mayer theatre. It has now reverted back to its original name of ‘Capitol’.
Contributed by
Graeme McBain
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Recent comments (view all 25 comments)
I honestly don’t think it would have mattered. There really is nothing left of the Capitol Theatre anyhow. Heck, I had gone to the Civic Center for years before I found out that there was actually another theatre in that spot previous to it being the Civic Center! There was nothing to really indicate it was an old theatre, to be honest. I’ve not been in it since becoming the Overture but I’m guessing it looks even less so now.
That’s really about all that’s left of the Capitol Theatre…the facade.
Looks like an old theatre to me:
http://www.overturecenter.com/venuect.htm
Well, it sort of looks like an old theatre in the auditorium, but its not the old theatre. Its a new auditorium pretty much built to look like an old theatre based off the old theatre that was once there.
Its sad, but oh well, I guess it could have been worse, they could have gutted and gave it the bland look.
January 20th, 1928 ads can be seen at http://www.calameo.com/books/00024792860bd7f430cfd
I’ve been carrying around about 15 of the original wall torch lights from the theatre for about 35 years now. In fact i just installed one today… still works (with a bit of WD40 to get the connections apart!). Ralph Mathisen UW ‘69, '73, '79
I just saw this post. Ralph, is there any way you could post a picture of these wall torch lights? If not, could you e-mail me a pic?
In 1955, Ben Marcus bought the theatre. It had 2,250 seats. At that time, 2 stores occupied the first floor of the building. In 1956, he sold it to Stanley-Warner Theatres, which had been operating under a lease arrangement.
The Capitol is currently undergoing an exterior refurbishment. Matching bricks have been located from demolition sites, and now the search is on for the blade marquee. It was supposedly put into storage in the 70s, but no one seems to know where. It would be a nice complement to the new sign on the Orpheum Theatre across the street.
1939 photo added via Mike Mase Mason.