Click on pictures for larger view.
For five days in June 1924, the Redpath Chautauqua vaudeville troupe performed, featuring the comedy drama "Give and Take" and the musical skit "Gretchen of Holland."
"A Womanless Wedding" This 1927 production featured an all male cast.
In the 1950’s, a full house of youngsters
wait for the
Saturday matinee to start. The theatre was struggling to
survive as a movie theatre against television's increasing popularity.
When television became the new entertainment of choice, the
theatre went into a gradual decline. It fell into disrepair with
intermittent owners, opening and closing repeatedly as financial
difficulties occurred.
In
the theatre house, the leaking roof resulted in falling plaster and
mildew. The orchestra pit had over six inches of water in
it!
A New Beginning in November, 1993…A grinning Fred Nelson stands before his newly acquired Temple Theatre building on Viroqua’s Main Street.
One of the first signs of restoration was the sandblasting and repair of the marquee in 1997.
Volunteers worked hard to make the theatre useable in time for Viroqua's Sesquicentennial Pageant. Half the seats were reupholstered and refinished, the lobby was repainted, and general cleaning helped to make the audience realize that the total restoration of the theatre was a real possibility. Chewing gum was scraped off the seats by the bucket-full, left over from the theatre's days as the local movie palace.
Temple Theatre History
The Temple, built in 1922, houses four separate entities. It is the core of the Masonic building in the center of the 100 block of Main Street in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Occupying the depth of a city block, the theatre had two businesses in the side sections and the Masonic Temple on the second floor. Decorated in the classical revival style, this elegant structure entertained the community with vaudeville shows, silent movies, musical productions, and civic events during the middle years of the twentieth century.
The Temple Theatre is a significant representative of the movie palace, a unique building type that developed in the early decades of the 20th century. The La Belle Masonic Lodge invested in this Classical Revival style combination business and temple after fire demolished the previous Masonic Temple in 1920. The theatre was built during the era when movie palaces featured live entertainment to make the silent movies a more theatrical experience. The theatre represents the social history of the community of Viroqua in that it replaced a storefront movie theatre as well as an old Opera House, becoming the center for community gatherings until the 1950's.
The building, designed by La Crosse architects Parkinson and Dockendorff, calls to mind the high-class Neo-classical facades of both vaudeville and legitimate theatres that were viewed as appropriate signs of good breeding and education. The original opulent interior, designed by the Oyen Interior Design Firm, was rooted in the historic European theatre interiors as well as the extravagantly ornate vaudeville theatres found in large American cities.
Oyen's classical revival designs are evidenced in the cornices, friezes and moldings of the ceiling and walls of the recessed vestibule, the lobby and the theatre house as well as around the arched stage opening and in the metal work of the organ grill. The original art glass globes still hang in the auditorium. The original back screen, with painted local advertisements, continues to hang at the rear of the stage. The originals screens on either side of the stage, the orchestra pit, as well as the stage machinery used in live productions and the scenery loft also still remain in the building. The original Wurlitzer organ that provided accompaniment to silent films has been re-purchased by ARTT and is currently being restored and will soon be used again.
The classical revival interior was modified to the Art Deco style a short 9 years after the theatre opened when "talkies" came to town. The quick make-over was thought to "modernize" the building to appeal to the movie-goers of the 30's. The Paramount-Publix movie theatre chain remodeled in one of the avant-garde styles of the period that was seen as the cutting edge of popular architecture. The decorating team added paneling, stylized columns, and modernistic designs featuring new colors including gold, black, and red. The theatre received an impressive modernistic marquee, the most important and distinctive identifying feature of any movie theatre. Today the theatre displays remnants of the Art Deco style in the restored marquee and the restored brass chandeliers that now hang in the new lower level lobby. However, the theatre house and the main lobby are now been restored to the original Classical Revival decor.
The upheaval of the depression years, in which both Paramount-Publix and La Belle Lodge suffered economic losses, saw the theatre returned to local management and control, serving as the movie theatre of choice for the residents of the surrounding rural communities. When television impacted on the movie industry throughout the United States, the Temple Theatre, like most small movies theatre, struggled to survive. It fell into disrepair with a series of owners, opening, closing, and reopening as financial difficulties occurred. The theatre closed for good and was in danger of being demolished to bereplaced by a parking lot. A group of community leaders, headed by Fred Nelson, envision the theatre as again becoming the focal point of Main Street and a financial asset to the community.
Fred purchased the building, sold the adjoining storefronts, and donated the center theatre section to the Vernon County Historical Society to undertake the restoration. The historical society, realizing that the project needed to be handled by a focused group of dedicated volunteers, deeded the theatre to the newly formed ARTT, Associates to Restore the Temple Theatre.
ARTT's mission, to restore the theatre to its original Classical Revival interior design, to remove the remnants of the Art Deco trim, and to bring the theatre into compliance with state and federal codes for public buildings, has been reached! Click on Grand Opening to view pictures of the July 5, 6 & 7, 2002 celebration. ARTT's Board of Directors voted to change ARTT's name to Associates of the Restored Temple Theatre, reflecting the successful restoration. The Temple Theatre has now assumed its place as a regional cultural and civic center for our surrounding rural communities.
The Temple is now the site for many live shows throughout the year. ARTT produces a yearly season series of five shows as well as joining forces with Viroqua's Wild West Days to produce a western show every July. During the rest of the year, local non-profit groups rent the theatre to sponsor a wide variety of shows as fund-raisers. In addition independent producers and professional performers on tour often rent the theatre. ARTT volunteers supervise, provide ushers, and lighting and sound technicians for all events held in the theatre. Click on Theatre Visitors to view some of the acts that have appeared on the Temple stage.