Personally, I've seen shows there ranging from DEVO to Neil deGrasse Tyson to the Broadway tour of "Smokey Joe's Cafe" in this magical space. Once a month, they give free tours of the theater, and Saturday, we were among a crowd of about four dozen, eager to learn more about the beautiful landmark.
Originally designed as a silent movie "palace," the theater is part of an eight-story commercial building.
As we were standing in the first lobby, waiting for the tour to start, we marveled at the marble on the wall in front of us.
See the white veined stuff above? Well, it's actually scagliola, a form of plaster made to imitate decorative stone. The composite substance is made from selenite, glue and natural pigments, imitating marble and other hard stones.
The tour guide told us that these days, it would actually be cheaper to use real marble than pay artisans to mimic it.
Worth nothing: While the off white stuff isn't marble, the gray stuff at the side of each stair and the dark stuff around the archway *is* marble.
I'll let CJ and Annabelle tell you a bit more about the tour, Annabelle first.
On 2/7/15 I went through a tour of Paramount Theater in Seattle, where they feature plays, silent movies, and even bands! At the start of the tour we learned how the founder, Adolph Zukor, made the theater we know today, such as hiring two brothers Cornelius W. and George Rapp to build the theater. A fun fact we learned was that most of the marble was not actually marble, but instead scagliola hand-painted to seem as though it was marble.
Next we moved on to the main theater, where the stage was. An interesting note was that the chairs could be moved under the floor to accommodate an orchestra of 50+!
We even got to take a look at the flyrails, which can hold many, many scenes and settings for a play or a screen for a movie! Under the stage was a room with trapdoors and refreshments, where the actors would relax before the play. There was also an organ that was being worked on by the volunteers.
Upstairs there were also dressing rooms and the Ernest E Anderson room. You could walk through a door and see the stage and flyrails from above! The dressing room was not as fancy as you might think it would be though. Overall the tour was fun and I learned a lot. The theater certainly has an interesting history! I would definitely recommend the tour to anyone who has not been to the theater before.And here's CJ's take ...
On January 7th, I went to the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, where I took a tour of the theater and learned more about its history since its construction in 1928.
At the start of the tour, we were greeted by a volunteer who introduced us by paraphrasing a newspaper headline from 1928. The volunteer told us that the architects wanted the theatre to look like a French Baroque building (specifically, the Palace of Versailles), and that the "marble" that was on the walls and pillars was actually made using the Scagliola technique of creation of structures that made the material that the structure was made out of appear to be marble but actually *not* being marble.
Afterward, we were taken to the actual theater room, where apparently the seats in the bottom of the theater had been removed for the performance of a band that was playing that night named "The Devil Makes Three". Afterwards, we were taken on the stage (the first time I had been there in at least five years, the last time having been a costume contest prior to a Video Games Live show), where we got to see the sides of the stage, which had several ropes.
And we were actually taken to the area underneath the stage, where we saw the bottom of some trapdoors and the console on a theater organ, which was apparently part of one of the last of the handful of theater organs still in existence, and we were also told that they were restoring the organ (part of which would be replacing some of the almost-90-year old leather in in that was rotting away).
Afterwards, we climbed up some flights of stairs to see the dressing rooms, which were pretty nice and complete with couches and bathrooms, but afterwards, we got to see the Ernestine Anderson room, a luxury box that was kind of like a premium hotel room, complete with things like cupboards, a sink, a bathroom, and I even think an oven.
Afterwards, we went back to the theater and were told about the fake illumination used on some of the glass (by putting trace amounts of fake gold in the center), and the earthquake that was responsible for some damage to the theater a while back. At the very end of the tour, we were presented with a "reproducing piano", a piano where you could insert a sheet of paper with holes inside that would play music using the paper and where the holes were. Overall, I found the tour of Seattle's Paramount Theatre very interesting.
The tour was fabulous. The building is so historic, and standing on the stage, I couldn't help but think of all the footsteps we were standing in - everyone from Tony Bennett to Kurt Cobain.
For me, the chandeliers were the shining stars of the tour.
Photos don't to do them justice. It's impossible to show their size with no frame of reference item alongside.
We were told these ones up front are valued at $3 million plus, and weight 1500 pounds or so apiece. They were built so that they could be cranked down to the floor for cleaning, by the way. Super interesting.
The various volunteers described the architecture and decor in at least three different ways/periods, but I have to think baroque is in the name of the correct one. I mean, yowza, look at this. :)
Symmetry was clearly important in the aesthetic. The balconies here are false, mirrored by true ones on the theater side of the building.
Check out this cool zodiac-themed fixture.
This photo of the kids, taken from the stage, helps a little,
We also got to peek at the 'chickenwire' and cementious mixture that formed the dome and the other curved interiors of the theater. It's certainly prettier from the finished side!
While making our way down the stairs backstage, we got to see dozens upon dozens of playbills signed by touring casts.
Once down in the 'basement,' we had the pleasure of meeting a super cool guy named Phil who is a volunteer who works on the theater's amazing old Wurlitzer organ.
Phis is a member of the Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society - a volunteer organization of self taught people who work on maintaining these gems of days gone by. He made an earnest appeal for volunteers. I have more than half a mind to give him a call.
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES: Christian and I figure we have a backlog of about 15 or so years of good movies to watch. We're probably not ever going to catch up, but Saturday night we checked one off the list, screening "Galaxy Quest" for the kids.
I remember seeing ads for this movie in 1999 and thinking it looked TERRIBLE. What's funny is it was a box office bomb, but found a decent afterlife. In retrospect, I think it probably was torpedoed by its terrible PR out of the gate.
For me, the chandeliers were the shining stars of the tour.
Symmetry was clearly important in the aesthetic. The balconies here are false, mirrored by true ones on the theater side of the building.
Did I mention the lights were pretty? A couple years ago, they were retrofitted with LEDs, saving the theater thousands of dollars a year.
The top of the theater has an ornate dome, done up with fancy plaster and painting techniques. Again, this photo completely fails to give context/size.
Major domo!
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES: Christian and I figure we have a backlog of about 15 or so years of good movies to watch. We're probably not ever going to catch up, but Saturday night we checked one off the list, screening "Galaxy Quest" for the kids.
I remember seeing ads for this movie in 1999 and thinking it looked TERRIBLE. What's funny is it was a box office bomb, but found a decent afterlife. In retrospect, I think it probably was torpedoed by its terrible PR out of the gate.
It's the story of actors from a Star Trek like show who are called upon to save the lives of aliens who think the actors are the Real Deal.
If you want a real blast from the past, check out this archived fan page for the movie from the 1990s!
http://web.archive.org/web/20000819162953/http://www.galaxyquest.com/galaxyquest/
WAYBACK MACHINE: On this day in 1984, astronaut Bruce McCandless was further away from the safety of human confines than any anyone, ever.
Stunning.
LAUNCH WATCH: Tomorrow, at a few minutes after 3 p.m. Pacific Coast time, SpaceX will be looking to launch a rocket on its deepest space mission to date.
On board is "Gore Sat," a climate watching satellite named after former US VP Al Gore. Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) is an observational mission which will offer a constant view of the Earth with the hemisphere facing the satellite fully illuminated by the sun as Earth rotates (think a continuous "Big Blue Marble" view!).
Check out the Scientific American article, authored by Al Gore, about the mission here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/al-gore-weighs-in-on-sunday-s-long-delayed-earth-observatory-launch/?WT.mc_id=SA_Facebook
the chandeliers are magnificent. I don't remember that theatre as being so spectacular, probably because 60 or 70 years ago all those downtown theatres looked like that. (Except the "Garden Theatre" across 3rd from The Bon Marche.)
ReplyDeleteThe theater had a $35 million face lift a few years ago, which included cleaning every crystal on every chandelier. The work was done mostly by
Deletevolunteers.