John Eberson
John Eberson (1875–1954) was an American architect best known for his movie palace designs in the atmospheric theatre fashion. (This source and many others give Eberson's year of death as 1964.)
Born in Czernowitz, Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Ukraine), Eberson went to highschool in Dresden and studied electrical engineering in Vienna. He arrived in the United States in 1901 and at first settled in St. Louis. There, while working for a construction company he designed his first theater, the Jewel, in Hamilton, Ohio. A year later found him living in Chicago, and in 1926 he made his final move, to New York City.
Eberson attained national, and even international acclaim for his atmospheric theatres, many of them executed in exotic revival styles, including Italian Renaissance, Moorish Revival and others. The first of these such theatres is considered to be the Orpheum in Wichita.[1] "He specialized in depicting outdoor settings with no formal walls and made the whole auditorium a gigantic stage set that enveloped the whole audience."[2]
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Works [edit]
Many of Eberson's later designs, some executed with his son Drew, were in the Art Deco style. In all Eberson designed close to 100 movie palaces, located in dozens of states in the United States, including:
- 1915: The Paramount Theatre (Austin, Texas), Austin, Texas
- 1920: Hippodrome Theater and Ballroom (2200 seats), 100 East Seventh Street, Okmulgee, Oklahoma (burned 1934)
- 1921: Orpheum Theater (2200 seats), 213 West Sheridan Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (razed 1964)
- 1921: The Majestic Theater (Dallas), Dallas Texas
- 1922: Orpheum, 200 North Broadway, Wichita, Kansas (Eberson's first atmospheric)
- 1922: Indiana Theatre, Terre Haute, Indiana
- 1923: Majestic Theater, Houston, Texas (Eberson's first fully atmospheric theater)
- 1924: Palace Theater, Gary, Indiana
- 1924: Orpheum Theater (1400 seats), 12 East Fourth Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma (razed 1971)
- 1926: Palace Theatre, Canton, Ohio
- 1926: Olympia Theater, Miami, Florida
- 1926: Tampa Theatre, Tampa, Florida; listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1978.[3]
- 1927: Riviera Theater, Omaha, Nebraska (now restored and renamed the Rose Theater).
- 1927: State Theater, Kalamazoo, Michigan
- 1927: Capitol Theatre, Flint, Michigan
- 1928: Embassy Theatre, Fort Wayne, Indiana
- 1928: The Louisville Palace, Louisville, Kentucky
- 1928: Uptown Theater, Kansas City, Missouri
- 1928: The Palace Theatre, Marion, Ohio
- 1929: Loew's Akron, Akron, Ohio, (now Akron Civic Theater)
- 1929: Loew's Paradise Theatre, The Bronx, New York, (one of the 5 Loew's Wonder Theaters, which were Loew's flagship theaters in the New York City area)
- 1929: Loew's Valencia Theater, Queens, New York, another of the 5 Loew's Wonder Theaters
- 1929: Paramount Theatre, Anderson, Indiana
- 1929: State Theatre (Sydney) with Henry Eli White
- 1929: Majestic Theatre, San Antonio, Texas
- 1931: The Warner Theatre, Morgantown, West Virginia
- 1931: Midwest Theatre (1700 seats), 16 North Harvey Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Eberson's last atmosheric, razed 1975)
- 1931: Palace Theatre, Albany, NY
- 1932: Le Grand Rex, Paris, France, as consulting architect to Auguste Bluysen[4]
- 1936: Dixie Theater, Staunton, VA
- 1938: Lakewood Theater (Dallas), Dallas, Texas
- 1938: Bethesda Theater, Bethesda, Maryland; listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1999.[3]
- 1938: Silver Theater, Silver Spring, Maryland
- 1938: Schines Auburn Theatre, Auburn, New York; listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 2000.[3]
- 1940: Oswego Theater, Oswego, New York; listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1988.[3]
- 1941: Norwalk Theatre, Norwalk, Ohio
- 1946: The Woodlawn Theatre, San Antonio, Texas
- 1950: Teatro Junin, Caracas, Venezuela
Others can be found in Mexico City, Mexico as well as in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.
A significant number of his around 500 buildings[5] have however been destroyed, as redevelopment and changing taste came to consider the style dated.
Gallery [edit]
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| Le Grand Rex, Paris France | Tampa Theatre, Tampa FL | The Louisville Palace, Louisville KY |
1924, Orpheum Theatre, Tulsa, OK 1924, Ritz Theatre, Tulsa, OK 1930, Midwest Theatre, Oklahoma City, OK
References [edit]
- ^ Wichita Orpheum History
- ^ Thorne, Ross (1976). Picture Palace Architecture in Australia. Sun Books Pty. Ltd. p. 24.
- ^ a b c d "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
- ^ White, Norval (1991). The Guide to the Architecture of Paris. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 169. ISBN 0-684-19293-4.
- ^ The Atmospheric Style of Theatre Design - Mendiola, Sister Christine, Master's Thesis, University of Akron, 1974
- Naylor, David, Great American Movie Theaters, The Preservation Press, Washington D.C., 1987
- Thorne, Ross, Picture Palace Architecture in Australia, Sun Books Pty. Ltd., South Melbourne, Australia, 1976
