THE SAENGER REVISTED

A small boy stood on tiptoes to reach the counter, plopped down his dollar and snatched his ticket. He stepped through the portal, climbed the back stairs, and found a folding chair made of wood way back in a section of the balcony.

He examined the huge columns on each side of the stage. They reminded him of spicy, red twisted licorice down at the five and dime store. he studied the glittering chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling as the organist began to play.

He glanced over the program.

Saenger Theatre
Opening Performance
April 2, 1925

The orchestra opened with '"The Star Spangled Banner." The senior pupils of Miss Kehoe's Aesthetics Dancing Class performed the "Dance of Old Seville." After a solo by Miss Agnes Neudorff, the feature film- Cecil B. De Mille's "The Ten Commandments"- started.

She has been called the "Grand Dame of Palafox Place." When she opened in 1925, vaudeville was in full swing. Weekly productions included road shows, Broadway plays, silent movies on the silver screen, and singing and dancing by local entertainers.

The Theatre was constructed on the site of the old Pensacola Opera House which a hurricane demolished in 1916. Building materials for the Saenger were scavenged from the rubble of the Opera House, including the balcony's railing. More than eight pounds of silver dust were incorporated into the coatings on the stage's silver screen. The colossal twisted columns bordering the stage area were grooved out by the sculptor's own elbow in the wet plaster.
Unfortunately for the "Grand Dame," vaudeville peaked and died in the next few years. When the era of sound motion pictures came to town, the era of vaudeville left and the Theatre's main emphasis changed from the live shows and theatrical productions to two-dimensional projected images.

By 1940, the Saenger was strictly a movie house and during World War II ran 24 hours a day. Box seats located on either side of the stage were ripped away for better viewing of wide-screen movies.

In 1960, a wall that separated wooden benches in a back section of the theatre was torn down because patrons were purchasing tickets to this reduced-rate section and then vaulting the wall for access to more desirable seats. During its first decades of use, that section had been known as the "colored people's balcony."

By the mid 1960's, the Theatre had taken on the reputation of an adult-movie house. Then in 1975- the seats faded and ripped, light fixtures outdated, and paint chipping from the walls- the old Theatre, in a state of total disrepair, was bolted shut.

Fortunately for Pensacolians, the Saenger Theatre did not remain permanently in that state. The Theatre was donated to the city of Pensacola and- through a joint effort by the University of West Florida which donated $500,000 toward its restoration, and the city of Pensacola-the theatre was restored and returned to its standing as a cultural center for the performing arts.

Many if its original trappings were restored including the re-creation of the ticket booth and box seats in their original style. The total ambiance of the structure was intensified by a major facelift. The Theatre's seats were reupholstered, and original light fixtures were repaired and rewired. Then it was totally repainted after sandblasting removed layers of paint that had been applied over the decades. Electrical and mechanical systems were brought up to date with state-of-the-art equipment. Renovation costs totaled $1.6 million.

By the time the Saenger reopened in September of 1981, the vintage structure was ready for theatrical plays, musical productions and vaudeville, for which it was originally intended.
City visitors and residents who have never been inside the Saenger are usually surprised by the Theatre's look on the inside, as the Palafox Street entrance- which resembles a movie theatre- gives no real indication of the contents. Only after stepping past the ticket booth and across the threshold, will an upward view of the inside reveal the Saenger's grandiose style.

It is not until one steps inside the lofty auditorium that the Saenger experience begins to captivate. To enter the monument is to step into the 1920's era. Originally built in a Spanish-rococo style, the main auditorium is overwhelmingly ornate. Artisans applied stucco to create ornaments of shell work and foliage, producing an overall effect of movement that circumvents the entire stage.

The Saenger currently plays host to Broadway musicals, opera, symphony and ballet. Local theatricals and world-renowned personalities such as David Copperfield, MISS SAIGON,CATS, STOMP, Ziggy Marley, Larry the Cable Guy, and Yanni have shone here as well. The Theatre has run the gamut from theatrics to movie theatre, to adult peep show, to performing arts. In retrospect, the Saenger Theatre is now what it once was, a cultural center for the city with a 1920's luster.

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