By Joann M. Ringelstetter
Every year during the holiday season, I watch one of my favorite movies, “White Christmas,” a 1954 film starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, a popular song-and-dance act. It also stars Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen as the Haynes Sisters, another song-and-dance act.
In April of this year, Ruth and I visited Rosemary Clooney’s hometown of Maysville, Kentucky. After spending the night in Aberdeen, Ohio, we crossed the Ohio River at dawn on the Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge, a beautiful suspension bridge built in 1931 to connect Aberdeen to Maysville.
We headed for the Maysville Downtown Historic District and parked near the Russell Theatre. In 1929, local businessman Col. J. B. Russell announced plans to build a 700-seat movie palace on the site of a grocery warehouse owned by the Russell family.
The theatre was designed in the atmospheric style that was popular in America in the 1920s. The dome was filled with twinkling stars and floating clouds. And when each movie ended, a rainbow would appear over the stage.
Four large columns with decorative capitals mark the theatre entrance. The entrance is clad in Cincinnati Rookwood tiles, including the ticket booth.
The Russell Theatre served the Maysville area from 1930 until it closed in 1983. Following its closing, the building was used for several businesses, including a restaurant and a used furniture store. Eventually, the building was abandoned and fell into serious disrepair.
In 1996, a group of Maysville citizens purchased the building and began efforts to raise the funds necessary to restore the theatre. In 1999, Rosemary Clooney founded the annual Rosemary Clooney Music Festival to benefit the restoration of the theatre.
Rosemary Clooney’s first film, “The Stars Are Singing,” premiered at the Russell Theater in 1953. There is a sidewalk star in front of the theatre entrance honoring Ms. Clooney and her film debut.
In case you’re wondering, actor/director/producer George Clooney is the nephew of Rosemary Clooney. His father, Nick Clooney, newsman and former host of American Movie Classics, is Rosemary’s brother.
The Clooney family has not only supported the restoration of the Russell Theatre, but also the restoration of Maysville’s Washington Opera House, the fifth oldest performing arts theatre in the United States. In 2008, the Washington Opera House held the premiere showing of George Clooney’s “Leatherheads” movie.
After we finished photographing numerous buildings in the downtown historic district, we visited the Maysville floodwall to see the mural honoring Rosemary Clooney. The mural, completed in 2007 by Dafford Murals, depicts highlights from Rosemary’s life and career.
We then left the downtown area and went in search of one final piece of history in the life of Rosemary Clooney: her final resting place. High on a hill outside of Maysville is the beautiful St. Patrick Cemetery, where Rosemary was laid to rest. The cemetery is relatively small, so we thought it wouldn’t take us long to find her gravestone. But we were wrong.
We drove slowly through the cemetery looking carefully on both sides of the gravel road trying to locate her grave. After checking each section twice, we still hadn’t located it. We discussed leaving without this final piece of history. But we’re not ones to give up easily. Finally, with a little more detective work on Ruth’s part, we found her grave. Now our work was complete.
Getting back to the movie “White Christmas,” Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen (the Haynes Sisters) performed a number called “Sisters.” It began with “Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters.” And one of the lines is, “All kinds of weather, we stick together, the same in the rain or sun.”
It reminded me to take this opportunity to thank my sister, Ruth, for all she does to make the sharing of my photography possible.
Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Showing posts with label theaters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theaters. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Morning in Muscoda
By Joann M. Ringelstetter
In early October 2010, Ruth and I left my house around 5:30 a.m. and drove an hour west to begin our day in the small town of Muscoda, in Grant County, Wisconsin. As we crossed the Wisconsin River a little after dawn, we realized that we should have gotten there earlier.
The tree-covered banks and a small island were silhouetted against a beautiful dawn sky and mist was floating above the water. The bridge over the river is quite long and, of course, you can’t park on the bridge, so we drove to the other side of the river and found a small parking lot. I knew I had only a few minutes to capture this beautiful scene before the sun came up, so I grabbed my camera and tripod and ran to the center of the bridge.
The sky changed rapidly from peach to purple to orange within a matter of minutes and I worked quickly, moving to different locations on the bridge to change the viewpoint a bit.
As the time for sunrise approached, a large dark blue cloud moved in just above the horizon and I was surprised to see the amount of mist increasing. The mist added to the mystery of the river and I was grateful, as always, to capture the glorious light of dawn.
We had planned to use those precious pre-sunrise minutes to photograph some architecture in Muscoda, but I couldn’t pass up the beautiful river scene, so we hurried in to town as soon as I got back to the car. I’m always on the lookout for a good fall color scene, so the first thing I captured in town was a church steeple with a beautiful maple tree in the foreground.
Next we headed to the old Muscoda Theatre. As it is with many old theaters, especially in small towns, this theatre hadn’t shown a movie in quite some time.
On the other side of town, as we turned west to head for the backroads, we passed an old tin-clad building. It was fairly nondescript, so we….Wait a minute! There was something on the back side of it. Could it be a ghost sign? We had to turn around and find out.
Well, our eyes hadn’t deceived us because, sure enough, there was a faded sign on the building. Unfortunately, it was only part of the sign because at some point a long addition had been added to the back of the building, covering up the left side of the sign.
It’s rare that we see a ghost sign on a tin-clad building. In fact, usually, tin was installed on top of the wood to keep it from deteriorating. So, signs that had been painted on the wood ended up hidden by the tin siding.
At the top of the rusted tin siding were the letters “NS CO.” We’re assuming this was the last part of the name of the company that owned the building at one time. And below that were the familiar slogans, “Why Not Now?” and “Easy To Bake.” Although we couldn’t see the familiar oval of typical Gold Medal Flour signs, we recognized the slogans.
If you’d like to learn more about Gold Medal Flour and other ghost signs, read Ruth’s blog post of March 30, 2016 entitled “March is National Flour Month.”
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
In early October 2010, Ruth and I left my house around 5:30 a.m. and drove an hour west to begin our day in the small town of Muscoda, in Grant County, Wisconsin. As we crossed the Wisconsin River a little after dawn, we realized that we should have gotten there earlier.
The tree-covered banks and a small island were silhouetted against a beautiful dawn sky and mist was floating above the water. The bridge over the river is quite long and, of course, you can’t park on the bridge, so we drove to the other side of the river and found a small parking lot. I knew I had only a few minutes to capture this beautiful scene before the sun came up, so I grabbed my camera and tripod and ran to the center of the bridge.
The sky changed rapidly from peach to purple to orange within a matter of minutes and I worked quickly, moving to different locations on the bridge to change the viewpoint a bit.
As the time for sunrise approached, a large dark blue cloud moved in just above the horizon and I was surprised to see the amount of mist increasing. The mist added to the mystery of the river and I was grateful, as always, to capture the glorious light of dawn.
We had planned to use those precious pre-sunrise minutes to photograph some architecture in Muscoda, but I couldn’t pass up the beautiful river scene, so we hurried in to town as soon as I got back to the car. I’m always on the lookout for a good fall color scene, so the first thing I captured in town was a church steeple with a beautiful maple tree in the foreground.
Next we headed to the old Muscoda Theatre. As it is with many old theaters, especially in small towns, this theatre hadn’t shown a movie in quite some time.
On the other side of town, as we turned west to head for the backroads, we passed an old tin-clad building. It was fairly nondescript, so we….Wait a minute! There was something on the back side of it. Could it be a ghost sign? We had to turn around and find out.
Well, our eyes hadn’t deceived us because, sure enough, there was a faded sign on the building. Unfortunately, it was only part of the sign because at some point a long addition had been added to the back of the building, covering up the left side of the sign.
It’s rare that we see a ghost sign on a tin-clad building. In fact, usually, tin was installed on top of the wood to keep it from deteriorating. So, signs that had been painted on the wood ended up hidden by the tin siding.
At the top of the rusted tin siding were the letters “NS CO.” We’re assuming this was the last part of the name of the company that owned the building at one time. And below that were the familiar slogans, “Why Not Now?” and “Easy To Bake.” Although we couldn’t see the familiar oval of typical Gold Medal Flour signs, we recognized the slogans.
If you’d like to learn more about Gold Medal Flour and other ghost signs, read Ruth’s blog post of March 30, 2016 entitled “March is National Flour Month.”
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Sunday, April 18, 2010
You Buy the Popcorn, I’ll Buy the Milk Duds
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
When we were young, we lived on a small farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. We don’t remember going to the movies then. The closest thing we had to the movies was having popcorn and “pop” on Sunday nights while we watched Bonanza on television.
When we were in middle school, we moved to Lake Mills, and we were excited to learn that our new hometown had a movie theater. Sometimes on Saturday night after church, we were allowed to go to a show. I remember slipping out of church right after communion to go see Gone with the Wind, which was replaying at that theater.
Unfortunately, the Lake Mills Theater closed a couple years later and we had to wait until Joann had her driver’s license so we could go to the theater in Watertown. We often reminisce about the fact that we could go to movies there for 50 cents. Our local paper always had a coupon and, if you took the coupon to the ticket window, you could get in to the movie for 50 cents. One coupon got everyone in your party in to the theater for 50 cents each. And sometimes that 50 cents got you a double feature!
Last September, on a trip to photograph barns in the Northeast section of Iowa, Joann and I passed through a small town that had an old theater called the Sunset Theatre. Later, while looking for information about the history of this theater, we found out that it is known as “The 99 Cent Theatre” and is still showing movies for 99 cents. That’s quite a bargain in this day and age and it reminds us of our 50-cent movie days.
One night Joann and I took my best friend with us to see a movie. It was one of the special double-feature nights and the movies were both very long. It was a long time ago, so we’re not quite sure which movies were playing, but we think we saw Lady Sings the Blues and The Godfather. The first movie didn’t start until 7:00 pm and there was an intermission between the two features. We didn’t get home until after 1:00 am, and the next morning, Mom and Dad told us that my friend’s mother had called them and woke them up after midnight because her daughter still hadn’t come home. Mom told her that we had probably stopped somewhere after the show and that she wasn’t worried about us.
The next morning, Mom was surprised when we told her how long each movie was and that we had no idea we would be in the theater that long. Fortunately, she believed us. Dad, however, thought there was no way we were in the theater that long and that we were out getting in trouble somewhere.
On another double feature night, we decided to go see Man of La Mancha. The movie playing before it was called Brother Sun, Sister Moon. We hadn’t heard of that movie, but we decided to go anyway. It was a surprisingly good movie.
Then came Man of La Mancha. It started badly, and we looked at each other, wondering when it was going to get better. We decided that it couldn’t stay as bad as it started, so we continued to watch, but we were rolling our eyes and whispering to each other about how bad it was. Finally our whispering turned to whether or not we should get up and walk out. Since we paid for our movies with our own hard-earned money, we hated to waste even part of that 50 cents, but we just couldn’t believe how bad the movie was. So finally, after the first 30 or 40 minutes of the movie, we did get up and walk out. I think it is the only movie I’ve ever walked out on.
Neither of us really goes to the movies anymore. The prices are too high and we have better things to do than sit in a theater for hours. We watch our movies on the small screen and are usually multi-tasking as the movie plays, but we do think fondly of the old theaters when we pass by them in our travels.
Driving down the main highway through a small town in Sauk County one day, we passed an old theater, and I read aloud the words on the marquee. As I finished, we both started laughing and Joann pulled into the right lane, taking the first available turn so we could circle around and get a photo.
According to an article we read later about that theater, the son of the people who owned it for many years recalled an incident with another funny (and rather embarrassing) marquee. In the early 1950’s, the theater ran a John Wayne movie entitled “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.” That title was placed on the marquee, and below it were the words “And Also Selected Shorts.” A local clergyman saw the sign and complained about the implication of those words. The owners immediately changed the marquee prior to the opening of the movie the next day.
These days, when we’re out on the backroads and we have to go into a town for whatever reason, we often drive through the old downtown to check out the buildings. And sometimes we’re lucky and we stumble on an old theater. And when it has an old-fashioned ticket booth, that makes the find even better.
So when you’re out shunpiking and you stop for lunch in a small town, check out the downtown for interesting architecture and maybe an old theater!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
When we were young, we lived on a small farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. We don’t remember going to the movies then. The closest thing we had to the movies was having popcorn and “pop” on Sunday nights while we watched Bonanza on television.
When we were in middle school, we moved to Lake Mills, and we were excited to learn that our new hometown had a movie theater. Sometimes on Saturday night after church, we were allowed to go to a show. I remember slipping out of church right after communion to go see Gone with the Wind, which was replaying at that theater.
Unfortunately, the Lake Mills Theater closed a couple years later and we had to wait until Joann had her driver’s license so we could go to the theater in Watertown. We often reminisce about the fact that we could go to movies there for 50 cents. Our local paper always had a coupon and, if you took the coupon to the ticket window, you could get in to the movie for 50 cents. One coupon got everyone in your party in to the theater for 50 cents each. And sometimes that 50 cents got you a double feature!
Last September, on a trip to photograph barns in the Northeast section of Iowa, Joann and I passed through a small town that had an old theater called the Sunset Theatre. Later, while looking for information about the history of this theater, we found out that it is known as “The 99 Cent Theatre” and is still showing movies for 99 cents. That’s quite a bargain in this day and age and it reminds us of our 50-cent movie days.
One night Joann and I took my best friend with us to see a movie. It was one of the special double-feature nights and the movies were both very long. It was a long time ago, so we’re not quite sure which movies were playing, but we think we saw Lady Sings the Blues and The Godfather. The first movie didn’t start until 7:00 pm and there was an intermission between the two features. We didn’t get home until after 1:00 am, and the next morning, Mom and Dad told us that my friend’s mother had called them and woke them up after midnight because her daughter still hadn’t come home. Mom told her that we had probably stopped somewhere after the show and that she wasn’t worried about us.
The next morning, Mom was surprised when we told her how long each movie was and that we had no idea we would be in the theater that long. Fortunately, she believed us. Dad, however, thought there was no way we were in the theater that long and that we were out getting in trouble somewhere.
On another double feature night, we decided to go see Man of La Mancha. The movie playing before it was called Brother Sun, Sister Moon. We hadn’t heard of that movie, but we decided to go anyway. It was a surprisingly good movie.
Then came Man of La Mancha. It started badly, and we looked at each other, wondering when it was going to get better. We decided that it couldn’t stay as bad as it started, so we continued to watch, but we were rolling our eyes and whispering to each other about how bad it was. Finally our whispering turned to whether or not we should get up and walk out. Since we paid for our movies with our own hard-earned money, we hated to waste even part of that 50 cents, but we just couldn’t believe how bad the movie was. So finally, after the first 30 or 40 minutes of the movie, we did get up and walk out. I think it is the only movie I’ve ever walked out on.
Neither of us really goes to the movies anymore. The prices are too high and we have better things to do than sit in a theater for hours. We watch our movies on the small screen and are usually multi-tasking as the movie plays, but we do think fondly of the old theaters when we pass by them in our travels.
Driving down the main highway through a small town in Sauk County one day, we passed an old theater, and I read aloud the words on the marquee. As I finished, we both started laughing and Joann pulled into the right lane, taking the first available turn so we could circle around and get a photo.
According to an article we read later about that theater, the son of the people who owned it for many years recalled an incident with another funny (and rather embarrassing) marquee. In the early 1950’s, the theater ran a John Wayne movie entitled “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.” That title was placed on the marquee, and below it were the words “And Also Selected Shorts.” A local clergyman saw the sign and complained about the implication of those words. The owners immediately changed the marquee prior to the opening of the movie the next day.
These days, when we’re out on the backroads and we have to go into a town for whatever reason, we often drive through the old downtown to check out the buildings. And sometimes we’re lucky and we stumble on an old theater. And when it has an old-fashioned ticket booth, that makes the find even better.
So when you’re out shunpiking and you stop for lunch in a small town, check out the downtown for interesting architecture and maybe an old theater!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
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