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When MAE WEST performed in Dixie, those lovely Southern gentleman gave her a good hand — — the kind of applause that makes paint flake from the walls.
• • One of the many playhouses Mae appeared in was the Lyric Theatre.
• • The grandly decorated auditorium opened as the premier entertainment venue in Birmingham during the years 1914 —1926. In addition to boasting of the famous live acts featured here — — such as Mae West, Will Rogers [1879 — 1935], the Marx Brothers — — the playhouse once called the "King of Vaudeville" in Birmingham is very proud of its history. The Lyric is the oldest surviving theater in a city that once offered great variety to entertainment seekers: over sixty theatres, opera houses, nickelodeons, and silent movie houses. This sturdy corner building has withstood many decades of neglect and changes in the downtown community to become a lasting testament to Birmingham architecture and to vaudeville theatre.
• • The Lyric Theater is located at 1800 3rd Avenue North in Birmingham, Alabama. According to Bobby Horton, of Birmingham Landmarks: "It's just our history. It's tied to our history. You know in 1914 when this thing was opened Birmingham was booming. This is a theater where the greatest names came through. This was a major, major stop on the vaudeville circuit . . . ."
• • Restoration efforts are afoot. The plan is to raise funds to renovate the Lyric in time for its 100th anniversary in 2014 — — and we wish them the best of luck.• •
Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________
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Mae West
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Mae West.
Some people in Alabama still remember their first visit to the Lyric, the magnificent old vaudeville and movie palace at Third Avenue and 18th Street North downtown, where MAE WEST once wowed the audience.
• • According to a local scribe Jesse Chambers: Built in 1914 when Birmingham, Alabama was a raucous young boomtown with a thriving entertainment district, the Lyric Theatre once played host to the greatest names in entertainment but is now all but forgotten — — in urgent need of both renovation and public rediscovery. . . .
• • The people of Birmingham get a rare opportunity to visit the Lyric and, perhaps, to experience the same thrill of discovery that Burrow did [i.e., Holly Burrow, Director of the new Hill Arts Center], this Sunday, December 7th, 2008, from 2 — 4 p.m., during the 2008 Christmas Open House at the Alabama, the Lyric, and the Hill Center. On hand to answer questions about the Lyric . . . will be Dan Liles, a former history instructor at Marion Institute who is now the unofficial historian of the Lyric and the Alabama. . . .
• • For event information, phone: (205) 252-2262.
• • Legendary theatrical promoter Jake Wells built the Lyric as a top-tier vaudeville house, with 1,200 great seats, magnificent acoustics and elegant decor, and it quickly became the premier venue in Birmingham. Vaudeville was the name used to describe the wildly eclectic, often bawdy variety shows that were the most popular form of entertainment in America before the coming of radio and sound films. All the greats played the Lyric — Mae West, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Buster Keaton, George Burns, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Sophie Tucker, Billie Burke, and the Marx Brothers.
• • The good times for the Lyric, and for vaudeville, came to an end with the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. Wells lost his theatres, including the Lyric, to the mortgage company. The Schubert organization leased the Lyric and continued to present vaudeville, but the form was dying and, by the mid 1930s, the theatre was sold to the Waters family of Birmingham and became a second-run movie house. It closed in 1958 and has been largely unused since then. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "The voice of the theatre: Holiday open house to showcase the Alabama Theatre and the lovely Lyric"
• • Byline: Jesse Chambers
• • Published in: Birmingham Weekly — — www.bhamweekly.com/
• • Published on: 5 December 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST wowed the vaudeville thrill-seekers in Birmingham, Alabama — — and now a faded Southern beauty is getting a facelift. Learn more about the Lyric Theater. Here is an excerpt from the Birmingham Weekly's cover story.
• • Theatrical impresario Jake Wells built the magnificent Lyric Theater at Third Avenue North and 18th Street expressly for vaudeville in 1914, and there wasn’t another house like it in the city, perhaps in the Southeast.
• • Each of the 1,200 seats was a good one, whether a patron was on the main floor, in an opera box or in one of the two steep balconies.
• • The Lyric had remarkable acoustics. After all, there were no microphones in those days, and a comedian or singer on stage had to be audible even in the farthest seats.
• • The Lyric was elegant. The stage curtain was covered in gold leaf. Above the proscenium was a huge mural called The Allegory of the Muses, painted by local artist Harry Hawkins.
• • Best of all, the Lyric hosted the greatest names in entertainment, and people who would later become great names — Mae West, Will Rogers, George Burns, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Sophie Tucker, Fanny Brice, and more. . . .
• • . . . The Lyric was part of a thriving entertainment district — “the likes of which nobody in Birmingham now could imagine,” according to historian Linda Nelson — that was located on Second and Third Avenues between 18th and 20th Streets North. “Every other building was a theatre,” Nelson says. “Lights and activity and crowds and noise. It was busy. It was brilliant. Lots of places to eat, see shows.”
• • Venues like the Lyric, and the loud, fast, often bawdy entertainment of vaudeville, fit perfectly in the raucous young steel city of Birmingham — a rough, tough, unforgiving boomtown with strict segregation and a rigid class structure, but also a tremendous energy, even a kind of wildness.
• • “Birmingham had so much vibrancy in the period from the mid-1880s up to the point of the Depression,” according to Marvin Whiting, curator of the Birmingham-Jefferson History Museum, scheduled to open in 2009. “Everything about the city was alive, whether it was alive with struggle between labor and capital, or a struggle between a servant class and an elite class. It was a period of remarkable growth and also of remarkable tension.”
• • Birmingham came to a full stop with the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Depression, which drastically curtailed production at the steel mills that had driven the growth of the so-called “Magic City.”
• • “The Depression hits, and where does the city have to go? No place,” Whiting says. “There was no smoke coming out of the smokestacks, out at Ensley or elsewhere.”
• • Another victim of the depression was Jake Wells, who owned dozens of theaters across the South but was overextended financially. When the crash came, he lost his empire, including the Lyric. He grabbed a pistol, went into the North Carolina woods and shot himself. . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Bringing the Lyric back to life"
• • Byline: Jesse Chambers
• • Published in: Birmingham Weekly [Birmingham, AL 35205]
• • Published on: 3 July 2008
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
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NYC
Mae West.
