"When Elitch Gardens began in 1890, it had a round, open-sided theatre known as Playhouse in the Gardens. It grew into a larger, circular enclosure inspired by Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and finally into a wooden octagon two stories high with a tent-shaped shingle roof crowned by a flag pole.
Its first season in 1897 opened with leading man James O'Neill, (whose son became America's foremost playwright Eugene), who had promised John that he would act in the new theater when it was ready. The first show performed there was Helene. The company became known for putting on ten plays in a ten-week summer season and attracting internationally known stars of the theatre and screen.
Sarah Bernhardt came to Denver in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake destroyed the theatre where she had been scheduled to perform. At Elitch's she played "Camille" at the matinées and "LaSorcier" at night. Douglas Fairbanks was hired into the same company.
With the purchase of Elitch Gardens by John Mulvihill in 1916, Mary Elitch stepped down from control of the theater, but among her purchase conditions was a stipulation that two lower boxes would always be reserved in her name. Mulvihill oversaw the theatre until his death in 1930 and was succeeded by his son-in-law Arnold Gurtler.
In 1953, the Elitch Theatre was used for two days to film scenes for The Glenn Miller Story. It stopped operating as a traditional resident summer-stock company in 1963, switching to single, star-packaged shows out of New York under a special Actors Equity contract. Broadway stars would be very happy to create a show featuring themselves during the summer hiatus, and perhaps bring their family along for the fun of it. A show would play for one or two weeks, before moving on. Denver and Elitch Gardens became the Western-most stop on the summer circuit.
The theatre's last season was 1987, and it closed in 1991. The Elitch Gardens amusement park moved to a central Platte Valley location in 1994 and the original Elitch property was sold to Perry Affordable Housing in 1996 with the condition that the theater never be demolished.
The Historic Elitch Gardens Theatre Foundation was formed in 2002 to restore and maintain the Elitch Gardens theatre and carousel pavilion. In 2006, groundbreaking for the renovation of the theatre began with restoring the building's exterior, including pouring a foundation for the building. As of 2010, the exterior restoration of the building is complete but the interior remains unrestored." (from
(
visit link)
"It's been two years since we've heard a peep about the stalled campaign to rescue, renovate and revive the historic Elitch Theatre in northwest Denver.
But a more modest (and therefore hopefully more attainable) new mission has been launched to save the 119-year-old former jewel that hosted some of the biggest names in show business.
The theater, modeled in 1891 after Shakespeare's original Globe, anchored the original 32-acre Elitch Gardens amusement park that has since moved from West 38th Avenue to LoDo. The stage where Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks, Grace Kelly and Vincent Price once played has remained unused since 1991.
An ambitious $14.2 million capital campaign was launched in 2006 to reopen the theater — now surrounded by retail and high-density housing — as the Center for American Theatre at Historic Elitch Gardens.
That effort hinged largely on repeated failed attempts to secure federal funding and quietly petered out, but not before critical renovations to the theater's exterior saved the structure from demolition.
Now attorney Paul Franke has assumed leadership of the all-but-abandoned project. He's assembled an eight-person, neighborhood-based board, including local actor Drew Frady and University of Colorado Denver assistant theater professor Jose Mercado.
Mercado understands if you're skeptical. But if you are, "Just wait," he said. "There is a new energy."
The plan to create an educational center dedicated to the production and study of American theater is long dead. The goal now: "A sustainable cultural center where arts, education, music, dance and theater can take place."
All it will cost is $5 million to restore the interior, and $1 million more for an operational budget. He says it will come from grassroots fundraising, state grants and, yes, as-yet-unsecured federal funding.
Mercado, a former North High School teacher, sees the theater as a neighborhood resource serving the same core community that lived near the park 60 years ago.
"There is a sense of ownership the community still has with that space," Mercado said. "I talk to people who graduated from North in 1942 about their memories of Elitch's, and the years just disappeared."
Monthly fundraisers are ongoing. Today, Cork's Wine Shop (1620 Platte St.) is donating 5 percent of all sales to the Elitch campaign.
"With the new blood, I think we're definitely on the right track," Mercado said. Donations are also being accepted at 303-623-0216. (from (
visit link) )