Riverside Unveils New Marquee and Blade, Evoking a Bygone Era.
The Riverside Marquee, 1932, courtesy of the MPL Historic Photo Collection.
The Riverside Theater unveiled its new marquee and blade sign on Monday afternoon. Businessperson and philanthropist Michael Cudahy, County Executive Chris Abele and Mayor Tom Barrett spoke at the dedication ceremony and then flicked the switch on to light the new marquee. Rising above the marquee is a red 40-foot blade sign evoking a bygone era when 50-foot blade signs blazed on the “Ave.,” drawing movie goers not only to the Riverside, but also the Warner, Garden, Alhambra, Palace, Strand and Wisconsin movie palaces on W. Wisconsin Ave. from the Milwaukee River to N. 6th St.
Riverside Opening Ad, The Milwaukee Journal, April 28th, 1928
The Orpheum Circuit was the premier vaudeville circuit of live variety acts of comedians, singers, dancers, actors, acrobats, performing animals, national celebrities and eccentric acts. Their A-list acts performed at the Palace and B-list acts at the Majestic. They hired the local architectural firm of Kirchhoff and Rose to design the Riverside to replace the older, smaller Majestic. The Orpheum Circuit merged with its larger rival Keith Circuit in January 1928.
Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) opened the Riverside with eight floors of dressing rooms for vaudeville acts, supplemented by movies on April 29th, 1928, sold the Majestic and converted the Palace to movies only on October 26th, 1929 after they merged with Joseph Kennedy’s (father of President John F. Kennedy) Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) in October 1928.
Riverside Ad, The Milwaukee Journal, September 14th, 1934
The Riverside continued stage acts until the 1950s. The Garland Sisters fronted by 12-year old Judy sang there for one week in September 1934 before MGM signed them to a contract that took them on a yellow brick road to Hollywood. By the 1970s, rock concerts were the only live acts performing there. When United Artists declined to renew its lease in 1981, it looked like the lights would go dark at the Riverside as it did at the other grand palaces on the “Ave.” Remembering its golden years, Joseph Zilber stepped in to fund its $1.5 million restoration and it reopened in 1984. Michael Cudahy stepped in to add the Riverside to the Pabst Theater Group of live performance venues in 2005.
The new Riverside Marquee, photo by Milwaukee Public Library Staff
The Riverside Theater is expected to offer tours during Doors Open Milwaukee in September 2016. For now, you can visit the Central Library’s 2nd floor display on historic Milwaukee movie theaters, including the Riverside and the centenarian Downer.
Shaw & Lee, “The Beau Brummels” @ Central
(Dan, Local History Librarian)