John Eberson
John Eberson (1875–1954) was an American architect best known for his movie palace designs in the atmospheric theatre fashion. (This source and many others give Eberson's year of death as 1964.)
Born in Czernowitz, Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Ukraine), Eberson went to highschool in Dresden and studied electrical engineering in Vienna. He arrived in the United States in 1901 and at first settled in St. Louis. There, while working for a construction company he designed his first theater, the Jewel, in Hamilton, Ohio. A year later found him living in Chicago, and in 1926 he made his final move, to New York City.
Eberson attained national, and even international acclaim for his atmospheric theatres, many of them executed in exotic revival styles, including Italian Renaissance, Moorish Revival and others. The first of these such theatres is considered to be the Orpheum in Wichita.[1] "He specialized in depicting outdoor settings with no formal walls and made the whole auditorium a gigantic stage set that enveloped the whole audience."[2]
Works
Many of Eberson's later designs, some executed with his son Drew, were in the Art Deco style. In all Eberson designed close to 100 movie palaces, located in dozens of states in the United States, including:
- 1915: The Paramount Theatre (Austin, Texas), Austin, Texas
- 1921: The Majestic Theater (Dallas), Dallas Texas
- 1922: Orpheum, Wichita, Kansas
- 1922: Indiana Theatre, Terre Haute, Indiana
- 1923: Majestic Theater, Houston, Texas (Eberson's first fully atmospheric theater)
- 1924: Palace Theater, Gary, Indiana
- 1926: Olympia Theater, Miami, Florida
- 1926: Tampa Theatre, Tampa, Florida; listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1978.[3]
- 1927: Riviera Theater, Omaha, Nebraska (now restored and renamed the Rose Theater).
- 1927: State Theater, Kalamazoo, Michigan
- 1927: Capitol Theatre, Flint, Michigan
- 1928: The Louisville Palace, Louisville, Kentucky
- 1928: Uptown Theater, Kansas City, Missouri
- 1928: Stanley Theater, Jersey City, New Jersey
- 1928: The Palace Theatre, Marion, Ohio
- 1929: Loew's Akron, Akron, Ohio, (now Akron Civic Theater)
- 1929: Loew's Paradise Theater, The Bronx, New York, (one of the 5 Loew's Wonder Theaters, which were Loew's flagship theaters in the New York City area)
- 1929: Loew's Valencia Theater, Queens, New York, another of the 5 Loew's Wonder Theaters
- 1929: Paramount Theatre, Anderson, Indiana
- 1929: State Theatre (Sydney) with Henry Eli White
- 1929: Majestic Theatre, San Antonio, Texas
- 1931: The Warner Theatre, Morgantown, West Virginia
- 1932: Le Grand Rex, Paris, France, as consulting architect to Auguste Bluysen[4]
- 1938: Lakewood Theater (Dallas), Dallas, Texas
- 1938: Bethesda Theater, Bethesda, Maryland; listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1999.[3]
- 1938: Silver Theater, Silver Spring, Maryland
- 1938: Schines Auburn Theatre, Auburn, New York; listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 2000.[3]
- 1940: Oswego Theater, Oswego, New York; listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1988.[3]
- 1946: The Woodlawn Theatre, San Antonio, Texas
Others can be found in Caracas, Venezuela; Mexico City, Mexico; as well as in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.
A significant number of his around 500 buildings[5] have however been destroyed, as redevelopment and changing taste came to consider the style dated.
Gallery
1924, Orpheum Theatre, Tulsa, OK 1924, Ritz Theatre, Tulsa, OK 1930, Midwest Theatre, Oklahoma City, OK
References
- Naylor, David, Great American Movie Theaters, The Preservation Press, Washington D.C., 1987
- Thorne, Ross, Picture Palace Architecture in Australia, Sun Books Pty. Ltd., South Melbourne, Australia, 1976
External links
| Persondata |
| Name |
Eberson, John |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
1875 |
| Place of birth |
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| Date of death |
1964 |
| Place of death |
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