Cool new retro marquee unveiled. And an ongoing project will upgrade the entire theater.
Cool new retro marquee unveiled. And an ongoing project will upgrade the entire theater. Back to the full article.
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RE: But it is not merely the mayor’s music appreciation that was inculcated within the theater’s walls. “I trace my intellectual roots to the Riverside,” he told the crowd of 125 onlookers gathered on a closed-off portion of W. Wisconsin Ave.
“Abbott and Costello, the Three Stooges and Lucille Ball all performed here,” he said, eliciting laughter from the assembled multitude.
In a rare display of honest self-reflection, the mayor accurately assessed his intellectual heft.
And was Chris Abele simply sidling into the spotlight to burnish his election-season profile?
Mr. Mingle: This was not a rare moment of self-reflection on the part of the mayor. Self-deprecation is part of his shtick. Show Biz!
“Zilber thought the theater could be saved. It reminded him of his younger days when he would attend shows downtown. As his successor Kersey said, “Joe Wilber was very proud of his role in restoring the Riverside Theater to its original grandeur.”
No so fast with this revisionist history. Correct me if I am wrong, but Zilber wanted to demolish the Riverside Theater when the Grand Avenue Mall was built and replace it with a parking structure.
There were protests and the Theater was saved, saved from Zilber’s greed and utter lack of appreciation of urban life.
Mr. Bamberger — the burden of proof is on you to be right, not for me to “correct you if you are wrong,” since you imply that I am wrong.
Where are the facts, please?
Get them to me and I will make the necessary revisions if needed.
But I consider it utterly preposterous to think that Zilber proposed demolishing a 13 story building that housed the theater and his corporate headquarters to build a riverfront parking lot.
Horne
I was there at the first “lighting-up” of the marquee last Monday at 4 PM. Guys circulated throughout the crowd giving away tickets to musical events at the Pabst and Turner Hall. Michael Cudahy stated that he was an electrician and knew more about turning on lights than the mayor did (though the mayor had to assist him with part of the process). In turn, the mayor started calling Michael Cudahy his “ex-friend”, jokingingly (and thus the “intellectual roots” comment). There was free hot chocolate and coffee and beer and a sizeable crowd for that time of the day. I’m looking forward to the improvements within the theater itself. Thanks for the article, Michael Horne!
Dang Horne….Tom must’ve really put some sand in your shorts with a reply like that.
Mr. Michael, I agree that was just Mr. Show Biz Mayor’s usual schtick. And every pol does well to have some reliable schtick. I wish there was more beyond that but have come to accept reality. It appears that so have most of those interviewed for this month’s profile on Barrett in MKE mag.
Barrett has no big visions about anything, but at least he’s not hellbent on privatizing everything in sight like Scott Walker and Chris Abele—except he can’t be counted on to ward off rotten schemes either.
Thank god some preservationists, visionaries and philanthropists made the Pabst and Riverside possible and that Witt & company do so well in programming them.