Opened April 1921, it sports a mix of formal Corinthian columns surrounding a triumphal proscenium arch, with symmetrical organ grilles giving way to latticework with a plain blue-lit ceiling behind.perhaps suggestive of a cerulean blue night sky?Įberson’s second proto-atmospheric theatre was the Indiana Theatre in Terre Haute, Indiana (opened January 1922), designed in a Moorish style featuring false balconies on the sidewalls with the organ grilles designed to look like backlit windows. The Majestic Theatre in Dallas, Texas, was Eberson’s first proto-atmospheric. The evolution of Eberson’s atmospheric theatre designs leading up to this point seems clear from his earlier projects prior to the Majestic, which we will refer to as his proto-atmospherics. Construction on-site was simplified and therefore costs reduced because ready-made statuary and architectural elements arrived in crated packages and just needed assembled on-site, and then painted, by Eberson’s traveling theatre installation teams.Įberson declared the Majestic Theatre in Houston, Texas (demolished in 1971), as his first atmospheric theatre.
The model also meant that Eberson could control the quality of product from start to finish by using his own master plasterers and installation crews. The studio, overseen by Eberson’s wife Beatrice (Beatty) Lamb, was staffed with dedicated master plasterers and created statuary, moldings, and architectural components which Eberson would then re-use across multiple theatre designs, rearranging the separate elements into different settings, thereby reducing the cost of building a theatre simply through the economics of reuse. Pridmore which featured a Roman pergola with vine-clad beams and a blue sky ceiling above an outdoor overhead setting for what was otherwise a traditional traditional auditorium design.Įberson devised a business model which saw his own centralized studio – the Michael Angelo Studios in New York – mass produce works for the theatres he designed. Louis Word’s Fair in 1904 which would have demonstrated the solid and permanent appearance of plasterwork while being used as an impermanent construction material, and Chicago’s Cort Theater (opened 1909, demolished 1934) designed by John E.O. So I decided their architecture probably would provide the firm foundation for a theater.”Įberson was probably also influenced by other experiences, including visiting the St. The inhabitants of Spain and southern Italy live under the sun and enjoy the happiness nature affords them. I saw the value of putting nature to work and so have borrowed the color and design that are found in the flowers and the trees. At the opening of the Tampa Theatre in Florida in October 1926, Eberson stated: “My idea for the atmospheric theater was born in Florida. The pioneer of the atmospheric theatre style was prolific theatre architect John Eberson.
In contrast, the atmospheric theatre style called for a simple rounded plaster dome ceiling at a time when construction costs had escalated after the First World War and wages for ornamental plasterers had reached an all-time high. Atmospherics cost less to build than traditional theatres – which were differentiated from atmospheric theatres by being called “hard tops” in the United States, usually sporting an expensive central chandelier, a richly detailed plastered classical ceiling perhaps with gilded lines and accents, cherubs and caryatids adorning and supporting the balconies and boxes, and classical detailed murals. Atmospherics were most commonly Mediterranean or Spanish courtyards or garden settings, above which soared a cerulean or azure blue starlit sky, often with clouds drifting lazily past thanks to new technologies for the 1920s enabling the projection of moving cloud effects using light.īut the atmospheric theatre style wasn’t just about creating dazzling effects for the patron: atmospherics were also very much about the economics of running a theatre. Atmospheric theatres were typically asymmetrical and far more playful in their design.
The atmospheric theatre style eschewed the formal, box-like symmetrical designs of traditional theatre auditoria.
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