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Showtime, Once Again
It’s showtime! That phrase is what went through my mind when I was recently shown postcards of the famous Hippodrome Theatre that are part of the Postcard Project collection in Langsdale's Special Collections Department.
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| A 1917 color postcard from the Bert Smith Collection, Postcard Project, Special Collections in Langsdale Library |
As an 11-year employee of Langsdale Library, an avid theater patron and house manager at the newly minted Hippodrome theater located on downtown Baltimore’s Eutaw Street, I naturally wanted to know more about the theater's historical significance.
The Hippodrome was designed by architect Thomas Lamb and was constructed on the site of the old Eutaw House, a luxury hotel built in 1835. The theater opened on Nov. 23, 1914, as a movie palace that showcased Vaudeville performances and seated 3,000. By 1920, the average weekly attendance was approximately 30,000. Well-known performers such as Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Benny Goodman and even Frank Sinatra performed here.
Business dropped off in the '70s and '80s and the movie house eventually closed in 1990 as the last operating movie theater in downtown Baltimore.
The Hippodrome officially reopened on Feb. 10, 2004, with the beloved musical The Producers. The newly named France Merrick Performing Arts Center at the Hippodrome transforms three historic buildings and one newly constructed building (the Western National Bank, built in 1887; Eutaw Savings Bank, built in 1888; the Hippodrome building; and a new building built at Baltimore and Eutaw streets). Today, the theater operates with a loyal staff (many longtime veterans from the now-defunct Mechanic Theatre) and nearly 900 wonderful volunteer ushers from all over the state, ecstatic to have become part of the Hippodrome family. Many of the older patrons, as they walk through the lobbies today, are especially thrilled to be in the building again as they can proudly remember being in the theater in its early days. As I interact with the patrons, I need go no further to remember the theater’s significance in the community. Today, the Hippodrome attracts many touring Broadway shows, some of which would not otherwise have been able to come to Baltimore. One major example of this is the highly successful 14-week run of the LION KING this past summer.
If you want to find out more about the history of Baltimore, check out Langsdale's Special Collections Department, headed by archivist Tom Hollowak (410.837.4283). If you want to find out more about the Hippodrome, you can visit its Web site at http://www.francemerrickpac.com/home.html.