John Eberson

John Eberson (1875 - 1964) was a Romanian born American architect best known for his movie palace designs in the atmospheric theatre fashion.

Born in Cernauti, Bukovina, Romania, Eberson arrived in the United States in the early 1900s 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. "He specialized in depicting outdoor settings with no formal walls and made the whole auditorium a gigantic stage set that enveloped the whole audience." (Thorne, p. 24)

Many of his 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:
* Tampa Theatre, Tampa, Florida, 1926
* Olympia Theater, Miami, Florida, 1926
* The Louisville Palace, Louisville, Kentucky, 1928
* The Warner Theatre, Morgantown, West Virginia, 1931
* The Woodlawn Theatre, San Antonio, Texas, 1946
* Majestic Theatre, San Antonio, Texas, 1929
* The Majestic Theater (Dallas), Dallas Texas, 1921
* Lakewood Theater (Dallas), Dallas Texas, 1938
* Stanley Theater, Jersey City, New Jersey, 1928
* Silver Theater, Silver Spring, Maryland, 1938
* Loew's Akron, Akron, Ohio, (now Akron Civic Theater), 1929
* Uptown Theater, Kansas City, MO, 1928
* Orpheum Theater, Wichita, Kansas, 1922
* State Theater, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1927
* Capitol Theatre, Flint, Michigan, 1927
* The Paramount Theatre (Austin, Texas), Austin, Texas, 1915
* Loew's Paradise Theater, The Bronx, New York, 1929 (one of the 5 Loew's Wonder Theaters, which were Loew's flagship theaters in the New York City area)
* Loew's Valencia Theater, Queens, New York, 1929, another of the 5 Loew's Wonder Theaters
* Paramount Theatre, Anderson, Indiana, 1929
* The Palace Theatre, Marion, Ohio, 1928

Others can be found in Paris, France, Caracas, Venezuela, Mexico City, Mexico as well as in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

A significant number of his around 500 buildings [http://www.temple.edu/ispr/examples/ex05_01_06.html The Atmospheric Style of Theatre Design] - Mendiola, Sister Christine, Master's Thesis, University of Akron, 1974] have however been destroyed, as redevelopment and changing taste came to consider the style dated.

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

* [http://www.historictheatres.org Theatre Historical Society of America]