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Chateau Theatre

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The Chateau Theatre originally opened as a vaudeville house in Rochester, Minnesota , in 1927 with an interior decorated as a medieval village. The theater was converted to a movie house eventually remodeled and reopened as a Barnes & Noble bookstore .

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43-720: In April 1927, Dr. Charles Mayo laid the building's cornerstone. The structure was originally called the Chateau Dodge Theatre because the Dodge Lumber Company had previously occupied this site. With construction costs of a then-unheard-of $ 400,000, the theatre opened on October 26, 1927, showing the movie Spring Fever . The Chateau Theatre was one of Rochester's first air-conditioned buildings, presenting plays, concerts, operas, silent and later talking movies, and vaudeville. In 1940, 25 cents' admission provided audiences three acts of music/magic/juggling, newsreels, comedy, and

86-529: A Communist. Rogers cited the line spoken by Ernie to his mother, "you're not going to get me to work here and squeeze pennies out of little people who are poorer than I am," as an example of Communist propaganda . Hanns Eisler , who was nominated for an Academy Award for composing the film's score, was also interrogated by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and was designated as an unfriendly witness for his refusal to cooperate. The film recorded

129-478: A date when he tells her he will be leaving town the next day. The next morning, Ma tells her pawnbroker friend, Ike Weber, that she has cancer . Ma and Ernie get into another fight, but after he storms out, Ike shares with him that his mother needs him in her battle with cancer. Ernie returns and says that he will stay with her at home and help her run her shop. A month passes, and Ernie continues to pursue Ada. However, when gangster Jim Mordinoy informs him that she

172-538: A main show. Chateau headliners over the years included actresses Ethel Barrymore and Tallulah Bankhead , the husband-wife acting team of Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt , cinema cowboy Tom Mix , Mary, the rhinoceros from Johnny Weissmuller 's Tarzan , and bandleader Paul Whiteman ("The King of Jazz"). The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota calls the Chateau Theatre Minnesota's "last and best example of ' atmospheric theater ". Its principal architecture

215-687: A photograph of herself and Churchill on the lawn at Blenheim Palace in 1899. While touring in England at age 19, she was rumored to be engaged to the Duke of Manchester , actor Gerald du Maurier , writer Richard Harding Davis and Churchill. She was engaged to Laurence Irving , son of Sir Henry Irving , but the couple did not marry. Barrymore married Russell Griswold Colt (1882–1960) on March 14, 1909. The couple had three children: Samuel Colt (1909–1986), actress and singer Ethel Barrymore Colt (1912–1977), and John Drew Colt (1913–1975). Barrymore campaigned for

258-621: A politician's wife, she refused. Winston, years later, married Clementine Hozier , who looked very much like Ethel. Winston and Ethel remained friends until the end of her life. After her season in London, Ethel returned to the U.S. Charles Frohman cast her first in Catherine and then as Stella de Grex in His Excellency the Governor . After that, Frohman finally gave Ethel the role that would make her

301-551: A popular catch phrase in the 1920s and 1930s. Many references to it can be found in the media of the period, including the Laurel and Hardy 1933 film Sons of the Desert , and Arthur Train's 1930 Wall Street Crash novel Paper Profits . It is sometimes recalled on modern day radio stations annually every August 15 when Ethel's birthday is mentioned. Barrymore was a baseball and boxing fan. Her admiration for boxing ended when she witnessed

344-786: A retreat. Georgie did not recover and died in July 1893 at age 36. Essentially Ethel's and Lionel's childhood ended when Georgie died; they were forced to go to work in their teens with neither finishing high school. John, a few years younger, stayed with their grandmother and other relatives. Barrymore's first appearance on Broadway was in 1895, in a play called The Imprudent Young Couple which starred her uncle John Drew Jr. and Maude Adams . She appeared with Drew and Adams again in 1896 in Rosemary . In 1897 Ethel went with William Gillette to London to play Miss Kittridge in Gillette's Secret Service . She

387-713: A star: Madame Trentoni in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines , which opened at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End on February 4, 1901. Unbeknownst to Ethel, her father Maurice had witnessed the performance as an audience member and walked up to his daughter, congratulated her and gave her a big hug. It was the first and only time he saw her on stage professionally. When the tour concluded in Boston in June, she had out-drawn two of

430-503: Is Art Deco , a design popularized first in Europe and later the U.S. (most famously in Hollywood and Miami) from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s. The original theatre mezzanine and inner lobby are gone; all that remains are the railings and doorways to the restrooms and lounge areas. Originally, the main theatre floor had raked seating; that is, with the rows farther from the stage rising toward

473-528: Is attached only at the building's front and back walls while also supported by main floor pillars. The castle, with 40 balconies and 20-foot-high (6.1 m) turrets, resembles a 10th-century French castle (chateau). Originally passageways extended for actors to appear at the numerous windows and balconies. The theatre ceiling is still the same dark blue as the original. The constellations, which once twinkled as dramatic scenes gradually changed from day to night, are still visible although difficult to see because of

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516-536: Is crushed and walks along the street until he gets to Aggie's door and walks in. None but the Lonely Heart , Gunga Din (1939) and Sylvia Scarlett (1935) were the only films in which Cary Grant used a Cockney accent, though that was not his original accent. He was originally from Bristol . RKO Pictures head Charles Koerner bought Richard Llewellyn 's book as a starring vehicle for Cary Grant. Koerner also suggested that playwright Clifford Odets direct

559-425: Is eventually bailed out of jail by Ike, he finds out that after the police discovered Ernie's platinum cigarette case — his birthday gift from Ma — was stolen, the police arrested Ma and put her in prison. She begs for forgiveness for shaming the family and dies in prison hospital. When he returns home, he learns via a letter from Ada that she decided to stay with Mordinoy because that would make her life easier. Ernie

602-568: Is preserved on a kinescope . In 1956, she hosted 14 episodes of the TV series Ethel Barrymore Theatre , produced by the DuMont Television Network and presented on the DuMont flagship station WABD just as the network was folding. Unfortunately none of the episodes were preserved on kinescope. A 1952 appearance on What's My Line? survives, however, in addition to several radio broadcasts. In

645-482: Is still his wife, Ernie does not believe Ada when she says that is a lie and he cuts her off socially. Ernie begins to notice the poverty surrounding him in London and chooses to accept Mordinoy's offer to join his activities, even against Ada's pleas. Ernie begins to steal cars, and he is involved in a police chase until his car collides with a truck and explodes into flames. Ada implores him to run away with her, but he does not want to leave his dying mother. When Ernie

688-531: The East End London road set in this film was the largest and most complete external set constructed inside a sound stage at that time. The set measured 800 feet long and extended the length of two sound stages. Lela Rogers , the mother of Ginger Rogers , denounced the script of None but the Lonely Heart at a House Committee on Un-American Activities hearing as a "perfect example of the propaganda that Communists like to inject" and accused Odets of being

731-545: The Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star for her contributions to the film industry. Her star is located at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard . Barrymore was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame , along with her brothers, John and Lionel . A crater on the planet Venus is named for Barrymore. Craters on Venus are named after famous women. It's a permanent and distinctive honor. None but

774-719: The Metro Pictures studio. Most of these pictures were made on the East Coast, as her Broadway career and children came first. A few of her silent films have survived: for example, one reel from The Awakening of Helena Richie (1916) which survives at the Library of Congress , and The Call of Her People (1917) held at the George Eastman House . The only two films that featured all three siblings—Ethel, John, and Lionel—were National Red Cross Pageant (1917) and Rasputin and

817-581: The Olney Theatre Center in Olney, Maryland. Barrymore appeared in her first feature motion picture, The Nightingale , in 1914. Members of her family were already in pictures; uncle Sidney Drew, his wife Gladys Rankin, and Lionel had entered films in 1911 and John made his first feature in 1913 after having debuted in Lubin short films in 1912. She made 15 silent pictures between 1914 and 1919, most of them for

860-687: The Chateau Theatre on July 1, 1994. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. On January 2, 2015, the Barnes & Noble inside the Chateau Theatre closed. Ethel Barrymore Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe ; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and

903-595: The Empress (1932). The former film is now considered a lost film . Barrymore won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film None but the Lonely Heart (1944) opposite Cary Grant , but made plain that she was not overly impressed by it. She appeared in The Spiral Staircase (1946) directed by Robert Siodmak , The Paradine Case (1947) directed by Alfred Hitchcock , in which she

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946-421: The Lonely Heart (film) None but the Lonely Heart is a 1944 American drama romance film which tells the story of a young Cockney drifter who returns home with no ambitions but finds that his family needs him. Adapted by Clifford Odets from the 1943 novel of the same title by Richard Llewellyn and directed by Odets, the film stars Cary Grant , Ethel Barrymore , and Barry Fitzgerald . The title of

989-481: The Rain (1952), Barrymore is held up as an example of a lofty actress when Gene Kelly mocks Debbie Reynolds in a squabble about what makes a serious actor. He repeats the humorous taunt when Reynolds jumps out of a giant cake as a show girl. Winston Churchill was among Barrymore's many new friends in England. Churchill proposed to her in 1900, and while Barrymore mentioned no such proposal in her autobiography, she included

1032-521: The brutality of the July 4, 1919, Dempsey/Willard fight in which Dempsey broke Willard's jaw and knocked out several of his teeth. Ethel vowed never to attend another boxing match, though she would later watch boxing on television. In 1928, the Shuberts opened the Ethel Barrymore Theatre , which operates under that name to the present day. In 1938, Ethel became the first Artistic Director of

1075-510: The family moved to England for two years. Barrymore's father exhibited a play and starred on stage plays at London 's Haymarket Theatre . Returning to the U.S. in 1886, her father took her to her first baseball game which established her lifelong love of baseball. In the summer of 1893, Barrymore was in the company of her mother Georgie, who had been ailing from tuberculosis and took a curative sabbatical to Santa Barbara, California , not far from where family friend Helena Modjeska had

1118-556: The fate of both of her parents, both long standing actors, her mother who had needed proper medical care and her father who required years of institutionalized care. Her support for the strike angered many producers and cost Barrymore her friendship with George M. Cohan , an actor, songwriter and producer. In 1926, she scored one of her greatest successes as the sophisticated spouse of a philandering husband in W. Somerset Maugham 's comedy, The Constant Wife (Maugham counted himself among her admirers, saying that during rehearsals for

1161-580: The film is taken from Tchaikovsky's song " None but the Lonely Heart ", which is featured in the background music. Ernie Mott is a restless, independent, wandering Cockney with perfect pitch. On Armistice Day , Ernie visits the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey , which memorializes those who died in World War I , including his father. Ernie seeks a life where is neither 'the hound nor

1204-480: The hare,' neither a victim or a thug. When he returns home, his mother Ma asks why he has returned after so long and gives him an ultimatum that he must stay home now or leave forever. He informs her that he will then be leaving next morning and goes out to get a drink. He meets fellow musician Aggie Hunter outside the bar, but instead prefers the company of a gangster's fickle former wife, Ada Brantline. However, when Ernie becomes smitten with Ada, she rejects his offer of

1247-408: The larger spotlights later installed by Barnes & Noble. In addition to a "moon machine," also still present but no longer functioning is a cloud machine, once used to project shadows of clouds across the ceiling. The pipe organ playing for melodrama and silent movies was located on the west side of the current children's book section; organ pipes were housed in the castle gate. The proscenium arch at

1290-617: The most prominent actresses of her day, Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Minnie Maddern Fiske . Following her triumph in Captain Jinks , Ethel gave sterling performances in many top-rate productions and it was in Thomas Raceward's Sunday that she uttered what would be her most famous line, " That's all there is, there isn't any more ." She portrayed Nora in A Doll's House by Ibsen (1905), and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare (1922). Barrymore, along with friend Marie Dressler ,

1333-402: The picture. This was the first feature film Odets directed, and he would direct only one other picture during his career, The Story on Page One (1959). To secure Ethel Barrymore 's availability to complete her scenes, RKO had to pay all the expenses incurred by temporarily closing the play The Corn Is Green , in which she was starring on Broadway. According to The Hollywood Reporter ,

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1376-488: The play he had "fallen madly in love with her.") She starred in Rasputin and the Empress (1932), playing the czarina married to Czar Nicholas. In July 1934, she starred in the play Laura Garnett , by Leslie and Sewell Stokes , at Dobbs Ferry, New York . After she became a stage star, she would often dismiss adoring audiences who kept demanding curtain calls by saying "That's all there is—there isn't any more!" This became

1419-407: The rear. The theatre originally had 1,487 red velvet seats, compared to today's theaters which generally seat 200 at most. The original film projection booth sits above the second floor balcony, hidden behind the giant Barnes & Noble mural. Because of the theatre's historic nature and a desire not to disturb its decorative side walls — which replicate an early French (Normandy) village — the floor

1462-530: The reelection of President Herbert Hoover in 1932. Ethel Barrymore died of cardiovascular disease on June 18, 1959, at her home in Hollywood , after having lived for many years with a heart condition. She was less than two months shy of her 80th birthday. She was entombed at Calvary Cemetery . The Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City is named for her. In 1960, Barrymore was posthumously inducted into

1505-455: The romantic time travel film Somewhere in Time (1980), a photo of Barrymore wearing nun's habit from her 1928 play The Kingdom of God can be seen. Christopher Reeve plays a journalist rummaging through old theater albums at a large Michigan hotel. He uncovers the photos of Barrymore in the play and childhood photos of actresses Blanche Ring and Rose Stahl . In the musical film Singin' in

1548-453: The top of the escalator rises above the Chateau Theatre's former stage, which measured 33 feet (10 m) across and along with the organ rose to audience eye level at the start of each performance. Along with multiple dressing rooms, backstage included metal stairs climbing five flights, with showers and toilets at every other level. In 1979 the "World Wide Friends of the Chateau" was formed and

1591-433: Was "asked by Rob Thompson to direct a play which the workers of his war plant are presenting in order to raise money for war bonds." Barrymore starred, along with Gene Kelly, in the June 1, 1949, episode of Suspense, entitled "To Find Help". Barrymore also made a number of television appearances in the 1950s, including one memorable encounter with comedian Jimmy Durante on NBC 's All Star Revue on December 1, 1951, which

1634-614: Was a strong supporter of the Actors' Equity Association and had a high-profile role in the 1919 strike. During the strike, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore starred in a benefit show staged by AEA at the Lexington Avenue Opera House. AEA came into being primarily to allow performers to have a bigger share in the profits of stage productions and to provide benefit to elderly or infirm actors. Barrymore's involvement in AEA may have been motivated by

1677-702: Was about to return to the States with Gillette's troupe when Henry Irving and Ellen Terry offered her the role of Annette in The Bells . A full London tour was on and, before it was over, Ethel created, on New Year's Day 1898, Euphrosine in Peter the Great at the Lyceum , the play having been written by Irving's son, Laurence. Men everywhere were smitten with Ethel, most notably Winston Churchill , who asked her to marry him. Not wishing to be

1720-470: Was instrumental in preserving the theatre from demolition. Although the theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, it closed on October 2, 1983, with the 1934 movie classic It Happened One Night , starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert . Following nearly eleven years of debate. negotiation, and ultimately $ 4 million of renovation, Barnes & Noble reopened the doors of

1763-650: Was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for both as well for the 1949 film Pinky . She played the repressed wife of Charles Laughton 's character. Another important role of hers was in Portrait of Jennie (1948), and " The Red Danube " (1949), among others. Her last film appearance was in Johnny Trouble (1957). Barrymore starred in Miss Hattie , described as "a short-lived situation comedy," on ABC in 1944–1945. In one episode, Barrymore's character

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1806-649: Was regarded as "The First Lady of the American Theatre". She received four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress , winning for None but the Lonely Heart (1944). Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia , the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore (whose real name was Herbert Blythe) and Georgiana Drew . She was named for her father's favorite character in William Makepeace Thackeray 's The Newcomes . She

1849-479: Was the sister of actors John and Lionel Barrymore , the aunt of actor John Drew Barrymore and great-aunt of actress Drew Barrymore . She was a granddaughter of actress and theater manager Louisa Lane Drew and niece of Broadway matinée idol John Drew, Jr . and Vitagraph Studios stage and screen star Sidney Drew . She spent her childhood in Philadelphia and attended Roman Catholic schools there. In 1884,

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