Carolina Theater
(ca. 1927)
The last of Charlotte’s uptown movie palaces and vaudeville venues, the lavish Carolina Theater entertained for more than 50 years with shows ranging from “The Sound of Music” to Elvis Presley.
222 N. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28202
The Carolina Theater debuted on March 7, 1927, with the film "A Kiss In A Taxi," starring the "ever popular" Bebe Daniels. Fae Wilcox, perched in an organ loft that the Charlotte Observer wrote looked like “one of the castles of old times," accompanied a program of novelty slides on the Wurlitzer Organ. Opened as a Publix Theaters Corporation franchise for vaudeville entertainment and silent movies, the theater ran feature films three days a week, and the B. F. Keith Vaudeville Troupe performed on stage on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The Classical Revival styled theater is uptown Charlotte’s last surviving early twentieth century "movie palace," reflecting a 1920s national trend of lavish entertainment venues.
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The original building’s design as an "atmospheric theater" was the joint effort of preeminent Charlotte architect Charles Christian Hook (1870-1938) – who designed such notable local buildings as City Hall, the federal courthouse, and Duke Mansion – and famed New York theater designer R. E. Hall. For the exterior, Hook used four separate architectural styles, applied like stage sets to create the illusion of four separate buildings, and incorporated a variety of Mediterranean and Spanish motifs to reflect the theater's Southern location. Entering from North Tryon Street, patrons first experienced Hall’s interior designs in a luxurious lobby, all gilt and palatial Venetian. The mezzanine lobby featured low, exposed ceiling beams with geometric patterns and Art Deco style stenciling in shades of gold, green, and pink. The interior of the 1,450-seat theater was ornately columned, displaying intricately detailed murals of dark cypress trees and flowering vines reminiscent of a Mediterranean palazzo under a darkening blue sky just before dusk. The balcony, resting upon gargolyed brackets, swept over the back of the orchestra level, creating a low ceiling lined with small, twinkling "star" lights. The outdor illusion was completed with stuffed pigeons and peacocks perched from the balustrades framing the murals closest to the stage, and garlands of flowers, clambering vines, and tropical foliage at the base of each mural. An orchestra pit fronted the three-story stage. The backstage area included several upstairs and downstairs dressing rooms.
In its heyday, the Carolina Theater hosted such prestigious stars as Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, Guy Lombardo, Orson Welles, and Ethel Barrymore. "Gone With the Wind" premiered in the Carolinas in 1940 at the Carolina Theater. In the mid-1960s, some 398,200 people (more than the entire population of Charlotte) flocked to the Carolina Theater to see "The Sound of Music" over a 79-week run on the only Cinerama screen in the Carolinas. The theater was the first commercial building in town with air conditioning and the first racially integrated theater in the region. The theater showed its last movie – "The Fist," starring Bruce Lee – on November 27, 1978.
Following a renovation by its current owner the Foundation for the Carolinas, the building will once again function as a performing arts center and civic meeting space.