This damage brought the theater to the attention of local preservations, who began restoring it soon after. With no building next door to take the brunt of the wind, the Opera House was damaged as winds caused part of the false ceiling to fall. Peerless Laundry was razed, but the Opera House was saved when abnormally strong winds pushed against the theater in 1968 or 1973 (sources differ). In 1961, the Opera House and the adjacent building, Peerless Laundry, were slated for demolition. Coomer remodeled the theater several times over the years, helping it keep up with the times. Price Coomer, who began working at the Opera House in 1930, later became its owner in 1955, buying it from the previous owner Harry Schwartz.
LEXINGTON OPERA HOUSE LEXINGTON MOVIE
Afterward, the theater continued to operate successfully as a movie palace despite the arrival of sound films and the Great Depression. The last live performance at the Lexington Opera House was of The Arabian on October 1, 1926. Fields, Helen Hayes, and the Barrymore family. Still, some big names did perform at the theater during the next few years, including Lillian Russell, Harry Houdini, Sarah Bernhardt, W. It closed for a brief time in the 1920s while it was converted into a movie house part of the remodel requiring a false ceiling to be constructed. Between competition from radio and movie theaters, the Opera House had no choice but to adapt. However, with the entrance into the twentieth century came the popularity of a new medium: motion pictures. Over the next few years, other big acts, like Will Rogers, Mae West, and the Marx Brothers, would also come to the Opera House. In 1904, the stage had to be partially remodeled to accommodate the on-stage chariot race in Ben Hur. Three years later, A Country Circus graced the stage with a mile-long parade and over about one-hundred animals. One of the most memorable was Henry Regatta in 1890, for which the entire stage was flooded since most of the performance took place in rowboats.
Being situated between major theater circuits in Louisville and Cincinnati, the Lexington Opera House became a convenient stop for traveling shows. One month later, Our Angel became the first play performed in the new theater. The Opera House reopened on Jwith a concert by the Cincinnati Symphony. New plumbing ensured that the theater could be quickly flooded in case of another fire and helped to keep the building cool, as the water came from a nearby ice factory. The walls were adorned with frescoes, which were lit by over two-hundred gaslights. Every seat was cushioned, and some were upholstered in morocco leather or velvet. Architect Oscar Cobb of Chicago came up with a grand vision for the new theater. Construction on a new theater on the same site began just five months later. However, a fire on Janudestroyed the building and nearby stables, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses.
Though it was a simple structure, the theater occasionally attracted nationally-renowned acts like Edwin Booth and Buffalo Bill as well as hordes of tourists. The Opera House, which opened in 1850, was one of many theatres around Broadway and Main Streets in Lexington, but it quickly surpassed the others in popularity.
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