10 Living room
concerts in College Hill a chance to cozy up to the talent.
5 Foot traffic on
‘Halloween St.’ frightens city, residents asked to pay for security, barricades.
15 Curb Appeal:
Vintage cycles draw bikers and connoisseurs to College Hill.
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER Vol. 1 No. 11
COLLEGE HILL
• CROWN HEIGHTS • UPTOWN • SLEEPY HOLLOW
OCTOBER 2008
WHEN THE ‘TALKIES’ CAME TO TOWN A LOOK BACK AT OPENING NIGHT AT THE UPTOWN THEATER IN COLLEGE HILL.
LETTERS
2
SIGNS CLEARLY INDICATE THAT 2-OF-3 LANES END TO THE EDITOR:
I want to start by saying as a resident of College Hill for over 25 years, I love your paper. I have to speak up against the opinions printed regarding 1st and 2nd street being two lanes. They must be opinions because they are contrary to what is taught in Drivers Ed. and expressed in the Drivers Handbook. "Lane Ends" means just that. "This warning sign informs the driver that the lane is about to end. Cars in the lane should expect to make a lane change. The lane will merge in to other lanes and cease to exist". If that is not enough, envision the city painting a white line in the middle of either street. Regular travelers know that you would be hard pressed to stay in either lane due to the cars and trucks legally parked along the curb. So take it easy Wichita. Slow down, watch for children playing and enjoy the luxurious lanes through College Hill. JUSTIN FREMIN
FOUNTAIN A SOURCE OF YOUTHFULL WONDER
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
BITTERSWEET A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
TO THE EDITOR:
First, I must say how much our family enjoys your newspaper. Each month, even our kids ask to see the pictures and want to know what the stories are about. At five and almost three years old, the neighborhood is within their realm of knowledge and your paper is great way of getting them interested in what’s going on just a bit outside of their little childhood world. Last month, we especially appreciated your article on the fountain. My girls ask to drive home on Fountain Street any time we are coming from the north. We live on South Belmont, so it’s not far out of our way. Many times we have walked by the fountain and stopped to look in. When I make special outfits for them, it’s a favorite backdrop for pictures. They are especially thrilled when someone has put bubbles in the fountain and giggle about it the rest of the way home. They have been concerned all summer that the fountain hasn’t been running, but we have continued to drive by to see if it’s been fixed. My girls really feel like it’s a special treat to go to the fountain. When we got the Commoner this month, I immediately called to Annabelle, my five-year-old, to come look at the paper because there was an article about the fountain. She insisted that I read the article to her before we could do anything else. As I read, she was mesmerized. I had to simplify some paragraphs and I had to explain to her what a vandal was. As I read the part about the fountain being toppled, she got teary eyed. She just couldn’t understand why “bad people would break the fountain on purpose.” When I finished reading the article, she said, “Mommy, I am really worried about the fountain.” She asked how much it was going to cost to fix the fountain. Since she has no concept of $5000, I just explained that it was a lot of money. She asked if she could get money from her piggy bank to fix the fountain. This was significant because she has never before asked to get money from her piggy bank for anything other than to buy toys for herself. She has also asked if she can do extra jobs around the house to make more money for the fountain. So far she has earned less than $10, but it’s a start. She has a special box that holds her fountain money. We hope that everyone in the neighborhood who also drives or walks by and enjoys the fountain will send a few dollars to the fund to get it fixed. Even if you don’t see it very often, I can guarantee that there’s a little girl at my house who will be thrilled to see it running again. LAURA MCLAUGHLIN
T
here are enough dead leaves on the lawn by now, we hope, to hide the shaggy grass which hasn’t been cut since a cool afternoon back in August. Even that was a shoddy job as our heart just wasn’t in it. Summer is a distant memory at our house, where the plastic pool has been hauled back into the garage and the flowers are watered by a woman wearing a sweater. The second-grader is back in school, which, really, was the best thing for everyone involved. And this month we found ourself writing about Halloween, which is just around the corner. Soon enough we will be outfitting the kids in some cute costume we never would have allowed our parents to put on us (“A frog? Really?”) and making our way over to “Halloween Street.” But the plan is to first trick-or-treat our own street, which if it is not a rule, really should be. We were amazed last year at the amount of candy left untouched at our house. Granted, we weren’t home to pass it out. Like many parents with young children, neither wanted to be the one to stay home to greet other peoples’ kids when our own looked so cute in their costumes. But we left the light on the porch, which had been sufficiently spooked up with spiderwebs and pumpkins such, and left a note and full bowl of candy. The bowl was still full when we returned. It didn’t even look disturbed. We’ll put it out again this month (with refreshed candy, of course). It wouldn’t break our hearts to return home and find it empty. BARRY OWENS EDITOR
WRITE THE EDITOR: We welcome your letters. No subject is out of bounds, so long as it is local. Letters should be limited to 300 words, or fewer, and may be edited for clarity and length.
E-MAIL US: editor@collegehillcommoner.com WRITE US: 337 N. Holyoke, Wichita, KS, 67208 CALL US: 689-8474 ADVERTISE: jessica@collegehillcommoner.com, or 689-8474
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 11 OCTOBER 2008
PUBLISHER
J ESSICA F REY O WENS
EDITOR
B ARRY
OWENS
CONTRIBUTORS KATIE GORDON
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR J ESSICA F REY O WENS
ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVE ANDREW SANDLIN
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER
Published monthly by The College Hill Commoner 337 N. Holyoke Wichita, K.S. 67208 316-689-8474 editor@collegehillcommoner.com www.collegehillcommoner.com
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?š OCTOBER 2008
We have always thought College Hill needed a place current residents could call home once they became empty nesters or wanted to downsize. Parkstone is even more than we imagined. - Dave J. Anderson Beautiful project! This will be a classy addition to College Hill. - Brad Iverson The whole concept reminds me of Lincoln Park, my favorite neighborhood in Chicago ... walking to the park, walking to shop, walking to restaurants. It’s just great for Wichita. - Robin Van Huss Beautiful Very impressive development. Love the walk-in shower and elevator options. - Kim Bookhout
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
Center top: George Bair of Springpark Gallery. Left: Becca Thomas, at right, with Bay Leaf Cafe. Above: Terri Windsor of Garden Reflections.
Clifton Square owner Jo Zakas, who says she is “entertaining the idea” of retiring.
PHOTOS: BARRY OWENS
Clifton Square Celebrates a Milestone, Survival BY BARRY OWENS Clifton Square turns 37 years old this month, a milestone that is remarkable for at least two reasons. First, it looks so much older than that. Second, it was lucky to survive the past year. A lawsuit filed this year by a Wichita woman, a paraplegic, alleged that the square was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit was recently dismissed, but it was tense times for tenants uncertain of their future at the Square. Owner Jo Zakas said she was uncertain herself. Costly renovations to the old buildings, some of which date back to 1885, might have made it impossible to remain afloat, she said. “It caused a hardship for a little while because we didn’t know whether we were going to survive,” Zakas said last month. “But we are surviving. That is settled now and we’re looking to the future.” That immediate future may not include Zakas, at least not in a handson role, as she says she is ready to retire and turn over the management of the shopping center. “Tomorrow, if I can find the right person,” she said of her timeline.
Charming but empty for now, the center building at Clifton Square blocks the view of the open businesses behind it. The Square could use a little new life, owner Jo Zakas says.
In the meantime, she is courting new tenants (“I would love to see a wine bar here”) and said two new businesses would be moving in soon. The square has been slow of late. Things pick up on the weekends, and on Friday and Saturday nights when live music is offered at Bay Leaf Cafe. “We have 20 businesses here at Clifton Square right now, and I think people forget that we have so many,
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particularly when they see a building that is empty,” Zakas said. There are currently three empty buildings at Clifton Square. The most recently vacated is Victoria’s Tea Room. The tearoom closed last month. Owner Jeane Rousseau is going into business with Aunt Hattie’s Tea Room in Delano. Zakas said she is confident that the square’s fortunes will turnaround. “I can see a cleaners here, a small
jewelry store, an attorneys office,” she said. She also sees herself there, even in retirement. “I will always be interested and around,” she said. “I have a pride of ownership as I walk through the Square and I see the entrepreneurs expanding and growing.” The shopping center opened Oct. 20, 1972 but most of its buildings had been there long before then. Some were residences, one was a drug rehabilitation center. The main building, which houses the Square’s office, was built in 1885 and moved from where the Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre is today. “They must have pulled it by horse and buggy and logs,” Zakas says. Musician Kathy Roush, who played a recent fundraiser at the Square, marveled at the rustic square. “It is like a more classy, upscale, modern Cowtown,” she said. Zakas is certain the square will remain one of a kind. “There will never be another Clifton Square in our history,” she said. “There are too many new environmental laws and ADA regulations.”
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5
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
‘Halloween Street’ Foot Traffic Frightens City A Phantom of the Opera display has long haunted the front lawn of the Volz residence on North Broadview in College Hill. Not this year, says Sherman Volz. ‘We’re tired, we’re just going to take a break. As far as I know, I am the only on my block that is not decorating.’ The future of the annual Halloween event, which drew 3,500 trick-ortreaters to the street last year, was in doubt as the city called for residents to pay for more street barricades and security.
Broadview residents asked to pay city for barricades, security for Halloween event. BY BARRY OWENS Halloween is expected to proceed as usual this month on North Broadview, which is to say it is likely to be a madhouse. Monsters, masked men, witch-y women and little goblins by the thousands—all are expected to attend. Residents say they will be ready. So will the cops. After nearly 30 years of joyful chaos, the city is stepping in to impose a little order on “Halloween Street.” Barricades and traffic officers will block cars from entering Broadview at Douglas, First and Second streets. Barricades will partially block Fountain and Belmont streets. Redshirted volunteers (usually seen at the River Festival) will be lending helping hands and security guards will be charged with keeping an eye on things. “The city’s concerns is safety, we don’t want to put a damper on it by any means,” said John D’Angelo, who is arts and cultural services director for the city. “What the neighbors do in the 100 and 200 block is great. We’re not trying to penalize them.” Penalize, no. Bill, yes. The city is seeking $1,800 from the residents to provide barricades and security on the block. Late last month that cost was reduced to $1,000, D’Angelo said, with the donation of barricades from Cornejo & Sons. That still leaves $800 to cover security. The city has received cash donations, and welcomes more, to ease the burden on Broadview residents. (Checks should be made payable to “Arts Council” — include “Halloween Event” in the memo line— and mailed to CityArts, 334 N. Mead, Wichita, KS 67202). The city’s sudden involvement in the event took some residents by sur-
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHERMAN VOLZ
prise. Late last month some on the block said they were still undecided on how, or if, to proceed. D’Angelo said the residents of the 100 and 200 blocks were mailed postcards to measure their support for paying for security measures. He said more than half the responses were positive, though there were “a few that were a little unhappy.” Because enough donations of cash and services have come in, D’Angelo said the event can go forward. “The only cost we have to cover now is about $800 for the police,” he said. “We have offers to take care of that, too. Everything should be in place for it to be a very successful evening.” Maybe not everything. Sherman Volz, keeper of the Phantom of the Opera display that has long haunted the lawn in front of 147 Broadview, said he was going to sit this one out. The phantom (a mannequin that started its career as Santa with later appearances as the Grim Reaper) will remain in the garage, along with his dismantled pipe organ. “We’re tired, we’re just going to take a break,” Volz said. “As far as I know I am the only on my block that is not decorating.”
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Volz said he may put out a display again next year, but wants to step back this year and “see how it goes.” “I was in my 30s when we started. Now we’re in our in 60s. Maybe it is time for the younger ones to pick up the tradition. I can’t say that we are done. It was fun when it was up and it was running and you saw the little kids and you saw all that excitement. But for the past eight years it has been more like a required responsibility. That kind of took the fun out of it.” The holiday used to be a simpler affair on the block, with neighbors grilling together early in the month and comparing notes on how best to decorate. The decorations were on display for weeks for the neighborhood and wider city to view. When Halloween came, a couple hundred trick-or-treaters would come knocking. Fast forward 29 years and the decorations on Broadview have gone well beyond hay bales, corn stalks and jack-o-lanterns. The monsters have moving parts, there is a UFO on one lawn, a guillotine on another, and a menagerie of horrible creatures great and small. Trick-or-treaters on the block in 2007 numbered 3,500, Volz said (he counts those that come to his
door) and through the middle of the madness last year a drill team marched through, pounding out a rhythm in the chaos. “It is packed, so it is crazy,” said resident Annette Saunders. “I don’t wish it upon anybody, really. I don’t have friends that come over, or expect that people want to be down here on that particular night. We like it, but it is a little nutty.” “It’s gone from the one little cooler of candy, to baskets and barrels full,” said resident Jeanne Gordon. But she was not complaining. “It’s always been a good family project,” she said, noting that her family has always made its own decorations (a cast of creatures, including a mummy, vampire and witch). “Our children won’t have the same memories of Halloween that we have, when there were maybe eight kids on the porch,” she said. “They will remember Halloween as a colossal event.” There are signs on ‘Halloween Street” that the holiday spirit is catching on with the next generation. “We actually bought an animatron,” said Mary Maxwell, who moved on to the block in 2003. “We’re trying to keep up.”
6
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
Beige Buildings Creeping into College Hill BY BARRY OWENS It took all of a single afternoon to turn a sky blue building on Douglas the color of sand. Around the corner and few blocks down on Hillside, a brown bungalow was plastered over (foam panels were first installed to smooth over the features) and within 90 days it looked like a brand new beige box— not unlike the beige boxes a few doors down, or the ones on the corner at Central, Hillside, Oliver ... the list goes on in this city, as in most others. But beige boxes in College Hill, home of the cobalt blue Aspen Boutique, the Victorian/San Francisco hippie chic of Clifton Square, the pastels of Oakland Street? Surely not. “They said they wanted a neutral color,” said Ron Mayer, who along with his wife, Laura, painted the former Breezy’s Beach Time Grill one afternoon last month. The pair was hired to make the building, which has long been vacant, more blandly palatable to potential tenants. “Blue is a bad color,” Mayer said. “People want something light, neutral. They can always trim it out,” he said.
House painter Ron Mayer applies a coat of beige paint over the former Breezy’s Beach Time Grill on Douglas Avenue last month. ‘Blue is a bad color,’ he says
BARRY OWENS
Mayer’s work uniform, a T-shirt and blue jeans, were bathed in beige. But there were also splotches here and there of blue, green and red. “We paint the Taco Ticos in six states,” he explained. At the corner of Second and Hillside streets last month, workers put the final touches on the neighborhood’s latest check cashing franchise—green stickers in the windows that read “One stop money shop.” The building is otherwise a
study in ecru. The phone company is to credit, or blame, for the explosion of “beige” across the country—if not for the color at least for the name. In the 1960s AT&T marketed a telephone with a neutral color called “beige” (it was actually the color zinwaldite, named after a mineral and resembling the color of desert boots). Until then, the color we now call beige, which had previously been used to describe the color of fabrics, was simply known as ecru.
What ever the name of the color, Lee Tippen, said he wasn’t having it on his building. Tippen is the owner of the storefront buildings on Douglas near Grove, which includes Paradise Antiques and Beads & Bling Bling. Last month he loaded up on paint and supplies and set out to spruce up the place. Was there beige in the bucket? “Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” he said. “We went with a mint green and a pink trim.” Go have a look. The result is surprisingly pleasant—and neutral.
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ARTS
8
Out of the Ashes
“Smoke and Ash I,” by Charles K. Steiner.
C
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
“Smoke and Ash 2,” by Charles K. Steiner.
Cabin fire sparks inspiration for College Hill painter Charles Steiner.
BY BARRY OWENS harles Steiner never saw the actual blaze that inspired him to create his latest work, Smoke and Ash, a series of seven abstracts on canvas that explore the beauty and destruction of fire, so he worked from a simulation. What Steiner, a painter and College Hill resident, needed to see was how fire consumes, much in the way it consumed his family’s Wisconsin cottage, destroying heirlooms and one of his paintings in 2006. So the artist got to work on small canvases, first painting depictions of the cabin and surrounding landscape, and then tossing them on the barbecue grill in his backyard. “What interested me was not the fire,” Steiner said. “I was interested in watching the embers and the smoke and how they floated up. I thought it was very beautiful.” He set out to depict that beauty on a larger canvas. “The question was: How do I do that in a way that is not trite. What kind of language do I use? Yellow for
College Hill painter Charles Steiner in his living room, where his latest work was wrapped and ready to travel to exhibit. BARRY OWENS
fire? Black for ash? I was fooling around with it. As it turns out, I didn’t have to look any farther than my scotch glass.” He was speaking of the gold and black triangular figures that adorn a favored glass, and appear throughout his resulting work. They share the canvas with
shapeless figures—a suggestion of burnt parchment here , smears of what could be black ash there—meant to evoke a fire and say something new about its nature. “What I was looking for was a language to portray smoke and ash. It is, to me, visually more about the fire than the destruction. The figures of the scotch glass provided me with a language that I could use to start with. As the seven paintings progress, hopefully the language took on a character of it’s own,” he said. “I’ve always sort of liked Art Deco anyway.” Steiner, who is the executive director of the Wichita Art Museum, is an expressionist painter by training. Stored in his basement are years of his work, including Christological themes, self portraits, and garden-scapes. But Smoke and Ash, he said, is the work that is the most self reflective of his career. “I wasn’t painting these to hang up in a living room, even my own,” he said. “They’re so personal.” Transcending the Fire: Smoke and Ash is on exhibit through Nov. 7 at the Hutchinson Art Center. An opening reception will be held October 9, 5-7pm
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER â?š OCTOBER 2008
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008 Photos by BARRY OWENS
Singer/songwriter Mark Stuart performed last month as part of the College Hill House Concert series at the Barney Byard and Linda Cunningham residence. The couple regularly book artists to perform living room concerts. The intimate setting allows for audience interaction, before, after, and sometimes during the performance.
Intimate Space
Living room concert series in College Hill is a chance to cozy up with the talent.
BY BARRY OWENS For as long as there have been living rooms, campfires, and cave dwellings, there have been entertainers eager to book them for a one-off gig in front of friends, family and even strangers. At the Barney Byard and Linda Cunningham residence in College Hill, they’ve been bringing in artists and putting out folding chairs and a few snacks for the invited audi- Above: Barney Byard shares a laugh. At right: Donations go directly to the artist. ence for years. “To say that this is patronage of the chance to hear.” So it was that Mark Stuart, a arts is way too grandiose,” said Byard, singer/songwriter from Memphis, who is a musician, and concert promoter. “We do it for fun. But a cool stopped by last month for a pair of 45piece of it is being able to expose minute sets. “I had to grow into feeling comfriends and acquaintances to music that they might not otherwise get a fortable with it,” Stuart said of the liv-
ing room performances. “I came from a background of playing in a lot of bar bands. The idea of standing up on stage for an audience that was really quiet and actually listening to you was terrifying at first.” Stuart pulled this one off like a pro, telling stories and jokes between tunes and politely ignoring the soft chime of
the grandfather clock that rang on the hour. This month the College Hill House Series, as the performances are billed, will feature musicians Kevin Montgomery on Oct. 8, and Idgy Vaughn on Oct. 24. Seating, as you can imagine, is limited. For reservations and home address call Byard, 684-7469. Suggested donation is $15. All the proceeds go the artist. On this night, the performance, which included an intermission and chance to visit with Stuart, ran under two hours. “By the way, that grandfather clock,” he said before his last number, “is in the key of F.”
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11
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
COMMUNITY CALENDAR Designer Doghouses Designer doghouses and abodes for other pets are on display at Abode Home through Oct. 17. BARKitecture, a benefit for the Kansas Humane Society, features animal abodes created by designers, artists and builders. Ballots are available in the store, 1330 E. Douglas, to vote for your favorite. The winner will be announced during a BARKitecture Bash & Meow mixer set for 6-9pm on Oct. 17 at Hawker Beech Activity Center, 9710 E Central Ave. The event includes food, live music, cash bar, and silent auction of the animal houses. Tickets to the event are $75 and are available at the store, or online at barkitecture.com. Proceeds benefit the Kansas Humane Society. For more information call Dana Steffee with the Kansas Humane Society 316.524.1590 ext 215, or dsteffee@kshumane.org.
Crown Heights Clean-Up
3RD THURSDAY
The Crown Heights neighborhood association has scheduled a clean-up day Nov. 1. The clean-up is a chance to clear out items such as old appliances, scrap lumber, old lawn mowers, furniture, tree limbs (which must be
cut to four feet in length and tied in bundles) and other hard to get rid of items. Items must be at the curb by 9 a.m. For more information, or to volunteer, call Melinda Foley, 6838804.
Oktoberfest There will be beer and bratwurst, dodgeball, a 5k run and other entertainment throughout the day on Quentin Street on Oct. 4. Blessed Sacrament’s annual Oktoberfest will be from 10am11pm. The event is a fundraiser for Catholic charities and regularly draws thousands from the neighborhood and beyond. For more information on the event, visit www.blessedsacramentwichita.org
DAB Meetings Set District Advisory Board meetings are set for Oct. 6. District 1, which includes Uptown, meets at at 6:30 p.m. at Atwater Neighborhood City Hall, 2755 E. 19th St. District 2, which includes College Hill and Crown Heights, meets at 7 p.m. at Rockwell Library 5939 E. 9th St. See wichitagov.org for meeting agendas.
A GUIDE TO COLLEGE HILL’S MONTHLY MUSIC & MERCHANT CRAWL Aspen Boutique 4724 E Douglas, 682-6784, aspen-traders.com
Stop in for appetizers, prize drawing, live music, a "Day of the Dead theme" and 20% off all outerwear coats.
Bleu Eclectic Indulgences 4729 E. Douglas, 618-0464
Oct.
16 5-?
Abode Home 1330 E Douglas, 425-7337, abodehome.com
Register to win a $3,000 shopping spree during our Fall Design event, plus learn more and register for our October Design Seminars including "Holiday Tables" presented by Barrier's, on Oct.18, from 11am12pm, "The Sweet Spot Home Theater Event" presented by Dynatek on Oct.. 23 6:307:30 pm, and “Bring on the Bling - Accessorize with Style” presented by ABODE Home on Oct. 30 6:30-7:30pm.
Please join us for a night of wickedly wonderful treats, and a few tricks. Also mark your calendars Nov. 1,2 for our holiday open house.
Caffé Posto 4714 E. Douglas, 683-7678, www.caffeposto.com
By one, get one free gelato (small) from 8-10pm.
Creative Catering 3238 E. Douglas, 425-7015
Join us and try our new dinner Menu. Feel free to bring your own bottle of wine. We'll provide glasses and an opener.
Eighth Day Books 2838 E. Douglas, 683-9446 www.eighthdaybooks.com
Offering a rather extraordinary collection of classics in literature,
religion, history, the arts, and children’s literature. And also offering, for 3rd Thursday visitors, refreshments and 20% off any item in stock. Selling books worldwide, and in your neighborhood. Come visit!
Juliana Daniel
Extraordinaire Salon & Boutique
3220 E. Douglas, 684-2177, traditionsfurniture.com
4715 E. Douglas, in Lincoln Heights Village, 263-4600, salonextraordinaire.com.
We will be offering free cuts and styles (new clients only, please) from 6-8pm. One per family. First come, first served.
Frank & Margaret 4730 E. Douglas, 201-6049, frankandmargarethome.com
Please join us this Third Thursday as we celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, Mexico's Day of the Dead. Browse our new dinnerware selections and expanded children's section while sampling food & drink inspired by southern Mexico. Save 20% on one regularly priced item during the event, 5 - 9 p.m.
3224 E. Douglas, 691-9966
Drop in for a gift certificate drawing, refreshments and wine. 3rd Thursday specials throughout the store. Open until 9pm.
Traditions Join us for a taste testing from 5-8pm of recipes from Artfully Done: Across Generations, an art and cookbook. Copies of the book will be on sale. Proceeds go to the Wichita Art Museum.
Watermark Books & Café 4701 E. Douglas, 682-1181, watermarkbooks.com
Watermark Books & Café will host a reception for artist Rob Compton from 6-8 p.m. His exhibit, Variations & Mutations, will be on display through November 24. To list your 3rd Thursday event, call the Commoner: 689-8474, or email jessica@collegehillcommoner.com
HISTORY
When the Talkies Came to Town
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
Uptown Theater in College Hill was home to the city’s first moving pictures with sound.
T
BY BARRY OWENS
hat handsome old neon sign outside the Crown Uptown Theatre was not the city’s first, but it was the city’s brightest. At 14 feet high, ornately shaped, trimmed in blue and with its glowing red letters, the sign must have cut a real figure at the corner of Hillside and Douglas, the edge of an an up and coming neighborhood called College Hill. But on the night of July 16, 1928, the sign was a small part of the spectacle at the city’s newest theater. Inside the theater a cloud machine (a fan and dry ice) blew wisps across the ceiling. The ceiling itself was shot through with twinkling stars, tiny bulbs powered by a Lionel train battery. Real vines climbed the walls. A mechanical pigeon flitted about, and from a post on the wall an owl with phosphorescent eyes surveyed the crowd. Ushers uniformed in shoulder braids showed patrons to their red velvet seats, or to the lounging rooms of the balcony, where the ladies room was outfitted with wicker furniture and wrought iron cigarette stands. It was opening night at the Uptown Theater. “For the tired business man there were pretty girls who danced or sang. For the dancing crowd there were snappy orchestral offerings, and for the music lover there was the organ medley which introduced opera, songs of sentiment and a bit of jazz,” the Wichita Eagle reported in the next day’s edition. And on the silver screen there was the main feature—Al Jolson singing “Mammy.” The talkies had come to town. “Many of those who attended last night had seen Jolson on the legitimate stage, and for them it was hard to believe they were not seeing him
PHOTO: THE WITCHITA SEDGWICK COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM
The interior of the Uptown Theater, circa 1956. The theater today is the Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre. The screen and projection equipment are long gone but little else has changed, including the sign shown at right.
again in person, so clear were his tones and so absolutely synchronized were the words with the motion of his lips.” The secret was the Vitaphone, a fancy name for a contraption that played records. The soundtrack of the film was separate from the film and the records spun as the pictures moved. “We didn’t know what a Vitaphone was, to say nothing of installing one,” Ray G. Shelley, head of Shelly Electric company, told the Eagle. “They gave us a blue print, showing installation of enough wires to carry current to a city, and asked us to figure on the job.” (The story, worthy of a headline, sits next to an ad taken out by a union outfit called the Wichita Projectionists, local no. 414.) The theater was designed by
brothers Carl and Robert Boller, whose Kansas City firm is credited with the design of about 100 vaudeville houses and movie palaces in the Midwest. It was built by George H. Siedoff Construction and went up at the same time as the nearby Hillcrest apartments. No expense was spared. “The Pescemin arc style [referring to the work of Gaetano Pesce, an Italian architect] at the entrance is of old stone … in Keystone effect, heavy and massive in its construction and resembles the entrance to an old barbaric castle,” the Eagle reported. The massive doors and wide entrance were more than a design feature—it allowed for mass exodus in case of fire. “It is possibly the only theater in the entire country where the crowd can get into the street in three min-
utes time,” the Eagle reported. The trouble back then seemed to be keeping the crowds coming in the other way. Within in a year the Uptown had filed for bankruptcy. The theater has traded ownership a number of times over the years and was nearly plowed over by developers in the 1970s to make room for a strip mall. Current owner, Ted Morris, purchased the building in 1976, saving it from destruction, and the next year opened the Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre. Morris, a College Hill native, said he has always had a soft spot in his heart for the old theater where he took in matinees as a child and took his wife, Karen, to on their first date. He forgets the name of the film, but it definitely had sound.
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
Filling your tank for $2.99! (Medium Brewed Coffee and a Scone)
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THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
Call for free rate quote. LOCATED AT CENTRAL & DELLROSE, BEHIND LESLIE’S SWIMMING POOL SUPPLIES.
24 Hour Good Neighbor Service ®
Se habla español
BIG SALE! OCTOBER 1st-18th
A curious mix of antique, vintage and found objects.
10% off jewlery 20% off everything else* *does not include items marked “firm”
UPCOMING EVENTS
2600 E. DOUGLAS
Nov. 2, 12-5pm: Holiday Open House Dec. 10, 5-8pm: Ladies Night Out
W-F:11-5:30 Sat.:10-5
- Shopping, refreshments & deals - Register to win $50 gift certificate
618 - 1 5 51
CELEBRATION MONTESSORI CENTER
WHERE CHILDREN ARE INSPIRED TO BECOME SELF-CONFIDENT, CREATIVE AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS.
✱ FULL DAY MONTESSORI FROM 7:15AM-6PM ✱ FLEXIBLE ENROLLMENT PLANS (FULL OR PART-TIME) ✱ AGES 2
1/2
-6
2711 E. DOUGLAS
683-3149
LIMITED AVAILABILITY montessori4@cox.net CALL TODAY FOR AN APPOINTMENT
THE COLLEGE HILL COMMONER ❚ OCTOBER 2008
ETC.
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Curb Appeal Photos by DAVID DINELL
At the corner of First and Pershing last month there was as biker rally of sorts—a gathering of the Sunflower Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. Jeff Roth, at left, hosted the event and hauled out a couple of his vintage rides. Below, Bill Bruce has a closer look. At bottom left is a Russian model, owned by College Hill resident William Morris.