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Pantages Will Open Doors Wednesday


Salt Lake Telegram, 30 November 1920, page 11

Owners Here to Take Part in Event That Will Give Salt Lake One of Most Beautiful of Showhouses

Although a splendid bill has been assembled to inaugurate the winter season at Pantages new theatre on Main street tomorrow, it will not be so much the players themselves that will call out the throngs of the curious, but the chance of seeing one of America's most beautiful theatres in a brilliant opening.  Salt Lakers will view with pride their newest possession, a theatre that for interior beauty and modernness of arrangement is claimed to have no counterpart in America with the exception of the million dollar theatre and office building recently opened by Alexander Pantages in Los Angeles.  The present house, which cost a half-million dollars, is the last word in decoration and arrangement.  In its great auditorium it is an exact counterpart of the Los Angeles theatre. In its entrance corridor and its foyer the decorators have even surpassed, it is said, some of the work done in the new theatre of southern California.

Owners Here

The formal opening will be made tomorrow.  Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Pantages, the owners, will witness the event and more than 400 special guest in all walks of Utah's social business and official life have been invited to attend.  The house will open at noon in preparation for the beginning of the afternoon show at 1 o'clock.  The formal and official dedication will take place at 7 o'clock in the evening.  The box office is open today and has been besieged by eager patrons who wish to be among the first to view the new playhouse.

The bill that will put on the first show is one of the best that could be assembled from the Pantages circuit, headed by Xochile, Aztec dancers.  This is a company of twenty-five persons assembled by Ted Shawn, the famous dance impressario, and is one of the most ambitious attempts he has ever made.

Other Numbers

Other numbers of the bill are Joc Roberts, famous banjoist; Silber and North in “Bashfoolery”; John Rubini, the eminent Swedish violinist; the Elm City Four, a male quartet, and Lady Alice's Pets. “Bride 13,” a serial picture, and Mary Pickford in “Pollyanna,” one of her greatest efforts, will be seen.

The new Pantages will be conducted at popular prices, but will now give a continuous performance, with vaudeville and pictures three times a day.  The first show begins at 1 o'clock with pictures and runs through to 11:30 o'clock, with pictures and vaudeville alternating.  Seats will not be reserved in the future, each patron taking a chance on getting the seat most desired.  However, the house is so commodious and so well arranged and the ushering system is so well devised that each patron should be able to secure anything he desires.

In addition to Mr. and Mrs. Pantages, many of the prominent officials of the Pantages circuit will be present at the opening to view the final consummation of their labors of practically two years.  Others have been called away to Memphis and Kansas City, where new theatres are being built.  The Memphis house will open within a few weeks.