State Theatre (Portland, Maine)
The exterior of the State Theatre.
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| Address | 609 Congress Street |
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| Location | Portland, Maine |
| Coordinates | 43°39′14″N 70°15′49″W / 43.6539°N 70.26365°WCoordinates: 43°39′14″N 70°15′49″W / 43.6539°N 70.26365°W |
| Owner | Crostone, LLC |
| Operator | The Bowery Presents and Higher Ground |
| Type | theatre |
| Capacity | 1,870 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 8 November 1929 |
| Architect | Herbert W. Rhodes |
| Website | |
| statetheatreportland |
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The State Theatre is a historic theater located at 609 Congress Street in downtown Portland, Maine, which features a combination of Moorish and Art Deco architecture. It reopened as a 1,870-seat performing arts venue in 2010.
The State Theatre was designed by Portland architect Herbert W. Rhodes, originally containing 2,300 seats. The Congress building it is located in was designed to be a creative combination of Spanish, Italian, and Art Deco aesthetics with elaborate works of art. The theater's expensive furnishings, which included wrought iron stairs, bronze doors, tapestry rugs hung from vaulted ceilings decorated with intricate moldings and paintings, four Spanish balconies, and a Wurlitzer Organ were some of the remarkably lavish highlights of the original building. It was also technologically advanced for its time. It aimed to give audiences the richest film experiences of the era with three projectors and a magnascope, which generated an enormous and quality picture.
The State Theatre's doors opened to the public for the first time November 8, 1929 to 2,200 invited patrons for Gloria Swanson's first talkie, The Trespasser. The State Theatre served as a top-tier first run motion picture house for over 30 years. Tickets were ten cents to a quarter. The State only flirted briefly with silent films and vaudeville before transitioning completely to Hollywood's biggest first run sound films of the day. In the mid-1930s the State Theatre began a children's matinee program, showing the most popular cartoons of the day, such as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Popeye. The weekly radio show Recess Time was also recorded Saturday mornings. Roughly fifteen kids would answer trivia questions to win a cash prize between fifty cents and a dollar.
In the late 1940s through the 1960s the State Theatre expanded its programming to include theatrical and dance productions. It also held other various events and contests, all in addition to major Hollywood films. A large part of the programming expansion was due to growing competition from television. In 1963, then manager and director Ralph Tully retired. Edith Francis, who had worked at the theater for seventeen years took his place. In the coming years the State Theatre fell on hard times, which climaxed when Francis came to a sudden and tragic death when she was hit by a car at a nearby intersection. To prevent it from being torn down, the sad fate of all too many historical Portland buildings in that era, the State Theatre was leased as an X-Rated movie venue by The American Theater Corporation. Other local theatrical venues such as the Civic, the Empire, and the Strand were torn down by the city.
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