The front doors of the Orpheum Theatre were locked and blacked out.
Funny, that a party a century in the making was going on behind them.
Over 100 patrons and supporters turned out for a night of anachronistic glamour, music and philanthropy.
The Orphuem’s Centennial Gala was entitled, “Roaring into the Next Hundred Years.”
Not all but many guess dressed like bootleggers and flappers of the era.
With the front doors locked the only way to enter was a side door to keep things discreet, speakeasy style.
Once inside guests could mingle, have a cocktail, sample hors d’oeuvres from a number of area eateries and enjoy the sights and sounds of singers, dancing girls and The Blackhawk Broadcasters band.
It was elaborate but Theatre Executive Director Kevin Maynard says it’s not every day you turn 100.
“You only get to do that once so basically we decided that the theatre was built in 1916, you know roaring twenties were almost starting to amp up then and the war was going to end in a couple of years and the roaring twenties were about to take over so what better way to throw a party than with a roaring 20’s atmosphere,” Maynard says.
Maynard says that of an $850,000 capital campaign around $800,000 has been pledged.
In fact in the past weeks one of the biggest ticket items the campaign was for, a new state of the art sound system, has been in the process of being installed by Music Makers.
